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International Cheetah Day: running fast toward extinction December 4, 2019 - 19:31 TEHRAN – Asiatic cheetah, the planet’s fastest mammal, are facing extinction as their population has dramatically shrank to less than 7,000 in the world over the past few years, with a small remaining population in Iran. Cheetahs are found across Africa especially in northern part of it; and a scattered population of them can be found across eastern and southern Africa, once they had been found in a wide range of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. In 2010, Cheetah Conservation Fund designated December 4 as the International Cheetah Day. The Iranian cheetah population seems to be in trouble; incidental killing of cheetahs by people or livestock guarding dogs, habitat fragmentation and loss of biological corridors and prey base depletion, mining activity and road construction were among the main factors that threatened the lives of these valuable species. Baqer Nezami, conservation of Asiatic cheetah project manager, told IRNA on Wednesday that cheetah population in our country is affected by many factors and unfortunately not only did not improved after 18 years of conservation plan implementation but it is currently dropping. There are no accurate statistics on the population of cheetahs in the country since the last time the camera traps installed to determine their distribution 10 years ago, which has never been repeated, but it seems that there are 30 individuals in Iran, he stated. During past years, herd dogs have always been the major contributors to the cheetah fatalities and have caused the most casualties, with other factors affecting the population of cheetahs as well, he lamented. Cheetahs need a large area to live in, so they cannot be kept in one place or area, even for example, Khar Turan National Park, which covers more than 1.4 million hectares, is not a permanent habitat for the cheetahs, he noted. Referring to prey population as a threatening factor, he said that over the past years, the population of prey has improved to some extent due to an increase in populations of small- to medium-size animals, such as gazelles, hares, Persian fallow deer and birds. Nearly one-third of the protected areas are cheetah habitats, and in all of these areas, prey population has been improved and poaching have declined in comparison to other areas, he added. North Khorasan, South Khorasan, Semnan, Isfahan, Kerman and Yazd are 6 provinces in which the cheetahs breed, and other areas are where the cheetahs probably go in some seasons and come back to the breeding habitat again to regenerate, which causes most of the cheetahs to die whether while crossing the roads or in conflict with human or poachers, he explained. Cheetah’s mating is more complex than other cats as they refuse to mate with relatives, which is an evolutionary adaptation because mating causes genetic disorders, he highlighted. Female cheetahs tend to be solitary, while males typically live in groups made up of other male siblings called coalitions, females socialize with males only when mating but then raise their offspring on their own, he added. Changing habitats also has an impact on cheetah death toll, as they pass the roads and mostly get killed in accidents, he lamented, adding, in a road in Yazd province, 6 cheetahs were killed in accident, and this is because of increased number of cars. He went on to note that to conserve the species, security of the natural habitats must be ensured, so we are fencing the deadliest roads. Over the past 10 to 15 years, we have lost 25 cheetahs on the roads, usually in the winter, when livestock enters the habitat, he regretted. In response to the question whether the threat factors of Asian and African cheetahs are the same, he explained that the factors putting African and Asian cheetahs in danger are different and management ways of each also differs, for example in Africa excessive haunting for fur trade and lions are the main threats to cheetahs. Referring to climate change role in cheetah’s extinction, he noted that climate change has not been a major factor, although some may suggest that it caused cheetahs to change habitats, it has not yet been proven. He also added that in an attempt to provide a safe place for the few surviving Asiatic cheetahs, thousands of livestock have been moved out of cheetah home ranges in Touran National Park in the province of Semnan to avoid livestock-cheetah conflict. He further suggested that we must first identify the underlying problems and, given the economic circumstances, first find solutions and then think about a number of other factors such as climate change that have affected the whole world and nature. Accordingly, we propose to earmark part of the money allocated to deal with sand and dust storms, to move livestock out of cheetah’s habitat, because this will both protect the species and prevent overgrazing and soil erosion, he concluded. Leave a Comment 9 + 5 =
Haworthia cymbiformis Native range: South Africa Known names: Window succulent, Cathedral Window Succulent Hardiness: Best kept above freezing Mature Size: ~3" tall, cluster-forming Light: Bright light, indirect sun, (direct sun can burn the plant) Water: If possible, avoid much winter water, maybe once a month. Water more often during summer. Soil: Fast draing, coarse succulent soil Dormancy Period: N/A Pet-Safe: Yes Plant Size: Grown in 2.5" pot Haworthia cymbiformis a fairly large form of the "window succulent". Haworthias, in the wild, generally grows underground with their "windows" poking up slightly to catch some sun. These succulents will actually do poorly if exposed to too much sun so it is best to grow them either with morning sun only or dappled sun or somewhere shaded away from the hot sun. Avoid overwatering in Summer; they'll end up rotting if the soil is wet and the weather is hot. Haworthia cymbiformis
Bill Adams From The Philosopher, vol. 108, no. 1 ('The Other Animals'). Recently, I was in northern Kenya, watching a reticulated giraffe as it chewed carefully at the soft leaves between thorns at the top of an acacia tree. Giraffes are wonderful and strange animals. Their movements are lumbering and awkward, yet curiously graceful; their vertiginous neck and bold orange crazy-paving coat seem better suited for a child’s pyjamas than as adaptions to the diverse perils of the African savannah. The giraffes in this part of Kenya have been declining, and scientists are trying to find out why. The particular giraffe I was watching had a small box the size of a cigarette packet attached to its horns (actually made of cartilage covered in skin, and called “ossicones”). This was a solar-powered satellite tag, attached by researchers from the San Diego Zoo. The tag contains a GPS, and every hour it sends a signal via a satellite to record the giraffe’s location. The researchers can overlay giraffe’s track through day and night onto a Google Maps satellite image. The scientist can analyse where it goes and where it lingers, and infer the factors that shape its daily life, or eventual death. The tagged giraffe is subject to surveillance just like a shopper in a mall. This capacity to track wild animals is recent, a new human super-power conferred by digital electronics, miniaturization, satellite communication and visualization. This tagging programme only began in 2017. Many species are now routinely tagged in this way, for example terrestrial and marine mammals, birds, fish or turtles. In theory, any animal with a large enough body size to allow for the weight of tag, batteries and attachment devices can be tagged, although the cost of the process (and the feasibility of immobilising the animal and attaching the tag safely and humanely) mean that the procedure is mostly confined to rare species. To a scientist, the stream of digital data from the tag is simply a new, faster, cheaper and better way to obtain information. In theory, a giraffe could be followed by an observer with a map, so perhaps the digital tagging programme just represents the kinds of novel opportunities afforded by digital technology: more data more cheaply from a tireless automatic field worker. What seemed strange to me (and presumably to the giraffe) is the new normal for conservation and animal behaviour researchers. Yet there is more to it than that. As I watch the giraffe move through the Kenyan bush and interact with other giraffes, or avoid hunting lions, scientists in the USA are also tracking it, via a satellite. It occurs to me that if I get too close, perhaps they will even detect its reactions to me. The tag gives the giraffe a digital presence, a second life lived through the continuous unspooling of location data. The giraffe is in the savannah, a material location, but also in the scientist’s geographic information system, and indeed in server farms and temporary storage in its transmission from animal to satellite and down again. This digital life is thin, a trace in space and time. But some digital tags, for example those attached to whales or seals, contain other data (pressure to show water depth, or even a camera). In principle there is no limit to the range of sensors that can be attached to a tag, beyond weight, cost and battery life. The digital life of animals is open to diversification, with enriched streams of data for scientists to ponder over. Moreover, this digital life is – also in theory – eternal. While in Kenya, I also looked at movement data from an elephant that had been collared about five years ago because it was an inveterate breaker of fences and raider of farmers’ fields. It lived in a landscape where smallholder farms abutted land where elephants could roam, and the attractions of fields of maize compared to thorn bush led the animal to raid constantly, with disastrous impacts on local people. In the end, its depredations became so serious that it was tranquilized and moved by low-loader to a different area, without farms. It has since died. But its farm raids are preserved in digital form, night after night, breaking the regional electric fence at dusk and wandering, with followers, from field to field until just before dawn, like a party of excited students on a pub-crawl. The digital enrolment of individual giraffes and elephants through scientific tags is just one feature of a much wider process of progressive digitalization. The distinction between animal and machine is breaking down. This is true of the idea of the animal as organism, i.e. as a living object, bounded by skin or cuticle, and all its physical interactions throughout its life with other organisms and the physical world. So the satellite tag thus attaches the physical giraffe to its digital avatar. But digitalization also changes the idea of the animal, meaning a form of organic organisation and performance associated with the living body. Digitalization may go beyond simply recording a crude and simplified version of the animal’s physical life. It may involve the creation of new digital lives, which have no analogue in nature. Let me explain what I mean, by using a series of examples. The first kind of digitalization is perhaps the most extreme. Digital technologies allow the creation of wholly artificial robotic animals. The Sony Corporation released AIBO in 1999 as a robotic pet, and Tekno the Robotic Puppy was launched in 2000, achieving millions of sales worldwide. A glance at any online toy retail site shows a wide range of robotic animal pets, for example dogs, cats, or monkeys. In Japan especially, there is a lot of interest in the potential of such devices, programmed to realistic responses to human affection, in providing companionship for older people. In robotics, bio-inspired design is a key field, going beyond biomimicry (copying biological systems) to devise mechanisms that are simpler and more effective than those in nature. Bio-inspired robotic locomotion has become a central element in robotics, driven in particular by investment from the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Famously, DARPA funded Boston Dynamics to create BigDog, a quadruped robot capable of carrying 150 kilograms of military kit at four miles per hour. Another project was to create the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot, a robotic vehicle that could fuel itself using plant biomass (although this one had wheels and not legs, so its “animal” credentials are perhaps less secure). A glance at YouTube shows an unnerving collision of science and fantasy in the rapid advances of military bio-robotics. Perhaps the strangest digital robotic animals are those imitating insects. Again, DARPA is driving innovation. There is military interest in swarm robots; cheap intelligent robots moving together like swarms of insects. Such digital animals could undertake surveillance or even carry weapons. DARPA has funded work on larger robotic insects, for example a robotic cockroach that shares the real animal’s ability to squeeze into tight spaces. Not all robots are digital, but digital technology is central to the creation of these devices that move and behave like animals, but are not alive. The success of their simulation of natural movement makes them uncanny. It is as if they are alive, even though their energy comes from batteries and their integrated movements from lines of computer code. Whatever design principles are drawn from nature, these simulated animals are devised entirely by human ingenuity. Their design evolves, but only as the requirements of DARPA contracts or other funding – and the ingenuity of human creators – specifies. Their purpose is defined by the web of contracts and patents that structure the activities of the research teams who build them. Although military researchers have long sought to train intelligent or social animals to do military tasks (for example horses, sniffer dogs, carrier pigeons or, more recently, clandestine work with cetaceans), they do not by and large share human goals. It is therefore not entirely surprising (even if it is shocking) that robotics researchers have tried to integrate computer control systems into living animals by creating cyborgs. In 2006, DARPA issued a call for proposals to develop insect cyborgs. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, worked out a way to insert wires through the exoskeleton of a beetle (the chunky flower beetle, five centimetres long): into its brain, optic lobes, and wing muscles. A “backpack” of electronics (radio receiver, circuit board and battery) allowed signals to be sent that could make the insect fly, and could steer it in flight. The bio-hacking of insects in this way has now become common. In 2013, the company Backyard Brains raised kick starter funding for RoboRoach, described on the company’s website as “the world’s first commercially available cyborg” ( This was marketed as ideal for “a teacher or parent that wants to teach a student about advanced neurotechnologies”. The electronics and the cockroach had to be ordered separately. These cyborgs are both organic and digital. Unlike a human kept alive by a pacemaker, or whose life is enhanced by glasses or hearing aids, they are under human direction through embedded digital devices. They are alive, but their freedom of movement or action is subject to specific control. The purpose they are given by their human handler goes quite outside their evolved responses to the environment or to other organisms (as a trained dog, perhaps, responds to its handler along channels ingrained by evolution as a pack animal). Their behaviour, and the course of their lives, is directed from code within the computer. Unlike the tagged giraffe, their digital presence does not simply track and mirror their real existence, it determines it. Their digital accessories make them a new animal, part organic, part machine. A second dimension of digitalization is the way technologies allow for the creation of virtual animals, and indeed virtual worlds to contain them. Digital representations of living animals may or may not reflect known forms in the real world. Many digital animals are imaginary. Fantasy animals have become a standard plot device for filmmakers. Dragons, for example, have moved from oral folklore to novels to the screen with varying degrees of verisimilitude, from How to Train your Dragon (2010) to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) or Game of Thrones (2011). Some films have realized imagined worlds consisting of whole novel ecologies, notably perhaps Avatar (2009), where the planet Pandora was home to a diverse bestiary, including the flying great leonopteryx and the hammerhead titanothere, as well as the humanoid naʼvi themselves. The power of digital art to evoke an apparently connected and functioning ecosystem (of marine-life inspired plants as well as animals) was the key to the film’s remarkable success. This was a nature film, but a nature populated by imaginary animals. Like the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (2016), digital animals offered a pimped up version of the mundane real world. Digital technologies have also supplied imaginary beasts as virtual pets. Back in 1996, the Japanese toy maker Bandai released the Tamagotchi, a pocket-sized electronic device with an LCD screen portraying an imaginary creature. This electronic pet required constant care and feeding using tiny buttons on the device, or it would die. A year later, Bandai created Digimon, a monster whose power could be built up and used to fight others. In 1998, Nintendo launched an electronic version of the Pokémon, Pikachu. Not only did the owner have to feed and clean it, but also take it for walks (tracked by the device’s pedometer). Digital technologies are increasingly important in the virtual representation of real animals. The classic examples of this are also in film, with the recreation of extinct species. The velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus of Jurassic Park (1993) were shockingly believable, as was the more educative evocation of prehistoric worlds in the TV mini-series Walking with Dinosaurs (1999). Computer games use the same technologies, simulating ecosystems and animals, often with incredible fidelity. Digital film technologies have been extended with virtual and augmented reality. These digital devices simulate a physical environment (which could be real or artificial), allowing the user to turn, move and interact with virtual objects. This technology has been used by museums and conservation organisations to create immersive environments (coral reefs or forests for example), complete with their characteristic animals. You can, for example, take a virtual tour of key US National Parks, experiencing their “natural wonders” via virtual reality, captured for all time and accessible to anyone with enough bandwidth and the right headset. Augmented reality offers an even more intriguing prospect. Here, computer-generated animals can be overlain onto a real-world environment. The power of such technologies was shown in the success of Pokémon Go, an augmented reality mobile phone game launched in 2016. Players used their phone’s GPS to locate Pokémon “species” in real-world locations, seeing them displayed on their phone camera. By 2019 the game had been downloaded more than a billion times. In 2017, the startup Internet of Elephants launched an app called Safari Central that used augmented reality to overlay images of six animals onto the user’s phone camera images of their everyday environments. By August 2019, the app had been downloaded by 180,000 unique users, and over 100,000 photographs of people and their favourite animals had been uploaded to their website. Virtual animals can be real or unreal, but digital technologies make them seem real. Moreover, they have escaped film, with its long-standing ability to blur the boundaries between fantasy and reality, to inhabit real places. Fantastic animals, like Pokémon, can escape the computer to appear in the real world. A few years ago, research showed that primary school children in the UK recognised more Pokémon characters than wild animals. Now these novel animals can be brought onto streets – or nature reserves. And real animals can be made to exist – to move and to perform behaviours – in places where real animals do not (elephants