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Go to a track meet, football practice, or sports performance facility, and I will almost guarantee you will see athletes performing some combination of: marching patterns, A, B, and C skips, high knees, and sled pushes. I am not here to knock what anybody else is doing, as I believe almost anything can be used to facilitate success. Additionally, I have used all of these strategies, and still do with certain populations even after implementing some changes in thought processes when it comes to running fast, jumping high, and showcasing athleticism. I also believe all drills can be used as “context builders” when utilized appropriately, meaning they can create subconscious references for athletes when performing tasks that require more hindbrain activity. In more simple terms, drills should be used to teach the brain and body what to do so that they don’t have to think about what to do when it is time to perform at a high level.
For instance, high knees and skips can serve as references for younger athletes to learn how to maintain contralateral rhythm. I have seen numerous examples of young athletes who struggle to showcase the coordination ability to move in an opposite arm, opposite leg pattern; and using basic drills that break this down really simply can have excellent carryover to other athletic activities. I even go as far as using paused marches with this group of athletes to really hammer this concept home. With that said, I have found with older athletes that have a decent understanding of basic coordination and timing principles, there are other drills that have more carryover to athleticism, and I am going to explain what they are and why.
Cross Extensor Reflex
The first subset of activities I have been using a lot more with non-beginner athletes are drills that have an emphasis on switching efficiently and effectively between the stance-leg and swing-leg. The ability to switch your stance-leg quickly and smoothly is seen in athletic patterns all the time, and is something that I believe separates average athletes from great athletes. Examples of when this occurs in sporting contexts are: defensive linemen when the ball is snapped, a sprint start in any track and field sprinting event, a baserunner preparing to steal, a basketball player that false steps before driving towards the rim, a volleyball player preparing to rise up and spike the ball, and a wide receiver making a move off the line of scrimmage. These are all instances where a quick and efficient switching of the limbs is present, and the faster one can execute this move the better advantage they have in achieving the outcome they seek. Anecdotally, I have noticed that fast athletes generally perform the three exercises listed below much better than those who are not as fast.
A few drills I use to drive this concept home are: lunge switches, remove and replace, and switch skips.
A lunge switch is exactly what it sounds like: start in a lunge stance with good torso positioning, and switch the front and back leg as quickly as possible while managing how much the hips rise. Ideally one would sync up the arms in a contralateral fashion to mimic patterns seen while running, but this is not necessarily a requirement at the beginning of the learning process. As far as I am aware of, this was originally a movement that American trainers and coaches adapted from Soviet Track and Field training back in the day, and was at some point referred to as a Russian Speed Lunge. Though I am unsure who exactly coined the term and first performed the exercise. I personally like this movement as a special strength exercise for sprinting, as well as a warm-up activity to prepare the nervous system for fast and efficient movements during the remainder of a training session. It reinforces: switching limbs, absorbing force quickly, contralateral coordination, and rapidly turning muscles on and off in appropriate sequences. I prefer to minimize the dosage and keep sets and reps low, but I encourage athletes to attack each rep with maximal intensity and effort.
Remove and Replace
This is a drill that I learned from Coach Adarian Barr of barrunning.com while at a Rewire Clinic that he and gym owner Mike Kozak hosted at Mike’s facility in Columbus, Ohio called Soar Fitness. In an athletic stance, an athlete will start on one foot and switch the stance-leg with the swing-leg as fast as possible. In simpler terms, an athlete will balance on one foot in a stable stance, and switch the leg on the ground as fast as possible. The goal is to remove the leg on the ground before the leg in the air begins to travel downwards; hence the name remove and replace. The biggest mistake I have seen with this is that athletes tend to move the leg in the air before picking up the foot on the ground. And the next biggest mistake is accomplishing the task by jumping and vertically displacing the hips rather than staying low. Instead, the athlete should lift the foot off the ground as fast as possible, and the reflexive action from the body will be to get the opposite leg down quickly and efficiently. Incredibly simple, but a great sign of a nervous system that operates in a fast manner.
A “switch skip” is essentially just “remove and replace” performed in a more dynamic manner. Rather than just switching legs in place, an athlete will hop a specified distance, and after every few steps switch the stance-leg and swing-leg as fast as possible. The goal is the same as “remove and replace,” just done in a more challenging environment that challenges the feet, ankles, and coordination more so than doing it while standing in one place. As an athlete demonstrates competence in “remove and replace,” this is a good progression to continue to challenge the athlete in a similar context. To progress this activity, you can have an athlete perform multiple switches in a row as opposed to just one at a time. I typically never go above three switches at a time, but as long as technique is sound and you are achieving the desired adaptation, then creativity is the only limiting factor. The goal is simply to remain in an athletic position and lift the stance-leg up prior to having the swing-leg travel downwards.
As Aristotle once said: “You are what you repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Further, whatever you did most recently is going to have the most profound impact on your system. This is another concept I took away from Coach Adarian Barr from the Rewire Clinic. What I mean by this is that if you do high knees and then immediately go and run, your body is going to replicate some kind of pattern similar to that of high knees. The same goes for any other activity as well. This is not necessarily good or bad depending on the situation, but is something that is important to remember for application purposes.
It is always important to remember that no matter how good something may seem, there are always consequences associated with any choice or action. Exercise and training are excellent when applied in intelligent and thoughtful doses, but do too much and you can suffer from a multitude of issues. Same with sleep or water, some is good, but too much can be harmful and, at the least, have negative effects. The key is to always remember that there is not one right answer for everything, but there are definitely situations where certain answers are the wrong answers. Think about each situation from all perspectives, and apply the best solution you can at that specific time to the best of your ability. That is all you can ask for.
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Strong reasoning
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Sports & Fitness
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DOC is the file format which is commonly used by Microsoft Word software. DOC stands for document files. There are different types of DOC format which are categorized below according to their versions. Using tool to fix corrupted files will be the best choice to fix corrupted files.
- DOC or.docm (Document):
It is the default file format of MS Word which stores data in a single binary file format. It may contain formatted text, tables, graphs, images and charts. Page formatting and print settings are widely used in MS Office 2003 and its earlier versions.
- DOCX or.docx (MS Office Open XML Format Document):
It is the new file format which is created in open XML type. It stores documents as a collection of files and folders in compressed format. It can be opened in MS Word 2007 and its later versions.
These are some most prominent reasons for document corruption. When a Word document gets corrupted it becomes inaccessible or unable to be accessed. In this situation MS Word tool becomes unable to open or read the documents entirely. It must be the most frustrating situation for any MS Word user. The corrupt Word file cannot be opened until we repair it. Presently there are few possible solutions mentioned below which must be chosen to fix corrupt Word documents.
- Open and Repair:
“Open and Repair” is a built-in repair feature of Microsoft Word. We must try it to repair corrupt word files. It is very simple and effective solution to fix corrupt doc files. To use this feature, we need to follow these steps:
- Open MS Word program.
- Click on Office button.
- Click on Open.
- Select file from system directory. Click only one file at a time.
- Scroll down the arrow on the Open button.
- Select Open and Repair.
- By using a third-party Microsoft Word Recovery:
This is the last solution but not the least one. Actually it is one of the most effective answers. We can use Microsoft Word Recovery to recover data from corrupt Word document files. It can effectively repair corrupt files and recover data from them only up to a certain extent. Third-party tools are available with free demo version which suits perfectly for this issue.
Office documents repair tool has complicated organize to fix entirely Truncated / inaccessible doc files which is built with professional attributes and that helps to retrieve all corrupted / lost data from the machine, it converts unapproachable files to reuse state. It does read only operation and it wouldn’t move, alter or eradicate the original documents. This repair program includes skillful built-in scan utility; it identifies and recaptures complete content from inaccessible doc files without any complexity. This software identifies and protects file names after repair process.
Apart from word and PowerPoint the user can also avail the benefit of fix corrupted utilities to repair video files too. The Video player refuses to play corrupted or broken files. User has to repair such files to make them playable. In which fix corrupted has dedicated tools to repair corrupted avi files and MOV files on both Windows and Mac computers.
Exclusive features of fix corrupted files:
- Contains simple user interface to avoid complications at repair
- Includes of advanced file repair programs to fix corrupt files
- Eminent software to fix DOC and DOCX type files
- Obtainable for both Windows and Mac OS X computers to fix the files user files
- Instant professionals support to assist file repair users 24/7
- Demo version of the software for evaluation with similar functionality
- Good in fixing header error files without causing any further damage to the user’s essential files.
The descriptive GUI is highly enough even for a non technical user to download and install the software from the internet world. Since the copy of the actual file is repaired and provided to the user the data loss further won’t infect the actual file.
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| 0.902498 | 791 | 3.03125 | 3 | 1.609485 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Software
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Plan and Execute a Budget While in School
Money can seem like an abstraction, especially when students use plastic to pay for their purchases, rather than crisp dollars and shiny coins. In no time at all, students may find that they’ve used up all of their money on personal expenses and unnecessary things, and then they’ll have bills crowding their inboxes. Taking charge of your personal finances can seem difficult or even impossible, but creating and sticking to a budget can be a step in the right direction.
What is a budget?
The goal of a budget is really quite simple:
To compare the amount of money coming in with the amount going out, allowing consumers to make smarter choices about their finances.
Typically, budgets are considered living documents that change as a person’s income level and debt level changes. The amounts that appear on these documents aren’t fixed in stone. However, those who do craft a good budget and make it work can reap huge rewards. Unfortunately, only 32 percent of people do so.
Source: Gallup poll, as reported by the Deseret News
think personal finance should be taught in school
require money management lessons to be incorporated into other classes
require a high school standalone course in personal finance
Thankfully, it’s never to late for students to learn. By following a few simple steps, and sticking to them on a regular basis, students can make a budget that works. Here’s how to get started.
Step One: Determine Income
The amount of money that comes into a student’s account is considered income. Students who work may consider their paychecks their income, but other sources of money might include:
Family allowance payments
Tips earned at work
Each bit of money that comes in should be included in the budget, even if that money is intended for some specific purpose.
Step Two: Determine Expenses
The amount of money a student is obligated to pay makes up the list of expenses. Common fields to track include:
Step Three: Determine Debt
Each and every month, the average student is presented with a bill from some sort of lending agency. Sometimes, those bills come from student loan servicers. Often, however, those bills come from credit card companies, and few students understand what those bills really mean.
Only 15% Know their interest rate
Put these statistics together, and they seem to suggest that few students know how much debt they owe and its cost, and fewer still include their debt in their monthly accounting processes.
It can be time-consuming, but students should gather up all of their debt-related documents and plug in those numbers, including the amount the student is expected to pay on a monthly basis.
Step Four: Determine Savings
Few students think about putting money away for a rainy day, but unexpected expenses can pop up regularly, such as car repairs, fluctuations in utilities, or medical emergencies.
Putting aside a little in savings can allow students to ride out these expenses without leaning on credit cards, and having an emergency fund set aside for unexpected expenses is always a good idea. Additionally, making a habit of saving money early on can help students prepare for long-term savings and financial goals.
By age 35, people should have 1x their current salary in some kind of retirement account, per Fidelity Investments.
By starting a savings plan now, students can make this goal a little easier to reach.
Step Five: Balance Incoming and Outgoing
With accurate targets of money coming in, and an honest assessment of the money that should be going out, students should be able to determine how much money they really have. But if the numbers don’t quite add up and students find that they’re spending more than they have, there are some steps they can take to balance the books.
By swapping out a car for public transportation or a nifty bike, students might find that their monthly budgets are a little easier to balance. Having a car can be a big expense. According to College Board, automobiles can gobble up about 17 percent of a student’s budget, as these car-related expenses can get very pricey over time:
Loan, Lease or Payments
Other small changes can make a big difference, like making your own dinner:
Cost of dinner at Chipotle = $10 ($300 per month)
Cost of dinner cooked in slow-cooker = $2 ($60 per month)
Savings per month: $240
Living on a budget
Many people come up with wonderful budget ideas and then find that they can’t stick to the resolutions they’ve made.
Changing spending habits is hard, even if it will result in long-term benefits.
While people who keep budgets may have hundreds of tips and tricks they use to stay on track, these four steps may be very useful to people who are just getting started.
Buy groceries, coffee and other incidentals with cash, rather than using a debit card.
Tally up receipts at the end of each day and compare progress with the goals outlined in the budget.
At the end of a month, revise amounts in areas that seem underfunded.
Use our tools to help you reduce the amount you spend on school like our scholarship finder.
There are also some online tools and services that can help you manage and stick to a budget, such as Mint and BudgetPulse. Apps and services like Mint track your spending habits on a daily basis, and can help you analyze your spending based on categories (ex. groceries, entertainment, transportation, restaurants, etc.).
Word of caution
It isn’t easy to create a budget, and it’s certainly not easy to live within the boundaries a budget sets. At times, students might feel as though their lives would be better if they stopped worrying about money altogether and simply kept spending now with the hopes of paying it all back later. Unfortunately, that kind of thinking can result in disaster. The 2011 federal student loan 3-year default rate was 13.4 percent according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Students who don’t learn how to budget now may borrow too much for school, and when they start their careers, they may not know how to manage their finances in order to repay their loans. Those students who do take control now will be in much better financial shape, both while they’re in school and when their school days are over.
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| 0.957621 | 1,331 | 3.90625 | 4 | 2.27872 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Finance & Business
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A magnitude 6.5 earthquake devastated the small city of Bam in southeast Iran on December 26, 2003 at 5:26 AM local time.
While there have been several recent earthquakes on faults in the region, the city of Bam had not been affected by earthquakes for at least 500 years. Initial field studies found some minor evidence of fault motion, but the main fault rupture that caused the earthquake was discovered by analysis of data from the recently launched Envisat synthetic aperture radar system. Scientists from NASA's JPL and the Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes and Tectonics (University of Oxford, UK and the University of Cambridge, UK) used interferometry analysis of the Envisat radar data and seismology to study the fault rupture, that passed directly beneath the center of the city of Bam. The interferometry analysis was performed with software developed at JPL. A less used type of radar interferometry analysis called the interferometric correlation (shown in this figure) was used to locate the surface trace of the fault rupture. Scientists from the Geological Survey of Iran mapped the surface ruptures in the field at the locations discovered on these correlation images.
The two images show similar measures of the radar interferometric correlation in grayscale on the left and in false colors on the right. The city of Bam is at the top edge of the images, which are each 5 km (3 miles) wide. In the left image, the irregular black line between the two red arrows shows the fault rupture, where the interferometric correlation is very low. The "S" shaped dark line running across the image from top left to lower right is a railroad, and some other straight lines are roads that also have low correlation. The right image shows the correlation in colors with the darkest red-orange color indicating low correlation on the fault ruptures and other features.
For more information, see the following paper, published recently in Geophysical Research Letters:
Talebian, M., Fielding, E.J., Funning, G.J., et al. (2004), The 2003 Bam (Iran) earthquake: Rupture of a blind strike-slip fault, L11611, doi:10.1029/2004GL020058.
The full paper is available (subscription required) can be found at http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2004/2004GL020058.shtml
and for United States Government research a reprint is available at http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/handle/2014/6130.
Radar data used in this research were acquired by the Envisat satellite operated by the European Space Agency, which kindly made this data available for research. Part of this research was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with NASA. Part of this research was performed at the Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes and Tectonics supported by the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council. Research was also performed by the Geological Survey of Iran.
Size: Images are 5 km (3 miles) wide
Location: 29.1 degrees North latitude, 58.3 degrees East longitude
Orientation: North is up (UTM projection)
Image Data: Envisat ASAR interferometric correlation
Image resolution: 20 meters (60 feet)
Dates Acquired: December 3, 2003 and January 7, 2004
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A local swelling of the skin that contains watery fluid and is caused by burning or irritation.
- n. A similar swelling on a plant.
- n. A raised bubble, as on a painted or laminated surface.
- n. A rounded, bulging, usually transparent structure, such as one used for observation on certain aircraft or for display and protection of packaged products.
- transitive v. To cause a blister to form on.
- transitive v. To reprove harshly.
- intransitive v. To break out in or as if in blisters.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A small bubble between the layers of the skin that contains watery or bloody fluid and is caused by friction and pressure, burning, freezing, chemical irritation, disease or infection.
- n. A swelling on a plant.
- n. Something applied to the skin to raise a blister; a vesicatory or other applied medicine.
- n. A bubble, as on a painted surface.
- n. An enclosed pocket of air, which may be mixed with water or solvent vapor, trapped between impermeable layers of felt or between the membrane and substrate.
- v. To cause blisters to form.
- v. To criticise severely.
- v. To break out in blisters.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A vesicle of the skin, containing watery matter or serum, whether occasioned by a burn or other injury, or by a vesicatory; a collection of serous fluid causing a bladderlike elevation of the cuticle.
- n. Any elevation made by the separation of the film or skin, as on plants; or by the swelling of the substance at the surface, as on steel.
- n. A vesicatory; a plaster of Spanish flies, or other matter, applied to raise a blister.
- intransitive v. To be affected with a blister or blisters; to have a blister form on.
- transitive v. To raise a blister or blisters upon.
- transitive v. To give pain to, or to injure, as if by a blister.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To raise a blister or blisters on, as by a burn, medical application, or friction: as, to blister one's hands.
- To raise filmy vesicles on by heat: as, too high a temperature will blister paint; blistered steel. See blister-steel.
- Figuratively, to cause to suffer as if from blisters; subject to burning shame or disgrace.
- To rise in blisters, or become blistered.
- n. A thin vesicle on the skin, containing watery matter or serum, whether occasioned by a burn or other injury, by a vesicatory, or by disease; a pustule.
- n. An elevation made by the lifting up of an external film or skin by confined air or fluid, as on plants, or by the swelling of the substance at the surface, as on steel.
- n. Something applied to the skin to raise a blister, as a plaster of Spanish flies, mustard, etc., as a means of counter-irritation; a vesicatory.
- n. In castings of different materials, an effect caused by the presence of confined bubbles of air or gas.
- n. A distortion of peach-leaves caused by the fungus Exoascus deformans; bladder-blight. See Exoascus. Also called blistering.
- n. A swelling on a metal plate; a bag.
- n. A young oyster.
- n. In photography, a defect in a plate or on a paper in the process of coating with gelatin, albumin, or collodion.
- n. In glass-making, a defect in the glass caused by the retention of gas-bubbles formed during the melting.
- n. A common disease of pear-leaves produced by a mite, Phytoptus pyri, commonly called the pear-leaf blister mite. Each blister is a swelling of the leaf, producing a cavity in which the mites are found.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. (botany) a swelling on a plant similar to that on the skin
- v. cause blisters to form on
- v. subject to harsh criticism
- n. a flaw on a surface resulting when an applied substance does not adhere (as an air bubble in a coat of paint)
- v. get blistered
- n. (pathology) an elevation of the skin filled with serous fluid
Remember how Accutane came in blister packs, and the no-pregnancy symbols on the back of _every_ _single_ _blister_?
I buy the Raid in blister packs of three at Costco.
But plastic wrapped things, shrink-wrapped items, equipment sold in blister packs or sealed in a stiff transparent plastic, those we did not have … much.
Not much pain, though the newish blister is tender.
Since Mexican meds come in blister packs that don't come out to 30 or 60 resign yourself to loosing reimbursement on the couple extra pills.
This could drive the cost of WiFi cards down so low that they start selling 'em in blister-packs of 10 at the WalGreen's.
"The principal threat to this tree is an infectious fungus called blister rust, but the cumulative impacts of climate change, mountain pine beetle infestations and fire suppression have all contributed to an ongoing population reduction of 70 per cent," said the committee, which has assessed the Whitebark Pine as endangered.
This compound causes blistering of the skin, thus the name blister beetle.
Draining the blister is a last resort that's best performed by a pro.
The opening of the blister was a sign of surrender.
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Moderate reasoning
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Literature
|
by Ric Bessin, Extension Entomologist
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture
Slugs are common pests during wet weather and can damage many types of plants in the garden. Slugs are fleshy, slimy animals that feed mainly at night. They prefer cool, moist hiding places during the day. They range in color from light gray to black. Cool, wet spring conditions favor slug problems.
Slugs rasp on leaves, stems, flowers and roots. They produce holes in the leaves or just scar the leaf surface. Small seedlings in the garden can be especially vulnerabIe to these creatures. Silvery slime trials are evidence of slug infestations. Here are a few tips on how to prevent or reduce slugs problems:
- Sanitation. Keep the area free of plant debris (leaves, prunings, pulled weeds, etc.), old boards, stones, or tires that provide cool moist hiding places for slugs.
- Prune low branches or trees or shrubs which touch the ground. Rake the leaves or mulch in order to allow the ground to dry.
- Metaldehyde or mesurol bait can be used to kill slugs. Read the label carefully. Do not allow pellets to come in contact with leaves of vegetables.
- Beer traps. Empty cans buried up to the lip and partially filled with beer can be effective slug traps. Beer should be changed every few days to remain effective.
- Barriers of diatomaceous earth, wood ash, lime, sawdust, copper striping, and salt embedded plastic strips can be used around bedded plants.
Some of these tactics are more effective than others. Barriers of diatomaceous earth, sawdust, wood ash, and lime may need to be replaced after each rain. Do not use barriers of salt, this can damage your soil. A combination of two or more of these measures should control your slug problems.
For a detailed guide to the slugs that are found in Kentucky, including pictures and a scientific key, visit SR 103: A Field Guide to the Slugs of Kentucky (PDF).
CAUTION! Pesticide recommendations in this publication are registered for use in Kentucky, USA ONLY! The use of some products may not be legal in your state or country. Please check with your local county agent or regulatory official before using any pesticide mentioned in this publication.
Of course, ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL DIRECTIONS FOR SAFE USE OF ANY PESTICIDE!
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<urn:uuid:ba3d3423-f83f-4920-938c-834b17daf9c5>
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CC-MAIN-2014-41
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http://www2.ca.uky.edu/ENTOMOLOGY/entfacts/ef407.asp
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en
| 0.914116 | 513 | 3.765625 | 4 | 1.863492 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Home & Hobbies
|
Sri Lanka: Preserving Wetlands for the Future
October 28, 2013
- Sri Jaywardenapura Kotte boasts a wealth of wetlands which are home to diverse species of plants and birds that serve to reduce flooding, maintain the quality of lakes and a cool atmosphere in Colombo.
- However, the wetlands and the historical ramparts face threats from uncontrolled access and development work which has already taken a toll on their survival and the environment on the whole.
- A part of the Metro Colombo Urban Development Project (MCUDP) will protect these wetlands for future generations through preservation, increasing Colombo’s resilience to floods, and allowing residents to enjoy the benefits of living in close proximity to a natural reserve.
Sri Jaywardenapura Kotte is a landmark part of metro Colombo due to its historical importance as the site of the last kingdom of Sri Lanka. It is also the current administrative capital of the country. Most of the area surrounding the parliament complex in Sri Jaywardenapura Kotte consists of low-lying freshwater marshlands, a key feature of local topography. The Beddagana urban wetland, which is part of the flood plains of the Diyawanna Lake, has been a birds’ paradise for decades. The local bird population uses it as a breeding site. Habitats as diverse as ponds studded with water lilies, wet shrub lands, seasonally flooded grasslands and mud flats are found in this vicinity. The challenge is to preserve the wetlands for the benefit of future generations.
Beddagana and Kotte ramparts wetlands are part of a larger Wildlife Sanctuary declared by the Department of Wildlife Conservation around the parliament lake in 1985. It is identified by the Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (SLLRDC) as an important flood retention area. However, the pressure of urbanization and the demand for land over the years has resulted in threatening the future of these wetlands. Garbage is strewn in several locations. Currently, access to wetlands is uncontrolled and as such parts of the Beddagana wetland is used as an informal picnic site. Part of the wetland which has been filled with dredge material from the parliament lake when the parliament complex was built, has turned into a playground for the local community, car racers and motorcyclists. These activities intimidate the bird populations who thrive in quietness and seclusion. If left unattended, the wetlands may face the risk of being utilized for land development at some point in future.
Nippon Mawatha, through which the wetlands are accessed, is also an area with much cultural heritage as the ancient ramparts from the Kotte era can be spotted. Unfortunately, unregulated and unauthorized development has taken a heavy toll on the ramparts which are fast disappearing from sight with people building on them with no regard to its cultural and historical value.
Beddagana is a small area, but very important for its demonstration value, in particular with regard to how innovatively the multiple and very important functions of urban wetlands could be combined, preserved and managed in a sustainable way.
The conservation and sustainable use of Beddagana and Kotte Ramparts wetlands aim to demonstrate that urban wetlands such as these offer a natural solution to keeping the city safe during heavy rains by detaining floodwater. It will also highlight that wetlands play an important role in treating surface run off, (keeping the Diyawanna lake water clean) and keeping the city cool. While urban expansion continues in and around Colombo, areas such as these wetlands provide great opportunities to retain pockets of wilderness in the heart of a city where the city dweller can be close to nature. At a strategic level, this project will demonstrate how urban development can be effectively integrated with urban biodiversity conservation.
The multiple objectives of this sub- project are:
• Ensuring protection of Beddagana and Kotte Ramparts from future encroachment and land development to enable it to function as a flood retention area for the city.
• Demonstrating the importance of urban wetlands and the multiple eco-system services provided to the city.
• Enhancing the natural environment of the area combined with Water Front Development that would facilitate recreational activities
• Protecting urban bio-diversity by providing preferred environment, especially for birds butterflies and other marsh animals
• Identifying opportunities for students and naturalist to learn and explore wetland ecology.
• Identifying opportunities for bird watching and other low impact recreational activities.
Achieving these project objectives will provide multiple benefits for the city and its environs.
• Reducing the flood risk to the city and lake water pollution
• Improving air quality ,climate change resilience and reducing heat in the city
• Improving public health by providing greater interaction with nature and recreational walking to relieve stress of urban life
• Increasing awareness and learning about wetlands and its ecology
• Preventing unacceptable land development and illegal encroachments, so that these wetland areas can be enjoyed by future generations.
The conceptual plan that has been developed for Beddagana hinges upon conserving the site as it is, with only light interventions to facilitate bird watching and learning and enhancing habitats where possible with wader scrapes, reed beds and wetland forest trees.
Interventions proposed in the Beddagana Wetland
• A small information center, which will be the only entry point to the site.
• Nature trails and bird watching views/hides designed with utmost sensitivity to areas used by birds for feeding, breeding and nesting
• Creation of two wader scrapes in the grassy patches to enhance wildlife viewing
• Enhancing the seasonal shallow pond in the dry ground with reeds and additional retention capacity
• Planting of a wetland forest patch for field researches
• A small car park adjacent to the football federation grounds
• A jogging track which continues from the top of Nippon Mawatha, screened by vegetation to minimize disturbance to birdlife.
The design concept for Kotte Ramparts wetlands is more of an interactive one, given its relatively low ecological sensitivity, with features such as jungle adventure for kids, board walking and forest gardening for school goers.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Across the globe, frequency of RB is about one in twenty-thousand births and is the third most common type of cancer in children. If detected early, like any other cancer, RB is completely curable. Early detection is a routine in the Western world, whereas in India due to poor social awareness, it is diagnosed at an advanced stage, leading to loss of vision of one or both eyes and could be fatal at times. Luckily, RB majority of the times affects one eye of the child but at times, at least in a third of the children could have both eyes affected.
With minimal attentiveness, public could easily suspect RB at a very early stage by noticing white reflection in the pupil, called leukocoria. This could be more easily picked in a child’s photo with the white reflex instead of red reflex. Other signs and symptoms of RB, include squint or cockeye, persistent eye pain, redness, or irritation and blindness or poor vision, in the affected eye. A common man could detect this by simply closing an eye of the child with one hand and if the eye is sighted then a young child would push the person’s hand away, whereas if the child has poor vision then it would not push the hand away.
GENETICS AND BIOLOGY OF RETINOBLASTOMA
RB is a genetic disease that could be inherited in ten percent of the family, passing from one generation to the other, called autosomal dominant. Genetic code error or mutation in RB gene is the cause for the disease. Cell multiplication happens like driving a car, so there are genes that activate cell multiplication in the retina and when it is optimal RB gene acts like a brake and stops the activity. However, with a mutation RB gene produces defective RB protein and it is not functional resulting in excessive cell multiplication that could lead to the formation of the cancer, hence RB is a cancer or tumor suppressor gene. When the gene mutation happens at the formation of the fertilized ovum then it is germinal, which could affect each and every cell of the body and therefore could lead to cancer in other parts of the body, but this is very rare in real life situation.
Biologically, we have two copies of RB gene, basically one copy from each parent. For the cancer to be established, we have to lose both the copies in our retinal cells. Both the genes could lose their function by multiple biological cellular mechanisms in early childhood, when retina is actively multiplying. However, after four or five years of age, retina stops multiplication and therefore RB invariably does not occur after five years of age.
RB is a one-hundred percent curable disease provided it is detected early and managed by experienced ophthalmologists. However, if it is not treated appropriately, this cancer could spread beyond the eye mostly affecting the brain and other parts of the body, by which we could result in loss of the child. In the Western world hardly a child loses its sight due to RB because of early detection not only due to increased social awareness but also because of genomic tests. However, in our country due to lack of awareness amongst general public and parents, children not only lose their eye but also sadly their life, leaving pain and agony to the parents and loss to the community. Advanced clinical and genomic centers are bringing the same change that happened in the Western world, several decades ago, to our country.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETHealthworld.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETHealthworld.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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What are the standards for teachers?
NETS-Ts are the standards for teachers. They evaluate the skills and knowledge we present in the classroom along with those we need to work and continue to learn in a 21st century classroom. They comprise of some of the following which are taken directly off of the ISTE website as a PDF:
- Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
- Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessment
- Model Digital Age Work and Learning
- Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
- Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
NETS-S ate the standards that evaluate the students’ ability to strive, succeed and continue to learn in our digital world. Their standards include the following: Again, these are from a PDF found on their website.
- Creativity and Innovation
- Communication and Collaboration
- Research and Information Fluency
- Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
- Digital Citizenship
- Technology Operations and Concepts
NETS-As are standards to evaluate the skills and knowledge needed to support the learning and implementation of technology in today's schools. Their standards include the following: Again, these are from a PDF found on their website.
1. Visionary Leadership. Digital Age Learning Culture
3. Excellence in Professional Practice
4. Systemic Improvement
5. Digital Citizenship
What Is Ning?
Ning is the social networking site for ISTE members. members have a profile page and they can post blogs, ask questions and join discussions about topics of interest.
Topic Two: Ohio Technology Standards
Below are the Content Standards for Technology by the Ohio Board of Education .
Standard 1: Nature of Technology
Students develop an understanding of technology, its characteristics, scope,
core concepts* and relationships between technologies and other fields.
Standard 2: Technology and Society Interaction
Students recognize interactions among society, the environment and
technology, and understand technology's relationship with history.
Consideration of these concepts forms a foundation for engaging in
responsible and ethical use of technology.
Standard 3: Technology for Productivity Applications
Students learn the operations of technology through the usage of technology
and productivity tools
Standard 4: Technology and Communication Applications
Students use an array of technologies and apply design concepts to communicate with multiple audiences,
acquire and disseminate information and enhance learning.
Standard 5: Technology and Information Literacy
Students engage in information literacy strategies, use the Internet, technology tools and resources, and
apply information-management skills to answer questions and expand knowledge.
Standard 6: Design
Students apply a number of problem-solving strategies demonstrating the nature of design, the role of
engineering and the role of assessment.
Standard 7: Designed World
Students understand how the physical, informational and bio-related technological systems of the
designed world are brought about by the design process. Critical to this will be students' understanding
of their role in the designed world: its processes, products, standards, services, history, future, impact,
issues and career connections.
I feel like these standards are similar to those on the ISTE website. They encourage student growth and development with the use of technology. All of these standards are easy to implement into the classroom.
Topic three: Ohio ETech Office and Programs
Every year, there is an Educational Technology Conference. According to their website, the conference allows for educators to attend sessions and workshops, learn about the latest improvements in educational technology, tools, techniques and ideas. There, teachers can get hands on experiences with products from hundreds of vendors.
ETech also has a list of grants that teachers and schools can apply for and also has links to podcasts and other educational resources for teachers.
Topic four: Ethics or Netiquette
AUP stands for Acceptable Use Policy for internet use. AUPs are created by schools to help protect students from the dangers of the internet. The National Education Association recommends that an AUP contain the following:
- a preamble (which explains why the policy is needed, the goals and how the policy was developed)
- a definition section (defines key words to insure student, parent and teacher understanding)
- a policy statement (explains what is covered under the AUP and defines the circumstances under which students can use the services)
- an acceptable uses section (defines proper student use of the computer network)
- an unacceptable uses section (defines unacceptable use, giving clear and definite examples
- a violations/sanctions section (explains the consequences of students actions)
Online Safety for Students
As teachers, it is our job to help keep our students safe, that that counts for online too! As a Teacher we can stick to the boring pamphlet about online hazards, how to stay away from them, and what to do if we encounter them (say cyber bullying) but there are many more resources too. Teacher can find lesson plans online about online safety such as the one on this site. We can teach through Games, Quest Atlantis is an educational game that requires students to first complete a component on internet safety. WebWiseKids is a great site for information, activities and ideas for teaching internet safety in the classroom! Teachers can also use Role-playing or have a guest speaker. Some other ideas/websites include:
The nine themes of digital citizenship include the following:
1. Digital Access: full electronic participation in society
2. Digital Commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods
3. Digital Communication: electronic exchange of information.
4. Digital Literacy: process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology
5. Digital Etiquette: electronic standards of conduct or procedure.
6. Digital Law: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
7. Digital Rights & Responsibilities: those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world
8. Digital Health & Wellness: physical and psychological well-being in a digital technology world.
9. Digital Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety.
Netiquette is etiquette for online/the net. As teachers we need to remind our students to mind the Netiquette. One way would be to remind them that what they put on the internet is FOREVER. You could have them think about this and internet safety by Googleing themselves. There are tons of websites that list Netiquette rules.
Topic 5 Copyright- COPY RIGHT LAWS
Copy right laws are used to protect other individuals works, and to get the credit to them. Copy right laws are meant to give compensation to the correct person.
Fair Use is when teachers are aloud to take items for educational purposes, but that the use of that work can not divert the income of the creator. There are four basic guidelines to follow.
1. The purpose and character of the intended use.
2. The nature of the copyrighted work.
3. The amount and substantial of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
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Moderate reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Children raised on farms and in the rural environment grow up to have more stress-resilient immune systems and have a lower risk to mental illness.
According to new research from the University of Ulm in Germany and CU Boulder in the US, children raised on farms, surrounded by animals and bacteria-laden dust, grow up healthier than their city counterparts.
The study adds to mounting evidence supporting the “hygiene hypothesis,” which posits that overly sterile environments can breed health problems and allergies.
Research has also shown that immunoregulatory response to stress develops in early life and is shaped largely by the microbial environment.
More than 50 percent of the world’s population now lives in a urban areas, meaning humans are exposed to far fewer microorganisms than they evolved with, the authors note.
“If you are not exposed to these types of organisms, then your immune system doesn’t develop a balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory forces, and you can develop a chronic, low-grade inflammation and exaggerated immune reactivity that makes you vulnerable to allergy, autoimmune disease and, we propose, psychiatric disorders,” Mr Lowry added.
West Wales is an ideal place to move to for the “good life”. Fresh air, space, community spirit and a good old fashioned childhood awaits children whose families move to Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion; not to mention wonderful beaches to enjoy.
It is not only children who benefit from a move to West Wales either. Living by the sea has also proved to be of huge benefit to those of all ages. Sea air helps you sleep better Dr Natasha Bijlani, a consultant psychiatrist at the Priory’s Roehampton Hospital in south west London, says: ‘Sea air is good for sleep because it is generally cleaner and fresher air, with higher levels of oxygen which can improve sleep as well. Living by the sea also opens many more opportunities for exercise than being inland, thus tapping in to the enormous health benefits of weight control and lower blood pressure, decreasing risk of heart disease or diabetes”. https://www.priorygroup.com/locations/priory-hospital-roehampton-london
A 2016 study showed that whereas green spaces can be calming, they are not always as effective as the sea because they often contain ‘stuff’ – playgrounds, golf courses, roads and pylons for example. It is rarely completely natural, say like a forest. The sea, however, has the capacity to look natural because it is uncluttered. That feeling of space and the fresh air has many benefits, which is why historically patients were sent away for sea bathing or to stay at seaside sanatoriums to improve their health. Benefits which were perceived many years ago are still very valid today. Crowded places increase stress levels, while open spaces and natural environments reduce them. Not only does one feel better by the sea, physical and mental health also improve.
If you are looking to move to West Wales, or buy a property here, give West Wales Property Finders a call on 01834 862816. We can help you find your dream home whilst saving you time, money and stress. http://www.westwalespropertyfinders.co.uk
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Strong reasoning
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Home & Hobbies
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The concept of solid-state chemistry corresponds to the relationships occurring between the synthesis, structure, and physical-chemical properties of solid inorganic compounds (in most cases), leading to a final compound with optimized properties. Solid-state chemistry exhibits therefore a strong overlap with other scientific domains such as solid-state physics, mineralogy, crystallography, ceramics, metallurgy, polymer chemistry, electrochemistry, thermodynamics, materials science and electronics, with a focus on the synthesis of novel compounds and their accurate characterization. This discipline plays a crucial role in the discovery, the design, and optimization of new functional materials to meet the ever-growing societal demands for smaller, faster, cleaner, and more sustainable technologies. It can be pointed out that the discovery of a material with the right combination of properties has sometimes shifted the entire paradigm upon which a technology is based: lithium-ion batteries, perovskite solar cells, new forms of carbon may illustrate this point.
A tailoring of the process can be proposed at every step, in order to reach and optimize the targeted properties. Concerning the available synthesis routes, the conventional ceramic method is the most common one and involves reactions at elevated temperatures. Due to the fact that intermediate or final products of current interest have often a metastable nature, low-temperature techniques can be sometimes preferred, such as sol-gel, "chimie douce" routes, electrochemical way, etc. Because of the diversity of the methods, the range of the morphology of the obtained samples is extremely wide, ranging from large size single crystals to thin films, composite and hybrid materials, nano-powders with high surface areas, amorphous glasses or glass ceramics. It should be pointed out that the discovery and recent use of nano-scale compounds has revolutionized the applications in many fields, in particular electronics and optics.
The structural properties of the solid-state compounds are of course dependent on the atomic and electronic structures of the involved elements. The "tool-box" available to the scientist includes possible changes in composition, atomic stacking, anionic and/or cationic substitutions, atomic ordering, stoichiometry, nature and competition between the present chemical bonds. The involved atomic/electronic arrangements in these materials are of decisive importance in all crystalline and amorphous solids, e.g. metals, ceramics, powders, semiconductors, thin layers, composite and hybrid materials, (co)polymers, etc.
The relationships between structural aspects and physical properties can cover the following fields : optical properties, highTc superconductivity, magnetism (3-dimensional, 2-dimensional, one-dimensional and heteroleptic transition metal complexes), multiferroism, ferroelectricity, insulator-metal transitions, ionic conduction mechanisms, ab-initio calculations. Important domains of applications of the final products are found in energy, electrochemistry, Quantum technologies, micro/mesoporous materials, photonics: light-emitting diodes (LEDs, OLEDs), liquid crystal displays (LCD), luminescence (up- and down-conversion), UV-visible absorbers, dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), transparent conducting films (TCF), solid state lasers, nonlinear optics (NLO), frequency doubling, but also in mechanical properties, micro-electronics and molecular electronics, imaging devices, electrodes and electrolytes, energy storage/conversion systems (batteries, supercapacitors), etc. Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are ideal sustainable candidates for storage of greenhouse gases, as fuels (hydrogen and methane), carbon dioxide, and catalytic applications.
In the past decades, the development and applications of new materials have been highly influenced by their effect on our environment. In this scope, although the benefits of new compounds that can be optimized to suit our society needs are evident in many fields, the drawbacks caused to our environment by some of these products should not be underestimated. In a same way, reflexions on sustainability issues can be conducted at every stage of the process, from the synthesis route to the use of the final component in a device. The purpose is to maintain change in a balanced way, in which the exploitation of resources, the type of synthesis, the orientation of technological development are in harmony and improve the current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations. Among the varied sustainable applications, it is clear that the search of high-performance solid-state materials for energy issues has most valuable interest for all human activity and progress.
Scientific sessions will cover the following fields: synthesis routes, advanced characterization results, and diverse approaches to the discovery of improved functionalized materials at the nanosized scale, in particular for fluoride compounds. Other sessions will focus on materials and technologies where solid state chemists are essential: energy conversion and storage, electrochemistry, magnetism, electronics opto-electronics. Academic researchers from national laboratories and industry engineers will provide a broad perspective that seeks to strengthen the links between fundamental studies and paradigm-shifting applications.
In order to account for the various fields investigated by Prof. Alain Tressaud, the topics of this symposium will include, but are not limited to, the following selections:
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CC-MAIN-2019-39
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https://www.flogen.org/sips2019/summit.php?id=52
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en
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Goldfish are traditional pets that are often bought for kids. Many of these beautiful fish end up living in isolation in their tank, apparently very happily.
But does your goldfish really need a tank mate? The simple answer to that question is yes!
In this guide, we take a closer look at the humble goldfish and explain why these fish need company to thrive.
Does Your Goldfish Need A Tank Mate?
Goldfish (Carassius auratus) have been kept as ornamental pet fish for over 2000 years. There are now over 200 species of goldfish, some of which are pretty rare. But breeders originally produced all of these fish by crossbreeding wild Prussian carp. In nature, carp tend to live in societal groups, and modern goldfish have that same desire for company.
Ideally, you should keep goldfish in groups. However, these social fish can grow quite large, up to 12 inches in the case of Comets and other long-bodied goldfish, so you need a large tank or pond to accommodate them. As a general rule of thumb, you must allow one gallon of water per inch of fish, and you need a very efficient filtration system to cope with the amount of waste that goldfish produce and keep your tank clean.
There are other species of fish that can do well with goldfish. But what works and what doesn’t work depends to some extent on the type of goldfish you have, the nature of your setup, and the size of your community tank.
What Are The Basic Types Of Goldfish?
There are two main types of goldfish:
- Single tail
The type of fish you own is the most important thing to consider when picking a suitable tank mate.
If you keep a single tail, long-bodied goldfish, your choice of tank mates is somewhat limited. These larger goldfish are fast swimmers and are best suited to life in a pond with other goldfish of the same type or with Koi carp.
On the other hand, Fancy goldfish are generally smaller than their single tail cousins, reaching a maximum size of six to eight inches in length when fully grown. Fancies are also much slower, less agile swimmers, and some of the bubble eye varieties have poor eyesight that can cause problems with feeding.
Although you can keep fancy goldfish in a pond, they do fine in a large aquarium with an efficient filtration system. Also, fancy goldfish tend to prefer a slightly higher water temperature than their long-bodied counterparts. So, that means you can often introduce some tropical fish species to your fancy goldfish if you choose your tank mates carefully.
Evaluate Your Setup
Before adding different species to your goldfish tank, you need to evaluate whether the conditions are suitable for them.
Since goldfish produce a lot of waste, you need a high-quality filtration system to keep the water clean and free from toxins. However, the flow must be buffered, as fancy goldfish don’t appreciate a strong current.
Fancy goldfish are cold-water fish that need cooler temperatures between 68° and 74° F. The water pH should be between 7.0 and 8.4. These are hardy fish that do very well, provided that you keep the water clean.
However, that ideal temperature range could be too cool for most tropical fish species, and warmer than that is too warm for goldfish.
Unsuitable Tank Mates For Goldfish
Now, let’s take a look at what fish species do not make suitable goldfish tank mates.
Goldfish are voracious eaters and will eat pretty much anything that they can fit in their mouths, including smaller fish such as minnows.
It’s not a good idea to keep shrimp with goldfish, as the goldfish will usually regard the invertebrates as lunch, chase, and eat them. It’s a similar story with aquatic snails. Larger size mollusks that are too big to be swallowed are fine in a goldfish tank. However, it’s best to avoid species such as Nerites and others with cone-shaped shells that could injure your goldfish if swallowed.
If you have long-bodied goldfish, you should avoid putting them with slower swimmers that might be outcompeted for food. Slow-swimming fancy goldfish don’t mix well with swift, agile swimmers for the same reason.
Also, fancy goldfish develop long, flowing fins as they mature. Goldfish fins can be extremely tempting for some nippy fish species.
Goldfish are peaceful fish. They are completely non-aggressive types that are not territorial or defensive. If anything, these fish tend to hang out together, foraging for food and exploring their environment.
So, you don’t want to include any territorial or aggressive tank mates with goldfish. That can cause a great deal of stress for the goldfish, resulting in stress and health problems.
What Are The Best Tank Mates For Goldfish?
Single Tail Goldfish
Let’s find you the best potential tank mate for your single-tail goldfish. Check out this list of candidates that can live with goldfish in peace.
Koi are a species of ornamental carp that come in a vast range of colors and patterns. These fish are similar in build to single tail goldfish, although they typically grow to be much larger fish.
Koi and single tail goldfish enjoy similar water conditions and diet, and the two species do well when kept together in a pond setting.
Common goldfish are good beginner fish often sold cheaply in stores as feeder fish.
These fish do best in a pond, and adult fish can quickly grow to 12 inches or more in length. However, you can keep one single specimen in a 20-gallon tank, adding a further 10 to 15 gallons to that for every additional goldfish that you add.
The Comet is a fast swimmer. This active fish can reach 10 to 12 inches in length. Comets have wide, spread tails and come in a variety of color morphs.
The beautiful Shubunkin is also sometimes called the Calico goldfish, although they have different types of scales.
Shubunkins typically have multicolored patches of color, including blue, red, orange, gold, white, black, bronze, and purple.
Tank Mates For Fancy Goldfish
Fancy goldfish come in many different varieties, and their requirements tend to vary between types. However, generally, these colorful fish prefer warmer water and a very low flow rate, which gives you lots of options for companions.
Platy fish are small tropical fish that come in a wide variety of colors and patterns, and you can even get a form with a long, pointed tail. These fish grow up to around 3 inches in length, making them too big for a goldfish to attempt to eat.
You need to keep Platies in groups of at least five, and these livebearers will breed readily, although your goldfish will most likely eat the fry.
The Longfin Rosy barb is a beautiful fish that can grow to around 6 inches in length, preferring cooler water and a roomy tank of 30 gallons or more. These barbs tend to hang around the middle area of the tank in a large school and won’t bother your goldfish.
Checkered barbs are excellent community fish that are more peaceful than other barb species and should be a good companion fish for your Fancy goldfish. These attractive tropical fish can reach 2 inches long and need to be kept in schools of eight or more.
Although smaller minnow species are a source of food for a hungry goldfish, Giant danios grow up to 4 inches in length, and they are fast swimmers, too.
These schooling fish do best in groups of five or more and prefer a comfortable temperature range of 72° to 75°F.
Murray River Rainbow Fish
For an unusual addition to your goldfish tank, check out the beautiful Murray River Rainbow Fish!
These gorgeous fish reach 4 inches in length and enjoy living in groups of up to six individuals. In the wild environment of the River Murray in Australia, the fish live in temperatures of 70° to 78°F. Interestingly, cooler water seems to bring out the Rainbow Fish’s best coloration.
The Scissortail Rasbora is a shy, peaceful schooling fish compatible with Fancy goldfish.
These beautiful silver and black fish can grow to reach 6 inches in length, preferring to swim in schools in open areas of the water column. However, they often like to chill out around lush planting and tank decorations when they need shelter. Ideally, you want a group of at least six Scissortails, preferably more if you have plenty of space in your tank.
Scissortails enjoy temperatures between 72° to 77°F and share the same dietary requirements as goldfish, making them excellent goldfish companions.
Zebra danios are attractive black-and-white striped schooling fish that are commonly kept as community fish. These fish tolerate a wide range of tank conditions and can live happily in temperatures from 65° to 77°F.
These schooling fish prefer to live in groups of six or more and can grow to reach 3 inches long, making them too big for an adult goldfish to eat. Danios are fast swimmers that prefer a slow current, making them the ideal companion for goldfish.
Also, even if there are a few casualties while the danios are still growing, their low cost makes that less of a financial blow to the hobbyist.
White Cloud Mountain Minnows
White Cloud Mountain Minnows can be a good option for a Fancy goldfish tank. These pretty little fish grow to 1.5 to 2 inches long and love to school together.
Although White Cloud minnows can be eaten by goldfish, they are swift swimmers and can usually escape curious Fancy goldfish without too much difficulty. The trick is to provide plenty of lush planting and caves where the minnows can hide if they need to.
There are a few varieties of minnows to choose from, but we recommend that you avoid the longfin type, as their long fins slow them down, increasing the chance of their being caught.
Although goldfish like to explore the whole tank, they tend to spend most of their time in the middle to upper areas of the water column. So, you can keep a few bottom-dwellers that won’t encroach on the goldfishes’ swimming space.
Also, many bottom-dwelling species are beneficial to the hobbyist as a tank cleaning crew. Therefore, including a few in your goldfish tank is a win-win!
Dojo loaches are also known as Weather loaches.
These fish are fascinating creatures that are highly sensitive to changes in barometric pressure. If your Weather loaches begin to get agitated, you can be sure that a storm is on its way!
These fish should be kept in groups of at least three with a minimum tank size of 55 gallons or more. Your tank must have a tightly fitting lid with no openings, as these strange little loaches can climb, and they will escape if given a chance!
Corydoras catfish belong to a group of over 100 different species of small, scavenging catfish that are extremely popular with aquarists.
These little fish are extremely hardy, easy to care for, peaceful, and they can live for up to seven years. Corys come in different sizes, depending on the species, ranging from 1 to 3 inches long.
We don’t recommend keeping Corys in single-tail goldfish tanks as there is a danger that very large goldfish might eat the Corys. However, a small school of six or seven of one of the larger Cory species would most likely be fine in a Fancy goldfish tank.
Bristlenose plecos are amazing fish that work extremely well in a goldfish tank, feeding on excess food and food scraps that have fallen to the bottom. These bottom-living fish get along fine with both single-tail and Fancy goldfish, too.
Bristlenoses can grow to reach 5 inches long and develop thick, whiskery tentacles around their snouts once they reach adulthood. These armored catfish are peaceful, chilled-out dudes that spend most of their time keeping algae levels down, resting on wood or the viewing panes, or scavenging for scraps of food.
These plecos can tolerate a wide range of water temperatures from 60° to 80°F.
Reticulated Hillstream loaches can be kept in ponds or fish tanks and might work well with single-tail and Fancy goldfish. These shy scavengers generally grow to around 3 inches long, spending most of their time hiding underneath wood, rocks, and among plants, foraging for uneaten food.
These loaches prefer cooler conditions with water temperatures of 68° to 75°F. Their secretive nature makes it easy to keep loaches with goldfish, as you won’t see them very often. You do need a tank over 55 gallons, as these can be territorial fish.
The Hoplo catfish is a very peaceful species that reaches 5 to 6 inches long when fully grown. There are several different species of Hoplo catfish, including the Flag Tail, Spotted, and Tail Bar Hoplo.
These charming catfish have long whiskers that they use to search for food. These catfish are active during the daytime, unlike the Bristlenose and Rubbernose plecos that are nocturnal, so you will get to see them in action.
It can be a challenge when it comes to choosing the ideal tank mate for your goldfish. The most suitable companions for your fish will depend on what type of goldfish you have, your tank size, and the setup.
Generally, the best tank mates for goldfish are simply goldfish of a similar shape and size. However, there are plenty of other viable options, as you can see from our guide!
Do you have unusual tank mates that do well in your goldfish aquarium? We’d love to hear about them! Please share your experience with us in the comments box below.
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Moderate reasoning
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Home & Hobbies
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Posted in Kafevend Blog
When we think of rationing, our minds no doubt turn to WW2. It took only a few months after the beginning of the war for rationing to begin. Petrol was the first resource to be rationed, but it didn't take long for it to start affecting the population's larders. Foodstuffs such as bacon, sugar, biscuits, milk and tea to name just a few were rationed as the war progressed.
Rationing had taken place during WW1 in the UK too, but not to the same extent as in WW2. There were a few attempts to conserve food. For example, it was illegal to eat more than two courses for lunch in a restaurant. Fines were also introduced for people found feeding pigeons or stray animals. Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare programme prompted new measures at the beginning of 1917, one of them a system of voluntary rationing. Bread was rationed as 1918 began, and a few more foods were rationed by July, but they didn't have too long to go before the war ended.
WW2 was a different matter entirely. The Germans turned to unrestricted submarine warfare much earlier on. The fight against the German U-boats lasted most of the war, and is now known as the Battle of the Atlantic. The U-boat fleet sank 3,500 merchant vessels as well as 175 warships, killing around 72,000 sailors. The Germans lost 783 of their U-boats and 30,000 sailors- three quarters of the men in the U-boat fleet. Despite these sobering statistics, vital supplies were still able to reach the UK and as the Allies gained the upper hand in technology they also managed to fight back against the U-boats.
Though many foodstuffs were rationed, fresh fruit and vegetables were not included in the list. Certain items like oranges and lemons became scarce or disappeared entirely, but there was a successful drive to get civilians to help alleviate the problem by growing their own, known as the "Digging for victory" campaign. Areas of land such as railway sidings, sports fields and golf courses were transformed into agricultural patches to supplement rations. Interestingly, the wide scale of rationing in WW2 in the UK actually improved the health of the population, as everyone had access to a varied diet.
Tea was limited to just 2oz (57g) per person per week by 1940, providing around three cups of rather weak tea per day. Coffee was not amongst those items rationed in the UK, but in the United States where it was the drink of choice, coffee was limited to 1 pound every five weeks by the end of 1942. It was the American soldiers who came to the UK who helped in part to promote a resurgence in coffee drinking in the country with their instant coffee rations. Whilst they found it a poor replacement for the drip brew back home in America, we Brits thought it was a real novelty.
Although the war ended in 1945, rationing did not end entirely in the UK until 1954. Happily, the tea ration had been increased by this point anyway, meaning there were far more cuppas to go around!
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Strong reasoning
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History
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Why we need to keep peat in the ground - and out of our gardens
What is peat? Why is peat is important for nature? Are there good alternatives to peat in the garden? Read about Plantlife's campaign to keep peat in the ground.
Plantlife's peat campaign
Plantlife, along with the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and Friends of the Earth, is calling on government and industry to replace peat use in gardening and horticulture.
- Peat extraction for gardening in the UK is on the rise - despite the government's commitment to phase out peat use in gardening by 2020, and across the garden industry by 2030
- Peatlands in Britain, Ireland and beyond continue to be devastated
- Damaging peatlands has a knock-on effect on wildlife, carbon stores, flood risk and water quality.
It's time we stopped this destructive practice. Although the government has set targets to halt horticultural use of peat, too little progress is being made.
What is peat?
Peat is plant material which is partially decomposed and has accumulated in waterlogged conditions.
Peatlands include moors, bogs and fens, as well as some farmed land.
Peat bogs are particular types of wetlands waterlogged by direct rainfall. Peat bogs grow slowly, accumulating around 0.5 to 1 mm of peat each year, and the water prevents the plants from decomposing. As a result, many areas of UK peat bog have been accumulating gradually for as much as 10,000 years, and can be up to 10m deep. Due to its slow accumulation, peat is often classified as a fossil fuel.
Different types of peat bog have formed in response to the climate and other conditions in different locations.
Commercial peat extraction in the UK and Ireland is largely from raised bogs in the lowlands.
Much less peat comes from blanket bog, which is much thinner and more often found in the uplands in Scotland and western parts of the UK.
Why is peat important?
Peat and peatlands are hugely important for plants, the wildlife that depend on them and, ultimately, us humans too.
Peat bogs store vast amounts of carbon, which must kept in the ground to avoid contributing to climate change.
A loss of only 5% of UK peatland carbon would be equal to the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.IUCN UK Peatland Programme (2011), Commission of Inquiry on Peatlands: Summary of Findings, October 2011
Peat bogs also act like a sponge, soaking up rainwater, and can help to reduce flood risk. Water filtered through healthy peat bogs is of a higher quality than water from degraded bogs, making it cheaper to treat as drinking water. Around 70% of our water comes from British uplands, and over half of this passes through peat.
Plants to find in peatlands include carpets of colourful mosses and cotton grasses, and dotted with bog asphodel, rare sedges, cuckooflower, marsh violet, sundews, common butterwort, marsh cinquefoil and marsh willowherb.
Peatland wild plants support a range of butterflies, dragonflies and birds, including snipe and curlews, merlins and skylarks.
Where does horticultural peat come from?
In 2015 more than half of peat used for horticulture in the UK came from the Republic of Ireland, where peat is extracted on a large scale for horticulture and for burning to produce heat and electricity. As peat extraction has declined in the UK, we have increased imports from Ireland, effectively exporting much of the environmental impact.
So what's the problem?
Put simply, our current use of peat is unsustainable.
- Peat ‘grows’ by only a millimetre a year
- Commercial extraction can remove over 500 years worth of ‘growth’ in a single year
- Amateur gardening accounts for 69% of peat compost used in the UK - we currently use some three billion litres of peat every year in our gardens
- 32% of our peat comes from the UK, 60% from Ireland and 8% from Europe
Alternatives to peat
- The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is demonstrating what’s possible; its gardens are now 97% peat-free and it is committed to reducing peat use wherever practicable
- The RHS also provides advice on what to look for in peat-free alternatives
- Many of the National Trust’s gardens have been peat-free for years
- Gardening Which? Compost trials uncover great peat-free products
What is Plantlife doing about peat?
As well as campaigning, Plantlife works to raise awareness, and conserve and restore peatlands, such as it's amazing Munsary reserve in Scotland (pictured at the top of the page).
What can I do about peat?
- Only buy peat-free compost and potted plants
- Tell your friends and family about the issue and encourage them to go peat-free;
- Ask your local retailers to stock and promote more peat-free choices, to make it easier for consumers to go peat-free (if these are national companies, please also email or write to their headquarters)
- Write to your MP to raise concern about the need for more urgent action by the government and industry
- Support the organisations that are pushing for peat-free horticulture.
Examples of peatland
- Plantlife’s Munsary Peatland reserve in Caithness, northern Scotland, is a vast, undulating plain of blanket bog. Pictured above, it's one of the most extensive peatlands left in Europe and home to a huge variety of plants and mosses.
- RSPB nature reserves in the Pennines and Flow Country in Scotland, and fenland reserves in East Anglia and Somerset.
- The Wildlife Trusts look after and restore peatlands all over the UK.
Images above taken from Munsary Peatlands, by Richard Lindsay
Get free wildflower gardening tips in your inbox
Fans of gardening botanist Dr Trevor Dines can now sign up for free tips. Once a month you'll get a seasonal wildflower gardening article, penned by Dr Dines, delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up today to find out what’s in store.
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Strong reasoning
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Huntsville is in the running to be the headquarters of the new U.S. Space Command, a move that is a natural fit for Alabama’s Rocket City and its longtime support of space and defense programs.
Goals of the new command are to better organize and advance the military’s extensive operations in space and to seek more effective ways to protect U.S. assets such as satellites that are crucial for communications, navigation and surveillance.
“When you think of space, you think of Huntsville, the birthplace of the rockets that put man on the moon and a huge hub for ongoing innovation and space exploration,” said Greg Canfield, Secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce. “At the same time, the city is deeply rooted and invested in the security of our nation, and for decades has been at the forefront of safeguarding U.S. interests around the world.
“There could not be a better or more fitting location to lead the important mission of the U.S. Space Command than Huntsville, Alabama,” Secretary Canfield said.
Five other sites – four in Colorado and one in California – also are finalists for the headquarters, but here are four key reasons why Huntsville tops them all.
No. 1: PROXIMITY TO KEY INFRASTRUCTURE
Huntsville is home to Redstone Arsenal, which has been the center of the U.S. Army’s missile and rocket programs for more than 50 years.
The nation’s first ballistic missile was developed at Redstone, and it is the current site of a number of military organizations, including the Army’s Aviation and Missile Command, Space and Missile Defense Command, and the Missile Defense Agency.
Also located at Redstone is NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which designed the Saturn V rockets that powered the Apollo program moon landings in the 1960s and 1970s.
Marshall has continued to lead the way in human space exploration, developing new rocket engines and tanks for the Space Shuttle fleet, building sections of the International Space Station and now managing the science work done by astronauts onboard the ISS.
NASA’s Space Launch System, an advanced launch vehicle that will provide the foundation for human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit, is designed, developed and managed by Marshall.
NASA has turned to Marshall to lead its Human Landing System Program for the return to the Moon.
No. 2: PRESENCE OF MAJOR PLAYERS
With such a rich history of success, Huntsville has been an attractive location for defense contractors and other private firms doing business with the government.
Boeing, for example, has more than 3,000 employees in the Huntsville area, working in a diverse range of its global businesses.
The company is the prime contractor on the core stage of NASA’s SLS, and local employees also are heavily involved in the development of rockets, missiles and weapons systems.
Other major industry players have a significant presence in the North Alabama region too, and their ranks continue to grow.
Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance are all involved in building the next-generation rockets that will drive future space travel, and breakthrough technologies are also happening elsewhere.
Just last month, Lockheed Martin announced plans to make North Alabama its flagship location for work on hypersonics programs, with a new production facility and almost 275 jobs slated for Huntsville and nearby Courtland.
Hypersonic Strike capabilities have been identified by the U.S. government as a critical capability to be addressed in support of the U.S. National Security Strategy.
No. 3: EXPERTISE AND A PIONEER SPIRIT
More than half a century has passed since Wernher von Braun and his team of German scientists first made their mark on Huntsville with missile and rocket development. But that legacy remains.
Huntsville is loaded with tech talent and regularly wins accolades for a well-trained and highly educated workforce.
Earlier this year, the city was ranked No. 3 in the nation for the most high-tech jobs, according to an analysis of federal labor statistics by 24/7 Wall Street. The only two metros to top Huntsville are in California’s Silicon Valley and in Maryland near Washington D.C.
Huntsville has 15.7 percent of its 222,000-strong working in STEM fields, the analysis shows. The most common STEM job is aerospace engineers, which number nearly 4,000, more than any other major U.S. metro, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The concentration of aerospace engineers in Huntsville is 38 times the national average, the BLS figures show.
Beyond the skill, the city embraces a spirit of innovation reminiscent of those early rocketeers.
There’s a bustling start-up scene, and it’s not just in the defense business.
The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a hub of new discoveries in the life sciences field, while the new Invention to Innovation Center (I²C) at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is grooming entrepreneurs who specialize in software, electronics, data science and more.
UAH is located in Cummings Research Park, the nation’s second largest research park and home to nearly 300 companies.
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle has called on the Pentagon to choose Huntsville and Redstone Arsenal for the new Space Command headquarters, saying the city is uniquely positioned to protect the nation’s assets and interests in space.
“No one does space and defense better than the brainpower on Redstone Arsenal. The world’s most advanced capabilities in aerospace, space and missile defense, and space exploration are already here,” Battle said.
No. 4: COMMANDING ADVANTAGE
Huntsville’s low-cost environment is another significant plus.
In recent years, Huntsville has attracted major projects from companies ranging from Polaris (off-road vehicles) to Blue Origin (rocket engines). The Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA joint venture is constructing a $1.6 billion auto plant where the assembly lines will be named “Apollo” and “Discovery.”
A key reason they all picked Huntsville? The cost of doing business in Alabama’s Rocket City is 32 percent less than the national average, according to the Huntsville Madison County Chamber.
U.S. News & World Report has also picked up on Huntsville’s affordability. In April 2019, the magazine cited Huntsville as the “No. 1 Affordable Place to Live in America” for the second consecutive year.
All of these factors make Huntsville a smart pick for the Space Command HQ.
(Courtesy of Made in Alabama)
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Tensions between the United States and North Korea always seem to heighten during the summer months. One of many reasons for phenomenon is because the United States, alongside its military allies in the Pacific Ocean, conduct military drills. The North Koreans see the drills as a threat and respond promptly with missile testing. This year was a bit more extreme. Along with testing missiles, the North Koreans successfully tested a hydrogen bomb in August.
China created North Korea as a puppet state so that they could threaten and keep the western powers in check in the East China Sea. However, this plan to make North Korea a puppet as failed miserably. It has gone to the point where the United States Administration has thought of bringing economic sanctions to China. If the United States were to sanction China, the economic and political fallout would be unimaginable. Since Donald Trump does not want to start another financial crisis, he has brought up the discussion of taking away North Korea’s oil. Russia has said that it would be against the sanctioning of North Korea’s oil, as they are most likely their providers.
Another bold move made by North Korea this summer was the the launch of a missile that went over Japan and landed in the pacific ocean. This caused many alarms and prompted Japan to ask the United States for the Aegis, a modern missile defense system. With this new system they could shoot down any missiles attempting to leave North Korea. In response, North Korea started moving one of its ICBM (Inter Continental Ballistic Missile). The actions taken by both nations do not help the common goal of achieving peace and stability in the region.
Following the aggression and testing of its newest hydrogen bomb, the United Nations Nuclear Watchdog has declared North Korea a “global threat”. North Korea has been a global threat for a while and will continue to do so unless China and Russia step up and implement the sanctions against North Korea. Until both of these superpowers do what the world has told them to do, North Korea will continue to grow its nuclear armament and its global voice. If these sanctions continue, the North Korean economy will be strained to a tipping point where Kim Jong Un’s own generals will consider a coup.
Even though North Korea has been so blatantly aggressive, there is some reason to it. The last country to give up its nuclear arms was Libya, and after doing so,It was left vulnerable to attacks by NATO and the U.S. Kim Jong Un will never give up his nuclear capabilities because he knows that if he does, he will become a small fat fish in an ocean full of sharks. He wants to defend himself from western expansionism. However, defending himself does not mean that he has complete reason for what he is doing. China recognizes this and has stated that they will not defend North Korea if they strike first, but if North Korea were to be attacked by anyone, they would come to the North’s aid. There is no one solution, and the constant bickering and name calling on both sides have solved no problems. It is up to China and America to find a solution to this monster.
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Strong reasoning
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Today is World Arthritis Day 2021! A day dedicated to helping raise awareness in all audiences across the world of the existence and impact of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. There are over 200 arthritic diseases, many with debilitating effects and can leave a silent but significant impact on a patient's daily life.
To increase awareness we want to provide you with information to help better educate yourself and/ or others who may be suffering.
What is arthritis?
Arthritis is a type of joint pain or joint disease, not a single disease which it’s sometimes misunderstood to be. As a result of an increased ageing population, arthritis is becoming more prevalent, with over 50 million adults having some type of the disease. It is also more common in women, occurring more frequently as people get older.
Symptoms you may experience are:
Joint pain and tenderness
Stiffness of joints
Heat/redness from joints
Flu like symptoms
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms we advise that you speak to your GP or an MSK specialist for further investigations. This will help you understand more about the different stages of arthritis, how each can affect you and what preventative treatment you can undertake to help manage and improve your symptoms.
How can arthritis affect you?
Depending on the severity of the arthritis, patients experience difficulties with various functional tasks. This can range from getting dressed in the morning/getting in and out of a car to pain and discomfort when playing sports such as golf and tennis.
Pain and joint stiffness can also lead to further health complications such as an increase in BMI, due to individuals becoming sedentary. These changes degenerative changes usually become worse over time as symptoms increase, resulting in a declining quality of life.
How can you manage arthritis?
There are numerous ways in which you can help yourself following a diagnosis of arthritis. The most effective way is exercise, and it is important to understand the benefits of exercise to reduce the fear of making your symptoms worse. For example, to prevent further weakness of muscles, engaging in light physical activity will ensure the strength is maintained around the affected joint.
Reducing the load going through the joints can also help to improve symptoms. Exercise has a key role to play with this and can help maintain a healthy weight. There are also links between regular exercise and healthy sleep, which will allow the body the best chance to repair itself. There is some evidence to suggest certain foods and supplements can improve/exacerbate arthritis symptoms as well.
Swimming, cycling and walking are just a few examples of exercise that can effectively maintain fitness whilst reducing load going through a joint. It is important to begin exercising gently and build up slowly in terms of duration and intensity to avoid aggravation of your symptoms and additional injuries. The challenge of making a lifestyle change such as increasing exercise can be difficult due to work and life demands.
How was Colin able to manage his arthritis?
Colin is a former Royal Marine, teacher and a very active person who has been on expeditions all over the world. He has been suffering with advanced hip osteoarthritis for 12 to 18 months, which gradually got worse and prevented him from leading an active life. He was given time spans of 18 months to 2 years wait time for a hip replacement which was affecting him not only physically and financially but in particular mentally. He was given re.flex prior to his surgery to help relieve his pain and improve his daily condition.
‘It’s been an important part of the process for me... I am training to be operated on’
Using the solution prior to his operation allowed him to maintain his function through prevention of muscle wastage around the hip. He was able to reduce his medication and pain, and prepare himself in the best possible manner for his surgery. The app provided him with form correction to ensure he was making the most out of exercise and particularly important for Colin was the ability to text message with our physiotherapist prior to his surgery, allowing him to liaise to ask questions and be supported in his recovery.
To learn more about how Colin was about to reduce his pain and prepare for surgery, watch his full story here.
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Moderate reasoning
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The other three species in the family Limulidae are also called horseshoe crabs. The Japanese horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) is found in the Seto Inland Sea, and is considered an endangered species because of loss of habitat. Two other species occur along the east coast of India: Tachypleus gigas and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda. All four are quite similar in form and behavior.
Limulus means "odd and polyphemus refers to the giant in greek mythology.