in Trafalgar Square, for example, or rhinos in the living room). The creation of virtual animals, like the invention of life-like robots and the use of surveillance devices to plug animals into digital worlds, seems an inevitable part of the industrial revolution of the late twentieth century, and the rise of digital technologies in all their forms. In his 2011 book Technological Nature, Peter Kahn talks about the growing power of technologies that mediate, augment, or simulate the natural world. Non-human nature is increasingly not sensed directly but mediated by technologies, of visualisation or surveillance. And digital animals, whether created in simulated worlds or with physical body parts, are increasingly important parts of the imagined ecology of the world humans perceive around them. Does this matter? On the one hand, perhaps not. Many applications of digital technologies to animals are somewhat fanciful, and expressing concern about them might seem to be worrying about what might happen in the future. On the other hand, there must be a concern that the virtual and the digital will come to supplant the organic and real in the minds and affections of the public. There are two obvious problems with this. The first is the erosion of authenticity, the breakdown of the physical sense that nature is real, and therefore that the way humans treat it has real implications. Commentators widely deplore the apparent dependence of young people (and adults) on the screens of mobile devices, and the consequential difficulty they have in distinguishing between reality and the imagined. Others highlight the importance of giving children direct physical experience of non-human nature (for example Richard Louv in his ideas about “nature deficit disorder” in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods). The second problem is that is if nature can be created and preserved digitally, it might undermine the value of living animals. As Colin Ellard points out in Places of the Heart, there will, perhaps, seem to be little that is special about an actual animal if it is possible to access digitally “an authentic 3D immersive experience that will have exactly the same effects on the senses”. The rendering of animals using digital technology is a novel power. There are many exciting and positive possibilities, from better science to understand conservation problems, to wider accessibility to (and potentially understanding of) wild animals and the habitats they live in. Yet, like other examples of novel powers, there are also responsibilities. Will the use of digital tracking have positive outcomes for the animals that are tagged, or simply feed a data-hungry science machine? How will robotic devices created by bio-imitation be used and for what purposes? How are virtual worlds – and virtual species – to be deployed in ways that maintain wild spaces and life-chances of wild animals? Scientists, and those of us who marvel at their works, need to look beyond the hype, and address the implications of digital animals, not least for ourselves. Bill Adams is Moran Professor of Conservation and Development at the University of Cambridge. His research approaches questions of environmental development and conservation from perspectives of political ecology and environmental history. • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram Published since 1923
A summary of the book The World Bank: a never-ending coup d’état 20 May 2007 by Víctor Manuel Isidro Luna The main purpose of this book is to demonstrate that the key objective of the policies pursued by the World Bank World Bank It consists of several closely associated institutions, among which : since 1944 has been to strengthen the domination of certain countries over other, less-developed countries [1]. The Bank’s constant concern, the author tells us, has been to maintain US global leadership. In order to show how the World Bank has accomplished its goal the author has focused on three issues: — The World Bank has never committed itself to promoting the development of developing countries. — The World Bank has supported dictatorial regimes. — The World Bank does not respect human rights. This can be seen in the cases of loans granted to colonial powers and the support given to the apartheid regime of South Africa. This book therefore challenges the conventional and popular belief that the World Bank’s main objectives are development and the fight against poverty, and that its decisions are based purely on economic assessment and not on political considerations. The World Bank was created in 1944 at the Bretton Woods conference [2] after three years of preparations, from 1941 to 1944. The main intention was to avoid another great crisis, similar to that of 1929 when international private capital markets crashed. At one level, its role was two-fold: — To rebuild countries ravaged by World War II. — To help developing countries. However, on another level, its real function was to impose US economic and financial leadership. The World Bank did not concern itself with the development of developing countries at any time in its history. From 1946 to 1948, its role was limited to supporting the countries that had been devastated by WWII. France was the first country to which a loan was granted. Later, it played a marginal role as a financial supplier due to the fact that this function fell to the United States with the introduction of the Marshall Plan Marshall Plan A programme of economic reconstruction proposed in 1947 by the US State Secretary, George C. Marshall. With a budget of 12.5 billion dollars (more than 80 billion dollars in current terms) composed of donations and long-term loans, the Marshall Plan enabled 16 countries (notably France, the UK, Italy and the Scandinavian countries) to finance their reconstruction after the Second World War. [3]. As the author says: “The World Bank’s lending policy to Europe was radically destabilized and curtailed by the introduction of the Marshall Plan in April 1948. The scope of the Plan far exceeded the Bank’s capacities.” Nevertheless, at that time the World Bank had only two major concerns: 1) to undermine the increasing influence of socialism throughout the world. Above all, it was concerned about the Chinese Revolution of 1949 and the success of national liberalization movements that flourished mainly in Africa and Asia. 2) to concentrate on loans to developing countries that benefited developed countries and their corporations. Thus loans were granted to improve developing countries’ infrastructure, export capacity (above all in agriculture) and heavy industry, rather than to support sectors such as health and education. Thanks to these policies, the United States, together with the other developed countries, were able to strengthen their leadership. World Bank policy on development since the 1970s proves this. This policy revolves on the notion of foreign indebtedness. The author shows how the idea “...that the shortage of savings is seen as a fundamental factor explaining why development is blocked...” exerted a great influence over the World Bank. If a country is not able to finance its investments with its own capital, it can resort to both foreign debt and foreign investment. The favorable conditions that the developing countries enjoyed at that moment such as the high prices of oil and raw materials, meant that these countries increased their borrowing. In certain countries such as Mexico, the loans granted by the World Bank quadrupled from 1973 to 1981 [4]. Governments of highly industrialized countries, private banks and international institutions like the World Bank and the IMF IMF International Monetary Fund in 1979 and to the drop in raw materials, developing countries were not able to pay their debts (amortization plus interest Interest An amount paid in remuneration of an investment or received by a lender. Interest is calculated on the amount of the capital invested or borrowed, the duration of the operation and the rate that has been set. ) any longer. Private banks cut off almost all the loans and the international financial institutions (IFIs) (only to protect private banks mostly from the United States [5]) established unpopular reforms. These were the Structural Adjustment Structural Adjustment Economic policies imposed by the IMF in exchange of new loans or the rescheduling of old loans. IMF : http://www.worldbank.org/ Lending (SAL) policies, which were set up in most countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The consequences of these unpopular reforms were economic stagnation, unemployment and increased poverty, to mention just a few. In this indebtedness process, the author reminds the reader of two important points: 1) Loans granted to developing countries are used for buying both foreign capital goods and consumer goods. 2) Loans illustrate the influence that can be wielded over countries in debt. For example, the privatization of companies that were state property would never have happened if the countries had not been extremely indebted, to the point of needing new loans. Over the last decades the World Bank has been presided over by Barber Conable (1986-1991), Lewis Preston (1991-1995), and James Wolfensohn (1995-2005). During this period of time - in the face of both the Structural Adjustment Lending failure in improving the life of the population and major social unrest - the World Bank did address some topics like poverty [6], environment, good governance, women’s rights and foreign debt. However, as the author says, these topics are not of basic interest to the World Bank, which continues to impose Structural Adjustment Lending in countries like Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Haiti, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad. For the World Bank to achieve its goals - that is to say, to maintain United States’ hegemony - it has used the indebtedness problem as a pretext for imposing antisocial reforms such as Structural Adjustment Lending in various countries. On other occasions, the World Bank has resorted to supporting dictatorial regimes established after a coup d’état. Forgetting that its loan policy be based solely on economic criteria, to the exclusion of all political considerations, the World Bank supported such United States’ allies as Indonesia (Suharto’s dictatorship, 1965-1998), Philippines (Marcos’ dictatorship, 1972-1986), Somoza’s Nicaragua and Brazil (dictatorship, 1964-1985) where the governments were led by dictators, while neglecting to support democratic governments like that of Salvador Allende in Chile. The book also focuses on the human rights problem. According to the author: “The question of ‘human rights’ has never been a priority for the World Bank”. Human rights, such as the right to have enough food, to have education, employment, clothing or housing, or people’s rights to enjoy free determination, do not matter as long as rich countries can go on making profits in the capitalist system. Proof of this is the support that the World Bank gave to the apartheid regime in South Africa from 1951 to 1968, the loans granted to colonial powers to further exploit people under domination, or the introduction of Structural Adjustment Programmes. On this point the author quotes a report read before the United Nations Human Rights Commission: However, the World Bank has responsibilities and duties, and should be called to account for the devastating consequences of its policies on the people of developing countries. The time has come for the World Bank to answer for its actions before a court of law. [1According to the author, the terms used to designate countries that are poor and that have been subjugated by rich countries are not neutral; according to context and concept, one may refer to such countries as underdeveloped, poor, peripheral, emerging, developing, etc. In this paper we use the term “developing countries”. [2At the Bretton Woods conference, two other institutions were created: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The latter later became the World Trade Organization (WTO). [3The Marshall Plan was a policy with a two-fold objective: 1) to grant money to European countries, 2) to reduce or cancel the debts of European countries. [4From 1970 to 1982, the DCs greatly increased their loans. The total external debt (public and private) in current dollars was multiplied by 10 (rising from 70 to 716 billion US dollars). The external public debt was also multiplied by 10 (from 45 to 442 billion US dollars). The public external debt owed to the World Bank was multiplied by 7.5...”. [5The author comments that “US banks were the most at risk compared to European and Japanese banks because they lent proportionately more. The 1982 crisis particularly affected Latin America, the US banks’ preferred hunting ground. The amounts they lent, compared to their capital, were enormous and imprudent. All the US banks together had lent the equivalent of 152 per cent of their own capital. Of those, the top 15 had lent the equivalent of 160 per cent of their capital. The nine largest, including the Bank of America, had committed the equivalent of 229 per cent of their capital”. [6The first World Development Report on poverty was published in 1990. 35 rue Fabry 4000 - Liège- Belgique 00324 226 62 85
2.2 Finite domains In the previous section, we have defined FDVs with domains without considering domain representation. JaCoP default domain (cllaed IntervalDomain) is represented as an ordered list of intervals. Each interval is represented by a pair of integers denoting the minimal and the maximal value. This representation makes it possible to define all possible finite domains of integers but it is not always computationally efficient. For some problems other representations might be more computationally efficient. Therefore, JaCoP also offers domain that is restricted to represent only one interval with its minimal and maximal value. This domain is called BoundDomain and can be used by a finite domain variable in a same way as interval domain. The only difference is that any attempt to remove values from inside the interval of this domain will have no effect. The following code creates variable v with bound domain 1..10. IntVar v = new IntVar(s, "v", new BoundDomain(1, 10) );
For The Islands I Sing 20100723George Mackay Brown was one of the most important Scottish poets of the 20th century. He believed a poet was born, not made, and his gifts might either flourish or wither depending on circumstance. In his case he suspected that, had he grown up in a city, he might never have written a word. He lived in Orkney, and the islands for him became a 'place of order, a place of remembrance, a place of vision' which sustained him throughout his life. Poet Kenneth Steven travels to Stromness, where George Mackay Brown remained for almost his entire life, to speak to those who remember him and his influence in the community. Poet Kenneth Steven visits Orkney, the island where George Mackay Brown spent his life.
What Is An Eye Stroke? What illnesses can be seen in the eyes? Common Eye Disorders and DiseasesRefractive Errors.Age-Related Macular Degeneration.Cataract.Diabetic Retinopathy.Glaucoma.Amblyopia.Strabismus.. Are there warning signs days before a stroke? Is eye stroke reversible? Some people notice a dark area or shadow in their vision that affects the upper or lower half of their visual field. Other symptoms can include loss of visual contrast and light sensitivity. But the most egregiously under-reported aspect of eye strokes is that they can be reversed … if you act fast. Can you have a stroke and not know it? What causes a stroke in the eye? An eye stroke is caused by obstructed blood flow that damages the retina. This is usually due to either narrowing of the blood vessels or a blood clot. It’s not always clear why eye stroke occurs, but certain health conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, can increase your risk. How serious is an eye stroke? What kind of stroke affects vision? Most strokes affect one side of the brain. If the right occipital lobe is injured, the left field of vision in each eye may be affected. A stroke that affects the left occipital lobe may disturb the right field of vision in each eye. Rarely, both sides of the brain are affected, but this can result in blindness. Why is my vision suddenly cloudy in one eye? Can you regain your sight after a stroke? Although you may never fully regain your eyesight if you’ve suffered visual impairments after a stroke, it is possible to improve muscle control and vision. Specific therapies can also help you adapt to your new eyesight by retraining your brain and eye muscles to make the most of your vision. Is an eye stroke the same as a stroke? Like a stroke in the brain, this happens when blood flow is blocked in the retina, a thin layer of tissue in the eye that helps you see. It can cause blurry vision and even blindness. Arteries carry blood to the retina from the heart. Without blood flow, the cells in the retina don’t get enough oxygen. Can an eye exam detect a stroke? A doctor of optometry may be the first healthcare professional to detect high blood pressure through a comprehensive eye exam. The fine blood vessels in the retina at the back of the eye can help identify risks of a stroke or heart attack before they occur. Can heart problems affect your eyes? Stewart Shofner. Along with causing heart and kidney issues, people with untreated high blood pressure may experience changes in their vision or develop eye disease known as hypertensive retinopathy. Hypertension can cause damage to the blood vessels in the retina, the area at the back of the eye where images focus. Is an eye stroke a TIA? Sometimes people have a TIA that affects their vision. This can happen when a blood vessel leading directly to your eye becomes blocked and causes a temporary loss of vision. This is sometimes called amaurosis fugax or transient monocular blindness. What causes a haze over your eyes? What happens after an eye stroke? Can an eye stroke lead to a brain stroke? What test shows if you had a stroke? A CT scan of the head is usually one of the first tests used for a stroke. A CT scan can show bleeding in the brain or damage to brain cells. The CT scan also can find other problems that can cause stroke symptoms. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Is vision loss from stroke permanent? When a stroke occurs in the primary visual cortex, the neurons responsible for processing vision can be damaged. Depending upon the extent of the damage, this can result in blind areas in the field of vision. While some patients spontaneously recover vision over time, the loss is permanent for most. What is the treatment for optic nerve damage? Optic Nerve Damage Treatment For people diagnose with glaucoma, treatment may involve use of eye drops, Oral medications or getting Eye Surgeries like laser therapy or drainage tubes. For people suffering from Optic Nerve drusen, may benefit from medication that lowers intraocular pressure.
Chinese Culture Nearly five thousand years of history has contributed to the kaleidoscope of Chinese culture. Chinese culture is a complex organism made up by several components such as Chinese Art, literature, philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese folk customs. These components are interlinked and interwoven with each other. Chinese Art Traditional arts include disciplines such as Chinese painting, calligraphy, Chinese Opera and traditional music, and a wide range of Chinese folk art forms. Building on the forms of old, today Chinese artists use modern art form to express Chinese traditional stories or combine the different styles of art together to pursue better artistic performance in painting, music, sculpture and drama. Chinese folk customs China is home to a vast array of local Chinese folk customs and traditions. One custom in Beijing is to buy a statue representing the rabbit god over Chinese New Year. This is thought to bring prosperity and good luck to the household. Traditional Chinese medicine TCM is deeply rooted in Chinese philosophy and has strong links with Tai Qi, Kung Fu and other martial arts. At the heart of TCM is the idea of balance and as part of your studies you may acquire a new way to look at and appreciate life.