Former scientific names include Limulus cyclops, Xiphosura americana and Polyphemus occidentalis.
The shell of these animals consists of three parts. The carapace is the smooth frontmost part of the crab which contains the eyes (five pairs), one pair of small pincers/chelicerae used to move food towards the mouth, five pairs of walking legs (the first four with claws, the last with a leaflike structure used for pushing), the mouth in between the legs, the brain, and the heart. The abdomen is the middle portion where the gills are attached as well as the genital operculum. The last section is the telson (i.e., tail or caudal spine) which is used to steer in the water and also to flip itself over if stuck upside down.
The horseshoe crab can grow up to in length (including tail); the female is typically 25 to 30 percent larger than the male.
Horseshoe crabs possess five pairs of book gills, located just behind their appendages, that allow them to breathe underwater, and can also allow them to breathe on land for short periods of time, provided the gills remain moist.
Although most arthropods have mandibles, the horseshoe crab is jawless. The mouth is located in the middle of the underside of the cephalothorax, with chelicerae located at each side of the mouth. In the female, the four large legs are all alike, and end in pincers. In the male, the first of the four large legs is modified, with a bulbuous claw that serves to lock the male to the female while she deposits the eggs and he waits to fertilize them.
Limulus has been extensively used in research into the physiology of vision. It has four compound eyes, and each ommatidium feeds into a single nerve fibre. Furthermore the nerves are large and relatively accessible. This made it possible for electrophysiologists to record the nervous response to light stimulation easily, and to observe visual phenomena like lateral inhibition working at the cellular level. More recently, behavioral experiments have investigated the functions of visual perception in Limulus. Habituation and classical conditioning to light stimuli have been demonstrated, as has the use of brightness and shape information by males when recognizing potential mates. It has also been said that it is able to see ultraviolet light.
Among other senses, they have a small sense organ on the triangular area formed by the exoskeleton beneath the body near the ventral eyes.
Before becoming mature around age 9, they have to shed their shells some 17 times. They can live for as long as 31 years.
They spend the winters on the continental shelf and emerge at the shoreline in late spring to spawn, with the males arriving first. The smaller male grabs on to the back of a female with a "boxing glove" like structure on his front claws, often holding on for months at a time. After the female has laid a batch of eggs in a nest at a depth of 15-20 cm in the sand, the male fertilizes them with his sperm. Egg quantity is dependent on female body size and ranges from 15,000-64,000 eggs per female.
"Development begins when the first egg cover splits and new membrane, secreted by the embryo, forms a transparent spherical capsule" (Sturtevant). The larvae form and then swim for about five to seven days. After swimming they settle, and begin the first molt. This occurs approximately twenty days after the formation of the egg capsule. As young horseshoe crabs grow, they move to deeper waters, where molting continues. They reach sexual maturity in approximately eleven years and may live another 10-14 years beyond that.
Horseshoe crabs are stem group chelicerates, thus distant relatives of spiders. They are probably descended from the ancient eurypterids (sea scorpions). They evolved in the shallow seas of the Paleozoic Era (540-248 million years ago) with other primitive arthropods like the trilobites. The four species of horseshoe crab are the only remaining members of the class Merostomata, one of the oldest classes of marine arthropods. Horseshoe crabs are often referred to as living fossils, as they have changed little in the last 445 million years.
The blood of horseshoe crabs contains one type of blood cell, the amebocytes. These play an important role in the defense against pathogens. Amebocytes contain granules with a clotting factor known as coagulogen; this is released outside the cell when bacterial endotoxin is encountered. The resulting coagulation is thought to contain bacterial infections in the animal's semi-closed circulatory system.
Horseshoe crabs are also used in finding remedies for diseases that have developed resistances to penicillin and other drugs.
Horseshoe crabs are returned to the ocean after bleeding. Studies show that blood volume returns to normal in about a week, though blood cell count can take two to three months to fully rebound. A single horseshoe crab can be worth $2,500 over its lifetime for periodic blood extractions.
Conservationists have also voiced concerns about the declining population of shorebirds, such as Red Knots, which rely heavily on the horseshoe crabs' eggs for food during their Spring migration. Precipitous declines in the population of the Red Knots have been observed in recent years. Predators of horseshoe crabs, such as the currently threatened Atlantic Loggerhead Turtle, have also suffered as crab populations diminish.
In 1995, the nonprofit Ecological Research and Development Group (ERDG) was founded with the aim of preserving the four remaining species of horseshoe crab. Since its inception, the ERDG has made significant contributions to horseshoe crab conservation. ERDG founder Glenn Gauvry designed a mesh bag for whelk/conch traps, to prevent other species from removing the bait. This has led to a decrease in the amount of bait needed by approximately 50%. In the state of Virginia, these mesh bags are mandatory in whelk/conch fishery. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in 2006 considered several conservation options, among them being a two-year ban on harvesting the animals affecting both Delaware and New Jersey shores of Delaware Bay. In June 2007, Delaware Superior Court Judge Richard Stokes has allowed limited harvesting of 100,000 males. He ruled that while the crab population was seriously depleted by over-harvesting through 1998, it has since stabilized and that this limited take of males will not adversely affect either Horseshoe Crab or Red Knot populations. In opposition, Delaware environmental secretary John Hughes concluded that a decline in the Red Knot bird population was so significant that extreme measures were needed to ensure a supply of crab eggs when the birds arrived. Harvesting of the crabs was banned in New Jersey March 25, 2008.
Every year approximately 10% of the horseshoe crab breeding population dies when rough surf flips the creatures onto their backs, a position from which they often cannot right themselves. In response, the ERDG launched a "Just Flip 'Em" campaign, in the hopes that beachgoers will simply turn the crabs back over.
A large-scale project to tag and count horseshoe crabs along the north-American coast was underway in the spring and summer of 2008, termed projectlimulus.org
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The A-B-Cs of Herb Gardens
There are few greater pleasures than stepping out your back door on a summer evening to pick fresh basil for homemade pesto or sprigs of cilantro to top a burrito. The kitchen herb garden, which dates back to the Middle Ages, can range from a simple collection of annuals to an elaborate labyrinth of culinary and medicinal plants. However large or small your plot, any herb garden quickly earns its keep, both as a tasty contribution to the kitchen and an eye-pleasing, aromatic place in the yard.
Picking Your Patch
For the most part, herbs are hardy plants and grow well in the hands of any gardener, whatever level of experience. However, there are some basic ground rules to bear in mind:
- Choose your plot carefully. It should get at least some sun. Some herbs, like oregano and mint, will thrive in lightly shaded areas, but others such as basil, cilantro, or lavender, need a lot of sun. See herb basics to figure out what will work in your yard.
- Try to find a spot close to the kitchen for easy access and convenient to a reliable water supply. Although some herbs once established are drought-tolerant, many require regular watering during the hot summer months.
- Be careful about lead and other common contaminants in the soil. If you live in a highly urbanized area or near an existing or formerly existing industrial site, you might want to get your soil tested. Soil kits are available at most garden centers. If your soil turns out to be of poor quality, don't despair, build a raised bed or plant your herbs in pots.
Planting Your Garden
Once you've found the ideal spot, you're ready to plant your herbs. Whether you start your garden from a packet of seeds or with seedlings from a nursery depends largely on what you're growing and the time of year. It can be a wonderful experience to watch a seed evolve into a mature plant or it can be equally rewarding to buy and plant an herb garden in a day.
- Plant what you want to cook. If you like to make pesto, for example, plant as much basil as you have space for.
- Plant for the future. Remember that perennials and annuals spread. An oregano plant can double in size in a month and a small rosemary plant will one day become a two-foot bush, so space your plants generously.
- Water your plants regularly, but be careful not to moisten them in the midday sun. The process can actually burn the leaves and weaken the plant.
How to Build a Raised Bed
- Choose your garden spot, then dig down half a foot
- Erect a wood frame around the bed
- Put a perforated plastic sheet down to separate the old soil from the new
- Fill in the bed with a mix of top soil and manure
Make great use of your fresh herbs with these delicious recipes:
This article was contributed by Ruth Prince
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When was the fall of Satan, and how did it happen?
In eternity past there was God alone, and there existed only one will at that point – God's. Then God chose to create the angels. This apparently was done before the creation of our world (Job 38:6-7). At the outset, at least, the angels' wills were perfectly aligned with God's. There was, in effect, still just one will in God's creation.
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But then something happened that changed everything. Using poetic language, the Bible describes how one of the angels rose up against God, rebelled, and introduced a second will into the created order.
Scripture chronicles the events in two Old Testament passages: Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. Although some Bible commentators believe these portions of Scripture do not refer to the fall of Satan, many other theologians are convinced they do.
At the start of Ezekiel 28, the prophet first addresses a "ruler" of the land of Tyre. The historical Tyre was a city of unscrupulous merchants, as well as a center of religious idolatry and sexual immorality. The ruler in question was a man named Ethbaal III, who ruled Tyre from about 590 to 572 B.C. Ethbaal (whose name literally means "living with Baal") is described this way: "your heart is proud, and you have said, 'I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas'" (Ezekiel 28:2).
After denouncing Ethbaal, the Prophet Ezekiel is then directed by God to deliver a second condemnation to the "king" of Tyre; this time, the description seems to be of a completely different type of being, one that is not a mere mortal. It appears God used the occasion of Ethbaal's fall to describe the original condition and fall of Satan. Like Ethbaal, Satan had raised his heart up against his Creator, declared that he would be a god, and was the spiritual king of Tyre and all its idolatry.
Ezekiel describes Satan's initial state this way: "Thus says the Lord GOD: 'You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you'" (Ezekiel 28:12-15).
Ezekiel describes Satan as a being created in perfection. Also, Satan is a "covering cherub," an order of angels with the closest access to God and who guard His holiness (cf. Ezekiel 10:1-14). His location on the "holy mountain of God" speaks of his being involved in the government of God. Walking "in the midst of the stones of fire" communicates a nearness to God in a place just beneath the glory at the footstool of God (cf. Ezekiel 1:27).
However, Ezekiel then explains Satan's fall, and in doing so provides insight into how evil entered God's creation: "You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you" (Ezekiel 28:15-18).
Here we have the answer to how sin came into creation. Created a free creature, Satan possessed the ability to choose his actions. Evidently, because of his beauty and splendor, he chose to rebel against God. His sin was a self-caused action that led to his losing his position, his place, and his possessions.
The Prophet Isaiah provides more details on Satan's aspirations: "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:12-14).
The five "I will" statements made by Satan in Isaiah 14 each take a step toward God, with each new step being greater than the previous. Satan's desire to "climb the ladder" and ascend to heaven may mean that his rebellion began on earth. He desired to raise his seat above that of all the other angels. Isaiah's reference to the "mount of assembly" corresponds to the government hierarchy also spoken of by Ezekiel.
Satan's longing to ascend above the heights of the clouds means he wanted to usurp the glory of God (God is sometimes pictured in Scripture as coming in the clouds, e.g., in Dan. 7:13). Finally, Satan's desire to make himself like "the Most High" makes use of a name for God – El Elyon – that literally means "possessor of heaven and earth." Simply put, Satan wanted it all.
Instead of getting it all, Satan lost it all. He was reminded that he was but a creature, and his application to join the Trinity was refused.
With his rebellious act, Satan introduced a second will into God's created order. Now, sadly, there are billions of wills that differ from God's among the human race and among the demonic legions that followed Satan's rebellion (cf. Revelation 12:2-4).
However, God's Word says that a day of full restoration is coming. The curse brought upon fallen humanity and the earth itself will be undone, and the only will in creation will be that of God's again: "No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever" (Revelation 22:3–5).
Satan will one day be eternally assigned his place in the lake of fire, as will all those who follow him (Revelation 20:15). Put your faith and trust in Christ so that you can avoid Satan's deceptions and escape his fate.
Who is Satan?
Why did God allow the Satan and the demons to sin?
Why does God allow Satan and the demons to attack us?
The Battle of Armageddon - What is it?
What is going to happen in the end times?
Truth about Angels
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| Home Earth
Image: Pudelek (Marcin)
Scandinavian Peninsula. It is bordered by the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Bothnia, the Kattegat, Skagerrak, and Öresund straits, by Norway in west and north. The Torne river forms most of Sweden's border with Finland in east. A portion of the country lies north of the Arctic Circle. The country shares maritime borders with Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Flag of Sweden
Sweden covers an area of 450,295 km² making Sweden roughly twice the size of Great Britain (island), or slightly larger than the U.S. state of California.
The Swedish population of 9,9 million people (in 2016) is concentrated in the southern part of the country, capital and largest city is Stockholm, spoken language is Swedish, a North Germanic language similar to Danish and Norwegian, English is widely spoken.
Kingdom of Sweden :: Konungariket Sverige
The Kingdom of Sweden is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. By the 16th century Sweden had evolved into a strongly centralized nation, with Stockholm as its capital. During the 17th century the country was one of the great powers in Europe.
Since 1812 Sweden's borders have been unchanged and Sweden has not participated in any war in almost two centuries. An armed neutrality was preserved in both World Wars.
Despite its small population and large area, Sweden is a technologically advanced country with good infrastructure, including an efficient transportation and communications system.
Indecision over the country's role in the political and economic integration of Europe caused Sweden not to join the EU until 1995, and to forgo the introduction of the euro in 1999.
short form: Sverige
int'l long form: Kingdom of Sweden
int'l short form: Sweden
ISO Country Code: se, swe
Time Zone: Central European Time CET
Local Time = UTC +1h
Actual Time: Sat-Dec-16 19:39
Daylight Saving Time (DST) March - October (UTC +2)
Country Calling Code: +46
Capital City: Stockholm (city population: 743,000; metropolitan population 1.8 million)
The Municipality of Stockholm.
Göteborgs Stad - the City of Gothenburg (city population: 467,000; metropolitan population: 766,000).
Kiruna, Sweden's most northerly municipality.
Malmö (city population: 257,000; metropolitan population: 550,000)
Malmö Stad - the City of Malmö.
The City of Uppsala.
Type: constitutional monarchy
Independence: 6 June 1523; when Gustav Eriksson Vasa, known as the elected king Gustav I of Sweden re-established separation of the Swedish Crown from the Kalmar Union of Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
Location: Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, Kattegat, and Skagerrak, between Finland and Norway.
Area: 450,295 km² (173,859 sq. mi.)
Terrain: fertile plains in the south; further north heavily wooded highlands, mountains in west, the northern three-fifths of Sweden - you see hills and mountains, forests and large river valleys.
Climate: Temperate in south with cold, cloudy winters and cool, partly cloudy summers; subarctic in north.
Nationality: Noun--Swedes; adjective--Swedish.
Population: 9.9 million (2016).
Ethnic Groups: Indigenous Swedes, ethnic Finns, ethnic Lapps.
Immigrants: Finns, Bosnians, Iranians, Norwegians, Danes, Hungarians, Iraqis, and Turks.
Religions: Lutheran (87%), Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim. Languages: Swedish, English is by far the leading foreign language, small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities.
Natural resources: Iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, tungsten, uranium, arsenic, feldspar, timber, hydropower.
Agriculture products: Barley, wheat, sugar beets; meat, milk.
Industries: Iron and steel, precision equipment (bearings, radio and telephone parts, armaments), wood pulp and paper products, processed foods, motor vehicles.
Exports - commodities: machinery 35%, motor vehicles, paper products, pulp and wood, iron and steel products, chemicals (2012 est.)
Exports partners: Norway 10.3%, Germany 10.3%, USA 7.7%, UK 7.2%, Denmark 6.8%, Finland 6.7%, Netherlands 5.2%, Belgium 4.4%, France 4.2% (2015)
Imports - commodities: machinery, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, motor vehicles, iron and steel; foodstuffs, clothing
Imports partners: Germany 17.9%, Netherlands 8.1%, Norway 7.8%, Denmark 7.7%, China 6%, UK 5.5%, Finland 4.6%, France 4.3%, Belgium 4.3% (2015)
Currency: Swedish Krona (SEK)
Official Sites of SwedenNote: External links will open in a new browser window.
The Royal Court of Sweden - The Bernadotte Dynasty.
The Swedish Parliament.
Swedish Government Offices.
The official gateway to Sweden on the Internet.
Access to information about Sweden and to Swedish government agencies.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sweden.
Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations
Official site of Sweden's representation to the UN.
The web site for Swedish Diplomatic Missions abroad.
United Nations Association of Sweden - A Movement for a Stronger United Nations.
Statistiska Centralbyrån - SCB - Statistik
Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut (SMHI)
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.
Map of Sweden
Political Map of Sweden.
The National Atlas of Sweden
Maps, facts and statistics about Sweden.
Google Earth Sweden
Searchable map and satellite view of Sweden.
Google Earth Stockholm
Searchable map and satellite view of Sweden's capital.
Google Earth Malmö
Searchable map and satellite view of Malmö.
Map of the Baltic Sea Area
Political map of the Baltic Sea region.
Map of Scandinavia
Political Map of Scandinavia.
Map of Europe
Political Map of Europe.
Swedens major newspaper (in Swedish).
National and international news (in Swedish).
News from Sweden (Swedish).
Göteborgs newspaper (in Swedish).
National news (in Swedish).
National and international news (in Swedish).
The Swedish Broadcasting Corporation.
Swedish news in six languages.
Bookmark/share this page
Arts & Culture
Swedish Museum of Architecture, Stockholm.
Swedish culture and traditions
Lund University about Swedish culture.
10,000 tons of crystal clear ice from the Torne River, and 30,000 tons of pure snow gare needed to build the Ice Hotel every year.
Sweden's oldest (and best) rock club ("The culture company"), Malmö.
Non-profit website created to showcase Swedish design.
National Museum of Fine Arts
The Nobel Foundation
The Röhsska Museum of fashion, design and applied arts in Göteborg.
Skansen is the world's oldest open-air museum, founded in1891.
Stockholm Challenge Award
Stockholm Challenge is an international renowned award programme for innovative use of IT.
The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs.
Swedish Museum of Glass - Sveriges glasmuseum
Covers the history of Swedish glass and the development of the local glass industry. UFO-Sweden
Swedish UFO organization with scientific ambitions.
Southsami language and culture.
Showing the lives of the Sami people, the farmers and the miners during the past 1000 years (Introduction in English).
People of the sun and wind.
Homepage of the Saami Nation.
Business & Economy
Image: Arild Vågen
Travel and Tour Consumer Information
Destination Sweden - Country Guides
Stockholm: Vasa Museum, Gamla stan old town, Skansen open-air museum and zoo, Djurgården island, Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm Palace, ABBA Museum, Fotografiska.
Cities: Göteborg, Lund, Uppsala, Malmö, Visby.
Information by the Swedish Travel & Tourism Council.
Swedish Information Service
by the Consulate General of Sweden, New York.
The Swedish Institute
Public agency entrusted with disseminating knowledge abroad about Sweden.
The official Stockholm visitors guide.
Some hundred pages of editorial content by the Swedish Tourism Trade Association.
Education & Research
The university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg.
The university in the city of Lund is one of northern Europe's oldest, largest and most prestigious universities.
Stockholm University is a public university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, a major center for higher education and research.
The Swedish Physical Society is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 (in Swedish).
Oldest university in Sweden and all of the Nordic countries.
Universities and University Colleges in Sweden
List of links.
Union catalogue of Swedish research and special libraries.
The National Agency for Higher Education.
Royal Institute of Technology - KTH
KTH is one of the highest ranking institutions in northern Europe in its academic fields, with several campuses in Stockholm County.
Museum of Science and Technology, Stockholm.
Environment & Nature
Sweden's National Parks
A guide to Sweden's 29 national parks.
Swedish Museum of Natural History
Official website of the Museum.
The Centre for Local History
Research on local history.
Department of Archaeology and Ancient history
A department of Uppsala university.
Swedish Church Records Online.
Kings and Queens of Sweden - A Thousand-Year Succession
Kings & Queens.
Kungliga biblioteket - Sveriges nationalbibliotek
The Royal Library, Sweden's National Library.
The House of Nobility, administrative centre for the Swedish knighthood and nobility.
Government agency responsible for the care of Sweden's cultural heritage (Swedish).
Riksarkivet - The Swedish National Archives
One of the oldest public agencies in Sweden.
A network for Viking-related knowledge.
Etnografiska i Stockholm
The National Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm.
The Museums of Sigtuna
Around thousand years ago Sigtuna was the most important town in the country.
The national museum of cultural history.
National Maritime Museum, Stockholm.
Stockholm Vasa Museum
About a well preserved warship from 1628.
Sources and additional Information on Sweden
Amnesty International: Sweden
BBC Country Profile: Sweden
The Heritage Foundation: Sweden
Human Rights Watch: Sweden
Reporters Without Borders: Sweden
The World Factbook -- Sweden
Other Countries and Regions of Northern Europe:
Denmark | Estonia | Faroe Islands | Finland | Greenland | Iceland | Ireland
Latvia | Lithuania | Norway | Northern Ireland | Scotland | United Kingdom | Wales
Major Cities in Northern Europe
Belfast, Birmingham, Bremen, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kiel, Liverpool, London, Malmö, Manchester, Moscow, Nuuk, Oslo, Reykjavik, Riga, Saint Petersburg, Tallinn, Vilnius
One World - Nations Online .:. let's care for this planet
Actually, it's impossible to simulate freedom --- or?
Nations Online Project is made to improve cross-cultural understanding and global awareness.
More signal - less NOISE
| Information Sources | Disclaimer | Contact: [email protected] | Copyright © 1998-2017 :: nationsonline.org
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Content on this page was developed during the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic and has not been updated.
- The H1N1 virus that caused that pandemic is now a regular human flu virus and continues to circulate seasonally worldwide.
- The English language content on this website is being archived for historic and reference purposes only.
- For current, updated information on seasonal flu, including information about H1N1, see the CDC Seasonal Flu website.
Communication Tools About Flu for School Administrators
January 4, 2010 10:30 AM ET
Template letter or email for parents about steps the school is taking during current flu conditions.
Coordinate efforts with your local health department and county or state education agency prior to distributing this letter or email communication to ensure that all information is timely, relevant, and accurate. Visit Flu.gov to download and adapt a Microsoft Word version of this letter and for more flu information to share withparents.
As you may know, flu can be easily spread from person to person. Therefore, we are taking steps to reduce the spread of flu in [School name]. We want to keep the school open to students and functioning in a normal manner during this flu season. But, we need your help to do this.
We are working closely with the [county/state education agency] and the [county/state] health department to monitor flu conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take concerning schools. We will keep you updated with new information as it becomes available.
If the flu becomes more severe, we may take additional steps to prevent the spread such as:
- conducting active fever and flu symptom screening of students and staff as they arrive at school,
- making changes to increase the space between people such as moving desks farther apart and postponing class trips, and
- dismissing students from school for at least 7 days if they become sick.
For now we are doing everything we can to keep our school functioning as usual. Here are a few things you can do to help.
Teach your children to wash their hands often with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub. You can set a good example by doing this yourself.
Teach your children not to share personal items like drinks, food or unwashed utensils, and to cover their coughs and sneezes with tissues. Covering up their coughs or sneezes using the elbow, arm or sleeve instead of the hand when a tissue is unavailable.
Know the signs and symptoms of the flu. Symptoms of the flu include fever (100 degrees Fahrenheit, 37.8 degrees Celsius or greater), cough, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, and feeling very tired. Some people may also vomit or have diarrhea.
Keep sick children at home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have fever or do not have signs of fever, without using fever-reducing drugs. Keeping children with a fever at home will reduce the number of people who may get infected.
Do not send children to school if they are sick. Any children who are determined to be sick while at school will be sent home.
For more information, [see the attached flyer/additional information and] and visit Flu.gov, or call 1-800-CDC-INFO for the most current information about the flu. For more information about flu in our community and what our school is doing, visit [school/health department website] or call [appropriate phone number]. We will notify you of any additional changes to our school’s strategy to prevent the spread of flu.
[School administrator’s name and signature]
Get email updates
To receive weekly email updates about this site, enter your email address:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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TTY: (888) 232-6348
- Contact CDC-INFO
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REFLECTIONS ON IMMINENT PAPAL ENCYCLICAL ON ENVIRONMENT
Fr. Tom Rosica, English language assistant to Fr. Federico Lombardi, head of the Holy See Press Office, provided the following information today, following the announcement that Pope Francis’ encyclical on ecology and the environment will be published on Thursday, June 18. Father Rosica does not have nor has he seen an advance copy of the encyclical but he answered three questions posed by journalists, and also provided reflections that, as he said, “simply flow from an attentive reading of teachings on the environment in the works of both Popes Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Popes write encyclicals formulated on the foundations of what has already been stated by their predecessors.”
- What is an encyclical?
A Papal Encyclical is the name typically given to a letter written by a Pope. It can be addressed to the bishops and priests of a particular region or of the entire world, to specific groups in the Church or to the entire Catholic faithful. It can also be addressed to all people of good will. The word encyclical comes from the Greek ‘egkyklios’, ‘kyklos’ meaning a circle. It may be considered to be a ‘circular letter’. Encyclicals are used primarily for teaching. The first encyclical was released by Pope Benedict XIV on December 3, 1740. Since then, the Popes have written over 300 encyclicals.
- Is this Pope Francis’ first encyclical?
Lumen Fidei (English: “The Light of Faith”) is the name of the first encyclical of Pope Francis, signed on June 29, 2013, on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and promulgated (published) on July 5, 2013, four months after his election to the papacy. The encyclical focuses its theme on faith, and completes what his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI had previously written about charity and hope, the other two theological virtues, in his encyclicals Deus caritas est (God is love) and Spe Salvi (By hope we were saved.)
Lumen Fidei was a unique document in that it is the work of two Popes. Francis took the work of Benedict, who before his resignation from the papacy had completed a first draft of the text, and added his own reflections to the document. Pope Francis expressed this collaboration in paragraph 7 of the encyclical: “These considerations on faith — in continuity with all that the Church’s magisterium has pronounced on this theological virtue — are meant to supplement what Benedict XVI had written in his encyclical letters on charity and hope. He himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own.”
- Why is an encyclical on the environment necessary at this moment in history?
Since his election in March 2013, Pope Francis has very frequently shown concern for the environment, following the example of Benedict XVI who was sometimes labeled the first “Green Pope.” Benedict consistently called for the safeguarding of creation, arguing that respect for the human being and nature are one. Ours is the world that God so loved, the world that was to receive his only Son, Jesus. We must show love and care toward the world, a gift of God’s creation.
– From the beginning of his Petrine Ministry, Pope Francis made it clear that his choice of his papal name after St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology was indicative of his concern for the environment. In his inaugural Mass homily, he called on everyone to be “protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.”
– On World Environment Day, June 5, 2013, Francis stressed the need to “cultivate and care” for the environment, saying it is part of God’s plan that man “nurture[s] the world with responsibility,” transforming it into a “garden, a habitable place for everyone.”
– In his June 5, 2013 address Francis said: “We are losing the attitude of wonder, contemplation, listening to creation. The implications of living in a horizontal manner is that we have moved away from God, we no longer read His signs.”
– Pope Francis has issued to the Church and the world a profound challenge to rethink the culture of waste and to contemplate seriously and act with conviction against the dynamics of an economy and finance that lack ethics. “Man is not in charge today, money is in charge, money rules.”
– As Benedict had often done, Francis links human ecology with environmental ecology, issuing a strong challenge to rethink the culture of waste and to oppose a lack of ethics in economy and finance. “I would like us all to make a serious commitment to respect and protect creation,” he said, “to be attentive to every person, to counter the culture of waste and disposable [mentality], to promote a culture of solidarity” and of living alongside others, especially on the margins, as opposed to individualism.
– In an address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See on January 13, 2014, Pope Francis noted the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in November 2013 and warned against “greedy exploitation of environmental resources.” He quoted the popular adage: “God always forgives, we sometimes forgive, but when nature – creation – is mistreated, she never forgives.”
– Ecologies that seemingly begin with the program of saving our environment quickly run their logic to the point where the environment takes absolute priority over human beings. When taken to the extreme, many make the erroneous claim that the human person is simply one of a very large number of species, all equally valuable and enjoying the same rights.
– To recover the integrity of creation, we need a renewed Christian culture.
Recalling Pope Benedict’s contribution in ‘Caritas in veritate’
– For Benedict, human ecology is an imperative. Adopting a lifestyle that respects our environment and supports the research and use of clean energies that preserve the patrimony of creation and that are safe for human beings should be given political and economic priority.
– In his encyclical letter Caritas in veritate, and in subsequent writings, Pope Benedict XVI has called for the development of a “human ecology” grounded in the idea of creation as gift. “The human being will be capable of respecting other creatures only if he keeps the full meaning of life in his own heart. Without a clear defense of human life from conception until natural death; without a defense of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman; without an authentic defense of those excluded and marginalized by society, we will never be able to speak of authentic protection of the environment.”
– Benedict called for a “change in mentality” in order to “quickly arrive at a global lifestyle that respects the covenant between humanity and nature, without which the human family risks disappearing.” He said that “every government must commit themselves to protecting nature and assisting it to carry out its essential role in the survival of humanity.”
– In his 2010 World Day of Peace Message entitled “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, protect creation”, Pope Benedict XVI used the term “human ecology.” Benedict reaffirmed the Catholic understanding of our relationship with the goods of the earth and our call to stewardship of the planet which has been given to us by the Creator as a gift.
– Benedict has called for an “integral human development” which recognizes the centrality of the human person and the primacy of our relationships with one another in family and society. He underscored the truth that creation is a gift, given to human persons by a God of love who entrusts us with responsibility for one another – and therefore for the goods which promote our human flourishing. We all have a responsibility for one another. We need to live together as good stewards of creation, recognizing the need first for a “human ecology”.
– “If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation. The quest for peace by people of good will surely would become easier if all acknowledge the indivisible relationship between God, human beings and the whole of creation. In the light of divine Revelation and in fidelity to the Church’s Tradition, Christians have their own contribution to make.”
– Pope Benedict articulated a Catholic Environmental vision which is pro-life, pro-family, pro-poor, pro-peace, pro-justice and fundamentally relational. We are to receive one another as gifts. We must never use human persons as objects. We should receive creation as a gift, our common home, to be shared with one another, and not as an object of use. Pope Benedict articulated a vision for a «human ecology» that can promote a path to authentic peace.
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Strong reasoning
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Religion
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Making use of Ground Coffee for Fertilizer
There is an almost limitless amount of used ground coffee available to use as a fertilizer. To understand our topic better, let’s first understand the definition of fertilizer:
“Any of a large number of natural and synthetic materials, including manure and nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium compounds, spread on or worked into soil to increase its capacity to support plant growth.”
Where things become tricky is that ground coffee has the nitrogen, and not that much of the phosphorus and potassium. Based on a NPK analysis for coffee grounds from the North Carolina State University, the ratio is 2.1:0.3:0.3. Those figures can vary slightly, but it’s clear that ground coffee is nitrogen heavy.
When we consider ground coffee, it is as a nitrogen fertilizer that counts. In a report titled Vermicomposting with Spent Coffee Grounds (Roekle et al):
“It is our estimation that vermicomposting with spent coffee grounds can be scaled up for a variety of profitable uses, including direct application for farm fields, greenhouses, lawns and turf grass, nursery plants, and other soil-related industries. Moreover, we believe this technology could offset the use of natural gas as a critical raw material to produce nitrogen fertilizer.”
So if ground coffee as a fertilizer is nitrogen specific, you are going to need to balance this out with phosphorus (blood and bone, poultry based manure), and potassium (animal manure). Throw in some liquid seaweed concentrate, lawn clippings, other organic materials as you find them, including worm castings and the leaves, stalks, and roots of current and past crops.
Ground coffee as a fertilizer might not be a balanced one, however let’s summarise some of the benefits of using the grinds:
- Attracts and feeds earthworms
- Loosens the soil
- Retains water
- Deters snails, slugs, ants, and cats
- When added to compost (up to at 25% total volume), will improve the whole stack and speed up decomposition
- Reduce soil borne disease
- A cost free soil amendment
- An easy way to reduce landfill and get you out into the garden
- Can be applied directly to the garden, into compost, on the lawn, or in liquid form to pour over into the soil
A pepper growing in my garden, with thanks to ground coffee. If you are looking to get started in the garden and need a fertilizer, consider it as a good way to get started. It won’t do it all without a little help, so go grab whatever you can.
What Others Are Reading
- Coffee Grinds in the Garden (groundtoground.org)
- Coffee Grounds (groundtoground.org)
- Collecting Coffee Grounds in the Office (groundtoground.org)
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Strong reasoning
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Home & Hobbies
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About the children
Children and youth enter foster care through no fault of their own, because they have been abused, neglected, or abandoned and are unable to continue living safely with their families
According to the most recent federal data, there are currently more than 400,000 children in foster care in the United States. They range in age from infants to 21 years old (in some states). The average age of a child in foster care is more than 8 years old, and there are slightly more boys than girls.
Children and youth enter foster care because they have been abused, neglected, or abandoned by their parents or guardians. All of these children have experienced loss and some form of trauma. In other ways, foster children are no different from children who aren’t in foster care: they are learning and growing, like to play and hang out with friends their age, and need the love and stability a permanent home provides.
The median amount of time that a child spends in foster care is just over a year. More than half of the children in foster care will be reunified with their parents or primary caregivers, and nearly one-quarter will be adopted, many by their foster parents.
Each year, approximately 20,000 youth will age out of the foster care system when they turn 18 or 21, or when they finish high school (depending upon the state in which they live.) These children are at increased risk of poor educational outcomes, experiencing homelessness, and being unemployed. Read more about why older youth need families.
Frequently asked questions about children in foster care
AdoptUSKids foster care and adoption resource specialists respond to hundreds of questions about foster care and adoption, and an active community of families is always exchanging information on our Facebook page. Following are our responses to some of the questions that are frequently asked about the children in foster care.
How many children are awaiting adoption in the United States?
Of the 400,000 children in foster care, more than 100,000 of them are waiting to be adopted.
I have heard that many children in foster care have “special needs.” What does that mean?
The term “special needs” simply refers to children who qualify for adoption assistance—ongoing governmental medical and/or financial support after adoption occurs—due to specific factors or conditions such as:
- Being an older child
- Having a particular racial or ethnic background
- Being part of a sibling group needing to be placed together as one unit
- Medical conditions
- Physical, mental, or emotional disabilities
A child with special needs should not be confused with a child who requires special education.
I see a lot of older children in photolistings like the one on AdoptUSKids. Why would I want to adopt an older child?
Imagine being a teenager grappling with the transition into adolescence and independence all alone. That is the situation facing thousands of young people who face aging out of foster care alone every year. These teens need support, guidance, and family now and for the rest of their lives.
Read more about why older youth need families.
Are brothers and sisters always adopted together?
In an ideal world, the answer would be yes. Research suggests that siblings placed together experience lower risk of failed placements, fewer moves, and many emotional benefits. Even when siblings have been separated in foster care, the goal is to find them a safe, permanent home where they can grow up together.
Read more about the benefits of adopting siblings.
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Strong reasoning
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Social Life
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If you’re an artist or crafter, the Brown Thrasher’s striking outline offers a pleasing bird shape, with its long legs, curved bill, and upward tilting tail. If you’re an audiophile, you'll appreciate this bird's wandering melody that some birders say is even lovelier than that of its more famous relative, the Northern Mockingbird.
Brown Thrashers can be found in shrubby areas throughout the eastern half of the continental U.S. Because they’re so easily camouflaged by their muted shadings of milk-chocolate brown, spotting them in their habitat can be tricky. To help you experience and appreciate these delightful birds, here are some things to know:
Locating the Brown Thrasher
While Brown Thrashers can be difficult to find, they are famously skilled mimics and songsters, boasting a “playlist” of more than 1,100 song types. The key to finding these birds by sound is keeping an ear out for a long series of doubled phrases. Then, if you get a glimpse of a brown bird with a spotted breast and startling bright-yellow eyes on the ground or in low branches, you’ll know you’ve found a Brown Thrasher. (As a memory aid, some describe the song of the Brown Thrasher as, “Plant a seed, plant a seed, bury it, bury it, cover it up, cover it up, let it grow, let it grow, pull it up, pull it up, eat it, eat it.”)
Nesting habits of Brown Thrashers
In a way, Brown Thrashers are more visible during the nesting season. That’s because they’re not at all shy about swooping in to attack invaders, including dogs and humans out for a stroll! Brown Thrashers nest in the dense vegetation of shrubby areas and low tree branches, which is also where predators like to hide. The threat of predators is the likely reason that the babies fledge at the tender age of 9 days old. Another challenge to the nest comes from the Brown-headed Cowbird, a songbird species that’s infamous for laying its eggs in other birds’ nests instead of raising its own young. The Brown Thrasher, however, is one species that recognizes the impostor egg and disposes of it before the much larger chick hatches and steals resources from the other babies.
Brown Thrashers in your backyard
Brown Thrashers spend much of their time on the ground, foraging for insects, berries, and seeds. When the Brown Thrasher visits your feeding station, it's more likely to peck around the ground for spilled seeds. When filling your feeders with Lyric Supreme Mix, scatter a handful on the ground as an offering to the Brown Thrasher. The black sunflower seeds, peanuts, and cracked corn will be a welcoming snack.
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Moderate reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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We have had a few babbled words for a long time now – ‘mama’, ‘dada’ ‘memma’ (Gemma) and ‘dayca’ (Jacob) – but proper words that other people would understand have been a bit longer coming. Over the last couple of weeks he has suddenly grasped a few words, and now uses them over and over again.
I love this video, it makes me smile every time I watch it. The fact that he has learned how to say Hiya and Bye Bye, and that he uses them properly, picking up the toy phone and ‘speaking to his friends’ makes me super proud. He really is growing up.
I have found myself wondering about the best ways to encourage his speech now we have got started. Gemma and Jacob both spoke quite early, and were using clear, strong sentences before their 2nd birthdays. These are the things that we found worked the best:
- Repeating. When your baby says something to you, even if it’s not exactly right, repeat it back to them correctly with a ‘that’s right!’ – it reinforces their effort and gently corrects them. For example, if Max says ‘Dar’ I might say ‘Car, that’s right!’.
- Role play – using a toy phone, or even an old mobile is really useful – you can have a pretend conversation, introduce peoples names into their vocabulary and make it fun too!
- Read books together. Reading is a brilliant way to encourage speech. You can talk about the things you see in the book, you can teach new words, and you can relate them to the pictures, to help your toddler understand what he is seeing.
- Ditch the baby voice. We have all done it – used that itty bitty baby voice when talking to our little ones. Don’t. Using the correct language is important from an early age – it’s no good teaching your toddler that a dog is a ‘woggy’ and then later telling him it’s a dog. You will just confuse him.
- Face to face. Make sure you look at your little one when you talk so they can see your mouth, your expression and how you form words. They learn by copying.
- Answer questions. Jacob used to spend ALL day asking ‘what’s that?’. No matter how many times they ask, answer them. Even if they have asked you what a tree is 15 times already that day. They are learning, and it’s important that you answer their questions.
Do you have any other tips and tricks? Can you remember what your little ones first word was?
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Moderate reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Scientists have discovered a deeper than the Grand Canyon Trough in the ancient Antarctic ice. It is part of an ancient mountain range. Scientists With specially developed to detect radar and found it hidden under the ice a few kilometers.
This huge mountain range in western Antarctica, covered with the most up to 7 km thick ice.
Ice under the radar images help researchers pinpoint the location of this huge valley.
7 km under the Antarctic ice discovered huge Trough: deeper than the Grand Canyon
Trough are too large, it can even be seen from space
According to foreign media reports, the scientists found that a deeper than the Grand Canyon Trough in the ancient Antarctic ice. It is part of an ancient mountain range. Scientists With specially developed to detect radar and found it hidden under the ice a few kilometers.
This huge glacier valley below the deepest three kilometers, over 300 km long, 25 km widest. At the same time, in some places, more than 2000 meters below sea bottom. The researchers said that although buried but because too much can even see it from space at 7 km under the ice.
Newcastle University, UK, Glacier Research Centre, University of Bristol, the British Antarctic Survey scientists at Edinburgh University, the University of Exeter and York University to carry out the study.They put the satellite data, ground ice in snowmobile drag under the radar work and the collection of small aircraft combine to draw out the next Ellsworth Glacier Heights map. This ancient mountain range buried under Antarctic ice several kilometers deep in places.
The researchers used three seasons at West Antarctica to investigate and draw maps. They pointed out that millions of years ago, similar to the one now on the Antarctic Peninsula, Alaska, the Canadian Arctic ice or small ice carved up this mountain and this very deep valley.
Professor of Earth Science, University of Bristol Martin – Xi Jite said: “Although for decades scientists have been on the West Antarctic ice sheet growth and the controversial idea of a recession in the past few million years, but do not know from which ice growth When entering a recession period and the period through exploration ice radar echo detection, but also combines satellite imagery, we observed the terrain under the ice sheet, has found a U-shaped valleys and cirques and other typical glacial landforms areas it might just be the one This situation is similar to the formation of small ice caps today’s Canadian and Russian Arctic high latitudes appear, so we found this region is the origin of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet place. ”
The results of this research group is the ancient ice sheet size, thickness and the West Antarctic ice sheet behavior and early structure and behavior of unprecedented scientific data. Under this glacier ice from the West Antarctic landscape indicate where and its growth process, but also for the West Antarctic ice sheet to global warming when the size and shape provide important clues. The latest issue of the magazine “Journal of the Geological Society of America,” published these findings.
The first author of the research paper is also the Neil Newcastle University scientists – Dr. Ross said: “We are in a great chance to discover this trough and the surrounding mountain landscape of the valley we get this huge ice Penetrating Radar. data at both ends, but we are now in the middle of both ends of the situation was unknown. satellite data can fill this gap, because although buried under several kilometers of ice, but it is very large, so you can see it from space in my It seems that this is just to prove that we still know little about the Earth’s surface. Even now, we still have to discover and explore possible hidden in the ground, previously unknown landscape, this so exciting. “This research was supported by the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council funding.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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What Happened At Lexington And Concord?
So, what was the phenomenon that happened at Lexington and Concord that we still want to know about?
|Short & Quick Answer: In These Two Places, The First Military Clash of The American Revolutionary War Took Place. The Date Was 19th April 1775.|
Well, here we have described the happenings of Lexington and Concord below that you can get a better solution to your question.
Let’s get into them.
1. The First Military Clash of The American Revolutionary War
The battles of Lexington and Concord fought on the 19th of April 1775.
In the history of the United States of America, this clash is remembered as the first military confrontation of the American Revolutionary War.
After this one-day clash, the situation between these two sides never calmed down again.
Although the conflict is popular as only Lexington and Concord’s battles, it took place in a total of five places of the colony Massachusetts.
Those places were Lexington, Concord, Lincoln town, Cambridge, and Menotomy.
The battles happened between the Royal forces of the British Empire and the American Patriots.
This conflict opened the route to the birth of a great nation in the world, the United States of America.
2. American Patriots Achieved Strategic Victory Over British Red Coats
Although the British army was quite stronger and experienced than the newly formed American militias, the battles of Lexington and Concord remained a major strategic win for Americans.
Here is how:
First of all, the British army went to Concord for destroying the weapon storage of the rebels.
But, they failed to do it. Some patriots like Paul Revere already alerted the patriots about the Britishers’ movement.
Secondly, the British army had to lose more of their men than the rebels did.
The casualties from both sides were something like this:
British side casualty: 73 killed, 174 wounded, and 53 missing.
American side casualty: 49 killed, 39 wounded, and 5 missing.
From these points of view, we can say, the conflicts were a strategic victory for Americans.
This incident boosted their morale power and made them ready for the future big decisive battles of the Revolutionary War.
3. Intensified The Unification of All The 13 Colonies of America
What happened at Lexington and Concord intensified the unification of all the 13 British American colonies.
From both sides, politically and emotionally, the people of the colonies came much closer to each other.
The immediate effect was seen on the following May month 1775 during the Second Continental Congress.
Here all the colonies, even, Georgia came together to decide that they would make their military stronger and get ready for future inevitable conflicts.
Before these incidents took place, the colonists considered themselves British citizens.
But these incidents started transforming their thinking completely.
Once all the 13 colonies came together, now they were able to understand that they could become a country separate from their mother country Great Britain.
How Patriots Managed Causing Casualties of The British Army?
During that period, the British army was the world’s most powerful, experienced, well-equipped, and dominated force. American militias were much weaker than them.
So, a face-to-face confrontation against Red Coats was beyond their capacity.
For this reason, they relied on the swoop warfare technique. It is also known as the Guerrilla warfare tactic.
Using this technique, they managed to cause a lot of casualties to the English army.
But whatever, it doesn’t matter what technique did they use. All in all, this defeat was a great shame for the strong British Royal army.
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Strong reasoning
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History
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Proposed public-sector bans of facial recognition are often based on inaccurate misconceptions, and following through on them would harm law enforcement, school safety and technological progress.
Over the past year, a number of organizations have campaigned for policymakers to ban government use of facial recognition technology and for companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google to not sell the technology to government. Their efforts have begun to bear fruit. In February, a lawmaker in San Francisco proposed a rule that would ban all city departments from using facial recognition technology, and state legislators in Massachusetts and Washington have since followed suit with their own proposal to ban government use of facial recognition. However, these proposals are based on inaccurate or misguided concerns, and following through on them would weaken the effectiveness and efficiency of law enforcement, make schools less safe, and hold back technological progress at other government agencies.
Much of the opposition to facial recognition is based on the false belief that the systems are not accurate. But many of the most high-profile critiques of facial recognition are based on shoddy research. For example, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has repeatedly claimed that Amazon’s facial recognition service had an error rate of 5 percent when used to compare Congressional photos to mugshots, but the error rate would have dropped to zero had the ACLU used the recommended confidence threshold of 99 percent.
Moreover, there is clear evidence that facial recognition technology is becoming increasingly accurate. In 2018, the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) tested how accurately the facial recognition software from major developers could match two photos of the same individual from a database of nearly 27 million photos. NIST found that only 0.2 percent of searches failed. And while several facial recognition systems perform less accurately for certain demographics, the private sector has been actively working to address this problem, such as by developing more diverse image data sets to train their systems.
Unfortunately these proposed bans would limit many beneficial applications of facial recognition technology, such as allowing police to more quickly identify potential suspects, witnesses and victims; ensuring only authorized personnel can access secure government buildings; and helping schools prevent sex offenders, disgruntled employees, or other potentially dangerous people from entering their facilities. Simply put, computers can search millions of photographs at a fraction of the time and expense of humans. Indeed, the technology has already proven its value on many occasions, including by finding missing children, catching people with false documents at airports, and combating human trafficking. Moreover, some of the proposed bans, such as the bill in Washington, would limit government from using other technologies, like tools to blur faces in surveillance footage before public release.
Policymakers can promote the responsible use of facial recognition technology by government without banning its use. For example, they can require that law enforcement only use facial recognition technology that meets certain performance benchmarks to ensure the technology is used effectively, and they can provide oversight to ensure accountability for the policies and practices that law enforcement develops to use the technology effectively. In many cases, this oversight will be an extension of existing accountability measures. Finally, government funding can support the development of better data sets, more accurate systems and best practices.
No rational person wants to live in the real-life version of society described in George Orwell’s novel 1984, but police adoption of facial recognition in democratic, rule-of-law nations does not equate to such a world. Instead of supporting the calls for bans, policymakers should create rules to prevent inappropriate uses of facial recognition technology by government and allow government to adopt the technology where it is useful.
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https://www.govtech.com/products/Are-Governments-Right-to-Ban-Facial-Recognition-Technology.html
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| 0.956309 | 718 | 2.84375 | 3 | 3.118463 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Crime & Law
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Tigers on the Wing
by Claire Hagen Dole
With their yellow/black tiger stripes and long, barn-swallow tails, Tiger Swallowtails are perfectly named. Large and showy, they tend to be noticed by even the most oblivious bystander. Only the Monarch is more firmly embedded in our collective American consciousness.
I start watching for newly-emerged Western Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio rutulus), common to the Western states, on sunny May days. During the early weeks of summer, the tiger-tails often glide through my garden without stopping to take nectar from flowers. In midsummer, when they're more abundant, the butterflies frequently linger in the garden. They'll perch on sturdy flowerheads, such as those of purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and sip nectar from the many individual florets. They may flutter their wings while feeding, perhaps as a means of keeping balance.
From my lawn chair near the butterfly garden, I watch as the late-afternoon sun illuminates their yellow wings. Because the Western Tiger Swallowtail produces only one brood per year in the Northwest, these few glorious weeks will have to satisfy me until next spring (up to three broods may occur in California and the Southwest).
East of the Rockies
Even more impressive in size (up to six-inch wingspan, compared to four inches for its western counterpart), the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (P. glaucus) bears similar markings of vertical black stripes on yellow, with black wing edge and two blue spots near each tail. In addition, it has orange markings near the tail and at the hindwing's upper edge.
Some female Eastern Tigers adopt a dark form, with mostly-black wings, thus gaining protection from predators by resembling the Pipevine Swallowtail. This distasteful butterfly feeds on pipevine (Aristolochia spp.), and it is also mimicked by the Black Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Red-spotted Purple and female Diana Fritillary. Female offspring of dark-form Eastern Tigers will also be dark in color.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtails can be found east of the Rockies, in an almost perfect complement to the Western Tigers' range. They, too, produce one brood in the north. Further south, three or more broods are common. Until recently, a smaller form of Eastern Tiger Swallowtail that is found in Canada and Alaska was considered a subspecies of P. glaucus. It's now referred to as the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (P. canadensis).
High in the Trees
Tiger Swallowtails spend much of their lives in the canopy of broadleaf deciduous trees. I've often seen them fluttering high in bigleaf maple trees, where female Western Tigers lay their eggs on the leaves. There, hatching caterpillars have a relatively safe environment in which to feed and grow. They spend daytime hours resting on a silken hammock attached to a leaf, coming out at night to eat foliage.
In the eastern half of the country, female Eastern Tigers lay yellow-green eggs singly on leaves of willow (Salix spp.), birch (Betula spp.), black cherry (Prunus serotina), ash (Fraxinus spp.) and tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera). Western Tiger Swallowtails prefer leaves of willow, bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum), aspen and poplar (Populus spp.), Oregon ash (Fraxinus latifolia) and sycamore (Platanus spp.). Their eggs are shiny and dark green.
Early-stage larvae resemble brown-and-white bird droppings. After molting two or three times, the caterpillar turns apple-green with two fake eyespots and a horizontal yellow band over its enlarged, headlike thorax. When threatened, it extends a foul-smelling, fork-shaped appendage on its head called an osmeterium. The effect to an unsuspecting bird is that of a fork-tongued snake!
This startling defense mechanism can intimidate other predators like wasps, according to Dr. David McCorkle, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Western Oregon University. While standing next to a quaking aspen tree in his yard, McCorkle witnessed the repulse of an attacking yellow jacket by a Western Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar in the tree. A slight movement by the caterpillar had brought the yellow jacket zooming in from several feet away to grasp its prey. The caterpillar suddenly thrust out its osmeterium, causing the predator to let go and fly off in defeat.
Becoming a Butterfly
A final-instar larva has molted four times; it's fat, smooth and up to two inches in length. When about to pupate, it turns brown and heads off in search of a place to shed its skin for the last time and become a chrysalis. It may travel a very short distance to a craggy spot on a branch or on the trunk of the same tree. Other larvae, especially those who have fed on a smaller tree or closer to the ground, will leave the tree and seek a different tree or structure, such as a wooden fence or building.
I once intercepted a brown Western Tiger caterpillar crawling fast, with a definite sense of purpose, toward my basement door. I suspect it was heading for a sheltered spot under a windowsill or on the houses wood siding, but it ended up spending the winter in a terrarium in my unheated garage. When placed in the terrarium, the caterpillar paced like a caged beast for the first day. Finally, it crawled onto a piece of wood and attached itself with a strand of silk. Two days later, the outer skin had split off to reveal a ridged, brown chrysalis resembling a dead leaf. It hung out at an angle, secured by its silken "girdle."
I misted the chrysalis occasionally during winter and spring to keep it from drying out. By mid-June, when other swallowtails were cruising through my garden, it hadn't shown any sign of life. Because we were leaving on a trip, I took off the lid and set it outside in a shady spot. Upon returning, I was suprised to see an exquisite yellow butterfly resting in the terrarium. I gently extended my fingers to her; after she had climbed onto my hand, I placed her on a flower in the sunny garden. She rested for a moment and then flew to the nearby raspberry patch to bask on a sunlit leaf. Almost immediately, a male swallowtail appeared out of nowhere, and the two flew off in a courtship dance.
In Your Garden
Native nectar plants to attract Tiger Swallowtails include milkweed (Asclepias spp.), phlox (Phlox paniculata), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Joe-Pye weed (Eupatorium purpureum), sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia), buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis), beebalm (Monarda didyma), and buckwheat (Eriogonum spp.). Butterfly bush (Buddleia spp.) and lilac (Syringa vulgaris) are also very attractive nectar sources.
Male swallowtails are avid puddlers, gathering in groups to sip salts and other minerals from wet sand or dirt. These gathering places are referred to by lepidopterists as "mud-puddle clubs." If you don't have a pond or seep, put moistened sand in a container, elevated to protect the butterflies from pouncing cats.
Birds take their toll on Tiger Swallowtails, too, as you know if you've seen a triangular beak bite in the wing of a butterfly who got away. Tigers obviously don't rely on camouflage coloration, but their boldly-patterned wings don't advertise unpalatability, either (as Monarchs wings do).While researching bird predation on swallowtails, McCorkle observed that many attacks occur when a bird comes across a resting butterfly, as on a cloudy day. The butterfly protects its vulnerable body by opening its wings and shivering violently. Vertical black stripes point to the vibrating tails, where bright orange and blue markings create a blur of color. The effect is like a blinking neon sign that says, "Attack down here!"
Fortunately, many Tiger Swallowtails do escape with nothing worse than a torn hindwing, and during their short adult life (10-14 days), they are numerous and spectacular.
Article by Claire Hagen Dole, Publisher/editor of Butterfly Gardeners' Quarterly. Summer 1998.
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CC-MAIN-2023-23
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https://butterflywebsite.com/articles/tiger-swallowtails.cfm
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| 0.938989 | 1,858 | 3.046875 | 3 | 2.420584 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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decoded = rsdec(code,n,k)
decoded = rsdec(code,n,k,genpoly)
decoded = rsdec(...,
[decoded,cnumerr] = rsdec(...)
[decoded,cnumerr,ccode] = rsdec(...)
decoded = rsdec(code,n,k) attempts
to decode the received signal in
code using an
k] Reed-Solomon decoding
process with the narrow-sense generator polynomial.
array of symbols having m bits each. Each
code represents a corrupted systematic codeword,
where the parity symbols are at the end and the leftmost symbol is
the most significant symbol.
n is at most 2m-1.
n is not exactly 2m-1,
code is a corrupted version of a shortened
In the Galois array
decoded, each row represents
the attempt at decoding the corresponding row in
A decoding failure occurs if
(n-k)/2 errors in a row of
In this case,
rsdec forms the corresponding row
decoded by merely removing
from the end of the row of
decoded = rsdec(code,n,k,genpoly) is
the same as the syntax above, except that a nonempty value of
the generator polynomial for the code. In this case,
a Galois row vector that lists the coefficients, in order of descending
powers, of the generator polynomial. The generator polynomial must
n-k. To use the default narrow-sense
generator polynomial, set
decoded = rsdec(..., specifies
whether the parity symbols in
code were appended
or prepended to the message in the coding operation.
The default is
a decoding failure causes
rsdec to remove
from the beginning rather than the end of the row.
[decoded,cnumerr] = rsdec(...) returns
a column vector
cnumerr, each element of which
is the number of corrected errors in the corresponding row of
A value of
a decoding failure in that row in
[decoded,cnumerr,ccode] = rsdec(...) returns
the corrected version of
code. The Galois array
the same format as
code. If a decoding failure
occurs in a certain row of
code, the corresponding
ccode contains that row unchanged.
Set the RS code parameters.
m = 3; % Number of bits per symbol n = 2^m-1; % Codeword length k = 3; % Message length
Generate three codewords composed of 3-bit symbols. Encode the message with a (7,3) RS code.
msg = gf([2 7 3; 4 0 6; 5 1 1],m); code = rsenc(msg,n,k);
Introduce one error on the first codeword, two errors on the second codeword, and three errors on the third codeword.
errors = gf([2 0 0 0 0 0 0; 3 4 0 0 0 0 0; 5 6 7 0 0 0 0],m); noisycode = code + errors;
Decode the corrupted codeword.
[rxcode,cnumerr] = rsdec(noisycode,n,k);
Observe that the number of corrected errors matches the introduced errors for the first two rows. In row three, the number of corrected errors is
-1 because a (7,3) RS code cannot correct more than two errors.
cnumerr = 1 2 -1
k must differ by
an even integer.
n must be between 3 and 65535.
Wicker, S. B., Error Control Systems for Digital Communication and Storage, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1995.
Berlekamp, E. R., Algebraic Coding Theory, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1968.
|
<urn:uuid:3fe3d133-20db-40f2-9d42-88bfc9774283>
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CC-MAIN-2017-09
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http://www.mathworks.com/help/comm/ref/rsdec.html?requestedDomain=www.mathworks.com&nocookie=true
|
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|
en
| 0.651133 | 851 | 2.5625 | 3 | 2.485401 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Software Dev.
|
The GOP Convention, also called the Republican National Convention, is a presidential nomination convention held every four years by the Republican Party. The name ‘GOP’, which stands for ‘Grand Old Party’, is a traditional nickname for the party that originated in 1875 and has stuck since then. The traditional and formal purpose for the GOP Convention has been to select candidates to run for president from the party.
It has also been used to set the rules for the party’s upcoming activities and decide the process for the presidential nominating process during the next election period. However, changes in election laws and procedures have rendered the GOP Convention and the Democratic Convention ceremonial and removed most of their original purposes.
In recent times, the GOP Convention has been used by the Republican Party to declare its presidential candidates and to also bring together and declare the party platform. The points made in the platform are chosen by the party members and incorporated into the presidential campaign.
The GOP Convention over the years
The first Republican Convention took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in February 1856. During this convention, the party was formally organized nationally and the first national committee was also selected. Another national convention took place later the same year to nominate the party’s presidential candidate in Philadelphia. Abraham Lincoln, the first U.S. president from the Republican Party, was nominated as a candidate during the 1860 Republican convention.
The next Presidential Convention held in 1864 was unique in that it also included Democrats loyal to the Union. The result was the nomination of Andrew Jackson as vice-president, who was affiliated to the National Union Party. On Lincoln’s death, Jackson became president of the U.S. and the only one in the history of the country to be a part of the National Union Party.
The first GOP Convention that was broadcast live on television was held in 1940 by W2XBS, the television network became the foundation for NBC later on. The 1964 GOP Convention was another landmark for the Republican Party. It showed the importance of the primaries when Senator Barry Goldwater (AR) won the presidential ticket over other more popular nominees, including Governor William Scranton. This happened once again during the 1976 GOP Convention, when Governor Ronald Reagan (CA) almost beat Gerald Ford, who was then president, in the primaries. This was the last convention of either the Republican or Democratic Party where there was a doubt over who would get the nomination.
As the Republican Party has become increasingly conservative, there have been some GOP Conventions were right and left-wing members have been at loggerheads. In 1992, Pat Buchanan delivered a speech about his extreme conservative views, which ended up alienating a number of voters who were otherwise planning to vote for the more moderate George H. W. Bush. The rifts within the part have been seen in later GOP Conventions as well. For example, Governors William Weld and Pete Wilson once tried to remove the pro-life plank from the platform during the 1996 GOP Convention.
The last GOP Convention was held before the 2012 elections, and it saw Governor Mitt Romney (Massachusetts) securing the presidential ticket along with vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Other nominees except for Ron Paul had asked their blocs to vote for Romney for the ticket some time before the convention. This policy platform that was adopted by the Republican Party during this convention had similar planks from previous conventions with some new ones that are given below:
- Advocating a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union only between man and woman and for the right of the federal and state governments to deny recognition of same-sex marriages; an increasing number of Republicans are now backing away from this plank and changing their stance
- Limitations on Medicare that includes an increase in the eligibility age and conversion to a fixed amount payment program rather than coverage for each patient’s medical bills
- A guest worker program that advocates long-term detention of undeportable immigrants
- Greater transparency of the Federal Reserve through more audits
- Opposition of all current regulations that try to curb climate change and reduce the power of the Environmental Protection Agency, and giving more freedom to corporations to lower their impact on the environment
- The Birth Of The Republican Party
- The Republican Party Platform
- What Is The Electoral College? Electoral College Definition
- Democratic Views On The Electoral College
- Republican Views on Gay Rights
- Martin Luther King, Jr. And The Republican Party
- Republican Presidents
- Republican Views on the Electoral College
- Donald Trump on Gay Marriage
- History of the Republican Party
|
<urn:uuid:1abaf8db-eb8d-44c6-b3c4-c2f771ae517f>
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CC-MAIN-2021-39
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https://www.republicanviews.org/what-is-the-gop-convention/
|
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en
| 0.972674 | 924 | 3.09375 | 3 | 2.552105 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
|
Politics
|
Lake Bonneville was a prehistoric lake made by rain and runoff from the streams that covered much of the Great Basin region. Most of the territory it covered was all of present-day Utah, and portions of Idaho and Nevada. Stream-built deltas formed at the mouths of major canyons. These include the flat-topped, steep-fronted landforms on which Utah State University is built. About 15,000 years ago the lake breached the divide at Red Rock Pass at the north end of Cache Valley, in Idaho. In the span of about nine months, about 135 cubic miles of water roared down the Snake River into the Columbia River dropping this enormous lake about 315 feet from the lake’s highest level.
The Hisatsinom or Anasazi people occupied the Four Corners region including portions of Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona from 0–1300 AD. Evidence of these people’s existence is found only in what they left behind, deserted homes, desert walls etched with symbols and art, and the tools of daily life. The name Anasazi is a Navajo word meaning “Ancient Ones,” but the Pueblo lay claim to them as their ancestors and prefer they be referred to as Hisatsiom (ee-SAH-tse-nom) or “People of Long Ago.” Regardless, the Anasazi people disappeared quite suddenly around AD 1300.
The Northwestern Shoshone
Northwestern Shoshone were among the first to inhabit Seuhubeogoi, or “Willow River,” (now Cache Valley). A Numic-speaking people, migrating from northern Mexico to the Great Basin Region around 1000 AD, they formed small extended family groupings that traveled extensively as semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers to survive the harsh environment of the Great Basin desert. In the spring and summer, the Northwestern Shoshone traveled around southern Idaho and throughout Utah. During these months, they spent their time gathering seeds, pine nuts, roots, and berries and socializing with each other. This was the time when women talked about the latest happenings of the tribe. In late summer, they dug roots and hunted small game. In early autumn, they migrated to the region near what is now Salmon, Idaho to fish and dry salmon for winter use. Then they moved into western Wyoming to hunt big game such as buffalo, elk, deer, moose, and antelope for food, clothing, and shelter. An area near what is now Franklin, Idaho, in northern Cache Valley was a permanent wintering home for the Northwestern Shoshone. The land along the Bear River provided a natural place for the Shoshone to make their homes since it was in a natural depression with abundant willows and brush, which served as wind and snow breaks. Additionally, there are hot springs and fish and wild game were plentiful during the winter months.
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<urn:uuid:4e9b805a-8647-48ed-a9fc-e7e652bc53d0>
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CC-MAIN-2020-16
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http://hyrumcitymuseum.org/exhibits/native-utah/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370506121.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20200401192839-20200401222839-00500.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.964715 | 599 | 3.765625 | 4 | 2.052896 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
|
History
|
India in the 16th century presented a fragmented picture of rulers, both Muslim and Hindu, who lacked concern for their subjects and who failed to create a common body of laws or institutions. Outside developments also played a role in shaping events. The circumnavigation of Africa by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498 allowed Europeans to challenge Arab control of the trading routes between Europe and Asia. In Central Asia and Afghanistan, shifts in power pushed Babur of Ferghana (in present-day Uzbekistan) southward, first to Kabul and then to India. The dynasty he founded endured for more than three centuries.
Babur of Ferghana
Claiming descent from both Genghis Khan and Timur, Babur combined strength and courage with a love of beauty, and military ability with cultivation. Babur concentrated on gaining control of northwestern India. He did so in 1526 by defeating the last Lodhi sultan at the First battle of Panipat, a town north of Delhi. Babur then turned to the tasks of persuading his Central Asian followers to stay on in India and of overcoming other contenders for power, mainly the Rajputs and the Afghans. He succeeded in both tasks but died shortly thereafter in 1530. The Mughal Empire was one of the largest centralized states in premodern history and was the precursor to the British Indian Empire.
The perennial question of who was the greatest of the six "Great Mughals" receives varying answers in present-day Pakistan and India. Some favour Babur the pioneer and others his great-grandson, Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58), builder of the Taj Mahal and other magnificent buildings. The other two towering figures of the era by general consensus were Akbar (r. 1556-1605) and Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707). Both rulers expanded the empire greatly and were able administrators. However, Akbar was known for his religious tolerance and administrative genius, whereas Aurangzeb was a zealous ruler and fierce proselytizer of orthodox Islam across the heterodox Indian landscape.
The Fugitive King: Humayun
(1508-1556) Babur’s favorite son Humayun took the reins of the empire after his father succumbed to disease at the young age of forty-seven. However, he lacked his father’s craftiness and athleticism. Though he could be a formidable warrior when he chose to be, he was more laid back and indolent. He also was addicted to opium and depended on it for solace much more than a king with insecure borders should indulge in. He also made the mistake of trusting his three brothers, which served as a lesson to future Mughal rulers, who would not repeat this folly. Humayun made his brother Prince Kamran the regent in Kabul, who quickly added Panjab under his control. Humayun, appearing to be weak, did not object and this emboldened his two other brothers, Askari and Hindal to seek more independence.
Humayun’s first campaign was to confront a Sher Khan Sur, an Afghan, who was quietly expanding his territory in the east. Half way through the counter offensive Humayun had to abandon it and concentrate on Gujarat, where a threat from Ahmed Shah had to be squelched. In this he succeeded and annexed Gujarat and Malwa. Champaner and the great fort of Mandu followed next. Following this great triumph, Humayun made another tactical error in installing his brother Prince Askari in Ahmadabad instead of the defeated Ahmed Shah as a feudatory. To savor his victory, Humayun celebrated in Mandu fort for many months, binging on opium and spending too much time in the company of his favourites. When he finally headed home to Agra, he found his brother Askari at his doorstep making a serious bid for the throne. Though his older brother thwarted this effort, Askari was pardoned, which only exhibited royal weakness to his loyal subjects.
Humayun again fell into one of his many periods of laziness and lassitude and resorted to his pipe and playmates. All this time he also neglected to confront Sher Khan Sur, who was gathering land and feudatories in the east. As an administrator Sher Khan was far superior to Humayun. In 1539, Humayun and Sher Khan met in battle in Chausa, between Varanasi and Patna. Humayun barely escaped with his own life and in the next year, in 1540, his army of 40,000 lost to the Afghan army of 15,000 of Sher Khan. Humayun’s brothers refused to help him and he found himself a fugitive in Rajastan and Sindh.
Finally, the Shah of Iran, Shah Tamasp, gave him refuge in Persia. Of course, Humayun put his famous diamond to full diplomatic use because Shah Tamasp was a lover of diamonds. Koh-I-Noor, would serve as the bribe that the Shah Tamasp needed to support Humayun with a large Persian military offensive on Sher Khan Sur in 1544. Humayun found fraternal opposition again in Kandahar, where he was stalled for eight years but eventually won back Afghanistan.
Sher Khan had now become the monarch in Delhi under the name Sher Shah Sur and ruled from 1540 to 1545. He consolidated his kingdom form Panjab to Bengal (first one to enter Bengal after Ala-ud-din Khilji did more than two centuries earlier). But Sher Shah died in an accidental explosion of gunpowder during an offensive in Kalinjar. A superb administrator, he was credited to have organized the government and military in such a way that future Mughal kings used it as their own models. He also added to the fort in Delhi (supposed site of Indraprastha), first started by Humayun, and now called the Purana Qila or the old fort. He built the mosque Qila-I-Kuhna there that was a masterpiece of the period, though only parts of it have survived.
The charred remains of Sher Shah were taken to a tomb in Sahasaram, midway between Varanasi and Gaya. Although rarely visited, it is another glorious triumph in architecture that the future great Mughal builders like Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan tried to emulate. Massive in scale, three stories and fifty meters high, it appears as much a palace as a mausoleum. Sher Shah’s son Islam Shah held on to power until 1553 and following his death the Sur dynasty lost most of its clout due factious strife and severe famine.
In 1554, Humayun attacked the confused and divided state of Sur rulers and in 1555 claimed Delhi again. But in 1556 tragedy struck the Mughals when Humayun tripped and fell to his death while descending the steps after gazing at the stars (he was a keen astronomer) from the rooftop of Sher Shah’s Delhi palace. Thus Humayun ruled in India barley for ten years and died at the age of forty-eight, leaving behind a thirteen-year-old boy, Akbar as his heir. As a tribute to his father, Akbar later built the Humayun’s tomb in Delhi (completed in 1571), from red sandstone, of majestic outline that would become the precursor of future Mughal architecture. Akbar’s mother and Humayun’s wife Hamida Begum personally supervised the building of the tomb.
A True Monarch: Akbar The Great
(1543-1605) Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun (r. 1530-40 and 1555-56), whose rule was interrupted by the Afghan Sur Dynasty, which rebelled against him. It was only just before his death that Humayun was able to regain the empire and leave it to his son. In restoring and expanding Mughal rule, Akbar based his authority on the ability and loyalty of his followers, irrespective of their religion. In 1564 the jizya on non-Muslims was abolished, and bans on temple building and Hindu pilgrimages were lifted.
Akbar's methods of administration reinforced his power against two possible sources of challenge--the Afghan-Turkish aristocracy and the traditional interpreters of Islamic law, the ulama. He created a ranked imperial service based on ability rather than birth, whose members were obliged to serve wherever required. They were remunerated with cash rather than land and were kept away from their inherited estates, thus centralizing the imperial power base and assuring its supremacy. The military and political functions of the imperial service were separate from those of revenue collection, which was supervised by the imperial treasury. This system of administration, known as the mansabdari, was based on loyal service and cash payments and was the backbone of the Mughal Empire; its effectiveness depended on personal loyalty to the emperor and his ability and willingness to choose, remunerate, and supervise.
Akbar declared himself the final arbiter in all disputes of law derived from the Qur'an and the sharia. He backed his religious authority primarily with his authority in the state. In 1580 he also initiated a syncretic court religion called the Din-i-Ilahi (Divine Faith). In theory, the new faith was compatible with any other, provided that the devotee was loyal to the emperor. In practice, however, its ritual and content profoundly offended orthodox Muslims. The ulama found their influence undermined. The concept of Islam as a superior religion with a historic mission in the world appeared to be compromised. The syncretism of the court and its tolerance of both Hindus and unorthodox Shia sects among Muslims triggered a reaction among Sunni Muslims. In the fratricidal war of succession that closed the reign of Akbar's grandson Shah Jahan in 1658.
The World Conqueror: Jahangir
(1569-1627) Prince Salim (b. 1569 of Hindu Rajput princess from Amber), who would later be known as Emperor Jahangir showed signs of restlessness at the end of a long reign by his father Akbar. During the absence of his father from Agra he pronounced himself as the king and turned rebellious. Akbar was able to wrestle the throne back but the prince was showing no signs of remorse. There was also an unconfirmed story of strained relationship between father and son due to Salim’s amorous advances to an ordinary dancing girl. Deeply in love and enchanted by the dancing girl, Anarkali, who was of common birth, Salim was ready to make her his queen. This union, surprisingly, was said to have been unacceptable to Akbar and the girl was abducted and executed. Though the historians do not mention the existence of such a girl called Anarkali, the folklore certainly has survived. This also might have exacerbated the strain between the monarch and the prince.
Salim did not have to worry about his sibling’s aspirations to the throne. His two brothers, Murad and Daniyal, had both died early from alcoholism. Ironically a similar fate would await Salim at the end of his reign when he also succumbed to the ill effects of excessive drinking. But his challenge came from a surprising member of his family. His son Khusrau was favoured by the nobles and made an attempt to unseat Salim, who by 1602 had proclaimed himself as the emperor and renamed himself Jahangir (World Conqueror). Khusrau laid siege to Lahore but was captured by Jahangir and blinded. The cruelty of the previous Sultans of Delhi had now pervaded into the Mughal emperors. Hitherto unknown fraternal and filial murder and torture at the time of succession was to become the norm and almost expected in the kingdom. Jahangir explained that a king should consider no man his relation and sovereignty did not regard the relation between father and son. Treacherous perfidy during succession would not shock any future Mughal heirs.
Jahangir began his era as a Mughal emperor after the death of Akbar in the year 1605. He considered his third son Prince Khurram (future Shah Jahan-born 1592 of Hindu Rajput princess Manmati), his favourite. Rana of Mewar and Prince Khurram had a standoff that resulted in a treaty acceptable to both parties. Khurram was kept busy with several campaigns in Bengal and Kashmir. Jahangir claimed the victories of Khurram – Shah Jahan as his own. However, Kandahar, which had been won by Akbar, was lost to Persia’s Shah Abbas. Further defeats were handed in Northern Afghanistan. Some success was at hand in the Deccan when an African slave, Malik Ambar, brought from Baghdad, serving under the sultante of Ahmadnagar, helped Khurram-Shah Jahan.
The monarch meanwhile was basking in the glory of his son’s victories. He also had unlimited sources of revenue largely due to a systematic organization of the administration by his father, Akbar. The opulence of the Mughals had reached its pinnacle during Jahangir and Shah Jahan’s rule, thanks to Akbar’s foresight. Jahangir built his famous gardens in Kashmir and spent much time relaxing and delegating his work to others. One such person was Jahangir’s wife, Nur Jahan, whom he married in 1611. She was the thirty-year-old widow of one of his Afghan nobles. Her father, Persian born Itimad-ud-Daula became a minister and closest advisor to the emperor. Very able Nur Jahan along with her father and brother Asaf Khan, who was a successful general, ran the kingdom. Jahangir was the monarch in absentia. Addicted to alcohol, he was content to let his wife govern.
After the fiasco in Kandahar, the relationship between Khurram and Jahangir soured. Khurram suspected that Nur Jahan favoured her son-in-law Prince Shariyar (son of Jahangir from a slave), who was married to her daughter Ladli Begum, from her first marriage. Khurram was in rebellion with his father and in this the African slave Malik Ambar and Nur Jahan’s brother Asaf Khan aided him. Khurram- Shah Jahan was married to Asaf Khan’s daughter Mumtaz Mahal. Prince Shariyar was murdered and Nur Jahan spent her last years building a tomb for her father Itimad-ud-Daula in Agra. She could have little influence over the willful Shah Jahan or her niece Mumtaz Mahal.
Jahangir had kept a diary that can pass marginally as memoirs. He describes inane and insignificant details of his garden and daily happenings around the palace. It only serves to give a glimpse of the emperor’s life in a superficial way. Though not a soldier, Jahangir was an ardent patron of Mughal art and an avid builder. He built Akbar’s five-tiered tomb in Sikandra. The emperor kept busy building in Lahore, Allahabad and Agra. While the de facto emperor, Nur Jahan was attending to administrative details, Jahangir found solace in loitering in his gardens and appreciating art and nature.
The darkest incident of his rule perhaps was the disposition of a peaceful leader of newly formed religion called Sikhism. Akbar had watched the blossoming of the new religion founded by Guru Nanak, with fascination. Jahangir, in a controversy with its leader, was responsible for the death of Sikh Guru Arjan Singh (who was placed on a hot iron until he died, unwilling to convert to Islam) and this would have lasting consequences for future Mughal emperors. The peaceful religion of Sikhism would turn militant later when Jahangir’s grandson Aurangzeb murdered the ninth Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur. Jahangir, the laid back emperor died in 1627 from alcohol abuse and Prince Khurram–Shah Jahan’s reign as the emperor began.
King of the World: Shah Jahan
Prince Khurram, who would later be known as Emperor Shah Jahan, ascended to the throne after a tumultuous succession battle worthy of a Mughal Prince. His own father, Jahangir, had already handicapped Khusrau, when the son aspired to unseat the father. Younger brother Prince Khurram promptly had him killed, as fraternal ambitions were not to be encouraged, even though the wretched Prince Khusrau was blind. Prince Shariyar, Nur Jahan’s son-in-law had lost his bid to the throne and murdered by Khurram’s father-in-law, Asaf Khan (also Nur Jahan’s brother). Another brother Parwiz was of no consequence.
With the wealth created by Akbar, the Mughal kingdom was probably the richest in the world. Prince Khurram gave himself the title of Shah Jahan, the ‘King of the World’ and this was the name that was immortalized by history. With his imagination and aspiration, Shah Jahan gained a reputation as an aesthete par excellence. He built the black marble pavilion at the Shalimar Gardens in Srinagar and a white marble palace in Ajmer. He also built a tomb for his father, Jahangir in Lahore and built a massive city Shahajanabad in Delhi but his imagination surpassed all Mughal glory in his most famous building Taj Mahal. It was in Shahajanabad that his daughter Roshanara built the marketplace called Chandni Chowk. His beloved wife Arjuman Banu (daughter of Asaf Khan and niece of Nur Jahan) died while delivering their fourteenth child in the year 1631. The distraught emperor started building a memorial for her the following year. The Taj Mahal, named for Arjuman Banu, who was called Mumtaz Mahal, became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The beauty of the white marble structure is unsurpassed. Almost four hundred years later it still is the awe inspiring place where lovers hold hands and swoon over each other. The thrill one feels at the first sight of Taj Mahal through its main archway is beyond description.
The great Juma Masjid built by him was the largest in India at the time. Shah Jahan also built or renovated forts in Delhi and in Agra. White marble chambers that served as living quarters and other halls for public audiences are examples of classic Mughal architecture. Here in Agra fort, Shah Jahan would spend eight of his last years as a prisoner of his son, Aurangzeb shuffling between the hallways of the palace, squinting at the distant silhouette of his famous Taj Mahal on the banks of River Jamuna.
Shah Jahan’s earlier years were spent in doing his father’s bidding in various campaigns and territorial expansion. However, the territories gained were significant only in a symbolic way. In fact, land and prestige was lost in Kandahar and Northern Afghanistan. The dream of Babur to extend the empire into and beyond Afghanistan into the homeland of the Timurs in Samarkhand was permanently shelved by his progeny, after the humiliating defeats in Kandahar at the hands of a Persian king. Never again would a Mughal venture into the northwest. In Deccan, Shah Jahan at first had defeats at the hands of an African habshi (Negro) slave from Baghdad, named Malik Ambar, who served the Bijapur sultan. Later, however, he joined Shah Jahan and helped him quell the threat from his brothers who had aspirations to conquer the throne. Golconda (Hyderabad) and Bijapur (Karnataka), two powerful states of the south were forced to become vassal states but were left alone to govern as they pleased. At least on paper Shah Jahan’s empire had extended deep into the south in Deccan and beyond. The cover of Mughal suzerainty only helped the southern sultanates to extend their borders well into Chola heartland of Tamil Nadu and Mysore. Muslim rule, now effectively extended to the mouth of Kaveri River.
Though Khurram was the favoured son of Jahangir in his earlier days, the influence of Nur Jahan on the emperor had a deleterious effect on his relationship with his father. She was trying to prop up her own son-in-law, a brother of Shah Jahan as the legal heir. This alarmed Shah Jahan and with the help of his father-in-law and Malik Ambar he was able to muscle his way into Delhi and pronounce himself the emperor. In September of 1657, Shah Jahan, in his waning years, suffered from acute constipation and rumours of his imminent death spread rapidly through the land. The potential successors to the throne, four brothers, were alarmed and moved with haste to claim the throne. His third son Aurangzeb eventually claimed the empire, in the year 1658. Shah Jahan would recover from his illness only to spend his last days as an old and decrepit man, imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb, in the fort in Agra. There he was to remain in house arrest for eight years watching the magnificent monument he had built for his beloved wife Mumtaz. Shah Jahan died in the year 1666, at age seventy-four, eight years after losing his throne to his son. He was interned in the Taj Mahal, next to his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. The aristocracy supported the austere military commander Aurangzeb against his learned and eclectic brother Dara Shikoh, whom Aurangzeb defeated in battle and later had decapitated in 1662.
Aurangzeb's reign ushered in the decline of the Mughal Empire. Aurangzeb, who in the latter half of his long rule assumed the title "Alamgir" or "world-seizer," was known for aggressively expanding the empire's frontiers and for his militant enforcement of orthodox Sunni Islam. During his reign, the Mughal empire reached its greatest extent (the Bijapur and Golconda Sultanates which had been reduced to vassaldom by Shah Jahan were formally annexed), although it is likely that his policies also led to its dissolution. Still, there is some belief that his policies may have slowed the decline of the Empire rather than precipitated it. Although he was an outstanding general and a rigorous administrator, Mughal fiscal and military standards declined as security and luxury increased. Land rather than cash became the usual means of remunerating high-ranking officials, and divisive tendencies in his large empire further undermined central authority.
In 1679 Aurangzeb reimposed the hated jizyah on Hindus. Coming after a series of other taxes, and other discriminatory measures favouring Sunni Muslims, this action by the emperor, incited rebellion among Hindus and others in many parts of the empire--Jat, Sikh, and Rajput forces in the north and Maratha forces in the Deccan. The emperor managed to crush the rebellions in the north, but at a high cost to agricultural productivity and to the legitimacy of Mughal rule. Aurangzeb was compelled to move his headquarters to Daulatabad in the Deccan to mount a costly campaign against Maratha guerrilla fighters led by Shivaji, which lasted twenty-six-years until he died in 1707 at the age of ninety. Aurangzeb, oppressed by a sense of failure, isolation, and impending doom, lamented that in life he "came alone" and would "go as a stranger."
In the century- and one-half that followed, effective control by Aurangzeb's successors weakened. Succession to imperial and even provincial power, which had often become hereditary, was subject to intrigue and force. The mansabdari system gave way to the zamindari system, in which high-ranking officials took on the appearance of hereditary landed aristocracy with powers of collecting rents. As Delhi's control waned, other contenders for power emerged and clashed, thus preparing the way for the eventual British takeover.
When Aurangzeb died close to the age of ninety, there were seventeen legitimate claimants to the throne that included not only his sons but also his grandsons and great grandsons. After the death of the emperor two brothers fought near Agra (in the same battle site that Aurangzeb had fought his brother Dara Shikoh. Prince Muazzam prevailed and killed his brother Prince Azam Shah and assumed the title Bahadur Shah I (or Shah Alam I). Another brother entered the fight a year later and was killed. Bahadur Shah was well in his sixties when he took control of the empire and soon died in 1712. During those five years he was busy fighting the insurgents in Rajastan and Panjab. Then in 1708 the last Sikh guru, Gobind Singh disappred by his spiritual power . Sikhs under Guru Gobind Singh had already transformed into a radical group after the execution of Guru Teg Bahadur by Aurangzeb. A year later a Banda Bahadur relentlessly stormed Muslim towns and became a thorn on the Mughal emperor’s side.
Bahadur Shah’s son Jahandar Shah succeeded after his death. However, during his tenure he gained a reputation as a womanizing drunk whose outrageous mistress Lal Kunwar took full advantage of the emperor’s condition and enriched herself as well as her brood. Jahandar Shah was killed in 1713 and then Bahadur’s grandson Farrukhsiyar acceded to the throne. With the help of two brothers called Saiyids, Farrukhsiyar restored some sanity to the Mughal rule. Later the Saiyids became intolerable to the emperor and one of them was sent away from Delhi to Deccan and the other was kept in constant watch in Delhi. In Deccan Saiyid Husain Ali Khan colluded with the Marathas and attacked Delhi and using trickery and intrigue seized Farrukhsiyar in the Red Fort. The emperor was blinded and caged and later poisoned as well as stabbed to death. However, prior to his death, Farrukhsiyar had the dubious distinction of aiding the British to have a firm foothold in India, by signing the much-coveted farman (an imperial directive) that would seal the future of British takeover of India.
A wretched youth, Shah Jahan II was made to occupy the throne after the murder of Farrukhsiyar but his rule lasted only three months. The Saiyids enthroned another pawn, Muhammad Shah as the Mughal emperor. He had an unexpected reign of close to thirty years. The Saiyids were disposed off but the emperor had little penchant for ruling. It was during his rule the notorious raids of Delhi by Nadir shah of Persia and the Afghan Ahmad Shah Abdali took place.
Marathas were now constantly attacking Delhi. Of more consequence and humiliation was the plunder of Delhi by Nadir Shah. A Timur descendent, Nadir Shah usurped the throne in Persia and seized Kandahar and Kabul. He marched through Panjab and was invited by Muhammad Shah as a guest to Delhi (only because he had neither the will nor the resources to fight him). Within forty-eight hours, using a lame excuse, Nadir Shah ordered a general massacre of Delhi citizens and looted every bit of wealth they could extort out of the royalty as well as Delhi’s citizenry. Nadir Shah remained in Delhi for forty eighty days and departed with millions worth of gold, jewelry and coins. Even the emperor’s throne, the bejeweled peacock throne of Shah Jahan was packed on elephants and carried away to Persia. Another prize, the Koh-I-nur diamond (Humayun’s diamond now passed back into Persian hands). To add insult to injury, the Shah humiliated the emperor by re-crowning him as the Mughal emperor in an ignoble celebration. Later an Afghani, Ahmad Shah Abdali started his incursions into Delhi just for the purpose of looting the capital. In a series of attacks starting in 1748 until 1761, Abdali would not only pillage and loot Delhi, he also cleaned out Mathura, Kashmir and cities in Panjab. From the east the British defeated the Nawab of Bengal and occupied the state of Bengal. The vast Mughal Empire was coming undone at its seams. The fortunes of the British in India were intertwined with the misfortunes of the Mughals.
The raids by Nadir Shah and repeated incursions of Abdali resulted in quick disposal of the next two emperors Ahmad Shah and Alamgir II until in 1759 Shah Alam II ascended the throne. His reign would last several decades. However, he would preside over more loss of territory to the British. When the Nawab of Bengal lost to Robert Clive, Shah Alam II was forced to recognize Clive as a diwan (chancellor) and Bengal slipped to the British hands permanently. Shah Alam II ruled well until his eighties and died as sightless wretch dressed in rags when an army from Bengal led by General Gerald Lake stormed Delhi and Agra. The Marathas like Scindias, Holkars and the Nagpur Bhonsles also had to relinquish power to the British and the British would now boast that they were complete masters of the whole of India.
In 1806 Shah Alam’s son Akbar Shah II acceded to the much diminished empire of the Mughals and ruled until 1837. His son Bahadur Shah Zafar II would be the last emperor of Mughals before the British deposed him in 1858 and the Mughal dynasty would officially come to a dishonourable end. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Bahadur Shah II was forced to take the side of the mutineers though he had no power to affect the outcome of the events. The mutineers had outwitted his British sponsors and now the emperor neither had the troops nor the competence. He had no choice but to join the winning side. However, the success of the mutineers was soon reversed and the octogenarian (he was eighty-two years old) was relieved of his empire and deposed in 1858. The British also unleashed a flurry of revenge attacks on Delhi as well as luckless Bahadur Shah. Two of his sons and a grandson were shot while in custody. The emperor was then exiled to Rangoon in Burma where he died in obscurity in 1862.
The glory of the Mughal kingdom established in 1526 by the tiger from Kabul, Babur would end in 1858 and India’s fate was in the hands another expansionist foreign force, the imperial British.
Arrival of the Europeans
Vasco da Gama led the first documented European expedition to India, sailing into Calicut on the southwest coast in 1498. In 1510 the Portuguese captured Goa, which became the seat of their activity. Under Admiral Alfonso de Albuquerque, Portugal successfully challenged Arab power in the Indian Ocean and dominated the sea routes for a century. Jesuits came to convert, to converse, and to record observations of India. The Protestant countries of the Netherlands and England, upset by the Portuguese monopoly, formed private trading companies at the turn of the seventeenth century to challenge the Portuguese.
Mughal officials permitted the new carriers of India's considerable export trade to establish trading posts (factories) in India. The Dutch East India Company concentrated mainly on the spice trade from present-day Indonesia. Britain's East India Company carried on trade with India. The French East India Company also set up factories.
During the wars of the 18th century, the factories served not only as collection and transshipment points for trade but also increasingly as fortified centres of refuge for both foreigners and Indians. British factories gradually began to apply British law to disputes arising within their jurisdiction. The posts also began to grow in area and population. Armed company servants were effective protectors of trade. As rival contenders for power called for armed assistance and as individual European adventurers found permanent homes in India, British and French companies found themselves more and more involved in local politics in the south and in Bengal. Plots and counterplots climaxed when British East India Company forces, led by Robert Clive, decisively defeated the larger but divided forces of Nawab Siraj-ud-Dawlah at Plassey (Pilasi) in Bengal in 1757.
The tale of the Marathas' rise to power and their eventual fall contains all the elements of a thriller: adventure, intrigue, and romanticism. Maratha chieftains were originally in the service of Bijapur sultans in the western Deccan, which was under siege by the Mughals.
Shivaji Bhonsle (1627-80) a tenacious and fierce fighter recognized as the "father of the Maratha nation," took advantage of this conflict and carved out his own principality near Pune, which later became the Maratha capital. Adopting guerrilla tactics, he waylaid caravans in order to sustain and expand his army, which soon had money, arms, and horses. Shivaji led a series of successful assaults in the 1660s against Mughal strongholds, including the major port of Surat. In 1674 he assumed the title of "Lord of the Universe" at his elaborate coronation, which signaled his determination to challenge the Mughal forces as well as to reestablish a Hindu kingdom in Maharashtra, the land of his origin. Shivaji's battle cries were swaraj (translated variously as freedom, self-rule, independence), swadharma (religious freedom), and goraksha (cow protection). Aurangzeb relentlessly pursued Shivaji's successors between 1681 and 1705 but eventually retreated to the north as his treasury became depleted and as thousands of lives had been lost either on the battlefield or to natural calamities. In 1717 a Mughal emissary signed a treaty with the Marathas confirming their claims to rule in the Deccan in return for acknowledging the fictional Mughal suzerainty and remission of annual taxes. Yet the Marathas soon captured Malwa from Mughal control and later moved east into Orissa and Bengal; southern India also came under their domain. Recognition of their political power finally came when the Mughal emperor invited them to act as auxiliaries in the internal affairs of the empire and still later to help the emperor in driving the Afghans out of Punjab.
The Marathas, despite their military prowess and leadership, were not equipped to administer the state or to undertake socioeconomic reform. Pursuing a policy characterized by plunder and indiscriminate raids, they antagonized the peasants. They were primarily suited for stirring the Maharashtrian regional pride rather than for attracting loyalty to an all-India confederacy. They were left virtually alone and without supplies before the invading Afghan forces, headed by Ahmad Shah Abdali (later called Ahmad Shah Durrani), who routed them on the blood-drenched battlefield at Third Battle of Panipat|Panipat in 1761. The shock of defeat hastened the break-up of their loosely knit confederacy into five independent states and extinguished the hope of Maratha dominance in India.
The Nizams of Hyderabad
Maratha raids into Berar, Kandesh, Gujarat and Malwa resumed after the death of Aurangzeb, and loosened Mughal control in the Deccan. In 1724 Asaf Jah, the Mughal Nizam ul Mulk, or viceroy, of the Deccan, defeated several contenders for control of the Mughal southern provinces, and established himself of ruler of an independent state with its capital at Hyderabad. He and his successors ruled as hereditary Nizams, and their state, known as Hyderabad after the capital, outlasted the Mughal empire, persisting until it was incorporated into newly-independent India in 1948. Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jahi was a strong ruler and established an orderly system of administration. He also attempted to reform the revenue system. The dynasty founded by him came to be known as the Asaf Jahi dynasty.
The Afghan defeat of the Maratha armies accelerated the breakaway of Punjab from Delhi and helped the founding of Sikh overlordship in the northwest. Rooted in the bhakti movements that developed in the second century B.C. but swept across North India during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the teachings of the Sikh gurus appealed to the hard-working peasants. Facing extended persecution from the Mughals, the Sikhs, under Guru Gobind Singh formed the Khalsa (Army of Pure). The khalsa rose up against the economic and political repressions in Punjab toward the end of Aurangzeb's rule. Guerrilla fighters took advantage of the political instability created by the Persian and Afghan onslaught against Delhi, enriching themselves and expanding territorial control. By the 1770s, Sikh hegemony extended from the Indus in the west to the Yamuna in the east, from Multan in the south to Jammu in the north. But the Sikhs, like the Marathas, were a loose, disunited, and quarrelsome conglomerate of twelve kin-groups. It took Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), an individual with modernizing vision and leadership, to achieve supremacy over the other kin-groups and establish his kingdom in which Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims lived together in comparative equality and increasing prosperity. Ranjit Singh employed European officers and introduced strict military discipline into his army before expanding into Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Establishment of the Europeans
The quest for wealth and power brought Europeans to Indian shores in 1498 when Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese voyager, arrived in Calicut (modern Kozhikode, Kerala) on the west coast. In their search for spices and Christian converts, the Portuguese challenged Arab supremacy in the Indian Ocean, and, with their galleons fitted with powerful cannons, set up a network of strategic trading posts along the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. In 1510 the Portuguese took over the enclave of Goa, which became the center of their commercial and political power in India and which they controlled for nearly four and a half centuries.
Economic competition among the European nations led to the founding of commercial companies in England (the East India Company, founded in 1600) and in the Netherlands (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie-- the United East India Company, founded in 1602), whose primary aim was to capture the spice trade by breaking the Portuguese monopoly in Asia. Although the Dutch, with a large supply of capital and support from their government, preempted and ultimately excluded the British from the heartland of spices in the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), both companies managed to establish trading "factories" (actually warehouses) along the Indian coast. The Dutch, for example, used various ports on the Coromandel Coast in South India, especially Pulicat (about twenty kilometers north of Madras), as major sources for slaves for their plantations in the East Indies and for cotton cloth as early as 1609. (The English, however, established their first factory at what today is known as Madras only in 1639.) Indian rulers enthusiastically accommodated the newcomers in hopes of pitting them against the Portuguese. In 1619 Jahangir granted them permission to trade in his territories at Surat (in Gujarat) on the west coast and Hughli (in West Bengal) in the east. These and other locations on the peninsula became centers of international trade in spices, cotton, sugar, raw silk, saltpeter, calico, and indigo.
English company agents became familiar with Indian customs and languages, including Persian, the unifying official language under the Mughals. In many ways, the English agents of that period lived like Indians, intermarried willingly, and a large number of them never returned to their home country. The knowledge of India thus acquired and the mutual ties forged with Indian trading groups gave the English a competitive edge over other Europeans. The French commercial interest--Compagnie des Indes Orientales (East India Company, founded in 1664)--came late, but the French also established themselves in India, emulating the precedents set by their competitors as they founded their enclave at Pondicherry (Puduchcheri) on the Coromandel Coast.
In 1717 the Mughal emperor, Farrukhsiyar (r. 1713-19), gave the British--who by then had already established themselves in the south and the west--a grant of thirty-eight villages near Calcutta, acknowledging their importance to the continuity of international trade in the Bengal economy. As did the Dutch and the French, the British brought silver bullion and copper to pay for transactions, helping the smooth functioning of the Mughal revenue system and increasing the benefits to local artisans and traders.
The fortified warehouses of the British brought extraterritorial status, which enabled them to administer their own civil and criminal laws and offered numerous employment opportunities as well as asylum to foreigners and Indians. The British factories successfully competed with their rivals as their size and population grew. The original clusters of fishing villages (Madras and Calcutta) or series of islands (Bombay) became headquarters of the British administrative zones, or presidencies as they generally came to be known. The factories and their immediate environs, known as the White-town, represented the actual and symbolic preeminence of the British--in terms of their political power--as well as their cultural values and social practices; meanwhile, their Indian collaborators lived in the Black-town, separated from the factories by several kilometres.
The British company employed sepoys--European-trained and European-led Indian soldiers--to protect its trade, but local rulers sought their services to settle scores in regional power struggles. South India witnessed the first open confrontation between the British and the French, whose forces were led by Robert Clive and François Dupleix, respectively. Both companies desired to place their own candidate as the nawab, or ruler, of Arcot, the area around Madras. At the end of a protracted struggle between 1744 and 1763, when the Peace of Paris was signed, the British gained an upper hand over the French and installed their man in power, supporting him further with arms and lending large sums as well. The French and the British also backed different factions in the succession struggle for Mughal viceroyalty in Bengal, but Clive intervened successfully and defeated Nawab Siraj-ud-daula in the Battle of Plassey (Palashi, about 150 kilometres north of Calcutta) in 1757. Clive found help from a combination of vested interests that opposed the existing nawab: disgruntled soldiers, landholders, and influential merchants whose commercial profits were closely linked to British fortunes.
Later, Clive defeated the Mughal forces at Buxar (Baksar, west of Patna in Bihar) in 1765, and the Mughal emperor (Shah Alam, r. 1759-1806) conferred on the company administrative rights over Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, a region of roughly 25 million people with an annual revenue of 40 million rupees (for current value of the rupee). The imperial grant virtually established the company as a sovereign power, and Clive became the first British governor of Bengal.
Besides the presence of the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and French, there were two lesser but noteworthy colonial groups. Danish entrepreneurs established themselves at several ports on the Malabar coast and the Coromandel coast notably Tranquebar, in the vicinity of Calcutta, and inland at Patna between 1695 and 1740. Austrian enterprises were set up in the 1720s on the vicinity of Surat in modern-day southeastern Gujarat. As with the other non-British enterprises, the Danish and Austrian enclaves were taken over by the British between 1765 and 1815.
The Indian economy boomed under the Mughals, because of the creation of a road system and a uniform currency, together with the unification of the country. Manufactured goods and peasant-grown cash crops were sold throughout the world. Key industries included shipbuilding (the Indian shipbuilding industry was as advanced as the European, and Indians sold ships to European firms), textiles, and steel. The Mughals maintained a small fleet, which merely carried pilgrims to Mecca, imported a few Arab horses, transported soldiers over rivers, and fought pirates; however, the Muslim Siddis of Janjira, and the Marathas sent ships to China, and the eastern limits of Africa, together with some Mughal subjects carrying out private-sector trade.
Cities and towns boomed under the Mughals; however, for the most part, they were military and political centres, not manufacturing or commerce centres. Only those guilds which produced goods for the bureaucracy made goods in the towns; most industry was based in rural areas.
The nobility was a heterogeneous body; while it primarily consisted of Rajput aristocrats and foreigners from Muslim countries, people of all castes and nationalities could gain a title from the emperor. The middle class of openly affluent traders consisted of a few wealthy merchants living in the coastal towns; the bulk of the merchants pretended to be poor to avoid taxation. The bulk of the people were poor. The standard of living of the poor was as low as, or somewhat higher than, the standard of living of the Indian poor under the British Raj; whatever benefits the British brought with canals and modern industry were neutralized by rising population growth, high taxes, and the collapse of traditional industry in the nineteenth century.
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Strong reasoning
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History
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Even if today many fans (and critics) of the 1960s/1970s and the “counterculture” hold the believe that this generation, and those involved in social change were mostly anti-scientific and anti-technology, this view of the era is largely wrong.
We know for a fact that back then many alternative ways of coping with life, philosophy, the idea of communal living and spirituality were imported or invented.
While fresh input, obviously often derived from experiences with mind expanding drugs, the contact with Eastern religion and philosophy, led to a number of far-reaching innovations in science.
Editors Kaiser and McCray compiled a history of those innovations and approaches: improved surfboards, home cheese-making, dolphin communication, a new type of midwives and many other novelties. Many scientists, who, led by drugs, interest for sex, utopian ideas, strange design ideas from science-fiction literature and an altogether fresh interest in research unheard of in earlier times simply changed the world.
“In ignoring or sidelining these visionaries [hippies and freaks at this time], many of whom were fueled by a combustible mix of LSD and social isolation, mainstream historians of recent American history have missed a big story about how a substantial subset of Americans came to rethink how they eat, how they communicate, how they stay healthy. How they design and build, and how they have fun.”
Just because the seventies offered a completely new way of looking at things and now simply declared weird combinations of interdisciplinary origins on the level with “square” approaches to problem solving. This also resulted in a number of innovative small start-ups. In order to understand those times, it is necessary to know that many research budgets were cut (except the ones for military purposes), science in general had lost much of its appeal and attractiveness and the war in Southeast Asia was not only a major topic in the news but also was the reason for cut national research budgets and lacking attention for ongoing scientific research.
At this time, private sponsors and civilian agencies offered help and were gladly welcomed by the scientists, who, according to some changes and the zeitgeist, wanted to distance themselves as well as their work from the government and military ends.
Hard to believe, but reading Groovy Science actually was fun; it may also be fun for other readers, who are not really into science and technology but prefer topics from the humanities. However, these thinkers who are the stars of Kaiser’s and McCray’s book, very strongly shaped the counterculture, that in turn has had a huge influence of today’s mainstream culture. Those changes naturally were tied to the particular times. (Imagine a long-haired physicist or a biologist experimenting with drugs, listening to psychedelic rock music and going surfing in 1949… or in 1955…).
Nonetheless, at this particular time in the ”long 1970s,” many disciplines simply communicated very easily and scientist responsible for budgets, laboratory time or project goals just took the chance and realized (the possibilities for) the big picture, where many ideas from a different mindset could solve tangible problems.
Review by Dr. A. Ebert © 2017
David Kaiser and W. Patrick McCray (eds.) Groovy Science: Knowledge, Innovation, and American Counterculture. University Of Chicago Press, 2016, 432 p.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Proudly Made in the USA American Flags near Miamisburg OH 45342
A nationwide icon that has the names “The Stars and Stripes”, “Old Glory”, as well as “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the American flag is among the extremely recognizable icons worldwide today. This is primarily due to the condition of the United States as one of the most significant nations in history. The American Flag is the third oldest of the National Standards of the globe – older compared to the Union Jack of Britain or the Tricolor of France. It is unique in the deep as well as noble significance of its message to the entire world. It represents a message of nationwide independence, of specific freedom, of idealism, as well as of nationalism.
Who created the American Flag?
According to prominent tales, the first American flag was sewed by Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress who was an acquaintance of George Washington. In May 1776, so the story goes, General Washington and also two representatives from the Continental Congress saw Ross at her upholstery store and showed her a rough layout of the flag. Washington originally preferred using a star with six points, Ross supported for a five-pointed star, which can be cut with just one fast snip of the scissors, as well as the gents were won over. Chroniclers have never been able to validate this version of occasions.
In those days, the flag was not the very same as we recognize it today. The act mentioned, “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red as well as white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
Just what does the American Flag represent?
The flag first flew over thirteen states along the Atlantic seaboard, with a populace of some 3 million individuals. Today it flies over fifty states, expanding throughout the continent, and also over great islands of the 2 seas; and also millions owe it allegiance.
The flag contains 13 alternating red and white straight stripes standing for the first thirteen British colonies that declared self-reliance from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and also came to be the very first states in the United States. A blue rectangle in the canton bears 50 small, white stars standing for each state. The stars are arranged in 9 horizontal rows offset of each other. This blue location of the flag is called the Union.
The meaning of the Flag, as stated by Washington: “We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white red stripes, thus revealing that we have actually separated from her, and also the white stripes shall decrease to posterity standing for Liberty.”
It incarnates for all mankind the spirit of freedom and also the glorious belief of human freedom; not the freedom of unrestraint or the liberty of license, however a special ideal of equal opportunity forever, liberty as well as the pursuit of joy, secured by the stern and soaring concepts of task, of integrity and of justice, and achievable by obedience to self-imposed laws.
Two times informed stories of nationwide honor and also splendor collection heavily concerning it. It bears witness to the tremendous development of our nationwide limits, the development of our natural resources, as well as the remarkable structure of our civilization. It prophesises the victory of prominent government, of public and religious liberty and of national righteousness throughout the globe.
Why is the American Flag vital to American community?
The American flag is crucial because it symbolizes the independent government as explained under the United States Constitution. Include in that, it also stands for the background, ideas and values of its citizens. As a democratic nation, its people comply with all-important values such as freedom, justice and also equality. Furthermore, the flag likewise represents the various successes of the nation in addition to the satisfaction of its individuals.
This national icon advises individuals, not just in the Ohio state, but throughout the entire USA concerning the various vital aspects of the Declaration of Independence. It is a complex symbol, which represents the liberty and also legal rights of Americans. Floating from the lofty pinnacle of American optimism, it is a sign of enduring hope.
It is the indicator made visible of the strong spirit that has actually brought freedom and also prosperity to the people of America. It is the flag of all us alike. Let us accord it recognize as well as loyalty.
Where can I buy American Flags?
You most likely currently seen this, yet there are a great deal of locations where you could obtain American flags. However, it is very important to note that the flag you are wanting to buy ought to be “Made in United States of America”.
Based on stats, Americans spend over 5.3 million USD on imported flags yearly – the majority of which are made in China. Possibly a lot more perplexing is that throughout 2001, in the wave of nationalism that spread over America after 9/11, Americans bought $52 million dollars in imported flags. The flag needs to symbolize the blood, sweat, and also tears of American men and women that brought this country into existence, not our indebtedness to China and the fatality of the American production sector.
The flag symbolizes national independence as well as popular sovereignty. It is not the flag of a ruling family or imperial house, however of the many free people welded into a nation, one and indivisible, united not only by community of passion, however by vital unity of belief as well as purpose; a country differentiated for the clear specific conception of its citizens alike of their obligations and their advantages, their responsibilities and also their rights.
Have a little pride, cough up a few more dollars, and also buy an American flag made by Americans in the United States of America.
Miamisburg ZIP codes we serve: 45342
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Moderate reasoning
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History
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OT During Quarantine: Strategies and Resources
By: Meghan Davidson-Palmer, M.S., OTR/L
Keeping kids occupied during quarantine can be challenging, but it can also be an opportunity to mix things up and try some fun new activities. See the list below for some of my favorite activities. These activities provide sensory input which is important to add into daily routines to help break up more structured, demanding activities such as school work. These activities also address a variety of other skills, including fine and visual motor skills, coordination and motor planning. I recommend starting small by trying to incorporate one new activity a day.
Play-doh®: Provides tactile input while also working on fine motor skills.
- Roll out with a rolling pin, then use cookie cutters to make shapes
- Mold play dough into different shapes
- Hide small toys or beads in the play dough for kids to find (you can also do this with therapy putty for additional resistance for hand and finger strengthening)
- Make your own playdough!
- There are several homemade playdough recipes out there, many of which require only water, flour and salt (some also add oil): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv73CEzY1jg
- If you’re looking for something that is closer to Play-doh®, try this recipe (it has a few more ingredients and steps but should last longer): https://tinkerlab.com/rainbow-play-dough/
Sensory bins: Fill bins or buckets with dried beans, rice, pasta or kinetic sand (you can use anything really!)
- Children can explore the bins with their hands for tactile input
- You can play I Spy with the toys/objects hidden in the bin to address visual perceptual skills
- Use tweezers or tongs to pull out the hidden objects for fine motor strengthening
- Hide letter or number magnets in the sensory bins to work on letter and number recognition
Obstacle courses: These are a fun way to work on coordination, balance and motor planning using items found around the house. Add stations to build in fine and visual motor skills (e.g., pick up a crayon/puzzle piece at one station and color a picture/add to the puzzle at another).
Animal walks: These are a great way to provide sensory input and work on gross motor coordination, balance and core strength at the same time. Examples include bear walks, frog jumps, bunny hops, and lizard crawls (just to name a few). If you search for animal walks for kids online, other ideas will pop up. www.toolstogrowot.com has some great resources for animal walks as well.
Scavenger hunts- Hide toys, letters, pictures, etc. around the house or backyard to address visual memory, visual scanning, working memory, and attention.
Keeping a routine is especially important during quarantine to help provide structure and a sense of normalcy. Visual schedules can be very helpful with this. This can be especially helpful for children who have difficulty transitioning between different activities. Having something familiar and predictable can be calming during this crazy time. www.teacherspayteachers.com has some great visual schedule resources (as well as a ton of other great resources – I recommend checking them out!)
- Tools to Grow OT: this website has some great resources. You need to subscribe to have access to all resources but there are a ton of great free resources too! If you’re not already familiar with this website I highly recommend you check it out! https://www.toolstogrowot.com/free-therapy-resources/sort/date-new
- OT Plan is another good resource- it offers activity ideas based on the skill area you select and the materials you select
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Moderate reasoning
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Health
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Debra Conley‘s Review:
How many times have you engaged in a conversation with someone who cannot accept the idea of Creation because it is not “scientific”? Have you sat under a biology or chemistry professor who “proved’ evolution by matching monkey parts to modern men and wished you had a credible, scientific rebuttal? Unfortunately, as Christians we often take a back seat to real education (i.e., truth) that can set us free of charlatan philosophies. Now Christians have available texts such as this one to use as a study companion.
Darwin’s Black Box contains numerous scientific refutations to the theory of natural selection promoted by Charles Darwin. Michael Behe is a full Professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University. As a scientist intrigued by recent discoveries in molecular biology, Behe responsibly gathers research information from all scientists and researchers involved in this field. His explanations of how each research project succeeds in explaining where new discoveries “fit” will not leave the layman lost in scientific jargon. The last decade has propelled such advances in the study of tiny organisms like cilia and flagella, thought by Darwin to be the simple starting point of evolution. Now we know that these organisms are extremely complex, containing thousands of specifically tailored parts. As Behe reviews evolutionary scientist’s explanations of these discoveries, he shows the reader how the research always skips the initial problem question of natural selection: How did that one very complex, tailored organism arrive on earth in the first place? Behe shows through a number of scientific experiments how many researchers now know that these organisms could not have evolved (Chapters 9, 10). They are irreducibly complex (see July’s review of Intelligent Design. The magnitude of these complex systems is also staggering. It’s not just about one function or trigger within each cilia or flagella. It’s about thousands of functions, triggers, and particularly the codes sent from one to another that are so intertwined that no one could have been added on through time.
Behe also addresses the skepticism and the hard core educational community determined not to give way to any other ideas, citing such examples as for centuries respected scientists who believed the earth to be flat. Indeed, they nearly executed Galileo for continually promoting an ‘earth revolves around the sun’ theory.
Behe defines the two approaches this way: “ Intolerance does not arise when I think that I have found the truth. Rather it comes about only when I think that, because I have found it, everyone else should agree with me. Richard Dawkins (evolutionary researcher Behe refutes) has written that anyone who denies evolution is either ‘ignorant, stupid, or insane, or wicked.’ John Maddox, editor of Nature, says, ‘it may not be long before the practice of religion must be regarded as anti-science.’ In his recent book, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, author Daniel Dennett compares religious believers to wild animals who may have to be caged, and he says that ‘these parents may have to be prevented from misinforming their children about the truth of evolution’” (p. 250). Michael Behe gives a complete and extensive bibliography worth the price of the book.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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Some fruit flies can drink others under the table.
Now, scientists at North Carolina State University have a few more genetic clues behind why some flies are more sensitive to alcohol than others. And the results might lead to more knowledge about alcoholism in humans.
After genetically modifying fruit flies to be either extremely sensitive or extremely resistant to alcohol lightweights or lushes the NC State scientists found that a number of fruit fly genes undergo changes when sensitivity to alcohol changes.
A number of these genes, the researchers report, are similar to genes found in humans, suggesting that they may be good targets to study human predisposal to alcoholism.
The research is published in the November edition of Genome Biology, which is available online at http://genomebiology.com.
The research team Dr. Tatiana Morozova, a post-doctoral researcher in zoology; Dr. Trudy Mackay, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Genetics; and Dr. Robert Anholt, professor of zoology and genetics used a unique approach in the study.
Rather than examining gene changes after exposure to alcohol and the development of tolerance to it, the NC State study first artificially selected flies for alcohol sensitivity creating the lushes and the lightweights and then, in a "whole-genome" approach, examined the entire genome, or set of all genes, to find genes that had consistent changes in expression as a response to the artificial selection.
"We wanted to find the genetic factors that changed when flies became more sensitive or more resistant to alcohol, knowing that genes that undergo changes are potential candidate genes for mediating sensitivity," Anholt said.
In the study, flies were exposed to alcohol vapors in a so-called inebriometer, a long vertical tube filled with a number of slanted platforms onto which the flies can cling. As flies became inebriated, they fell from platform to platform until they became so intoxicated that they fell to the bottom of the tube, where they were collected.
"When you expose flies to alcohol, they go through the tube at a rate more or less determined by their genetic background," Mackay said.
By mating the most extreme lightweights with other extreme lightweights for 25 generations and mating extreme lushes with other extreme lushes for 25 generations, the researchers created both "lightweight" flies that needed just a minute or two of exposure to fall to the bottom of the inebriometer and fly "lushes" that finally reached the tube's bottom after a "bender" of about 18 minutes.
More than 1,500 genes changed in testing, the study showed. Tests of 35 especially promising candidate genes showed 32 genes affecting alcohol sensitivity. Seventy-two percent of these 32 genes have human counterparts, the researchers said.
Some of these changed genes are involved in one of the metabolic pathways that converts alcohol into fat, and have not been previously studied for a correlation to alcohol sensitivity, the researchers added.
Finding relevant genes, Mackay says, could some day lead to devising a drug for people with higher genetic risk factors for alcoholism.
|Contact: Trudy Mackay|
North Carolina State University
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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For many of those who create financial models, the most important function in Excel is the IF function. This article discusses valuable ways to use IF, providing solutions to common issues encountered by finance professionals.
I have heard that there is an alternative to using the IF function in Excel using “flags”. What are they?
The syntax for IF demonstrates just how useful this function is for financial modelling:
This function has three arguments:
- logical_test: This is the “decider”, ie, a test that results in a value of either TRUE or FALSE. Strictly speaking, the logical_test tests whether something is TRUE; if not, it is FALSE.
- value_if_TRUE: What to do if the logical_test is TRUE. Note that you do not put square brackets around this argument. This is just the Excel syntax for saying sometimes this argument is optional. If this argument is indeed omitted, it will have a default value of TRUE.
- value_if_FALSE: What to do if the logical_test is FALSE (strictly speaking, not TRUE). If this argument is left blank, it will have a default value of FALSE.
This function is more efficient than it may look at first glance. Whilst the logical_test is always evaluated, only one of the remaining two arguments is computed, depending upon whether the logical_test is TRUE or FALSE. For example:
In this example, the intention is to evaluate the quotient Numerator/Denominator. However, if the denominator is either blank or zero, this will result in a #DIV/0! error. Excel has several errors that it cannot evaluate, eg, #REF!, #NULL, #N/A, #Brown, #Pipe. OK, so one or two of these I may have made up, but prima facie errors should be avoided in Excel as they detract from the key results and cause the user to doubt the overall model integrity. Worse, in some instances these errors may contribute to Excel crashing and/or corrupting the file.
This is where IF comes in. In my example above:
tests whether the Denominator is zero. If so, the value is unspecified (blank) and will consequently return a value of zero in Excel; otherwise, the quotient is calculated as intended.
This is known as creating an error trap. Errors are “trapped”, and the “harmless” value of zero is returned instead. You could put “n.a.” or “This is an error” as the value_if_TRUE, but you get the picture.
It is my preference not to put a zero in for the value_if_TRUE. I think a formula looks clearer this way, but inexperienced end users may not understand the formula, and you should consider your audience when deciding to put what may appear to be an unnecessary zero in a formula. The aim is to keep it simple for the end user.
An IF statement is often used to make a decision in the model, ie:
This automates a model and aids management in decision-making and what-if analysis. IF is clearly a powerful tool when used correctly. However, sometimes it is used when another function might be preferable. For example, if you find yourself writing a formula that begins
then I humbly suggest you are using the wrong function. And I don’t mean to start using IFS from Excel 2016. IF should never be used to look up data: There are plenty of functions to help with that problem, but we will come to that in time. However, sometimes your logical_test might consist of multiple criteria, eg:
Here, this formula gives a value of 1 only if all three conditions are true. This nested IF statement may be avoided using the logical function AND(condition1,condition2,…), which is only TRUE if all dependant arguments are TRUE, ie:
This is actually easier to read. Two other useful logic functions are sometimes used with IF:
- OR(condition1,condition2,…) is TRUE when at least one of the arguments is TRUE.
- NOT(condition) gives the opposite logic value, so that if the condition is TRUE, it will be FALSE and vice versa.
Even using these logic functions, formulae may look complex quite quickly. There is an alternative: flags. In the most common form, flags are evaluated as
condition=TRUE will give rise to a value of either TRUE or FALSE; the curved brackets will ensure this is evaluated first; multiplying by 1 will provide an end result of zero (if FALSE, as FALSE*1 = 0) or one (if TRUE, TRUE*1 = 1). I know some modellers prefer TRUEs and FALSEs everywhere, but I think 1’s and 0’s are easier to read (when there are lots of them) and, more importantly, easier to sum when you need to know how many issues there are, etc.
Flags make it easier to follow the tested conditions. Consider the following:
In this illustration, you might not yet understand what the MOD function does (check out A Modicum of MOD for more details). But you can follow each of the flags in rows 4 to 7 without being an Excel guru. Row 9, the product, simply multiplies all of the flags together (using the PRODUCT function allows you to add additional conditions and rows easily). This produces an AND flag. If I wanted the flag to be a 1, as long as one of the above conditions is TRUE, that is easy, too:
Flags frequently make models more transparent, and this example provides a great learning point. Often, we mistakenly believe that condensing a model into fewer cells makes it more efficient and easier to follow. On the contrary, it is usually better to step out a calculation. If it can be followed on a piece of paper (without access to the formula bar), then more people will follow it. If more can follow the model logic, errors will be more easily spotted. When this occurs, a model becomes trusted and therefore is of more value in decision-making.
Word to the wise
A word of caution: Sometimes you just can’t use flags. Let me go back to my first example in this section – but this time using the flag approach:
Here, the flag does not trap the division-by-zero error. This is because this formula evaluates to
=#DIV/0! x 0
which equals #DIV/0! If you need to trap an error, you must use an IF function.
Liam Bastick is director of SumProduct, a global consultancy specialising in Excel training. Send ideas for future Excel-related articles to him at [email protected].
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Strong reasoning
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Software
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With the growing impact of climate change, and increasing economic pressures on organisations of all shapes and sizes, more and more companies are looking at ways to reduce their environmental impact but also to cut down on expenses and the cost of doing business. One way of achieving both these goals – improving environmental performance and saving money is to become more energy efficient and so lower energy bills. Opportunities to identify where energy costs can be reduced can be determined in a number of ways, and finding the best way for a business to cut back depends on a number of different factors – and this is where ISO 50001 come in to its own.
To help organisations who are actively seeking ways to cut back on energy usage the International Organization of Standardization has developed an actionable plan that focuses on energy management, it is called ISO 50001 – Energy Management System.
What is ISO 50001 all about?
ISO 50001 is a standardised framework that includes requirements for establishing an effective energy management system. By following the guidelines any business large or small should be able to create a plan that will help it reach its goals of reducing energy consumption and lowering its overall energy costs.
The ISO system provides a framework or guide that makes it possible for the organisation to tailor the framework to fit in with the operations of the business. The standards that are built into the system are designed to help any and all businesses reduce their energy consumption, which in turn should lead to reduced operating costs and help to lower greenhouse gas emissions – a truly win-win scenario.
Specific requirements of ISO 50001
ISO 50001 has a number of specific requirements or objectives for any organisation that adopts the standard which are:
- Improved energy efficiency.
- Improved energy security.
- Reduce energy usage.
- Reduce energy consumption.
Why should you consider ISO 50001?
The main objective of the ISO 50001 standard is to help an organisation do a better job of managing its energy, and to reduce its energy costs year-in year out. Using the guidelines that are included in this management framework any business large, medium or small should be able to identify those areas that offer opportunities for energy efficiency improvement and so achieve reductions in energy consumption and cost.
Using an already tried-and-tested approach is one of the most effective ways to identify those areas ripe for improvement, and then develop the best ways to implement the necessary changes. The benefits of implementing ISO 50001 can be significant and can include:
- Reduced energy costs.
- Noticeable impact of the lower energy costs.
- Satisfy regulatory and internal targets on carbon emissions.
- Reduce the need for fossil fuels.
- Improve the organisations reputation as a socially responsible business.
World-class energy management frameworks
Quality Management Systems deliver a comprehensive range of world-class energy management, auditing, training and OHS software solutions to organisations wishing to reduce their energy consumption, become more energy efficient and so reduce energy costs.
If you would like to learn more about our energy management solutions, and how we can help you develop world-class management processes please get in touch today.
More information about the ISO 50001 … here →
Clients, associates and others who found this useful
Wealth Management Firm Oshawa Ontario
Vanessa Benedict is a fully qualified Wealth Advisor licensed with the Canadian Securities Commission and Insurance Commission, a Certified Financial Planner and she has earned a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Life Sciences and a Minor Degree in Psychology at Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario.
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Bail Bond Agent in Fort Worth
Under the Mission Bail Bond name, owner Cathy Handy is licensed to make bonds in Tarrant County Texas. So as long as your friend or loved one is in any jail located in Tarrant County, we can post the bond for them. This includes county jail facilities as well as all municipal (city) jails.
We provide upfront pricing and free estimates for all HVAC product installations and repairs. If your home is too hot, we offer affordable ac repair services to get you back in your comfort zone promptly. We also provide furnace and heater repair services for the cold Texas winters.
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Moderate reasoning
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Finance & Business
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VII. THE ARMY AND THE KLAMATH RIVER RESERVATION (continued)
G. COMMENTS and RECOMMENDATIONS
The site of Fort Ter-Waw is now engulfed by the rapidly growing community of Klamath Glen. The site is near the line separating Sections 18 and 19, Township 13 North, Range 2 East. This is about three miles east of the boundary of Redwood National Park. The State of California has erected a historical tablet, commemorating the post, near the site. In 1946 Fred B. Rogers reported that the remains of several chimney foundations could be seen. When I visited the site on April 26, 1969, these had disappeared.
Although Fort Ter-Waw is not located in Redwood National Park, it is intimately associated with a number of themes of the Park Story, and as such it constitutes an important resource. Troops from Fort Ter-Waw brought peace and order to the Klamath and protected the Yurok from encroachments by the whites; they opened a trail from the post to the mouth of the Klamath and improved the trail up the coast to Crescent City; and they defeated the Tolowa in the battle on Wau-Kell Flat.
The role of George Crook at Fort Ter-Waw and on the Klamath will be of interest to the visitor. Crook, a Civil War general and famous Indian campaigner in the West, commanded at Fort Ter-Waw for almost four years. Here he learned to understand and appreciate the Indians, faculties not possessed by most American generals who established their reputations by leading armies in the Civil War. Crook has given us some of our most enlightening and entertaining description of life among the Yurok in the late 1850s. Finally, the battle on Wau-Kell Flat was the second engagement in which this famous Indian fighter had an independent command.
The flood that destroyed Fort Ter-Waw in January 1862 is our first recorded example of the terrible devastation the Klamath is capable of inflicting.
Unless Wau-Kell Flat is acquired by the Service as previously recommended, the story of Fort Ter-Waw, George Crook, and the army on the Klamath will have to be interpreted in a Visitor Center. If Wau-Kell Flat is acquired, these elements of "Man in the Redwoods" should be interpreted there.
Last Updated: 15-Jan-2004
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Strong reasoning
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History
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Leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias according to The Law of Intuition; the 8th Law of John C. Maxwell’s 21 irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
According to Maxwell the Law of Intuition separates great leaders from good ones. Great leaders use intuition to couple instinct with intangible factors like morale, momentum and relationship dynamics to read “what’s happening” in the organisation.
Maxwell says that Leaders are Readers:
- Leaders Are Readers of Their Situation – leaders pick up on details that might elude others. They sense people’s attitudes. They are able to detect the chemistry of a team. They know the situation before they have all the facts.
- Leaders Are Readers of Trends – leaders discern where the organization is headed, often times they sense it first and find data later to explain it. Their intuition tells them that something is happening, that conditions are changing. Leaders must always be a few steps ahead of their people, or they’re not really leading.
- Leaders Are Readers of Their Resources – leaders think in terms or resources and how to maximize them for the benefit of their organization. They are continually aware of what they have at their disposal.
- Leaders Are Readers of People – Intuition helps leaders sense what’s happening among people and know their hopes, fears and concerns. Reading people is perhaps the most important intuitive skill leaders can possess.
- Leaders are Readers of Themselves – leaders must know not only their own strengths and weaknesses, but also their current state of mind. Why? Because leaders can hinder progress just as easily as they can help create it.
If you want to be a great leader, learn to read your intuition. If you can’t do this, expect to be blindsided!
Are you often caught unawares?
Do you wish that you had read a situation better, or earlier?
This is the 8th article in a series of 21. Previous articles can be found here:
- The Law of the Lid: How effective are you as a leader?
- The Law of Influence: The True Measure of Leadership
- The Law of Process: Leadership is a Journey of Continuous Improvement
- The Law of Navigation: Anyone can Steer the Ship…
- The Law of Addition: Adding Value by Serving Others
- The Law of Solid Ground: Trust is the Foundation of Leadership
- The Law of Respect: People Don’t Follow Others by Accident
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Moderate reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Preserving our space heritage
by Anthony French
|Many of the launch pads used in the pre-Apollo era, the building blocks for Neil Armstrong to take that one small step, lie rotting among the Florida foliage.|
Nearly 60 years have elapsed since Sputnik broke into the realm of “outer space” and in that period, there has been more than 5,000 rocket launches. Men have walked—and driven cars—on the Moon. Robotic missions have landed safely on Venus, Mars, and Saturn’s moon Titan. Probes have crossed the outer expanse of our solar system and begun indefinite voyages into the unknown. Not all have been successful, of course, but that’s still an awful lot of hardware roaming the heavens or sitting on other planets as space junk.
I do object to the term “space junk,” though. It carries the assumption that everything humanity leaves up there is intrinsically disposable and of no consequence, as if it should be disposed of with as much regard as you would an empty can of beer. Confusingly, the same attitude has lately been applied to relics of the space race here on Earth. NASA allowed contractors to alter the launch pad that launched Apollo 11 to the Moon in 1969. Similarly, many of the launch pads used in the pre-Apollo era of Gemini missions, the building blocks for Neil Armstrong to take that one small step, lie rotting among the Florida foliage. They are unkempt and uncared for, almost as if the plant life is working to uphold NASA’s 21st century agenda and hurrying to eradicate any trace of the past.
My prejudices against the modern space program can wait for another day. What sits awkwardly with me is that when ISIL destroys the ancient temples of Palmyra, they are marked with the mantle of cultural and historical vandals. When the US government destroys relics of the Moon program on the grounds the neglected metalwork was an environmental hazard (probably to do with the total lack of care for it since it was retired) it passes with but a whimper from a small band of hardcore space buffs. Where’s the difference? I don’t see it.
UNESCO lists such recent developments as the Sydney Opera House (built 1973) as World Heritage Sites. Why not the Kennedy Space Center? Why not a place from where six manned missions reached the Moon? Or Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, from where the Pioneer and Voyager missions that left the solar system lifted off? Are footsteps on the Moon a lesser achievement than the construction of an admittedly architecturally-striking, but relatively standard, concert venue? At least in Russia the authorities tout Soviet space achievements and the associated museum-housed hardware with the respect it deserves, if not the official recognition of its status.
|UNESCO lists such recent developments as the Sydney Opera House (built 1973) as World Heritage Sites. Why not the Kennedy Space Center?|
And then there are the off-world objects to consider. The Apollo landing sites on the Moon. Abandoned hardware drifting across the star system...lost forever? Museum ships float tied-up in port here on Earth; why not one day the International Space Station, parked in a secure and sustained parking orbit for our grandchildren to visit while on holiday on Earth from their Martian home so they can marvel (and maybe mock) our early efforts at living in space? UNESCO sites are “world” sites after all, so perhaps I can’t hold that one against them.
Agreements such as the Outer Space Treaty blur the way ahead on how we preserve internationally-agreed sites of human historic achievement. The first step might have to be a private effort to define these objects and sites, and then lobby for the status and protection they need to be preserved for future generations, just as we preserve historic sites across the globe today. There are inventories of space junk. There is no similar, universally-accepted list of what constitutes historic space hardware and sites. I think it’s time we had that list, before it’s too late.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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With summer in full swing most of us are spending more time outdoors enjoying the warm weather (when it occurs!) Your pets will hopefully be enjoying the weather too but there are a few things you can do to ensure they stay comfortable and safe in the summer months.
How To Keep Your Pet Cool On Warm Days
- Provide fresh drinking water at all times. Of course you are doing this already, but it is really important to check water bowls and bottles frequently and freshen the water as necessary as your pets will likely be drinking more in the warmer weather. If you are taking your dog out in hot weather it is a good idea to take water and a bowl with you.
- Provide access to a shaded area and make sure your pet can get out of the sun. Watch out for pets who may be sun-worshipers and try to encourage them into the shade if possible. Make sure hutches and runs are moved to shaded areas too. If it is too hot outside bring your pets inside.
- Use pet-safe sunscreen to prevent sunburn. This is especially important for pets with white ears, pink noses and/or hairless tummies.
- Think about ventilation and air cooling. Make sure hutches and cages are well ventilated. You can use a fan to cool and move the air in a room (placing a bottle of frozen water directly behind it, will help even more) but make sure your pet can get out of the air flow, cannot touch the fan and cannot chew the electrical cable.
- Think about the best times for exercising dogs. Early in the morning and later in the evening will often be slightly cooler. A good rule of thumb is if the pavement is too hot for you to touch your wrist to for more than a half a minute, it is too hot for your dog’s paws.
- Move cages containing indoor pets away from windows and/or direct sunlight, these can soon heat up to unbearable temperatures.
- Avoid long journeys in cars if possible and definitely do not leave your pet in a parked car, caravan or conservatory (see our heatstroke article)
- Use water to help your pet cool down. Some pets will really appreciate some water to cool off in, dogs especially like to play in paddling pools, but they should always be supervised. Some pets may like a gentle spray with some water to help keep them cool but if your pet does not like it, don’t do it.
- Provide cooling places and objects such as a wet towel on the ground for pets to lie on or access to nice cool kitchen tiles. You can freeze water in plastic bottles or ice packs and wrap these in a towel then place near to your pet – rabbits and dogs love lying on or against these in the hot weather (just make sure the icy surface is not directly next to their skin. (Make sure your pet is not going to chew these objects though – especially ice packs as they may contain chemicals) You can also use ceramic tiles that have been chilled for small animals to lie on.
- Check Habitat Temperatures Carefully for tropical fish tanks and reptile vivariums as these may get too hot if the external temperature rises.
- Don’t forget the wildlife. Small, shallow bowls of water dotted around your garden will help out greatly.
Heatstroke can happen to any species of pet, but is more common in animals that are overweight, senior, hyperactive, short nosed (brachycephalic) breeds, or animals that have existing health problems with their heart or lungs. We often associate heatstroke with dogs that have been left in cars, caravans or conservatories on sunny days, but it can happen to any animal and usually occurs on hot days during or after exertion (exercise).
- Rapid or frantic panting
- Excessive thirst
- Anxious behaviour
- Rapid heart/pulse rate
- Dizziness and/or disorientation
If your pet is showing any of these symptoms, get them out of the sun and cool them down asap using a fan, air conditioning and/or a towel that has been soaked with cool (not freezing) water and rung out. Contact the veterinary practice quickly for advice.
NEVER leave your pet alone in the car on a sunny day. Temperatures can soar in just a few minutes; after 5 minutes the inside temperature of the car will match the environmental temperature and will then start getting hotter. Even if you open windows, park in the shade or use sun shields it will not keep your car cool enough.
See our article on Heatstroke for more information.
Barbecues and Parties
These will be on the agenda for a lot of households but, while they are fun for us, they are a scavenging hazard for ourpets! In the summer months veterinary practices often see a lot of pets with tummy upsets or burns after scavenging food, as well as pets that need operations to remove things like corn cobs, bones and wooden meat skewers that have been eaten and got stuck in the stomach or intestines.
If you have a nervous pet who becomes distressed when you have lots of visitors, make sure he or she has a room they can retreat to where they will be undisturbed.
This is another common summer problem. It occurs when a fly lays its eggs on an animal and the maggots that hatch eat the flesh of the animal. Flystrike mainly affects rabbits, but other pets including dogs and cats can and do get affected. The flies are attracted to soiled bottoms, poo and wounds, so make sure you check your pet daily and keep hutches, cages and bottoms clean. Flystrike is a veterinary emergency, so if you suspect your pet has flystrike contact your vet quickly.
Grass Seeds and Plant Awns
These can be a real nuisance at this time of year and we see a lot of patients (particularly dogs), with grass seeds and plant awns embedded in various parts of their bodies. Check your pet’s coat daily and remove any seeds or awns that you find. (You can read more in our Grass Seed article)
If you have any questions regarding your pet’s care or would like any advice then please contact the practice on 01189 574488 or through our website
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Moderate reasoning
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Health
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Since 2006, the bacterial disease citrus greening has cost Florida’s economy an estimated $3.63 billion in lost revenues and 6,611 jobs by reducing orange juice production, according to a study from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
The study is the first complete assessment of greening’s economic impact on Florida, says Jack Payne, UF senior vice-president for agriculture and natural resources.
He called the study “an important step” in the fight against greening, because it quantifies damages and could show legislators and funding agencies why the invasive disease is one of the state’s biggest challenges.
“This study shows plainly just how imperative it is that we find a cure for citrus greening,” Payne says. “We have dedicated a huge amount of IFAS resources toward that end, and we are very appreciative of the significant support our research is receiving from the citrus industry.
“Growers are the people most obviously impacted, but the study demonstrates that many other Floridians are hurt as well — when fewer oranges are harvested, fewer dollars are circulating in our state’s economy.”
First detected in Florida in 2005, greening causes citrus trees to drop fruit prematurely and eventually kills the trees. The disease is caused by a bacterium, and was first described in 1919 in China. The bacterium is transmitted by an invasive insect, the Asian citrus psyllid.
The study compares actual harvests of oranges used to make juice with projected harvests that would have taken place if greening had never struck Florida groves; it covers the growing seasons from 2006-2007 through 2010-2011.
During those five years, the disease caused substantial crop losses, says Citrus Economist Tom Spreen, professor in the UF/IFAS food and resource economics department.
The state’s juice-orange harvest for the period was 734 million boxes, and would have been an estimated 951 million boxes without greening, Spreen said.
When focusing strictly on juice-orange production during that five-year period, Florida growers lost $1.36 billion in revenues, and 2,125 permanent jobs were lost.
Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest citrus grower organization, funded the study. Florida is the nation’s largest citrus producer and the world’s second-largest orange juice producer, after Brazil. Florida’s citrus industry generates about $8.9 billion a year, mainly from orange juice production.
The study is available at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fe903.
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Strong reasoning
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Industrial
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A requirement by the state has helped incoming high school freshmen prepare for college or the workforce.
Local school districts project last year’s eighth graders will benefit from the statewide middle school Career and Education Planning course, and will enter high school this fall equipped with a career goal and a personalized plan to help them achieve it.
The state’s Career and Education Planning course, taken in either seventh or eighth grade, helps students explore their interests and research careers. Once students choose a career goal and learn what level of education they need to achieve it, they create an electronic Personal Education Plan (ePEP), through Florida’s online student advising system at FACTS.org.
“The middle school course in career planning allows our students the opportunity to learn more about themselves and what they would like to achieve in the future,” said Heather Price of Brevard Public Schools. “It helps them to see how their course selections today will affect their plans for tomorrow.”
With a high school plan in hand, students select the right number and types of courses that will help them achieve their educational goal. Students can select college or career preparation programs, or they can keep their options open and choose both.
Only courses that meet the requirements for those programs and are offered at the student’s future high school are available for selection.
The plan also encourages students to take rigorous courses including International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, dual enrollment and honors courses, which are all available as selection options.
“Courses taken in high school are critical to future success,” said Dr. Connie Graunke, Executive Director of the Florida Center for Advising & Academic Support within the Department of Education. “Research shows that while more than 90 percent of students say they plan to go to college, half don’t make it and one of the major reasons for not going on is inadequate academic preparation. FACTS.org, and especially the ePEP, can help with that.”
Once in high school, the ePEP becomes a means for students and parents to check student progress by accessing their personalized high school evaluations.
The evaluations track steps toward meeting the requirements for Bright Futures Scholarship awards, university and college admissions and high school graduation. The ePEP also provides direction on the credits, grades or other requirements a student may still need to acquire.
The ePEP is flexible and can be easily modified as a student’s interests and goals may change. Students can also use other tools on FACTS.org to search postsecondary institutions and programs in Florida, apply for colleges online or find financial aid resources.
“The ePEP helps students think about long-range planning, and facilitates the reality that college doesn’t just happen, they need to plan for it,” said Dr. Jeff Siskind, counselor at Hagerty High in Seminole County.
To learn more about college preparation and planning or the ePEP visit www.FACTS.org.
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Moderate reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Keep the conversation going on education reform
Published 4:32 pm, Thursday, December 26, 2013
Teachers play an extremely important role in our children's lives. From kindergarten through high school and beyond, they are tasked with providing vital knowledge and skills to help students become successful in higher education and professional careers. As someone who guides the teaching of our next generation of leaders, I am a strong supporter of effective education methods that provide structure and resources for instructors and challenge students to reach higher.
Although the Common Core State Standards have generated some partisan disagreement, they present school teachers and leaders an opportunity to change education. The standards provide guidelines that incorporate international benchmarks and bring our students onto a level playing field with the rest of the world. Concentrating on core subjects, such as math and reading, these new standards define learning objectives to keep students on track as they progress though more challenging material.
Among the most widely discussed issues in education today is the level of college and career readiness high school seniors exhibit. The Hechinger Report, released earlier this year, suggested roughly half of the nation's high school graduates weren't ready for college-level courses. That number is even lower in many states. In New York, for example, the state Education Department reports 37 percent of high school grads are college-ready, while the ACT College and Career Readiness report said 60 percent of New Jersey's high school graduates are at risk of struggling in college.
These are just a few of the many data points demonstrating the growing need for solid education reform, such as the Common Core. While rejuvenating our educational standards will not be a total "fix" for the ongoing struggle to prepare our high school students for college, it's a positive move in the right direction.
To ensure a high-quality K-12 education system, educators must be provided the building blocks necessary to teach effectively. I recognize that's easier said than done. Meeting that goal requires support programs and resources that can enrich knowledge, as well as revitalized strategies that we, as educators, can use in the classroom every day.
Cambridge Global Perspectives is an example of one program that provides the tools we need to effectively prepare our students for higher education. During a recent event at Columbia University, Cambridge International Examinations offered free workshops for school leaders, highlighting classroom techniques and assessment methods to help students hone the critical research, argument, and communication skills college-level courses demand.