Multithreading vs. Multiprocessing in Python Revealing the true face of Multithreading In this article, I will try to discuss some misconceptions about Multithreading and explain why they are false. All experiments are conducted on a machine with 4 cores (EC2 c5.xlarge). I’ve been dealing with parallelism in python for quite a while, and I was constantly reading articles and stackoverflow threads in order to improve my understanding of the subject. Normally the more you search the more you learn. However in the case of multithreading/multiprocessing, the more I searched the more I got confused. Here’s an example: Stack Overflow answer While the first part of the answer is correct, the last is completely false. I’m not attacking the person who wrote the answer, on the contrary: I have the upmost respect for anyone who tries to help other people. I only used this example to show that some explanations about multithreading can be misleading. Moreover, some other explanations employ advanced terms and could make things harder than they really are not. ⚠️ PS: I’ll try to keep things simple: so no talking about GIL, Memory, Pickling, Overhead. (Although I’ll speak about overhead just a little bit). Let’s start! Multiprocessing and Multithreading are basically the same thing. [Link the whole experiment code] I’m going to start with a simple experiment and I will borrow the code from this article written by Brendan Fortuner which is a great read by the way. Suppose we have this task which we will execute many times. def cpu_heavy(x): print('I am', x) count = 0 for i in range(108): count += i Next we will try both Multiprocessing or Multithreading from concurrent.futures import ProcessPoolExecutor, ThreadPoolExecutor def multithreading(func, args, workers): with ThreadPoolExecutor(workers) as ex: res =, args) return list(res) def multiprocessing(func, args, workers): with ProcessPoolExecutor(workers) as ex: res =, args) return list(res) _⚠️ Note that if you implement: • Multiprocessing with_ _multiprocessing_ or _concurrent.futures_ _… • Multithreading with_ _threading_ or _multiprocessing.dummy_ or _concurrent.futures_ it won’t affect our experiments. Without further due, let’s run some code: visualize_runtimes(multithreading(cpu_heavy, range(4), 4)) visualize_runtimes(multiprocessing(cpu_heavy, range(4), 4)) While Multithreading took 20 seconds, Multiprocessing took only 5 seconds. So now that we are convinced that they’re not the same, we would like to know why. For that let’s move to the next misconception about multithreading. 👇 In Multithreading, threads run in parallel. Actually in a ThreadPool, only one thread is being executed at any given time t. [Link the whole experiment code] I don’t know about you but for me it was a shocker! 😱 I always thought that threads execute code simultaneously, but this is totally untrue in Pyhton. Let’s do a little experiment. Unlike the previous one, we will not only track the start and stop of each job but also every point in time where the job is running: def live_tracker(x): print('I am', x) l = [] for i in range(106): return l Like before we will run our experiment and produce new graphs. visualize_live_runtimes(multithreading(live_tracker, range(4), 4)) visualize_live_runtimes(multiprocessing(live_tracker, range(4), 4)) Actually threads neither run in parallel nor in sequence. They run concurrently! Each time one job will be executed a little and then the other takes on. Concurrency and parallelism are related terms but not the same, and often misconceived as the similar terms. The crucial difference between concurrency and parallelism is that concurrency is about dealing with a lot of things at same time (gives the illusion of simultaneity) or handling concurrent events essentially hiding latency. On the contrary, parallelism is about doing a lot of things at the same time for increasing the speed. [ ] With this said, if you have a cpu heavy task, and you want to make it faster use multiprocessing!For example if you have 4 cores like I did in my tests, with multithreading each core will be at around 25% capacity while with multiprocessing you will get 100% on each core. This means that with 100% on 4 cores you will get a speedup by 4. How about multithreading’s 25% ? will we get any speedup? Answer in next section. 👇 Multithreading is always faster than serial. Actually for cpu heavy tasks, multithreading will not only bring nothing good. Worst: it’ll make your code even slower! [Link the whole experiment code] Dispatching a cpu heavy task into multiple threads won’t speed up the execution. On the contrary it might degrade overall performance. Imagine it like this: if you have 10 tasks and each takes 10 seconds, serial execution will take 100 seconds in total. However with multithreading, since only one thread is executed at any given time t, it will be like serial execution PLUS the time spent to switch between the threads. So for the experiment I’m launching 4 heavy cpu jobs, on 4 threads on a 4-cores machine (EC2 c5.xlarge) and comparing it with serial execution. def cpu_heavy(x): count = 0 for i in range(10*10): count += i n_jobs = 4 marker = time.time() for i in range(n_jobs): cpu_heavy(i) print("Serial spent", time.time() - marker) marker = time.time() multithreading(cpu_heavy, range(n_jobs), 4) print("Multithreading spent", time.time() - marker) [email protected]:~$ python3 Serial spent 1658.8452804088593 Multithreading spent 1668.8857419490814 So Multithreading is 10 seconds slower than Serial on cpu heavy tasks, even with 4 threads on a 4 cores machine. Actually the difference is negligible because it’s 10 seconds on a 27 minutes job (0.6% slower), but still, it shows that multithreading is useless in this case. Is multithreading any good then ? Multithreading is useless. Actually for cpu heavy tasks, multithreading is useless indeed. However it’s perfect for IO. [Link the whole experiment code] For IO tasks, like querying a database or loading a webpage the CPU is just doing nothing but waiting for an answer. Let’s try to query 16 urls, serially than using 4 threads, then using 8: urls = [...] # 16 urls def load_url(x): with urllib.request.urlopen(urls[x], timeout=5) as conn: n_jobs = len(urls) marker = time.time() for i in range(n_jobs): load_url(i) marker = time.time() multithreading(load_url, range(n_jobs), 4) print("Multithreading 4 spent", time.time() - marker) marker = time.time() multithreading(load_url, range(n_jobs), 8) print("Multithreading 8 spent", time.time() - marker) [email protected]:~$ python3 Serial spent 7.8587799072265625 Multithreading with 4 spent 2.5494980812072754 Multithreading with 8 spent 1.1110448837280273 Multithreading with 16 spent 0.6199102401733398 Notice we have we have gained a significant speedup with multithreading in comparaison to serial! Note also that the more threads you have, the faster your execution. Of course there is no point of having more threads than the number of urls, this is why I stopped at 16 threads for 16 urls. Also bear in mind that in your best case scenario, the time of execution with multithreading is equal to the maximum time spent loading one url: If you have 16 urls with one that takes 10 seconds to load and 15 others that take 0.1 second each, using a thread pool of 8 threads will make your program last at least 10 seconds, while in serial it would last 11.5 seconds. So in this case there isn’t a huge speedup. Okay now we know that even though multithreading is bad for CPU, it performs remarkably well for IO. If multithreading is bad for CPU and good for IO, does this mean that multiprocessing is good for CPU and bad for IO ? Answer in next section. 👇 Multiprocessing is bad for IO. When it comes to IO, Multiprocessing is overall as good as multithreading. It just has more overhead because popping processes is more expensive than popping threads. If you like to do an experiment, just replace multithreading with multiprocessing in the previous one. [email protected]:~$ python3 Serial spent 5.325972080230713 Multiprocessing 4 spent 1.2662420272827148 Multiprocessing 8 spent 0.8015711307525635 Multiprocessing 16 spent 0.5572431087493896 [Bonus] Multiprocessing is always faster than serial. ✅ TRUE, but only of you do it right ⚠️ For example if you have 1000 cpu heavy task and only 4 cores, don’t pop more than 4 processes otherwise they will compete for CPU resources. (compete => competition => concurrency) • There can only be one thread running at any given time in a python process. • Multiprocessing is parallelism. Multithreading is concurrency. • Multiprocessing is for increasing speed. Multithreading is for hiding latency. • Multiprocessing is best for computations. Multithreading is best for IO. • If you have CPU heavy tasks, use multiprocessing with n_process = n_cores and never more. Never! • If you have IO heavy tasks, use multithreading with n_threads = m n_cores with m a number bigger than 1 that you can tweak on your own. Try many values and choose the one with the best speedup because there isn’t a general rule. For instance the default value of m in ThreadPoolExecutor is set to 5 [Source] which honestly feels quite random in my opinion. That’s it. 🎉 🐍 Intro to Threads and Processes in Python
New research shows world’s deepest cave in Moravia is even deeper Hranice Abyss, photo: Radek Klanica A team of geologists from the Czech Academy of Sciences say their research shows that the world’s deepest cave – Hranice Abyss in Moravia – is twice as deep as previously measured. One of the team’s geologists, Radek Klanica, spoke to Radio Prague International. I began by asking him about the significance of their research. “I think it was quite important to extend the study and try to find out how deep this cave really is, because during the last attempt the remotely operated vehicle stopped at the depth of 400 meters and no one really knew how deep the cave is.” I understand we still do not definitively know how deep the cave really is. How deep do we think that it is now? ARESII equipment for electrical resistivity tomography, photo: Radek Klanica “We tried a study using the geophysical method. By which we can measure different physical fields on the earth’s surface and since these physical fields reflect the distribution of rocks we are able to describe the sub-service. “We did some quite substantial research. When we combine these results with the geological development of the area, we are able to reveal a new interpretation of the Hrancie Abyss origin and our results suggest that the abyss is 1km deep.” And that is the final length, or could it be even deeper? “Well, we think that this is the final depth, but of course the abyss has to be connected to deeper parts of the Earth’s crust, especially the mantel, because the water in the abyss is averaged by carbon dioxide and other elements which geochemical analysis suggests are coming from this depth. “Our results suggest that the abyss is 1km deep.” “However, these elements are probably just rising along some faults or small cracks, so we think that the abyss depth of 1km is final.” Is there a reason why the deepest cave lies in the Czech Republic geologically? Hranice Abyss, photo: Radek Klanica Well, the Hranice Abyss is located along the large geological contact between the Bohemian Massive and the Carpathian Mountains, so there can be really large and deep faults in this area. “However, it is probably just a coincidence that it originated here in this Karst area.” I understand it formed around 20 million years ago or when exactly? “The most prevalent idea is related to hydrothermal processes. “People for a long time thought that the abyss originated from below upward when the ground water gradually dissolved the upper rock thanks to these acidic elements of deeper origin. Gravity meter for measuring of gravitional acceleration, photo: Radek Klanica “However, we came up with another explanation which relates its origin to the presence of canyons around 20 million years ago. “We basically think that the waters which ran on the surface at the time did not run on the edges of the canyon, but that the water found its way into a sub-surface near the canyon and carved its way into the limestone sequences all the way to the bottom of the canyon.” The cave is also specific because it is not filled with rainwater, but rather with much older water that is bubbling from below. What type of water is this exactly and where did it come from? “It is mineral water enriched by a lot of specific elements. “When we try to determine the age of groundwater we analyse especially the presence of chlorofluorocarbons and tritium, which contaminated waters around the earth from around 1950. “We came up with a new explanation which relates [the cave’s] origin to the presence of canyons around 20 million years ago.” “The analysis shows that these are virtually not present in this water, so it must be older.” Polish explorer Kryzstof Starnawski has been exploring the cave for several years now and told National Geographic last year that there is nothing typical about this cave and that new discoveries are made with every dive. What other great questions are there still surrounding the cave? “Certainly the depth itself. “We do have some suggestions from our methods, but we cannot be certain that it really is 1km deep. “I hope that in the future there will be some further dive or some remotely operated vehicle that can reach the bottom of the abyss in order to prove or disprove our theory.”