Keeping the conversation going on education reform is one of the best ways to raise awareness about the struggles we, as educators, and our students face. Change won't happen overnight; we must push for it.
By bringing the debate on education reform to the forefront and refusing to allow partisan politics to overshadow the importance of an effective educational system, we stay focused on what matters most. As I see it, any event or program that encourages continued growth and learning is a good investment in our students...and in our future.
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Strong reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Getting the right amount of CO2 into a bike tire is an important part of bike maintenance. It will ensure that the tire is inflated properly. Proper tire pressure helps improve safety, fuel efficiency, and traction. Properly inflated bike tires also reduce noise and improve ride quality. You can purchase CO2 cartridges for inflating bicycle tires at most bike shops.
The correct CO2 cartridge size will vary depending on the tyre size and the desired pressure. For example, a 25g CO2 cartridge will need 120 grams of CO2 to fill a 20-inch tire. CO2 cartridges are not refillable, so you’ll have to dispose of them properly.
CO2 inflators have two primary parts, a head and a cartridge. The head is attached to the valve stem, while the cartridge itself screws into the inflator. CO2 cartridges can be screwed into the head or pressed into it. Regardless of the method, threaded cartridges are preferred.
Related Questions / Contents
How Much CO2 Should I Inflate My Bike Tires?
You may be wondering, “How much CO2 should I inflate my bicycle tires?” The answer depends on the type of tire you have and the amount of pressure you need to ensure that the tire stays safe. Fortunately, there are a few simple tools that will help you find the right pressure for your tires.
First, you need to purchase a CO2 cartridge. There are many types available, including small, medium, and large. Choose a CO2 cartridge that fits the volume of the tire. CO2 cartridges are non-refillable and must be recycled after use. To use a CO2 cartridge, thread the CO2 cartridge into the cartridge mount, then push the head into the valve. Then, turn the control valve to pump the tire to the desired pressure.
Next, make sure the CO2 cartridge is installed correctly. The speedy inflation of CO2 can blow your tire off the rim if it is not installed properly. One common mistake is to leave a section of the tube underneath the bead of the tire. When CO2 expands, it can blow out the bead and the tire, causing a spectacular explosion. Its sound has been compared to a rifle shot.
How Big of a CO2 Cartridge Do I Need?
When you need to inflate your bike tire, you need to know how big a CO2 cartridge to buy. There are many different sizes of CO2 cartridges that can reach different pressures. The size you need depends on the volume of the tire.
To choose the right size, look for the lightest CO2 inflator. Make sure the device is easy to use and doesn’t take up much space on your bike. If possible, get one with a valve or push fit. Some companies even sell CO2 canisters with an on/off valve, which gives you more control over the tire pressure.
The CO2 inflator itself has two main parts: a head and a CO2 cartridge. The head is attached to the valve stem and has a nozzle that dispenses the gas. The cartridge can be screwed or pressed into the inflator head. Threaded cartridges are preferred.
How Much PSI is in a 25G CO2 Cartridge?
CO2 cartridges for bicycle tires can be found in several sizes. The smaller ones are used for tires with lower PSI, while larger ones are designed for tires with higher PSI. For example, a 20-gram cartridge will fill a clincher tire with ninety-five PSI, while a 25-gram cartridge will fill a tubular tire with a pressure between 140 and 170 PSI.
When filled, CO2 gas can reach up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. It obtains an atmospheric pressure of 852.8 psi, but as the CO2 cylinder is filled, more of the gas will become liquid. This liquid will leak out of the tire over a period of 30 minutes, allowing air to fill it again.
When filling a bike tire with CO2 gas, be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions. CO2 is hazardous and can cause a dangerous gas leak. If used incorrectly, a CO2 cylinder can shoot more CO2 into the air than into the tube.
How Long Does a 16G CO2 Cartridge Last?
A CO2 inflator is a small device that uses CO2 gas to inflate bicycle tires. It comes with two main parts: the replaceable CO2 cartridge, also known as a canister, and the CO2 inflator head, which screws onto the valve stem of a bicycle tire. The CO2 is then transferred from the CO2 cartridge to the inner tube.
CO2 cartridges are available in different sizes, from smaller to larger. The smaller ones are meant to fill tires up to 90 PSI, while the larger ones are meant for tires that are inflated to 120 PSI or higher. The lower-pressure tubes correspond to clinchers and tubeless bicycle tires, whereas the larger cartridges are for tubulars and race-bike tires. They also come in either threaded or non-threaded designs.
If you are using CO2 inflators, you should check the pressure of your bike tire and check if the pressure is too high. If the pressure is too high, the tire may blow off. A common mistake is to place a section of the tube beneath the bead of the tire, which will result in an explosive and spectacular explosion. CO2 can be a dangerous weapon, and if you are not careful, it can cause serious injury.
How Much Pressure is in a 12G CO2 Cartridge?
If you are planning to put CO2 in your bike tire, you may be wondering how much pressure you should fill it with. A 12G CO2 cartridge holds 852.8 psi of CO2 when fully inflated. The pressure is greater than atmospheric pressure, so CO2 cartridges must be released slowly to avoid damage.
There are many different CO2 cartridges on the market. You can find a 16 gram CO2 cartridge for standard bike tires, and a 20 gram CO2 cartridge for wider tires. The weight of the cartridge will also affect the amount of pressure you can inflate your bike tire with.
A 12G CO2 cartridge has enough pressure to fill a bike tire with 30 to 200 shots, which is more than enough to make a bike tire go flat. A cartridge that weighs 12 grams is very durable, and can be used over again. If you’re curious, you can purchase a new CO2 cartridge and compare it to your old one to get an idea of how much pressure it holds.
How Much PSI Does a CO2 Cartridge Have?
Depending on the temperature of the environment, a CO2 cartridge can have between 700 and 1800 PSI. At 70 degrees F, the pressure is about 700 PSI, but at hotter temperatures, that number could be as high as 1800 PSI. This is based on a powerlet that holds about 12 grams of liquid. A typical CO2 cartridge has an expansion ratio of five hundred to one at this pressure.
There are a few different sizes of CO2 cartridges, with the most common being 12 grams. These can be used for a variety of applications, including e-cigarettes. Some require special storage or disposal after a certain period of time, while others can be stored and used for as long as they are needed. Generally, a 12g CO2 cartridge will deliver about 60 percent of the power of a 16g cartridge. However, it is important to keep in mind that a 12g CO2 cartridge will produce less than half as much pressure as a 16g cartridge.
The CO2 cartridge’s pressure is dependent on the temperature and the psi of the surrounding air. Its temperature will determine the pressure, and it is important to understand the limits when working with CO2. You can use a gauge to determine the pressure of your CO2 cartridge, but it is not necessary – and can be dangerous if you don’t know how much PSI it has.
Is CO2 Good For Bike Tires?
When cycling, you may be curious to know if CO2 is good for your bike tires. Although the answer to this question depends on the type of tire you’re using, CO2 has its benefits. It’s an effective way to maintain tire pressure. And CO2 cartridges don’t cost a fortune. However, if you’re planning on using CO2 for your tires, make sure you follow a few guidelines.
First of all, CO2 is much smaller than air, so you’ll need less to fill a tire than air does. Moreover, CO2 pumps are portable and easy to carry. They can fit in a small pocket or seat bag. If you’re riding a road bike, they’ll help you fix a flat much faster than hand pumps. They’re also great for racing and events where you’ll have no access to a pump.
When using CO2, it’s important to select an inflator with the appropriate cartridge size. You can buy CO2 inflators in two different sizes. The smallest and lightest is recommended for everyday use. The size of the cartridge depends on your budget and how much space you have on your bike. It’s also important to choose an inflator that’s easy to use and quick to work. The best choice is a valve-style CO2 inflator. Alternatively, you can use a push-fit CO2 cartridge. You can also find a CO2 canister with an on/off valve, which is a good option if you don’t have a pump on hand.
Learn More Here:
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en
| 0.932171 | 2,015 | 2.609375 | 3 | 1.407844 | 1 |
Basic reasoning
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Transportation
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April 1864: "Here is Grant with his utterly immovable face..."By Joan Fink, Volunteer
Letter from Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Lyman, 18 April 1864
"Here is Grant, with his utterly immovable face, going about from Culpepper to Washington & back and sending no end of cipher messages, all big with strategy," writes Theodore Lyman, a lieutenant colonel in the Union Army, in this 18 April 1864, letter to his wife, Elizabeth, describing the newly appointed general-in-chief of the Union Army, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.
Theodore Lyman was born on 23 August 1833 in Waltham, Massachusetts, to Theodore Lyman, a prominent political figure who served as mayor of Boston, and Mary Elizabeth (Henderson) Lyman. After graduating from Harvard in 1855, he did graduate work in the field of zoology and studied under Louis Agassiz, the noted natural scientist. In 1855, he married Elizabeth Russell and together they had three children. Daughter Cora was born in Italy in 1862; sons Henry and Theodore were born after the Civil War. From 1861 through 1863, Lyman traveled throughout Europe collecting specimens for Harvard's new Museum of Comparative Zoology. On 3 September 1863, upon returning from Europe, Lyman joined the Union Army as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General George Meade.
Ulysses S. Grant was born on 27 April 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio. After graduating from West Point, he pursued a career in the military, achieving great success as a combat officer during the Mexican-American War. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant, who had retired from service, re-enlisted in the Army. He quickly moved up the ranks and achieved many decisive military victories for the Union Army including the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson, Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, and Vicksburg. In March of 1864, he was commissioned to the three star rank of lieutenant general, a position previously held only by George Washington and Winfield Scott. He was subsequently appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to be general-in-chief of the Union Army. After receiving this promotion, Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac in Culpeper, Virginia.
In this letter of 18 April 1864, Lyman describes watching Grant review the 6th Corps of the Army of the Potomac. According to Lyman, Grant "was neatly dressed in the regulation uniform, with a handsome sash and sword & the three stars of a Lieutenant General on his shoulder. He is a man of a natural, severe, simplicity, in all things" (page 5). Lyman further comments that Grant, who had a reputation among his fellow soldiers as being fiercely determined to succeed in all military conflicts, sits "firmly in the saddle & looks straight ahead as if intent on getting to some particular point" (page 6).
An engaging letter writer, Lyman finds some moments of levity to share with his wife, as he recounts Grant's review of the Union troops. Upon witnessing a German artillery regiment march before Grant, Lyman writes to his wife "you would have laughed to see the stiff Prussian sergeants cropping out here & there" (page 8). He also relates that a Lieutenant Colonel Rowley, who accompanied General Grant on the review, had seemingly forgotten to attach his pants with the necessary straps for riding a horse. Lyman then commented that when a man does not possess "the happy facility of keeping down his trousers, he should make straps a part of his religion" (page 6).
At the close of the letter, Lyman tells his wife "if you see Adams, just tell him to hurry up!" and mentions that he had "electioneered" on Adams's behalf (page 9). Here, he is referring to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Lyman's Harvard classmate and the grandson of President John Quincy Adams and son of Charles Francis Adams. Included in the Lyman papers collection at the MHS is a 12 March 1864 letter from Adams requesting Lyman's help in securing him a higher ranking position in the Union Army.
Lyman's fascination with natural sciences is evident in this epistle. In the opening paragraphs he provides Elizabeth with a detailed description of the fauna and wildlife near the army headquarters. After the war, he continued his career as a man of science. Lyman returned to Boston and taught zoology at Harvard, and in 1866, he became the first chairman of the Massachusetts Commission of Inland Fisheries, a position he held until 1883. In 1882, Lyman was elected to the United States House of Representatives as an independent and served one term, during which time he also pursued scientific interests at the Smithsonian. Lyman spent the last decade of his life as an invalid at his home in Brookline, suffering from an undiagnosed malady that resulted in his death on 9 September 1897.
Sources for Further Reading:
This letter is from the Theodore Lyman Papers, which are contained in the large multi-generational Lyman Family Papers held by the MHS. In addition to 9 boxes of Lyman's correspondence, the collection contains 30 diary volumes, including several volumes kept while serving as Meade's aid-de-camp in the Civil War.
Lyman, Theodore. Meade's Army: The Private Notebooks of Lt. Col. Theodore Lyman. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, c2007.
Lyman, Theodore. Meade's Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letter of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox. Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1922.
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CC-MAIN-2015-35
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http://www.masshist.org/online/civilwar/index.php?entry_id=1046
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en
| 0.976146 | 1,176 | 2.78125 | 3 | 2.4956 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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History
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Without disrespect or exaggeration, we may characterize William Lipscomb as the member of a relay team that created knowledge on the nature of chemical bonds and the course of chemical reactions and carried it forward through time. He received the baton from his teacher Linus Pauling, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954 "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances", and passed it on to his student Roald Hoffmann who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1981 with Kenichi Fukui for his theories „concerning the course of chemical reactions“. His own studies on the structure of boron hydrides (boranes), which did not only determine the structure of those compounds but also illuminated general problems of chemical bonding, began in the early 1950s and earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1976. Pauling’s mentorship meant much to him, as he humorously remembers in this Lindau lecture: „He told me on boronhydrates and I knew everything he told me was wrong, and I learned from him that it’s not so bad to be wrong. It’s bad to be uninteresting! Because his ideas have been stimulating!“
Combining quantum mechanical calculations and means of X-ray diffraction was one of the hallmarks of Lipscomb’s borane research project. Therefore it was only natural that in the decades after the reception of his Nobel Prize he began to focus on X-ray crystallography. He elucidated the structures of large and complex enzymes and analyzed their mode of action. In this lecture, he talks about the function and regulation of two enzymes he had recently studied in his laboratory: Fructose-1,6-biphosphatase and aspartate carbamoyltransferase. The latter catalyzes the first step in the biosynthesis of pyrimidines. „About six steps down the metabolic pathway there is generated cytidine triphopshate, which is a precursor of DNA and RNA - one of four - and it inhibits the enzyme at a site which is 60 angstrom away from the active site.“ Lipscomb describes in detail the interplay between these two and other binding sites of this 300 kiloDalton enzyme with its twelve subunits, which is today regarded as „an archetypal example of allosteric modulation of fine control of metabolic enzyme reactions“.
Fructose-1,6-bisphospatase is a key enzyme in gluconeogenesis and helps to fill our glycogen reservoir. „You need it to come through the night“, says Lipscomb. Its opponent is phosphofructokinase, which catalyses the reverse reaction (i.e. phosphorylation) in glycolysis. To avoid simultaneous anabolic and catabolic activity at the same pace in the same place, both enzymes therefore need tight control. Fructose-1,6-biphospatase is controlled at its active and at an allosteric regulatory site. Lipscomb illustrates in atomic resolution how these control mechanisms work. Inhibition of fructose-1,6-bisphospatase at its allosteric regulatory site by compounds that mimic AMP but bear little structural resemblance may prove to be an effective treatment for type 2 diabetes, he explains, and mentions that he is collaborating with a pharmaceutical company to develop such an inhibitor. Lipscomb’s latest paper on this subject stems from the year 2005 (when he was 85 years old), and while fructose bisphospate inhibitors have not been approved yet, they are still regarded as a potentially important class of novel antidiabetic agents.
Aspartate carbamoyltransferase. (2014, January 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:14, June 15, 2014,
Erion MD, van Poelje PD, Dang Q et al. MB06322 (CS-917): A potent and selective inhibitor of fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase for controlling gluconeogenesis in type 2 diabetes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 May 31;102(22):7970-5.
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CC-MAIN-2022-40
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https://mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org/recordings/31314/how-do-regulatory-sites-communicate-with-active-sites-in-regulatory-enzymes-1992
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335365.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929194230-20220929224230-00683.warc.gz
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en
| 0.945709 | 930 | 2.890625 | 3 | 2.914389 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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If you ever wanted to manage multiple servers in your data center from a centralized location, ansible is the right choice when it comes to automation and orchestration of network infrastructure. This is really core of NetDevOps. It quotes
Ansible is a radically simple IT automation platform that makes your applications and systems easier to deploy. Avoid writing scripts or custom code to deploy and update your applications— automate in a language that approaches plain English, using SSH, with no agents to install on remote systems.
In this lesson, we will learn to install & configure ansible on your ubuntu machine 18.04 LTS. So lets get started.
First of all login to your Ubuntu machine with sudo privilege users and update / upgrade the repositories.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Ansible depends on Python in order to run its modules, so lets install python on our ubuntu server if not already installed.
sudo apt-get install python -y
Before proceeding for installation of ansible, add the following repositories to your ubuntu machine and update apt again to take affect & then install it.
|$sudo apt install software-properties-common|
$sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
$sudo apt-get update
$sudo apt install ansible -y
Once installation is done, you can check its working by running the ping module against localhost
|$ansible localhost -m ping|
Following response should appear if ansible is installed properly.
Setting-up Ansible Node & SSH Access
At this point Ansible is installed, now we need to configure it. Start by adding remote servers IP address which needs to be managed in our ansible server’s hosts file.
|$sudo nano /etc/hosts|
Next, generate SSH keys on ansible server by issuing below command.
Now transfer the keys to remote hosts which you want to manage but before executing below command, SSH server must be installed & enabled on remote hosts. Assuming that on remote server SSH service is enabled perform below task.
|ssh-copy-id -i .ssh/id_rsa.pub ubuntu|
ssh-copy-id -i .ssh/id_rsa.pub centos
Now ansible server must have SSH access to these hosts, now we need to provide ansible user sudo access without any password. To do so, login to each server and perform following steps.
at the bottom of visudo fiel add following line with username of ansible server which is in my case “techacad”.
|ANSIBLE_USERNAME ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL|
save and exit the file. Next Add these nodes to ansible inventory by editing /etc/ansible/hosts file with your favorite editor.
Additionaly you can also specify username to use, like so.
save & close the file, now to check wheter ansible is able to reach nodes in its inventory, execute:
|ansible -m ping all|
That’s it, Congratulations, Ansible is now installed and communicating with nodes in its inventory. In this lesson we learnt how to install & configure ansible on ubuntu server. Now You’re now ready to start creating playbooks.
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<urn:uuid:0c67703f-b76c-453d-aaf5-f6b27017442d>
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CC-MAIN-2021-39
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https://techacad.net/install-configure-ansible-on-ubunty-server/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780056892.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20210919160038-20210919190038-00069.warc.gz
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en
| 0.825622 | 694 | 2.5625 | 3 | 1.846669 | 2 |
Moderate reasoning
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Software Dev.
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The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) defines attacks of this nature as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”. There are areas of violence within the home that are so subtle, so deeply embedded in their mindsets and so invisible that even the women subjected to such violence are not aware of these and accept this as an integral part of their roles as wives, mothers, sisters, daughters-in-law and daughters. There is no region of the world, no country and no culture in which women live free from violence.
Women and girls, married, single, widowed or divorced, are constantly subjected to emotional violence. Ruchira&’s (name changed) telephone conversations were restricted by her father except if they were for professional reasons. Her two younger brothers did not face such censorship. The movements of Indian girls and women are restricted in terms of time, space and occupation and social networking. The reason given is that it is not safe for girls to move and mingle freely beyond the “protective” environment of the home. The parents and husband are not aware that this “protective” censorship amounts to emotional violence. As girls, most of us have been conditioned to never question the restrictions placed on our movement, education, space, occupation, relationships, friendships, dress habits and choice of marriage partner.
Leena&’s husband paced up and down while she talked on the phone, never mind who she talked to. After five minutes, he would send signs asking her to call off because he was either expecting some “important call” or had to make an urgent call. After five years, Leena lost her temper and insisted that she would either take a new connection or would split the bill. The cell phone thankfully, has cut down on this constant monitoring of telephone calls made by women.
At a seminar on violence, a participant expressed how her husband forced her to cut off all ties with her parents’ family even for family functions like weddings, birthdays and bhau beej. He would flush down the sweets and gifts her parents’ family sent in the toilet. But he did not drink or womanise or beat her. This is emotional violence that women rarely question because they accept it as part of being a woman. As if being a woman is a crime!
Sometimes, a woman is sidetracked by family members while making introductions when guests arrive. She is only called to serve the tea and eats. The guests expect an introduction that does not happen. This is emotional violence and happens to high-achiever women and those who are full-time housewives. A noted doctor complained to her friends about not being introduced by her husband when friends dropped in. The husband felt threatened about revealing that his wife was an achiever. The housewife is given similar treatment for the opposite reason — there is no need to introduce her to anyone because she is no one, anyway!
A man did not take his wife to social gatherings because “there was no place in the car”. It took 10 years for her to question why it always had to be she who was left behind and why not someone else! She created a personal network and went to functions without the husband! She used public transport. Ignoring, humiliating, insulting can happen for any reason — the woman is very beautiful or the woman is very ugly. In English-Vinglish, the housewife is insulted by her own husband and daughter because she cannot speak English. In another Indian film, the husband repeatedly points out that the wife speaks English all the time and is, therefore, cut off from her roots! Even watching television or listening to music is restricted for many women, especially ageing mothers forced to live with adult children.
Emotional violence happens when the woman is deprived of every human choice that is hers by right and by birth. Theatre personality Usha Ganguly says “they insult you because you are ‘indecently’ dressed and they insult you because you have ‘covered yourself too much’”.
Criticising your body language, your appearance, your weight and colour of skin or hair, your vocabulary, your culinary skills are part of this collective conspiracy of emotional violence on women. There is no law you can take recourse to, your only lawyer is you.
Violence against women is not only a manifestation of unequal power relations between men and women; it is a mechanism for perpetuating inequality. Most housewives, employed or not, do not know how much their husbands earn, whether he is saving for a rainy day or for the children&’s education. Most of them are conditioned to silence. My mother never ever knew what salary my father was drawing. Yet he was a self-proclaimed Marxist who strongly believed in the equality of the sexes and in women&’s education! It was only after he passed away and she began to get widow pension could she guess what his last drawn salary was.
The main wage-earner hands over a fixed amount to the wife if she is controlling the family expenses. The money the husband hands over is less than what he draws as his take-home salary. What he does with this “difference” is his business even if he is saving it for the family! That is why when the male earning head suddenly dies, the wife and kids do not have the slightest clue about his financial status. Instead of grieving, they are forced to run from pillar to post to take stock of their financial standing.
Mrs Rao had to write the daily outgoing expenses in minute detail. When her husband came back from work, he would ask for the notebook and circle the items he did not approve of with a red pen! If the red circle ran to more than five items, the wife would be thrown out with her three small daughters without dinner to spend the night on the doorstep of their flat! Yet she ran a tuition class for small children during the day. She was educated and modern. But can modernity resolve this extreme economic violence?
“The countless chores collectively known as ‘housework’ – cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, making beds, sweeping, shopping etc – apparently consume some three to four thousand hours of the average housewife&’s year,” writes Oakley in The Sociology of Housework, 1974. It does not even account for the constant and unquantifiable attention mothers must give to their children. Just as a woman&’s maternal duties are always taken for granted, her never-ending toil as a homemaker rarely occasions expressions of appreciation within her family. The Census of India classifies homemakers as “non-workers” on par with beggars, prostitutes and prisoners.
Married working women do not necessarily have control over their income. The two incomes of husband and wife are often pooled for the family budget. Mostly, the wife does not know how to file her income tax returns. Many women do not even know that they need a PAN Card or even have one because the pooled income is taken care of by the husband. It never occurs to her to keep some money aside for personal expenses. At work, she is often not aware that she is due for an increment and cannot read her own salary slip. She only reads the total and hands the cheque over to her husband. She does not press for promotion in case it involves a transfer to another city or, sometimes, even to a different branch within the same city because this will topple the balance of her household responsibilities as wife and mother.
We have no control over the shelter we live in. When we are little, we live in our father&’s home. He does not give his daughters a share of the shelter in most cases because they are daughters, per se. Then it is the matrimonial home of her husband. Even if the flat has been purchased in her name (to save on wealth tax) or she has inherited it as an only child. She has no control if her husband is dead and has willed away the house to her. She is constantly under pressure to either leave the home or transfer it in the name of some son or daughter. Wherever she lives, it is not her house and she has to remain grateful living under this roof. Even in legal parlance, she either lives in her paternal home or her matrimonial home.
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CC-MAIN-2017-47
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http://www.thestatesman.com/supplements/no-control-wherever-59509.html
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en
| 0.981626 | 1,775 | 2.671875 | 3 | 2.917661 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Politics
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the goalkeepers report 2019
How geography and gender stack the deck for (or against) you
We were born in a wealthy country to white, well-off parents who lived in thriving communities and were able to send us to excellent schools. These factors, among many others, put us in a great position to be successful.
There are billions of people on the other side of these dividing lines, however. For hundreds of millions of people around the world, hardship is all but guaranteed.
We believe that’s wrong. Every person should have an equal opportunity to lead a healthy, productive life.
For the past 20 years, we’ve invested in health and development in low-income countries, because the worst inequality we’ve ever seen is children dying from easily preventable causes. In the United States, we’ve invested primarily in education, because a good school is a key to success, but you’re less likely to have access to one if you’re low-income, a student of color, or both.
Goalkeepers is our annual report card on the world’s progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 ambitious goals the member states of the United Nations committed to reaching by 2030. As we write, billions of people are projected to miss the targets that we all agreed represent a decent life. If we hope to accelerate progress, we must address the inequality that separates the lucky from the unlucky.
Every person should have an
equal opportunity to lead a healthy, productive life.
let’s take a closer look at the layers of inequality
1. THIS NARROW BAND near the top of Africa is the Sahel, where child mortality (along with most other kinds of suffering) is worse than everywhere else on the planet. In these maps, you’ll see that the darker orange color indicates higher rates of child mortality. We’ve visited many Sahel countries and met with government officials committed to improving life for their citizens. They’ve told us about their goals for their countries and also about the barriers that stand in the way.
2. NOW LET’S FOCUS ON A SINGLE COUNTRY WITHIN THE SAHEL We’ll pick Chad, a country we’ve traveled to recently. A child in Chad is nearly 55 times more likely to die than a child in Finland, a ratio so lopsided that it starts to be incomprehensible.
3. AND THIS IS A DROUGHT-PRONE REGION in the southwest of the country, which is becoming even more drought-prone —and therefore harder to farm— as the climate changes.
4. WITHIN THIS DRY REGION there is a traditionally marginalized ethnic group—one of many.
5. AND WITHIN THIS COMMUNITY, THERE IS A GIRL WHO IS TRAPPED by social norms dictating that her role in life is to serve her husband and bear him children.
Each time we zoom, we see yet another layer of disadvantage. These disadvantages don’t need to pile up on top of one another to make life hard—but when they do, as for the marginalized girl in Chad, the effect is brutal.
What is her life like? The data says she has probably been close to starving to death several times. The odds are that she never got the nutrients her body and brain needed to develop fully. It is likely that she can’t read or write, and that she will get pregnant well before she turns 20, although her body won’t be ready for the rigors of childbirth.
And when the time comes, there is a good chance she will give birth alone.
She deserves a better life. And we believe she can have one, as long as the world understands the many challenges she faces and gets to work on addressing them.
where you are born is more predictive of your future than any other factor
The series of charts that follow tell you a lot about geography and inequality.
We plotted health and education because they are the key components of what economists call human capital, which we highlighted in last year’s Goalkeepers Report as “the best way for a country to unlock productivity and innovation, cut poverty, create opportunities, and generate prosperity.”
Investments in human capital today help people increase their incomes tomorrow. But without human capital—that is, for those who are unhealthy and uneducated—it is virtually impossible to escape poverty.
health and education are improving everywhere in the world
We are plotting developing countries by child mortality and years of schooling in 2000 and 2017.
The first thing you can see is universal progress. Think of the most challenged country you can imagine. The people there are healthier and better educated than they used to be.
Inequality between countries has narrowed but remains large.
The second thing you see, however, is that in many countries, even though life is better, it is still bad. The gap between Chad and Finland is closing, but it remains enormous. More children die every single day in Chad than die in Finland in an entire year.
The third thing you see is that this pattern, big progress and big gaps, also holds true inside countries. Let's look at India and Nigeria.
For the first time ever, we have human capital data at the district level. (Different countries have different names for this political subdivision. In the United States, they are counties; in India, districts; and in Nigeria, local government areas, or LGAs.)
Human capital has increased in more than 99 percent of districts in developing countries in the past 17 years. No matter how many times you hear the opposite, life is getting better, even for the very poorest.
However, the inequality between districts in countries is massive.
Consider India. In Kollam district in Kerala state, 1 percent of young children die, and the average person has more than 14 years of education, almost comparable to the most developed countries in the world.
By comparison, in Budaun district in Uttar Pradesh state, more than 8 percent of children die, and the average person has approximately six years of education. Budaun, by the way, is not small. Approximately 4 million people live there.
In Nigeria, the data says the same thing: world-class achievement juxtaposed to serious deprivation.
For example, the average person in Ado-Ekiti, in Ekiti state, has more than 12 years of education, whereas the average person in Garki, in Jigawa state, has five.
Let's go back to the country level dots for 2017.
When we model these charts into the future, you see that many countries are not catching up fast enough.
Very few developing countries are projected to meet the health and education SDGs. Nearly two thirds of the children in low- and low-middle income countries live in districts that, at their current rate of progress, won’t reach the SDG target for child mortality by 2030. One third live in districts that won’t even reach it by 2050.
If we are serious about the SDGs, then we have to accelerate the fight against geographical inequality and make sure that more districts are excelling.
gender inequality stacks the deck against half of humanity
Gender inequality cuts across every single country on Earth. No matter where you are born, your life will be harder if you are born a girl. If you are born in a poor country or district, it will be even harder.
Adolescence is when girls’ and boys’ futures really start to diverge. Boys’ worlds expand. They rely less on their parents, venture farther and farther from home, and enroll in high school or college or get a job, which puts them in contact with wider society.
At the same time, girls’ worlds contract. They transition, sometimes at a very young age, from being subservient to their parents to being subservient to their husbands. Although they enjoyed some measure of freedom while attending primary school, they are expected to return to the confines of the home, to devote themselves to cooking, cleaning, and raising children.
The proportion of girls who do at least two hours per day of unpaid domestic work almost doubles after they reach the age of 15; by the time she is an adult, the average woman spends more than four hours every day doing unpaid work. Men, by comparison, average just over one hour per day.
These obligations inside the home are just one example of social norms that conspire to limit girls’ opportunities as they approach adulthood. Across sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, girls average two fewer years of education than boys. And even when girls are well educated, they are much less likely to translate their years of schooling into a job in the formal work force. Globally, there is a 24 percentage-point gap between men’s and women’s labor force participation.
This lack of access to education and jobs is destructive for everyone. It keeps women disempowered, limits their children’s life chances, and slows down economic growth.
education is necessary but not sufficient to close the gender gap in economic opportunity.
learning from exemplars
The large and lingering gaps between countries, between districts, and between boys and girls prove that although the world’s investments in development are working, the lives of the lucky and unlucky aren’t converging fast enough. We believe the development community needs to start doing business differently.
In last year’s Goalkeepers Report, we argued that human capital is critical to economic growth in poor countries. This year, we argue that human capital investments should be designed to reach girls and prioritize those countries and districts that have to make up the most ground.
That’s not an easy thing to do. Inequality, as we have said, is exceedingly complex. There is no silver bullet that will make geography, gender, and other random factors stop mattering. But guaranteeing that every single child has access to good health and education systems is a very good start in that direction. This is not just a moral aspiration; we believe it to be an achievable goal.
In the case of health, the priority needs to be primary care. If primary health care systems are well designed and fully funded, they reach everyone and address the vast majority of people’s health needs.
In this report, Githinji Gitahi, who runs the largest health NGO in Africa, describes what countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Thailand are doing right when it comes to delivering basic care to all their citizens and explains what other countries can learn from their experience.
In the case of education, not that long ago, conventional wisdom held that poor children didn’t really need to be educated. That idea has been discredited in every region in the world in the past 50 years, and most countries in the world are approaching universal primary school enrollment. The priority now is to make sure that all schools provide a high-quality education. There are proven approaches to teaching literacy and numeracy in a single classroom, but there is not yet consensus about what it will take to improve basic skills at the massive scale of every single child in every single school in every single country. Last year, this report highlighted promising innovations being tried in Côte d’Ivoire, India, and Zambia, as well as Vietnam’s nationwide success. All the human capital in the world, though, won’t lead to equality and prosperity if healthy, well-educated girls are subject to social norms that disempower them.
Harmful norms can be hard even to see, much less change, but countries are taking steps to help women confront them.
A big part of the solution is policies that help women and girls carve out new paths for themselves. For example, in places like Peru, where women have the right to own land and other assets and have ready access to contraceptives so they can plan their families, women’s labor force participation goes up. Later in the report, Arshi Aadil, an expert on digital financial inclusion, writes about policy reforms in India that are not only improving government services for the poor but also chipping away at the foundations of male supremacy.
changing the odds
Goalkeepers addresses just a few ways to create a better, more equal world. Thankfully, so many advocates are thinking creatively right now about inequality and its solutions. No one has gotten to the bottom of it yet, but we are all getting closer.
In the meantime, we know one thing for sure. No one’s life should be a roll of the dice. Were you born, as we were, with the odds in your favor? Or are you one of the billions of people born with the odds against you? Our goal is to even the odds for everyone.
When that happens, the future won’t be predicted by random factors like where you’re born or how many X chromosomes you have. In fact, it won’t be predicted at all. It will be made—by people’s dreams and hard work.
See Examining Inequality data resources.
stories of progress
primary health care
When we started our foundation, we focused on discovering and developing new tools and technologies. We quickly learned that we also needed to focus on delivering them to the people who need them. Primary health care is by far the most important health delivery system in the world. A strong primary health system reaches everybody, including the poorest and most vulnerable, and provides the vast majority of services a person needs to stay healthy. We know that, as governments invest more in primary health care systems, overall health outcomes improve, but unfortunately, low- and middle-income countries spend an average of just 36 percent of their health budgets on primary care. Some governments prioritize advanced health care for a minority of citizens, forcing the majority of citizens to pay out of pocket to meet their basic needs. This inequality feeds the vicious cycle of poverty and sickness. More—and more efficient—investment in primary care can help break it.
I spend a lot of my time trying to reconcile a big idea and a small number.
The big idea is that health should not be a luxury—that all people should receive the care they need without suffering financial hardship. This is called Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2012 calling on member states to prioritize UHC, and the idea has been gaining momentum ever since then.
The small number is 51. That’s my own personal back-of-the-envelope calculation of how many dollars the average sub-Saharan African country would have available to spend on health care per person under ideal circumstances. (My definition of “ideal circumstances” is a country collecting 20 percent of its GDP in taxes and spending 15 percent of its budget on health; the reality in most African countries is far from ideal.)
To be clear, I am not saying most countries currently spend $51 per person (they don’t) or that, if they did, it would be enough (it wouldn’t). I am merely demonstrating that compared to richer countries that can spend thousands of dollars per capita on health, sub-Saharan African countries have to figure out how to get by with very little.
So, how do countries buy UHC when they have less than $51 to spend? The answer is: by investing in primary health care—that is, basic services near where people live and work. A good primary health system is just and equitable, is easily accessible to everybody, doesn’t make the poor pay anything out of pocket, and addresses the vast majority of people’s lifetime health needs. Its goal is to keep people healthy, because sickness is expensive for the individual, the family, the community, and the state!
When I think about primary health care, I remember walking hand in hand with my mum to our local dispensary in rural Kenya, which was about one kilometer away. That’s where I got vaccinated. It’s where my mum got prenatal care when she was pregnant with our last-born sister. And it’s where everybody we knew went when they were sick and seeking advice or treatment.
Since the turn of the millennium, several African countries have invested in building far-reaching, high-quality primary health systems. Ethiopia and Rwanda, for example, have recruited tens of thousands of community health workers, women who are chosen by their neighbors and trained by the government to take care of people’s health.
Community health workers go to the people, instead of the other way around. And they don’t interact with people only when they are sick. They also promote healthy behavior (like proper diet and hygiene) and provide or promote preventive care (like immunizations) to keep people from getting sick in the first place. And then, of course, they are trained to treat common illnesses (like diarrhea and malaria), provide basic family planning services, and refer patients to health facilities if they need more sophisticated care.
As a result of these investments, Ethiopia and Rwanda are among the leaders in the region in reducing maternal and child mortality. And by the way, the GDP per capita in both countries is well below the regional average.
Many other African countries have yet to make the necessary investments. My own country, Kenya, is much richer than Ethiopia and Rwanda, but the primary care system is weaker (though there is finally high-level political commitment to strengthening it). What matters are the choices that politicians make.
here are three choices they can make to achieve better health results with limited budgets:
spend a little more
In 2001, all 54 member states of the African Union committed to spend 15 percent of their state budgets on health. A precious few have ever met that commitment, and those who meet it year after year can be counted on one hand. Governments must balance countless priorities, so finding more money for health is not easy. But when you are making do with such small budgets, every extra dollar counts. Kenya currently spends $36 per person per year, or 7 percent of its budget, on health. If that went up to, say, $51, the universe of the possible would expand significantly. At $86, according to an analysis based on WHO data, governments of low-income countries could fully fund primary health care.
spend on right priorities
Many countries spend more on what is known as secondary and tertiary care than on primary care. That makes sense in one respect, because MRIs, X-rays, and many other features of secondary and tertiary care are expensive. But African governments can’t afford to spend most of their money to meet some of some people’s needs. In Thailand, which has one of the best primary care systems in the world, the government temporarily reallocated all its health infrastructure spending to rural areas because the health gap between rural and urban areas was so big. Now there is at least one health center in every single Thai village. African governments need to say, “Until we are sure primary health care has the investment it needs, we’ll make do with what we have for secondary and tertiary care.” It’s a difficult position to take, but it’s what countries that care about UHC have to do when there is so little money available.
spend more efficiently
Primary care systems can do a lot to stretch the dollars they spend. For example, they can invest in digital health, especially electronic medical records. Or they can focus on managerial innovation, like new ways for a continent with many countries and a large geographical area to pool purchasing and improve supply chains. This would ensure that the right products are available at the right prices and delivered to the right places at the right times.
Finally, it is crucial to use data to answer two key questions about UHC: What and who?
When you know you can’t provide every service, choices about what to provide make a big difference. For African countries, I boldly prescribe prioritizing sexual and reproductive health and rights. But you still have to decide where to put your resources, based not on generic global calculations but on actual conditions on the ground. For example, vasectomies may look cost-effective on paper, and they are good and encouraged, but the return will be less in a country where few providers can perform them, men are resistant, or the biggest challenge is a burgeoning adolescent population.
Next, the who. To make sure no one suffers financial hardship, you need to subsidize the most marginalized and vulnerable, including women, children, and girls, as well as the indigent. However, in countries where most people work in the informal economy and data is unreliable, it’s hard to know precisely who the indigent are. Kenya, with 80 percent of its population employed informally, is working on developing rigorous methodologies to target services more effectively. Ideally, as primary health systems begin to get the same results for less money, they’ll invest what’s left over in getting even better results.
a good primary health system
is just and equitable.
When I was seven, the World Health Assembly announced its commitment to “health for all.” The tragedy is that when it turned out to be hard to pay for, the world stopped thinking about it, even as a moral principle. Today I am 49, and we finally believe in health for all again. With the global dialogue about UHC, we are also thinking practically about how to achieve it. In other words, we have a second chance. Now leaders in Africa and around the world have to take advantage of it.
See Primary Health Care data resources.
stories of progress
Some pessimists warn that technology will usher in a dystopian future. Some naïve optimists predict it will create a utopia. The truth lies somewhere in between. Technology is disruptive, and countries need to invest to maximize the positive disruptions and manage the negative ones.
Few countries have been as innovative and thoughtful about using digital technology to make people’s lives better as India. The government understood early on that technology made it possible to connect directly with citizens instead of working through layers and layers of bureaucracy. Then it started creating smart policies built around digital technology that improved both the quality and reach of government services. This essay, which describes the reform of cooking gas subsidies, demonstrates how aligning technology and policy can create a surprising domino effect.
This is the story of three generations of cooking gas subsidies in India.
But it’s about cooking gas only in the narrowest sense. In a wider sense, it’s about how digital technology helped the government of India design a series of innovative policies that have empowered 75 million marginalized women. In the very widest sense, it’s about how governments can serve citizens better.
For decades, Indian households bought the liquid petroleum gas they cooked with at a fixed, low price guaranteed by the government. This subsidy was poorly targeted, because everybody, including the rich, could receive it. (According to the IMF, the wealthiest 10 percent of Indian households received seven times more of the subsidy than the poorest 10 percent.) It was inefficient, because a lot of subsidized gas was sold in the black market to hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that should have paid market price. Finally, it was expensive; various gas subsidies could cost the government almost $10 billion per year, depending on the global price of gas.
Now comes the turning point of this story: India’s pioneering of what is known as “the JAM trinity.” The J stands for Jan Dhan Yojana, an Indian government program to help poor people open bank accounts. The A stands for Aadhaar, a program to provide every Indian resident with a unique ID linked to biometric authentication like fingerprints. And the M stands for mobile phones, which are quickly becoming ubiquitous in India. Together, accounts, ID, and phones make it possible for the government to deposit money directly into people’s bank accounts and verify the recipients’ identity. This in turn enables the government to be much more precise and ambitious about policymaking.
The JAM Trinity
Starting in 2012 and continuing through 2015, the government used the JAM trinity to shift gradually from subsidizing the price of gas to transferring cash directly into people’s bank accounts after they had bought the gas at market price. The fully redesigned subsidy, launched nationwide under the name PAHAL in 2015, is the world’s largest cash transfer program.
PAHAL has addressed all three major problems with the old subsidy. Using Aadhaar, the government was able to remove 36 million duplicate or ghost recipients from the rolls, decreasing diversion to the black market and increasing overall efficiency. After a government campaign encouraging better-off people to stop claiming the subsidy, another 10 million Indians removed themselves from the rolls, improving targeting. As a result, PAHAL reduced the financial burden on the government: Although estimates vary, the government puts the savings at almost $9 billion since the PAHAL launch.
But the government hasn’t just pocketed the savings. It’s used them to create a brand new, third-generation cooking gas program, also powered by the JAM trinity, called Ujjwala. This program has been carefully designed to help poor women transform their lives in profound ways.
Most poor families, especially in rural areas, don’t cook with gas; even if it’s subsidized, it’s still more expensive than building fires with wood or animal dung. However, wood and dung fires fill kitchens with hazardous smoke (household air pollution is responsible for nearly 500,000 deaths per year in India). To address this crisis, Ujjwala provides qualifying rural households with a 50 percent subsidy to purchase a gas connection and stove. (The other 50 percent can be paid in installments.) So far, approximately 75 million women have benefitted from Ujjwala. The government is now considering additional reforms to encourage Ujjwala recipients to refill their gas canisters, which are not necessarily affordable enough or easy enough to get.
digital technology helped the
government of India design policies that empower women.
But Ujjwala’s impact doesn’t stop at health. The program is also helping women chip away at discriminatory social norms that have limited their horizons.
For example, the average Indian woman spends more than 40 hours per week doing domestic work, leaving precious little time for anything else. Using cooking gas saves women several hours per day they had been spending gathering firewood, building and managing fires that made them sick, and then cleaning up the ashes and dust.
Moreover, the government made an important decision about how the benefits would be disbursed that is disrupting traditional power dynamics in the home. Unlike with traditional benefits programs in India, it is women—and not their husbands— who are eligible for Ujjwala. To receive the gas subsidy, women need to sign up for a bank account.
Merely having and using a bank account changes women’s lives, by giving them decision-making power over the family’s finances. A randomized control trial of a different Indian social benefit program, a work guarantee program, found that when women received payments directly into their own accounts (instead of accounts in their husband’s names) and received training on how to use the accounts, they worked more and earned more. Their husbands also said they were more comfortable with their wives working outside the home. In other words, helping women gain control over financial resources ends up changing everyone’s sense of who they are and what they are capable of.
There is yet another way that policies designed around the JAM trinity are empowering the poor—by making government more accountable. For example, with the new cooking gas subsidy, government officials in 640 Indian districts receive daily progress reports on PAHAL, including enrollment, cash transfer, and error rates, so they can identify and address problems as soon as they arise.
Various states are also experimenting with ways to proactively solicit citizens’ input whenever they interact with government. In one state, for example, beneficiaries receive an automated call soliciting feedback on the quality of the service: Was the customer treated courteously? Did she receive the benefits she expected? Did she receive them without having to pay a bribe? Negative responses roll over into a human system to generate formal complaints.
On its own, the JAM trinity doesn’t do much. It needs to be paired with smart, pro-poor policies and services built around digital technology. Even then, digitally powered policies and services by themselves won’t end poverty and gender inequality. They need to be accompanied by analog reforms like changing discriminatory laws and policies. When all these pieces come together, though, the status quo can change fast.
See Digital Inclusion data resources.
stories of progress
The global climate change debate is mostly focused on how to limit carbon emissions. We are still waiting for the big technology and policy breakthroughs we need. Meanwhile, the climate is already changing. It is a terrible injustice that the people who suffer the most are the poorest farmers in the world. They didn’t do anything to cause climate change, but because they rely on rain for their livelihoods, they are at the front lines of coping with it. These farmers already have no margin for error. They don’t have the resources to adapt to droughts and floods, disease outbreaks among their herds, or new pests devouring their harvest. In Ethiopia, the government and millions of farmers have embarked on an impressive crash course in building resilience, and it is working. As State Minister Kaba writes, the 2015 drought didn’t cause anywhere near the death or destruction of the infamous 1984 drought. Ethiopia’s success offers hope. Worldwide, we need greater investment in developing and distributing improved crop varieties that tolerate stresses like extreme heat or floods. The world’s agricultural research system needs more support.
The 1984 famine is a dark history that we have gone through.
But sometimes—although it feels strange to say— there’s opportunity in crisis. Shortly after the famine, we established a disaster management policy and built up food reserves so that when droughts happened, we could at least save the lives of our people.
As the years passed, we invested heavily in the productivity and resilience of our agriculture sector. We had to, because more than 80 percent of our people live in rural areas. In 2003, the African Union met in Maputo, Mozambique, and governments committed to spend 10 percent of their budgets on agriculture; we spend more than that. In 2015, we suffered a drought just as severe as the one that led to the 1984 famine, but the world never heard about it because we had built better systems to help farmers cope.
Our thriving agriculture sector is part of why Ethiopia’s overall economic growth has been so impressive, and why we are on track to become a middle-income country by 2025. But there is one thing that could derail us: climate change. Climate change is caused by the actions of richer countries, but the most vulnerable people in poorer countries are feeling it first.
the most vulnerable people in poorer
countries are feeling the effects of climate change first.
Since I was a boy, the temperature here has increased by about 1 degree Celsius. But the rain is a much bigger problem. Overall, there is less of it—20 percent less in some places. What rain is left is less predictable. It comes late and leaves early. When it does come, it can come in destructive torrents. Every calculation a farmer makes is based on weather. Smallholder farmers are very good agronomists, but they have spent their lives learning things about a climate that is ceasing to exist.
Fortunately, the work we’ve been doing for the past 20 years will help our farmers respond to the changing climate in the next 20. In 2005, we launched a very large program that pays people to work on agriculture-related public works projects. The impact is twofold: The poor have the means to purchase food and other necessities when emergencies strike, and they build community assets like bench terraces, bunds, check dams, deep trenches, and microbasins that conserve water, prevent soil erosion, and ultimately contribute to higher yields. Three years later, we launched another program to foster a mass movement around sustainable land management.
We have also hired one of the largest cadres of agricultural extension agents in the world. They are a source of timely information; for example, they provide early warnings about droughts and advice about how farmers might adjust. They also focus on longer-term education. Our network of extension agents is one reason why Ethiopian farmers are more likely to use fertilizer, improved seeds, or irrigation than farmers in many neighboring countries.
We have no illusions about what we are up against. Several years ago, we launched our Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy, which recognizes that our future prosperity is riding on proper stewardship of our environment.
We cannot stop the droughts. We can flourish in spite of them.
The weather in our area is the will of God.
Twenty years ago, when I started farming this land, the weather was better. But it keeps getting hotter. July should be a cold month; this year it’s much hotter than usual. And the rains are not dependable. One year there are good rains, and the next year there's drought. It usually begins raining in late May or early June. This year, it’s already late July and it hasn’t rained yet. We’re still waiting. We try to sow at the best times, but we can’t control the rain. If it doesn’t start raining until July and stops before October, we won’t get anything from our fields. If things get bad, I have some sheep I can sell or trade. I am thinking about investing in beehives for honey.
Even though the weather is worse, our farming is much better now. When I was growing up on my parents’ farm, the land was destroyed. They didn’t get any kind of help from the government. When the famine came in 1984, moving the family to Sudan was the only option.
Now, we get information and education from agricultural experts who come to our community. Before, we didn’t use modern seeds. Now I use the best wheat seeds. I plant wheat that’s ready to harvest earlier, so it does better in a drought. Before, we didn’t use fertilizer, herbicides, or pesticides. Now I can use all three. I know about weeding. I know how to protect my field from drying out in the sun. My yields have almost doubled.
we try to adapt to the
conditions here and overcome.
This year, we were told that the rains would be less, and we received training about what to do. We harvest rainwater by collecting the runoff and storing it for later. With all our strength and ability, we try to keep the ground moist. We do that in many different ways: applying mulch, digging trenches, plowing, mending gullies. When a little rain starts to fall, every household works hard to make sure it stays in the soil. No one sits in the house if there is rain.
We try to adapt to the conditions here and overcome. I want my children to get an education. I didn’t get one when I was a child; I didn’t go to school a day in my life. But all three of my children are enrolled. I must make sure that they are fed. If I grow wheat early this year, I will switch to barley during the next growing season because I want barley for my kids to eat. My children can’t learn and study with empty bellies. Every decision I make is about what my family needs.
Based on an interview.
See Climate Adaptation data resources.
Explore the Data
We started writing the Goalkeepers Report to track progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We believe that seeing where the world is succeeding will inspire leaders to do more, and seeing where the world is falling short will focus their attention. So we promised that, every year, we’d publish the most recent global data about the 18 indicators most closely related to the work our foundation does. This year, given our theme, we have tried to emphasize the role of inequalities in blocking the achievement of the SDGs. We have also explored maternal mortality, stunting, and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in more detail, because those stories provide insights about inequality and how to fight it.
Featured Global Goals Indicators
Last year we picked three indicators out of the 18 to explore in more detail with additional data. This year we’ve selected maternal mortality, stunting, and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and focused on highlighting countries and programs which are showing success at fighting inequality.
Global Goals Indicators
In addition to our three featured deep dives, below you can explore the other 15 indicators which we track annually. For each, we show the available data charting global progress since 1990. For select indicators, we show projections to 2030 based upon current progress and two additional scenarios, produced by our partner, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. This year we also explored a dimension of inequality for each indicator masked by the global averages.
See Explore the Data data resources.
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Strong reasoning
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Politics
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How Should I Prepare For School?
Did you know that less than half the children in Pulaski are ready for Kindergarten when they start school? The state average for Kentucky is only 51%. Did you know there are things we can do to make this better? The first five years of a child’s life are fundamentally important. The first years shape a child’s future health, happiness, growth, development and learning achievement at school, in the family and community, and in life in general. Recent research confirms that the first five years are particularly important for the development of the child’s brain, and the first three years are the most critical in shaping the child’s brain architecture. Early experiences have a direct impact on how children develop learning skills as well as social and emotional abilities. Everything she or he sees, touches, tastes, smells or hears helps to shape the brain for thinking, feeling, moving and learning. Encouraging children to play and explore helps them learn and develop socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually. This helps children get ready for school. (Facts for Life – Child Development and Early Learning) So you have a vital role to play in helping your child learn through these early years. You are your child’s first teacher, and your child will keep learning from you as she gets older.
If you are questioning whether your child is hitting his/ her developmental milestones, check out our Resource Guide
Check out our Directory
Studies show children in high-quality early learning program environments develop better math, language and social skills sooner. Kentucky All STARS is Kentucky’s expanded five-star quality rating and improvement system for type I, type II and certified family child care homes.
Quality ratings for all type I, type II and certified family child care homes are administered by the Division of Child Care of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Swaddles to School
- If you have questions about whether your child is meeting his or her milestones, or what you can do to help them meet them, check out our guide.
- If you need to know who to talk to if your child is not meeting their milestones, check out our guide
- If you are or know of a family with a young child that have housing, dietary, educational, medical or mental health needs, check out our guide.
- What to look for when selecting a child care center, check out our guide.
- What does School readiness look like? Check out our guide.
- We have compiled a milestones check list with things you can do to help your child meet these milestones. We have gathered information from local community businesses and organizations that provide services to children and their families to help ensure they have what they need to be successful in school and in life.
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Moderate reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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Why is it that everyone talks about global warming these days? And what actually causes climate change?
The main thing affecting our climate is the amount of sunlight absorbed at the Earth's surface, which is more in the tropics, in summer and when the sun is near its zenith. There are other things that influence how much sunlight is absorbed, like the amount of clouds, snow or ice, which reflect sunlight back out to space cooling the climate.
But the other important factor is the atmosphere. If the Earth had no atmosphere, the average temperature of its surface would be about 30 degrees lower than it is today. It would be too cold for most life to survive.
There are important gases in the atmosphere, sometimes called "greenhouse gases" that warm the climate by preventing the loss of heat radiation from the Earth's surface out to space. The most important greenhouse gas is water vapour. But adding more water vapour to the atmosphere doesn't warm the climate; it falls out as rain, usually in less than a week.
There are other greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, that stay around in the atmosphere much longer. When extra carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere, about half of it stays there for more than 50 years, warming the planet.
Climate has changed a lot in the past, like during ice ages when global temperatures were about 6 degrees lower than today. Ice ages are started by changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun, which allow snow and ice to build up in polar regions, reflecting more sunlight and cooling the climate system. As the climate cools, the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere drops and more carbon dioxide is soaked up by the ocean, so there are less greenhouse gases around to warm the climate.
Why are we hearing so much about climate change recently? There has been a 0.8-degree jump in global average temperatures over the past 100 years, which is larger than anything we've experienced for at least the past 1000 years. Signs of this warming are found in rising ocean temperatures, melting of mountain glaciers, shrinking snow packs, earlier flowering of plants in spring and less Arctic sea ice in summer.
Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations have increased dramatically too: their levels in the atmosphere are much higher than at any time over the past million years.
These increases in greenhouse gases are not due to natural cycles but are caused by human activity. Burning fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas, deforestation and agriculture all release greenhouse gases faster than the planet can recycle them back into the environment.
MAN-MADE OR NATURAL?
But how do we know if greenhouse gases have caused most of the global warming we've seen over the past century? Studies have shown that natural climate variations, like changes in the intensity of sunlight or volcanic eruptions, are too small to explain the observed warming.
There is a very good match between what we expect to see with increasing greenhouse gases and what has actually been measured by scientists.
This includes greater warming at high latitudes, in winter and at night, together with cooling in the upper atmosphere.
The evidence for climate change can't be explained by natural causes alone - greenhouse gas increases are warming our world.
Emissions trading: One way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. An authority (national or international) sets a limit on emissions and then creates emission permits up to that cap. Companies or countries are allocated permits or have to buy permits to pollute. Companies with high emissions may have to buy permits from other companies that have extra permits because they reduce their emissions.
Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2) concentration: The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that causes the same change in global radiation as a mixture of other greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide.
Global warming potential (GWP): An index measuring the effect on global radiation of a long-lived greenhouse gas over 100 years, relative to that of carbon dioxide. The GWP represents the combined effect of the differing times these gases remain in the atmosphere and their relative effectiveness in absorbing heat radiation.
IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organisation established under the United Nations to assess all aspects of climate change. Its latest report was released in 2007 and is available at www.ipcc.ch.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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CARAZ, Peru — Seventeen years ago, Liliana Salvador Ibáñez's year-old son came down with a high fever, then broke out with bleeding lesions on his legs. Four years later, his brother came down with the same illness, and a few years later a young niece died. All had bartonellosis, also known as Carrion's disease, which is caused by a bacterium transmitted by a sand fly.
In this Andean mountain valley in central Peru, mothers observed that there was an outbreak every four years or so. The cycle intrigued Dr. Larry Laughlin, now dean of the school of medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
Comparing disease statistics with climate data, he found that the outbreaks roughly coincided with El Niño, the warm Pacific Ocean current that brings higher temperatures and rainfall to this part of Peru. Researchers in Lima found a similar correlation with hospital admissions for diarrheal illnesses, especially among children in the shantytowns ringing the sprawling capital.
In tropical countries like Peru, health experts are keeping a close eye on climate change. Rising temperatures can change the way diseases behave, while collateral effects — from the retreat of glaciers that provide vital drinking and irrigation water to more frequent, intense storms and flooding — increase the burden on developing economies.
As diseases like dengue, bartonellosis and malaria spread, pressures mount on already understaffed, underfunded health services. As crops dry up and farmers migrate to urban shantytowns lacking clean water and basic sanitation, the burden is amplified.
"If the environmental impacts are unavoidable, the health sector needs to be mobilized so that the health impacts become avoidable," said Dr. Carlos Corvalán, Pan American Health Organization senior adviser on sustainable development and environmental health in Brazil.
Carrion's disease, once found in a few valleys, has crept up the mountainsides. The disease, readily cured with antibiotics, must be treated early, as later stages render patients extremely vulnerable to potentially fatal secondary infections. Illnesses like malaria and diarrhea hit children particularly hard and can leave long-term, debilitating effects that extract a high cost from tropical countries.
But while it is tempting to conclude that warmer temperatures have created a more hospitable environment for disease vectors like the sand fly, it may simply be that humans have carried the bacillus to a place where it has found more susceptible hosts.
"It's really complicated to sort out how much is attributable to climate change," said Dr. Mary Wilson, associate professor of global health and population at the Harvard School of Public Health. Nevertheless, "many infections, including dengue, yellow fever, hanta virus, bartonellosis and leishmaniasis, are very sensitive to climate and to temperature, humidity and rainfall."
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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In “The Archetypes of Literature,” Northrop Frye proposes that the central myth of art is the hero’s quest, which can be characterized as man’s superhuman crusade against the disintegrating forces of nature. The poet Dylan Thomas has been described as a champion of nature and the cycles of life: “He has been called a pagan, a mystic, and a humanistic agnostic” (Kershner). Yet, one of Thomas’ most celebrated poems, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” calls on man to defy the power of nature even as it recognizes his ultimate impotence against death. The poem relies on the psychic undercurrent of the hero myth to demonstrate man’s place in nature and his irrational, yet irrefutable, desire to overcome his mortality.
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” operates in the tension between the recognition of nature’s forces, it’s unstoppable cycles, and the human desire to be free—the hero’s quest.
Frye argues for a centralized theory of literature based on archetypes drawn from “pre-literary categories” or “literary anthropology” (1308). In his survey of archetypes that inform literature on a grand scale, he concludes: “the central myth of art must be the vision of the end of social effort, the innocent world of fulfilled desires, the free human society” (1314). He calls this the hero’s quest, which is the “mingling of the sun and the hero, the realizing of a world in which the inner desire and the outward circumstance coincides” (1313). It is the soul’s quest for perpetual spring and the defeat of winter (Frye 1311).
Thomas wrote “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” about his own dying father, but the poem addresses the broad subject of man’s life in relation to the forces of life and death symbolized by light and darkness, day and night. In each of the central stanzas Thomas describes the smallness of man’s life and dreams: The wise man knows “night is right,” but his words were never bright as lightening; the good man’s “frail deeds” are only waves in a green bay; and the grave man approaching death can suddenly “see with blinding sight” and be gay. Yet, the overriding message of the poem is that “old age should burn and rave at close of day,” and Thomas uses the villanelle form to repeat his call: “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas poets.org).
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” operates in the tension between the recognition of nature’s forces, it’s unstoppable cycles, and the human desire to be free—the hero’s quest. Thomas pays tribute to the first—after all the night is “good”—and calls to the second: “Do not go gentle”—do not surrender to the darkness while there is still light. The poem was written late in Thomas’ career and was clearly motivated by his personal experience with his own father’s death:
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. (Thomas poets.org).
However, the poem’s message reaches deep into the core of literary archetype described by Frye. Ultimately, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” celebrates the spirit and folly of man’s desire to overcome nature, which Frye describes as the pivotal myth of all art: “. . .the vision of innocence which sees the world in terms of total human intelligibility” (1314). Mankind is blessed and cursed by the fierce tears of its own desire, as day gives way to night.
Frye, Northrop. “The Archetypes of Literature.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010. 1301-1315.
Thomas, Dylan. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” Poets.org 1997-2013. The Academy of American Poets. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.
Kershner, R.B., Jr. Dylan Thomas: The Poet and His Critics. Chicago: American Library Association, 1976. Print.
In the 2012 film Life of Pi, the viewer is taken on an unlikely journey across the ocean in a boat shared by a boy and a Bengal tiger. When the narrator—Pi as an adult—finishes the tale, he implies that a second account, a brutal struggle between humans for survival, may be the truth. He poses the question to the writer who is his audience, “Which story do you prefer?” (Life of Pi) The film exemplifies the medieval interpretive theory of polysemy, or multiple meanings, as described by Dante Alighieri in Il Convivio, not only because Pi literally offers viewers two possible versions of history—mythological and actual—but also because a deeper examination reveals a third allegorical reading that comments on the spirituality of man.
According to Dante, words can have many senses that fall under two basic categories of literal and allegorical. Allegory, he writes, is “a truth hidden behind a beautiful fiction” and includes symbolic, moral and spiritual interpretations (187). The main narrative of Life of Pi is portrayed in technically stunning, three-dimensional magic realism, a literary and artistic style with roots in mythology. Pi and the tiger, Richard Parker, have fantastic and harrowing experiences as a shipwrecked pair that eventually wash up on shore and go back to their human and animal lives. When Pi relates an alternative, believable story of how he killed the last man on the lifeboat to stay alive, it becomes clear that the fantastic journey may indeed be a “beautiful fiction.”
Is it Pi crying on the beach over the uncaring tiger, or God himself weeping at the indifference of man?
On the surface the film is about which story to believe—the literal or the allegorical, the ugly or the beautiful, the factual or the poetic. However, both versions of the tale inform an additional sense to Life of Pi, which Dante may have categorized as anagogical: Man may be a spiritual being—a higher being in medieval terms, closer to God—but he remains tied to the natural, animal world as long as he lives in the flesh.
Early in the film Pi is depicted as a young boy in search of God and love as he devotes himself to a number of religions and embarks on a romance with a beautiful dancer. He is also fascinated with the sublime but fierce Richard Parker. Pi’s love, his principles, and his faith are all challenged during his journey with the tiger, as he is forced to do things he never imagined to stay alive. Caring for Richard Parker is the only thing that sustains his soul as the two float seemingly endlessly at sea.
But the tiger ultimately never returns Pi’s love. Finally washing up on a Mexican beach, Richard Parker rises from the boat and walks into the jungle. Pi cries bitterly because the animal didn’t turn to look back or “say goodbye.” Love, it seems, has no home in nature, which is brutal and existential. However, in the second version of the story, it’s the so-called “higher beings,” the humans, that fight each other to the death. Is it Pi crying on the beach over the uncaring tiger, or God himself weeping at the indifference of man?
As Dante states in Il Convivio, “It is impossible to arrive at the other senses, especially the allegorical, without first arriving at the literal” (188). Having placed the viewer at the intersection of myth and reality, Life of Pi, takes it’s audience to another level of reflection. In Dante’s words, “ . . . that which is spiritually intended is no less true” (187). In the film, the writer responds to Pi’s question by preferring the story with the tiger because it’s “the better story.” Pi answers, “And so it goes with God” (Life of Pi).
Alighieri, Dante. Il Convivio. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010. 184-188.
—. The Letter to Can Grande. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010. 188-190.
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010. 177-184.
Augustine. On Christian Teaching. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010. 154-162.
Life of Pi. Dir. Ang Lee. Perf. Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Adil Hussain, Rafe Spall and Gerard Depardieu. 20th Century Fox. 2012. Film.
I grew up on a military base in the wide open Indian Wells Valley of California’s Mojave Desert. With a fantasy-prone mind and a peace loving heart, I felt a sublime fascination with the technology that powered jets up to speeds that broke the sound barrier and left trails in the skies above the China Lake Naval Weapons Center. Yet, my life primarily evolved around home, church, and school, where I learned to color and write, think about God, sing, and dance. My father was a computer programmer, educated as an aeronautical engineer and gifted as a musician and poet. He would play the guitar with pens in his pocket. My mother worked as an accountant and could tap at a mean pace on an adding machine. At home her fingers were more often crocheting elaborate hanging planters, cooking homemade meals, or feeding material through her sewing machine. She was so adept at growing things that she actually made tulips come up in the hard, dry dirt of our backyard. Great with numbers, my mother still writes them with extra beautiful curves.
Since the beginning of human history, the making of things has involved both aesthetics and engineering.
Coming from this home of engineers and artists, I always felt they were naturally parts of one whole. It wasn’t until I ventured into the wider world as an adult that I understood the cultural divide that I now feel compelled to challenge in my work as a science communicator and in my education and experience in the arts.
Fortunately many others are attempting to join what C.P. Snow called “The Two Cultures.” Yesterday, I visited the Life Art Science Tech (LAST) Festival in San Jose, originally conceived by author and historian Piero Scaruffi and organized by the Thymos Foundation. As described on the LAST Festival website, the event combines and fuses these disciplines “to help reshape the cultural environment of the 21st century towards a multidimensional form of individual and social creativity.”
The art exhibit, curated by Joel Slayton, playfully meandered across the art-science divide. Scientific concepts and technology were brought to bear on aesthetic concepts and displays that teased the mind and delighted the senses. Many were interactive pieces that operated on the viewer’s physical presence, movements, or sounds. Gary Boodhoo’s Deep Dream Vision Quest took images of viewers standing in front of a large screen and turned them into a rich dreamscape digital painting of layered familiar shapes, ceaselessly morphing. The piece uses videogames and machine learning to generate what Boodhoo calls “interactive science fiction” that “turns dreaming into a shared experience.”
Cere Davis’ Water Organ looked like a Dr. Seuss laboratory experiment: funny tin vessels moved on water via sound waves and magnets. The ambient sound composition coming from these curious components could be silenced by placing a finger on a strip of tin foil just in front of the sculpture. The softly shifting, goldfish colored sculpture with its dreamy sound patterns had a trance-like effect – all the while, I wondered what invisible forces were at work. According to her bio, sculptor, engineer, musician and dancer Davis plays at the boundaries of “engineering, soulful expression, and laboratory experimentation.”
As Daniel H. Pink writes in A Whole New Mind, “Human beings sometimes seem naturally inclined to see life in contrasting pairs.” Science is exact, disciplined, factual, logical, and analytical. Art is open, meandering, and based in emotion. Art is atmospheric; it appeals to our senses. Science is specific; it tells us about reality and enables useful inventions. Yet, even as I write these descriptions in order to place art and science on opposite poles, I see traces of each on the other side of human experience. Science is certainly open to new discoveries, and great artists are precise and rigorously trained. A beautiful equation can give scientists goose bumps, and art has contributed real power to civilizations. Since the beginning of human history, the making of things has involved both aesthetics and engineering.
I am the mangled feet
the carcasses of baby girls,
casting shadows on a landscape
I am the sting of whispers
on the necks
whips cut horrors
into my way
I am the breaking bones
battered with stones,
pieces of my body
hitting blades of sorrow
yesterday, last century,
Raped, bent, abandoned,
I am woman.
I am maimed.
In “The Uncanny,” Sigmund Freud identifies the mechanism of fear produced by horror stories as one that reveals what is hidden. The uncanny, he states, is something “which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression” (833). Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film, The Birds, is set in a time and place ripe with restraint. The small town of Bodega Bay harbors good housewives, mothers and teachers who smile while their eyes reflect less-innocent feelings centered on one man—the lawyer Mitch Brenner. When a deviant, cosmopolitan socialite comes to town to court Brenner, birds start flocking and attacking. Viewed through Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of the uncanny, the birds in Hitchcock’s film represent unconscious female drives, which once awoken through the arrival of a sexy stranger, threaten the psychic sleepiness of the shuttered community.
The birds are uncanny because their winged beauty becomes murderous. They represent the freedom what threatens to kill the social order by resurfacing as an unreckonable force.
In his 1919 essay, Freud traces the roots of the German unheimlich (uncanny) to two converging meanings: familiar and concealed (828). Unfolding narratives in The Birds provoke the tensions inherent in this meeting of terms. When the attractive Melanie Daniels arrives in Bodega Bay to surprise Brenner with a pair of lovebirds, the town’s folk glare, Brenner’s mother and ex-girlfriend act threatened, and the local fowl refuse to eat. The suspicion inherent in the tense behavior of the community suggests that there is something below the surface that should be guarded from strangers, like a family secret shared by the intimacy of a closed group. As the birds in the film become increasingly violent, the hidden motives in each woman surface through their tentative relationship with Daniels. Strained conversations and emotional outbursts unearth their jealousy and despair.
What is the source of their angst? According to Freud, “every affect belonging to an emotional impulse, whatever its kind, is transformed, if it is repressed, into anxiety” (833). To the housewives of Bodega Bay, Daniels represents a dangerous freedom. Her bold antics in pursuing Brenner are amplified by her reputation: according to a gossip column Brenner’s mother read, the socialite had once jumped into a Roman fountain in the nude. In Freudian terms, Daniels is what the housewives of Bodega Bay once knew and had to hide beneath their small-town social mores: the power of their own libidinal drives.
The menacing birds in Hitchcock’s film are the materialization of the women’s latent sexuality. At the local diner Daniels tries to convince an elderly female ornithologist that the birds attacked children at the school. The woman retorts, “Birds are not aggressive creatures, Miss, they bring beauty into the world.” In other words, lovely creatures, birds or women, cannot be dangerous, and yet they are. The birds are uncanny because their winged beauty becomes murderous. They represent the freedom what threatens to kill the social order by resurfacing as an unreckonable force. Daniels becomes the focal point of the women’s hysteria as the avian horror plays out. A mother at the diner strikes out at the stranger: “I think you’re the cause of all this! I think you’re evil!”
The Birds was produced on the advent of the sexual revolution in America, more than two decades after Freud’s death. Hitchcock’s “uncanny” portrayal of women’s sexuality as both familiar and concealed is placed perfectly in the tension between conservative 1950s and the liberating 1960s. At the end of the film, Daniels is driven by her bold curiosity to an attic room where the birds trap and ravish her. In a state of shock, she allows herself to be taken into Brenner’s mother’s arms. Tamed at last, Daniels smiles up at her—a good daughter’s smile. As Brenner drives the family out of town through a mass of eerily docile birds, the viewer is left to wonder if they will attack again.
The Birds. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette. Universal Pictures. 1963. Film.
Freud, Sigmund. “The Uncanny The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010. 824-841.
Art is popularly conceived of as a finished work: the art object. People look at a painting or sculpture, read a poem or hear a piece of music and call it art. The products of artistic activities are indeed valuable independent entities in the spirit of Friedrich Schiller’s “art for art’s sake.” However, in order to understand and appreciate art broadly, one must go beyond the art object to consider the process of artistic creation that brought the artwork into being. In “The Origin of the Work of Art,” Martin Heidegger argues that the artwork conveys the world from which it was born. That world—the inspiration, passion, hopes, and fears of a particular time, place, and condition—provides the emotional kindling for aesthetic activity, which is a distinct enterprise requiring certain qualities in order to engage in it. The world is constantly offering up inspiration, but human capacity to interact aesthetically with it varies from one person to the next and one moment to the next. What is the nature of this interaction between woman or man and the world that engenders art? By looking at the aesthetic character—the dispositions or ways of being that foster the pursuit of aesthetic activities—one can more fully understand the nature of art. Three key aesthetic qualities are openness and seeking, dedication, and expressiveness.
Art defines humanity broadly to include the mysterious, lush interior life, the unspeakable, the illusive, and the forbidden.
Many philosophers have defined art as a medium through which man is connected to a higher truth. In Enneads, Plotinus characterizes beauty as the soul recognizing the “higher realm of being” in earthly forms. Clive Bell describes the state that art arouses as “aesthetic emotion,” an ecstatic response that is unearthly and sublime. Leo Tolstoy, who argues for moral aesthetic judgment, insists that art originates in honest inspiration, new and “dimly-perceived feelings,” which are directly connected to the artist’s heart. Whatever the source of aesthetic insight—the soul, truth, love, or genius—people must be open, receptive and seeking in order to connect to it.
The first dispositions required in the process of art are perceptiveness and reflectiveness, through which the artist or the viewer of art must search for something beyond the material, the obvious, and the everyday. Art often results from a momentary lucidness—an answer to a question of the soul. The open and seeking aesthetic character finds something in the world that resonates, often in a frequency that is beyond logic or reason. Plotinus describes how “sense-perception … gathers into one that which appears dispersed and brings it back and takes it in, now without parts, to the soul’s interior.” Man’s aesthetic eyes, heart, and lungs must be open, beating, and breathing in order to “gather” inspiration from the world.
The second challenge of art then follows: The artist takes that tenuous insight and makes with it something real. Therein lies the next important aesthetic disposition—dedication. In Art as Experience, John Dewey asserts that aesthetic value is directly correlated to the magnitude of vitality with which any object is made. In her autobiography, Isadora Duncan, one of the founders of modern dance, describes how she stood in an empty and silent dance studio with her eyes closed, perfectly still, waiting for an answer to the question: What moves me? When the answer came, she didn’t stop questioning. She worked for years to find, sculpt, and perfect her own dance facing down significant obstacles. Every artist acquires the skills of his trade, and he goes to work each day to turn inspiration into substance, to make the intangible tangible. Artworks may be described as divine, but they do not drop from the heavens. They are the result of human work done creatively and passionately. R. G. Collingwood argues that art lives in complete form in the mind, but art is never realized without physical effort. Art is a process and product of the mind, soul and body working in the material world—using matter to bridge the immaterial world of thought, emotion, and being. Art may well be connected to the higher-self—the soul—but it is more than prayer; it is creation.
To truly appreciate art, the art enthusiast must also invest her time and attention in a manner that requires devotion. She, too, must have an open, seeking mind and heart to embrace the worlds that art open to her—and while many people are content to appreciate art in the manner of Kant’s “free play,” making the effort to contemplate the artwork over time and learn about the artist, culture, and time period it was created in gives the beholder of art a deeper understanding and a richer experience. In “Of the Standard of Taste,” David Hume expresses the importance of exercise in the art experience: “In a word, the same address and dexterity, which practice gives to the execution of any work, is also acquired by the same means in the judging of it.” It is one thing to fall in love with an artwork and another to do the hard work of seeking understanding and discovering unseen nuances in the familiar.
What begins inside the artist’s heart, mind, and soul and develops in her studio is ultimately meant to be shared. The final aim of artistic creation is communication. Therefore, the third essential disposition of aesthetic character is expressiveness. Only through expression is the artist able to fully realize her work. Tolstoy frames the creative act of art as a struggle in which the artist attempts to build a bridge of understanding to his fellow man. For Tolstoy, successful art reveals the artist’s inner awakening sufficiently enough to bring about a similar feeling in all who receive his message. In Poetics, Aristotle proposes that drama serves man in his efforts to learn through affinity with tragedy, which imitates life. Art is essentially a cycle of giving and receiving: The artist gains insight through receptivity; he gives his time, talent, and effort to creation; he presents his work to his fellow man; the viewer receives and interacts with the work; and the artist gains new knowledge through the synergy. Without expression, the circle of art is broken.
Through receptivity, engagement and interaction with the world, aesthetic character facilitates perpetual discovery, development, and achievement. Heidegger argues that by bringing to light the constancy of being surrounding and inherent in substance, art illuminates the world in the entire context of its being. Art has the power to reveal truth, even the mutating truth of changing constants, because it is a creative act. Knowledge is a constant process of building understanding and letting go of old ideas to make room for new.
Art is a human activity and occupation. It demands certain human qualities. Art defines humanity broadly to include the mysterious, lush interior life, the unspeakable, the illusive, and the forbidden. It struggles to bring knowledge from the murky depths of being to the surface, so that man can understand himself and others. The fact that artists and art enthusiasts exist and share a common aesthetic character demonstrates that human beings are intrigued, impassioned and propelled by self-examination. Through art man learns about his spirit and its connection to the material world.
In his Berlin lectures published in Introduction to Aesthetics, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel emphasizes that self-reflection is the essence of the human spirit. Art philosophy approaches man’s contemporary sacred needs and allows art to maintain its spiritual relevance, he argues. Through self-reflection, aesthetic experience provides what Aristotle refers to as catharsis: feeling, sensing, but also knowing about the self and the world. By understanding and nurturing aesthetic character, man can secure and augment the important endeavor of art, the value of artworks, and the interactions of art maker and viewer—a worthy conversation toward understanding and appreciation of the precious subtleties of life.
Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. S.H. Butcher. Liberty Online. Jawaid Bazyar. 1995-1999. Web. 20 January 2013. http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Aristotle/Poetics.htm.
Bell, Clive. “The Aesthetic Hypothesis.” Art. New York: Chatto & Windus, 1981. 15-34.
Collingwood, Robin George. The Principles of Art. Chap. 7. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1938. 125-152.
Dewey, John. Art as Experience. New York: Perigree, 1980. Chap. 1-2. 3-27.
Duncan, Isadora. My Life. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1927.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. “Chapters 1-3.” Introduction to Aesthetics (Berlin Aesthetics Lectures of 1820s). Trans. T. M. Knox. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975. 1-14.
Heidegger, Martin. ”The Origin of the Work of Art.” Poetry, Language, Thought. Trans. A. Hofstader. Lectures 1 & 2. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. 32-48.
Hume, David. “Of the Standard of Taste.” Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965. 231-255.
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Aesthetic Judgement. Trans. J. C. Meredith. Sections 1-14, 16, 23-24, 28. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.
Plotinus. Enneads. Trans. A. H. Armstrong. Vol. I. Section 6. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1996. 229-263.
Schiller, Friedrich. “Letters.” On the Aesthetic Education of Man. 26-27. Trans. E. Wilkinson & L. Willoughby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967. 191-219.
Tolstoy, Leo. “On Art.” What is Art? and Essays on Art. Trans. A. Maude. London: Oxford University Press, 1930. 46-61.
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The largest city is Almaty with population of 1,472,866.
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Kazakhstan is a country in Central Asia. It is south of Russia, with which it shares the most border, as well as west of China, and north of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. In addition, it lies along the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea, which also forms part of its western boundary. Its lowest point is 433 feet below sea level (-132 m) in a depression, and its highest point is Khan Tangiri Shyngy 22,946.19 feet (6994 m), a mountain on the border shared with Kyrgyzstan.
The capital of Kazakhstan is Astana. Its area is 1,049,155.4 square miles (2,717,300 sq km), making it the ninth largest country in the world, following Russia, Canada, the United States, China, Brazil, Australia, India, and Argentina. The country is divided into 14 provinces, and is the site of the Kara Kum Desert, which is the fourth largest desert in the world.
Known as the Republic of Kazakhstan, the country was once called the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, when it was a member of the USSR. The local name is Qazaqstan Respublikasy. It celebrates its independence from the Soviet Union, achieved on 16 December 1991, as its Independence Day.
The July, 2008 population of Kazakhstan was estimated to be 15,340,533. The population is primarily Kazakh, with a large percentage of Russians, as well as Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Germans, Tatar, Uygur, and other ethnicities. The state language is Kazakh, but Russian is both the official language as well as the language designated for “interethnic communication.” While a large percentage of the population speaks Kazakh, most speak Russian as well.
The overall literacy rate in Kazakhstan is 99.5%, with a half percent difference between the literacy of men and women. There are two main religious affiliations: Muslim and Russian Orthodox, with a far smaller number of Protestants, and a few others. Over half the population is estimated to be in the work force, with half of the labor force devoted to the service sector, about a third in agriculture, and about a fifth in industry.
Kazakhstan’s resources include fossil fuels, minerals, and metals, and its main industries are closely related. The minerals include manganese, phosphates, and sulfur, while the metals include copper, iron ore, lead, titanium, and zinc, as well as gold and silver. In addition, there is 8umanufacturing of agricultural machinery, motors, and construction materials.
The Kazakh diet includes lamb, horse meat, and beef. Dishes include basturma, sautéed, marinated lamb; kuyrdak or kuirdak, a dish made with organ meats; and plov, a rice pilaf with nuts, fruit, and ground lamb. Some foods are associated with religious festivals, for example, Baursaki, a type of fried doughnut, with the feast that ends Ramadan.
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Wire is defined today as a single, usually cylindrical, elongated strand of drawn metal. However, when wire was first invented over 2,000 years BC, it was made from gold nuggets pounded into flat sheets, which were then cut into strips. The strips were twisted and then rolled into the round shape we call wire. This early wire, which was used in making jewelry, can be distinguished from modern wire by the spiral line along the wire created by the edges of the sheet.
Modern wire is manufactured in a different process that was discovered in Ancient Rome. In this process, a solid metal cylinder is pulled through a draw plate with holes of a defined size. Thinner sizes of wire are made by pulling wire through successively smaller holes in the draw plate until the desired size is reached.
When wire was first invented, its use was limited to making jewelry. Today, wire is used extensively in many applications including fencing, the electronics industry, electrical distribution, and the making of wire wrapped jewelry.
All metals have a property called hardness, which is the property of the metal that resists bending. Soft metals are pliable and easy to bend while hard metals are stiff and hard to bend. The hardness of metals can be changed by annealing with heat treatment, or by work hardening a wire by bending it.
Since it is made of metal, wire has this same hardness property. Most modern manufacturers of jewelry wire make the wire with a defined hardness, generally a hardness of 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. Historically, these numbers were associated with the number of times that the wire was pulled through a draw plate, becoming harder or stiffer each time it was drawn through the drawplate. A hardness of 0 meant that the wire had been drawn through only once and was as soft and as pliable as possible. A hardness of 4 meant that the wire had been drawn through five or more times and the wire was as stiff and as hard as possible. Most jewelry wire that is sold now is designated dead soft, half-hard, or hard, where dead soft is wire that is manufactured with a hardness of 0, half-hard is wire manufactured with a hardness of 2, and fully hardened wire is wire with a hardness of 4.
Dead soft wire is extremely soft and pliable. It can be easily bent and is excellent for making rounded shapes such as spirals. It is also excellent for wrapping wire around beads to make them look as though they are encased. The disadvantage of using soft wire is that the finished piece can be bent out of shape if not properly handled.
Half-hard wire is slightly stiffer than dead soft wire. Half-hard wire is excellent for making tight, angular bends, for making loops in wire, and for wrapping wire around itself. However, it is not very useful for making spirals. Finished pieces made with half-hard wire are usually more permanent than pieces made with soft wire.
Hard wire is very stiff and tends to spring back after being bent, making it harder to work with when using a jig; it cannot be used to make a spiral. Pieces made with hard wire have the advantage that they are not easily accidentally deformed.
As in many things, no single wire is perfect for all applications. Soft wire is easy to bend and shape, but the finished product may be bent out of shape if squeezed. Hard wire is difficult to bend but makes permanent shapes. Half-hard wire is a compromise between the two. Wire-wrapped jewelry can be made by wire which is initially soft, simplifying fabrication, but later hardened by hammering or by work hardening.
Historically, all wire was round. Advances in technology now allow the manufacture of jewelry wire with different cross-sectional shapes, including circular, square, and half-round. Half round wire is often wrapped around other pieces of wire to connect them. Square wire is used for its appearance: the corners of the square add interest to the finished jewelry. Square wire can be twisted to create interesting visual effects.
For jewelry applications, gauges 12–28 are most common. The size of wire is defined by one of two measuring systems. The American wire gauge (AWG) and the Standard wire gauge (SWG) systems. AWG is usually, but not always the standard for defining the sizes of wire used in the United States, and SWG is usually, but not always the standard wire sizing system used in the United Kingdom. With both the AWG and SWG systems, the larger the number, the smaller the gauge. For example: 2-gauge wire is large (like a pencil) and 30-gauge wire is fine, like thread. In much of the world wire diameter is often expressed in millimeters.
For making jump rings, 10- to 18-gauge wire (2.5 to 1.3 mm) is used. Bracelet and necklace wire components are generally made out of wire that is 16-, 18- or 20-gauge (1.3 to 0.8 mm). Earring wires are usually made out of 18- or 20-gauge wire (1.0 to 0.8 mm). When making wire wrapped jewelry, these components are connected to one another with wire that is generally 20- to 26-gauge (0.8 to 0.4 mm). Frequently the connections between wire components will include a bead on the wire connector in a technique called a wire-wrapped loop. Most glass beads (but not all) are manufactured with a hole that is 1 mm in size. This will accommodate 20-gauge wire, but will probably not accommodate 18-gauge wire. Some glass beads, almost all freshwater pearls and some gemstone beads will have smaller holes and will require the use of wire thinner than 20-gauge. (The largest wire that can go through the beads is generally chosen. Beads and gemstones are much harder than the wire, and will over time saw into the wire; so thicker wire will last longer.)
Thick wire, of 16-gauge and heavier, is harder to bend and requires more expert handling. Hammering wire with a plastic or rawhide mallet will harden wire without changing its shape. Hammering wire with a metal jeweler's hammer (chasing hammer) will harden and flatten wire.
- Body jewelry sizes
- Category: Jewellery components
- French wire
- Handmade jewelry
- Jig (jewelry)
- Wire gauge
- Wire sculpture
- Wire wrapped jewelry
- Wire gauge comparison chart
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In Jack and the Beanstalk, seeds tossed out a window spring up overnight, reaching a secret land high above the Earth. In reality, beanstalks, peas, clover, and other plants in the family Fabaceae don’t grow to the clouds, but they come surprisingly close. If you’ve ever planted beans or peas in your garden only to find that they’ve taken over your entire yard, or you’ve tried to remove all the clover from your lawn, you know that Fabaceae are tough plants which can grow in abundance just about anywhere.
The bean plants in the Fabaceae family are perhaps the exact opposite of those in the Orchidaceae, or orchid family. Orchids tend to be very difficult to grow because they have very specific environmental requirements for germination, survival, and propagation. If there is a plant the exact antithesis of Jack’s hearty beansprout, it just might be the elusive and fragile Anacamptis morio, or green-winged orchid. Over the last century this species has lost about 99% of its preferred habitat in England, making it very rare. The orchid is a slender little sprout only about 6 inches tall with a pale green stem and about half a dozen purple flowers, each the size of a grape. When the flowers are pollinated, they can produce tiny seeds no bigger than a speck of dust.
These plants are as particular as they are tiny. In order for one of these green-winged orchids to grow, several barriers must be surmounted. First, one of the very few remaining green-winged orchids must be pollinated and produce the tiny seeds. One of these minuscule seeds then has to blow across the landscape in just the right direction. The wind-borne seed can’t drop into an inhospitable spot – say a river, street, sidewalk, lake, or car – it must land in a garden, and in a spot not covered by other plants. This landing spot must have the perfect amount of daylight and moisture and not too many bacteria (which would decompose the seed). The soil temperature must be just right and the correct species of soil-dwelling beneficial fungi (mycorrhizae) need to be present to trigger the germination process. Finally, the timing has to be just perfect: these growing conditions must be present not just for a day or a single summer but for five whole years! It takes that long for a germinating green-winged orchid seed to mature and bloom into a flowering plant.
If you imagine a place where conditions are perfect for a green-winged orchid to germinate and grow, you might picture a pristine greenhouse with climate controls and near-sterile conditions. But much to the surprise of botanists like me, one of these impossibly particular green-winged orchids was discovered in the most unlikely of places. In central London last May, a staff member at the Household Reuse and Recycling Centre found a single green-winged orchid growing in an unusual location – on the roof.
Now, this isn’t any old roof. The center’s extensive green roof is spread thinly with soil. This special soil doesn’t hold much water and is quite shallow – less than 6 inches deep. (This keeps the green roof lightweight, to prevent structural stress on the building.) This specially-engineered, water-shedding soil isn’t the ideal environment for many plant seeds to germinate or many plant seedlings to grow. In addition to the tricky soil, being up so high means there is no shade, another key challenge for delicate plants.
These harsh environmental conditions mean that many plants struggle to grow on a green roof. And yet, despite the enormous number of barriers and extreme conditions, one incredible green-winged orchid did! This delicate orchid defied surprising odds and is the first of its kind to ever be recorded anywhere in inner London.
For me, the truly magical part of the story is that this little plant’s London home is one example of people in urban spaces embracing nature as something beneficial and valuable. Though tiny, this single orchid and its green-roof home in the middle of London may symbolize a new cityscape, one in which humans start living more harmoniously with other organisms. Perhaps one day it won’t be rare to find orchids and all manner of plants growing on city roofs, creating beautiful sky-high gardens for us to appreciate and enjoy, no magical beanstalk required.
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Convention on the Rights of the Child
Parties to the convention
Only signed, but not ratified
|Signed||20 November 1989|
|Location||New York City|
|Effective||2 September 1990|
|Parties||196(all United Nations member states (as well as the Cook Islands, Holy See, Niue, and the State of Palestine) except the United States)|
|Languages||Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish|
|UN Convention on the Rights of the Child at Wikisource|
|Part of the Politics series on|
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC, CROC, or UNCRC) is a human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen, unless the age of majority is attained earlier under a state's own domestic legislation.
Nations that ratify this convention are bound to it by international law. Compliance is monitored by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which is composed of members from countries around the world. Once a year, the Committee submits a report to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, which also hears a statement from the CRC Chair, and the Assembly adopts a Resolution on the Rights of the Child.
Governments of countries that have ratified the Convention are required to report to, and appear before, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child periodically to be examined on their progress with regards to the advancement of the implementation of the Convention and the status of child rights in their country. Their reports and the committee's written views and concerns are available on the committee's website.
The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention and opened it for signature on 20 November 1989 (the 30th anniversary of its Declaration of the Rights of the Child). It came into force on 2 September 1990, after it was ratified by the required number of nations. Currently, 196 countries are party to it, including every member of the United Nations except the United States.
Two optional protocols were adopted on 25 May 2000. The First Optional Protocol restricts the involvement of children in military conflicts, and the Second Optional Protocol prohibits the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Both protocols have been ratified by more than 150 states.
The Convention deals with the child-specific needs and rights. It requires that states act in the best interests of the child. This approach is different from the common law approach found in many countries that had previously treated children as possessions or chattels, ownership of which was sometimes argued over in family disputes.
In many jurisdictions, properly implementing the Convention requires an overhaul of child custody and guardianship laws, or, at the very least, a creative approach within the existing laws. The Convention acknowledges that every child has certain basic rights, including the right to life, his or her own name and identity, to be raised by his or her parents within a family or cultural grouping, and to have a relationship with both parents, even if they are separated.
The Convention obliges states to allow parents to exercise their parental responsibilities. The Convention also acknowledges that children have the right to express their opinions and to have those opinions heard and acted upon when appropriate, to be protected from abuse or exploitation, and to have their privacy protected, and it requires that their lives not be subject to excessive interference.
The Convention also obliges signatory states to provide separate legal representation for a child in any judicial dispute concerning their care and asks that the child's viewpoint be heard in such cases.
The Convention forbids capital punishment for children. In its General Comment 8 (2006) the Committee on the Rights of the Child stated that there was an "obligation of all state parties to move quickly to prohibit and eliminate all corporal punishment and all other cruel or degrading forms of punishment of children". Article 19 of the Convention states that state parties must "take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence", but it makes no explicit reference to corporal punishment. The Committee's interpretation of this section to encompass a prohibition on corporal punishment has been rejected by several state parties to the Convention, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
States party and signatories
Currently 196 countries are parties to the treaty (some with stated reservations or interpretations) including every member of the United Nations except the United States. The United States has signed the document but has not ratified it. Somalia's domestic ratification finished in January 2015 and the instrument was deposited with the United Nations in October 2015.
The former states Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were parties to the treaty until they ceased to exist. All successor states (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, and Slovakia) made declarations of succession to the treaty and currently apply it.
Canada became a signatory to the Convention on 28 May 1990 and ratified in 1991. Prior to ratifying the treaty, Canada's laws were either largely or entirely in conformity with the treaty. Youth criminal laws in Canada underwent major changes resulting in the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) which went into effect on 1 April 2003. The Act specifically references Canada's different commitments under the Convention.
The convention was influential in the following administrative Law decision of Baker v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration).
India ratified UNCRC on 11 December 1992, agreeing in principles all articles except with certain reservations on issues relating to 'child labour'. In India there is law that children under the age of 18 should not work, but there is no outright ban on child labor, and the practice is generally permitted in most industries except those deemed "hazardous". Although a law in October 2006 banned child labor in hotels, restaurants, and as domestic servants, there continues to be high demand for children as hired help in the home. Current estimates as to the number of child laborers in the country range from the government's conservative estimate of 4 million children under 14 years of age to the much higher estimates of children's rights activists, which hover around 60 million. Little is being done to address the problem since the economy is booming and the nuclear family is spreading, thereby increasing demand for child laborers. In India many people are still suffering from non-nutritious food, many parents are still leaving their children on riverside, in trains etc. Under the auspices of the Unicef financed Odisha initiative the Government of India is specifying the outline of a means of change and improvement in child care, and many trusts such as childLine, Plan India and savethechildren too are taking efforts to outdate child labour from India. A few of the organisations who work with children's rights in India are Plan India, CRY (Child Rights and You), Save the Children, Bal Vikas Dhara-New Delhi, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, CHORD-Hyderabad.
Iran has adhered to the convention since 1991 and ratified it in the Parliament in 1994. Upon ratification, Iran made the following reservation: "If the text of the Convention is or becomes incompatible with the domestic laws and Islamic standards at any time or in any case, the Government of the Islamic Republic shall not abide by it." Iran has also signed the both optional protocols which relate to the special protection of children against involvement in armed conflict and the sale of children and sexual exploitation.
Although Iran is a state party to the Convention, international human rights organisations and foreign governments routinely denounced executions of Iranian child offenders as a violation of the treaty. But on 10 February 2012, Iran's parliament changed the controversial law of executing juveniles. In the new law, the age of 18 (solar year) would be for both genders considered the cut-off for adulthood and offenders under this age will be sentenced under a separate law. Based on the previous Islamic law, which was revised, girls at the age of 9 and boys at 15 (lunar year, 11 days shorter than a solar year) were fully responsible for their crimes.
Ireland signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 30 September 1990 and ratified it, without reservation, on 28 September 1992. In response to criticisms expressed in the 1998 review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, the Irish government established the office of Ombudsman for Children and drew up a national children's strategy. In 2006, following concerns expressed by the committee that the wording of the Irish Constitution does not allow the State to intervene in cases of abuse other than in very exceptional cases, the Irish government undertook to amend the constitution to make a more explicit commitment to children's rights.
Israel ratified the Convention in 1991. In 2010, UNICEF criticized Israel for its failure to create a government-appointed commission on children's rights or to adopt a national children's rights strategy or program in order to implement various Israeli laws addressing children's rights. The report criticizes Israel for holding that the Convention does not apply in the West Bank and for defining as Palestinians under the age of 16 in the occupied territories as children, even though Israeli law defines a child as being under 18, in line with the Convention. A contemporaneous report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that Israel's investment in children is below the international average and the actual investment had fallen between 1995 and 2006. In 2012, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child criticized Israel for its bombing attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, stating, "Destruction of homes and damage to schools, streets and other public facilities gravely affect children" and called them "gross violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict and international humanitarian law." It also criticized Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel which traumatized Israeli children, calling on all parties to protect children.
New Zealand ratified the Convention on 6 April 1993 with reservations concerning the right to distinguish between persons according to the nature of their authority to be in New Zealand, the need for legislative action on economic exploitation—which it argued was adequately protected by existing law, and the provisions for the separation of juvenile offenders from adult offenders.
In 1994, the Court of Appeal of New Zealand dismissed the suggestion that the Minister for Immigration and his department were at liberty to ignore the convention, arguing that this would imply that the country's adherence was "at least partly window-dressing".
In May 2007, New Zealand passed the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007, which removed the defence of "reasonable force" for the purpose of correction. In its third and final vote, Parliament voted 113 to eight in favour of the legislation.
Saudi Arabia ratified the Convention in 1996, with a reservation "with respect to all such articles as are in conflict with the provisions of Islamic law" and considers it to be a valid source of domestic law. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, which reviewed Saudi Arabia's treatment of children under the Convention in January 2005, strongly condemned the government for its practice of imposing the death penalty on juveniles, calling it "a serious violation of the fundamental rights". The committee said it was "deeply alarmed" over the discretionary power judges hold to treat juveniles as adults: In its 2004 report the Saudi Arabian government had stated that it "never imposes capital punishment on persons ... below the age of 18". The government delegation later acknowledged that a judge could impose the death penalty whenever he decided that the convicted person had reached his or her majority, regardless of the person's actual age at the time of the crime or at the time of the scheduled execution.
The United Kingdom ratified the Convention on 16 December 1991, with several declarations and reservations, and made its first report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in January 1995. Concerns raised by the Committee included the growth in child poverty and inequality, the extent of violence towards children, the use of custody for young offenders, the low age of criminal responsibility, and the lack of opportunities for children and young people to express views. The 2002 report of the Committee expressed similar concerns, including the welfare of children in custody, unequal treatment of asylum seekers, and the negative impact of poverty on children's rights. In September 2008, the UK government decided to withdraw its reservations and agree to the Convention in these respects.
The 2002 report's criticism of the legal defence of "reasonable chastisement" of children by parents, which the Committee described as "a serious violation of the dignity of the child", was rejected by the UK Government. The Minister for Children, Young People and Families commented that while fewer parents are using smacking as a form of discipline, the majority said they would not support a ban.
In evidence to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Committee was criticised by the Family Education Trust for "adopting radical interpretations of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in its pursuit of an agenda". The Joint Committee's report recommended that "the time has come for the Government to act upon the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child concerning the corporal punishment of children and the incompatibility of the defence of reasonable chastisement with its obligations under the Convention." The UK Government responded that "the use of physical punishment is a matter for individual parents to decide".
The United States government played an active role in the drafting of the Convention and signed it on 16 February 1995, but has not ratified it because it forbids both the death penalty and life imprisonment for children (Article 37), even though a state can legitimately ratify subject to reservations or interpretations. It has been claimed that American opposition to the Convention stems primarily from political and religious conservatives. For example, the Heritage Foundation sees it as threatening national control over domestic policy and the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) argues that the CRC threatens homeschooling. In 2005, a Supreme Court decision declared juvenile executions to be unconstitutional as "cruel and unusual punishment"; in 2012, the Court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders.
State laws regarding the practice of closed adoption may also require overhaul in light of the Convention's position that children have a right to identity from birth.
During his 2008 campaign for President, then-Senator Barack Obama described the failure to ratify the Convention as "embarrassing" and promised to review the issue. The United States has signed and ratified two of the optional protocols to the Convention, the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
Two optional protocols were adopted by the UN General Assembly on 25 May 2000. The first, the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, requires parties to ensure that children under the age of 18 are not recruited compulsorily into their armed forces, and calls on governments to do everything feasible to ensure that members of their armed forces who are under 18 years do not take part in hostilities. This protocol entered into force on 12 July 2002. As of 25 August 2019, 159 states are party to the protocol and another 14 states have signed but not ratified it.
The second, the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, requires parties to prohibit the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. It entered into force on 18 January 2002. As of 25 August 2019, 169 states are party to the protocol and another 9 states have signed but not ratified it.
A third, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure, which would allow children or their representatives to file individual complaints for violation of the rights of children, was adopted in December 2011 and opened for signature on 28 February 2012. The protocol currently has 48 signatures and 17 ratifications: it entered into force on 14 April 2014 following the tenth ratification three months beforehand.
- Cartoons for Children's Rights
- Child advocacy
- Child custody
- Child labor
- Child laundering
- Children's rights
- Children's Rights Education
- Children's rights movement
- CRY America
- Declaration of the Rights of the Child
- Evolving capacities
- Execution of Rizana Nafeek
- iRights Framework
- Intergenerational equity
- International child abduction
- International Play Association
- Save the Children
- Stop Child Executions
- Student voice
- Youth voice
- Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999
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|Wikisource has original text related to this article:|
- United Nations General Assembly (20 November 1989). "Text of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child". http://www.ohchr.org. UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved 20 January 2015. External link in
- Signatures and ratifications, at depositary
- UNICEF web site
- Procedural history, related documents and photos on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (with protocols) in the Historic Archives of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law
- NGO Alternative Reports submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
- Biography of Eglantyne Jebb, author of the original Declaration
- Website critic against CRC
- Section related to the CRC on the Children's Rights Portal
- "everychild.ca" Child Rights Public Awareness Campaign of British Columbia, Canada. Resources include links and publications related to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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Strong reasoning
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Crime & Law
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Arts Fuse 10/22/2014
Andrew Barbato’s musical turns the Dormouse, the White Queen, and even the Red Queen (“Off with their heads!”) into nurturing Montessori teachers, concerned with comforting and reassuring an upset Alice.
By Lin Haire-Sargeant
There is much to enjoy in the Wheelock Family Theater’s Alice, a musical interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s high Victorian children’s books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1872).
Talented 24-year-old playwright Andrew Barbato has imagined an entertaining coming-of-age story for Alice (ably played by Maritza Bostic). It’s the morning of her 13th birthday, and Alice dreads attending a party where she must mind her manners and play the piano for guests. Her imaginary world, Wonderland, is her only escape. As designed by Matthew T. Lazure, Wonderland’s vertical stage-filling maze of wooden trunks, platforms, ladders, and staircases contains plenty of places for Alice to hide, fall down rabbit holes, and change sizes. Beloved characters from the books (The Queen of Hearts, The White Queen, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat, and many more) are arranged around the set like statues that come alive and interact with Alice. In the story that follows there are lively song-and-dance numbers; there are tears; there is laughter. As the playwright explained in a post-show discussion, each scene teaches Alice a different lesson about growing up. By the end of the play, Alice has been successfully coaxed to attend her party and to accept her impending womanhood.
But there’s a problem.
Lewis Carroll didn’t want Alice to grow up.
Alice’s adventures were told by Charles Dodgson (pen name Lewis Carroll) to 10-year-old Alice Liddell and her two sisters on a series of idyllic boat-ride picnics on the River Thames in the summer of 1862. He imagined for the children a glimmering alternative world, viewed through the golden gauze of summer afternoons. Alice’s father Henry Liddell was dean of Christ Church at Oxford University, where Dodson taught mathematics. The writer cherished his friendship with this distinguished family. Though shy and uncomfortable with grownups, in the company of little girls he blossomed. Adept at magic tricks, comic verse, and genteel, childish puns, his relationships with his numerous “child friends” were correct but intensely loving. It was not thought odd or alarming at the time that a grown man would be fixated upon little girls; indeed, all the evidence confirms that Dodgson never committed an impropriety. But he remained an unmarried bachelor all his life. Is there anyone less likely to create a story celebrating maturity, aside from J. M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan? Alice cannot grow up any more than Peter. Carroll’s delightful imaginative world depended on Alice NOT celebrating the birthday that would take her to womanhood.
In addition, anyone who tries to faithfully adapt the Alice stories for dramatic presentation encounters a formidable obstacle: drama depends on development. Films can count on spectacle; a few successfully reproduce the static anarchy of the Alice books, such as Disney’s cheerfully nonsensical 1951 animated Alice in Wonderland and, on a darker note, Czech Jan Svankmajer’s surrealist 1988 stop-motion Alice. But a theater production is more earthbound—it has to get somewhere. But Carroll’s books are word-art. On the page, the transformations Alice goes through can happen as quickly and as effortlessly as a child can imagine—there is no worry over emotional impact or symbolic meaning. Many of the originals for Carroll’s poetic parodies can be known only through footnotes; others, like the tail-shaped lyric “A Mouse’s Tale,” must be seen on the page to be appreciated. This kind of intimate charm is not stageable.
Barbato’s version departs from Carroll’s in other ways. Barbato’s 13-year-old heroine is emotional and vulnerable. Carroll’s Alice may be a 7-year-old upper-class Victorian female, but she is as tough as Winston Churchill in the face of danger. She is never fazed by the behavior of Wonderland’s rude and self-absorbed characters; her automatic good manners and perfect poise smooth over any encounter. In fact, it’s vital that the characters are indifferent to Alice. She has to take her own fate in hand, and she does. In contrast, Barbato’s play turns the Dormouse, the White Queen, and even the Red Queen (“Off with their heads!”) into nurturing Montessori teachers, concerned with comforting and reassuring an upset Alice. Furthermore, whereas mathematician and logician Carroll uses the rules and pieces of games (cards, croquet, and chess) to supply a firm scaffolding for his witty chaos, Barbato eschews game structure for the biological imperative: grow or die.
That said, perhaps imposing a coming-of-age plot on Alice was the best option open to playwright and adapter Barbato. It is a time-honored story format that works well on stage, with child protagonists engaging in struggles that move them from ignorance into knowledge. The Wheelock Family Theater has a strong history of producing such plays. Recent seasons have included The Miracle Worker, The Secret Garden, and Anne of Green Gables: all of these stories center on girl protagonists who overcome trauma in order to reach self-determination. Alice acquires power too, regulating her size to suit the situation and finally reaching the garden that is her goal. Barbato makes good use of these factors—in one effective scene a long skirt is unfurled from the top of the set and Alice pops up above it, suddenly 20 feet tall. At the end of the play, Alice herself creates the garden she has been desiring by imagining it—child actors’ flower bud hats suddenly sprout outsized bright flowers. “The garden is all around you,” Alice learns. “Nothing is impossible.” These are fine lessons for children, and Barbato is to be applauded for including them.
Still, it must be noted that some children like their Alice “real.” In a post-show discussion, about 20 children crowded the front rows, eager to question the playwright. The first asked, “Why did you change Alice up?” Barbato answered that he had chosen the parts he liked best from the Alice books and movies and made that into a new play. Another question followed: “Why didn’t you just make the play out of the book?” Barbato replied that it wouldn’t have been any fun for the script to tell the same story as the book. “But some plays do,” the child insisted. Other questioners asked why some things were left out of the stage adaptation, and why characters from Through the Looking-Glass were mixed in with a mostly Wonderland-inspired play. The children debated Alice’s age: “She’s ten.” “No, seven and a half!” “No, she’s about five!” and wanted to know the actors’ ages. It turns out that several of the “flower buds” (some as young as nine) were products of Wheelock’s acting programs for children. The age of the woman playing the Cheshire Cat was a big surprise. Julia Talbot’s movement and acting skills would be impressive in an adult, but she’s only 14, another Wheelock acting alum.
Other performance standouts: Jenna Lea Scott, delightfully funny as the Frog Footman; Russell Garrett, who brought the whimsical polish of the British Music Hall tradition to the role of the Mad Hatter; and Aubin Wise as the White Queen—her gospel-diva singing has no logical connection to the setting, but she’s such a pro that it is a joy to go wherever she leads. The Duchess (Robin Long) and the Cook (Alexandra Nader) convulsed the audience with housekeeping so crazy that it turns their baby into a pig! Finally, Elbert Joseph as the speaking part of the Caterpillar (four other actors played his lower segments down a spiral staircase) haughtily interrogates Alice in dialogue straight from the Carroll text. Actors, musicians, designers, and production staff bring energy and polish to this production of a new work.
Alice’s score, written by Lesley DeSantis, dutifully samples cabaret and gospel styles. The production’s performers generally deliver the tunes via the now declamatory Broadway mode: enthusiasm trumps nuance. It did not help that during the first act the voices of the singers were amplified to the point of pain. The volume was turned down in act two, which at least made listening more comfortable. Aubin Wise’s beautiful voice and expert delivery stood out, as did the antic vocal turns of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee (Noah Virgile and Dashiell Evett). Pianist Robert L. Rucinski’s versatile ensemble was excellent throughout, accompanying the singers with tact and steadiness.
The production I attended drew an impassioned young audience, in the know about Alice and more than ready to be thrilled by a retelling of her story. The widespread graying of the theater-going demographic is not apparent at the WFT, where the majority of the people onstage and in the audience are, as Shakespeare would say, in their salad days. If nothing else, this Alice confirms something that we tend to forget at our peril—that theater is a special enthusiasm of the young.
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Entertainment
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Scientists at the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute have discovered how a change in growth hormone activity in mice leads to fatty liver disease, a condition whose human counterpart is of rising concern worldwide.
Disruption of a key protein in the pathway that responds to growth hormone could explain how fatty liver disease develops, the researchers said, but may also offer insights into how our bodies regulate fat in general.
The team’s findings and the first reports of a mouse model to study the pathway will appear in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and online March 1 at http://www.jci.org/articles/view/42894.
Until recently, the growth of fat deposits in the liver that characterizes fatty-liver disease was mainly considered a result of alcoholism. Over the last decade, though, scientists have been baffled by the rising incidence of the non-alcoholic version of the disease, which now affects as many as one in four people worldwide, according to UCSF cardiologist Ethan Weiss, MD, senior author of the paper.
Known risk factors for the condition include obesity, diabetes and malnutrition, among many others, but its precise mechanism had eluded researchers.
“Fatty liver disease is an increasingly prevalent condition that is poorly understood,” Weiss said. “We knew that growth hormone had been linked to fatty liver, but previous reports showed that it both causes and cures the condition. We set out to figure out why that happens.”
The team focused on a protein in the liver known as JAK2. While better known as being linked to cancers such as blood cancers, this protein is also a key player in an important chemical pathway in the liver.
Normally, the pituitary gland secretes growth hormone, which communicates with JAK2 and sets off a series of steps to produce insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), an important mediator of growth and other effects. It was common knowledge that disrupting this pathway would halt IGF-1 production, but in their analysis, Weiss and his team found that disrupting the pathway also caused fatty liver disease.
The team engineered a mouse model in which the gene producing JAK2 had been removed solely in the liver, disrupting the pathway that produces the insulin-like growth factor. As expected, the levels of growth factor in these mice were low or nonexistent and the mice developed early and severe fatty-liver disease. Further analysis showed that another protein, called CD36, was working in the liver to draw in the fat in the JAK2-deficient mice.
The amount of growth hormone secreted by the pituitary gland also was dramatically elevated. The team realized that low IGF-1 levels were sending the pituitary gland into overdrive, secreting more growth hormone in order to jumpstart the growth factor’s production. But without JAK2, the signaling pathway was broken and IGF-1 production was at a standstill.
That explained the low growth factor levels, but not the fatty livers. The team then took advantage of a second set of mice with no capability of producing growth hormone, which is known to activate energy from fat stores. When crossing the JAK2-deficient mice with the growth hormone-deficient “little” mice, the researchers noticed a huge difference in the offspring.
“We saw a complete disappearance of the fatty liver in these offspring,” he said. “It was just gone.”
The team concluded that the growth hormone signaling pathway is not only essential in producing IGF-1 and mobilizing fat, but in regulating how fat is taken up by the liver.
This newfound understanding has huge implications for understanding and treating fatty liver disease in humans, Weiss said, such as the possibility of developing a therapeutic drug that works within this pathway.
Brandon C. Sos, from the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute, was lead author on the paper. Co-authors include Sarah M. Nordstrom and Jennifer L. Tran, also from the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute; Charles Harris, from the UCSF Division of Endocrinology and the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases; Mercedesz Balázs and Patrick Caplazi, from Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche Group, South San Francisco, California; Maria Febbraio and Milana A.B. Applegate, of the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH; and Kay-Uwe Wagner, of the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska.
This research was funded in part by grants from the UCSF Liver Center and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. For more information, visit www.ucsf.edu.
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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Learn something new every day
More Info... by email
There are many pulley dimensions to be obtained from a pulley system, including the length of the belt, the velocity ratio of the system, and the pitch diameter of the belt. The velocity ratio is calculated using the rotations-per-minute (RPMs) or circumferences of the driver and driven pulleys. Although the pitch diameter of the belt is not often needed, this dimension can be difficult to determine.
The first dimension to measure is the length of a belt between two pulleys. A simple way to do this is to take a piece of string, wrap it around the two pulleys and mark where the end of the string touches another part of the string. Take a measuring stick or measuring tape and measure from the end of the string to the marked part of the string.
The next of the pulley dimensions you can measure is the velocity ratio; to obtain this measurement, you can use either the RPMs or circumferences of the driver pulley and the driven pulley. For a pulley system like those found in an automobile engine, the RPM can be found using print or online manuals of a particular engine, or the use of a tachometer. You will likely already know the RPMs of the driver pulley, but not the driven pulley. If you know the RPMs of both pulleys, you can divide the RPM of the driver pulley by the RPM of the driven pulley. Otherwise, you must use the circumferences of the driver pulley and driven pulley to determine the velocity ratio.
Obtain the circumferences of both the driver pulley and the driven pulley by measuring the radii of both pulleys. To determine the radius, measure widthwise from one edge of the pulley wheel to the center. Multiply the radius by 2 π (pi) and you will have the circumference of the pulley wheel. Do this for both pulley wheels to obtain two circumference values. Then, divide the circumference of the driven pulley by the circumference of the driver pulley to obtain the velocity ratio of the system.
The velocity ratio is a one of the essential pulley dimensions to know for any pulley system found in machinery like automobile engines or industrial conveyor belts. It is used to determine how much work is performed and how much power is exerted in a system, which is known as mechanical advantage. As an example of this concept, bicycles have multiple gear settings — or velocity ratios — to increase or decrease the workload a biker uses to pedal. In automobile engines, the velocity ratio is used to increase output torque or output speed.
One of the pulley dimensions you may need, but not necessarily be able to obtain, is the pitch diameter of a belt. This is the diameter of the threads found inside the belt. It is possible, but not practical, to measure this. Instead, you can consult a manual on a particular piece of machinery or use an online calculator with the system's measured pulley dimensions.
One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK!
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Moderate reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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School administrators and teachers across the country recognize the need to adapt their classrooms using new styles of learning. Only recently, however, are they seeing the significance of employing flexible classroom furniture to make it all work.
The move toward active and collaborative learning brings a much-needed change into the traditional learning environment – that is, the flexibility to curate lessons and classroom layouts to match the learning needs of students.
However, many schools are not sure of how to convert from a traditional, lecture-based classroom into a more collaborative and flexible setup. Professionals are looking to discover how they can align their classroom furnishings with their teaching styles and their students’ learning styles.
If you’re like most teachers and administrators, you’re asking questions like, “What is the right layout for my school? What features should I look for when selecting new, flexible classroom furniture? Can the conversion happen in phases? Where is the best place to start?”
Take a look at how some schools are reinventing the tried-and-true lecture-based classroom setup for today’s classroom that supports individual, collaborative and project-based learning.
A Flexible Approach to Individual-Based Learning
While research supports project-based and collaborative learning, flipped and blended classrooms, and active learning strategies as proven ways to increase student engagement and achievement, there is still a need for individual-based or traditional instruction. Students need an environment in which they can focus, work, and demonstrate their knowledge of content.
Traditionally, lecture-based learning is a presentation method where the focus is on the material and the delivery is by the instructor. In a nutshell, teachers teach the lesson and students listen.
Today, instructors are expanding the lecture-based model to include activities that are essential for students to grow cognitively. Activities like reflection journals, goal setting, focused writing, assessments, independent work, and organization are important activities for students to acquire important skills to support their social-emotional and academic growth.
Benefits of Individual-Based Learning
There will always be a place in the classroom for individual-based learning. Here are the top reasons why:
- It helps learners process information, encourages them to be mindful of their actions, and allows them the time to demonstrate their learning.
- It offers a quick & straightforward way to provide information to students.
- It gives students a designated time on task to complete assignments and meet deadlines.
- It helps focus students toward listening, communicating, and providing feedback.
Promote Collaborative Learning with Flexible Classroom Furniture
Re-defining the Rules of the Classroom
Traditional classroom layouts are very linear and inflexible by nature. The teacher sits at the front of the classroom while the students are lined up individually in rows. This configuration is not conducive to a collaborative environment.
So, how are things changing? Students are learning differently and teachers are adapting the way they present material. By employing flexible classroom furniture, teachers have more options to build a learning environment that adapts to their students’ different styles of learning. Collaborative, mobile, and flexible classroom furniture comes in shapes and sizes that support teacher's engagement with students.
For example, a teacher might need to start the day with an individual based setup in the morning but will need to switch to a collaborative layout for the afternoon as the students work through practical exercises.
Inspirational Classroom Setup Ideas to Encourage New Learning Styles
Here are some examples of how teachers have successfully incorporated non-traditional learning into the classroom to engage their students after individual-based learning sessions:
|Individual Technology-Infused||Collaborative and Project-Based|
|Use of animated video libraries, such as TedEd to spark ideas around design curriculum.||Allow students to work in teams to create their own “TedEd” video to teach concepts to other students in the class. Have students critique each other’s work.|
|Introduce global online classrooms, such as the Khan Academy, to allow students to grow their interest.||Group student based on common interests and assign a project designed around information from the Khan Academy lesson.|
|Incorporate interactive games, like Kahoot, to engage students.||After reviewing academic vocabulary with a Kahoot game, put students in groups to design models that would represent the words.|
We live, teach, and learn in a world that is continually redefining traditional spaces. A one-size-fits-all approach to classroom setup and furniture might have worked well 50 years ago, but today’s students and teachers have more resources available than ever before. Schools are discovering the value of collaborative, active learning setups made possible with flexible classroom furniture.
How to Get Started Using Flexible Classroom Furniture
If you’re ready to experience all of the benefits of a collaborative learning environment in your school, we can help! At Artcobell, we’re passionate about helping teachers & administrators find the right school furniture to promote student success. Browse through our solutions pages to find more ideas that support your needs or talk with a dealer to get started.
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Strong reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal employment law that has been around for nearly 75 years. Although the law has been around for a long time, there are still many aspects that are unclear to many employers and employees alike including those in the dental field.
One of the most basic aspects of the law requires that any non-exempt employees to be paid at least the minimum wage for any hours that they work and that they be paid 1.5 times their regular pay rate for any hour worked over 40 hours in a workweek. Although this may seem like an easy determination, many employers have a difficult time determining who exactly is eligible for overtime and who is exempt.
Although the law provides guidelines as to the types of employees that are exempt, an employee’s actual job duties determine whether he or she is indeed exempt. Whether deliberately or inadvertently, many employers have made the mistake of misclassifying or labeling certain employees as exempt under the FLSA. Employers may do this to avoid having to pay overtime. Employers may title a job position a certain way or highlight certain job descriptions. However, these factors are irrelevant.
In the dental field, there is some debate as to whether a dental hygienist should be exempt under the FLSA statute. A number of employers have considered dental hygienist as falling under the statute’s “professional” exemption. However, there are a number of stipulations that the hygienist must meet before falling under this “professional” exemption. Only those hygienists who have completed a four year academic study in an accredited school may qualify for this exemption. Similar to other “white collar exemptions,” the hygienist would also have to be paid by salary and receive at least $455 each week for the exemption to apply.
Another potential mistake made by employers is the miscalculation of overtime pay for any employees who are not considered to be exempt under FLSA. Although many of the employees that do receive overtime payment are paid hourly, the FLSA does not require the employees to be paid hourly in order to be eligible for overtime. Many employers wrongly assume that any overtime paid must be paid at a rate that is 1.5 times an employee’s hourly rate. However, the overtime rate should be paid at 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate. This regular rate of pay includes all payment for the employment including any commissions, incentive pay, and even some bonuses. In calculating the amount of overtime pay, employers should not leave out any payment included in that calculation.
If you are in the dental field or any other field and you have questions relating to the FLSA, contact one of our Tennessee employment law attorneys. We have employment law attorneys that cover the entire state of Tennessee. At The Higgins Firm, we would be happy to answer any questions that you may have relating to minimum wage or overtime payments.
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Moderate reasoning
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Crime & Law
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NEW YORK | Some African American artists complain that Black History Month ought to be 12 times a year rather than just one month. This complaint has been repeated enough (by the director/choreographer Bill T. Jones, for example) that frequently publications and arts organizations that want to pose as forward-thinking or politically correct actually hurt the larger cause by not covering or organizing Black History Month events. It’s one of those cases where criticizing a tradition has the effect of actually hurting the employment possibilities of some African American artists (especially black playwrights who have not been recognized by large nonprofit institutions).
Since its genesis in the 1920s, Black History Month was fundamentally intended to deconstruct on its own. It started in 1926. Carter G. Woodson, Harvard scholar, established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now called the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History) in 1915. He also founded the widely respected Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he created Negro History Week as a week-long initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people throughout American history. Woodson chose the second week of February because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
At the time, there was a great need for a dedicated time frame to allow black contributions to signal through the flames, with the larger purpose that the necessity of it will also disappear. In 1976, about 50 years later, the week became a month. President Gerald Ford put a federal stamp on the month-long idea.
Today, even with a black president, the necessity of Black History Month has not gone away. It is in fact more important than ever, I would argue. The move to expand a week to a month may now seem like a dated idea, but the deeper inequities in out society have not gone away. A recent report, released by the Asian American Performers Actions Coalition, states that in the 2011-2012 season, for example, “African American actors were cast in 16% of all roles, Hispanic American/Latino actors in 3%, and Asian American actors in 3% (others, including Arab American/Middle Eastern and Native American actors, comprised 1%). Caucasian actors filled 77% of all roles and continued to be the only ethnicity to over-represent compared to their respective population size in New York City and the Tri-State area.”
Even with more black playwrights being produced on Broadway and in major non-profit venues, there has actually been a broadening divide in the arts sector. White directors are often the first artists to be tapped to revive classic black plays. Let’s not even talk about the state of black design in the U.S., where the presence of black designers have been blotted out by the industry. The racial divide is also a class issue, I’d argue. Last year the Coalition of Theatres of Color in New York actually held a town-hall meeting to discuss, “Can NYC’s Theaters of Color Survive in the New Economy?”, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. It was a very sobering and highly emotional meeting where preachers and leaders of New York’s theaters of color tried to galvanize the community to make elected officials, public and private grantors and arts patrons aware of the inequitable funding.
So it was with great pleasure to hear that the National Black Touring Circuit has decided to buck the nay-saying trend and organize a Black History Month Play Festival 2013, which runs February 8 to 24 at New York theaters. The festival, the legendary director/producer Woodie King Jr. tells me, features plays that “are about the contributions specific African Americans made.”
King cites “Rosa Parks starring Ella Joyce; Paul Robeson starring Kevin Maynor; Adam by Peter DeAnda, starring Timothy Simonson; Zora Neal Hurston starring Kim Brockington; Love to All, Lorraine Hansberry starring Elizabeth Van Dyke; The People of Clarendon by the late Ossie Davis; The Good Fight: A Philip Randolph; I Barbara Jordan by Celeste Bedford Walker; Dr. May Edward Chinn by Laurence Holder; Dr Dubois and Miss Ovington by Clare Coss starring Kathleen Chalfant and Peter Jay Fernandez.”
King adds: “The larger goals are to produce plays about unrecognized heroic African Americans and to reach out to school where students are not provided information on contributions made by African Americans.”
The Black History Month Play Festival will feature three performances each week. There will be post-play discussions analyzing issues confronted by these African American political figures.
“These biographical plays take audiences on dramatic journeys through the lives of legendary African American men who changed American history,” adds King. “It’s especially important for younger audiences to comprehend the relentless determination of these men as they faced inconceivable challenges in the pursuit of racial equality. They laid the framework for achievement by contemporary African American political figures including President Obama.”
It’s unfortunately still an impossible dream: to hope that it is Black History Month 12 times a year. Let’s face it: Theaters of color have a tradition of addressing the needs of our multicultural community and preserving and promoting their cultural heritage. They are an indispensable laboratory for creativity and cultural survival.
You can be too hip for Black History Month. Yet is that stance really all that admirable given the reality we live in today, where diversity is deemed to be a problem which we can only endlessly talk about without taking any real action? Being too hip for Black History Celebration might mean falling prey to the larger sociopolitical forces that maintain unchecked discriminatory barriers and prevent radical inclusion. — randy gener
HERE IS THE SCHEDULE FOR THE BLACK HISTORY MONTH PLAY FESTIVAL
Adam will be held February 8 – 10 at the Dwyer Cultural Center, 258 St. Nicholas Avenue (entrance on 123rd Street). Starring Timothy Simonson as Adam Clayton Powell, written by Peter DeAnda and directed by Shauneille Perry, Adam is a dramatization of the words and thoughts of the Reverend and Honorable Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. It is a dramatic, historical play that is set in Bimini, the House of Representatives and Abyssinian Baptist Church. Adam follows the handsome and charismatic Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. on his political journey as the Congressman who represented Harlem between 1945 and 1971.
He Who Endures will be held February 15 – 17 at the National Black Theatre, 2031 Fifth Avenue (at 125th Street). Starring Ralph McCain as Frederick Douglass, He Who Endures, written by Bill Harris and directed by Ajene D. Washington, is set prior to the Civil War with Douglass questioning the direction the Abolitionist Movement with the Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, John Brown and slave-turned-rebel Shields Green. It co-stars Norman Marshall, Marcus Naylor and Leopold Lowe.
Dr. DuBois and Miss Ovington will be held February 22 – 24 at the Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42rd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenue). Co-starring Peter Jay Fernandez as W.E.B. DuBois and Kathleen Chalfant as Mary White Ovington, Dr. DuBois and Miss Ovington, written by Clare Coss and directed by Gabrielle Kurlander, captures a moment of crisis between two esteemed founders of the NAACP in 1915 when DuBois submits his resignation. Du Bois is an educator, human rights activist, African-American visionary leader and Ovington is a white Unitarian, granddaughter of abolitionists, and outspoken justice advocate. Together, they spar, flirt, clash, reveal secrets, and compete to save their vital work.
The Black History Month Play Festival performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 3:00pm. Tickets are $20. For more information call (212) 279-4200 or ticketcentral.com
The National Black Touring Circuit was founded in 1974, by Woodie King, Jr. to make existing Black theatre productions available to a larger audience by presenting to the Black communities at large, to colleges, to Black art centers, and to resident professional theatres. The program is funded by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts and individual contributions.
- Black History Month: From Segregation To Space (npr.org)
- What to do if someone asks: ‘Why isn’t there a White History Month?’ (thegrio.com)
- [Thoughtcrime] Contributing to Black History Month, RPG Edition (thoughtcrimegames.net)
- Something La Raza can Learn During Black History Month (latinalista.com)
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Read Book Electrochemistry Problems And Solutions Electrochemistry Problems And Solutions Thank you for downloading electrochemistry problems and solutions. So, if your reaction's at 25 degrees C, you can write the Nernst equation this way. 15 Most Likely Problems Electrochemistry JEE (M) Apr 27, 2020 • 1h 33m . electrochemistry which is our first real example of modern analytical chemistry. As, at the end of the day this will only increase your confusion and keep you puzzled about applied electrochemistry assignment help. +2 b. How Do I Solve It? (H) … Electrochemistry Problem Solution Of 12 Class Maharashtra Government Textbook Electrochemistry If you ally compulsion such a referred problem solution of 12 class maharashtra government textbook electrochemistry ebook that will give you worth, acquire the enormously best seller from us currently from several preferred authors. Electrochemistry. This Electrochemistry Problems Worksheet is suitable for 11th - Higher Ed. When Solving Problems Go Step-by-Step Never skip any step while solving chemical reactions, calculations or other problems. Report. Option 1) -2.69V and no. Problem . Write the conventional diagram for cells A and B and calculate emf by employing the standard . Redox Reactions and Electrochemistry - Problem Solving 1. 4 Electrochemistry is everywhere. A voltaic cell consists of a strip of cadmium metal in a solution of Cd(NO3)2 in one beaker, and in the other beaker a platinum electrode is immersed in a NaCl solution, with Cl2 gas bubbled around the electrode. Then, the review focuses on problem solving in equilibrium electrochemistry, especially problems involving the Nernst equation. This session will cover 15 most likely problems to come in JEE (M) for the topic - Electrochemistry. Calculating Standard Cell Potentials. How to Solve Electrochemistry Problem. Posted in: Email This BlogThis! The cell potential and free energy example shows how to calculate free energy of a redox reaction. Post Answer. The objective of this book is to develop the reader's ability to solve problems in electrochemistry. Redox Reactions and Electrochemistry - Problem Solving 1. 5:31. Chemistry Physical Chemistry Basics Chemical Laws Molecules Periodic Table Projects & Experiments Scientific Method Biochemistry Medical Chemistry Chemistry In Everyday Life Famous Chemists Activities for Kids Abbreviations & Acronyms Biology … Hindi Batches and Year Long Courses. 1) Co(s) | Co2+ (1.00*10‐2 M) and 2) Ni(s) | Ni2+ (1.00 M). Example 2. Similar Classes . Our digital library saves in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Watch Now. Browse more videos. This page contains links to guides to solving many of the the types of quantitative problems found in Chemistry 116.If you don't know where to start, try the links with the same name as the chapter the problem comes from. Electrochemistry: Numerical Problems Using Faraday's Law to solve an electrochemical thermodynamics problem, considering an iron sample protected by nickelization Electrochemistry Problems Electrochemistry: Molecules in a Serotonin Problems in electrophysiology Chemistry Problems Calculating Electromotive Force Using the Nersnt Equation Oxidation-Reduction Reactions. Every electrochemical reaction must involve a chemical system in which at least one species is Find the cell potential of a galvanic cell based on the following reduction half-reactions at 25 °C Cd 2+ + 2 e-→ Cd E 0 = -0.403 V Pb 2+ + 2 e-→ Pb E 0 = -0.126 V where [Cd 2+] = 0.020 M and [Pb 2+] = 0.200 M. Solution . In this work, we will provide background and justi cation for the mathematical formula-tion of these problems. Playing next. Popular; Tags ; Blog Archives; Popular Posts. En savoir plus sur Principes de base du pH : obtenez de meilleurs résultats grâce à de meilleures connaissancesVWR, Au service de la Science au travers d'un grand choix de produits, de l'excellence de nos processus, de l'expertise de nos équipes et de nos prestations de service. This example problem shows how to use the Nernst equation to calculate a cell potential. Problem : Tell whether each of the following reactions are redox or not. As you may know, people have search hundreds times for their chosen books like this electrochemistry problems and solutions, but end up in malicious downloads. How to solve this problem about the electrochemistry? Option 2) -4.18 V and yes. KAMA5M15 ELECTROCHIMIE (Electrochemistry) 0.25 22 KAMA5M16 ELECTROCHIMIE-TP (Electrochemistry PW) 0.25 34 KAMA5U05 UE5 : PHYSIQUE DE LA MATIERE () 6 6 KAMA5M18 PROPRIETES ELECTRIQUES DE LA MATIERE (Materials electrical properties) 0.50 24 KAMA5M19 TRANSFERTS THERMIQUES () 0.50 20 Semestre : 6 Code Apogée Intitulé Etcs. Live. You can be correspondingly relieved to retrieve Electrochemistry Problems And Solutions Ten things to know before working electrochemistry problems: 1. Professors and students, as well as industrial users, will benefit from these problems, which illustrate fundamental phenomena using data from industrial plants or research laboratories. Coef. ... Shodor Redox Reactions - For a more in depth look at oxidation-reduction reactions check out this great plug and chug problem solver. Vipul Mehta. Share. Problem : Please provide the oxidation state of each atom in the following chemical species: a. Ag 2+ b. F 2 c. HMnO 4 d. VO 2 + e. Cr 2 O 7 2-f. CH 3 OH a. If ΔG = 0:, solve for E cell 0 = -nFE cell E cell = 0 V This means, at equilibrium, the potential of the cell is zero. Answers (1) V Vakul . In a homework problem, you should be given these values or else access to the table. In order to function, any electrochemical cell must consist of two half-cells.The table below can be used to determine the reactions that will occur and the standard cell potential for any combination of two half-cells without actually constructing the cell. The cell potential (voltage) for an electrochemical cell can be predicted from half-reactions and its operating conditions (chemical nature of materials, temperature, gas partial pressures, and concentrations).Determining Standard State Cell Potentials With no electron flow, there is no current and the potential is equal to zero. I'm stuck on this question and am not sure how to do it. Electrochemical Series. Electrochemical Cell Potentials. By that we mean that plenty of scientists do electrochemistry today because it is often the best way to solve certain problems in chemical analysis like understanding corrosion (rust). The reaction progresses forward and backward at the same rate, meaning there is no net electron flow. So let's solve for what all this is equal to, This is equal to, this is equal to .0257, and for units, kelvin would cancel out, moles would cancel out, that gives us joules over coulombs which is equal to volts, so this is equal to volts, and we can write another form of the Nernst equation. Electrochemistry Calculations Using the Nernst Equation Share Flipboard Email Print Dorling Kindersley / Getty Images Science. 5 years ago | 11 views. ECS program addresses world sanitation problems. Thus, charge on one g-ion of N 3- = 3 × 1.6 10-1 9 × 6.02 × 10 23 = 2.89 × 10 5 coulomb. Option 4) +2.69 V and no . A cell A is constituted by the electrodes . 2M watch mins. How to solve log problems based on electrochemistry , For ex Log(1 11*10^7) log0 160/(0 002)^2 - Chemistry - Electrochemistry Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. Thanks! In this electrochemistry worksheet, students determine the voltage of a cell based on the reduction potentials. Share to Twitter Share to Facebook. How to solve this problem- - Electrochemistry - NEET-2 # Engineering. even though for simplicity many aspects of a real electrochemistry problem have been re-moved. 1) Co(s) | Co2+ (1.00 M) and 2) Ni(s) | Ni2+ (1.00*10‐2M). Find the charge in coulomb on 1 g-ion of N 3-.. Coef / UE Vol. Découvrez et achetez Solved Problems in Electrochemistry for Universities and Industry. AP Chem Electrochemistry Problem Help? The problems given here are created after a detailed study of the entire syllabus and the question pattern of numerous years. Solved Examples on Electrochemistry Example 1. If you can, please explain how to solve it. The Table of Standard Reduction Potentials is needed for this example. Sample EMF Calculation . 0 comments: Post a Comment. A second cell B is constituted by the electrodes . problem solution of 12 class maharashtra government textbook electrochemistry is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can download it instantly. Follow. electrochemistry problems and solutions as one of the reading material. Option 3) +0.33 V and yes. Gibbs energy of the reaction - - wherein. It is necessary to solve the Electrochemistry important Questions JEE Advanced as it covers the entire syllabus and all it important subtopics. Just solving lots of practice problems will not necessarily make you a better problem solver. to write short Matlab scripts of their own in order to solve the End-of-Chapter exercises. ... Notes on Electrochemistry … Cedric Bart. Consider the redox reaction: Mg(s) + 2 H + (aq) → Mg 2+ (aq) + H 2 (g) a) Calculate the cell EMF for the … This example problem shows how to calculate the cell EMF using standard reduction potentials. 0 c. H is +1, each O is -2, and Mn is +7 d. both O's are -2, V is +5 e. each O is -2, both Cr's are +6 f. O is -2, each H is +1, and C is -2. Expédition dans la journée pour toute commande passée avant 15 h. Electrical Driving Force Calculator - Find the driving force behind any electrochemical reaction with this easy-to-use tool. The problem also includes a curved surface, because curved geometries are likely to appear in electrochemical problems. Consider the half-cell reduction reaction: The E° for the reaction and possibility of the forward reaction are, respectively. It is suitable for students who want to give JEE M - 2020. The electrochemical series is an arrangement of elements according to the tendencies to release electrons to form positive ions. Newer Post Older Post Home. Students write a condensed cell diagram and the oxidation half reaction for the cell. ChEMIstRy Of NUClEAR fUEl WAstE DIsPOsAl (The) Auteur(s) > Donald R. Wiles ISBN > 978-2-553-01025-5 7/2002 > 182 pages In this book, Dr. Wiles expertly describes the nature of radioactivity and nuclear power. In its first “Science for Solving Society’s Problems Challenge,” ECS partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to leverage the brainpower of the many scientists in electrochemistry and solid state science … Solution: Charge on one ion of N 3- = 3 × 1.6 × 10-1 9 coulomb .
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Table of Contents
You may be familiar with the vibrant beaches and incredible food scene of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. Beyond this exciting city lies a land of adventure, ancient rock formations, and jaw-dropping landscapes ripe for exploration.
Whether you are a nature-loving hiker or a beach bum who loves diving in crystal-clear waters, the region offers something for everyone! Not convinced? Check out our selection of the top natural wonders of Western Australia.
About Western Australia
Western Australia is Australia’s largest state famed for its epic landscapes. The state sits on one of the oldest supercontinents on Earth, with evidence of the earliest-known life on land uncovered right here. With such ancient origins, Western Australia’s breathtaking geological natural wonders are not to be missed. From the world’s second-largest crater to the largest rock ever discovered on Earth, Western Australia is the ultimate gateway to landscapes you’ve never seen before.
Top natural wonders of Western Australia
The Bungle Bungles
A bee-utiful natural wonder lies within the Purnululu National Park in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The World Heritage-listed Bungle Bungles is a striking maze of orange and black striped karst sandstone domes. Though formed over 350 million years ago, this spectacle was only discovered in 1983 — a tight-knit secret kept by its Aboriginal custodians.
Exploring the Bungle Bungles is an adventure in itself — soar through the skies on a helicopter to see the beehive-like domes from up above or embark on an educational guided tour through the range for a unique perspective of the reserve. In addition, keep your eyes peeled for over 130 bird species and native animals as you soak in this impressive geological marvel found almost nowhere else in the world.
Address: Purnululu WA 6770, Australia
Wolfe Creek Crater
If you’re a fan of space and extraterrestrial beings, this one’s for you. The Wolfe Creek Crater is the second-largest crater on Earth with a diameter spanning almost a kilometer wide. Scientists believe that the crater was formed by the impact of a 17,000-tonne meteorite with a history dating back to 300,000 years ago, making it one of the largest natural wonders in Western Australia.
The Aboriginal people of the Great Sandy Desert in the Kimberley region were thought to have discovered this otherworldly landscape before modern-day scientists. Believing that the crater was formed when a giant mythological snake raised its head from the ground, the Wolfe Creek Crater is an important symbol in Aboriginal culture. Does this crater hold the answers to mysteries of extraterrestrial life? You’d have to see this phenomenal natural wonder to decide.
Address: Sturt Creek WA 6770, Australia
Horizontal Falls, instead of the typical vertical waterfall, is one of the most bewildering natural wonders in Western Australia . This unusual natural phenomenon is located on the coast of the Kimberley region in Western Australia where the rapid tidal movement between the two narrow gorges of the McLarty Range pushes the water to form waterfalls turned on their side.
As the Horizontal Falls are inaccessible by vehicle, the best way to fully take in this breathtaking natural wonder is from up above. Get a bird’s-eye view of the fall’s tidal movement and unique geological features on a seaplane. If you are looking for a thrilling adventure, hop on a floatplane and land at the Horizontal Falls for a thrilling boat ride. This exhilarating boat cruise takes you through the fall’s raging rapids, giving you unprecedented access to this mighty feat of Mother Nature.