Dry Eye Dry eye happens when your eyes don’t make enough tears, or the tears evaporate too quickly. This causes them to become red, irritated and swollen. Your eyes may feel dry, gritty, or sore and worsen throughout the day. You may also experience blurred vision or a feeling like there’s something in your eye. Both eyes are usually affected. Causes of dry eye There are many potential causes for dry eye. Some of the most common include: • ageing – dry eye is more common in people over 50 • exposure to hot, dry air • as a side effect of certain drugs, including antihistamines, decongestants, antidepressants, contraceptive pills and hormone replacement therapy • hormonal changes in women, such as menopause or pregnancy • wearing contact lenses • seasonal allergies • laser eye surgery • blepharitis (inflammation of the eyelids) • long periods of time spent in front of a computer screen • an existing medical condition such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, thyroid disorders and Sjögren’s syndrome Dry eye is uncomfortable, but normally not a sign of anything serious. In rare cases severe untreated dry eye can damage the cornea, making it susceptible to ulcers and infection, which could potentially lead to blindness. If your symptoms are severe make an appointment to see us immediately. How EyeSpecialists can help We understand that dry eye can seriously impact your quality of life. By taking a detailed medical history and doing a thorough examination, we can help determine the underlying cause of your dry eye. Based on this information we will design a treatment plan tailored to your needs. Treatment for dry eye may include: • artificial tear drops and ointments • medication to reduce inflammation • temporary plugs to close the ducts in the corners of the eye and slow tear loss • surgery to close the ducts permanently If you suffer from persistent dry eye, or your condition is getting worse, make an appointment to see us today. Join our mailing list ANZSRS - Australian and New Zealand Society of Retinal Specialists ASO - Australian Society of Ophthalmologists ASRS - American Society of Retina Specialists Book Appointment
Weekly Newsletter The State Duma, lower house of Russian Parliament, on 22nd December, granted expanded immunity to the former Russian presidents. The bill signed by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin grants the former presidents of Russia immunity from prosecution. Once Presidents have left Kremlin, they and their families are immune from the prosecutions of crimes that they have committed in their life. The legislation exempts from police investigation, arrests or being searched. Before this legislation, Russian Presidents were immune to prosecutions for the crime that they committed, but only for the time they served as president. Even if the President now is accused of treason or grave crimes, and the Supreme Court has found him guilty, confirming the charges, the President will be immune from legal penalties and any kind of consequences. The bill that has now become a law, is a part of Russian constitutional amendments which were approved in summer and that allowed Putin to remain in power until 2036, when he will be 86 years old. This law was followed by the Russian constitutional amendments, which allows Putin to run for elections for another two terms, and allows him to remain in Presidential seat until 2036. He has been ruling Russia as a president since 2000. After this legislation, Presidents after they have left the office are no more prohibited to become Senators for life in Federation Council, the upper house of Russian Parliament. A position of the former Russian President in the Senate also comes with the expanded immunity. Apart from this legislation, the Russian Parliament has also passed a law that has made information about employees of Russian Judicial System, officers working for law enforcement agencies or with regulatory authorities and military personnel classified as confidential. These legislations required a sign from the Russian President, Putin, which is merely a formality. However, to revoke the protections that new law has given the former presidents a supermajority of Russian lawmakers will be required. The immunity given to the presidents has played a significant role in Putin’s rise to power. Putin previously granted immunity to a former president, Boris Yeltsin, from being interrogated, arrested or his house being searched by the police. The analysts in Russia have interpreted this decision of Putin as an incentive, to Yeltsin who stepped down from presidency and chose Putin as his successor. Although Yeltsin denies the rumors of having any deal with Putin in this regard. The previous law that grated presidential immunity was first time adopted by Russian Parliament in 2001. Other than Yeltsin, the only other former President who can enjoy the Presidential immunity is Dmitry Medvedev, who remained in office from 2008 till 2012, after which Putin was allowed to return back as President. Weekly Newsletter US in favor of asserting influence in Pacific against China: Smoke Box in South Asia: Weekly Newsletter Morocco and Israel to normalize their relations Morocco is a country that has a long Jewish history. It has long been expected that Morocco will eventually normalize relations with Israel because before the formation of Israel in 1948, Morocco was home to Jewish people. Several thousand Jewish populations have been settled in Morocco for decades and Jewish trace their legacy back to Morocco. Israel and Morocco developed diplomatic ties on a very basic level during the 1990s but those relations were halted by the outbreak of a second uprising of Palestinians in 2000. The diplomatic ties were never ended entirely because till this day about 50,000 Jews travel to Morocco every year to learn and connect with their history there. Recently on Thursday, Morocco and Israel have agreed to fully normalize diplomatic and official ties with Israel. In a US brokered deal, Morocco is the fourth Arab country to normalize ties with Israel along with United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Bahrain by setting the conflicts aside in past four months. In order to acquire a firm deal between Morocco and Israel, US will recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara where Morocco is facing a decade long territorial conflict with Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a movement to establish an independent country in a territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged and appreciated the Morocco for reaching a deal and called it another ray of light and peace. He further announced that there will be direct flights between Morocco and Israel along with great diplomatic missions. US has been trying to entice Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel but Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud replied that Riyadh will only consider recognizing Israel if peace deal will peace deal will “delivers a Palestinian state with dignity and with a workable sovereignty that Palestinians can accept”. Palestinians are feeling abandoned by the peace deal made by multiple Arab States and calling it a betrayal against them. Palestinians believe that the peace deal will affect the status of their long standing demand of Israel leaving the territory that rightfully belongs to Palestinians before receiving any recognitions. Bassam as-Salhi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee reacted belligerently and condemned deals made by Arab countries saying that it is a retreat from Arab Peace Initiative (2002) that Israel must end its unlawful occupation of Palestinian lands. Moroccan King Mohammed told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a phone call on Thursday that negotiations between Israel and Palestine is the only way to resolve the conflict and that he stands by the idea of Two-State solution. U.S to Impose Sanctions on Turkey for Purchasing Russian S-400 The Trump administration is set to impose sanctions on Turkey for acquiring Russian S-400 missile defense system. The US House of Representatives adopted the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for passing sanctions against Turkey. The bill was passed with a vote of 355 in favor while 70 votes against it. Since 2019, when Turkey received the S-400 Russian air defense system worth $2.5 billion, Capitol Hill has been pushing Trump to impose mandatory sanctions on her NATO ally. As an immediate response to this purchase, the US quickly expelled Turkey out of the F-35 fighter jet program. But President Donald Trump who spent much time in office improving relations with Turkey, stalled the imposition of the penalties. The Pentagon has been warning that the S-400 could likely jeopardize the F-35, if its radar is used to scan the jet passively. This would allow the Russian system to easily identify the target and destroy its combat. Through the NDAA, the US is to impose sanctions against the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline and Turkish Stream pipeline. The sanctions would also include blocking US exports to Turkey, banning the officials from making US transactions, or barring the US banks or other international monetary institutions from making loans to Turkey. Such a move could be detrimental for the future Turkish economy. Another response that is being considered by the lawmakers in the US is to further arms sales to Ukraine. Two experts familiar with the issue said that the Trump administration would impose sanctions “as mild as possible”. This would placate the Congress without causing damage to the US extensive US-Turkey military partnership. In response to this pressure on Trump to impose sanctions, he wrote on Twitter, “I hope House Republicans will vote against the very weak National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which I will veto.” But if the US Senate accepts the bill, which it is likely to, the President will have no more authority to stall the sanctions any further. This time the situation is tough for President Trump, who has only a few weeks left in the office, because if the bill is passed and signed, it gives the President only 30 days to impose the sanctions. However, if Donald Trump fails to impose penalties against Turkey, the new Presidentelect Biden would be obligated to enforce them as soon as he takes the office. Biden might go ahead imposing the new sanctions but how harsh or mild they will be, depends on the nature of the relationship between two countries. Relations with Turkey are a concern for the Biden administration. This is the case due to the location, economic and military strength of Turkey, which makes it a valuable ally for the US, especially against Russian threat. The US Congress perceives close ties between Turkey and Russia as a political issue, which could also be detrimental to the NATO operations. Nuclear Escalation between Pakistan and India: Where It Could Lead? Nuclear tension is increasing between India and Pakistan after the incident of the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019. The two superpowers of South Asia are steps away from nuclear war, things got worse when Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down an Indian fighter jet on 26th Feb 2019 in Balakot. Indian defense minister announces that India may revoke its existing commitment to only use nuclear weapons in retaliation for a nuclear attack known as ‘no first use’, that means India could Strike Nuclear weapon at any point. Many analysts Expressed their views by saying both the countries became more aggressive towards each other after 1998 when both became a nuclear power. Mr. Imran Khan mentioned the risks of nuclear war between two countries on different occasions, on the other hand, Satinder Kumar Sikka who was the part of Indian Nuclear program in 1998 argues that India should be able to use nuclear weapons if there is an increased risk that Pakistan would do so first. “If we are threatened by Pakistan, we have every right to retaliate”. India tested its first nuclear weapon in 1974 and the government committed to no first use in 2003, China is also in the list of No first use of Nuclear weapons but now Indian stance has been changed & using the nuclear weapons at first. If India firms up the change in its no first use policy, Pakistan might take this as a signal that India could strike at Pakistani nuclear installations. And that might in turn, ready Pakistan to use up all its nuclear weapons first. “And so, you get this destabilizing dynamic where as soon as the crisis becomes nuclearized, there is a reason for both sides to go first for their upper hand. The increasing tension between both the countries will further increase if any incident happens again within the territory of India, without any investigation India is going to blame Pakistan and could respond with force. In response to that Pakistan Military will retaliate and hence the conflict will be promoted in this scenario, one party needs to be calm to avoid such conflict that could lead to nuclear war. There is a lot of expansion in the nuclear stockpile from both the sides till 2025 both the countries will have 400-500 nuclear weapons. Increasing this much nuclear weapons is an alarming situation for the region. Weekly Newsletter Afghan Peace Talks Progress The CEO of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker and Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary General Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi welcomed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan on Saturday in Doha. Secretary Pompeo met with Taliban and Afghan government’s negotiators in Qatar along with Qatar’s ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha. Progress in delayed peace talks and withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan were thoroughly discussed. Recently, violence broke out in Kabul when rockets hit densely populated areas killing at least eight people. SITE Intelligence Group, ISIS affiliates in Afghanistan have claimed the responsibility of carrying out the attack. The US Secretary’s visit highlighted the attack and emphasized the negotiators on stimulating and sharing their ideas on increasing the successful outcomes to deal with such issues. It is true that peace talks between Taliban and Afghan government have not progressed much because of different issues i.e. the Taliban are expecting to have a Hanafi school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence but Afghan government is not agreeing to it because it will sideline the Hazaras who are predominantly Shia and they will become more vulnerable to violence. The delayed and stalled process of talks have surged the violence in Afghanistan. In response to the recent visit of Secretary Pompeo and violence augmentation in Kabul, Taliban started negotiating and talking to Afghan government. The representatives of Taliban and Afghan government announced on December 2nd, 2022 that they have reached a preliminary deal which is their first ever written agreement in a span of 19 years. Nader Nadery, a member of the Afghan government’s negotiating team informed that, “The procedure including its preamble of the negotiation has been finalized and from now on, the negotiation will begin on the agenda.” The Taliban spokesman also confirmed that a joint working committee has drafted the agreement which includes a way forward for further discussions which will allow the negotiators on both sides to pay attention to more serious issues including ceasefire. As per US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, agreement is three pages long including rules and procedures for the negotiations and inclusive ceasefire. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman, Sediq Sediqqi, also said that the agreement will help both sides to reach some conclusions. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo encouraged the negotiators on both sides for their willingness to find common grounds. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry also encouraged the negotiators upon reaching the preliminary deal and said that it is another substantial step ahead. The agreement is an important development which is very essential for Afghanistan at the moment. Massacre of Farmers in Nigeria Nigeria has been facing and fighting violence for years. It is reported on Sunday that dozens of farmers and people were gruesomely slashed and massacred in northeastern Nigeria. The killings were carried out in the early afternoon of Saturday in the village of Koshobe and other rural communities in the Jere local government area near Maiduguri, the capital of the conflict-hit Borno state. As per the United Nation the death toll initially was 110. Security forces and volunteers are still looking for dead bodies and at least 10 women that are still missing. According to Edward Kallon, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, armed men entered the area and started killing men and women who were busy harvesting the rice fields. He further explained that people were not only ruthlessly killed but wounded as well. The incident has been called the most violent attack against harmless and unarmed civilians during the entire year. Though nobody has claimed the responsibility for carrying out this act but as per estimated Boko Haram and other minor groups including the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been involved in carrying out heinous crimes and killing in the same vicinity in recent years. Boko Haram has also been involved in stealing farmer’s money and crops. It has also been reported that these groups are involved in killing at least 30,000 people and displacing about two million people, who are seeking refuge in Nige, Chad and Cameroon, during their armed campaign. The UN has urged that culprits behind this massacre must be brought to justice and the President of Nigeria seconded UN, while denouncing the attack, that the security crisis will be tackled. The president condemned the senseless killings of hard working Nigerian farmers by the hands of terrorists in Borno state. Trump Bans Cotton Imports from Xinjiang The U.S Customs and Border Protection Agency stated that under “Withhold Release Order,” the government has banned the import of cotton products from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), which is China’s largest producer and a quasi-military organization. The Trump administration scaled up the economic pressure on Chinese region, Xinjiang as it has asserted that the factory has employed people to work forcefully. People who are working in the factory are said to be the detained Uyghur Muslims or from other Muslim minority groups. The reports suggest that the mega firm XPCCC has employed 12% of Xinjiang’s population. XPCC was founded in 1954, as a business and paramilitary unit, to settle the far west region of China. In 2015, XPCC produced 30% of Chinese cotton and the U.S. Treasury Department imposed a ban on all dollar transactions with the company. Kenneth Cuccinelli, Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, who also manages the border agency views the label of “Made in China,” as a warning signal. In a news conference, he stated that “The cheap cotton goods you may be buying for family and friends during this season of giving – if coming from China – may have been made by slave labor in some of the most egregious human rights violations existing today in the modern world,”. The government is considering imposing a region wide Xinjiang cotton import ban. According to the reports of the United Nations, nearly 1 million Uyghur Muslims have been detained in these camps, living in inhumane conditions. However, Chinese authorities deny such allegations and have stated that these camps have been created as vocational training centers for fighting growing extremism in the region, which poses a threat to the country’s peace and stability. A ban like this is going to have far reaching implications for the textile companies in China, who are involved in apparel business with the US traders and clothing companies. Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman said that US has been fabricating the news of slavery of people in Xinjiang. The US economic practices against China undermine the market principles and can result in increasing unemployment in the region. The suppliers will sharply increase the manufacturing costs due to the new economic sanctions. There are only a few large enterprises that will be able to guarantee that no product of their company has been manufactured from the XPCC cotton. But for the small business owners, giving guarantees like these to the US importers would be very difficult, which will leave a very negative impact on their product sale. Banning cotton imports from XPCC means banning all cotton imports from China. The US ban on importing cotton products from China could have implications for the other clothing exporters, specifically those in Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. The garment factories in China and other textile producing countries have been using the XPCC cotton. Since the imposition of the new law, any US firm that is caught doing business with the XPCC could be blacklisted and will be liable to pay a civil financial penalty (the greater of twice the value of the transaction or US$307,922 per transaction). Similarly, if the executives of the company are found to willfully violate the economic ban on XPCC, they will become subject to civil and criminal penalties. In the last days of his presidency, Trump has been taking steps to establish the United States’ rigid position against China. Such measures are likely to make it difficult for president-elect Joe Biden difficult to ease tensions between America and China. In retaliation, China could impose a ban on import of US cotton and can therefore, intensify the trade war between the countries. Iran Passes a Law to Boost Uranium Enrichment The Iranian parliament on Tuesday approved a bill allowing uranium enrichment by at least 20% and a rise in low-level enriched uranium stocks. Iran steps up uranium enrichment beyond the limit set under Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal if sanctions are not eased in two months. Uranium will be used for different purposes including the making of Nuclear Weapons. The decision had been made in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist in Tehran last week, which Tehran has blamed on Israel, Iran’s hardline dominated parliament had on Tuesday approved the bill with a strong majority. The draft law called the “Strategic Action Plan for Lifting the Sanctions and Protecting the Interests of the Iranian Nation” was accepted by 251 votes in the 290-member parliament, the Votes show the Iranian interest in the new Law. Under the new law, Tehran would give two months to the deal’s European parties to ease sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors, imposed after Washington quit the pact between Tehran and six powers in 2018. The law pushed by hardline lawmakers would make it harder for US President-elect Joe Biden, who will take office in January to rejoin the agreement. If the bill passed by the parliament gets the final approval of the Constitutional Council and becomes a law, the Iranian Atomic Energy Authority will begin to enrich uranium by at least 20% and increase their stockpile this could be an alarming situation for US and European countries. Iran is permitted to keep up to 300 kilograms, or about 660 pounds, of uranium enriched to 3.67 percent purity, a level that can be used for civilian purposes like nuclear power fuel. Iran has also stopped UN inspections on its nuclear sites. Iran also includes an additional point to allow Iran to withdraw in two months from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), if the parties to the nuclear agreement do not take steps to normalize Iran’s banking relations, trade and oil exports. This decision will cause more difficulties for Iran and compel the US to get back into the pact. UK Approves Covid-19 Vaccine for Emergency Use UK making them the 1st country to begin vaccinating its population from COVID-19. British authorities announce this vaccine for emergency use, it’s a green signal for the world & a first step towards ending the pandemic backed by rigorous science and multiple experiments from months. Multiple countries have invested in vaccine as the second wave of COVID put the countries into new economic burden, American drug maker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech comes as the virus surges again in the United States and Europe, putting pressure on hospitals and funeral homes in some places and forcing new rounds of restrictions on citizens and more load on economy of the states. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, which licenses drugs in the U.K. and allow them to work on the vaccination of COVID-19, recommended the vaccine could be used after it reviewed the results of clinical trials that showed the vaccine was 95 per cent effective overall, it also offered significant protection for older people, among those most at risk of dying from the disease. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. “The vaccine will begin to be made available across the U.K. from next week. It’s the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again.” People over 80, and health-care workers and other care workers will be the first to receive the shot in the UK. The drugmaker Pfizer will deliver its first shipping to the UK with the limited supplies of 80,000 vaccines & in the second half most will be delivered to the US but the final testing must be completed before that. Still this is unclear whether the Pfizer-BioNTech shots protect against people spreading the coronavirus without showing symptoms? Another question is how long protection lasts? The vaccine also has been tested in only a small number of children, none younger than 12, and there’s no information on its effects in pregnant women. Lot of work still has to be done.