Address: Kimbolton WA 6728, Australia
A whole other world lies deep beneath the Earth’s surface, waiting to be explored! Enter Jewel Cave, the largest show cave in Western Australia, featuring three massive caverns and the longest straw of any tourist cave in the world. At five and a half meters, the longest straw is a fragile stalactite that grows down from the cave’s ceiling, its diameter just the size of a single water droplet.
Jewel Cave is highly accessible, its extensive passageways are clearly demarcated, and its crystal cave ornaments are well lit, adding to the cave’s extravagance. In addition to exploring the cave’s impressive subterranean formations, head to the interpretation center to learn more about the Jewel Cave’s history, including the groundbreaking discovery of an ancient Tasmanian tiger fossil found within the depths of the cave. If you’re hungry, make your way to the Jewel Cave Cafe for a light treat, complete with lush forest views. The Jewel Cave is located 45 kilometers south of Magaret River or nine kilometers north of Augusta.
Located just two hours away from the city of Perth, the Pinnacles at Nambung National Park is one of Western Australia’s most unforgettable attractions. The Pinnacles is a unique landscape featuring thousands of weathered limestone pillars made from seashells, a reminder of the marine life that roamed the area over 25,000 to 35,000 years ago.
Today, over a thousand of these otherworldly formations rise above the yellow sand base stretching as far as the eye can see, some of the highest pinnacles reaching higher than 3.5 meters.
Apart from the Pinnacles, Nambung National Park teems with rich biodiversity, an excellent spot to see wildlife. See wild Western grey kangaroos grazing on the park’s vegetation, go birdwatching for swallows and ospreys at the coast of Kangaroo Point, and catch sight of wild reptiles such as Gould’s monitors and carpet pythons (they are completely harmless) roaming around Hangover Bay.
Address: Nambung WA 6521, Australia
Ngilgi Cave (pronounced ‘Neel-gee’) is a subterranean labyrinth of spectacular cave formations. Discovered in 1899, Ngligi Cave is one of Western Australia’s oldest and largest tourist caves.
This cave is easily accessible with its extensive boardwalks that take visitors through the cave’s multiple ins and outs, each featuring breathtaking, unspoiled crystal structures. Feast your eyes on half a million-year-old karst crystal stalactites, stalagmites, and helictites lit by dreamy light fixtures that completely transport you into another world. For the adventurous, embark on the off-the-beaten-path cave adventure tour where you’ll veer off the boardwalk to uncover hidden cave secrets.
Ngilgi Cave also sets the scene of a legendary bedtime story of the local Wardandi people, a key part of Australia’s Aboriginal mythology. Legend tells of the good spirit of Ngilgi, who protects the Aboriginal people from the evil spirit of Wolgine. Today, Ngilgi Cave is a crucial part of Wardandi heritage, its people custodians of the caves in the area. Take a peek into Australia’s Aboriginal culture with our Guide to Australian bush tucker: 10 ingredients used in traditional Aboriginal food.
Just three to four hours from Perth lies Wave Rock, a multi-colored granite inselberg shaped like a breaking ocean wave. This geological phenomenon spans 110 meters in height, its impressive shape and structure a result of millions of years of erosion and weathering.
Wave Rock draws massive crowds who come yearly to “surf” this wave — done so by trekking this three-kilometer-long rock formation. Come September yearly, Wave Rock turns into a music lover’s paradise with Wave Rock Weekender, an intimate music festival experience in the outback. Get your boogie on and immerse yourself in this once-in-a-lifetime party destination.
Karijini National Park
Take an exhilarating adventure through Karijini National Park, Western Australia’s second-largest national park nestled in the heart of the Pilbara region. Home to ancient geological formations and awe-inspiring scenery, this national park is every outdoor enthusiast’s dream. Explore meandering gorges and chasms, take a dip under cascading waterfalls, and roam across the park’s epic walking trails.
Your key to a spa experience like no other lies northwest in Karijini National Park at Hamersley Gorge. This natural rock pool features mesmerizing folded bands of colored rock, each swirling into the emerald blue pool beneath. As Hamersley Gorge is located slightly further away from the park’s main gorges, this rock pool is the perfect quiet stopover after a fun-filled day of discovering this sprawling national park.
Don’t let the name fool you. Mount Augustus is not a mountain but the world’s largest rock. Rising 715 meters above the flat plains, Mount Augustus is over 1,650 million years old, much older and twice the size of its more popular counterpart, Uluru (Ayers Rock).
Image by @journey_with_eve via Instagram
Reaching Mount Augustus is an adventure in itself. While it is easy to reach the rock by flight, Mount Augustus is almost impossible to get to using land vehicles as most of the roads are sealed. The best way to fully take in the grandeur of this awe-inspiring formation is from one of the many lookout points along the 49-kilometer loop drive trail located at Mount Augustus National Park.
Address: East Lyons River WA 6705, Australia
Ningaloo Reef is the ultimate all-year-round destination that you have to visit. Home to the world’s largest fringing reef, this World Heritage-listed site is a getaway to an unforgettable underwater world.
Apart from being one of our top picks of natural wonders in Western Australia, Ningaloo Reef is the perfect holiday and adventure getaway. From over 500 species of tropical fish to thousands of humpback whales migrating through the Western Australian coastline, visitors to the reef can catch sight of amazing marine creatures no matter the season! If you’d like to stay dry, hop onto a microlight (a hang-gliding sail equipped with two seats and an engine) and soar over the reef for a panoramic view of the vast blue ocean. You might even be able to see manta rays, turtles, dolphins, and dugongs!
Address: Western Australia 6701, Australia
The Shark Bay World Heritage area’s Shell Beach is unlike any other beach you’ve visited before. Made with billions of white cockle shells, this beach is one of the only two beaches in the world made entirely of shells. This dramatic landscape stretches over 100 kilometers, with deposits reaching 10 meters in depth.
Just like the famed Dead Sea, you’ll be able to leisurely float on the surface of these waters. The Shell Beach’s waters are high in salinity — so high, in fact, that the water here is twice as salty as the sea. With its unique living conditions, the Fragnum cockle, the only species that thrive in these waters, is responsible for the vast depository of white seashells that stretch far and beyond. To get there, take a 45-minute drive from Denham, the coral coast of Australia.
That’s a wrap on our top picks of the most incredible natural wonders of Western Australia! If you’d like to travel within Australia, make sure to refer to our handy article: Is it safe to travel within Australia? COVID-19 protocols to take note of.
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Definition of ‘health service’
62.21 Another definition that is central to the way health information is handled under the Privacy Act is the definition of a ‘health service’. The term ‘health service’ is used in the Privacy Act in a range of circumstances. These include: as part of the definition of ‘health information’; as a limitation on the scope of the small business exemption—small businesses that hold health information and provide a health service are not covered by the small business exemption; and as a ‘permitted purpose’ under Part VIA dealing with declared emergencies and disasters.
62.22 In addition, the term is used in several provisions that provide for the use of health information in circumstances that would normally breach the IPPs or NPPs. For example, under NPP 2.1(ea), the genetic information of one individual, collected in the course of providing a health service, may be disclosed in certain circumstances to a genetic relative of that individual without consent. A health service provider may disclose personal information to a person ‘responsible for the individual’ where the individual is physically or legally incapable of giving consent to the disclosure or physically cannot communicate consent. Finally, an organisation may collect health information without consent where it is necessary to provide a health service to the individual or where necessary for the management, funding and monitoring of a health service.
62.23 The Privacy Act defines a ‘health service’ as follows:
(a) an activity performed in relation to an individual that is intended or claimed (expressly or otherwise) by the individual or the person performing it:
(i) to assess, record, maintain or improve the individual’s health; or
(ii) to diagnose the individual’s illness or disability; or
(iii) to treat the individual’s illness or disability or suspected illness or disability; or
(b) the dispensing on prescription of a drug or medicinal preparation by a pharmacist.
62.24 The definition of ‘health service’ in the draft National Health Privacy Code has a number of differences, including express references to injuries, disability support services, palliative care services, and aged care services. The draft Code definition is as follows:
‘health service’ means—
(a) an activity performed in relation to an individual that is intended or claimed (expressly or otherwise) by the individual service provider or the organisation performing it—
(i) to assess, maintain or improve the individual’s health; or
(ii) to diagnose the individual’s illness, injury or disability; or
(iii) to treat the individual’s illness, injury or disability or suspected illness, injury or disability; or
(b) a disability service, palliative care service or aged care service; or
(c) the dispensing on prescription of a drug or medicinal preparation by a pharmacist—
but does not include a health service, or a class of health service, that is prescribed as an exempt health service or to the extent that it is prescribed as an exempt health service.
62.25 The definition in the Victorian Health Records Act is very similar to that in the draft Code. The definitions in the ACT health records legislation and the Northern Territory Information Act have many of the same elements. The New South Wales legislation, however, takes a different approach, setting out a non-exhaustive list of the services covered—such as medical, hospital and nursing services, dental services and mental health services—rather than describing them in more general terms.
Issues Paper 31
62.26 In IP 31, the ALRC asked whether the definition of ‘health service’ in the draft National Health Privacy Code was appropriate and effective and whether that definition should be adopted into the Privacy Act.
62.27 There was some support expressed in submissions to IP 31 for the definition of ‘health service’ in the draft National Health Privacy Code. The NHMRC stated that:
We are aware also that there is some debate in the Aged Care sector about whether residential aged care is a health service or a social/accommodation service. We support, therefore, the inclusion of a more expansive definition of ‘health service’ in the Privacy Act, incorporating reference to ‘disability services’, ‘palliative care services’, ‘aged care services’ and ‘injury’ explicitly, thereby avoiding any potential uncertainty.
62.28 A number of other stakeholders agreed that the definition should be amended to cover the services that people with a disability, and those in palliative and residential aged care might use. These services provide care, supervision and assistance with daily life, rather than treatment.
62.29 The Office of the Health Services Commissioner in Victoria expressed the view that:
Organisations providing a broad range of services intended to benefit the health and well-being of individuals, should be subject to the same privacy standards. As an example, HSC has received health privacy complaints concerning alternative therapists, which are included in the definition of health service under the Health Records Act and the National Code. The problem with the New South Wales approach is that a non-exhaustive definition that focuses on conventional medical and health services may be interpreted to exclude some alternative therapists, which might leave the public vulnerable.
62.30 The OPC raised a number of concerns with the definition of ‘health service’ in the draft National Health Privacy Code, including the fact that the definition does not refer to ‘recording’ an individual’s health information. The draft Code definition also relies exclusively on the understanding of the health service provider as to whether a particular activity is intended or claimed to have health benefits. In contrast, the Privacy Act allows this to be judged from the perspective of the health service provider or the health consumer. The OPC did, however, express support for one element of the definition:
The Office also notes that the word ‘injury’ is added in addition to illness and disability in (a)(ii) and (iii) of the proposed NHPC definition. The nature of an injury appears to be distinct from the inherent properties of an illness or a disability, and as such, the inclusion of this word may increase the clarity of the definition.
Discussion Paper proposal
62.31 In DP 72, the ALRC proposed that the definition of ‘health service’ in the Privacy Act should be extended to cover disability services, palliative care services and aged care services. These services do not fall comfortably within the existing definition of ‘health services’. They are, however, aimed at providing physical, mental and psychological care and support to individuals and often require the collection, use and disclosure of significant amounts of health information. The ALRC also expressed the view that an ‘injury’, as distinct from an ‘illness’ or a ‘disability’, should be referred to expressly in the definition of ‘health service’.
Submissions and consultations
62.32 A number of stakeholders expressed support for expanding the definition of ‘health service’ to include injuries and disability services, palliative care services and aged care services. The OPC suggested, however, qualifying the references to disability, aged care and palliative care services to exclude services unrelated to health such as advocacy services.
62.33 The Centre for Law and Genetics stated that:
We strongly support the proposed amendments to the definition of health service to ensure that complementary therapies are included. There has been a massive increase in the development, marketing and advertising of complementary ‘health’ products and services. These service providers should be governed by regulations no less prescriptive than those applying to the traditional health service agencies and organisations.
62.34 Other stakeholders agreed that the definition should extend to complementary and alternative therapies and to ‘wellness’ services; for example, those related to pregnancy and weight loss. The NHMRC suggested that cosmetic surgical procedures would not be covered by the existing definition and that the definition of ‘health service’ be amended to refer to the ‘prevention’ of illness:
We believe that prevention of illness (for example through immunisation) differs from maintenance of health, which we consider indicates an active intervention once a risk factor or disease has been identified (for example, through the supply or prescription of medications to control an individual’s blood cholesterol or blood pressure).
62.35 The NHMRC also noted that a number of organisations offer genetic or other testing but do not claim to use this information to assess, predict, maintain or improve an individual’s health. Such tests are offered, for example, by providers of skin care and dietary products.
62.36 The NHMRC also discussed the case of Australian Biologics Testing Services. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) instituted proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Australian Biologics alleging that representations made in its brochures and on its website were false, misleading, and deceptive. The representations included that thermography tests offered by Australian Biologics could be used for diagnostic purposes in the cardiac field. The ACCC alleged that the representations were not supported by scientific or medical testing. The case was settled by consent on the basis that:
Australian Biologics agreed that the tests it offers are not diagnostic and the results of such tests are not indicative of a specific medical condition and undertook not to make a number of claims relating to the utility of its services for the diagnosis of specific medical conditions.
62.37 A number of stakeholders were of the view that simply ‘recording’ health information should not be sufficient to bring an agency or organisation within the definition of a health service provider. On the other hand, the OPC was of the view that the term ‘record’ should remain in the definition:
Nevertheless, the Office notes the potential ambiguity between organisations which record an individual’s health in the course of providing a health service, and entities which may record or document health information in ways that would not ordinarily be considered to be health service provision. The second category may include the recording of health information by health insurance companies, employers and others.
62.38 The Victorian Office of the Health Services Commissioner stated that:
HSC believes the term ‘record’ is not necessary in the definition of health service, as it does not add anything that is not already covered by the other definitions. The example given at paragraph 57.26 is of health monitoring, which involves recording someone’s blood pressure, height and weight with no further action taken unless a change occurs. Such an organisation recording this information would be doing so to assess or improve an individual’s health or to diagnose or treat a condition, and would therefore be covered by the other definitions.
62.39 Certain other stakeholders asked whether the provision of health insurance came within the definition of a health service. Medicare Australia stated that:
Medicare Australia also receives many thousands of requests from insurance companies that seek information about pre-existing illnesses while processing claims. We take great care to ensure that the claimants provide informed consent in these cases. It is very important that these requests should not be seen as ‘collection where it is necessary to provide a health service’.
62.40 The ALRC notes that the term ‘health service’ is used in the Privacy Act as part of the definition of ‘health information’, and to allow more permissive collection, use and disclosure of health information in the health services context than would normally be allowed under the NPPs. For example, under NPP 10.2, a doctor may collect health information about an individual without consent where that individual is unconscious, or too ill to provide consent, and the collection is related to providing care and treatment for the individual.
62.41 It is important to ensure that the definition of ‘health service’ is appropriately limited to the provision of services intended, for example, to assess or improve the individual’s health and does not extend to activities such as providing health insurance. It would not be appropriate for the more permissive provisions on collection, use and disclosure of health information to occur in the health insurance context. For this reason, the ALRC recommends that ‘recording’ an individual’s health should be removed from the definition of ‘health service’. The term is unnecessary and that it may lead to undesirable outcomes.
62.42 The definition should continue to allow the assessment of the service to be made by the individual or the service provider. The ALRC did not receive any submissions indicating problems with the existing provision.
62.43 The ALRC also recommends that the definition of ‘health service’ be amended to include activities that:
‘predict’ the individual’s physical, mental or psychological health or status, in order to accommodate some forms of genetic testing;
‘prevent’ illness, injury or disability in order to cover, for example, services to assist with diet and weight loss and immunisations; and
assess or predict the individual’s physical, mental or psychological ‘status’. This change is intended to capture a range of things such as genetic or other testing that is not primarily concerned with the health or disability of an existing individual—as may sometimes be the case with genetic carrier testing, where the information is primarily about the health of any possible future children.
62.44 The ALRC also recommends the inclusion of surgical or related services to capture cosmetic procedures, and has taken up the OPC’s suggestion that disability, palliative care or aged care services should be limited to health-related services. Finally, the definition should be amended to include ‘injuries’ as well as ‘illness’ and ‘disability’.
Recommendation 62-2 The Privacy Act should be amended to define a ‘health service’ as:
a. an activity performed in relation to an individual that is intended or claimed (expressly or otherwise) by the individual or the service provider to:
(i) assess, predict, maintain or improve the individual’s physical, mental or psychological health or status;
(ii) diagnose the individual’s illness, injury or disability; or
(iii) prevent or treat the individual’s illness, injury or disability or suspected illness, injury or disability;
b. a health-related disability, palliative care or aged care service;
c. a surgical or related service; or
d. the dispensing on prescription of a drug or medicinal preparation by a pharmacist.
NPP 2.1(ea) is discussed further in Ch 63.
Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) sch 3, NPP 2.4.
Ibid sch 3, NPP 10.2.
Ibid sch 3, NPP 10.3.
Ibid s 6.
Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) s 3.
Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997 (ACT) Dictionary; Information Act 2002 (NT) s 4.
Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) s 4.
Australian Law Reform Commission, Review of Privacy, IP 31 (2006), Question 8–7.
Health and Community Services Complaints Commission (South Australia), Submission PR 207, 23 February 2007; Australian Nursing Federation, Submission PR 205, 22 February 2007; Department of Health Western Australia, Submission PR 139, 23 January 2006; Australian Government Department of Human Services, Submission PR 136, 19 January 2007; Centre for Law and Genetics, Submission PR 127, 16 January 2007.
National Health and Medical Research Council, Submission PR 114, 15 January 2007.
New South Wales Guardianship Tribunal, Submission PR 209, 23 February 2007; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Submission PR 170, 5 February 2007.
Office of the Health Services Commissioner (Victoria), Submission PR 153, 30 January 2007.
Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Submission PR 215, 28 February 2007.
Government of South Australia, Submission PR 565, 29 January 2008; Australian Privacy Foundation, Submission PR 553, 2 January 2008; Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Submission PR 548, 26 December 2007; Medicare Australia, Submission PR 534, 21 December 2007; Australian Medical Association, Submission PR 524, 21 December 2007; Privacy NSW, Submission PR 468, 14 December 2007; Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Submission PR 433, 10 December 2007; Carers Australia, Submission PR 423, 7 December 2007.
Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Submission PR 499, 20 December 2007.
Centre for Law and Genetics, Submission PR 497, 20 December 2007.
New South Wales Government Department of Health, Submission PR 458, 11 December 2007; National Health and Medical Research Council, Submission PR 397, 7 December 2007.
National Health and Medical Research Council, Submission PR 397, 7 December 2007.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, ‘ACCC Settles Proceedings Against Australian Biologics’ (Press Release, 15 July 2004).
National Health and Medical Research Council, Submission PR 397, 7 December 2007.
See, eg, Confidential, Submission PR 570, 13 February 2008.
Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Submission PR 499, 20 December 2007.
Office of the Health Services Commissioner (Victoria), Submission PR 518, 21 December 2007.
Confidential, Submission PR 519, 21 December 2007.
Medicare Australia, Submission PR 534, 21 December 2007.
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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Overall, homelessness seems to be on the decline in the U.S. Since 2007, the rate of homelessness for all Americans declined nine percent; however, for about half of the states in the country, homelessness is still getting worse.
ThinkProgress compared datasets from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2008 and 2013 to see the change in homeless populations across the country. While we hear so much about chronic homeless populations in cities like Los Angeles and Miami, those states actually saw a decline in the homelessness rate. The state that saw the greatest increase in homelessness? North Dakota.
The five states seeing the most improvement are well-known for their focus on social services and supportive housing. This includes Colorado, which has been lauded for its impressive homelessness initiatives—especially Denver's Road Home, the city's 10-year plan to end homelessness by 2015. Michigan and Oregon both have similar goals.
But it's surprising to see the states where the homeless population has skyrocketed. The states hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis, for example, are not seeing dramatic increases in homelessness. It's midwestern states like North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas and Montana which are seeing an increase.
In North Dakota, where homelessness rose by 234 percent, this is likely due to the overall population boom from the fracking industry, which caused many people to move to the state for this type of work and find that the housing is too expensive to afford. Likewise, the loss of other industries compounded with the housing bubble might have contributed to homelessness in other states.
But here's another map, from HUD's 2013 report [PDF], which puts the changes in perspective. In 2013, 50 percent of all homeless Americans lived in five states: California, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas. So even though the total number of homeless people is going down in California, it still has the largest homeless population in the country. In fact, one fifth of all homeless Americans live in Los Angeles and New York City (where the homeless population surprisingly went up 13 percent last year).
There's also an important factor at play here which can cause some nuance in this data. First of all, there's no formalized way to count a homeless population—each city does it differently. Most cities rely on a team of volunteers to do the counting on a single night (or series of nights) and might have changed the way they do their counts, or even who they count as "homeless" (residents who are sheltered vs. living on the streets) during the past five years.
This data should be a call to action for the federal government to create a standardized way to measure homelessness across the country. The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness has laid out a plan to end homelessness in the U.S. by 2020, which seems incredibly ambitious after observing these stats. But the council has a second goal to end chronic homelessness for veterans by 2015, and some cities have actually made some great gains here by focusing specifically on this group of homeless Americans and measuring their progress.
Earlier this year, Salt Lake City and Phoenix claimed to eradicate homelessness for veterans with a new policy called Housing First, which gets vets into supportive housing right away, instead of using housing as a "reward" while they conquer other issues of mental health and drug abuse. This not only provides a critical public service, but it's also a way for cities to become stronger economically: The monthly cost of housing and supportive services for one person averages $605, while emergency room visits and other healthcare costs for a person on the street can be up to $2,900 a month. [ThinkProgress]
Volunteer Gwen Alvin, right, interviews Rick Schwartz, 45, who is homeless and living under a bridge, Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, in Miami. The volunteers are recording data during "Registry Week" to document homelessness for the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. The county is part of a national movement called the "100,000 Homes "campaign which aims to find permanent homes for the most chronic and vulnerable homeless. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
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Strong reasoning
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Politics
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Bachelor of Arts in Cinema
The major in cinema combines a humanities approach to film studies with a variety of options in filmmaking and video production.
Students start their work in the cinema major with CIN 150 Introduction to Film which provides an overview of film as a cultural and artistic form. After this introductory course, students take courses from three categories which each build upon their knowledge and understanding of film:
- Grounding. These courses provide a foundation for the study of film, encompassing film history, theory, criticism and production. Students take any three of these four courses: Film History, Film Analysis, World Cinema or Introduction to Filmmaking.
- Study in Depth. These courses offer a more intensive analysis of specific films based on a certain director, genre, nation or theme. Production courses focus on making specialized kinds of films, like documentary or narrative films. In this category, students take any three of these courses: Film Directors, National Cinemas, Film Genres, Studies in Film, or Topics in Filmmaking.
- Self-Definition. In this final component of the major, students develop a concentration in film studies, filmmaking or some combination of these two by taking five additional courses. Courses that satisfy this requirement include any of the courses listed under "Study in Depth" that examine specific kinds of films or filmmaking, screenwriting courses, an advanced course in producing and directing, and selected media production courses offered by the School of Communication and Hartford Art School.
Many students also complete internships and independent studies under the supervision of a faculty member in Cinema.
More detailed information about the major is available here:
Course Requirements for the Bachelor of Arts Major
Learning Outcomes for the Bachelor of Arts in Cinema
Students in the Bachelor of Arts program in Cinema are expected to become proficient in these learning outcomes:
- Students should understand the idea of film as an art form and the essentials of film style and know the basics of the language of cinema in order to talk and write accurately and meaningfully about films. They should be aware of a range of films greater than already known from TV and recent Hollywood.
Students should gain a basic understanding of fundamental aesthetic and conceptual approaches to digital video production and non-linear editing, and become able to script and produce short films based on these principles while working both independently and in small groups.
- Students should have an understanding of the history of film from 1895 to the present, including: major developments in technology, economics, and society that influenced the production of film; and prominent styles of film from various historical periods. They should become proficient in writing about these topics.
- Students should understand the basics of a number of methods of analyzing films, be able to apply these methods to a variety of films, and know why film studies favors certain methods.
- Students should have an understanding of specific kinds of films based on: extended close study of one or more of the major individual figures in cinema; a thorough survey of one or more of the major national cinemas; one or more historically important genres in cinema; or intensive study of a motif, topic, or period in film, such as City in Film, Orientalism in Film, and The Auteur in Hollywood.
- Students should demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles of various types of filmmaking and be able to create a film using these principles.
- Students should demonstrate an advanced level of proficiency in filmmaking by producing and directing their own films working through the stages of pre-production, production and postproduction.
We regularly evaluate the performance of students in Cinema courses to ensure that students that complete our program are proficient in these areas.
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Strong reasoning
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Education & Jobs
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-- Robert Preidt
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 5, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- It's still not too
late to get a flu shot, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said
Flu activity often peaks in January or February and can last
well into May, and a flu shot protects you as long as flu viruses
are circulating, the FDA said.
Children and seniors tend to be most susceptible to flu. But
sometimes a flu virus will affect more young and middle-aged
adults. That appears to be the case this flu season, the agency
An unusually high number of severe respiratory illness in young
and middle-aged Americans were reported to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in November and December, the FDA
said in a news release.
Many of those cases were caused by the H1N1 "swine flu" strain
that affected more children and young adults than older adults
during the 2009 pandemic. Protection against the 2009 H1N1 virus,
which has circulated each year since the pandemic, is included in
this year's vaccine, the FDA said.
"Influenza seasons and severity are often unpredictable. Annual influenza vaccination is the best way to prevent influenza among people 6 months of age and older," Marion Gruber, director of the FDA's Office of Vaccine Research and Review, said in the news release.
"However, taking such practical measures as washing hands, covering coughs and sneezes and staying home when sick can also help to decrease the spread and minimize the effects of flu," she added.
Antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu, aren't a substitute for a flu
shot, but they can help treat the flu, according to the FDA.
New flu vaccines need to be produced every year because
different subtypes and strains of flu viruses circulate each
season, Gruber explained.
"The closer the match between the circulating strains causing disease and the virus strains in the vaccine, the better the protection against influenza," she said.
Federal health officials have previously reported that this
year's vaccine is a good match for the circulating viruses.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved.
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Moderate reasoning
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Health
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Importance of Prenatal Care
Early prenatal care, including regularly scheduled health care visits, helps promote the delivery of a healthy baby. Prenatal care is also the best way to discover and treat problems that may arise in pregnancy. At your prenatal clinic appointments, your health care provider will give you advice about your pregnancy and discuss a plan of care.
Duration of Pregnancy
The average duration of pregnancy is about 280 days or 40 weeks counting from the first day of the last menstrual period. It is important to remember that due dates are not exact. It is common for women to deliver from two weeks before to two weeks after their due date.
Prenatal Care Visits
Early in your pregnancy, you will have a complete history and physical examination. It is important to inform your health care provider of all details of your health history. Routine laboratory tests will be obtained, looking for specific issues that could influence the pregnancy.
After the initial visit, you will be seen about every 4 weeks until your 7th month (28 weeks). Then, you will be seen every other week until the last month, when you will be seen weekly.
At each visit, your weight, blood pressure, and urine will be checked. Your health care provider will measure the size of your uterus, and after 12 weeks, listen to your baby’s heartbeat.
Special Tests During Pregnancy
Certain tests may be recommended during your pregnancy to evaluate your progress and that of your baby. Although not all of the tests are standard procedure, your health care provider may recommend some of the following:
- Alpha Fetoprotein (AFP) – This is a screening test for certain birth defects in the fetus. Since this test is not foolproof, a mother with an abnormally high or low AFP level will require further evaluation.
- Amniocentesis – A procedure wich may be performed to obtain fluid from the sac surrounding the baby. Between the 15th and 20th week, this test can be done for genetic purposes. Later in pregnancy, it may provide information about the maturity of the baby. Not done routinely, amniocentesis may be suggested to you, based on the presence of certain risk factors.
- Fetal Movement – A very good way to check the health of your baby is to be aware of its movement. At about the 20th week of pregnancy, most mothers will be feeling their babies moving each day. At first, the movements are slight, but they grow into very powerful sensations. Your health care provider will be asking at every visit if your baby is moving or if there has been any change in its’ movements. Some providers recommend that after the 28th week of pregnancy, you can perform a “kick count.” Each day, starting first thing in the morning, you count each fetal kick or movement. Once you reach 10 kicks or movements, you can stop counting for the rest of the day. If it gets to be 12 noon and you haven’t felt 10 movements, then you should contact your health care provider immediately. Any sudden loss of fetal movements should also be reported immediately.
- Non-Stress Test (NST) – This painless and harmless test is sometimes done later in pregnancy to evaluate the health of the baby, particularly if there are any concerns. An electronic fetal monitor is used to see how the baby’s heart beat responds to its’ own movements. The test takes about 20-40 minutes to complete.
- Ultrasound – Ultrasound can be very helpful in determining the baby’s size, position, and due date. It also can locate the placenta and determine the amount of amniotic fluid present. In some circumstances, it can evaluate fetal structures. Some providers recommend at least one routine ultrasound scan during each pregnancy. Others feel it should be used only for a specific medical reason.
- 28 Week Laboratory Tests – At approximately the 28th week of pregnancy, more laboratory tests are commonly done, including a blood test for diabetes. This test involves drinking a sweet liquid (like soda-pop) and then having a small amount of blood drawn one hour later.
Most women do not experience problems during pregnancy. It is important to know how and when to get immediate medical advice if you suspect a problem. The following are reasons to seek immediate medical advice during pregnancy:
- Any fluid leaking from the vagina.
- Vaginal bleeding of any kind.
- Sudden swelling of your hand or face.
- Bad headaches or headaches that don’t go away with simple remedies.
- Changes in vision (blurred, flashes of light or spots before your eyes).
- Dizziness or fainting.
- Sudden weight gain (more than 2 pounds in a week).
- Severe or continual abdominal pain, not relieved by a bowel movement.
- Fever (temperature of 101 degrees or more).
- Burning sensation while urinating.
- Contractions or pelvic pressure, if you are less than 37 weeks pregnant.
- Vomiting lasting 24 hours or more.
- Decrease in fetal movement after the 28th week.
Premature labor is labor that starts between the 20th and 37th week of pregnancy. Prematurity can be a very serious problem. If you know what to look for, you may be able to prevent your baby from being born too early, or give your provider enough time to improve the situation. Know these warning signs:
- Uterine contractions which happen every 10 minutes or more often.
- Menstrual-like cramps in the lower abdomen may come and go or be constant.
- Low, dull backache felt below the waistline may come and go or be constant.
- Pelvic pressure which feels like the baby is pushing down. Pressure that comes and goes.
- Abdominal cramping with or without diarrhea.
- Vaginal discharge may suddenly increase in amount, become mucousy, watery, or slightly bloody.
Reducing the Risks
When you are pregnant, you need to be concerned about your own health and the health of your baby. Whatever you eat, inhale, or rub on your skin may affect the baby. Before coming in contact with any material, stop and think about whether it will have any effects.
Do not take any drugs, street drugs, pills or medicines, prescribed or purchased “over-the-counter,” without checking first with your health care provider. Some medications are safe and others are not.
Alcohol is a toxic substance. Babies of mothers who drink alcoholic beverages regularly during their pregnancy may have symptoms of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, characterized by tremors, sleep disturbances, mental retardation and physical changes in their appearance. There is no clear dividing line bettween what is definitely safe and what level of drinking is definitely harmful to the baby. It is therefore wise to avoid alcohol entirely during your pregnancy.
Smoking cigarettes while pregnant poses significant risks to the pregnancy. Please don’t smoke during pregnancy. If you were smoking before you realized you were pregnant, it is not too late to stop, avoiding most of the problems associated with smoking during pregnancy.
Toxoplasmosis is an infection that may cause serious birth defects to the unborn baby. A pregnant woman may become infected with the toxoplasmosis organism if she eats raw meat or if she comes into contact with the feces of cats infected with the disease. To avoid infection with toxoplasmosis, a pregnant woman should always cook meat thoroughly and avoid contact with cat litter boxes or outdoor areas where cats go to the bathroom.
Safe Medication in Pregnancy
Some drugs should not be taken during pregnancy. The following list contains medications that are considered safe for use during pregnancy. Since any drug is potentially unsafe, (depending on the circumstances) always let your health care provider know about any medications you are taking.
During the first 4 months of your pregnancy, you should try to avoid any medication unless it is prescribed or approved by a health care provide who knows you are pregnant.
You should continue to take essential medication such as thyroid medication, anticonvulsants, and insulin, if you have been taking these prior to your becoming pregnant. Discuss this with your health care provider at your first appointment.
Be sure to take all medication as directed. If problems persist after 48 hours, call your health care provider.
Sex during Pregnancy
For normal pregnancies, sexual relations may be safely continued throughout pregnancy. Intercourse and orgasms will not harm the baby nor predispose toward premature labor.
For women, there is a wide range of changes in sexual interest during pregnancy. During the first trimester, particularly if there is nausea, bloating and breast tenderness, interest in sex often drops. As she enters the second trimester, interest in sexual relations often increases. By the third trimester, interest in sex often lags, and finding a comfortable position may prove difficult.
Men’s interest in sex during their mates’ pregnancies is also variable, but tends to remain high.
One sexual practice, blowing air into the vagina, should not, under any circumstances, be performed during pregnancy. Air introduced in this fashion can travel to the mother’s heart, causing death within seconds.
Disclaimer :- The information any where in this blog is based on literature available in ancient books, clinical studies as well as the scientific researches on GARBHSANSKAR. It is strictly advised to consult his/her family doctor, physician or gynecologist before practically implicating or following any matter or suggestion, anywhere in the blog – for herself/himself or any one concerened.
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Moderate reasoning
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Health
|
ANCHORAGE – Sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska are likely using the sounds of fishing-boat engines as underwater dinner bells to home in on long lines hung with valuable sablefish, scientists said.
The engines make loud, erratic bubbling noises as fishermen maneuver their boats while winching up hundreds of bottom-dwelling sablefish.
“That’s the whales’ cue,” said Jan Straley, a researcher at the University of Alaska Southeast who since 2002 has helped lead an ongoing study of the whales’ behavior. The study has helped scientists devise low-cost ways for fishermen to hoodwink the highly intelligent cetaceans. It estimates there are 90 male sperm whales feeding from long lines in the eastern Gulf of Alaska, part of the world’s largest sablefish fishery.
Scientists found the sperm whales tend to feed on long lines in the late spring through summer, during the height of the sablefish season. The season starts in March and ends in November.
Sound receivers attached to the longlines recorded the loud clicks of chattering whales. Scientists used the recordings to gauge how deep the whales were diving and their proximity to the boats.
They found that whales dive shallower than normal when near fishing boats.
“The whale doesn’t have to dive as deep to get its food,” said Aaron Thode, a researcher at UC San Diego, who is also leading the study.
Thode and Straley’s suggestions for fishermen include fishing earlier or later in the season, hauling in the line without shutting down the engine, or making decoy noises with the engine to draw whales to a different area.
Fishermen said they will try the methods this season but many believe the large-brained whales are just too smart.
“We try to get creative, but there’s only so much you can do,” said Steve Fish of Sitka, who has fished for sablefish in the gulf for 27 years.
Sperm whales in the gulf have been plucking small amounts of sablefish off the 1- to 3-mile long lines for at least two decades, sometimes leaving lips or partly chewed bodies dangling from the hooks.
No one knows how many of the trendy, gourmet fish have been snatched by the snacking leviathans. Fishermen and fisheries managers say the overall economic loss to the 410-boat sablefish fleet is probably low, but has increased in the past decade.
“A couple of times they completely cleaned us out, but usually they take just a few,” Fish said.
“It’s really a hard thing to get a handle on,” said Tory O’Connell a biologist for the state’s Department of Fish and Game. “You don’t really know what’s come off the gear.”
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| 0.954215 | 610 | 2.625 | 3 | 2.936477 | 3 |
Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
|
Super rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation (srTMS) is a method of brain stimulation that
may be able to change the electrical activity of the nerve cells of the brain. It has been
proposed and tested as a treatment for brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease.
The purpose of this study is to use a device called the magnetic stimulator to investigate
the safe limit of srTMS, such as intensity of stimulation and the number of magnetic pulses
that may lead to excessive brain stimulation.
Ten patients with Parkinson's disease-whose main problems are slowness of movement and
difficulty walking-will participate in this study. They will be asked to come to the
laboratory for one experiment. Before and after srTMS treatment, investigators will test
participants' brain function with a series of psychological tests and an EEG
(electroencephalogram). The srTMS treatment is performed by placing an insulated coil of
wire on the scalp and passing a very brief electrical current through the wire coil. The
experiment will last 2 to 4 hours.
The treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) needs further improvement, particularly in the
areas of gait and freezing. A promising technique is repetitive transcranial magnetic
stimulation (rTMS) that, so far, has produced small effects on bradykinesia in drug free
patients in limited trials. The relevant rTMS parameters for the therapeutic effect are
unknown. Use of very high rTMS frequency (50 Hz, maximum output of the modern TMS machines,
super rapid TMS [srTMS] with circular coil design [vs. a figure eight shape]) may further
improve the therapeutic effect in people who have PD. The 50 Hz srTMS frequency proposed
here is in a range that exceeds the currently established guidelines since such high
frequencies have not been investigated. We will look for acute srTMS effects of the primary
motor cortex (M1) stimulation (60% to 100% motor threshold [MT] intensity, 0.5 seconds to 2
seconds train duration). A multi-channel electromyography (EMG) record will be visually
controlled for signs of increasing time-locked EMG activity, EMG correlates of the spread of
excitation through M1, or an increase of M1 excitability to establish the safe superrapid
transcranial magnetic stimulation (srTMS) limit. The electroencephalogram (EEG) Record,
Folstein Mini-Mental Exam, CFL and FAS Letter Production Test (words beginning with letters
'C', 'F' etc), Serial Reaction Time, Grooved Pegboard Test, and Unified PD Rating Scale
(UPDRS) will be done before and after the srTMS session to control possible srTMS side
- INCLUSION CRITERIA:
Subjects will be men and women aged 40 to 80 years with DOPA-responsive, akinetic-rigid
After obtaining the informed consent, patients will be interviewed and examined by either
the prinicipal investigator (PI) or a Brain Stimulation Unit (BSU) or an HMCS physician to
establish the diagnosis of PD and rule out any other neurologic condition.
Only patients with a Hoehn and Yahr grade of 2 to 4 while 'off' will be accepted.
Patients must be on a regimen including L-DOPA, and they must have a total dose of
medication equal to more than 300 mg of L-DOPA equivalent, including their dopamine
Any patient whose record does not contain a neurological examination from the past year
will be reexamined before enrollment.
Any significant medical or psychiatric illness (other than PD), pregnancy, history of
epilepsy, or concurrent use of tricyclic antidepressants, neuroleptic agents, or any other
licit or illicit drugs other than antiparkinsonian agents that could lower the seizure
Persons with surgically or traumatically implanted foreign bodies such as a pacemaker, or
any implanted stimulators, an implanted medication pump, a metal plate in the skull, or
metal inside the skull or eyes (other than dental appliances or fillings) that may pose a
physical hazard during magnetic stimulation will also be excluded.
Most of these exclusions also come under the category of significant medical illness.
Patients for whom participation in the study would, in the opinion of the investigators,
cause undue risk or stress for reasons such as tendency to fall, excessive fatigue,
general fatigue, general frailty, or excessive apprehensiveness will also be excluded.
A urine sample for the pregnancy test will be obtained from any women of childbearing
potential prior to the start of srTMS, on the day of the initial interview and signing of
the consent form. Pregnant women will be excluded from the study.
Mentally impaired patients who have no capacity to provide their own consent will be
excluded from the study.
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The following post in the Integral Fast Reactor Facts and Discussion series centres around two important diagrams prepared by Dr Yoon I. Chang — Distinguished Fellow at Argonne National Laboratories, a key figure in the development of the IFR between 1984 and 1994, and founding member of the Science Council for Global Initiatives. These allow one to easily — visually — see the difference between the uranium fuel cycle of today’s Gen II and Gen III light water reactors, and the alternative mass flow represented by the IFR.
In the previous IFR FaD post, I discussed the amount of uranium fuel an IFR consumes (i.e., 1 tonne of natural or depleted uranium per gigawatt year, which is roughly 160 times more efficient in its use of uranium than a Generation III light water reactor). For another technical explanation, see here.
First, let’s consider the uranium fuel cycle in today Nuclear Light Water Reactors, with or without aqueous plutonium recycle:
To run a 1 GWe reactor for 1 year, about 170 tons of uranium ore is required. After enrichment of U-235 to 3.5 – 5%, this yields about 20 tonnes of material suitable for manufacture into uranium oxide fuel pellets (at ~50,000 MWd/t burnup). The rest is discarded as ‘depleted uranium’, which still contains about 0.25% U-235. After a year of operation, the following ‘waste’ results: 18.73 t of uranium (mostly U-238), 1 t of fission products (the atomic shards left over after heavy fissile isotopes are split), 0.25 t of plutonium (i.e., 250 kg, which has been bred in the reactor as a result of U-238 absorbing a neutron and then undergoing a couple of beta decays) and 0.02 t of minor actinides (mostly americium and curium).
This ‘spent fuel’ can be either secured for eventual storage in a deep geological respository (hint: bad idea), or reprocessed to recover the Pu for further fissioning. The result of this type of reprocessing, adopted by the French, is that instead of getting six-tenths of 1 per cent of the energy out of mined uranium, we get eight-tenths, with no significant reduction in waste life. Only one or two passes are possible. Wow… excuse me if I’m not particularly impressed (it’s also an expensive process and rings proliferation alarm bells for some folks).
Now, let’s consider the alternative IFR fuel cycle:
First, note that no mining is required — this will be true for many centuries, until all of the existing used fuel (left over from LWRs) and depleted uranium that we have stockpiled is consumed, to make a lot of electricity.
First, 700 tons of LWR spent fuel must be reprocessed to extract ~10 tonnes of fissile actinides (mostly Pu, Am and Cm of various isotopes, and laced with some trace lanthanoids which keeps it ‘hot’). More detail on this ‘fissile load’ will be given in future posts. This one-time reprocessing also results in 80 t of makeup uranium (40 t for the core, such that the resultant metal fuel rods are ~20 % fissile, and 40 t for the breeder blanket), with the remaining uranium being available for future inputs as this plant, and others, generates electricity, year in, year out. About 1.5 t per GW year will be needed if the IFR is running at a high fissile-fuel-breeding rate. Note: The blanket uranium loading will be zero for a burner configuration, and much larger amounts for maximum breeding. The amount used in the diagram is something in between.
Each year, an average of 13.5 t of nuclear fuel will be removed from the reactor and run through the on-site pyroprocessing unit (details in later posts). This procedure allows separation of the fission products from the heavy metals (which are recycled back into the IFR). The F.P. are encased in a highly durable, inert glass (or perhaps a synroc), and must be isolated for 300 to 500 years to allow for 10+ half-lives of Sr-90 and Cs-137. No long-term (multi-millennial) geological disposal is required.
As a high priority, Tom Blees, Yoon Chang and others are now working towards getting the first LWR spent fuel recycling plant built in the US. Tom discussed this initiative during his recent seminar at ANSTO. The prospects are looking bright.
And what of the ‘excess actinides for startup of new IFR‘? This is a very important point, and will be the topic of the next IFR FaD post. This, in turn, will lead naturally into an exploration of the feasible fuel breeding and roll out rates for IFR power plant deployment over the coming decades.
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Simple Origami. These classic simple origami designs can be made and mastered in a few minutes. Still, they are no less enjoyable than the more complicated designs. Below are some easy and simple origami designs to get started with. We always use a 6 x 6 (or 15cm x 15cm) square origami paper for the models unless we state otherwise . is a paper folding craft that's widely popular across generations. From the fortune tellers you learned as a kid to decorative paper cranes, there's plenty to try. How to Make an Heart. 10 Creative Cootie Catchers The origami bookmarks below were created using a 5 inch square. Fold square paper in half diagonally. Fold each point of the triangle up to meet the tip. It will now look like a square. Unfold the tips and return paper to a triangle shape. Fold only one layer of the tip of the triangle down to meet the bottom Learn how to make easy origami with these simple instructions. There are lots of origami models that are easy and fun to fold. Some of the most beautiful origami are the simple models. It's harder to design easy models than it is to design complex ones. The beauty is in the simple folds. We have a lot of easy origami models for you to choose from. Our simple step by step guides are easy to. Scroll down for the full list of Origami Instructions on Origami-Fun.com! Just click on the link to see the diagram instructions or download a printable pdf. Many origami models also have videos you can watch! Notice the little pelicans? They are my difficulty rating: 1 Pelican is very easy, great for beginners, 2 is still easy, but there might.
Photo from Amazon. Trash Origami takes recycling to a whole new level by encouraging paper folders to turn candy wrappers, magazine pages, and junk mail into colorful origami decorations and fun paper toys. This book includes beginning to intermediate level projects. Some are quick and easy to fold, while projects such as the origami chess set are a more time-consuming undertaking Article Summary X. To make a simple origami wolf, start with a piece of square origami paper. Fold the paper in half from corner to corner to form a triangle. Fold the triangle in half again, then unfold it to leave a crease down the middle. With the top point facing you, fold the right corner to the bottom point of the triangle . This is an activity that has been passed on from one generation to another, despite huge technological advances. Let's make sure that it will continue on for many generations to come Welcome to OrigaMIT, MIT's origami club. We seek to promote, practice, and teach origami folding, analysis, and design. COVID-19 Notice . In light of MIT's COVID-19 policy, all merchandise sales and in-person meetings are on pause until further notice. Weekly Meeting. Our Sunday meetings are always open and free of charge to everyone, whether.
These free origami instructions are made available to you by the paper folding art community at large. If you have a diagram you would like to share, or if your diagram is listed here and you wish to have it removed, please Contact Us. Diagrams are intended for personal use Origami found its way in Japanese celebrations and weddings where origami art was used to wrap and fold in the form of a shape representing the bride and groom. Years went by and paper became less and less expensive. It was now available to all- rich or poor. Origami became a traditional and popular art form in Japanese household 3D Export — Origami exports to OBJ, Collada and 3D PDF formats. These then can be loaded to Boxshot or Koru for further processing; Rendering — Origami renders scenes itself, but can also use Boxshot for rendering. Dieline Verification. Origami checks dielines for errors and provides detailed information about the issues to help fixing them. 15. Money Leaf. make-origami. Here's a simple DIY idea to make when you are bored. Learn how to make leaves from money, whether it be dollar bills, five or ten dollar bills or pretty much any kind of paper money you have on hand. Add these to a few dollar bill roses and create a cool cash gift idea. 16 These easy instructions will help your kids fold fun origami in just a few simple steps. Origami Horse Head. Simple Origami Lion. Simple Origami Dog. Simple Origami Cat. Easy Origami Bird. Simple Flapping Butterfly. Simple Origami Car. Simple Origami Claws. Simple Origami Envelope. Origami Blinking Eye
In no time at all you will be playing with your students, your children, your grandchildren, your nephews or your nieces! Materials needed to make the paper puppet: A square of paper 6 x 6 inches (15 x 15 cm) Access to this 4 minute video. A marker to draw the eyes or two little paper circles and glue to paste them on THE BEST ORIGAMI PROJECTS. By Ayushi Sharma in Craft Paper. 156,606. 520. Featured. Suggested Projects. Hey guys, this collection contains the best origami projects on instructables. So, just sit back and start making some of these and just enjoy..: origami hojyo takashi, origami hojyo takashi pdf, origami buddha hojyo takashi pdf, hojyo takashi origami book pdf, origami skull hojyo takashi, origami violinist hojyo takashi pdf, hojyo takashi origami book, origami buddha hojyo takashi PN8-T2 patterns are out of print, or not exist. 表紙へ戻る return to top page And by the way, it's all free, and there is a printable PDF version of every diagram on the site, so feel free to share them with your friends! Paper-folding is a wonderful hobby, and a wonderful group activity... and for kids it has so many benefits socially and for the developing mind, but I just love it because you get to make cool stuff - with only a sheet of paper Translation of: Origami ohne Grenzen. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2013-12-16 10:01:48.590794 Bookplatelea
Origami hats, shirts, dresses and more Designed by Stephen H Origami for Everyone gives you full step-by-step instructions for 30 awesome origami projects for everyone from beginners to experts. Learn how to make flowers, masks, and the ubiquitous paper crane! All projects come from Instructables.com, are written by paper folding experts, and contain pictures for each step so you can do it yourself. Happy folding
Origami Boxes. Learn how to make an origami box, we have a large selection of origami boxes ranging from easy to advanced. You will find the perfect origami box to use for your gift or storage Origami Design Our folding canoe's design makes setting up and breaking down a breeze. Leaving you more time to do what you love. Everything You Need For a Canoe Adventure. MYCANOE Duo - Folding Canoe for Two from $ 700.00. MyCanoe Rowing Kit $ 249.00. MyCanoe Stabilizer Kit $ 279.00 In the OrigamiUSA Convention, 2005, Stephen Weiss showcased over 40 dollar bill origami models. He is one of those talented and prolific folders who is dedicated to this genre of origami. [Photo from G Aharoni] The OrigamiUSA 2007 convention showcased more innovated dollar bill origami. Shown here is a $2 spider by Won Park. Won has done some.
. DIY Origami Paper Cube. betweenthelines. If you are looking for something that is easy to do, fun and decorative at the same time, this origami boxes will bring you to the mood. 22. DIY Origami Butterflies. thethingsshemakes Learn how to make an origami ninja star with these easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions. These origami stars make great decorations, statement jewelry pieces such as earrings, and more. These traditional origami stars are also called Shuriken and resemble the weapon itself. In Japanese, 手裏剣 translates as sword hidden in the user's hand Origami is the folding of paper to create art in different shapes. There are many variations of origami dogs, some different breeds of dogs, others different parts of the dog (like the head). Origami can be a fun activity to do and is easy to do—all you need is a piece of paper and a hard surface to fold on
Clothing and Accessories Money Folding. Dollar Bill Ring : A bit of bling for your finger! Origami Shirt : Fold a Money Origami Shirt with my easy step-by-step instructions. Origami Shirt and Tie : Fold a shirt with necktie , all from a single bill! Origami Trousers : Fold some trousers the perfect size to go with the shirt Origami process is a metaphor for getting healthy, one step at a time. Like other forms of art therapy, origami instills a positive attitude for healing to occur. However, origami is a great deal easier to administrate in the hospital. Computers, art, and music materials need to be disinfected with alcohol if they travel to and from rooms of. Origami is a fascinating and creative craft for kids, especially if you can find origami models appropriate to their age. Not only will children get a real sense of satisfaction out of making these fun origami models, but they will be getting practice at following instructions, increasing their manual dexterity, and producing a fun and decorative end-product. Enjoy these easy origami models.
How to Fold. Below you'll find a list of 30+ instructions to get you started! Click on any of the small images to see them full-size. If you're only interested in video instructions, click here for my Youtube playlist. If you want even more, check out Art2D2's Guide to Folding and Doodling! Or Chris Alexander's book: Star Wars Origami People often associate origami with the origami crane, or tsuru.It's especially popular due to the story of 1001 cranes (senbazuru), but its simplicity is hard to argue with.You can learn how to make the iconic traditional origami crane with this easy to follow step-by-step tutorial How to Make Origami Animals. Origami animals are a popular choice of origami. They're fun to fold and it's really cool to see them begin to take shape and look like their real life counterparts. There are instructions for various origami animals so just choose your favorite one and start folding. Origami Bat. Difficulty: Medium. Easy Origami Bird The very first banknotes were used by the Chinese in the 7th century, during the Tang Dynasty. Before it was used as a true currency, paper money was used as part of a deposit system in which merchants would leave large amounts of coins with a trusted associate and receive a paper receipt for the transaction. The reason was simple—the copper coins used as currency at the time were heavy
Origami Instructions and Diagrams. These origami instructions and diagrams were written to be as easy to follow as possible. I recommend using origami paper if you want them to turn out nice, but regular paper will do fine for simple diagrams. For those who are unfamiliar with origami, it is the art of folding paper into a sculpture without. Origami is the enjoyable art of paper folding. A heart shape is a fairly simple yet effective shape to fold, and the result can be used as a Valentine's Day gift or decoration, a romantic token or to decorate anything you're making in paper craft. Get a letter-size (or A4) piece of paper. You can. Glue it onto the stem piece attached to the girl's face. Fold the top corner of the kimono over to form a V shape, as shown in the image. Fold the other top side the same way to complete the shoulder zone. Make sure that the other collar piece you've already attached is still showing above the kimono collar Origami - Origami - History of origami: Writing a comprehensive history of paper folding is almost impossible, since information about the art form prior to the 15th century is virtually nonexistent. There are many plausible assertions about its origins and early history, but most of those are based on little firm documentation. Many studies assert that origami was invented by the Japanese.
This Study Guide consists of approximately 33 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Print Word PDF. This section contains 1,827 words. (approx. 5 pages at 400 words per page) View a FREE sample The most popular and famous origami web site on the planet. Try Japanese traditional paper crafts The Origami Hat is a great model for kids to make, because it's so simple and fun to wear afterwards! Use a large piece of paper, or newspaper for this design. For a printable .pdf version of the hat instructions , click here 3. Use origami to practice letting go of self-judgment or perfectionism. Tsang notes how origami is a peaceful hobby, a beautiful art, a craft, a science and a meditation all in one. If you're a.
May 4, 2020 - This post contains affiliate links As an Amazon affiliate I receive a small commission for qualifying purchases For th Origami has been a Japanese tradition for centuries and is a modern art form. There are many different methods used to fold dragons and each has its own style and artistry. Most dragons are intermediate to advanced-level origami creations,..
Paper Mario: The Origami King Wiki Guide. Each page is not only a walkthrough, it also contains info on how to get 100% Completion in each area. That means details on every Toad you need to rescue. Turn over the origami, and start over the last 4 steps. Open one side of the diamond shape, and fold up its bottom end, a bit on the side, and flatten again. Start over on the other side. Fold in the inside one of the end of the two last folds. Fold back up the end. This is the head of the dragon, with a little horn A vast array of origami patterns can be applied to the folding of any material of near-zero thickness, such as paper. However, the folding of thick materials requires adding material and offsets. Chen et al. develop a general model in which the standard spherical linkages (creases) are replaced with rigid panels connected via offset folds, so that the folding motion of both near-zero. Since the Origami project does not contain a scene, save the empty default scene to a new file using: File / Save Scene As. Name the new scene Origami and press the Save button. Setup the main virtual camera. In the Hierarchy Panel, select Main Camera. In the Inspector set its transform position to 0,0,0
Papercraft Panda, 3D Paper Panda, DIY Papercraft Panda, Low Polygon Panda, DIY Gift, 3D Paper Sculpture, Wall Mount 3D Origami, PDF Pattern. VitaliStore. From shop VitaliStore. 5 out of 5 stars. (191) 191 reviews. Sale Price $13.81. $13.81 $17.26. Original Price $17.26 A pill-sized origami robot developed by MIT researchers could be used to help retrieve swallowed items, such as button batteries, reports Kate Baggaley for Popular Science. The origami robots could help to move the battery through the digestive system faster, before it has time to break down and start leaking, Baggaley explains
Origami Tessellations (Ages 16+) Beginner. This class is temporarily being offered remotely. at Evanston Art Center - Online Interactive Online Classroom via Zoom, Chicago, Illinois 00000. Fold three awe-inspiring origami tessellations: Spread Hexagon, Square Weave, and Waterbomb, created by noted origami designers wonderful origami kasahara pdf wordpress can be one of the options to accompany you bearing in mind having supplementary time. It will not waste your time. allow me, the e-book will certainly impression you new thing to read. Wonderful Origami Kasahara Pdf Wordpress ¦ elearning.ala Hello, Sign in. Account & Lists Account Returns & Orders. Try. was used to make small cuts in the origami on the Box cover (Figure 1) and the ears of Rabbit face (Figure 2). We asked each student to handle all eight types of papers they received (Table 1) and the indicated folder, during the execution of four pieces of origami (Figures 1-3) and point out those who favored the foreclosure of folding
Addeddate 2016-06-05 14:24:05 Identifier OrigamiForEveryone-English Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t0ns5g54g Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 Ppi 60 Explain the following activity to the group. 1) Give everyone a piece of 8.5x11 paper and ask everyone to close their eyes. Explain to everyone tha Sharon, person with Parkinson's and avid tennis player Adamas in summary Driven by patients. Our mission is to make everyday life significantly better for people affected by neurological diseases, by delivering innovative medicines to reduce the burden on patients, caregivers, and society. Focused on execution. Our tea On the Road: Origami Cars, Trucks, etc. Origami Bus (origami-club.com) Origami Car (origami-club.com) Origami Car (origami-paper.ru) Origami Car (C Ong) Origami Truck (origami-club.com) Origami Van (Orc) 3D Origami Car (origami-make.com) Automovil: page 1, 2 (J Caboblanco) Bee Car/Piaggio Ape (P D'Auria) Car (VW Bug) (C Esseltine) Car/Coche (V. Origami CD Case PDF Diagrams, GIF Diagrams This has been a very popular model. Some folks at Michigan Engineering Software and Hardware put together a script that lets you type in song titles and will print them out onto paper that is ready to be folded into the case
Magic of Origami Sadako Sasaki and 1000 Origami Paper Cranes Sadako Sasaki- a twelve year old Japanese girl was suffering from leukemia due to radiation produced by atomic bombing on Hiroshima on 6th August, 1945. It is a belief in Japan that if any person makes 1000 paper cranes (senbazuru), god grants him/her a wish 14 models by the masters of 3D origami which you can make yourself. 3D origami is an art form where thousands of sheets of paper can be folded to create one sculpture. The folds can be either simple or striking, creating beautiful and complex pieces of art. It's hard to imagine, but such models are usually made without a single drop of glue
When folding sculpture in the style of origami uses one sheet of paper (often square), and it is used to different types of folds in a certain sequence. When folding models often try to follow a specific pattern assembly, having worked previously known origami masters. For you, we have tried to collect in one place the best instructions origami To the non-origami person, the sequence that transforms a sheet of paper into a beautiful folded object can seem miraculous. Even to the origami aficionado, however, the idea that a single drawing of the creases conveys the full folding sequence can seem equally miraculous. But in fact, a crease pattern can sometimes be more illuminating than a.
This is a game based purely on communication. One person is chosen to be the leader and will read out instructions on how to make an Origami with the video shut off. No images or chats can be shared. The other members must follow the instructions and get as close to the final design as possible Making your own DIY origami newspaper pots might sound complicated, but they're really quite simple and quick. Once you get the hang of it, you can easily whip out a bunch of pots at one time. An advantage of making these newspaper origami pots is that they can be made ahead of time and stored in a folded position to save space Mathematics in origami Origami, the art of paper folding, has a long history. In origami, people can make beautiful handicrafts using only one piece of paper. There are various kind of techniques of paper folding that are used in origami and none of them are complicated to learn. But, since the early 20th century, origami has became more tha
Showcase: 1000 Yodas to raise $1000 for Hurricane Relief! September 24, 2017. Ok SFs! Here's the challenge: If you SFs can team up to Fold 1000 Origami Yodas, origamiyoda.com will donate $1,000 to hurricane relief efforts! UPDATE: Above are the first 42, just sent in by SF JJFold! Only 958 to go!! Paper Folding Crafts Step by Step. Easily learn paper folding crafts step by step. These instructions will teach you how to make various models such as birds, flowers, butterflies, animals, and more. Get a piece of paper and start now. The kind of paper that I recommend are thin square sheets called origami paper because they make your crafts. Simple Origami Dragon: Personal Recommendations:- 6 square paper- Foil paper- Single-sided paperTime:Takes me about 10 minutes to fold one if I am taking my time, but learning it may take 30-45 minutes, depending on what you already know. Original Creator:I forget
Contemporary Origami. From Europe, origami then spread to South America and then to North America. In the 1950, Akira Yoshizana and Sam Randlett developed a standard set of origami symbols to describe how to fold paper into models. These symbols remained essentially the same and is used in origami diagrams today Origami Box. Start with a square 6 x 6 (15cm x 15cm) origami paper. Flip the sheet so that the colored side is face down. Now make two mountain folds as shown. Using the mountain fold lines as guides, fold the four corners of the paper into its center. Then fold the right edge and the left edge into the centerline EASY ORIGAMI CRANE: In this tutorial, I will be showing the steps to make a classic origami crane. I did not invent this set of instructions, but I did learn it in Japan. This should take anywhere between 3-10 minutes depending on your experience and skill with origami . You will need to fold the small triangle in the bottom right corner in. Then you will need to fold the bottom corner to the middle right corner. Then unfold the last two folds and turn the paper upside down. Finally repeat steps 6-10 until you have made three of the figures If your kids want to try out origami, here are 25 easy origami ideas for kids. See step-by-step origami instructions for kids of all ages
Origami Roses and Origami Flowers folding instructions. Here we show you how to fold an origami rose, origami lily and origami tulip through step by step photos and diagrams. Give a gift of paper flowers that will last a very long time Origami involves folding paper to make some truly wonderful creations! One of the most popular models is the crane. It is a very distinctive bird with a long neck. According to legends in Japan, if a person makes a thousand origami cranes, they can make a wish that will come true. With origami, you can also make boxes, toy animals, flowers and. The money origami shirt and tie on this page is a little tricker to make than the shirt without a tie.I'll show you the video tutorial first. But further down the page there are also step-by-step photo instructions .They're handy if you that have a slow internet connection, because they load much faster than the video . If you would prefer to watch a video of this model, scroll to the bottom of this page Origami was created 1000 years ago in Japan. It was believed that if a person folded 1000 origami cranes, his deepest wishes would come true. Origami has also been a source of hope for people traditionally and it is a source of inspiration for so many struggling minds looking for a creative outlet in a world that's become colorless
3. Easy Origami Fish. These are beyond cute aren't they. And super quick and easy to make! Check the folding instructions for origami fish. 4. Easy Dog Face. We'v even prepared a printable template for this one so it's easier to fold it than ever. See the step by step tutorial for making an origami dog face It's a gradual process that enables the reader to learn by doing, with expert coaching all along the way.Instructions for 32 models are included; almost all are original works by Ilan Garibi, one of the most well-known origami tessellators in the world—and one of the few full-time origami artists Origami is a fun art of making creative things by folding papers. Your child can learn to make different artifacts like animals, flower, trees, boxes and many other decorative items by using simple techniques of easy origami for kids. Your kid can enjoy this craft activity without the extensive use of glue and scissors Here Are Some Fun Origami Animals to Create! 1. Paper Fish. Check out this video with origami instructions on how to fold your own paper fish! Using colored paper for your origami, you and your kid or kids can create a whole school of koi fish! You can follow the instructions in the video and start with a ten by ten-centimeter colored paper Origami (折り紙, Japanese pronunciation: or [oɾiꜜɡami], from ori meaning folding, and kami meaning paper (kami changes to gami due to rendaku)) is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word origami is used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin
An origamist or an origamian is a person who is associated with the art of origami. Some notable origamists / origamians are: A. Jay Ansill - composer and folk musician who also wrote The Origami Sourcebook; D Martin Demaine and Erik Demaine - father-and-son team who. Sale price. $899.00 Sale. Buy in monthly payments with Affirm on orders over $50. Learn more. The Inlet is the lightest, most portable, and easiest to assemble folding kayak YET — an origami kayak for everyone. Designed for flat water, it's playful and light — and ridiculously fast to assemble This item: Everyone Can Learn Origami. by Peter Saydak Paperback. $14.99. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00. Origami Paper Double Sided Color - 200 Sheets - 20 Colors - 6 Inch Square Easy Fold Paper for Beginner. $5.99. In Stock Origami Paper 500 Sheets, Premium Quality for Arts and Crafts, 6-inch Square Sheets, 20 Vivid Colors, Same Color on Both Sides, 100 Design E-Book Included (See back of the cover for download info) 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,945. $14.95 $ 14. 95 ($0.85/oz) $14.20 with Subscribe & Save discount It's a year of paper-folding magic for crafters and origami lovers of all ages and skill levels. From origami master Margaret Van Sicklen, the Origami calendar features hundreds of creative models in dazzling full color.Here are quick folds, like the Simple Parrot
The capability of stiffness manipulation for materials and structures is essential for tuning motion, saving energy, and delivering high power. However, high-efficiency in situ stiffness manipulation has not yet been successfully achieved despite many studies from different perspectives. Here, curved origami patterns were designed to accomplish in situ stiffness manipulation covering positive. Origami Inspirations is a guide filled with origami projects to be taken on by those of varying skill levels with origami. Presented in full color, Meenakshi Mukerji proceeds to break down the projects into step by step instructions, an introductory of many basic techniques, and organizes the projects based on the predominant technique in each
Jan 16, 2021 - 43 Funny & Relatable Memes About Being A Human - Funny memes that GET IT and want you to too. Get the latest funniest memes and keep up what is going on in the meme-o-sphere Bella Weems cofounded Origami Owl at age 14. It's set to make $250 million this year. Weems, now 17, is founder of Origami Owl, a custom jewelry company whose direct sales business model turns. He makes origami. One day he makes an origami finger puppet of Yoda. And that's when things get mysterious. Origami Yoda can predict the future and suggest the best way to deal with a tricky situation. His advice actually works, and soon most of the sixth grade is lining up with questions. Compiling a series of funny, first-person accounts. Antonio Chavez Armas - Origami Artist. 4,088 likes · 21 talking about this. Origami Artis
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Diabetes has quickly become one of the biggest global health threats. The amount of people being diagnosed with this condition is gradually increasing. Whether you already have this disease, or are trying to prevent it, this article will give you the tips you need to make sure that you manage or prevent diabetes as well as you can.
If your child has diabetes it can be hard, but you can deal with it! Proper treatments allow your child to live a normal life. The oldest person with diabetes is 90. He lived long enough to see new medical treatments.
Establish a routine to keep yourself on track. One idea is to establish a designated area for your glucose meter and testing supplies. When you test, make it a routine so you never forget a step or to write down your levels in your log.
Diabetes has increasingly become more prevalent in our society. Doing this allows ease in your life and also cuts down on the stress and embarrassment of having diabetes.
If you are a diabetic, you need to discover ways to pacify your sweet tooth safely. It’s probably not necessary to remove sweets altogether from your diet. If you have your blood pressure under control, it is okay to eat desserts once in a while. Remove carbs from your meal to make room for dessert. Try to stick to equal amounts to make sure your entire meal stays balanced.
Sodas, ketchup and many other processed sweet foods contain high fructose corn syrup, so read the labels on everything you are considering buying at the market, and pass on it if it contains this ingredient. This is labeled “glucose/fructose” in Canada.
If you are a diabetic who is addicted to processed foods, it can be tough to stop grabbing snacks from the cupboard or the office vending machine. You need to exercise willpower and ditch that processed snack, and choose a complex carbohydrate such as vegetables or fruit instead.
Diabetics should eat modest portions, more often — as often as six times a day, instead of three. When you have more frequent meals during the course of the day, your glucose level can be better stabilized. More frequent meals also decreases your chances of overcompensating with binging later on.
This is linked with an increased risk that your child will be born with diabetes or develop the condition over time. Do all you can to take care of your body and keep your baby safe.
When you have been diagnosed with diabetes, you do not have to stop living. By implementing some of the ideas and recommendations offered here, you are on your way to effective management and eventual elimination of the disease.
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6 March 2013, Tokyo — The illegal wildlife trade brings in US$ billions per year while impeding international efforts to conserve rare and endangered plants and animals. The true extent of this growing plight, however, remains uncertain due to the lack of a universally implemented framework to monitor wildlife crime and its transboundary syndicates.
Despite international enforcement, tracking the illicit value chain of wildlife poachers, traffickers and consumers has been hindered by gaps in data sharing among agencies and countries. This poses a potential threat to the success of Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs), which depend upon accessible information flows among diverse parties including governments, international agencies, research institutions, local communities and industry.
Today, wildlife experts, enforcement officials and government representatives are meeting in Bangkok at a side event of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP16) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The event — Bytes Beyond Borders: Strengthening Transboundary Information Sharing on Wildlife Crime through the Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS) Initiative — explores ways to tackle transboundary wildlife crime using advanced technology collaborations.
In 2005, recognizing the need to overcome the data divides in wildlife crime enforcement, the United Nations University (UNU) developed the prototype of a transboundary information-sharing platform. The Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS) responds to the need for a regional governance model to compile data on transboundary wildlife crime from national wildlife divisions and incorporate this information in policy decision-making processes.
The WEMS initiative has since grown into a robust research partnership between the UNU Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS), the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the University of Twente, the Lusaka Agreement Task Force for Co-operative Enforcement Operations Directed at Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora (LATF), and the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University.
Stressing the potential of WEMS, Prof. Govindan Parayil, UNU Vice-Rector and UNU-IAS Director, asserted that “destruction of wildlife through illegal and criminal activities is a global issue that transcends national boundaries and has become a threat to national security, preservation of biodiversity and the livelihoods of millions of people. Combating illegal wildlife trade calls for collaboration and information sharing among governments, NGOs, research institutions and enforcement officials”.
At its core, WEMS is a Geographic Information System-based initiative that measures and analyses data to improve compliance monitoring for CITES. The technical infrastructure for WEMS, developed and hosted by UNU, is a secure web-based database where partner agencies can upload data. The WEMS initiative benefits from a foundation built upon interdisciplinary field research involving key stakeholders such as enforcement officials, computer scientists, policymakers and civil society.