7 Tips for Writing Poetry About OCD OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, occurs when people have invasive thoughts that impede their everyday functioning. These obsessive thoughts result in anxieties and then repetitive behaviors, or compulsions, meant to reduce such thoughts. OCD does not discriminate- anyone at any age can develop symptoms. In fact, this disorder affects 1 in 40 adults in the United States. Keep reading for more info. about OCD and how you can better cope with OCD if it affects you personally. Also a big shout out to Laura, who wrote this guide for us! 1. Tell yourself “It’s just a thought.” OCD thoughts are overwhelming, all consuming and tiring. But they are “just” thoughts. People who have OCD have certain neurotransmitters in the brain which misfire, causing repetitive ideas and actions, such as constant hand washing or checking in order to neutralize their feelings. Some people suffer from repetitive thoughts without the actions. This is known as “Pure O” or “pure obsessional thoughts.” Very often these relate to individuals harming themselves or others and can result in the sufferer becoming extremely anxious and withdrawn. 2. Don’t seek reassurance. One of the worst things you can do is continually ask for reassurance from the ones you love. The less you ask “Is this safe?” “Have I washed my hands enough?” “Have I checked this thoroughly?” “Please just one more time?” the better. 3. Know you’re not alone. Though it’s often known as a secretive disorder, OCD affects as many as 3.3 million people in the United States alone. You might even know someone who has OCD and not realize it. 4. Read, inform, change. Look to helpful online guides or literature such as Dr. Jeffery Schwarz’s Brain Lock or Lee Baer’s Imp of the Mind to help yourself learn about the condition and how you can take control of it. You can even write your own poems about OCD to raise awareness and share your thoughts and concerns with others who may be in similar situations like this awesome poet did. Don’t forget to post your poems to PowerPoetry.org! 5. Choose three letters. OCD patients need TLC from their loved ones. But more importantly they also need one of the following: CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) or ERP (exposure response prevention) to help them change. Every one of these therapies can help patients with varying degrees of the condition. 6. Change one thing at a time. OCD is not a condition that can be overcome overnight. It needs time, patience and care. To get better you need to understand that very often the road to recovery is two steps forward and one step back. A setback does not mean the end- you just need to refocus and try again. 7. Be kind to yourself. When you do overcome one hurdle, reward yourself. Take time to do something that makes you happy and aware that you’ve battled hard to get where you are. Refocus and recognize you’re a champion! Related Poems Submitted by Imasha on Thank you for this guide! It is a great bullet-point information to help people understand OCD just a bit more. :3 Create a poem about this topic
Password guessing Password guessing is a “brute force” method of gaining access to an encrypted account or system by systematically guessing its password. Typically, a dictionary type scheme is used to do this. Guessing a password successfully is only possible in the event that weak passwords are used. Password guessing shouldn’t be confused with password cracking. Synonym: PG-ing Select your language
Grease Grades NLGI grease grades range from 000 to 6 and are defined in ASTM D217, cone penetration test (full scale). The grades are determined by dropping a cone in a cup filled with worked grease and measuring the distance that the cone falls into the cup in a defined period of time (five seconds). The distance is reported in tenths of a milimeter as the penetration. The only characteristic defined by the NLGI grade is the consistency of the grease. Other very important characteristics of grease like chemistry and performance are not defined by this parameter. Softer, or lighter, greases have higher penetration numbers than stiffer, or heavier, NLGI grease grades. Grease Compatibility When mixing two different greases, it is important to consider grease compatibility. Compatibility of different greases mixed together is complicated by the chemistry of the thickener, base oil, and additives. Some thickeners can become unstable when mixed with incompatible chemistries, resulting in the thickener becoming less efficient. When thickener is made less efficient, the mixture is softer and the grease may not stay where it is intended, separate oil at a much higher rate, or some other thing may happen that causes an application to become lubricant starved. Testing can be done to determine if two different greases that may be mixed together may be incompatible. Because this testing does not capture all of the possible failure modes, the safest course of action when changing grease is to remove as much of the grease as possible before making a change. External Links Parker – Micron Ratings Grease Compatibility Chart
Tablets are more than just active ingredients Tablets are more than just active ingredients Every year the pharmaceutical industry produces more than 1.3 trillion tablets globally. Each tablet consists of both active ingredients and a variety of inactive ingredients, known as excipients. Excipients are used not only in prescription and over the counter drugs but in a range of complimentary, veterinary and traditional medicines, too. They are necessary to ensure that the active ingredient in a tablet can be absorbed by the body, in the right place and at the right time. They also have a huge role to play in product stability. Depending on requirements, they must be carefully selected and formulated to ensure the right strength and quality every time. One challenge is the bioavailability. In the past the active ingredient molecules were often simple and very soluble but they are becoming more complex and poorly soluble. This means it can be difficult for the human body to absorb them, which limits their efficacy. More than 70 percent of newly developed active ingredients are affected. In order to improve the bioavailability BASF provides solutions, such as Soluplus®. Overall, the company offers more than 100 different products for the pharmaceutical industry, including active ingredients, such as concentrated omega-3, ibuprofen, menthol and more. For further information visit
Content continues after advertisement Effusion Cytology Clinical Pathology \|March 2020\|Peer Reviewed Sign in to Print/View PDF Effusion Cytology Effusions result from increased hydrostatic pressure or vascular permeability, altered oncotic pressure, or impaired lymphatic drainage. Effusions into body cavities (eg, thorax, abdomen, pericardial sac) are most commonly associated with inflammation, neoplasia, hemorrhage, trauma, obstruction, or leakage from the urinary or biliary tracts. Effusion cytology is relatively noninvasive and inexpensive and often provides an accurate diagnosis or contributes to diagnostic planning and prognosis. Clinical history and physical examination findings are helpful in establishing differential diagnoses. For example, a young cat with weight loss and hyperproteinemia is more likely to have an inflammatory effusion from FIP than from a neoplastic process. Likewise, an older large-breed dog with acute collapse and a large splenic mass is more likely to have hemorrhagic effusion from a ruptured hemangiosarcoma than from a transudate associated with hyperadrenocorticism. Typically, only several milliliters of fluid are present in the thorax, abdomen, and pericardial sac in dogs and cats. The fluid is clear, colorless, and minimally cellular (<3 × 109 cells/L) with a relatively low total protein concentration (<2.5 g/dL).1 There is some variability in classifying effusions, and several schemes and algorithms are presented in the literature.1,2 Recent classification schemes have simplified effusion categories into low-protein transudates (<2.5 g protein/dL and <3 × 109 nucleated cells/L), high-protein transudates (≥2.5 g protein/dL and <3 × 109 nucleated cells/L), and exudates (≥2.5 g protein/dL and ≥3 × 109 nucleated cells/L).1 A hemorrhagic effusion is suggested if the fluid packed cell volume is ≥25% that of the peripheral blood or if >0.5 × 1012 RBCs/L are present.1,3 Neoplastic processes can be associated with any fluid type, emphasizing the importance of microscopic evaluation. Examples of the types of cells that occur in effusions are included in this image gallery. Clinician's Brief: The Podcast *2007-2017 PERQ and Essential Media Studies
Applied Science / Information Technology Essay Cryptography and Network Security Cryptography and Network Security Cryptography can be defined as the conversion of data and information sent by a sender into an unreadable form and then back into a readable form once it gets to the intended recipient of the data or information. It is the method of protecting sent information from unauthorized access through the use of code that only authorized persons can understand. In computer science, cryptography refers to the techniques used for the securing of data and information which involves the use of mathematical concepts and a set of rule-based calculations called algorithms to transform messages in ways that are hard to decipher. These algorithms are used for cryptographic key generation and digital singing verification to protect and secure web privacy on the internet and also confidential information such as credit card transactions and email. A Brief History of Cryptography The word cryptography itself was derived from the Greek word kryptos which means ‘hidden.’ The act of cryptography can be dated back to 2000 B.C when the ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphics which consisted of complex pictures that were only understood by the elite few. This very act can be explained to be cryptography. The first occurrence of modern cipher can be traced back to Julius Caesar (100 B.C. to 44 B.C) who did not trust the messengers delivering his letters to his governors and officials, so he invented a system to keep his messages secret. To do this, he created a system in which all characters in his messages were replaced by a character three positions ahead of it in the Roman alphabet. In recent times, mathematicians and computer scientists have become greatly involved in cryptography, as the significance of this aspect of data communication has become increasingly important. The ability to securely store information without any breach has become a very important factor in the success of war and business. Due to the increasing significance of information and data security and, because the government of various countries does not wish certain entities inside and outside their country to have access to ways to receive and send information that may be a threat to national security, most countries have placed restrictions on the various aspects of cryptography. This restriction ranges from limitations on the usage and export of software to the public, to the dissemination of mathematical concepts that could lead to the development of cryptosystems. Types of Cryptography • Symmetric-key Cryptography The symmetric-key cryptography also called the single-key cryptography is one of the simplest types of cryptography in the world. It involves the use of a single key by both the sender and the receiver. The sender uses this key to encrypt a plain text and sends the ciphered text to the receiver who uses the same key to decrypt the message sent and recover the plain text. This type of cryptography is not so efficient and secure, as if anybody intercepts such a message, such a person can easily use the key present in the message to decipher the message and obtain the message sent. An example of the single-key cryptography includes the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) which was established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (FIPS 197) in November 2001 as a way of protecting sensitive information. This type of encryption is wildly used in the private sector. • Public-key cryptography This is the most revolutionary type of cryptography in the last 100 to 300 years. In this type of cryptography, two types of keys are used (public and private keys). The public-key in this type of encryption can be wildly distributed but it can only be used to decrypt a message when it is combined with the private key. Due to this, the private key is kept secret as this is what is most important to protect the information sent. In other words, the public key is used for encryption while the private key is used for decryption. Types of the public-key include: 1. Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) used by bitcoin 2. Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) used by the Federal Information Processing Standard for digital signatures. • Hush Functions Here, no key is needed in the algorithm. A fixed-length hash value is computed as per the plain text that makes is possible for the contents of the plain text to be recovered. Hash functions are used by many operating systems to encrypt passwords. The modern cryptography is majorly concerned with the following four objectives which includes 1. Confidentiality The information sent must be protected from all unauthorized access from anyone whom the information is not intended. 2. Integrity The information cannot be altered either in storage or in transit between the sender and the receiver without the change of alteration being noticed. 3. Authentication The sender and the receiver can confirm each other’s identity and location or destination of the information. 4. Non-repudiation This means that the creator of the sender of the information cannot at later stages deny his intention in the creation and the sending of such information. Procedures or protocols that meet the above criteria are known as cryptosystems. The importance of cryptography in modern technology can never be overemphasized. It is cryptography that makes all our daily business on the internet safe and credible. Without this cryptography, scammers will easily have access to our bank information, countries will not be able to protect confidential information digitally, and even our telephone or What’s app conversation will not be private anymore. In shortCryptography and Network Security, the whole internet will be a disaster waiting to happen. Looking for an ideal essay? Our expert writers will write your essay for as low as from $10,99 $13.60 Place your order now What is the correlation between race and educational level? The work of nannies and expectations of employers How foreign education influence professional success? How did international marriages change within time? Sociology of families and marriage Network Topology: 4 different Network Topologies Explained A comprehensive guide to the evolution of WiFi security Router: what is it, and what is it for? This is how technology has changed the animated cinema Creating Video Games: How It Happens! Need your Essay done Overnight? 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IB History HL Grades 11-12 4 credits Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation IB History is a course in which the students explore topics in the history of the United States and Latin America as well as a series of topics in 20th century world history while considering questions of historiography and conducting in-depth research. The goals of this course are to help the IB student of history develop a sense of internationalism; understand the discipline of history; fulfill World Civilization and U.S. History requirements of the State of Indiana; prepare for the successful completion of exams at the end of senior year; and conduct a historical investigation. Americas topics include the U.S. Civil War, the development of modern nations (1865-1929), and the emergence of the Americas in global affairs (1880-1929). 20th century topics include: World War I in Europe, the interwar years, World War II, the rise and rule of 20th century dictators, and the Cold War, including the Korea/Vietnam conflicts.
Shopping Cart Restoring Well-Being Through Homeopathy by: Sanford Lapedis, ND, MDHS Homeopathy is the science and art of restoring one's health and well-being on all the manifest levels of existence; spiritually, mental and emotionally, as well as physically. It is a science because it applies laws and proven studies of therapeutics and medicine, yet equally important it is an art because it involves perception, intuition and awareness. Thus the science and the art are like the two wings of a bird; one wing without the other and the bird is crippled and cannot fly; whereas taken together and made strong the bird can fly and soar to the heights of success, well-being and knowledge. The human being is composite of physical and metaphysical realities, and it is not possible to bring about a state of harmony, or an absence of disease by treating only a single manifest level without concerning ourselves with the total being. The total being is a complex integration of body and senses, which are governed by the central nervous system and brain, which are in turn governed by the ego and soul who is the receiver of the results and experiences while interacting with the world and universe. These experiences are felt in the soul and known in the form of joy or sadness, peace or agitation, pleasure and pain, etc. All these apparent levels of one's existence are animated and permeated by spirit-like energy which can only be known when one reverses the outward flow of their attention, and looks within towards the transcendent reality of existence. It is the total being who is imbalanced in sickness because all levels of their existence are always, and at all times, interacting and interrelating. We can see proof of this in the example of a person who is mentally stressed or upset and feels a state of peacelessness spiritually, while physiologically there may be tachycardia, increased respiration with a sense of pulmonary constriction. Or we may see a person after a serious physical accident is in a state of mental shock or trauma, and is affected emotionally with a sense of indifference or ennui. And another instance where a person who is spiritually unhappy may experience mental and emotional depression while physiologically they may have a loss of appetite, insomnia or a wide variety of other physical complaints. Thus we can perceive that it is the total being who is brought into a state of disharmony in any given particular disorder no matter which level of existence is designated as the origin of the disease. Therefore it is necessary for a system of therapeutics to be evolved that deals with and considers the total being, and not just their parts. Homeopathy is that consideration! It is a unique feature of homeopathic medicines which are able to stimulate an individual’s vital-force to restore harmony on both physical and metaphysical levels. It does this due to a homeopathic medicine’s inherent affinity to curatively channel dynamic energy. This field of dynamic energy is tapped by homeopathic substances by reversing their externalizing properties through a process of potentization. Everything in creation has, as it were, a potentiality or blue print for becoming manifest which ultimates itself as an apparent physical reality which then can perceived by the mind and senses. Homeopathic medicines utilize this potential energy and work from within to without. Through the process of potencization homoeopathic medicines are restored to their original energy field of existence, which in fact is actually the very potential to become that particular substance. The therapeutic advantage in this technique is that homeopathy affects a human being’s vital-energy centers which have become imbalanced and are the most basic and primary levels of disharmony. It can be understood by the example of two individuals who travel to a district where there is a typhoid epidemic. Both eat, drink and breathe the same environmental influences, yet only one of them develops typhoid. Both have been equally exposed to the morbid bacteria, but only the one whose disposition is weak develops symptoms. The stronger one remains healthy because their defense mechanism or vital-force is able to overcome the morbid influences. From this example we can readily understand that the appearance of disease symptoms is only the outcome of an inner disposition or susceptibility. And it is this imbalanced disposition which is required to be brought back or returned to a state of strength and harmony in order for the individual to maintain health whatever stresses or environmental conditions are present. If we treat only the outward symptoms without treating the disposition it is not possible to cure the weakened vital-force which is in fact the underlying cause of all disease! Get a Free Homeopathic Evaluation Call Toll Free: 888-838-1949 Or click here to submit online Free Homeopathic Evaluation The Perfect Gift! Self-Help Software (coming soon) Click Here to Learn More Book A Consult Book Your Consultation OnLine Online Calendar HS Newsletter Learn more about how to use specific remedies for specific conditions. Click here to Subscribe to the Homeopathy Solutions Newletter Contact Information To contact us, call toll-free: Or use our contact form. Print Print \| Sitemap Recommend this page Recommend this page © Homeopathy Solutions - all rights reserved
How to Grow Crocus Hunker may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Image Credit: Dejan Cavic / EyeEm/EyeEm/GettyImages The crocus (Crocus sativus) is a small purple-colored flower that is also known as autumn or saffron crocus. Its lavender flower has a red filament at its center, and this is the source of the spice many home chefs know as saffron. The perennial flowers are autumn bloomers, unlike spring-blooming Dutch and giant crocuses, and they are native to the Mediterranean. They look very similar to springtime crocus flowers and don't grow much taller than 5 inches. Like their spring-blooming cousins, saffron crocuses don't require much effort to grow. Why is the saffron spice so expensive? Each flower produces only three small orange-red saffron filaments, and it takes a considerable amount of flowers to harvest a very small usable amount, which is why the price point of saffron is so high. Because of this small availability, there's even a ton of fake saffron on the market. That said, home gardeners can easily grow enough flowers to harvest usable amounts of the spice for their culinary endeavors. Saffron crocus is relatively cold hardy (down to -10 degrees Fahrenheit). It requires little upkeep once plants are established in your yard or garden. The drought-tolerant plants are great for those looking for a showy, hands-off flower that blooms in autumn. Best Uses for Crocus Crocus is best planted straight in the ground wherever you want to enjoy a view of pretty flower clusters in the fall. You can also plant it in containers, but a swath of spread-out crocus flowers in a garden is really something beautiful to see. You can plant crocuses for their aesthetic benefit or grow them in order to harvest the filaments to flavor all sorts of dishes. That said, don't expect to get a truckload of saffron threads. It takes thousands of flowers to produce a single pound of saffron. Still, you can harvest a few threads for the occasional fancy dish. Most recipes call for only a pinch of saffron anyway, since too much can be overwhelming. If you plan to harvest saffron from these flowers, be aware that each flower only produces three saffron threads. So, you'll need to plant multiple crocus corms in order to get a usable harvest. The petals of the saffron crocus flowers are also very fragrant and can be used to make homemade potpourri. Each year, the plants will multiply, leaving you with more and more flowers to enjoy. That means more saffron for the taking and a showy display in your yard or garden. Once established, autumn crocus plants don't require much upkeep aside from dividing them to prevent overcrowding, which can limit the dazzling autumn display. How to Grow Crocus • Common Name: Crocus or saffron crocus • Botanical Name: Crocus sativus • When to Plant: In the late summer or early fall, usually sometime in September. You can also plant in the spring. • USDA Zones: 6-9 • Sun Exposure: Full sun or partial shade • Soil Type: Sandy, well-drained soil • When it's in Trouble: Over the years, if flowers begin to reduce in numbers, the problem is usually overcrowding. Yellowing is typically a sign of disease or pest activity. • When it's Thriving: Healthy purple flowers with grassy-green foliage pop up in the fall and multiply over time. Starting Crocus from Corms You don't actually plant crocus from crocus bulbs but from corms, which are bulby plant stems. When it comes to spacing, plant corms about 4 inches apart and at a depth of 4 inches. Flowers usually come up after six to eight weeks, though sometimes, they only appear the following year after planting. Typically, the flowers stick around for about three weeks, and the grasslike foliage holds on for up to 12 weeks depending on your climate. Ideally, you should plant crocus corms in a spot with well-drained soil that receives plenty of sunlight. However, the plants can handle a bit of shade. Don't bury the corms in an area where the soil is moist all summer long. The corms will be dormant throughout the summertime months, so pick a spot that's mostly dry during that time. Once the plants wither away for the winter, it's tough to discern that they were even there. If you're worried about accidentally digging up the corms during spring gardening, you may want to mark the spot where they're planted. Unlike other plants and flowers, there's no need to prune or remove crocus foliage at the end of the growing season. The foliage will die back and provide nutrients for next year's flowers. In What Zone Does Crocus Grow Best? Saffron crocus grows best in USDA hardiness zones 6 to 9. You can grow the perennial in these zones without having to worry about the corms surviving the winter. You'll need to dig up the corms in colder zones to protect them from harsh winters and store them indoors before planting them outdoors again in the spring. Some people in zone 5 might be able to get away with leaving corms in the ground throughout the winter as long as soil temperatures don't go below -10 degrees Fahrenheit. However, if you choose to do this, it's a gamble that may not pay off. You can increase your chances of success by heavily mulching around your crocus plants to help insulate the soil. Don't forget to remove the mulch in the spring once your last frost date has passed. Image Credit: HHelene/iStock/GettyImages When Should You Plant Crocus? Most companies that sell crocus corms will ship them at the right time for your zone and encourage you to plant them as soon as you receive them. It depends on your USDA growing zone, but planting usually occurs in August or September about six to eight weeks before your first frost date. You can also plant the corms in spring after the last frost but know that they won't flower until the fall. Soil, Sunlight and Water Recommendations for Crocus Crocus plants prefer a lot of sun but will still grow in partial shade. Soil needs to drain well, and high-moisture areas should be avoided. Pick a spot with dry, sandy soil for best results. Crocus plants are drought tolerant and don't usually require any specialized care, including watering. In fact, it's best if the planting area is relatively dry throughout the summer while the corms are dormant. Excess water during the dormancy period can lead to root rot and disease. In the fall when the flowers bloom, you can hold off on watering if your area gets at least 1 1/2 inches of rain per week. How to Propagate Crocus Crocus multiplies every year. However, after about four to six years, perennial crocus can become overcrowded. You can divide and replant the corms in any year. Do this as soon as the blooms and foliage begin to fade at the tail-end of the fall. Unsure of when to divide crocus? It's also OK to wait a few years. When flower numbers begin to stagnate or decrease, it's definitely a sign that it's time to divide the corms. To divide corms, wait until the flowers and foliage die back. Dig up the corms and rinse away any dirt. You'll be able to spot the cormels, which crop up at the base of the mother corm. These small pieces eventually separate from the central corm and become offshoot plants. Remove these. They're usually easy to pull off with your fingers. Once you're done taking these off the main corm, replant them. Don't forget to keep crocus spacing guidelines in mind. How to Winterize Crocus You can grow crocus in places colder than zone 6, but you'll need to do a bit of extra work to keep your plants alive. To preserve the corms for the next season, dig them up and bring them inside for the winter. You can do this after the first frost in the fall but do it before the ground is completely frozen and unworkable. To keep the corms dormant until next year, put them in a large container or bucket and fill it with sand. Keep the bucket in a cool, dry location like a pantry or a very dry basement. In the spring, plant the corms after your last frost date. If locating and digging up the corms seems like an annoying task to undertake every year, you can make it a bit easier by planting the corms inside containers or buckets that you plant deeply in the ground. In zones 6 and higher, you don't need to worry about winterizing saffron crocus. Image Credit: Julie Merrall / EyeEm/EyeEm/GettyImages How to Harvest Crocus You can grow saffron crocus in order to harvest the earthy-tasting threads that emanate from the center of each flower. To gather the saffron pieces, wait until the flowers bloom. The threads need to be harvested right away. Harvest at midday when the cup-shaped flowers are fully open as they close at night and on gloomy days. Gently pluck the red-orange threads from the flowers and bring them inside. Spread them onto a baking sheet and leave them to dry at room temperature. You'll know they're dry enough because they'll crumble easily when touched. You can keep the dried threads in an airtight container for up to two years. Common Pests and Other Problems for Crocus Small rodents can be a problem for plants with corms. If you've had issues with voles or mice in the past, apply a barrier like wire mesh before planting the corms. They're the most likely culprit if you're noticing saffron crocus damage. Bunnies and other animals are notorious for munching on the tender green growth of all kinds of crocus plants, including saffron crocus. They also eat and displace corms. Squirrels sometimes disturb dormant corms when burying and uprooting food. Deep plantings may deter rodents, but it's not a guarantee. While insect pests aren't a huge problem for saffron crocus, they can still appear and cause issues. Mites, for instance, can enter the plants via nicks and scratches in the corms and leave behind a plant with stunted, yellowed leaves. A miticide can help combat them. Thrips can also cause foliage damage. They cause yellow and white spotting, but the damage isn't usually fatal. A quick application of neem oil is usually enough to mitigate the problem. Common Diseases for Crocus Saffron crocus is susceptible to fungal diseases and root rot if planted in a wet area, especially if conditions are very moist during the blooming period. Some examples of fungal diseases that affect saffron crocus include Aspergillus and Rhizopus. Planting in soil with good drainage is the best way to prevent these kinds of diseases. You can also prevent the problem by spraying corms with fungicide before planting. Steph is a freelance writer with over 10 years of gardening experience. She has taught gardening workshops, once created a communal gardening space from scratch, and never tires of sharing her passion for digging in the dirt. She also firmly believes that you can never have too many houseplants. View Work
Accommodation Testing Explained My child needs something called accommodation testing! This is what we hear from many worried parents who call our office seeking testing for their children. Schools refer families when their children have struggled with meeting school demands. Often times, student also struggle in completing standardized tests required by colleges or schools (e.g., SAT, ACT, GRE, etc.). Students may have problems in completing assignments, organization, time management, and are not showing their abilities in school. Parents and schools may feel that the student is in need of accommodations (e.g., extended time) to help them compensate for underlying learning difficulties. Even if a student has an “obvious” learning challenge, schools and test boards generally require professional testing and documentation supporting the need for accommodations. Which is why students and families come to us! We work with parents, students, and schools to provide the appropriate testing needed. Our testing explores if a student needs and meets the requirements for additional supports. In addition, we focus on also helping them better understand their unique profile of strengths and weaknesses. This helps to maximize their potential! Here is a brief overview of the most common questions we get from families wanting to learn more about accommodation testing. Please note: below is a general overview of accommodation specific testing. For additional detailed information regarding accommodation testing, or for information regarding other types and purposes of testing please visit our web page specific to our assessment services here or contact our office for more information. What is accommodation testing? Accommodation testing is also referred to as Psychoeducational Evaluation, Comprehensive Psychoeducational Assessment, or any combination of the words. Assessment and evaluation are used interchangeably. Accommodation testing helps determine if a student has a learning disability, diagnosis, or other significant difficulties that impact their ability to learn. Typically, the evaluation includes standardized tests that examine a student’s cognitive, information processing, academic, and socio-emotional functioning. These combination of tests allows a psychologist to identify any underlying learning disabilities, information-processing weaknesses, and/or emotional/social difficulties that impact a student’s ability to learn and perform. By understanding a person’s profile of strengths and weaknesses, a psychologist can then make specific recommendations (including school accommodations). The purpose of these recommendations is to help students compensate for their challenges so that they can show their true abilities. Who does accommodation testing? A licensed psychologist, with specialized training, administers these tests. Students enrolled in a doctoral-level program or recent doctoral-level graduates, who are not yet licensed, may also perform the testing under the supervision of a licensed psychologist. Who is it for? Students and individuals who are seeking accommodations for school related activities. This may include in the classroom for completing schoolwork, taking classroom tests, etc. Additional tests with accommodation may also include exams that are not part of the regular curriculum such as Advanced Placement Tests (AP), PSAT, SAT, or ACT; as well as graduate school level tests such as GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT. Many of the testing boards have specific requirements in the documentation needed to request test accommodations, visit their specific websites for more information. What are some sample accommodations? Accommodations are based upon an individual’s unique profile of strengths and weaknesses, this is merely a quick sample of possible accommodations. • Extended time (e.g., if a student typically get 60 min on a test, the student can get 90 or 120 minutes) • Preferential seating • Reduced distraction environments for test-taking • Access to a computer and/or technology during class for note-taking • Use of calculator • Audiobooks • Provision of notes/outlines What does testing look like and how longs does it take? The testing process takes approximately 3-4 test sessions, each lasting 3 hours. The examiner meets with the student and family for a clinical interview during the first appointment, then individually with the student for test administration. Parents participate via the clinical interview, as well as by completing parent rating forms. If possible, we also include teacher and/or school participation. This can include conversation with teachers or school staff, and/or teachers completing teacher rating forms. Once the testing is complete, a feedback session is held, lasting approximately 2 hours, in which the testing results, diagnoses, and recommendations/accommodations are explained in detail to the parents and student. Therefore, the overall length of this process depends on various factors, especially scheduling. Generally, from first test session to feedback, most assessments are completed within 4 weeks. What does it cost? Learning dynamics provides services at a reduced rate and on a sliding scale. Our assessments are “flat-fee” ranging from $3400-$5200, based on household income. Students; individuals who have obtained a degree in the past two years; and teachers receive our lowest rate- regardless of income. We are in-network with insurance providers and have established partnerships with various schools which and offer different pricing. For information regarding our insurance or school partnership pricing, please contact our office (310)855-3276 Share Your Thoughts
Tea Time for Plants Updated: May 26, 2020 Have you ever brewed a beneficial tea for your plants? Well it is super easy and generally inexpensive, so you should try it! Many house plants and garden plants will benefit from a tea! Beneficial teas can: condition the soil to be healthier and have better texture help your plants uptake nutrients help your plants resist disease, infections, & insect infestation help your plants handle drought Why does it help? Because beneficial teas, when brewed properly, have fungus and bacteria in them that work together with your plant! Fungus & what you need to know about it: Many plants form relationships with a fungus that grows on their root system, and that relationship is called mycorrhiza. The plant and the fungus trade nutrients and live together in harmony, making them stronger together than they are apart. A plants roots can only reach so far into the soil, and the fungus is like a major extension to the root system. Imagine the roots as the highways and main roads, and the fungus as all of the side roads, driveways, sidewalks, and trails. The fungus also gets to smaller and more distant spaces than roots can where it can uptake more nutrients and improve the soil structure. Fungus likes a lower pH in the soil and soil that doesn't dry out all the way between waterings. Bacteria & what you need to know about it: Plants lure in certain types of bacteria depending on the nutrients they need at the time. Those bacteria help release the nutrients from the soil and make them available to the plants. Nitrogen and phosphorus are made available in the soil by certain types of bacteria. Bacteria also protect the plant from diseases and viruses. They live on the foliage as well as the roots. They feed off of sugars and like a more wet environment, as well as a higher pH. What you need to brew a tea with beneficial fungus and bacteria in it: • 5 or 3.5 gallon gallon bucket • bucket lid with a hole that fits 1/4 inch tubing through it • air pump, 4 outlets ideally. Don't buy it at the supermarket, make sure to go to a hydroponics store or website to get one powerful enough. • 2'' air stone - cylinder type are the ones I prefer. • Distilled water, well water, or reverse osmosis water (or city water that has been left out for a few hours until the chlorine evaporates. It should be 75 degrees F • a pre-mixed soluble tea OR a recipe to brew your own tea from different ingredients • if you brew your own tea, you will need a pantyhose or some sort of compost tea bag to put your ingredients in • My favorite store bought tea products: Terp Tea Grow, Terp Tea Bloom, Bio-Live from Down To Earth, Stump Tea, & Photosynthesis Plus. A simple homemade tea recipe Ingredients: For a 5 gallon bucket brew • 1 cup worm castings • 1 cup lobster compost (because it has a lot of calcium) • 5 tablespoons of a Fish & Kelp liquid • I don't typically use molasses because it can actually cause a die off of bacteria. They overfeed and overpopulate due to all the sugar, then a lot of them starve afterwards. If I do use it I use very little, only 1 teaspoon in 5 gallons, and I only use unsulfured. Molasses is more of a fertilizer than a good food for your microbes 1. Fill half of your bucket with water. 2. Add in your liquid fish & kelp. 3. Plug in the air stones to the air pump, making sure to feed the tubing through the bucket lid so you can close it later. Drop the air stones into the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket and turn the air pump on. 4. Open your tea bag or pantyhose and put the rest of the ingredients in the bag. If using a store bought tea you can normally throw the ingredients right in the water, the rate is usually on the packaging. 5. Submerge the bag gently in the water and fill it the rest of the way up with water. Tie it to the handle so it doesn't sink to the bottom. 6. Set the lid on loosely and let the tea brew for 12-48 hours. 24 hours is enough for most teas. 7. After the tea has brewed, water into the plants. Use as much tea as you would normally use water when watering. 8. Make sure to clean your equipment in the next day and leave it fresh for the next tea brew. In the middle of gardening season you can brew a tea every week for your plants. If you're looking for a phosphorus boost add in super phos bat guano to your tea. Sometimes I use Ancient Forest Humus instead of lobster compost for a different microbe profile. Both of those teas should be brewed for 72 hours instead of 24 so that the microbial life can come alive in the tea and break down the nutrients. I hope you go and make tea for your plants now! They will appreciate it, and so will you when you start to see the plants come alive as the soil does. Follow me on @livingsoilunivers on Instagram to see more like this! Happy Tea Brewing, Gabby Waterman A nice foam on a freshly brewed batch of tea 11 views0 comments Recent Posts See All Email us at [email protected] Follow us on Intsagram and Facebook @microliciousplants • Instagram • Facebook Social Icon © 2019 by Microlicious Plants. Proudly created with Wix.com © Copyright Microlicious Plants LLC.