Based on partner-government feedback, UNU redesigned the WEMS prototype in preparation for the regional pilot phase implemented from 2011–2012 in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Congo-Brazzaville) through the Lusaka Agreement. This project enabled governments to effectively and easily share data on nearly 170 cases of wildlife crime extending beyond their borders, thus solidifying the potential of WEMS as a practical framework in enforcement of and compliance with transboundary MEAs.
ITC Rector Tom Veldkamp noted that this inclusive strategy has been crucial to the project’s success, emphasizing that “we cannot solve the challenges in transboundary information sharing on wildlife crime through a vertical approach alone, as the problem itself lies in different spatial and governance scales. Bridging the different agencies or actors also brings in divergent viewpoints, which are at times conflictive. The success of WEMS-Africa has proven that it has overcome these challenges”.
According to Bonaventure Ebayi, Director of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, “information is the panacea for enhanced communication and collaboration. WEMS, as an effective information-sharing tool that facilitates early interventions and preventative measures, thereby safeguarding our much-treasured wildlife from illegal exploitation, and promotes good governance in wildlife conservation”.
Based on the positive outcome of WEMS in Africa, the ASEAN region is being considered for the project’s next focus. The CoP16 side event brings together experts from CITES, the United Nations Environment Programme, INTERPOL and enforcement officials from CITES member states to review current developments of WEMS-Africa and explore the potential of WEMS-ASEAN.
Underlining the prospects of the initiative in ASEAN, Manop Lauprasert, Senior Officer of the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network’s Program Coordination Unit said that “the ASEAN region is rich in biodiversity and home to many endangered species of wild fauna and flora, which are constantly under threat of extinction caused by numerous factors which include their illegal exploitation and trade. Tackling this issue will require the use of new tools and technologies that can support and respond to the needs of ASEAN countries”.
UNU Vice-Rector Parayil affirmed UNU’s commitment to the project, saying, “I trust that the WEMS model used in Africa will help build the necessary capacity and offer the technological infrastructure to support ASEAN countries in fighting wildlife crime”.
By looking into the roles of potential actors partnering in such an ASEAN information-sharing platform, the CoP16 side event offers insights on present research models. It further enables regional and international experts to consider important questions surrounding the public accessibility of project data and how to promote long-term sustainability in various contexts and countries.
For more information about the WEMS Initiative, please visit: http://www.wems-initiative.org. Media representatives may also contact the following representatives:
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Jefferson Davis was never loved by his fellow Confederates. He presided over the defeat, humiliation, and destruction of the Southern Confederacy, and he finally bore most of the blame from his countrymen. Davis does not fare much better in William C. Davis’ new book, but author Davis is not so much concerned with rendering a verdict on President Davis as he is with comparing Davis to the younger, more dashing, and more capable John C. Breckinridge. Breckinridge was appointed Secretary of War in the conflict’s final days after serving most of the war as a general in the Shenandoah Valley. By the time he was appointed, Breckinridge was already convinced that the war was lost, and thus William C. Davis’ tale of a struggle between two strong and able men begins.
Central to the book is the belief held by many Southerners in the waning days of the war that independence was a lost cause and that an armistice brought about while the Southern armies could still fight would be preferable to total surrender. Breckenridge was one who believed this, but Davis was not. Davis’ almost fanatical commitment to fight on fills the book with a feeling of tragic inevitability as events hurtle toward the annihilation of Lee’s and Johnston’s armies ending in unconditional surrender.
Jefferson Davis refused to consider an armistice and would not allow his generals to negotiate on the basis of reunification with the Union. Author Davis contends that this was a fatal mistake. With independence already a thing of the past, President Davis was giving up valuable time and leverage by insisting on independence. If he had been willing to sacrifice independence, Davis may have been able to preserve the State governments and even secure reparations for the abolition of slavery.
It was precisely these terms that Breckinridge had worked tirelessly for, but was never able to convince Davis to give up on independence. As the Confederacy continued to unravel, Lee’s army surrendered to Grant and North Carolina began to secretly work to rejoin the Union under special terms. Breckenridge’s last hope was to secure terms that would allow the Southern Armies to surrender their arms to the state civil authorities rather than to the Northern armies. Breckinridge knew this was a key provision since it would have allowed the formation of Southern state militias avoiding a situation of military occupation of the South, and preserving most Southern property.
Surprisingly, Breckinridge managed to negotiate such terms with General Sherman, but his hopes were dashed when the Radical Republicans, newly in power after Lincoln’s assassination, refused the terms. Interestingly, Lincoln is just a far off figure in this book, but author Davis goes out of his way to illustrate that for all of Lincoln’s dictatorial abuses, his colleagues in the Republican Congress were far worse. While Lincoln had dangled reparations or even rescinding the emancipation proclamation in front of Davis in return for surrender, the Republicans in Congress were bent on complete abolition and occupation of the Confederacy. In the end, the most extreme extremism won out.
William C. Davis leaves the reader playing numerous scenarios over and over in his head. What if the South had settled earlier? Would state governments have remained in power? Could military occupation have been avoided? Certainly, had Sherman’s offer to Breckinridge been allowed to stand, American civilization would look quite different today.
It is always pleasant to discover a new and respectable historical figure. William C. Davis presents John C. Breckinridge as just such a figure. While President Davis dreamed of starting up a new rebellion in Texas, Breckinridge sought desperately to salvage some remnants of local sovereignty in the South. Although a moderate on slavery and the secession question, Breckinridge fled his home in Kentucky to avoid arrest by Union soldiers and committed himself to the Confederacy where he was an able general, administrator, and negotiator. Restrained by the single-minded Davis, Breckinridge would ultimately fail in his efforts to preserve the rights of his fellow Southerners. It was a tragic end to a tragic episode in American history.
June 18, 2001
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Strong reasoning
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History
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That’s approximately one person in thirty.
Who has sight loss? Sight loss affects people of all ages, but as we get older we are increasingly likely to experience sight loss.
- One in five people aged 75 and over are living with sight loss.
- One in two people aged 90 and over are living with sight loss.
- Nearly two-thirds of people living with sight loss are women.
- People from black and minority ethnic communities are at greater risk of some of the leading causes of sight loss.
- Adults with learning disabilities are 10 times more likely to be blind or partially sighted than the general population.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration is by far the leading cause of blindness in adults.
Other significant causes of sight loss are glaucoma, cataracts and diabetic retinopathy.
The number of people in the UK with sight loss is set to increase dramatically in the future.
As we get older we are increasingly likely to experience sight loss, and the UK population is ageing. In addition, there is a growing incidence in key underlying causes of sight loss, such as obesity and diabetes.
This means that, without action, the numbers of people with sight problems in the UK are likely to increase dramatically over the next 25 years. It is predicted that by 2020 the number of people with sight loss will rise to over 2,250,000. By 2050, the numbers of people with sight loss in the UK will double to nearly four million.
Many older people are needlessly living with sight loss.
Almost two thirds of sight loss in older people is caused by refractive error and cataract. Both conditions can be diagnosed by a simple eye test. In most cases the person’s sight could be improved by prescribing correct glasses or cataract surgery. Over 50 per cent of sight loss can be avoided.
What is the cost of sight loss to the UK economy each year?
In 2008 sight loss cost at least £6.5 billion, and this is likely to increase as the number of people with sight loss increases. This figure does not include the cost of sight loss in children. This cost is made up of:
- £2.14 billion in direct health care costs, such as eye clinics, prescriptions and operations.
- £4.34 billion in indirect costs, such as unpaid carer costs and reduced employment rates.
There are around 360,000 people registered as blind or partially sighted in the UK.
How does the registered population relate to the number of people with sight loss? The almost two million people living with sight loss is an estimate based on how commonly different eye conditions occur.
It takes into account factors such as age, gender and ethnicity, and builds up a picture of the numbers of people who are living with significant sight loss in the UK. This picture not only includes people who are registered, but also those who are waiting for treatment, those whose sight could be improved, those who have not registered for whatever reason and people whose sight loss is not at a level that allows them to register. The RNIB believe that almost two million is a much more accurate reflection of the numbers living with sight loss than using registration figures.
- Only eight per cent of registered blind and partially sighted people were offered formal counselling by the eye clinic, either at the time of diagnosis or later.
- In the year after registration, less than a quarter (23 per cent) of people who lost their sight say they were offered mobility training to help them get around independently.
- Almost half of blind and partially sighted people feel ‘moderately’ or ‘completely’ cut off from people and things around them.
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A Reggio Emilia School offers an open-minded, exploratory method of early-childhood learning that encourages diversity, flexibility and relationship-building. Geared towards student-directed activities and play, Reggio Emilia is a modern technique that appeals to the ideals of many families. Children learn through experience: touching, tasting, smelling; using all of their senses to communicate and absorb the wonders of their quickly expanding worlds. If you are a Connecticut family looking for the right educational match for your child, we encourage you to consider Riverside Magnet School in East Hartford. We are a Reggio Emilia school that focuses on positive child development. Here, parents can see how their children benefit from this Reggio Emilia approach.
You might be wondering, with a child-directed approach, how do children really learn at a Reggio Emilia school? As a leading Reggio-inspired magnet elementary school in Connecticut, we’re here to break it down:
In the words of Early Childhood Today, children are “full of the desire and ability to grow up and construct their own knowledge.” You may have noticed that children are naturally curious, and are hardly shy with their questions. As they engage with the world around them, they have endless interests, and they turn to adults with their probing. Engaging in an open question and answer process supports children’s curiosity, and is in fact a founding technique that Reggio Emilia schools practice.
For example, a child may ask, “Why do some leaves change color?” The adult in this situation will encourage this child’s curiosity. They may respond, “What an excellent question! Why do you think they change?” After the child’s reply, the adult will continue the conversation by questioning more deeply; “What else do you notice about the trees and the leaves?” This exchange can lead to further hands-on exploratory learning opportunities like collecting leaves, talking about their different shapes, making prints, and much more. Reggio Emilia schools triumph in the natural observational abilities of children, and launch students’ learning from this place of curiosity.
Via Child-Led Activities.
Children’s interests, stemming from their questions and investigations, are developed into a variety of activities at a Reggio Emilia school. For instance, our example of a child/adult conversation about leaves and autumn could open the door for teachers to dive further into related topics. A classroom may investigate the changing of the seasons, cook seasonal foods, draw pictures of favorite fall pastimes (like apple picking and raking in the yard), investigate the sounds that leaves and trees can make. The creative opportunities are endless! With a child-led curriculum, Reggio Emilia schools allow children to direct valuable classroom investigations, with support.
In a Variety of Languages.
Reggio Emilia promotes the concept of “the hundred languages of children,” dubbed by the founder of the approach, Loris Malaguzzi. Beyond writing and verbal communication, students in a Reggio Emilia school are encouraged to use all of their senses. In addition to using arts and crafts for expression, students may wish to dance, move, play pretend, make music, and use other non-verbal or non-mark-making forms of communication. Contrary to the didactic, verbal and written learning that is often the standard in many Western schools, the power in other methods of expression is emphasized and encouraged in a Reggio Emilia school.
By Building Communication and Response Skills.
Children’s wonder is shared amongst the classroom with the Reggio Emilia approach, and their questions are opened up for discussion. Collaboration and group-thinking is emphasized. Let’s say that different children have varying theories about why the leaves change their colors. They have investigated this topic through a variety of approaches—from drawing to conversing to role-play. Adults compile the classroom’s theories, but never say that one child’s idea is right and another is wrong. Ensuring that both adults and students use supportive discussion language, such as “I think” or “I disagree,” constructive conversation is built, as is cumulative knowledge. In this way, each classroom participant learns more about the topic, others’ opinions, and develops a sense of respect and self-confidence.
Documentation is a very important aspect of a teacher’s job at a Reggio Emilia school. Through documentation, children, “become even more curious, interested, and confident as they contemplate the meaning of what they have achieved” (Malaguzzi). In addition, parents are given an eye into the learning process through a variety of angles. Children’s artwork and writing, photographs of students creating in the classroom, recordings of songs sung together, videos of dances—all of these documentation methods bring Reggio Emilia learning full-circle to the teachers, parents and students alike.
A Reggio magnet school builds a community of mutual child/adult respect. At Riverside Magnet, children learn through curiosity, utilizing varying language, and engaging with one another as well as with adults, in a continual process of reflection and deep consideration. Children learn the value of their ideas: an incredibly empowering concept.
For families interested in learning more about Riverside Magnet School, please sign up for a parent information session here.
Goodwin University is a nonprofit institution of higher education and is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), formerly known as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). Goodwin University was founded in 1999, with the goal of serving a diverse student population with career-focused degree programs that lead to strong employment outcomes.
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A medical doctor in Arkansas has developed a Google Glass (s goog) app that both reminds people how to do CPR, and provides them a catchy 70s-era hit to help them compress the heart as rapidly as you are supposed to (hat tip Forbes). But by taking advantage of the gyroscope to measure compressions, existing video-sharing functions and algorithms that can detect a victim’s pulse, the app can do more than passively serve up information — it provides feedback.
This app shows off two really exciting things — one, that hands-free computing will enable new applications for an enormous number of industries, and two, that sensors and connectivity together will let the web interact with the real world. And the CPRGLASS app, developed by Dr. Christian Assad-Kottner, a cardiology fellow at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, does both. That interaction and new possibilities for computing are the promise of the internet of things.
In a blog post, Dr. Assad-Kottner explains the app, and his choice of The Bee Gees’ song Stayin’ Alive. The idea is that Glass-wearing individual who sees a person collapse can rush to their side and tell Glass, “OK Glass, CPRGLASS.” At that point the app comes up telling the person how to look for a pulse (later version might be able to build off research in using video cameras and algorithms to detect a pulse to perform this step automatically).
If the person tells Glass there’s no pulse, The Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive starts playing to help the caregiver match their chest compressions to the optimal rate and a gyroscope in Glass monitors if the compressions are effective. Meanwhile the app is calling 911 with the location garnered from the GPS chip inside the Glass app and also sending a text to the nearest hospital so they can prep for a new patient.
Dr. Assad-Kotter also teased the use of the Hangout function inside Glass as a possible way to get a medical professional on the line ready to offer advice. This would be amazing, but I’ve discovered that adding people to your Google account so you can do a hangout is a kludgy experience, so that would have to be fixed in the app somehow.
But even though this is still a work in progress (and you’re more likely to find a defibrillator than a Glass-wearing individual in most locations,) I am loving the use of sensors and interactivity proposed by this app. Dr. Assad-Kotter is clearly taking the 2-D version of the Internet and making it into a 3-D world, something that’s now possible with ubiquitous (and fast on the upload side) connectivity and embedded sensors.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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More action needed to meet global energy goals by 2030, new GTF report finds
The current pace of progress on three global energy goals – access to electricity, renewable energy and energy efficiency – is not moving fast enough to meet 2030 targets, according to the latest Global Tracking Framework (GTF) report recently released by the World Bank and the International Energy Agency (IEA) as part of the Sustainable Energy for All Knowledge Hub (SE4All).
The Global Tracking Framework 2017 (GTF) report, which was released April 3 during the recently held Sustainable Energy for All Forum in New York, shows that the increase of people getting access to electricity is slowing down, and if this trend is not reversed, projections are that the world will only reach 92 percent electrification by 2030, still short of universal access. Only energy efficiency made progress towards meeting these objectives; with energy savings during the 2012-2014 GTF reporting period enough to supply Brazil and Pakistan combined.
The Sustainable Energy for All Global Tracking Framework is produced jointly by the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice, the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), and the International Energy Agency (IEA), and is supported by 20 other partner organizations and agencies.
Now into its third edition, the biennial report measures progress from 2012 to 2014 on three global sustainability goals: universal access to electricity and clean cooking, doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030.
The report draws from official national level data and provides harmonized analysis at the regional and global levels. The 2013 edition measured progress between 1990 and 2010, while the 2015 report focused on progress from 2010–2012.
– The Global Tracking Framework demonstrates the urgency to speed up action on achieving Sustainable Energy for All. We at the IEA are proud to contribute once again to this key publication, which highlights the necessity of a global transition to clean, modern energy and ensure a prosperous and productive future for everyone, said Dr Fatih Birol, IEA Executive Director in a statement.
Five-fold ramp up rate required
While the research found that most countries are not doing enough, some are showing encouraging progress, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Rwanda. These countries underscore that accelerating progress towards universal access is possible with the right policies, robust investments, both public and private, and innovative technology.
– If we’re to make access to clean, affordable and reliable energy a reality, action must be driven through political leadership. This new data is a warning for world leaders to take more focused, urgent action on access to energy and clean cooking, improving efficiency and use of renewables to meet our goals. While we are making some progress – with many of the technologies we need available and policy roadmaps increasingly clear – it’s not enough. We all made the commitment to act, and every day we delay it becomes more painful and expensive, said Rachel Kyte, CEO and Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All.
To meet Sustainable Energy for All objectives, it is estimated that renewable energy investment would need to increase by a factor of 2-3, while energy efficiency investment would need to increase by a factor of 3-6. Estimates suggest that a five-fold increase would be needed to reach universal access by 2030.
– This year’s Global Tracking Framework is a wake-up call for greater effort on a number of fronts. There needs to be increased financing, bolder policy commitments, and a willingness to embrace new technologies on a wider scale. The World Bank is committed, alongside our international development partners, to support countries to reach these goals, said Riccardo Puliti, Senior Director and Head of Energy and Extractives at the World Bank.
The 2017 report highlights include;
- On access to electricity, as of 2014, 1.06 billion people still do not have electricity – only a slight improvement since 2012. Of particular concern are populous, low electricity access countries like Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where electrification rates are declining. Some low-access countries made rapid progress, increasing electrification by two to three percentage points annually, including Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and especially Rwanda. Others, such as Afghanistan and Cambodia, are progressing rapidly by making greater use of off-grid solar energy, underscoring how new technologies can drive progress. Countries that are closing the access gap quickly will see improvements in education, health, jobs and economic growth.
- On access to clean cooking, the number of people who use traditional, solid fuels to cook rose slightly to 3.04 billion (57.4 percent – barely up from 2012), indicating that efforts are lagging population growth. In Afghanistan and Nigeria, for example, access to clean cooking has been falling by about one percentage point annually. At the other end of the spectrum, Indonesia made the most progress, raising access to clean cooking by more than eight percentage points annually. Vietnam and Sudan also fared well.
- On renewable energy, overall progress is modest. While new power generation technologies such as wind and solar are growing rapidly – representing a third of the expansion in renewable energy consumption in 2013–2014 – they are growing from a very small base, only 4 percent of renewable energy consumption in 2012. The challenge is to increase reliance on renewable energy in the heat and transport sectors, which account for the bulk of global energy consumption.
- On energy efficiency, of the 20 largest energy consuming countries, Australia, China, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, and the United Kingdom cut energy intensity by more than 2 percent annually – with the industrial sector making the greatest reductions. Going forward, the residential sector – which is becoming more energy intensive rather than less so – must be the focus of efficiency efforts.
The recently released Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) report from the World Bank complements the findings in this report by putting the spotlight on the adoption of policies and regulations that help to spur more rapid progress.
Starting in 2018, the GTF will move to an annual rather than biennial cycle.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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ABOUT: A critical component of the United Nations' 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals is health for all. However, despite a decade-long work under the National Rural Health Mission, a vast majority of Indians remains out of the heath care-for-all umbrella. The more recent National Urban Health Mission of 2013 and the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana have only just begun. The WHO representative to India, Dr. Henk Bekedam, suggests ways to marry national and state priorities to bring quality health care to every Indian citizen.
In the words of Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization, "Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is the single most powerful concept that public health has to offer."
Moving towards UHC in India
India has made rapid strides towards increasing access to health services in the past few years through a number of initiatives, including the flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), launched in 2005. This was expanded to the urban population through the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in 2013.
To provide financial protection to targeted populations, including those below the poverty line, the government has implemented the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). It covers the cost of secondary-level hospitalisation.In addition, there are a number of state-specific schemes. Some involve running free diagnostics facilities and offering free medicines; others are government-funded health insurance schemes in several states. Evidence suggests that these can reduce the financial burden on patients and increase attendance at public health facilities.
The need to accelerate UHC in India
While these initiatives provide some financial protection to those seeking health care, tens of millions still fall into poverty after an illness or abstain from accessing the health services they need.
At 60 per cent, India's out-of-pocket expenditure (OOP) for health is one of the highest in the world. This exacerbates health inequities. To sustain its economic growth, India will need to have a healthy population and address health inequities. In this context, UHC can be the driver and benefit the entire population.
Accelerating UHC is the key to successfully addressing the new public health challenges and inequities in health outcomes.
Despite remarkable achievements such as polio eradication and maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination, to name a few, there are several health challenges. The country is facing a double burden resulting from significant increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) associated with lifestyle and the pre-existing burden of communicable diseases.
Environmental issues such as air pollution have also become a major concern. The high pollution levels in Delhi is a case in point.
Another challenge is inequities in health outcomes and access to health services. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) varies from 61 per 100,000 live births in Kerala to 300 in Assam. Differences also exist in health indicators between urban and rural/remote areas - infant mortality rate, or IMR, estimated at 27 per 1,000 live births in urban areas, is 44 per 1,000 live births in rural areas. In addition, disparities in coverage of essential intervention exist even within the well-performing states. For example, immunisation coverage in Tamil Nadu varies from about 34 per cent in Kanyakumari district to 75 per cent in Vellore district.
Here are the eight recommendations for accelerating the progress towards UHC.
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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Why Does a Lavender Plant Turn Yellow?
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) offers the home landscape a delicate yet abundant delivery of a colorful summer bloom in purples and pinks on gray-green foliage. Unfortunately, when foliage begins to turn yellow as a symptom of an underlying problem, its complementary contrast with the purple flower tones makes the issue that much more conspicuous. Examine lavender plants regularly for abnormalities, and address problems as they occur for continued healthy growth.
Avoiding problems with yellowing begins with optimal plant care. Healthy, strong lavender plants have a greater chance of escaping and recovering from problems that lead to discoloration than poorly maintained plants. Lavender grows best in areas of the home landscape that provide full sun exposure, as shaded conditions lead to poor development. This herbaceous plant thrives in light, moist, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.4 to 8.2. Lavender performs best in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 to 9.
Simple cultural maintenance issues are often the only culprit in the yellowing of lavender plants, particularly when plants do not receive appropriate amounts of moisture and nutrients. Gardeners should irrigate the plant when the top layer of soil feels dry to the touch. Though lavender plants tolerate periods of drought, watering too frequently or infrequently leads to yellowing foliage. In addition, weeds that crop up often win the battle in the competition for nutrients necessary for plant function. To avoid weed development and to help conserve moisture, gardeners should mulch by laying a 2- to 3-inch layer of compost or bark on the soil surrounding lavender plants without pressing it against stems.
Plant yellowing is often due to pathogenic disease. Lavender is particularly susceptible to a fungal disease called phytophthora root rot. Caused by pathogens of the Phytophthora species, this disease proliferates under wet conditions. The soil-borne disease attacks roots, leading to above-ground symptoms, such as wilted, yellowed foliage that may occur on one isolated area of the plant before spreading. Due to decay, roots become near black in color and mushy and wet. Plants may quickly decline and die.
Maintaining good plant health may be the best defense against root rot disease. Providing proper drainage is essential; home gardeners may mix organic content, such as compost, into the top layers of soil to improve drainage. Though the pathogens are soil-borne, they may spread on water, wind and infected tools, such as pruning shears. Maintaining sterilized gardening equipment and avoiding overhead watering contributes to root rot control within the garden. To further prevent the disease, growers may combine cultural efforts with an application of a fungicide with the active ingredient fosetyl-al. Plants with an existing infection should be removed and destroyed along with plant debris and neighboring plants treated with preventive measures.
- Ohio State University Extension: Lavandula Angustifolia
- Cornell University Gardening: Lavender
- Utah State University Cooperative Extension: English Lavender in the Garden
- University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program: Overwatering
- University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension: Growing Lavender
- University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program: Phytophthora Root and Crown Rot in the Garden
- University of Illinois Extension: Root Rot of Herbaceous Plants
- Tom Brakefield/Stockbyte/Getty Images
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Moderate reasoning
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Home & Hobbies
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The Orson Adams home in Harrisburg
|Named for||Moses Harris|
|Elevation||2,995 ft (913 m)|
|GNIS feature ID||1437583|
Harrisburg is a ghost town in Washington County, Utah, United States. Established as Harrisville in 1859, the town was flooded by the Virgin River in 1862, causing the residents to move farther up Quail Creek. Soon after, the town's name was changed to Harrisburg. By 1868, 200 people lived in Harrisburg; however, over the course of the next few years, floods, Native American raids, and a grasshopper plague caused people to relocate to the nearby towns of Leeds and Silver Reef. By 1895, Harrisburg was abandoned.
In 1859, Moses Harris, who had previously established a Mormon colony near San Bernardino, moved into the area that was to become Harrisburg and established a town near where Quail Creek flowed into the Virgin River. Several families settled in the town, which had recently been named Harrisville. When the Virgin River flooded Harrisville in 1862, the town's residents relocated further up Quail Creek and renamed the town Harrisburg, after Moses Harris. Many of the buildings were constructed of stone because of the abundance of rocks in the area. Fences that signified the boundaries of homes were also constructed of stone. The school, however, was made of cedar posts that were inserted into the ground. The roof was constructed of cedar logs and cedar bark held together with soil. By 1864, there were 128 people living in Harrisburg. Between 1875 and 1888, the nearby mining town of Silver Reef purchased many agricultural goods from Harrisburg, which created a cash market.
In 1868, Harrisburg's population was 200; however, a year later, a grasshopper plague and a Navajo raiding party caused a few residents to leave. Drought also caused many residents to leave Harrisburg. Most of the residents that left moved to the nearby settlements of Leeds and Silver Reef. By 1892, only six families lived in Harrisburg, and by 1895, Harrisburg was abandoned.
Harrisburg is currently the site of a real estate project called "Harrisburg Estates". Numerous stone houses and foundations remain of historic Harrisburg. Among the remaining buildings is the Orson Adams House. Constructed in 1864, the two-room stone building was occupied by Orson B. Adams, his wife, two sons, and two granddaughters. John Kemple stayed in the Orson Adams House on his way to Nevada to mine silver. Kemple is credited as the person who discovered the silver in the area that was to become the silver mining town of Silver Reef. After Orson Adams died, the property changed owners several times. When it was purchased by William Emett in 1910, he and his family lived in the Orson Adams House until Emett's death in 1945. In 2001, the Bureau of Land Management acquired the Orson Adams House property and restored it.
- U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Harrisburg
- Carr, Stephen L. (1986) . The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns. Salt Lake City, Utah: Western Epics. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-914740-30-8.
- "Orson Adams House" (PDF). Washington County Historical Society. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
- Thompson, George A. (1982). Some Dreams Die: Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures. Salt Lake City, Utah: Dream Garden Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-942688-01-5.
- "Harrisburg Estates". Harrisburg Estates. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
- "Orson Adams Home". Washington County Historical Society.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harrisburg, Utah.|
Harrisburg at Ghost Towns.com
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Moderate reasoning
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History
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Teasing and Bullying
- Category: Parent's Blog
- Published: Friday, 30 April 2010 15:10
- Written by Jaan Pill
Handouts from presentation by Jaan Pill, International Stuttering Awareness Day, University of Toronto, October 21, 2007
- What is bullying?
- Bullying of kids who stutter
- What can we do to reduce bullying?
Many people have contributed to the study of bullying.
Dan Olweus of Norway is a pioneer in the systematic study of bullying. An anti-bullying program he developed has been applied in many countries.
Debra Pepler of York University and the Hospital for Sick Children, and Wendy Craig of Queen’s University, have done extensive research related to bullying in Canadian schools.
Barbara Coloroso of the USA is author of a book on bullying and another on genocide among other books.
We need to take care in how we define things, so we can be sure we’re talking about the same things.
- Pepler and Craig define bullying as a problem of relationships; they view it as the assertion of interpersonal power through aggression. It involves negative physical or verbal action that has hostile intent, causes distress to the victims, is repeated over time, and involves a power differential between bullies and their victims.
- Coloroso defines bullying as a conscious, willful, deliberate activity intended to harm, to induce fear through the threat of further aggression, and to create terror in the target. In her view, even a single instance of a harmful activity can be defined as bullying. Her definition does not restrict itself to activities that are repeated over time. Contempt is a key ingredient of bullying, according to Coloroso. Contempt is a powerful feeling of dislike toward somebody considered to be worthless, inferior, or undeserving of respect.
What’s the opposite of contempt?
(I list these because I believe it’s useful to keep such opposites in mind rather than focusing exclusively on contempt.)
Marilyn Langevin of the University of Alberta, who has developed an anti-bullying program used in many schools, has recently remarked:
“I have been thinking that I want to move the anti-bullying work from awareness and strategies for dealing with it to respect. Respect is so fundamental across all relationships.”
Daniel Goleman of the USA has recently published a book, Social Intelligence, which serves as a follow-up to an earlier book, Emotional Intelligence. His work is part of an approach that focuses on the opposite of contempt.
Pepler and Craig note that bullying is not the same as fighting. Bullying, victimization, and fighting refer to different types of involvement in violence. People who end up fighting are typically of a similar age and of equal strength.
Bullying is not the same as ordinary conflict. Ordinary conflict is “normal, natural, and necessary,” according to Coloroso, while bullying is not. Many anti-bullying programs have as their foundation the teaching of conflict-resolution skills. The problem is that bullying is not about anger or conflict – it’s about contempt. Conflict-resolution is not the answer to bullying, says Coloroso, who is critical of anti-bullying programs based on conflict-resolution skills.
“Children who work through these anti-bullying programs are skilled in handling all different kinds of conflict and learn anger management skills, but they still have no clue as to how to identify and effectively confront bullying.”
Why be concerned about bullying?
- It is every child’s right to be safe.
- Bullying is a significant health issue.
- Bullying is a warm-up for long-term relationship problems.
- Victimized children are at risk.
- Compared to their peers, they are more anxious and insecure, have lower self-esteem, are lonelier, are more likely to be rejected by their peers, and are more depressed.
Bullying across the generations
Wendy Craig of Canada and Yossi Harel of Israel, in a 2001/2002 WHO survey report, note that children who are bullies tend to be bullies as adults and to have children who are bullies, and that children who are victimized tend to have children who are victimized.
Childhood bullying often continues into adulthood. Childhood bullying is associated with antisocial behaviour in adulthood including criminal behaviour and limited opportunities to achieve stable employment and long-term relationships.
Bullying in elementary schools
According to research cited by Marilyn Langevin, between 49% and 58% of all elementary students are bullied at school at some time or other, and as many as 32% are bullied once a week or more often. (I think the reference is to North American schools.)
Bullying of kids who stutter
Children with disabilities, including those who stutter, are often singled out to be bullied. In research cited by Langevin, 81% of children who stutter report they were bullied at school at some time, and 56% of those children report they were bullied about their stuttering once a week or more often.
How do we deal with bullying of kids who stutter? We have to address it as part of a wider picture.
Murder and suicide as a response to bullying
Dan Olweus implemented an anti-bullying program in Norway following three suicides of students who had been bullied. The Columbine High School incident and a murder-suicide in Ottawa also warrant discussion.
In 1982, after three Norwegian boys between 10 and 14 killed themselves to avoid continued severe bullying, Norway’s minister of education launched a national campaign against bullying and Dan Olweus introduced an anti-bullying program for the schools.
In April, 1999, two Columbine High School students killed 12 students and a teacher and then committed suicide. Some observers noted that Columbine High School had long condoned a culture of bullying at the school. Many factors, not just teasing and bullying, are at play in such incidents.
In Ottawa in April, 1999, a former co-worker, Pierre LeBrun, killed four employees and himself. A coroner’s jury established that LeBrun had endured years of workplace taunting and teasing focusing on his stuttering.
The coroner’s jury recommended that the federal government and the province should train workers and supervisors to recognize, report, and deal with harassment, bullying, teasing, and mocking in the workplace.
Continuum of aggressive behaviour
Wendy Craig and Yossi Harel note that bullying may be one step along a continuum of aggressive behaviour combining the use of power and aggression.
Coloroso views bullying and genocide as part of a continuum: “When institutional and situational factors combine with a murderous racial, ethnic, or religious ideology rooted in contempt for a group of people, then bullying is taken to its extreme.”
What can we do?
- Go where the evidence leads us. Adopt an evidence-based approach. As well, focus on relationships and social contexts. The solution to bullying requires the efforts of many people working together. Pepler and Craig recommend we focus on both the children involved in bullying – and on the relationships and social contexts
- Bullying is a relationship problem that requires relationship solutions.
- When children are involved in bullying as aggressors, they experience regular lessons in the use of power and aggression. Children who are victimized become trapped in a disrespectful relationship. Children who are bystanders are also learning about the use of power and aggression in relationships.
Relationship solutions for bullying
Pepler and Craig avoid labelling children as “victims” or “bullies” but instead take a broader perspective. We must take into account children’s relationships within the family, peer group, school, and wider community. Children need consistent messages across these contexts. All children involved in bullying incidents must be included in bullying interventions.
- What children need depends on their role. Children who bully need support in understanding the impact of their behaviours and the importance of relating positively to others. They need what are called “formative” consequences.
- Children who are victimized require protection from bullying and support in developing social confidence and positive relationships.
- Children who are bystanders need support in recognizing their behaviour is part of the problem.
Prevention of bullying involves building of healthy relationships
Protect and connect children who are bullied. Turn children who bully from negative into positive leaders. Change bystanders into heroes.
Change group dynamics – stop bullying before it starts. Use “social architecture” to organize groups. Stop bullying in the moment.
The PALS (Playground Activity Leaders in Schools) program at the Peel District School Board creates a good social architecture and develops positive leadership skills. It teaches schoolyard games that all kids used to know, and encourages active participation of students who would otherwise play alone.
Of particular significance: Nothing is left to chance with regard to how the PALS program is implemented in a given school. In my years as an elementary school teacher, I saw many anti-bullying programs come and go. Sometimes all the teachers in a school go to workshops, each receives a big binder, and the program is never implemented (for whatever reason).
The PALS program – along with a program developed by staff at a school where I worked – has on the other hand been highly successful. The latter program is called the Seemore STARR program, STARR being an acronym for Safety, Teamwork, Attitude, Responsibility, and Respect.
World Health Organization survey (2001/2002)
This document can be located through a Google search for “WHO health behaviour school-aged children 2001”
Of the 13-year-olds who bullied others at least two or three times a month in the previous couple of months, Canada ranks 26th of 35 countries on measures of bullying.
Of the13-year-olds who were bullied two or three times or more in the previous couple of months, Canada ranks 27th of 35 countries on measures of victimization.
The following document is a primary resource for the overview, highlighted above, of Pepler and Craig’s research on bullying in Canadian schools: Binoculars on bullying: a new solution to protect and connect children . Other resources can be found at that link as well.
World Health Organization:
Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study: international report from the 2001/2002 survey. Full text version
PREVNet: Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network
Partnership involving Networks of Centres of Excellence – New Initiative program.
The goal of this organization is to raise awareness of bullying problems and promote healthy relationships.
Barbara Coloroso offers additional key resources on bullying. As with the TAB developed by Marilyn Langevin, her approach brings together so many groups – the children, the school, and the community. One or two people, on their own, can do little to address problems such as teasing and bullying. Some books by Coloroso:
- The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander
- Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide
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Strong reasoning
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Health
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Share This Article
About 1 in 5 babies have a skin condition called atopic dermatitis or eczema, which is very common for asthma, hay fever, and other allergies. In some cases, it begins within the first few months of life. Usually, it does not become evident until after a child has started crawling around on the floor and putting their hands in their mouth when they contact dust mites, pollen, and other allergens. As a result – these allergens also irritate the skin – making the child scratch more often, leading to skin infections from bacteria which causes even further inflammation. In severe cases – children may not sleep well because scratching at night means they are more likely to wake up crying from pain – both from itching and the pain from their skin being red, swollen, warm, or tender.
Who gets atopic dermatitis?
Doctors may refer to it as “atopic dermatitis” or “eczema.” Atopic Dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that typically occurs in persons with atopy (inherent tendency to produce IgE antibodies). It appears to be inherited and often runs in families where parents have other allergic diseases such as asthma, hay fever, food allergies, etc. According to studies, 3 – 7% of children are affected by eczema before they are one year old – this increases up to 17% by two years of age. Children between 3 months and two years are most likely to develop eczema.
For parents, it can be heart-breaking because everyone wants their children to be healthy, happy, and free from discomfort … but no matter how hard you try, you’re not always able to prevent your child from catching viruses or having respiratory allergies, or developing atopic dermatitis.
Why does eczema appear in the first place?
There are several theories on why eczema happens, but no one yet knows exactly what causes it. One idea is that the child may have inherited a tendency to develop allergies combined with specific environmental exposures during infancy, further inflaming their skin. These children tend to produce more IgE antibodies than normal children, which attach to allergens and trigger an immune reaction resulting in skin inflammation. The inflammation also seems to cause changes in the structure of your skin, making it dryer, thinner, less flexible, and more likely to crack, leading to irritation by itching, heat, scratching, etc. This cycle makes symptoms get worse over time. Eczema tends to get better and then become worse over time.
What triggers or worsens eczema?
- Dry skin. This occurs in 50% of all children with eczema. When the skin becomes dry, it cracks, resulting in itchiness and redness.
- Temperature changes. Many babies develop eczema in areas that get very hot or cold such as the face, groin area, etc. May also include bathing suits area is covered with ‘plastic/vinyl’ material known to trap heat against the body.
- Sources of allergic reactions can include milk products (from breastfeeding), soaps, perfumes, laundry detergents.
- Skin infections – Scratching leads to redness and swelling, which can lead to bacterial infection, particularly Staphylococcus aureus
5 . Inhalant allergies – such as pollen, dust mites, mold spores – cause a type of eczema called ‘atopic dermatitis’ or ‘allergic contact dermatitis.’
- In rare cases, particular drugs may trigger inflammation in the skin.
What are the symptoms of eczema in children?
In general, the symptoms of eczema in infants and children are:
- Redness of skin that comes and goes
- Dry or scaly at times with tiny bumps that may be very itchy
3 . Small blisters on hands, feet, ankles, knees, elbows, wrists, neck
4 . Vesicles may appear after scratching, which turn into weeping sores filled with fluid (crusts over within a few days)
5 . Some people develop a condition called ‘allergic shiners’ from eye swelling from dust mites, leading to an allergic reaction on the face around the eyes called periocular dermatitis. This appears as very swollen eyelids/crow’s feet – this can be a sign of an allergy and can be associated with other allergies such as food or pet allergies.
What do I need to know about eczema in children?
There is no cure for atopic dermatitis/eczema, but it may worsen over time, and the symptoms tend to decrease in adulthood. You can’t predict how your child’s skin will react from one flare-up to another because things that trigger one person’s eczema may not affect someone else. Some people have seasonal outbreaks related to dust mites, pollen, etc.; some are started by dry air indoors or outdoors, some are only triggered by stress or sweating after exercise. Everybody reacts differently. Eczema is a chronic inflammatory disease that will flare up from time to time.
What are the most important things I can do for my child with eczema?
The best way to treat your child’s atopic dermatitis is to prevent flare-ups by avoiding anything that triggers it. If your child’s atopic dermatitis gets better with treatment, avoid using soaps or detergents on the skin. Instead, use warm water and a gentle cleanser for bathing.
1 . Keep your child’s skin clean and moisturized. Keeping the skin clean is probably one of the best things you can do for your child, especially if she has a yeast infection secondary to topical steroid use. Keeping the skin moist with ointments or creams prevents cracking, allowing bacteria inside, leading to diseases.
2 . Use gentle soaps only when needed – most likely, this would be after bathing or swimming in chlorine pools. You want to remove sweat, acids that have formed on top of the skin due to sweating, but not all soap residue as some people are sensitive to this.
3 . Avoid perfumed soaps, bubble baths, lotions with alcohol because these will dry the skin. The skin needs to be hydrated to prevent cracking, which allows bacteria inside, leading to infection.
4 . For severe cases of atopic dermatitis that do not resolve with gentle soap and moisturizing creams, consider using a medicated wash such as EpiCeram (by prescription) or Cetaphil Restoraderm body wash/liquid you can use on the face/body for eczema.
5 . Keep fingernails short – if your child is scratching her itchy, you need to stop this behavior right away by keeping nail beds trimmed back no longer than just straight across and keeping fingertips moisturized with creams.
6 . If your child has secondary yeast infections on hands or feet, consider using Canesten hydrocortisone 1% cream to help clear the condition up quickly. Hence, the skin is not constantly being irritated by it. You can also use powders on feet or crushed cornstarch between toes to prevent chafing/blisters, which are sometimes helpful for children with sweaty feet.
7 . To reduce itching, consider using Cetaphil moisturizing lotion for babies instead of baby oil because some infants are sensitive to baby oil and will develop a bumpy rash, redness on their cheeks that is very itchy around the mouth, nose, eyelids. This condition usually resolves once you stop the baby oil.
8 . For older children, consider using Eucerin Calming itch relief creme on hands/feet before bedtime to reduce itching. At the same time, you sleep and increase the exposure time to anti-itch medications such as Cetaphil moisturizing lotion or Aveeno Oatmeal bath treatment. These products contain colloidal oatmeal, which provides a physical barrier of protection from the elements and calms dry, irritated skin, so it doesn’t itch.
- Keep fingernails short – if your child is scratching her itchy, you need to stop this behavior right away by keeping nail beds trimmed back no longer than just straight across and keeping fingertips moisturized with creams.
10 . In some kids, it can be helpful to use a low-dose antihistamine such as Claritin as needed for itching but check with your doctor before using any antihistamines on children under age 12.
11 . Keep baths cool or lukewarm – not too hot as the heat will dry out the skin more, causing further irritation/itching/pain. Also, avoid chemicals found in bubble bath solutions that may irritate eczema even more because of the additives, perfumes, etc.
When to visit a doctor for eczema in children?
- If the eczema is not getting better after at least one week of treatment, you should talk to your doctor. This is especially important if there are any blisters present because these can be signs of infection.
- If the rash is on the face and begins to spread down the neck and any blisters present, you need to be seen by a doctor to rule out herpes virus infection (cold sores). Your child must see your doctor within 24 hours if he has this type of skin reaction to start antiviral treatment ASAP.
3 . Most children have ‘flexural eczema,’ which shows up on skin folds of the body where skin rubs together – behind knees, underarms, etc. If your baby develops flexural eczema early on, they may have more severe allergies later in childhood involving foods or medicines that most kids do not experience until much later.
4 . If your child has redness on their legs after being exposed to warm weather and she seems allergic to heat, it’s possible she may also be allergic to diapers/diaper detergent. You can switch to hypoallergenic disposable diapers for babies under age one year, and you should use a cool-water wash cycle instead of hot water when laundering cloth diapers.
5 . If your child’s rash does not respond to over-the-counter hydrocortisone cream or moisturizers (Cetaphil lotion), please see a pediatrician who will probably prescribe an antibiotic ointment for secondary bacterial infections and antihistamines like Elidel/Protopic to reduce itching and inflammation!
When to start eczema treatment in children?
- If your child’s skin gets red and itchy between the legs/buttocks, especially after exposure to heat such as warm bath water or playing outside in hot weather, consider using hypoallergenic disposable diapers instead of cloth for babies under age one year and use cool-water wash cycle in the laundry instead of hot water for laundering clothes. Delicately clean the diaper area with water or hydrocortisone cream formulated for babies.
2 . If your child’s rash looks like it’s starting to become infected, you must give appropriate antibiotics as directed by your pediatrician as soon as possible to prevent the spread of the infection and further damage to the skin barrier.
3 . When your child’s eczema starts to flare-up is when you need to begin using moisturizing creams daily. You can keep one in the kitchen, one at your bedside table, and maybe one for a school bag/locker. If you’re unsure which brands are best for your child, talk with their pediatrician about what ingredients to look for on labels (i.e., oatmeal or green tea extract, etc.).
Early treatment will lead to better management of the condition during childhood and help prevent flares from occurring in adulthood.
Eczema treatment for children with eczema: What’s next?
1 . Quickly treat secondary infections with antibiotics prescribed by your doctor! If it’s a more severe infection, your child may need to be hospitalized and given IV broad-spectrum antibiotics through a vein in the arm or a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter).
2 . Next, your child will need to be seen by a dermatologist for referral to an excellent pediatric allergist. Your child must see an allergist because they have expertise in eczema, food allergies, and asthma. They can do a scratch or patch test on the skin where eczema flares up to determine what is causing the skin reaction.
3 . Once the proper allergens are determined, you’ll be given a treatment plan that may include: allergy shots (your child gets tiny amounts of what they are allergic to and in time, the body builds up resistance), use of over-the-counter or prescription topical creams, oral medications or combination treatments.
- Homeopathic treatment for eczema is also one of the best ways to treat child eczema as it uses natural ingredients which is less likely to cause adverse effects. Homeopathy doctors will also give you a diet plan, which you can follow along with homeopathic medicines. The homeopathic treatment for eczema will help your child to lead a life without allergies and eczema flare-ups.
Finally, if your child has asthma and allergies to food or environmental allergens like dust mites, their eczema will need to be carefully managed. Homeopathic treatment for eczema can help children to have an increased immunity against various allergies. Eczema treatment for children is very important because it can help avoid further complications resulting from eczema. For more information, you can book an appointment with a homeopathy doctor through OHO Homeopathy now!
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Turmeric and its health benefits from nature
Turmeric has health benefits, most notably the anti-inflammatory property, it may also reduce the risk of blood clots and prevents the formation of plaque in the blood vessels, this helps in the battle against stroke and other clot-related diseases.
Turmeric is a plant from ginger family which is native to southwest India. Traditionally turmeric is used in Indian cuisines. It also plays a key role in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine due to its medicinal properties for more than 3000 years.
It is also called by the name Curcuma longa. Pepper-like aroma, sharp taste and golden color are the unique characteristics of turmeric. People all over the world use this herb for cooking as well as medicinal purposes.
Did You Know ? Turmeric needs temperatures between 20 and 30 °C (68 and 86 °F) and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive
Curcumin is an active ingredient in turmeric, which is known to have a wide range of therapeutic effects. This widely researched component of turmeric has high medicinal qualities and is used in various drugs and pharmaceutics mainly because of its immunity boosting and anti-oxidant properties.
Turmeric contains lipopolysaccharide, which helps to stimulate the body’s immune system. The antibacterial, anti fungal and antiviral agents in turmeric help to strengthen the immune system. A strong immune system plays a key role in reducing the chance of suffering from diseases like colds, flu and coughs. If you are suffering from cold, cough or flu, you can feel better, by taking a glass of warm milk mixed with one teaspoon of turmeric powder. Drinking it once daily may provide relief from these diseases.
It has natural Anti-inflammatory Properties
Turmeric contains a compound called curcumin, responsible for the potent anti- inflammatory properties. Inflammation is a normal process that occurs when your body is exposed to foreign bacteria or viruses and it sends over white blood cells and antibodies to counter these. Inflammation is important, as it helps the body fight foreign invaders and also has a role in repairing damage. Without inflammation, it would be easy for pathogens like bacteria, virus etc to take over our body, causing irreparable damages.
However, excessive inflammation in the body can cause pain, swelling, redness and heat. It is also responsible for Asthma, cell mutation, allergies, heart diseases, auto-immune concerns, cognitive decline and numerous other conditions. Curcumin plays an important role in curbing these conditions.
Can protect us from certain Liver Diseases
Liver is the largest and one of the most important organs in our body. It helps to convert food to energy, cleans toxin from the body, produces bile – a liquid that aids in digestive. Chronic alcohol consumption, oxidative stress, medications and drugs, cancer, viruses such as hepatitis can compromise your liver function. However, turmeric can have a positive effect on liver function.
Some studies reveal that turmeric may improve liver function by increasing its detoxification ability. Further it may protect the liver from oxidative stress by improving glutathione production
Provides relief for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Arthritis is a common disorder characterized by joint inflammation. Since curcumin present in turmeric is an antioxident, its able to neutralize free radicals and chemicals that can travel through the body and cause great amounts of damage to cells and cell membranes. This gives relief against arthritis, where free radicals are responsible for the painful joint inflammation and eventual damage to the joints. The combination of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric helps patients with joint diseases. Arthritis patients may find relief when they use the spice regularly.
Did You Know ? Turmeric is known as golden spice of India which were were cultivated by Harappan civilization earlier in the 3000 B.C.
Turmeric may help to prevent Cancer
Studies have shown that the frequent use of turmeric may lower the rates of lung, colon, prostate and breast cancer. The presence of curcumin is responsible for this property. It affects the growth and development of cancer cells at the molecular level.
According to studies curcumin may reduce angiogenesis (growth of new blood vessels in tumor), spread of cancer and contributes to the death of cancer cells. It may also destroy mutated cancer cells, so that they cannot be spread through the body and cause more harm.
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Moderate reasoning
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Tony Soprano wouldn’t like it much if some of his cash went down the drain while it was being laundered. Although this Energy Brief does not talk about criminal money laundering in the movies or the news, there may still be a crime in progress considering the energy waste that may be going on every day at commercial laundries.
Consider what goes into a load of laundry (besides the fabric to be cleaned). Unlike plugging coins and buying expensive tiny boxes of detergent at laundromats, people don’t consider water, water heating, and detergent costs with zeal in commercial laundries. So how can some of the cost of doing business be saved?
Adding ozone to wash water is one way to reduce cost. Wait a minute, isn’t ozone bad for the environment (as in smog)? Yes, when it is released in the air at ground level, but it also is important in the upper atmosphere to absorb ultraviolet radiation. And as it turns out, adding it to laundry wash water can aid in getting laundry clean using less energy.
Detergents are able to work better in cold water when ozone is present, requiring less detergent and rinsing, and leaving fewer residues on the laundered material. Ozone also sanitizes the laundry, further reducing the chemicals needed. In all, this means there are fewer cycles needed, less detergent needed, less sanitizer needed, less water used, and most importantly, less HOT water used – saving water, natural gas, electricity, and chemical costs. Fabrics may even last longer to boot! Ozone also reduces the amount of fabric softener that is needed, which in turn means less drying time.
Ozone is made by splitting an oxygen molecule (O2) into single oxygen atoms, which then combine with other O2 molecules to make ozone (O3). The ozone is then injected into laundry water. Ozone is a powerful oxidizer, since that third oxygen atom is weakly bonded and readily breaks off of the ozone atom to combine with other substances (stains) in the laundry. This happens too fast in hot water, so colder water is actually better to keep the ozone from immediately oxidizing after introduction to the wash water.
Choose the Right Application
Heavily soiled and oily fabric may still need hot water and/or bleach to get them clean, so ozone may not be the right solution for all laundry. Hotels and institutional facilities (like hospitals) typically have consistent laundry content, and this is where ozone can really shine. Evaluation of the type of laundry and soil content is important when deciding whether adding ozone to a laundering facility might be beneficial. Water savings, chemical savings (consequently less chemicals in the environment) AND natural gas and electricity savings – it’s definitely worth a look to see if adding ozone to your laundry operation is an option!
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The independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) consists of two multiethnic constituent entities within the state, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Federation) and the Republika Srpska (RS), along with the Brcko District. The country has a population of approximately 4.5 million; the Federation has a Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and Croat majority, while the RS has a Bosnian Serb majority. As stipulated in the 1995 peace agreement (the Dayton Accords), a state-level constitution provides for a federal democratic republic with a bicameral parliamentary assembly but assigns many governmental functions to the two entities, which have their own governments. The Dayton Accords also provide for an Office of the High Representative (OHR) with authority to impose legislation and remove officials. The government is headed by a tripartite presidency that for most of the year consisted of Bosnian Croat Ivo Miro Jovic, Bosnian Serb Borislav Paravac, and Bosniak Sulejman Tihic. On October 1, BiH held general elections that were generally free and fair. On November 6, presidents‑elect Bosnian Croat Zeljko Komsic, Bosnian Serb Nebojsa Radmanovic, and Bosniak Haris Silajdzic took office. In the Federation, an indirectly-elected president nominates and the House of Representatives approves the Federation prime minister. In the RS, a directly-elected president nominates and the RS National Assembly confirms the RS prime minister. Civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces.
The government's human rights record remained poor, although there were improvements in some areas. Serious problems that remained included: death from landmines; physical abuse by police; overcrowding and poor prison conditions; improper influence on the judiciary; harassment and intimidation of journalists; restrictions on religious minorities and attacks on religious structures; obstructionism toward minority returnees; government corruption; societal discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, and persons with disabilities; ethnically-motivated violence; trafficking in persons; and limits on employment rights. Two of the war crimes suspects most wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia's (ICTY), Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, also remained at large.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:
a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.
There were no developments during the year in the 2004 killing by unknown persons of Hrustan Suljic, president of the local Bosniak returnee community near the town of Teslic. Although local police highlighted the case on the television show Unsolved Cases on December 28, 2005, the investigation produced no new results.
Domestic courts and the ICTY continued to adjudicate cases arising from crimes committed during the 1991‑95 conflicts (see sections 1.e. and 4).
During the year there were 34 landmine accidents that killed 17 persons and injured 17.
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
An estimated 13,000 persons remained missing from the wars in 1991‑95. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that, since 1995, it had received 22,326 requests from family members to trace relatives still missing from the war. By year's end, a total of 7,972 persons had been accounted for, including 448 located alive.
The missing persons case of Colonel Avdo Palic, commander of Bosnian government forces defending the UN‑protected enclave of Zepa, received a great deal of publicity during the year. Mr. Palic went missing in 1995 from the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) compound in Zepa. The BiH Human Rights Commission issued a final ruling on January 16, which stated that RS authorities failed to provide adequate details regarding Palic's disappearance. OHR then ordered the RS to form a commission to investigate the Palic case. Although the commission issued a report in April, OHR banned publication of the report due to the pending criminal investigation by the BiH prosecutor's office. At year's end there were no updates on Palic's whereabouts.
The national Missing Persons Institute, a state‑level authority established in 2004, was responsible for absorbing the entity‑level missing persons commissions and continuing the search for missing persons in partnership with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). The institute's goal was to establish a single, central list of all those who went missing during the war. The institute, which was supposed to take over competencies from the entities during the year, was not fully operational at year's end. In March the institute appointed a board of directors composed of one Bosniak, one Croat, and one Serb.
During the year entity‑level commissions carried out 435 exhumations of mass or illicit gravesites in 205 locations with the forensic support of the ICMP. These efforts recovered 801 complete and 1,397 incomplete sets of human remains. The majority of these came from five mass graves found during the year in Kamenica near Zvornik, which contained the remains of more than 1,000 victims of the Srebrenica massacre.
To date the ICMP has generated 13,495 DNA matches relevant to 8,928 missing individuals and has collected more than 65,472 blood samples representing 22,482 missing individuals.
During the year the BiH prosecutor's office and its War Crimes Department conducted an ongoing investigation based on statements from the RS Srebrenica Commission, a body active from 2003-05 that investigated the events surrounding the Srebrenica massacre and the fate of missing individuals from those events. The investigation followed up on information provided in the commission's final report of October 2005.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
The law prohibits such practices and the government generally respected these provisions in practice; however, physical mistreatment of individuals by police occurred.
The Office of the Ombudsman and the RS and Federation police did not provide information on the number of complaints against police officers received or investigated during the year. In September one man was beaten by police in front of television cameras, after he and four others threw paint at the BiH Presidency building and injured two guards. The nongovernmental organization Dosta! (Enough!) issued a press release protesting the excessive use of force.
Prison and Detention Center Conditions
Overcrowding, inadequate nutrition, and poor hygiene were chronic problems in police detention facilities. Prison standards for hygiene and access to medical care met prisoners' basic needs, but overcrowding and antiquated facilities remained serious problems. There were no proper facilities for treating mentally ill or special needs prisoners. There were some reports of allegedly ethnically-motivated violence among inmates. In June four Bosnian Serbs convicted of war crimes claimed they were attacked by Bosniak inmates in Zenica prison after photos from the Srebrenica massacre were broadcast on television. The Federation justice minister denied their request to be transferred to Kula prison in the RS. There were no reports of specific incidents of corruption among prison officials, but such activities were considered to occur in some instances.
Adult and juvenile female inmates were held together in separate wings of facilities for adult males. Male inmates aged 16 to 18 were held with adult male inmates, while male inmates under the age of 16 were held separately. In October the first correction facility for juveniles aged 16 to 18 opened in the Banja Luka prison, with a 35‑bed capacity. Pending agreement with the Federation Ministry of Justice, the facility will accommodate juveniles from both entities.
The government permitted visits by independent human rights observers. International community representatives were given widespread and unhindered access to detention facilities and prisoners. The ICRC continued to have access to detention facilities under the jurisdiction of the ministries of justice at both the state and entity levels and mainly visited persons under investigation or sentenced for war crime offenses.
d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention
The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, and the government generally observed these prohibitions.
Role of the Police and Security Apparatus
The law gives the state-level government primary responsibility for law enforcement, but extends significant overlapping competencies to each entity and to the Brcko District, each of which has its own police force. The European Union Force (EUFOR) continued to implement the military aspects of the Dayton Accords and provide a secure environment for implementation of the nonmilitary aspects of the settlement. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Sarajevo is responsible for overseeing defense reform, counterterrorism efforts, and cooperation with the ICTY. A European Union (EU) police mission monitored, mentored, inspected, and worked to raise professional standards of the local police.
There are three primary levels of law enforcement in the country: the state‑level Ministry of Security, which does not have a police force but is supported by the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), the State Border Service (SBS), and the Foreigners Affairs Service; the Federation Ministry of Interior; and the RS Ministry of Interior. The RS interior ministry is centralized with five public safety centers. The Federation interior ministry is decentralized; each of the 10 cantons has its own cantonal interior ministry that functions autonomously. While neither the Federation nor the RS interior ministries reports to the Ministry of Security, they must work in tandem with SIPA on cases involving specific offenses, such as terrorism, organized crime, and trafficking. Although they shared information, these structures for the most part functioned independently. During the year a technical expert group finalized a police reform plan. At year's end, it was unclear when the plan would be sent to the entity national parliaments for review.
Police in the RS generally did not meet target standards of ethnic representation, as mandated by various agreements.
The EU police mission acted in an advisory capacity to entity police forces, with a limited mandate. Police Standards Units (PSUs) functioned as internal affairs investigative units in each entity's interior ministry and in the Brcko District. The presence of these units led to the creation of standardized procedures for processing complaints of police misconduct and for disciplining police in accordance with standard procedures.
As of October the RS PSUs investigated 780 conduct‑related complaints and determined that 37 citizen complaints and 89 internal complaints were well founded. The unit forwarded recommendations for disciplinary action to prosecutors in 113 cases considered to be major violations. During the year 19 felony reports and 25 misdemeanor reports were filed against 44 interior ministry employees for offenses including narcotics trafficking, forgery, theft, domestic violence, assault, extortion, and traffic violations.
By October the Federation PSUs investigated 54 cases and concluded that 18 complaints were well-founded. The 18 cases deemed to be major violations of duty were forwarded to prosecutors for disciplinary action.
There were continued reports of corruption within the entity and national security services.
Arrest and Detention
The law requires persons suspected of committing a crime to be brought before a prosecutor within 24 hours of detention. Police are also authorized to detain individuals for up to six hours at the scene of a crime for investigative purposes; this period is included in the 24‑hour detention period allowed prior to being charged. The prosecutor has an additional 24 hours either to determine whether the person should be released or brought before a judge to decide whether they should remain in pretrial custody. Detainees are allowed to request a lawyer of their own choosing and to inform family members of their detention.
In practice, these requirements were generally observed. Persons were generally arrested openly with warrants based on sufficient evidence and issued by a judge. Detainees were promptly informed of the charges against them and there was a functioning bail system. There were no reported cases of arbitrary arrest or detention during the year.
The law generally limits pretrial detention to one year; however, in cases involving war crimes, organized crime, economic crime, and corruption, detention can be extended for an additional year. Persons in pretrial detention have the right to be informed of all charges against them once an indictment has been handed down. Under the law, a trial must be undertaken in a speedy manner. In practice detainees were usually not held in pretrial detention for more than six months except in cases involving war crimes.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The state constitution does not explicitly provide for an independent judiciary, but the laws of both entities do. There were indications, however, that political parties influenced the judiciary in certain politically sensitive cases. Judicial reforms have reduced the level of intimidation by organized crime figures and political leaders, although such interference continued to occur.
The State Court is the highest court in the country for certain criminal cases, including war crimes, organized crime, terrorism, economic crime, and corruption. The country also has a State Constitutional Court, whose judges are selected by the Federation's House of Representatives, the RS National Assembly, and the president of the European Court of Human Rights in consultation with the presidency. Each entity has its own supreme court and chief prosecutors' offices. There are cantonal courts in the Federation, district courts in the RS, and municipal courts in both entities and the Brcko District.
Local officials and police generally cooperated in enforcing court decisions, but problems persisted as a result of organizational inefficiency. Despite efforts to streamline court procedures, large backlogs of unresolved cases, mostly in noncriminal matters, remained a problem in many jurisdictions. Authorities generally respected and implemented constitutional court decisions.
Under Federation and RS laws, trials are public and the defendant has the right to counsel, at public expense, if charged with a crime that is punishable by long‑term imprisonment. However, courts did not always appoint defense attorneys for indigent defendants in cases where the maximum prison sentence was less than five years. The law provides that defendants have the right to confront or question witnesses, to present witnesses and evidence on their own behalf, and to appeal. The government observed these rights in practice.
The BiH State Court made significant progress on adjudicating organized crime and war crimes cases and expanded the witness protection program. In the first eight months of the year there were 13 final verdicts, up from four for 2005. From January to September, the Witness Protection Department provided assistance to 68 individuals, as compared with 32 the previous year.
The State Court War Crimes Chamber and entity courts continued conducting war crimes trials during the year. The ICTY transferred five new cases involving nine defendants to the State Court. Ten trials were underway based on BiH indictments reviewed by the ICTY at year's end. Two additional trials began at the State Court based on local indictments not reviewed by the ICTY, involving 12 defendants. The BiH State Prosecutor's office opened 126 new war crimes investigations, involving 334 suspects, and confirmed 18 new indictments, involving 32 accused. The BiH State Prosecutor referred more than 90 ICTY-reviewed indictments to lower courts, involving more than 250 individuals. There was some contention between victims and the BiH State Prosecutor's office concerning case referrals because of the disparity between maximum sentences for war crimes at the state level (45 years) and the entity level (20 years).
In April the State Court appellate panel confirmed a five‑year sentence for Abdulahim Maktouf, an Iraqi national residing in the country, for participating in the kidnapping of three Croat civilians, one of whom was beheaded. Also in April, the court sentenced Nedo Samardzic to 13 years' imprisonment for multiple acts of enslavement, rape, torture, and killing of non-Serb civilians in the Foca region in 1992-93.
In July the War Crimes Chamber sentenced Boban Simsic to five years in prison for war crimes against Bosniak civilians in Visegrad in 1992. The case was on appeal at year's end. In October the State Court appellate panel upheld the guilty verdict for Dragoje Paunovic, who was sentenced to 20 years for crimes against humanity in connection with the forced deportation of Muslim civilians from the eastern RS in 1992.
Three war crimes trials concluded in November. Radovan Stankovic, the first person indicted for war crimes to be transferred from the ICTY, was sentenced to 16 years in jail for committing multiple acts of enslavement, rape, torture, and murder against the non-Serb population in the Foca region. The court sentenced Marko Samardzija to 26 years' imprisonment for murdering over 144 Bosniak men and boys from the villages of Brkic and Balagic Brdo in 1992. The Court also sentenced Nikola Kovacovic to 12 years in prison for committing atrocities against the Croat and Bosniak populations in the Greater Bosanska Karjina area in 1992. The three cases were on appeal at year's end.
In June the BiH State Prosecutor came under public criticism for refusing to release the names of 892 persons the Srebrenica Commission suspected might be connected to the mass killings, but who were still employed in municipal, entity, and state institutions. Many of these names were later leaked to the media in the weeks prior to the October national elections.
On the entity level, the Federation prosecutor initiated 44 new war crimes cases, involving 443 accused during the year. During the year the RS prosecutor initiated 10 cases involving 13 individuals accused of war crimes.
The first war crimes trial in the RS concluded early in the year when the RS Supreme Court confirmed the 2005 Banja Luka district court acquittal of 11 former Prijedor police officers accused of murdering Catholic priest Tomislav Matanovic and his parents, who disappeared from Prijedor in 1995.
The justice process regarding the eight Bosnian Serbs arrested by the RS in 2004 for war crimes against Muslims and transferred that year to the Sarajevo cantonal court was still underway. In 2005 four cases were returned to the RS prosecutor's office, and four remained in Sarajevo cantonal court. The cases of defendants Svetko Novakovic, Jovan Skobo, Zeljko Mitrovic, Momir Skakavac, and Dragoje Radanovic remained ongoing for the second consecutive year.
In September 2005 the Sarajevo cantonal court acquitted Momir Glisic of committing war crimes against civilians in the Grbavica settlement near Sarajevo. The Federation prosecutor appealed the decision to the Federation Supreme Court and on September 18, the Federation Supreme Court sentenced Glisic to two years and six months in prison.
During the year, the BiH State Prosecutor's office initiated an investigation into the activities of ex‑commander of the Fifth Corps of the BiH army, General Atif Dudakovic, and other unknown persons portrayed on a recently‑released video killing an unknown number of individuals from the Bosnian Serb Army during the war. The video, which shows events occurring during "Operation Storm" received a wide distribution on Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian media outlets. The investigation was ongoing at the end of the year.
At the international level, the ICTY continued to prosecute war crimes cases during the year. In June the ICTY sentenced Naser Oric, commander of the Bosnian army in the Srebrenica area, to two years' imprisonment. He was then released for time served. In September the tribunal sentenced Momcilo Krajisnik, wartime president of the RS Assembly, to 27 years in prison. By the end of the year, the ICTY concluded proceedings against 100 of the 161 persons who have been charged by the tribunal. Six ICTY indictees remained at‑large, including Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, and Stojan Zupljanin.
Despite local and international level efforts to prosecute war crimes, many of the lower‑level perpetrators of killings and other abuses committed in previous years remained unpunished, including those responsible for the approximately 8,000 persons killed after the fall of Srebrenica, and those responsible for approximately 15,000 to 20,000 other persons who were missing and presumed killed as a result of "ethnic cleansing."
Political Prisoners and Detainees
There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees.
Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies
The law provides for an independent and impartial judiciary in civil matters, and citizens could file civil suits seeking remedies for human rights violations. Individuals could also seek assistance from an ombudsman institution to hear and provide recommendations on cases of human rights violations, though these recommendations were not binding (see section 4).
The Domestic Commission on Real Property Claims (DCRPC) processed claims for property wrongfully taken during the 1992‑95 war that were not adjudicated by the former Commission for Real Property Claims (CRPC) or by municipal housing authorities. During the year the DCRPC resolved 344 cases. Due to funding limitations and other bureaucratic obstacles during the year, the DCRPC received an extension of its mandate until 2007 to resolve the remaining 24 backlog cases and 100 appeals. By year's end, all municipalities had implemented already adjudicated CRPC and DCRPC property claims relating to socially owned apartments that had been illegally occupied during the 1992-95 war.
In 2004 the Constitutional Court upheld a Federation law prohibiting ownership of property in the Federation by anyone who served in the Yugoslav military after May 1992. The ruling affected former Yugoslav officers, mostly Serbs, who claimed 4,000 apartments they had abandoned during the war. The court also ruled that the Federation could apply a Yugoslav legal principle that prevents a citizen from claiming tenancy rights to more than one apartment at a time; this adversely affected the officers' claims, since most had apartments elsewhere, primarily in Serbia. Even with the court ruling, the DCRPC must still render official legal decisions in all these cases.
During the year the Constitutional Court received 2,757 cases related to property restitution, war damage, old currency savings, and missing persons, and it resolved 1,997 of them. During the year the court also resolved a backlog of cases from 2004. The court found constitutional violations in 52 cases and, by September 1, authorities had implemented 14 decisions; one was not implemented. In five cases, authorities concluded that there was a constitutional violation, but no deadline was given for implementation. Overall implementation rates were 28 percent. During the year the court concentrated on resolving issues related to systematic failures at the state and entity levels to resolve holdover issues, including old currency savings, issues of public debt, war damages, and missing persons.
Roma displaced during the war had difficulty repossessing their property as a result of discrimination and because they lacked information on procedures (see section 5). In many cases, Romani families lacked documents proving ownership or had never registered their property with local authorities. The lack of documentation also prevented them from applying for reconstruction assistance.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
The law prohibits such actions, and the government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press; however, the government did not always respect press freedom in practice. Laws safeguarding freedom of the press were delegated to the cantons in the Federation and to the central authorities in the RS. There are provisions against hate speech in the Federation Criminal Code, but not in the RS Criminal Code. The Broadcasting Code of Practice also regulates hate speech by broadcasters. The Communications Regulatory Agency, charged with implementing the code, did not register any cases of hate speech during the year. The print media is self-regulated and governed by the Press Code which also regulates hate speech, among other issues. During the year, the Press Council of BiH did not receive any complaints about hate speech, and monitoring reports conducted during the year indicated that the level of hate speech decreased. There were, however, a number of cases of gender discrimination noted in the media, as well as cases of discrimination based on sexual orientation. An increased number of cases of violation of rights of minors were noted in the media.