Updated: Feb 2 12 Science-Based Benefits of Meditation This article reviews 12 health benefits of meditation. 1. Reduces stress Stress reduction is one of the most common reasons people try meditation. One review concluded that meditation lives up to its reputation for stress reduction (1Trusted Source). Normally, mental and physical stress cause increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This produces many of the harmful effects of stress, such as the release of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines. These effects can disrupt sleep, promote depression and anxiety, increase blood pressure, and contribute to fatigue and cloudy thinking. In an 8-week study, a meditation style called “mindfulness meditation” reduced the inflammation response caused by stress (2). Furthermore, research has shown that meditation may also improve symptoms of stress-related conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fibromyalgia (3, 4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source). SummaryMany styles of meditation can help reduce stress. Meditation can likewise reduce symptoms in people with stress-triggered medical conditions. 2. Controls anxiety Meditation can reduce stress levels, which translates to less anxiety. A meta-analysis including nearly 1,300 adults found that meditation may decrease anxiety. Notably, this effect was strongest in those with the highest levels of anxiety (6Trusted Source). Also, one study found that 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation helped reduce anxiety symptoms in people with generalized anxiety disorder, along with increasing positive self-statements and improving stress reactivity and coping (7Trusted Source). Another study in 47 people with chronic pain found that completing an 8-week meditation program led to noticeable improvements in depression, anxiety, and pain over 1 year (8Trusted Source). What’s more, some research suggests that a variety of mindfulness and meditation exercises may reduce anxiety levels (9Trusted Source). For example, yoga has been shown to help people reduce anxiety. This is likely due to benefits from both meditative practice and physical activity (10Trusted Source). Meditation may also help control job-related anxiety. One study found that employees who used a mindfulness meditation app for 8 weeks experienced improved feelings of well-being and decreased distress and job strain, compared with those in a control group (11Trusted Source). SummaryHabitual meditation can help reduce anxiety and improve stress reactivity and coping skills. 3. Promotes emotional health Some forms of meditation can lead to improved self-image and a more positive outlook on life. For example, one review of treatments given to more than 3,500 adults found that mindfulness meditation improved symptoms of depression (12Trusted Source). Similarly, a review of 18 studies showed that people receiving meditation therapies experienced reduced symptoms of depression, compared with those in a control group (13Trusted Source). Another study found that people who completed a meditation exercise experienced fewer negative thoughts in response to viewing negative images, compared with those in a control group (14Trusted Source). Furthermore, inflammatory chemicals called cytokines, which are released in response to stress, can affect mood, leading to depression. A review of several studies suggests meditation may also reduce depression by decreasing levels of these inflammatory chemicals (15Trusted Source). SummarySome forms of meditation can improve depression and reduce negative thoughts. It may also decrease levels of inflammatory cytokines, which could contribute to depression. 4. Enhances self-awareness Some forms of meditation may help you develop a stronger understanding of yourself, helping you grow into your best self. For example, self-inquiry meditation explicitly aims to help you develop a greater understanding of yourself and how you relate to those around you. Other forms teach you to recognize thoughts that may be harmful or self-defeating. The idea is that as you gain greater awareness of your thought habits, you can steer them toward more constructive patterns (16Trusted Source, 17Trusted Source, 18Trusted Source). One review of 27 studies showed that practicing tai chi may be associated with improved self-efficacy, which is a term used to describe a person’s belief in their own capacity or ability to overcome challenges (19Trusted Source). In another study, 153 adults who used a mindfulness meditation app for 2 weeks experienced reduced feelings of loneliness and increased social contact compared with those in a control group (20Trusted Source). Additionally, experience in meditation may cultivate more creative problem-solving skills (21Trusted Source). SummarySelf-inquiry and related styles of meditation can help you “know yourself.” This can be a starting point for making other positive changes. 5. Lengthens attention span Focused-attention meditation is like weight lifting for your attention span. It helps increase the strength and endurance of your attention. For example, one study found that people who listened to a meditation tape experienced improved attention and accuracy while completing a task, compared with those in a control group (22Trusted Source). A similar study showed that people who regularly practiced meditation performed better on a visual task and had a greater attention span than those without any meditation experience (23Trusted Source). Moreover, one review concluded that meditation may even reverse patterns in the brain that contribute to mind-wandering, worrying, and poor attention (24Trusted Source). Even meditating for a short period each day may benefit you. One study found that meditating for just 13 minutes daily enhanced attention and memory after 8 weeks (25Trusted Source). SummarySeveral types of meditation may build your ability to redirect and maintain attention. 6. May reduce age-related memory loss Improvements in attention and clarity of thinking may help keep your mind young. Kirtan Kriya is a method of meditation that combines a mantra or chant with repetitive motion of the fingers to focus your thoughts. Studies in people with age-related memory loss have shown it improves performance on neuropsychological tests (26Trusted Source). Furthermore, a review found preliminary evidence that multiple meditation styles can increase attention, memory, and mental quickness in older volunteers (27Trusted Source). In addition to fighting normal age-related memory loss, meditation can at least partially improve memory in patients with dementia. It can likewise help control stress and improve coping in those caring for family members with dementia (28Trusted Source, 29Trusted Source). SummaryThe improved focus you can gain through regular meditation may boost your memory and mental clarity. These benefits can help fight age-related memory loss and dementia. 7. Can generate kindness Some types of meditation may particularly increase positive feelings and actions toward yourself and others. Metta, a type of meditation also known as loving-kindness meditation, begins with developing kind thoughts and feelings toward yourself. Through practice, people learn to extend this kindness and forgiveness externally, first to friends, then acquaintances, and ultimately enemies. A meta-analysis of 22 studies on this form of meditation demonstrated its ability to increase peoples’ compassion toward themselves and others (30Trusted Source). One study in 100 adults randomly assigned to a program that included loving-kindness meditation found that these benefits were dose-dependent. In other words, the more time people spent in weekly metta meditation practice, the more positive feelings they experienced (31). Another study in 50 college students showed that practicing metta meditation 3 times per week improved positive emotions, interpersonal interactions, and understanding of others after 4 weeks (32Trusted Source). These benefits also appear to accumulate over time with the practice of loving-kindness meditation (33Trusted Source). SummaryMetta, or loving-kindness meditation, is a practice of developing positive feelings, first toward yourself and then toward others. Metta increases positivity, empathy, and compassionate behavior toward others. 8. May help fight addictions The mental discipline you can develop through meditation may help you break dependencies by increasing your self-control and awareness of triggers for addictive behaviors (34Trusted Source). Research has shown that meditation may help people learn to redirect their attention, manage their emotions and impulses, and increase their understanding of the causes behind their (35Trusted Source, 36Trusted Source). One study in 60 people receiving treatment for alcohol use disorder found that practicing transcendental meditation was associated with lower levels of stress, psychological distress, alcohol cravings, and alcohol use after 3 months (37Trusted Source). Meditation may also help you control food cravings. A review of 14 studies found mindfulness meditation helped participants reduce emotional and binge eating (38Trusted Source). SummaryMeditation develops mental awareness and can help you manage triggers for unwanted impulses. This can help you recover from addiction, manage unhealthy eating, and redirect other unwanted habits. 9. Improves sleep Nearly half of the population will struggle with insomnia at some point. One study compared mindfulness-based meditation programs and found that people who meditated stayed asleep longer and had improved insomnia severity, compared with those who had an unmedicated control condition (39). Becoming skilled in meditation may help you control or redirect the racing or runaway thoughts that often lead to insomnia. Additionally, it can help relax your body, releasing tension and placing you in a peaceful state in which you’re more likely to fall asleep. SummaryA variety of meditation techniques can help you relax and control runaway thoughts that can interfere with sleep. This can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and increase sleep quality. 10. Helps control pain Your perception of pain is connected to your state of mind, and it can be elevated in stressful conditions. Some research suggests that incorporating meditation into your routine could be beneficial for controlling pain. For example, one review of 38 studies concluded that mindfulness meditation could reduce pain, improve quality of life, and decrease symptoms of depression in people with chronic pain (40Trusted Source). A large meta-analysis of studies enrolling nearly 3,500 participants concluded that meditation was associated with decreased pain (41Trusted Source). Meditators and non-meditators experienced the same causes of pain, but meditators showed a greater ability to cope with pain and even experienced a reduced sensation of pain. SummaryMeditation can diminish the perception of pain in the brain. This may help treat chronic pain when used to supplement medical care or physical therapy. 11. Can decrease blood pressure Meditation can also improve physical health by reducing strain on the heart. Over time, high blood pressure makes the heart work harder to pump blood, which can lead to poor heart function. High blood pressure also contributes to atherosclerosis, or a narrowing of the arteries, which can lead to heart attack and stroke. A meta-analysis of 12 studies enrolling nearly 1000 participants found that meditation helped reduce blood pressure. This was more effective among older volunteers and those who had higher blood pressure prior to the study (42Trusted Source). One review concluded that several types of meditation produced similar improvements in blood pressure (43Trusted Source). In part, meditation appears to control blood pressure by relaxing the nerve signals that coordinate heart function, blood vessel tension, and the “fight-or-flight” response that increases alertness in stressful situations (44Trusted Source). SummaryBlood pressure decreases not only during meditation but also over time in individuals who meditate regularly. This can reduce strain on the heart and arteries, helping prevent heart disease. 12. Accessible anywhere People practice many different forms of meditation, most of which don’t require specialized equipment or space. You can practice with just a few minutes daily. If you want to start meditating, try choosing a form of meditation based on what you want to get out of it. There are two major styles of meditation: • Focused-attention meditation. This style concentrates attention on a single object, thought, sound, or visualization. It emphasizes ridding your mind of distractions. Meditation may focus on breathing, a mantra, or calming sound. • Open-monitoring meditation. This style encourages broadened awareness of all aspects of your environment, train of thought, and sense of self. It may include becoming aware of suppressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses. To find out which styles you like best, check out the variety of free, guided meditation exercises offered by the University of California Los Angeles. It’s an excellent way to try different styles and find one that suits you. If your regular work and home environments do not allow for consistent, quiet alone time, consider participating in a class. This can also improve your chances of success by providing a supportive community. Alternatively, consider setting your alarm a few minutes early to take advantage of quiet time in the morning. This may help you develop a consistent habit and allow you to start the day positively. SummaryIf you’re interested in incorporating meditation into your routine, try a few different styles and consider guided exercises to get started with one that suits you. The bottom line Meditation is something everyone can do to improve their mental and emotional health. You can do it anywhere, without special equipment or memberships. Alternatively, meditation courses and support groups are widely available. There’s a great variety of styles too, each with different strengths and benefits. Trying out a style of mediation suited to your goals is a great way to improve your quality of life, even if you only have a few minutes to do it each day. Last medically reviewed on October 27, 2020 4 views0 comments
Introduction to Unitarianism-Universalism Unitarianism (also called monarchianism)is a religious position that denies the historical concept of the Trinity. Historically Unitarians began as a denial of the doctrine of the “TRInity” and therefore believing in a UNIty (thus “Unitarians”). They believe that God exists in a single being AND a single person. In order to come to this position, they have to deny full deity to Jesus Christ. Thayer’s lexicon for example (Thayer is Unitarian) has under the entry for Christ, “mistakenly thought to be deity“. Because of their erroneous beliefs on salvation and the person of Christ, they must be understood to be unsaved and heretical. Their religion is not defined on the basis of doctrines (positive declarations of faith) taken from Scripture, but rather in that of denials, denouncing specific statements of faith with which they disagree. Their main target as far as denying is mainstream Christianity. In general, the Unitarians are a religious group reacting against the traditional concepts of sin and eternal punishment. They are essentially a religion divorced from theological beliefs, doctrine, and anything that would absolutely come from God with divine authority. “All roads lead to God.” No particular “god” is the right one, but all may be the one and only God, and even there may be multiple gods. The two groups Unitarian Church and the Universalist Church united into one group in 1961. The Unitarian Universalists “General Convention” declared (1899) Unitarian’s theological foundation to be: 1. Universal Fatherhood of God. 2. The spiritual authority and leadership of His Son Jesus Christ. 3. The trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a revelation from God. 4. The certainty of just retribution for sin. 5. The final harmony of all souls with God. Additional beliefs are: • Salvation is by grace through faith and not by works in any way • Jesus became the Son of God at His baptism • The Holy Spirit is not a person, does not have a will, etc. • There now is and will be rewards and punishments according to one’s actions but this does not consist of the traditional doctrine of hell. • Human reason and experience should be the final authority in determining spiritual truth taken from Carm.org by Matthew Slick “What is Unitarianism? The “Fifty Affirmations of Free Religion” of the Unitarian Free Religious Association (1867) stated in point 34 their desire that “the completion of the religious protest against authority must be the extinction of faith in the Christian Confession [i.e., here, the belief that Jesus was the Messiah].” (David Parke, The Epic of Unitarianism Original Writings from the History of Liberal Religion (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1969), p. 123.) What is wrong with Unitarianism? Errors on the Doctrine of God Because of their refusal to understand the doctrine of the Trinity, one single God existing in three totally separate persons, they chose to “acknowledge” total deity only in the person of God the Father. They therewith attack the personhood of the Holy Spirit, and deny complete deity to Jesus Christ. The basic error of Unitarians in regard to the Trinity is their wholesale denial of any Godhead relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If God is great and glorious, not sharing his glory and absolute power with anyone, then these kinds of passages equating the three could not exist in Scripture. See John 10:30, Jesus and the Father are one. How can that be true if Jesus is inferior in any way to the Father. Although they accept that God exists, they qualify Him as an impersonal, all-pervading energy (“divine force” or “creative force“) rather than a person. This works well with theistic evolution, i.e. God works through the evolutionary process, but the Unitarians basically remove God as an Agent and Person, and replace him with an impersonal force (like evolution). The consider God as a “First Cause” (impersonal force working) rather than a being that is so great that He in Himself has personality, character, and intense emotions. This is necessary in their understanding in order to degrade the divine punishment on sin, and thereby remove the logical need for an eternal, horrible place of punishment for sinners. Jesus Christ In “The Unitarian Way” by Phillip Hewett, we find this statement under the heading “Wider Horizons” on page 89, “If the term Christ is to be interpreted in such a way as to give Jesus a uniquely superhuman status, then discussion of this allegation ends before it begins.” (taken from culthelp.info) They attack the person of Jesus Christ to degrade him from fully God to something of a myth. Although they accept that he existed (as a teacher that God descended upon to fill in some spiritual way), they consider that most all of the Bible’s comments about him are myths and untrue. Therefore they deny his miracles (seen by them as natural causes) and consider Jesus’ virgin birth and resurrection as untrue, just fictional stories invented and propagated by Jesus’ followers for their own unjust purposes. In essence, Jesus was just a prophet or teacher like so many others in the Bible, and he had the fortune to be chosen by God to be the Savior. They say that this happened in Jesus’ baptism, and before that, he was mortal, finite, and like any other man. But Jesus identified himself as being eternal in John 8:58, so according to his own teaching and understanding, Jesus had always existed. They have to consider Jesus as having sinned, and as neither perfect nor to be worshipped. His