The government generally respected freedom of speech in practice; individuals could criticize the government without fear of reprisal and frequently did so.
Many independent, privately owned newspapers were available and expressed a wide variety of views. Several printing houses operated in the country. Dnevni Avaz, whose editorial policy strongly reflects Bosniak interests, remained the largest circulation daily, followed by Banja Luka‑based daily Nezavisne Novine. A number of independent print media outlets encountered financial problems that endangered their continued operation.
Two public broadcasters, Federation Television (FTV) in the Federation and Radio Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS) in the RS, remained the largest television broadcasters in the country. BHT 1, a nationwide public broadcaster, gradually increased its audience and outreach. While these broadcasters provided relatively balanced coverage, remaining public broadcasters in cantons and municipalities in the Federation and RS remained vulnerable to political influence. A local commercial network of five stations operated in both entities (Mreza Plus), as did the private television networks OBN and PinkBH. Dozens of small independent television stations broadcast throughout the country. Radio continued to provide a forum for diverse points of view. In many cases, news programs of independent broadcasters reflected opposition perspectives.
A number of RS media outlets showed a distinct pro-RS government bias. Federation media outlets also exhibited political bias, although not in support of any one political party.
Journalists continued to face threats in the course of their professional work. In the first six months of the year, the Free Media Help Line (a part of the Bosnian Journalists Association) registered 41 cases involving violations of journalist rights and freedoms and pressure from government and law enforcement officials. There were 13 cases of pressure on journalists, twelve threats, seven labor disputes, three cases of harassment, one physical attack, and one violation of the Press Code.
Violations of the employment rights of journalists continued during the year. Private media owners and management were the most frequent perpetrators of violations of employee rights. In a number of cases, journalists worked without an employment agreement or social and health benefits, items mandated by law.
In some instances, officials subjected media outlets to overt pressure, such as threatening them with loss of advertising or placing limits on their access to official information. Politicians and government officials also pressured the media by accusing them of opposing the interests of a given ethnic group or betraying the interests of their ethnic group.
In February several journalists from different media outlets received a threatening note from an unknown organization named Sandzacka Ruka Pravde (Sandzak's Arm of Justice). The note was directly addressed to Zvonko Maric, a journalist with Federation Television, but mentioned several other media outlets. The note threatened that Maric and his family would be executed because of his alleged anti‑Bosniak views. The state-level association of journalists, BH Novinari, the BiH Press Council, and the BiH Helsinki Committee for Human Rights criticized the threats and called on law enforcement to investigate them. There was no information available to the public on whether an investigation had been initiated.
In March a military colonel, Veljko Brojic, physically attacked a journalist from the print daily Fokus, Cvjetko Udovicic, in the newspaper's Doboj office. The attack was allegedly in response to Udovicic's story about possible irregularities in the decision of Doboj's authorities to give the colonel an apartment. Doboj's police filed a criminal compliant against the colonel because of his violent behavior. By year's end Udovicic decided of his own volition and without explanation to drop the charges.
In March privately-owned Nezavisne Novine reported that certain individuals from the RS Police and SDS were under investigation by the Prosecutor's Office for possible involvement in organized crime and support of persons indicted by the Hague Tribunal. The reports provoked reactions from the RS and from then SDS president, Dragan Cavic, who publicly accused Nezavisne Novine of being an instrument of the newly-appointed RS Minister of Interior who, according to Cavic, wanted to remove political opponents from the police. Cavic also criticized RS Radio and Television, asserting that it took sides in the issue by carrying unconfirmed information and fabrications previously published in Nezavisne Novine. Although Nezavisne Novine carried reactions of the police officers whose names were mentioned as well as that of President Cavic, Cavic sued Nezavisne Novine for defamation. The court case had not yet opened by year's end.
In May during a Radio Zos report from Doboj Istok on the investigation of a pedophile case in the city of Tesanj, two police officers from the Tesanj police station entered the station and attempted to terminate the broadcast. The police explained that they were trying to protect the identity of minor children. Radio Zos continued its broadcast. BH Novinari, Free Media Help Line, and the state-level Regulatory Communications Agency criticized Tesanj police for their interference.
In June, while addressing graduates of the Islamic Pedagogical Faculty in Zenica, the head of the Islamic Community in BiH, Reis Mustafa effendi Ceric, accused Federation Television, and in particular the editor of FTV's 60 Minutes political magazine, Bakir Hadziomerovic, of attacking Islam and Muslims.
In July a previously unknown group named Kaznena Ekspedicija (Retribution Expedition) faxed a letter to Sarajevo's weekly Slobodna Bosna with the names of 20 politicians and journalists who, according to the group, should be killed by November 1. The letter was written on the memorandum of the Prst newspaper, a tabloid financed by a Bosnian Serb extremist nationalist party. The RS police investigated the case but had not released the results by year's end.
In November the Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organization reported and expressed concern over death threats and intimidating phone calls made to Mubarek Asani, a journalist for BHT 1 television station. The threats appeared in response to Asani's report in early November on the Javna Tajna show, which discussed details of an illegal prostitution ring involving unnamed politicians and other public figures. As a consequence, the Sarajevo Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation of the allegations.
The law prohibits criminal cases against journalists for defamation, although they may be sued in civil court. Courts, however, did not always have sufficient experience and training to accurately interpret this area of law. The print media engaged in self-regulation, although this did not eliminate the possibility of reprisals or charges being brought against journalists for the content of their reports.
From the adoption in 2001 of the Law on Defamation 'until the end of the year, approximately 400 defamation cases have been tried in cantonal and district courts in the Federation and RS; approximately 350 charges were brought in Federation courts. Public figures, particularly politicians, tended to initiate defamation cases, although journalists frequently brought charges against colleagues. Jurisdiction for defamation cases has been in the municipal courts since September 2005. While country-wide data was not available by year's end, the 172 defamation cases filed in the Sarajevo municipal court from September 2005 to date indicated a significant increase.
There were no government restrictions on access to the Internet or reports that the government monitored e‑mail or Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by electronic mail. Rates of Internet usage by the Bosnian population remained very low, with estimates below 20 percent.
Academic Freedom and Cultural Events
There were no government restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events; however, ethnic favoritism and politicization of faculty appointments constrained academic freedom. In Sarajevo, Serbs and Croats complained that members of the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and Bosniaks in general received preferential treatment in appointments and promotions at the University of Sarajevo. The University of Banja Luka continued to limit faculty appointments almost exclusively to Serbs. The University of Mostar remained divided into two separate universities, reflecting the continued ethnic divide in the city.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Freedom of Assembly
The law provides for freedom of assembly, and the government generally respected this right in practice.
Freedom of Association
The law provides for freedom of association, and the government generally respected this right in practice. A wide range of social, cultural, and political organizations functioned without interference.
The law allows NGOs to register freely at the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications and therefore to operate anywhere in the country; however, some NGOs and NGO associations experienced difficulties registering, including long delays and inconsistent application of the law. Some NGOs, frustrated by bureaucratic delays at the state level, chose instead to register their organizations at the entity level in one or both entities.
c. Freedom of Religion
The law provides for freedom of religion; however, societal violence and the threat of violence restricted the ability of adherents of minority religions in heterogeneous areas to worship as they pleased. On October 16, the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees issued instructions for implementation of the Law on Religious Freedom, which provides for freedom of religion, ensures legal positions of churches and religious communities, and prohibits any form of discrimination against any religious community. The law also provides the basis for the establishment of relations between the state and religious communities. In practice, respect for religious freedom declined during the year.
Entity and local governments and police forces frequently allowed or encouraged an atmosphere in which abuses of religious freedom could take place. Compared to 2005 attacks on religious objects and religious officials increased significantly during the year, particularly in the campaign months before the national elections, during which nationalist rhetoric employed by certain political parties heightened religious and ethnic tensions in the country. In some cases, however, police and local government officials acted to protect religious freedom by providing security for major religious events and for religious buildings. The reluctance of police and prosecutors to aggressively investigate and prosecute crimes against religious minorities remained a major obstacle to safeguarding the rights of religious minorities.
In the RS, administrative and financial obstacles impeded the rebuilding of religious structures damaged in the 1992‑95 war, limiting the ability of minorities to worship and interfering with their return in many areas.
The law requires religious communities to register with the Ministry of Justice; any religious group can register if it has at least 300 adult members who are citizens. Local congregations of the four major religious communities (Muslim, Serbian Orthodox, Jewish, and Catholic) were registered, as were congregations of several smaller Christian denominations, including Baptist, evangelical Christian, and Jehovah's Witnesses.
Religious education is mandatory for Serb children in RS public schools and optional for children in other parts of the country. In practice classes were generally offered only for students of the majority religion in a given area. Authorities sometimes pressured parents to consent to religious instruction for their children. In some cases, children who chose not to attend religion classes were subject to pressure and discrimination from peers and teachers.
Societal Abuses and Discrimination
Ethnically-motivated religious violence was often directed at ethnic symbols, clerics, and religious buildings, particularly in the months surrounding the October 1 national elections. Such acts of violence were reported in several municipalities in the country. Local police generally did not conduct serious investigations into such incidents. For example, in Trebinje municipality in July, unknown perpetrators sprayed gunfire into a Muslim cemetery, damaging several tombstones. In the same month, unknown persons threw an explosive device at the home of a Bosniak returnee in Trebinje. When police concluded that the attacks were the pranks of local youngsters, the local Islamic Community called for the dismissal of the police chief, who they asserted did not perform a full investigation into the matter.
There were a number of acts of violence and vandalism against Islamic religious targets during the year. For example, in March unknown persons destroyed 23 400-year‑old tombstones in the graveyard next to the destroyed Arnaudija Mosque in Banja Luka. There were also several reports of anti‑Muslim graffiti on the walls of mosques in Trebinje, Banja Luka, and on two mosques under construction in Brcko District. In August unknown assailants detonated an explosive device at the grave of former president Alija Izetbegovic, destroying his tombstone and leaving a large crater at the grave. The Carsijska Mosque in Bosanska Dubica was also the site of several vandalism attacks in September. In October a missile attack destroyed a large portion of the Jasenica Mosque near Mostar; this was the most severe attack since the end of the war. The Jasenica Mosque became a source of controversy when local Croats objected to its reconstruction on the grounds that its new design violated a law that allows reconstruction only in the same style as the original prewar building. City officials ordered removal of the mosque, but the order had not been carried out before the attack.
There was also vandalism against Serbian Orthodox religious targets. In January unknown persons stoned the Serb Orthodox Church and its annex buildings in Puracic, breaking the glass in six different windows. There were also reports of the destruction of a wooden cross in July. In August unknown persons wrote threatening, anti‑Serb graffiti on the Serb Orthodox Church in Petrovo. Also in August unknown perpetrators damaged several tombstones and broke a large number of vases at the Orthodox cemetery in Ljubinici and broke windows and damaged the entrance door of the Orthodox Church in Gracanica. In September individuals threw a hand grenade at the door of the Orthodox Church in the Bosniak returnee settlement of Divic.
Catholic religious objects were also the targets of vandalism. In September unknown persons broke the glass on the entrance door to a Catholic Church in the Sarajevo neighborhood of Grbavica. This church was the subject of controversy because the Catholic community had requested a permit to build a new church which local authorities had yet to approve. Also in September in the Orasje neighborhood near Tuzla, persons damaged the metal doors and windows of the cemetery chapel and moved religious statues.
There were a number of controversial cases involving construction of religious objects or monuments. An illegally constructed Serbian Orthodox church remained on the land of a Bosniak returnee in the town of Konjevic Polje in the eastern RS, despite the absence of local Serb residents and the RS Ministry of Urban Planning's 2004 decision that the church should be removed. On September 11, for the second consecutive year, the local Orthodox priest celebrated mass in the church, which was attended by a large number of nationalist antagonists. Local police were present, and there was no violence.
In the Bosniak returnee village of Divic, near Zvornik, a Serbian Orthodox Church remained on the site of the village's destroyed mosque. Although Serbian Orthodox religious leaders agreed to relocate the church in September, reports in October indicated that they were only willing to relocate the church to an area immediately adjacent to a Muslim cemetery, which angered the Islamic community and stalled relocation negotiations.
In 2004 Federation authorities ordered the removal of crosses that had been illegally constructed on public land in Stolac; however, the removal was delayed pending the outcome of a 2004 lawsuit on the legality of the Federation government's decision. In September the Federation Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of the law, and the Federation Ministry of Spatial Planning was able again to launch an initiative for removal of the crosses. While the Federation Ministry of Spatial Planning had the legal authority to undertake such an initiative, the ministry was reluctant to do so out of concern that it would increase inter-ethnic tensions during the election year.
The Jewish community had approximately 1,000 believers and was recognized as one of four established religions in the country.
In May graffiti containing anti-Semitic slogans appeared on a wall in the Sarajevo settlement of Ilidza. The Bosnian Jewish community criticized the act, stressing that such signs gave a negative image of Bosnia. During the year Jewish leaders noted a tendency to mix anti-Israeli sentiment with anti-Semitism, as the general public and the media often failed to distinguish between criticism of Israeli policy and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
For a more detailed discussion, see the 2006 International Religious Freedom Report.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
The law provides for these rights; however, some limits remained in practice.
The law prohibits forced exile, and the government did not employ it.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
The overall return process for persons displaced by the 1991-95 wars slowed during the year, indicating a sharp decrease in returns from years past. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), between the end of the war in 1995 and year's end, 1,017,433 persons who left the country had returned. Of these, 458,816 were returnees to areas where they were an ethnic minority. The UNHCR registered 5,603 returns through December, of which 4,596 were minority returnees. These numbers continued to decline, particularly for returnees to areas where they would be an ethnic minority. Government officials and some NGOs, however, believed that the total number of returns was inflated, since the UNHCR determines returns based on property restitution rather than physical presence. Some properties, therefore, could have been returned to the original owners without those individuals actually returning to live in the locale.
The difficult economic situation in the country remained the most significant factor inhibiting returns, with many rural areas experiencing official unemployment rates above 40 percent. When jobs were available, minority returnees often complained of discrimination in hiring. In returnee areas throughout the country, the percentage of minorities holding municipal employment was neither representative of current populations, nor legally mandated percentages based on the 1991 census, indicating local government failures to implement and enforce the provisions of the Law on Self Administration. Funds for reconstruction assistance continued to decline, although the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees continued to implement projects from the joint return fund.
The security situation for returnees improved during the year, although isolated incidents of violence were reported and a hostile atmosphere still existed in many areas. During the year, there was a substantial shift towards attacks against symbols of a minority group as a whole and away from attacks against individuals. Many returnees cited authorities' failure to apprehend war criminals as a disincentive to return. Many displaced persons created permanent lives away from their prewar homes, and only individuals with few other options (including a large number of elderly pensioners) tended to return.
Other factors inhibiting returns included a lack of access to social benefits including healthcare, education and pension benefits. A lack of available housing and high municipal administration taxes on documents that are necessary for return, such as birth or land certificates, also affected the number of returns. Minority returnees often faced intimidation, discrimination, obstructionism in their access to health care and pension benefits, poor infrastructure, and denial of utility services such as electricity, gas, and telephone by publicly owned utility companies. While problems decreased from previous years, they persisted in hard‑line areas. Authorities in some areas of Croat‑controlled Herzegovina and some towns in the eastern RS continued to resist minority returns, obstructing returnees' access to local services, including municipal power and water, education, issuance of important civil documents, and health care.
In the RS, the Ministry for Refugees and Displaced Persons provided support to Bosniaks and Croats returning to the RS and to Bosnian Serbs returning to the Federation. The Federation Ministry for Refugees assisted Croats and Serbs returning to the Federation and Bosniaks returning to the RS. Both entity‑level refugee ministries provided limited reconstruction assistance to returnees and also committed part of their budgets toward joint projects to be determined by the State Commission for Refugees. All levels of government budgeted funding for returns, but it was unclear how much of this funding was actually used.
Protection of Refugees
The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status to persons in accordance with the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol, and the government has established a system for providing protection to refugees. The Law on Movement and Stay of Aliens and Asylum is undergoing revision to expedite the time between application and final adjudication. In practice, the government provided protection against refoulement, the return of persons to a country where they feared persecution.
During the year the government did not grant temporary protection to any persons who may not qualify as refugees under the 1951 convention and the 1967 protocol.
The government generally cooperated with the UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and other humanitarian organizations to assist refugees and asylum seekers. Refugees with pending asylum applications, regardless of national origin, may remain in collective centers until their cases can be decided. As a result of the 1999 conflict in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), approximately 6,000 persons, half of them from Kosovo, fled the FRY and came to the country. According to UNHCR statistics from June, 521 refugees from Serbia and Montenegro, including refugees from Kosovo, remained in collective centers. An additional 3,098 refugees from Serbia and Montenegro were also living in communities throughout the country. By October the government had not accepted any of these refugees for local integration or permanent status in the country. During the year the government extended the "temporarily admitted persons" status to approximately 3,000 Kosovars, a status that neither precludes nor facilitates asylum, residency, or naturalization under the 1951 convention and the 1967 protocol.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government
The law provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully; however, the use of coercive tactics by some nationalist parties precluded full citizen participation without intimidation.
Elections and Political Participation
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation Europe (OSCE) concluded that the general elections held during the year had been conducted largely in line with international standards but noted problems, including the inability of numerous voters to find their names on voter registers, voters being directed to incorrect polling stations because of changes in the registration process, group voting, irregularities in the counting process, and a few cases of voter intimidation.
A new passive registration system, linked to the issuance of national identification cards, registered 400,000 new voters prior to the national elections held during the year. Some voters complained, however, that the registration process discriminated against voters who physically live in one location but continue to receive government benefits in another because they could only vote in their place of legal, and not actual, residence.
While political parties did not compel individuals to become members, many viewed membership in the leading party of any given area as the surest way of obtaining, regaining, or keeping pension and health benefits, housing, and jobs in government‑owned companies. There were also reports that political parties paid individuals to campaign on their behalf or to run for office to increase the number of representatives present in electoral polling stations.
Individuals and parties representing a wide spectrum of political views could freely declare their candidacies and stand for election. Nationalist rhetoric dominated the pre‑election campaign, with Bosniak nationalist politicians calling for the abolition of the RS and Serb politicians threatening to call a referendum in the RS to secede from the state. Nevertheless, opposition parties were not excluded from participation in political life. Membership in large, well‑funded parties conferred formal advantages, as nonparty members were often excluded from appointment to many key government positions.
During the pre‑election period, the civic movement GROZD produced a 12‑point, issue‑specific platform and asked all political parties to incorporate these issues into their own political platform. More than 500,000 Bosnians (notable as more than the number of votes any one party received in the 2002 elections) signed a petition in support of the GROZD platform, as did several less powerful political parties.
The election law requires that at least 30 percent of political party candidates be women. At year's end, six of 42 delegates in the BIH House of Representatives were women. Out of 82 delegates in the RS National Assembly, 19 were women. Although national elections took place October 1, the new Federation and State parliamentary assemblies had not been constituted by year's end. In the previous mandate of parliament, there were seven women in the directly elected 42‑seat BiH House of Representatives (lower house) and no women in the 15‑seat BiH House of Peoples (upper house), whose members were appointed by entity legislatures. There were 23 women in the 98‑seat Federation House of Representatives. There was one woman in the nine‑member Council of Ministers, but at year's end the new Council of Members had not been established.
There were no members of a minority in either the BiH House of Representatives or the nine‑member Council of Ministers. Under the state-level constitution members of the ethnic Serb, Croat, and Bosniak groups must be appointed to government positions on a proportional basis, based on the 1991 census. Separate from those groups, there are 16 recognized national minority groups. While other minorities may hold these offices, they remained underrepresented.
Government Corruption and Transparency
There were reports of official corruption during the year. The country received a score of 2.9 on Transparency International's 10 point index of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among a country's politicians and public officials, indicating a perception that the country has a serious corruption problem.
The law bars citizens from holding positions of public responsibility if they have pending criminal indictments against them, but this prohibition was not always observed in practice. For example, the court did not remove or suspend Mato Tadic, charged with accepting bribes in the tax evasion and bribery case involving former BiH Presidency member Dragan Covic, from his position as president of the Constitutional Court while the trial against him was underway. Covic was convicted in November of one count of abuse of office and sentenced to five years in prison.
Although the law provides for citizen access to government records, many government agencies did not comply with the law. For example, some agencies have not yet prepared the required registry of documents that are available and guidelines for access to them. According to the law, the government must provide an explanation for any denial of access, and citizens may appeal denials in the court system or to the ombudsman's offices. In practice, the government sometimes failed to provide an explanation for denial of access to information as required by the law; however, if citizens appealed denials to the ombudsmen, the courts, or legal aid, the government generally provided an explanation. Public awareness of the law remained low.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups and NGOs generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. For example, the BiH Helsinki Committee and the Helsinki Committee of the RS continued to actively report on a wide range of human rights abuses. However, government officials were often inefficient and slow to respond to their recommendations.
The government cooperated fully with international organizations such as the Office of the High Representative (OHR), which has special powers over the government, as well as other international organizations such as the UNHCR, ICRC, OSCE, and ICMP.
The Constitutional Court handles all human rights cases filed since the beginning of 2004. The Human Rights Commission, which consists of five judges from the Human Rights Chamber in the Constitutional Court, was formed in 2004 to address this backlog. By year's end the commission had issued 2,266 decisions, of which 536 were decisions on the merits of the case. The most common cases included claims for the return of frozen foreign currency accounts, war damages, and claims involving pensions and property rights.
In April the state-level parliament adopted a law establishing a single ombudsman institution composed of three members who will likely represent the country's three constituent peoples (Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats), although members of national minorities can also be appointed. The multiple ombudsman offices already existing at the sub-federal level, whose effectiveness had been limited in addressing institutional patterns of discrimination, were to be abolished by December 31. An effective plan for handover of responsibilities from the entity-level ombudsman institutions to the state ombudsman office was not developed, however, and the transfer did not occur by year's end.
Citizens' remedies for human rights violations included filing civil suits or seeking assistance from the ombudsmen. However, the ombudsmen's recommendations were not binding, and the civil court system had major backlogs. The ombudsmen were effective in some individual cases, but were less successful in addressing institutional patterns of discrimination.
The State Court continued during the year to cooperate with the ICTY by, adjudicating cases transferred by the ICTY and proceeding on ICTY-reviewed indictments. During the year, BiH authorities also assisted in the transfer of one ICTY indictee to The Hague. The Federation continued its cooperation with the ICTY and the State Court's War Crimes Chamber. During the year, the Federation prosecutor initiated 34 war crimes cases involving 384 defendants (see section 1.e.).
RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik's government ended the long‑time practice of providing stipends from the RS budget to families of indictees on trial in the ICTY. The level of cooperation between the RS and Serbian law enforcement agencies in eradicating Mladic and Karadzic's cross‑border support networks and compelling their eventual capture was unclear. The RS municipalities of Bijeljina, Sokolac, Han Pijesak and Pale remained under sanctions for failing to cooperate with ICTY. In April sanctions were lifted for Foca.
Section 5 Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability, language, or other social status; however, discrimination against minorities, women, sexual minorities, persons with disabilities, and others was pervasive.
Violence against women, including domestic violence and sexual assault, remained a widespread and underreported problem. According to a 2004 study by the Sarajevo faculty of criminology, 20 percent of female respondents indicated that they were physically abused by their husbands or boyfriends. In 79 percent of these cases, the violence occurred repeatedly. According to general NGO estimates, one out of every three Bosnian women is a victim of domestic violence. Both the Federation and RS have adopted a law on domestic violence that requires police to remove the offender from the family home; however, domestic violence usually was not reported to the authorities. Experts estimate that only one in 10 cases of domestic violence was reported to the police. As of October, the RS domestic violence hotline received 2,657 reports of domestic violence.
Police received specialized training in handling cases of domestic violence and there were four hotlines operating in the Federation and RS that provided assistance and counseling to domestic violence victims. Reluctance on the part of victims to report domestic violence to authorities or to testify against their abusers contributed to lack of prosecutions. There were shelters in Mostar, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Sarajevo and Modrica to assist victims of domestic violence, and local NGOs were trying to build additional facilities. Several NGOs reported an increase in domestic violence reports because of awareness campaigns that informed victims about their rights and encouraged them to make official complaints.
Rape and spousal rape are illegal; the maximum penalty for either crime is 15 years' imprisonment. A sense of shame reportedly prevented some rape victims from complaining to authorities. While police generally responded to reports of sexual assault, they tended not to treat reports of spousal rape with the same seriousness.
Prostitution is illegal. The law treats procuring as a major crime, but prostitution and solicitation are misdemeanors punishable by a fine only. Since police raids on bars and brothels drove it underground, prostitution frequently took place in private apartments or on an outcall basis. Single mothers or other vulnerable women, particularly from economically depressed rural areas, were at higher risk of being recruited for sexual exploitation.
Trafficking in women for purposes of sexual exploitation was a serious problem (see section 5, Trafficking).
The law prohibits sexual harassment, but sexual harassment was a serious problem that was poorly understood by the general population. Many women surveyed by NGOs reported experiencing treatment that constituted sexual harassment in their workplaces. Victims of sexual harassment almost never filed complaints, largely because they did not recognize their experiences as harassment and were not aware of their legal rights and remedies.
The law prohibits gender‑based discrimination. Women have equal legal status to men in family law and property law, and were treated equally in practice throughout the judicial system.
The government's Agency for Gender Equality worked to harmonize legislation with the Law on Gender Equality and inform women of their legal rights. The Federation, the RS, and state‑level parliaments had committees for gender equality.
Women served as judges, doctors, and professors, although few women held positions of real economic or political power. A small but increasing number of gender‑related discrimination cases were documented. Anecdotal accounts indicated that women and men generally received equal pay for equal work at government‑owned enterprises but not always at private businesses. Women in all parts of the country had problems with nonpayment of maternity leave allowances and the unwarranted dismissal of pregnant women and new mothers. Many job announcements openly advertised discriminatory criteria such as age (typically under 35) and physical appearance of female applicants. Women remained underrepresented in law enforcement agencies, although progress continued to be made.
The governments of both entities were generally committed to the rights and welfare of children; however, social services for children were extremely limited. The Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees had a role in enforcing children's rights. Children with disabilities lacked sufficient medical care and educational opportunities.
Education is free and compulsory through age 15; however, parents were required to pay for textbooks, lunches, and transportation, which some families could not afford, causing some children to drop out of school. A lack of reliable monitoring and statistics on enrollment and drop‑out rates hindered efforts to ensure that school‑age children received an education. Children with special needs were legally required to attend regular classes, but schools were often unable to accommodate them. Except for Roma, almost all children finished primary school through the ninth grade; the completion rate was lower for secondary school. Boys and girls attended school equally.
According to the BiH Roma Council, less than 35 percent of Romani children attended school regularly. Amnesty International reported during the year that Romani children lacked access to education in BiH. Many Romani children were unable to attend school because of extremely poor living conditions, lack of proper clothing, and the inability or unwillingness of families to pay school‑related expenses. Verbal harassment from other students, language problems, and registration costs and requirements also contributed to the exclusion of Roma from schools, despite the desire of many parents to enroll their children. Authorities failed to provide textbooks including topics related to Romani culture and history into the curriculum.
Students in minority areas frequently faced a hostile environment in schools that did not provide an ethnically neutral setting. Obstruction by nationalist politicians and government officials slowed efforts to remove discriminatory material from textbooks, abolish school segregation, and enact other reforms. Cantonal governments in the Federation and the Ministry of Education in the RS pressured school directors at the primary and secondary school level, and several schools were directed by hard‑line political figures. For example, on the first day of school at the Sveti Sava primary school in the eastern RS town of Zvornik, school officials organized an Orthodox religious ceremony with an Orthodox priest presiding. More than 100 Bosniak students who attend the school were present with their families at the ceremony. Following the event, the RS Ministry of Education issued a statement indicating that such ceremonies were inappropriate.
Administrative and legal unification of the 52 cases of "two schools under one roof," with separate classes for Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks, did not lead to integrated classrooms, although shared extracurricular activities, school entrances and recreation facilities sometimes resulted. In some areas of the country, notably Vitez in central Bosnia and Prozor‑Rama and Stolac in Herzegovina, local officials and parents sought to establish complete physical segregation of Bosniak and Croat students. Segregation and discrimination were entrenched in many schools, particularly in the teaching of national history and religious education. In the RS, non‑Serbs made up less than 5 percent of the teaching staff in primary and secondary schools. In the Federation, minority teachers made up between 5 and 8 percent of all teachers, depending on the canton.
Schools throughout the country continued to use textbooks on subjects outside the so‑called "national group" of subjects that contained controversial material. For example, textbooks in Bosnian Croat‑majority areas refer to Croatia as the homeland of all Croat people, while texts in the RS instill a sense of patriotism towards Serbia.
Medical care for children in the Federation is controlled at the cantonal level, and the level of care varied widely between cantons. In the RS, the law provides that the Ministry of Health furnish free medical care to children up to 15 years of age; in practice, children often did not receive medical care unless they had medical insurance paid for by their parents. Boys and girls had equal access to medical care.
Family violence against children was a problem. Police investigated and prosecuted individual cases of child abuse; there were no statistics available on the extent of the problem, as much of it went unreported. Municipal centers for social work were responsible for protecting children's rights, but often lacked resources and alternative housing for children who ran away from home to escape abuse or who needed to be removed from abusive homes. Some NGOs estimated that one in four families experienced some form of domestic violence, including physical, psychological, or sexual abuse of children.
In certain Romani communities, girls married between the ages of 12 and 14. Apart from efforts to increase Romani participation in education, there were no programs aimed specifically at reducing the incidence of child marriage.
Trafficking in girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation was a problem (see section 5, Trafficking).
Child begging was common in some Romani communities; infants (with adults) and children as young as four were sent out to beg on street corners, often working 10 or more hours per day in all weather conditions.
According to statistics released during the year by the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, 21 percent of displaced persons from the country were children under 18.
Trafficking in Persons
The law prohibits trafficking in persons; however, women and children were trafficked for sexual exploitation and children and adults, particularly from the Romani community, were sometimes trafficked for labor. There were reports that police and other officials were involved in trafficking.
The country was a destination, transit point, and, to a greater extent, country of origin for women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation. An increasing trend of victims being trafficked domestically was also observed during the year. The number of domestic victims increased dramatically and is now about equal to the number of foreign victims, a possible indicator that official efforts to interdict and prevent cross‑border trafficking have both increased internal trafficking and helped drive the crime underground to the local level. During the year, Romani children were trafficked to and within the country for forced labor.
The majority of women trafficked to the country came from Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, and Russia. While no reliable estimates were available, a significant number may have been trafficked on to Western Europe. According to the IOM, most victims were lured by false job offers, such as advertisements offering work in Italy or Germany as dancers, waitresses, and domestic servants. Some NGOs reported that trafficking victims were increasingly lured into the country by promises of marriage to traffickers or their associates, while others knowingly entered into false marriages to obtain work and residence permits. Most trafficked women entered the country through Serbia and Montenegro. Those who transited the country generally continued on via Croatia. The IOM reported Bosnian victims in other parts of Europe, and local NGOs observed a dramatic increase of Bosnian victims within the country.
There were no reliable estimates on the number of victims trafficked during the year; police raids forced trafficking further underground, increasing the difficulty of estimating the scope of the problem. During the year the Office of the State Antitrafficking Coordinator registered 43 new trafficking victims from within its referral mechanism. During the year the IOM assisted 59 victims, 12 of whom were repatriated; 27 were citizens, while almost half of all victims (28 persons) were minors.
Traffickers came from a variety of backgrounds, including freelance operators and loosely organized local criminal networks. Large international organized crime syndicates were less involved than in previous years.
Victims reported working in conditions akin to slavery, with little or no financial support. In some cases, traffickers paid victims some wages so that they could send money home to their families. Traffickers coerced victims to remain in these situations through intimidation, verbal threats, seizure of passports, withholding of food and medical care, and physical and sexual assault. To keep victims in the country legally, traffickers also made victims apply for asylum since, as asylum seekers, they were entitled to remain in the country until their claims could be adjudicated.
Under the law, trafficking is a state‑level crime that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. The Ministry of Security is responsible for coordinating antitrafficking law enforcement at all levels of government, but during the year it was understaffed and lacked the capacity and the funding to adequately manage antitrafficking activities.
The BiH State Prosecutor's office has exclusive jurisdiction over trafficking cases and can decide which cases to prosecute at the state level and which to send to the entity level. The State Antitrafficking Coordinator, whose mandate includes coordination of victim protection efforts among NGOs, police, and government institutions as well as law enforcement, reported directly to the Ministry of Security. A nationwide interagency investigative task force to combat trafficking, the antitrafficking strike force, was chaired by the chief state prosecutor and included prosecutors, police, and financial investigators and targeted trafficking and illegal migration. There were two major strike force investigations that resulted in indictments during the year.
In February the strike force raided three well-known "night bars" in central Bosnia, resulting in four arrests and the filing of criminal charges against 11 people suspected of involvement in trafficking. In April the State Court sentenced Nermin Cupina from Mostar, the first defendant in a major trafficking case from Herzegovina, to eight years in prison for trafficking. The judge also ordered seizure of Cupina's apartment and payment of compensation, a $62,500 (93,750 convertible marks) total value believed to have been earned through trafficking during 2002 and 2003. Igor Salcin, the second defendant in the same case, agreed to a plea bargain in February and was convicted to 5½ years of imprisonment. Predrag Leventic, the third defendant, was acquitted for lack of evidence.
If screening established that a person was a trafficking victim, authorities did not prosecute that person for immigration or prostitution violations. In most cases, foreign victims were voluntarily repatriated. Persons determined by law enforcement not to be trafficking victims were often deported and occasionally prosecuted for immigration and other violations.
There continued to be reports of police and other official involvement in trafficking, particularly at the local level. Victims' groups alleged that, because of strong local networks, local police often willfully ignored or actively protected consumers or perpetrators of trafficking activity, often accepting bribes in return. To date there have been only a few documented cases of official involvement in trafficking, and no official indictments have been made. In 2004 border police arrested a member of the RS interior ministry's elite special unit near Bijeljina while he was attempting to cross into the country from Serbia with two suspected trafficking victims in his car. Authorities immediately suspended him from duty and opened an investigation. The case was closed during the year due to lack of evidence, and the police officer was reinstated. In 2005 authorities charged a State Border Service officer with abuse of office for placing a false stamp in the passport of a suspected trafficking victim; the case was ongoing at year's end.
During the year authorities continued efforts to combat trafficking by producing an antitrafficking manual for teachers for use in the curriculum of all BiH schools. Authorities also continued their efforts to assist victims by working with local NGOs to support shelters and other services and by conducting extensive training for police, prosecutors, judges, teachers, and social workers.
In 2005 the government adopted a formal victim referral mechanism and memoranda of understanding with six NGOs that ran shelters for trafficking victims. The local NGO Forum of Solidarity continued to operate the main shelter in Sarajevo and ran one safe house in Doboj where victims received medical care, counseling, repatriation assistance and limited vocational training. Other NGOs operated safe houses in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Mostar, and Bijeljina. Although police provided protection for the shelters, victims told NGO employees that they did not trust local police and feared that traffickers would pursue them if they left.
During the year NGOs assisted trafficking victims by providing basic shelter and medical, psychological, and legal assistance. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a manual on legal advocacy and trained local attorneys to assist trafficking victims on a range of criminal and civil issues, including victims' immigration status and legal rights if they chose to testify against their traffickers.
Persons With Disabilities
The law in both entities prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities; however, there was discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, and in the provision of other state services.
Throughout the country, there was clear discrimination between different categories of persons with disabilities, though the vast majority of persons with disabilities were unemployed. For example, persons with disabilities resulting from service during the 1991-95 wars were given a de facto privileged status above the civilian war disabled and persons who were born with disabilities. Children with disabilities were often hospitalized in residential institutions or confined to their homes, and they rarely had the opportunity to attend school. One NGO estimated that 30 percent of persons with disabilities residing in institutions were capable of independent living if housing and resources were available. Some institutions inappropriately housed mentally ill and developmentally disabled persons together.
In the Federation, the law mandates that all existing public buildings must be retrofitted to provide access to persons with disabilities by November 2007 and that new buildings must also be accessible. However, in practice, buildings rarely were accessible to persons with disabilities. The RS had comparable laws for building access, and progress on retrofitting older public buildings remained slow.
Ethnic differences remained a powerful force in the country, although mixed communities existed peacefully in a number of areas. Nationalist Bosniak, Serb, and Croat politicians sought to increase the ethnic homogeneity of the population in areas they controlled by discouraging IDPs of their own ethnicity from returning to their prewar homes if they would be in the minority there (see section 2.d.). The RS and Federation governments were both supportive of minority returns, but there was a significant decrease in returns nationwide.
Attacks on ethnic and religious objects increased during the year, particularly in the period immediately before the October national elections (see section 2.c.). Police conducted investigations and sometimes apprehended and charged perpetrators of ethnically motivated hate crimes.
Recreational events were an additional forum for interethnic disputes. In June Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks clashed in Mostar following a World Cup soccer game when Bosniaks were perceived as cheering the defeat of the Croatian team. In August a clash between Bosnian Serbs and Bosniaks at a soccer game resulted in one Bosniak's serious injury in Bratunac. Also in August Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat fans watching a soccer game in Ivanica caused a fight, marking the first ethnic clash in the town since the end of the war. Also at a September soccer match in Zvornik between local team Drina and visitors Sarajevo, nationalist antagonists carried signs and chanted disparaging slogans at the visiting team comprising mainly Bosniaks.
Harassment and discrimination against minorities continued throughout the country, often centering on property disputes. These problems included desecration of graves, graffiti, arson, damage to houses of worship, verbal harassment, dismissal from work, threats, and assaults. In September unknown persons broke the glass of a Bosniak returnee's grill stand in downtown Zvornik. The grill's owner indicated that this was the ninth time his business had been attacked since he returned to the area. Members of the Association of Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves who live in returnee areas continued to receive death threats.
Ethnic discrimination in employment and education remained key obstacles to the return of residents (see section 5, Children). Widespread firing of ethnic minorities during and after the war was not reversed in most cases, and members of the ethnic majority in a region often were hired over minorities in places where the minorities had been employed. Amnesty International reported during the year on widespread ethnic discrimination in employment and cited failure on the part of state-level and entity-level officials to prevent such discrimination. Although privatization of large state‑owned enterprises was conducted under the supervision of the international community, many smaller enterprises were sold to politically well‑connected individuals, usually members of the majority group in their communities. These enterprises generally did not employ minorities. For example, only three of 120 municipality jobs in Foca were filled by returnees. In Zvornik, the town with the greatest percentage of returnees in the eastern RS, only four Bosniaks served in more than 100 positions available at the municipal level.
During the year the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued observations on the situation in BiH, citing concern over distinctions in the law between "constituent peoples " (Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs, and Bosnian Croats) and "others " that precluded members of non-constituent groups from fully enjoying the right to vote and stand for office. The CERD also registered concerns over an absence of comprehensive antidiscrimination legislation in the country and the condition of the Romani minority.
The Roma population, estimated at 40,000 to 80,000, faced serious difficulties in exercising the full range of fundamental human rights provided to them under the law. Access to employment, education, and government services was a particular problem. The BiH Helsinki Committee estimated that only 1 percent of the working‑age Romani population was employed and indicated that Roma were usually the first to be let go during a reduction in force. Many Roma were also excluded from public life because they lacked birth certificates, identification cards, or a registered residence. Many Roma also could not access health care or register to vote. Only a small number of adult Roma were officially employed, and Roma were often denied social support; some families sent their children out to beg or relied on other sporadic sources of income. During the year the Roma Council and the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees worked to develop action plans for the employment, health and housing of Roma, in efforts to fulfill preconditions for eligibility in the "decade of Roma inclusion" initiative in Europe. However, by year's end the government had not completed the action plans for housing, health care, and employment, while the implementation of the education action plan had been implemented only partially.
While authorities permitted Romani children to attend schools in all areas of the country, their attendance was often low as the result of pressure from within their own community and from local non‑Romani communities discouraging them from attending school (see section 5, Children).
Other Societal Abuses and Discrimination
While the law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, it was not enforced in practice, and there was frequent societal discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons.
The NGO Global Rights reported during the year on the country's compliance under international and European legal frameworks to uphold the rights of sexual minorities. The report stated that the country did not provide the full range of protection envisaged under these instruments to members of sexual minority communities and that social and cultural stigma contributed to instances of discrimination. The report cited the limited means available for redress against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, as well as a lack of legal provisions directly addressing discrimination based on gender identity or expression.
Sexual minorities who were open about their orientation were frequently fired from their jobs. In some cases, dismissal letters explicitly stated that sexual orientation was the cause of termination, making it extremely difficult for them to find another job. Some gay teens were harassed at school and were kicked out or ran away from home after revealing their orientation to their parents.
Some teachers described homosexuality as deviant behavior when presenting the public school curriculum on health and sexuality to their students.
According to unreliable government statistics, there were less than a hundred cases of HIV/AIDS in the country. There was a significant stigma against persons with HIV/AIDS.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
The law allows workers in both entities (except members of the military) to form and join unions of their choice without previous authorization or excessive requirements, and workers did so in practice. However, the BiH government refused to register an umbrella organization of entity‑level unions (formed in mid‑2005) at the state level, which effectively blocked the activity of the principal unions above the entity level.
The law prohibits discrimination by employers against union members and organizers; however, protections against retaliation for union activity were not strong and discrimination continued. Practical barriers to employees bringing complaints against employers included high unemployment, a backlogged court system, and the large number of workers in the gray economy.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
The law provides for the right to organize and conduct union activities without interference; however, authorities did not impose sanctions against employers who obstructed union organizing and activity in practice. Some unions reported that employees of private companies were threatened with dismissal if they joined a union.
The right to bargain collectively is provided by law in the RS and in a comprehensive collective bargaining agreement in the Federation. However, collective bargaining in both entities did not involve voluntary direct negotiation between a union and individual employers, but rather work agreements between the government and workers in the public sector. In the Federation, there were no collective bargaining agreements between private employers and unions. In the RS, the general collective bargaining agreement applied to all workers and was negotiated between unions, the government, and employers. This general agreement applied to private companies, regardless of whether their workers were union members. There is no law in the Brcko District on collective agreements, and workers there effectively did not have the right to bargain collectively.
The law provides for the right to strike, and workers exercised this right in practice.
There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in the country's six export processing zones.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, there were reports that such practices occurred (see section 5).
Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment
Entity-level labor laws restrict child labor, and the entity governments implemented these laws in practice. The minimum age for employment of children in the Federation and in the RS is 15 years; minors between the ages of 15 to 18 must provide a valid health certificate in order to work. The law prohibits children from performing hazardous labor, such as night work. Although child labor was not generally a problem, children sometimes assisted their families with farm work and odd jobs. Romani children often begged on the streets, particularly in larger cities.
Trafficking in children for sexual exploitation and sometimes for labor was a serious problem (see section 5).
Entity governments are responsible for enforcing child labor laws. Neither entity had inspectors dedicated solely to child labor inspections; rather, violations of child labor laws were investigated as part of a general labor inspection. Both entities' labor inspectorates reported that they have not found significant violations of child labor laws in the workplace, although they did not conduct reviews of children working on family farms.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The monthly minimum wage in the Federation was $196 (308 convertible marks) and in the RS the "minimum price of work" used as a base for the salary scale of government employees was $66 (100 convertible marks); however, neither provided a decent standard of living for a worker and family. Many workers had outstanding claims for back payment of salaries and pensions. The law requires employers in both entities to make substantial mandatory contributions to pension and health care funds; as a result, to avoid paying high social welfare benefits, employers often did not officially register their employees, leaving employees without access to public health care.
The legal workweek in both entities is 40 hours; however, seasonal workers may work up to 60 hours per week. The law limits overtime to 10 hours per week in both entities; the Federation has no provision for premium pay, while the RS requires a 30 percent premium. An employee in the RS may volunteer for an additional 10 hours in exceptional circumstances. Federation and RS laws require a minimum rest period of 30 minutes during the work day.
Authorities did not adequately enforce regulations related to acceptable work conditions. While entity labor inspectorates made some effort to enforce registration of employees, they limited most inspections to conditions affecting the officially registered workforce. Since the courts only served as recourse for complaints involving registered workers, the RS labor inspectorate had to submit fines and penalties for court approval; because of court backlogs, this system was not effective, and many workers for practical purposes worked without protections.
The law provides workers the right to remove themselves from situations that endanger their health or safety without jeopardy to their employment; however, this right was not effectively enforced in practice. Worker's rights extended to all official, i.e. registered workers, including migrant and temporary workers in this status.
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World: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/8_september_international_literacy_day_793_million_adults_can_neither_read_nor_write/ US: http://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_demographics.asp Prose literacy: the knowledge and skills needed to perform prose tasks (ieto search, use and comprehend continuous texts. Examples include editorials, news stories, brochures and instructional materials.
http://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/commissioner/remarks2005/12_15_2005.asp Below basic indicates the lowest levels of performance such as signing a form or adding the amounts on a banking deposit slip. Basic means a person can perform simple tasks such as comparing the ticket price of two sporting events or understanding a pamphlet that describes how a person is selected for jury duty.
http://www.interdys.org/ewebeditpro5/upload/DyslexiaBasicsREVMay2012.pdf Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffanddayna/4263850948/ World: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/ http://www.who.int/blindness/GLOBALDATAFINALforweb.pdf US : http://www.afb.org/section.aspx?SectionID=15&TopicID=413&DocumentID=4900 EU : http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/82/11/en/844.pdf Low vision definition WHO: moderate and severe visual impairment
WHO : http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2012/en/index.html http://esa.un.org/wpp/population-pyramids/population-pyramids.htm US: http://www.epa.gov/aging/ France: http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/tef/tef2012/T12F032/T12F032.pdf
US : http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Older-adults-and-internet-use.aspx
How ReadSpeaker’s new speech-enabling product extends the reach of your online content
How ReadSpeaker’s new speech-enabling product extends the reach of your online content December 4, 2012 #talkingwebsite
Agenda1. The benefits of adding online text to speech to extend the reach of your online content2. The main features of this new release, including enhanced accessibility and easier customization3. How the more user-friendly design and added functionality benefits your users4. Q&As
Who benefits from adding speech •to online text content? Illiteracy Dyslexia Low vision Seniors Foreign-born Learners Multitaskers Mobile users
Illiteracy US: 41 million (13%) Germany: 7.7 million (9.5%) France: 3.1 million (5%) Netherlands: 1.5 million (9%) Sweden: 950,000 (10%)793 million adults
Illiteracy focus in the US 30 million US adults have below basic understanding of the English language. A further 11 million cannot read or write in English.
Dyslexia US: ~ 47 million (15 %) Germany: 4 million (5%) Italy: 2 million (3%) The Netherlands: 850,000 (5%) Sweden: 400,000 (4%)
Foreign-born US: 39.9 million (12.7%) Germany: 7.3 million (9%) France: 7.2 million (11%) Italy: 4.8 million (7.9%) Netherlands: 3.4 million (20.5%) Sweden: 1.4 million (14.7%)
Low vision World: 246 million US: 21.5 million (18+) Europe: 25.5 million India: 54.5 million China: 67.3 millionWorld Health Organization: Some 65% of people with visual impairment areover age 50, an age group that represents 20% of the global population. Asthe world’s population ages, the number of people with age-related visualimpairment is expected to increase.
Aging populations Europe: proportion of 65+ will double between 2010 and 2050 Germany: 15 million (current) France: 11 million (current) Italy: 12.5 million (current) Sweden: 1.7 million (current) Americas: By 2020, 200 million older adults, nearly twice the figure of 2006 US: 41.4 million 65+, 71 million projected in 2030
Older adults and Internet usage US: 53% of Americans aged 65+ use the Internet or email Germany: 33% (65+) France: 26.7% (50+)
Mobile users with access to theInternet Of the 88% of US adults owning a cell phone, 50%+ use their mobile to go online Europe Germany: 26 million France: 22.3 million Italy: 17 million Netherlands: 8.6 million Sweden: 3.5 million
Increasing share of Internet usageon Mobiles and Tablets
Why a new version? Web is moving away from Flash and to HTML5 More dynamic content Improved usability Better accessibility Modern design
Better customization Easier to customize Customers can create their own skins Customize pre-made skin templates Better blending with the visual identity of the website
Revamped design Revamped design Uses fewer images and takes up less space Larger play button
Customization of skins Our skin color guide provides different options to easily change the color appearance of the player
Easier implementation Code is simpler and easier to understand Implementation time decreases Improved delivery of updates via Cloud
Easy step-by-step implementation “Implementing ReadSpeaker was quite easy. We wish all software implementations were that easy.” Mike Caldwell, Director of Program Development, Idaho Digital Learning, USA “Our technicians have said that it did not take a lot of effort to add it.” Oliver Gliß, Webmaster Media & Communications Dept., VfL Wolfsburg, Germany “Once we got the code, it was a matter of a few hours of work to get it up and running.” Michael Piscopo, Director, Visitmalta, Malta “Implementation was very easy. The turnaround was fast, efficient, and your personnel was amazing in this country and in Europe.” Teresa M. Lee, Webmaster, City of Prattville, Alabama, USA “Since ReadSpeaker is a web-based software, our implication was limited to the initial implementation of ReadSpeaker’s HTML-based code in our CMS. Once the ReadSpeaker code was implemented – and the support we got from the ReadSpeaker team was A-class, our part of the job was done.” Michael Clevestig, Manager Online Marketing, SITA, Switzerland (recommended)
Uses latest web standards HTML5/CSS No Flash needed in modern browsers Works better in more devices (such as iOS and newer Android devices that don’t have Flash)
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When it’s time to take down your Christmas tree, you’ll need to know how to properly dispose of it if you purchased a real tree.
There are multiple ways to recycle your Christmas tree, including curbside pickup, drop-off locations for mulching, easy backyard composting, or you can even give it to the GOATS!
When you take it down is up to you, but don’t forget to continue to water your tree until a few days before you’re ready to take it down.
If your tree dries out too much, it may shed needles as you remove the ornaments. Dried out Christmas trees are also flammable, so leaving a dried out tree in your house for too long is a safety hazard.
In many communities, real Christmas trees are picked up curbside in January. Some communities pick up Christmas Trees on regular yard waste days, while others pick up on specific days. Check with your city or community for curbside pickup specifics, as these may change year-to-year.
No matter which method you choose, make sure you remove ALL decorations, hooks, string, tinsel, clips, lights, and any other non-organic material before you get rid of your tree. And then check again, because you probably missed something!
Read below for some of the disposal and recycling options available in Central Ohio!
Back to nature in your Backyard
If you have a little bit of a yard or wooded area, one of the best options for wildlife is to put it in your backyard or the woods.
Place your tree in an area out of the way such as behind a shed, among the trees, or even propped on a fence, or in your garden.
Your tree will provide an amazing habitat for birds during winter months, when shelter and food sources are low. You can even “decorate” it with pinecones spread with peanut butter, birdseed ornaments, and other food sources for birds.
Composting your tree in your garden can enrich your soil and provide habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators. Lay your tree in your garden area over the winter, and by spring it will have lost most of the needles. Cut the branches and the trunk, and lay them around the garden.
The branches will hold moisture and enrich the soil while continuing to provide habitat. You can always dispose of the tree with yard waste at a later date if you don’t want to wait for them to compost naturally through the fall. People pay good money for pine bark mulch to enrich their soil, and you can add it naturally at no extra cost!
If you have a composter or compost pile, you can cut the tree into manageable pieces and add it to your compost, either after you leave it as habitat through the winter and spring, or right away.
Give it to the Goats!
I admit…we are a little obsessed with the goats at Harrison Farm, thanks to goat yoga (returning in Spring!). It turns out that the goats love Christmas trees as much as I love the goats!
You can drop off your holiday tree at Harrison Farm in Groveport anytime through the winter. It’s super simple – just place the trees next to the wooden fence that runs by the road in front of the big red barn (you won’t miss it). There will likely be other tree donations laying there over the next couple months.
Note: Goats CANNOT have trees with paint or glitter. Yew is highly poisonous and is commonly used in evergreen wreaths, so please just bring your tree if you are unsure of what your wreaths or garland are made from.
They’ll take as many trees as are donated, and the goats even enjoy them even if they have dried out a little bit.
Harrison Farm, 5278 Berger Road Groveport, OH 43125. See more details and connect on Facebook.
If you know of other goat/livestock farms, they may be accepting trees too! Just ask before dropping off!
Christmas Tree Disposal for Columbus Residents
Rumpke, the city’s waste and recycling provider, will provide curbside pickup of holiday trees free-of-charge on residents’ regular yard waste collection day. See details here.
- Remove lights, ornaments, tinsel & decorations
- Place the tree curbside by 6 am on yard waste collection day
- Trees 8 feet or taller should be cut in half
- Do not bag in plastic (these will not be removed)
Yard waste and recycling are collected on the same day every other week in Columbus. Find out when yard waste is collected in their neighborhoods by calling 614-645-3111 or by visiting http://311.columbus.gov/colorday.
Christmas Tree Drop off options
Residents can dispose of their Holiday trees at the following free yard waste drop-off locations to be mulched:
Com-Til Compost Facility
7000 Jackson Pike, Columbus (614) 645-3152
More information about Com-Til. Call ahead to confirm drop-off availability.
Accepts yard waste for composting. Free for residents of Franklin County.
Kurtz Bros. and Mulch Manufacturing Inc.
May need proof of Columbus or Franklin County residency
2850 Rohr Road, Groveport (Kurtz Bros.); (614) 491-0868
6055-C Westerville Road, Westerville (Kurtz Bros.); (614) 882-0200
6279 Houchard Road, Dublin (Kurtz Bros.); (614) 873-2000
6747 Taylor Road S.W. (Mulch Manufacturing, Inc.); (614) 864-4004
May need a driver’s license/identification as a Franklin County resident, otherwise you will be charged.
4120 Roberts Road, Columbus (Ohio Mulch); (614) 921-9330
4665 Westerville Rd. (Ohio Mulch); (614) 891-3242
1600 Universal Rd. (Ohio Mulch); (614) 445-4455
2541 Harrisburg Pike (Ohio Mulch); (614) 594-0270
537 Reynoldsburg-New Albany Rd. (Ohio Mulch); (614) 863-0445
The Christmas trees you set out for yard waste pick-up in your community go to one of SWACO’s sponsored compost facilities. Please be sure to remove all lights, ornaments, tinsel, and other decorations. Trees over 6-7 feet may need to be cut in half for pickup.
See details for your local community. Artificial trees aren’t accepted with yard waste.
Dublin Christmas Tree Recycling – Curbside Mondays
City of Dublin residents can contribute their real tree to the yard waste composting program. Trees will be picked up each Monday in January. Place Christmas trees at the curb by 7 am on Mondays (no wrapping or bags). You’ll need to cut your tree into lengths of no more than 4 feet.
The City of Dublin makes it easy for you to get rid of those real trees with our curbside pickup and residential yard waste composting program.
For details of the Christmas tree recycling program or the City’s recycling, yard waste diversion and composting programs, call 614.410.4750.
Prairie Township Christmas Tree Recycling
The Roads, Cemeteries and Parks department will collect your Christmas trees again this year. Dates for automatic pickup will be the first three Thursdays after Christmas; December 29, January 5, January 12.
Otherwise, please schedule pickup with the Department. Prairie Township is committed to recycling and waste diversion programs to increase environmental protection in our area. Please remove all decorations and remove any wrapping paper or bags. The trees must be placed at the curb for collection.
What NOT to do with your real Christmas Tree
Do not dispose of your tree in a manner for which you don’t have permission.
Don’t send it to the landfill if you have other options.
Most importantly, never burn your Christmas tree in a fireplace or wood stove. Burning the tree may contribute to creosote buildup and could cause a chimney fire.
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UPDATED: Thursday, May 24, 2012 - 2:17pm
(CNN) -- A private spacecraft has maneuvered closer to the International Space Station in preparation for what would be a historic rendezvous Friday, the company behind the project announced.
The unmanned SpaceX Dragon that launched Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, has successfully completed all tests so far in preparation for the attempt to be the first private spacecraft to link to the space station, a SpaceX statement said Thursday.
If all goes well, the Dragon capsule carrying food, clothing and scientific experiments would connect to the space station's robotic arm around 9 a.m. ET Friday, according to the company.
Stellar week for SpaceX founder Elon Musk
The mission, hailed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden as a step toward a new future of private innovation in the space industry, comes as government funding of the space program decreases in an era of fiscal austerity.
According to the SpaceX statement, all has gone smoothly so far.
"Only minutes after the spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9 rocket's second stage, its solar arrays successfully deployed, providing power to the spacecraft," the statement said. "The door that had been covering sensors needed for proximity operations opened successfully."
After that, Dragon orbited the Earth on Tuesday and Wednesday, "firing its thrusters to catch up to the space station," SpaceX's statement said.
On Thursday morning, "Dragon's thrusters fired, bringing the vehicle 2.4 kilometers (about a mile and a half) below the International Space Station," and the craft established a communications link, the statement added.
Connecting to the space station Friday will require NASA's approval in a staged approach that the statement called "the most difficult aspects of the mission."
Only after a series of maneuvers and tests are successful would the Dragon craft be allowed to approach the space station, and astronauts would "grapple Dragon with the space station's robotic arm" to complete the attachment, the statement said.
If the connection goes as planned, the space station crew will open Dragon's hatch Saturday, it said.
Private space travel: A new era begins?
Under the mission plan, Dragon will remain attached to the space station for two weeks before it plummets back into the atmosphere and splashes into the Pacific Ocean off the California coast, according to SpaceX.
Tuesday's launch marked the culmination of six years of preparation to bring commercial flights to the space station after the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet last year. It's backed by entrepreneur Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal.
The Falcon 9 rocket that carried Dragon into orbit launched without a hitch Tuesday following a flawless countdown that came three days after a faulty valve on one of the rocket's engines forced a last-second postponement.
At 180 feet tall and 12 feet in diameter, the Falcon 9 rocket is tiny in comparison to the football-field-long Saturn V rockets that carried Apollo spacecraft into orbit.
The cargo manifest for the trip included 674 pounds of food, clothing and miscellaneous supplies, 46 pounds of supplies for use in science experiments, 271 pounds of cargo bags for use in future flights and 22 pounds of computer equipment.
It will return with science experiments, hardware and used gear.
Cremated human remains were placed in the second stage of the Falcon and will orbit the Earth. Celestis Inc. charges families $2,995 to launch 1 gram of remains in this type of memorial spaceflight.
NASA's Internet tool SkyWatch is providing information about viewing the Dragon from Earth.
The launch is an important step for NASA and the United States, which currently has no means of independently reaching space. NASA relies on the Russian space agency to ferry U.S. astronauts to orbit.
"What's really important is not control, as much as it is the fact that the United States will once again be in the lead, will be providing our own vehicles to take our own astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station," Bolden said. "It's fine to rely on partners, but that's not where the greatest nation in the world wants to be."
SpaceX is conducting the flight as part of a contract that could be worth as much as $396 million, according to company spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham. The company has completed 37 of the 40 milestones in the contract and has received $381 million so far, she said.
Musk likened the significance of the launch to the growth of the commercial Internet -- from its underpinnings as a government initiative to the technological, economic and cultural engine it is today.
"I think we're at a similar inflection point for space," he said. "I hope and I believe that this mission will be historic in marking that turning point towards a rapid advancement in space transportation technology."
The first attempt to launch the rocket was halted Saturday when a flight computer detected high pressure in an engine combustion chamber. Workers replaced the valve Saturday, SpaceX said.
The company plans 11 more flights to the space station.
One of a handful of private companies receiving funds from NASA to develop a space taxi system, SpaceX hopes the experience with the cargo flights will help the company reach its goal of carrying astronauts aboard the Dragon.
The company is developing a heavy-lift rocket with twice the cargo capability of the space shuttle, and also dreams of building a spacecraft that could carry a crew to Mars.
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Strong reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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When the body is unable to regulate how it handles the fluids that are within it, then diabetes insipidus will occur. The kidneys do more than just filter the blood to eliminate impurities. They also have a second job: to remove extra fluids. These extra fluids become urine and this gets stored in the bladder. When working properly, the system is self-regulating and will create less urine when more water is needed for exercise or sweat to cool off the body. It will create more when too many fluids are present.
In 3 out of the 4 types of diabetes insipidus, the regulation system malfunctions and causes the kidneys to think that there is too much water in the body. Because of this, they will continually pull out fluids from the blood stream and turn it into urine. Depending on how many fluids are consumed over the course of the day, a person with diabetes insipidus may expel over 20 liters of urine over the course of 24 hours.
That’s enough to fill 5 one gallon milk jugs with urine.
Normally the human body creates an anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) called Vasopressin that is stored in the pituitary gland. That’s located at the base of the brain and the amount of ADH that gets released is controlled by the hypothalamus. When the body gets dehydrated, more ADH is produced to tell the kidneys to absorb more water. This creates urine concentration. When the body is hydrated, then there is less Vasopressin and this tells the kidneys to take more water out of the blood.
Each type of diabetes insipidus has its own unique set of causes, symptoms, and treatments. Here is an in-depth look at this disease and what a diagnosis may mean.
1. Central Diabetes Insipidus Is the Most Common Form
Central diabetes insipidus is the most common form of DI because it occurs in all population demographics. There are genetic versions of this disease and it can be caused by an injury as well. To some extent, every person on the planet is at some level of risk of developing this form of DI every day.
How is it caused? The genetic version of central diabetes insipidus is caused by a direct transfer of a faulty gene from parent to child. It is usually from the father, but can also come from the mother or both parents. The signs and symptoms of this disease can be present at birth.
The most common reason for this version DI to occur, however, is through surgery. 1 in 5 people who have a surgery, especially near the pituitary gland, will develop this disease. An injury, inflammation, a tumor, or even an illness like tuberculosis or meningitis can also cause diabetes insipidus to develop.
What happens with this version of the disease is the hypothalamus doesn’t tell the pituitary gland to make enough of the hormone that is needed. This means that the kidneys always think that the fluids need to be taken out of the blood stream so that it can be converted to urine and then expelled. In return, people with central diabetes insipidus feel consistently thirsty because their kidneys are taking out too much water.
Treatment options for this form of DI are good. Many people respond well to Desmopressin treatments, which may be an injections, a pill, or a nasal spray. It is a synthetic hormone that replaces the amount that is missing and is taken on an “as needed” basis. When caused by surgery, there is a chance that a complete recovery may occur. All other forms of central diabetes insipidus will typically need to have lifelong treatments or lifestyle changes that increase fluid intake consistently.
2. Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus Reverses the Issue
Nephrogenic DI occurs when the kidneys are unable to understand what the hormone levels within the body happen to be. The pituitary gland is producing the right levels of ADH that are required, but the kidneys are unable to absorb the water when requested. This defect typically happens within the tubules of the kidney, but may be within the entire functioning mechanism of the organ as well.
The most common reason for nephrogenic diabetes insipidus to occur is because of a long-term medication that is being taken. People who chronically take lithium, for example, have a 40% chance of developing this form of DI. Those who must take a long-term antibiotic such as demeclocycline will also have a higher than average risk of disease development.
Like central diabetes insipidus, the nephrogenic version may also be caused by genetic factors. The symptoms of DI may also be present from birth or may develop slowly over time throughout childhood.
An overabundance of certain minerals may also cause this form of DI. Calcium especially can be problematic for the kidneys and too much of it may cause them to stop responding to the flucuating ADH levels.
Because the kidneys can’t respond to the ADH that is being generated, adding synthetic hormones to the body only improves urine concentrations by 10% or less. A more effective treatment tends to be a combination of diuretics and NSAID medications. For some reason, taking ibuprofen and other OTC painkillers concentrates the urine within the kidneys and relieves many of the bothersome symptoms of DI.
Most treatment options are effective for nephrogenic diabetes insipidus, but because of the individualized nature of this disease, finding the right combination can take some time. Making sure enough fluids are consumed will help to prevent dehydration throughout the evaluation and treatment plan creation phases.
3. Gestational Diabetes Insipidus Can Be Cured
This form of DI is the only version that can actually be cured. It also targets one specific population demographic: pregnant women. That’s because gestational diabetes insipidus can only occur when placental enzymes interact with the ADH that a mother’s body produces. The enzymes interfere with the communication systems between the kidneys and the hormone and will even counteract the hormone to reduce the amount there is within the body.
The good news for expectant mothers is this: virtually all cases of gestational DI will resolve themselves in 6 weeks or less after the pregnancy. The bad news is that the extreme thirst and frequent need to urinate is probably not going to go away. Gestational diabetes mellitus is also a threat, which is why when the symptoms of DI are experienced, an immediate examination should be scheduled.
Treatment options may include the addition of Desmopressin, but many doctors will only prescribe the synthetic hormone if the symptoms are very bothersome. Many women simply increase their water intake to prevent dehydration and are monitored by their doctors to prevent disease development.
4. Dipsogenic Diabetes Insipidus Reverses the Course
The other 3 versions of DI cause people to not have enough water. This version actually causes people to have too many fluids in their body. That’s because the damage that occurs due to dipsogenic diabetes insipidus is caused by drinking too many fluids. When people drink too many fluids for a prolonged period of time, it naturally depresses the amount of ADH that is made and this creates fluid retention.
It may also be called psychogenic or primary polydipsia.
The cause behind this form of DI is usually a behavioral disorder or a mental illness. People feel the need to drink more fluids than normal every day and this creates the foundation for disease development. There are no direct treatments that are effective for this form of DI, so those that are suffering from it must be careful to avoid water intoxication.
There are times when a malfunction in the hypothalamus may also lead to this condition. Not only does the hypothalamus control ADH levels through the pituitary gland, but it is also responsible for the thirst mechanisms that people experience.
Most efforts to treat dipsogenic diabetes involve treating the underlying medical condition that causes it. If the behavioral disorder or mental illness can be controlled effectively, then the disease may slowly resolve itself over time. Treatments also tend to be similar to the nephrogenic version of DI because the overall goal is to find a way for urine to become concentrated once again.
Are You Experiencing the Signs and Symptoms of DI?
Diabetes insipidus can affect anyone of any age. Age is a risk factor for development, but the genetic variations that create the disease can be present from birth. The biggest risks of DI are becoming too dehydrated and having excessive urination that interrupts daily living activities. Children may also experience pain, diarrhea, and vomiting when DI is present.
Some people can manage their diabetes insipidus symptoms on their own just by making sure there are enough fluids around. They may pack a backpack full of water bottles, be near convenience stores, or fill large containers with tap water in case of an emergency. Others can control their DI symptoms through hormone replacements or other medications. A lucky few will have their symptoms resolve.
Use the information here to ask questions about diabetes insipidus if you see the signs and symptoms of it at your next medical appointment. Do not self-diagnose. This will just create more stress and anxiety, which can enhance the symptoms. Keep fluid intakes at healthy levels and follow any treatment plan as instructed and diabetes insipidus can become one more challenge that has been defeated.
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1928 – He was born on the 6th day of April this year in Chicago, Illinois, USA. At the age of 12, he starred on the Quiz Kids, a popular radio show that challenged precocious youngsters to answer questions. Thanks to the liberal policy of Robert Hutchins, he enrolled at the age of 15 at the University of Chicago.
1946 – He changed his direction from ornithology to genetics. He earned his B.Sc. in Zoology in 1947.
1948 – Watson began his Ph.D. research in Luria’s laboratory at Indiana University and that spring he has to meet Delbrück in Luria’s apartment and again that summer during Watson’s first trip to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL).
1949 – He took a course with Felix Haurowitz that included the conventional view of that time: that proteins were genes and able to replicate themselves.
1950 – He gained his Ph.D. in Zoology at Indiana University in this year. He then went to Europe for postdoctoral research, first heading to the laboratory of biochemist Herman Kalckar in Copenhagen who was interested in nucleic acids and had developed an interest in phage as an experimental system.
1951 – The chemist Linus Pauling published his model of the protein alpha helix, a result that grew out of Pauling’s relentless efforts in X-ray crystallography and molecular model building. Watson now had the desire to learn to perform X-ray diffraction experiments so that he could work to determine the structure of DNA.
1952 – Crick and Watson had been asked not to work on making molecular models of the structure of DNA. Instead, Watson’s official assignment was to perform X-ray diffraction experiments on tobacco mosaic virus. Tobacco mosaic virus was the first virus to be identified (1886) and purified (1935).
1953 – Crick and Watson were given permission by their lab director and Wilkins to try to make a structural model of DNA.
1962 – For their efforts, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in this year for their research on the structure of nucleic acids
1968 – Watson wrote The Double Helix, one of the Modern Library’s 100 best non-fiction books. The account is the sometimes-painful story of not only the discovery of the structure of DNA, but the personalities, conflicts and controversy surrounding their work. Also in this year, he became the director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and in 1974 made the CSHL his permanent residence.
1988 – His achievement and success led to his appointment as the Head of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health, a position he held until 1992. Watson left the Genome Project after conflicts with the new NIH Director, Bernadine Healy.
1992 – He left within weeks of the 1992 announcement that the NIH would be applying for patents on brain-specific cDNAs.
1994 – He became president of the CSHL for ten years. Dr. Francis Collins took over the role as Director of the Human Genome Project. Currently, Watson gives public speeches and serves as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor.
2007 – In January of this year, Dr. Watson accepted the invitation of Leonor Beleza, president of the Champalimaud Foundation, to become the head of the foundation’s scientific council, an advisory organ. He will be in charge of selecting the remaining council members.
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Moderate reasoning
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Science & Tech.
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