only noble asset is to be a very good “normal” sinning human being. To understand how the Unitarians resort to logic instead of Scripture, consider their stance on the person of Jesus Christ. While Scripture clearly teaches the full deity and humanity of man, being God in order to make a “deal” (atonement) between God and man, and being human to identify fully with God, the Unitarians say that makes Jesus irrelevant because if that were so, then man could not relate to him. Instead they say that Jesus is NOT an atoning Savior. They break the concepts of atoning and Savior, and remove them from Jesus. If Jesus’ death on the cross didn’t save anybody, then what good did it do? They answer “nothing.” The entire Bible focuses on the moment of man’s salvation on the cross of Calvary. Through their illogical “logic”, they deny it all. They say the Bible presents Jesus character ONLY, and his good example helps us to be good. They place an illogical contradiction on Christ’s life and death. If his life is to mean anything (as far as changing us) then his death must not include any kind of atonement. While the Unitarians will accept with the lips “Jesus Christ”, they destroy what that means. They will work forcibly and untiringly to demote Jesus from full Godhood to a “great spiritual teacher”, but even once that is done, they still reject most all the teachings of Christ about himself. If he was a great spiritual teacher, why do Unitarians still reject his teachings? John 14:6, 13; 15:16; 16:23-24; Rom 5:2; Eph 2:18 all present that salvation is only through Jesus Christ, and that would exclude good works. See also Acts 4:12; 26:28; 1Pe 4:16. For more on the person of Christ, See http://www.jashow.org/Articles/_PDFArchives/apologetics/AP2W0405.pdf The Holy Spirit Because they deny personhood to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is reduced to a very minor and unmentioned position in Christianity. Errors on the Doctrine of Salvation The Unitarian position is one that rejects “doctrine” (or doctrinal declarations) as the essentials of salvation, and supplants it with love, peace, and kindness (good works). Notwithstanding their statement cited at the beginning of this post (above) against works in salvation, they system is a redemption based on human merit. The “atonement” must be a person thing that the person does by changing his life, and this is without a view “belief” in Christ’s work on the cross. Again we see a tacit acknowledgement to “believe in Christianity like YOU believe”, but then after being accepted by the unwary, they change drastically the beliefs of Christianity to be the opposite. They speak despicably of the “slaughter house religion” of the Bible, saying that this kind of “bloody religion” is unworthy of God. This places them directly against the cross as the only atoning work God will accept. They believe in the “universal Fatherhood of God” which means that they understand God the Father as having a personal relationship with his children (which we would understand as coming only through scriptural salvation) as extending to all mankind, therefore nobody will ever go to any “mythical” place like hell. That makes all men brothers, and their concern is good works, love, justice to all men. Errors on the Doctrine of Scripture They degrade the authority of Scripture placing human reason on a level equal and greater than Scripture. This acceptance then denial of Scripture as authority is because although they want to “appeal” to normal Christians to draw (convert or evangelize them) into Unitarianism, they don’t want to accept a view where doctrine, practice, and creeds are defined by Scripture alone. They consider that the Bible “contains” “a” revelation from God, therefore making what they accept from the Bible a matter of “pick and choose”, subject to their own minds and logic. Typically what “fits” in their thinking is accepted, and what does not is rejected, and they make up their own authorities to again “fit in their scheme of things”. They therefore exalt human reason and logic (Humanism). It is highly illogical to deny the divine authority of Scripture on the basis that the Bible is a work of humans, reasoning as they would during the time of Christ to make fables, myths, and untrue stories and pretensions which men today must reject on the basis of Unitarians (men) who make up their own fables, myths, and untrue and illogic stories and pretensions. Why are these Unitarians better or more acceptable in their human reasonings that biblical characters? That fallacy is never answered for them, making their view absolutely right, and anybody that disagrees with them absolutely wrong. For example Mr. J. Mendelssohn, a well-known Unitarian minister, said (1960) the Bible “is replete with inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and errors.” The Unitarian MUST deny the absolute authority of the Bible or else admit that he does not obey it. Another example is that the Unitarian church was the first to ordain women (in the 19th century). “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar…” -Romans 3:4 “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” -Romans 10:3 Errors on the Doctrine of Sin Since they are in a position and desire to “unify” all religious groups, they minimize sin. They rarely want to recognize the presence of sin, and they degrade the importance of sin. They consider good works will eradicate sin in the evolutionary progress of mankind. With time, man will completely stop sinning, thus saving himself. Errors on the Doctrine of the Church Unitarianism focuses on good works and deemphasizes the authority of Scripture, so therefore, their church services are more directed at stressing the need for good works as a part of life, something that God will reward us for, and essentially that which “saves” us. Again, they accept the concept of “being saved” but redefine it so as to destroy it. Sin isn’t bad in God’s eyes to them. There is no real, horrible, eternal punishment, everybody will one day end up in heaven, so therefore why does anybody really need to be saved? This is the “illogic” of their intensely reasoned arguments. They only accept superficially normal Christian terms and doctrine so as to later destroy them. This would seem to be a major thrust in their church services, to destroy essential Christian concepts and doctrines. Errors on Eschatology Since they conclude that God the Father is a universal Father of all mankind, therefore all humanity will go to live forever with God, and the only thing waiting after death is salvation. They deny the existence of hell. They belief that God cannot allow any being to suffer because of God’s qualities of love and mercy. In their excesses and ridiculous conclusions they also go so far as to deny the existence of heaven. In the end, they rend null and void most of the key Bible doctrines, and even in teaching about God, they basically reduce him to an impersonal “force” they humanity does not have to worry about. These people will present themselves as great biblical scholars who are experts in Greek and Hebrew, and they will use arguments from their Greek and Hebrew (and linguistic) scholars to argue that the word “eternal” only means a limited amount of time. They often argue towards annihilationism, that there is no afterlife after death. Other Observations about Unitarians • Unitarians fully allow unrepentant gays into their churches, and to become ordained ministers under their permission. What groups are most closely aligned to Unitarians? The Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christadelphianism, the Way Internationals, as well as many others are doctrinally aligned with the Unitarians. The Jesus Seminar is also a movement clearly in this same mindset. This entry was posted in Universalism and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a Reply
Seed Saving from Carrots Carrots are insect pollinated. Carrots flower in their second year of growth and seeds can be collected after flowering. In areas with mild winters, carrots can be left in the ground, mulching heavily to protect from frost. The foliage will die back but will then re-sprout and start to flower in the spring. In colder areas, dig up your carrots in the autumn, and select the best coloured and shaped roots. Twist off the foliage, and store the roots in a box of dry sand in a frost free place, making sure that they don’t touch each other. In spring, replant the roots, and they will re-sprout and flower. Carrots grow into big plants and need to be isolated from other flowering carrot varieties by at least 500m. They will also cross with wild carrot, giving thin white useless roots. Barriers such as houses and hedges disrupt insect flight paths so you don’t necessarily need to eliminate all wild carrot but watch out for any white roots in subsequent generations and get rid of them. To harvest your seed, remove flowerheads as they start to turn brown and dry. Dry the seed heads further inside, and then rub them between your hands or in a sieve to separate them. You will notice that the seeds have a ‘beard’ which is removed in commercial seed to make them easier to pack. There is no need to get the seed completely clean – just sow slightly more thickly to allow for the chaff mixed in. You can watch this detailed video if you are thinking about seed-saving from carrots. Carrot seed is relatively short lived, but if it is stored somewhere cool and dry, it should give good germination for three years. NOTE: To maintain a carrot variety effectively, you need to save seed from at least 40 good roots to maintain genetic diversity. If you have too small a genetic pool, you will end up with small, poor quality roots in a very few generations. Visit Us Follow Me
Physical Therapy: Treatment and Training All of the following describe generally accepted, well established and widely used physical therapy procedures and modalities provided at Accelerate Physical Therapy. These procedures are used as primary or adjunctive techniques in soft tissue treatment for the progressive development of strength, mobility and to improve functional outcomes. Physical Therapy Procedures The level of complexity can characterize the following physical therapy procedures and the expertise required to perform the task. These procedures involve training exercises or modalities requiring more specific skill than those characterized as modalities, but may be provided by assistants under the direct supervision of a licensed physical therapist. Soft Tissue Mobilization is the skilled manual application of techniques designed to normalize movement patterns through the reduction of soft tissue pain and restrictions for the following reasons: Muscle spasm around a joint Trigger points Neural compression Joint Mobilization is the passive movement performed in such a manner (particularly in relation to the speed oft he movement) that it is, at all times, within the ability of the patient to prevent the movement if they so choose. Skilled manual joint tissue stretching is used to improve, and as possible, normalize joint movement of the spine and extremities and is performed for the following reasons: To improve joint play/mobility Improve intrascapular arthrokinematics Reduce pain associated with tissue impingement or friction Functional Activities involve the instruction, active-assisted training and/or adaptation of activities or equipment and has the following results: Improves a person’s capacity for homemaking, including meal preparation Improves a person’s capacity form communication, utilizing equipment Facilitates return to work at previous level of function in lifting, driving, climbing, pushing, pulling, etc. Job site modification to decrease postural dysfunction/pain Therapeutic Exercise with or without mechanical assist or resistance has the following indications: Improve cardiovascular fitness Reduces edema Improves muscle strength and coordination Improves connective tissue strength and integrity Promotes circulation to enhance soft tissue healing/metabolism Increases bone density Increases endurance, reduces fatigue Massage – Manual or mechanical manipulation of soft tissue to achieve: Reduced swelling Reduced muscle spasms Improved outlying circulation Increased muscle tone prior to exercise Reduced adhesions Increased muscle length Neuromuscular Re-education is the skilled application of exercise with manual, mechanical or electrical facilitation and through its use enhances motor response, strength and recruitment rate with independent control. Neurodevelopmental Activities/Reflex and Sensory Integration/Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) involves the skilled use of activities and exercises that promote neuromuscular responses through carefully timed proprioceptive stimuli to normal neurologically developed sequences. It also improves neuromotor response and reduces risk of impromptu muscle failure. It improves tolerance and enhances strength, normalizes movement patterns and improves cell waste and bacteria removal, and increases the muscular sense and perception of movement, stabilization and reaction time. These techniques achieve sensitization, or if required, desensitization of joint movement. Gait Training – Crutch walking or walker instruction to a person with lower extremity injury or surgery: Promotes normal gait pattern with assistive device Promotes safety in proper use of assistive device Instructs in progressive use of more independent devices (platform walker, walker, crutches, an cane) Instructs in gait on uneven surfaces and steps (with and without railings) to reduce risk of fall or loss of balance Instruction in the use of equipment to limit weight bearing for the protection of a healing injury or surgery Straight Plane Exercises with or without mechanical assistance or resistance has the following effects: Improves strength and coordination Reduces atrophy Improves reaction, recruitment and endurance Supervises safe progression of resistance Teaches techniques which promote accelerated muscle development Increases size and strength in musculotendinous tissue and tensile strength Activities of Daily Living involves the instruction, active-assisted training and/or adaptation of activities for personal care or equipment for mobility and self-care. This includes: A person’s capacity in mobility and self-care to move from floor or sitting levels to standing, fluently and without pain. Aids in sleeping without pain, grooming and self care including hygiene. P.T. Physical Agents (Modalities) The primary use of thermal modalities is for pain, swelling and to improve the rate of healing soft tissue injuries. Extended use is supported by consistently measured changes. Certain diagnoses and post surgical conditions may require periods of treatment beyond the normal ranges of 3-6 weeks. Additional procedures are occasionally necessary to help control swelling, pain or inflammation during the rehabilitation process. They may be used intermittently as a therapist believes appropriate, or regularly if there is specific measured improvement during the treatment. If our patient is not responding within 3-4 weeks, alternative treatment, further diagnostic studies, or further consultations with their physician or another physical therapist should be considered. Ultrasound is the use of sonic generators to deliver acoustic energy for thermal and/or non-thermal soft tissue treatment. There may be a concurrent delivery of electrical energy. Ultrasound can be used to obtain the following results: Softening scar tissue and reduce pain associated with scar tissue and adhesions To soften collagen fiber Accelerate soft tissue healing process Increase flexibility of muscles and tendons Reduce muscle spasms and reduce pain associated with muscle spasms Hot Packs Reduce pain or raise the pain threshold before exercise, postural training and gait training Reduce muscle spasm to promote increased movement Increases circulation to aid healing Cold Packs Lowers body tissue temperature for reduction of inflammation Lessens pain resulting from injury or exercise by increasing the pain threshold Reduces swelling and hemorrhage. Used in combination with compression and elevation Lessens pain and inflammation from tendinitis and bursitis Diminishes muscle spasm to promote stretching and decreases exercise induced muscle soreness Increases circulation to aid healing Electrical Stimulation Applies electrical current (AC or DC) over skin to muscles, joints or other soft tissue for the following reasons: Relaxes muscle spasms (including TENS) Reduces pain (including TENS) Iontophoresis – The transfer of medication (including but not limited to steroidal anti-inflammatories and pain relievers) through the use of electric stimulation. This procedures has the following results: Pain reduction Inflammation reduction Reduction in swelling Aids circulatory problems in the extremities Decreases muscle spasms Breaks down calcium deposits and softens scars Phonophoresis – The application of ultrasound using a medicated lubricant that introduces molecules into the tissue similar to those used in iontophoresis. Contrast Baths – Involves alternating immersion of the extremities; promotes circulation and has the following results: Reduces swelling in the subacute stage of healing Improves outlying circulation Decreases joint pain and stiffness Paraffin Baths A form of heat application that uses paraffin wax/mineral oil mixture applied safely at 126 degrees Fahrenheit. Symptomatic resolution of pain Elevates pain threshold Prepares for exercise, mobilization of the distal extremities and gait training
An economy where a dollar generates ten times its value by end of day The notion of financial inclusion being promoted across Africa assumes financial institutions like banks and the stock market are excluding the majority of people including SMEs from financial systems. On the contrary, having been subjected to rigid financial systems and policies for decades, SMEs and local people have developed their own financial systems that shut out formal financial institutions. In countries like Zimbabwe that explains why cash is found in streets and homes. The value of money is in its circulation Following the collapse of the formal financial sector a few years back, SMEs and ordinary people have directed their investments to movable assets like vehicles, household property like furniture and fridges as well as livestock. People’s confidence in the formal financial system has been eroded so much that education has become another preferred investment option than putting money in the bank. All these emerging and strengthening competing uses are rendering banks and other financial systems redundant. People are realizing that the value of money is in its circulation. One would rather buy agricultural commodities and sell as part of keeping the money in circulation instead of losing by putting money in the bank. Can the stock market compete in the SMEs economy? Efforts to introduce the stock market among SMEs in Africa are happening at a time, the mass market or informal market has become a comfortable and viable landscape for many small and growing entrepreneurs. Banks and MFIs that want to enter or work with the SMEs economy are being forced to provide cash or other dynamic services equivalent to the informal market in terms of appropriate returns on investment. In the informal market, a dollar can generate ten times its value by end of day. Does the formal system or capital markets have a competitive system that can out-bid the SMEs economy? If the stock market cannot do that it will not attract SMEs or traders in the mass market. Absence of data gathering systems African economies still lack efficient systems for gathering fluid socio-economic data. Without a system for capturing data you cannot develop a commodity exchange or grow the stock market. Volumes and stocks could be available in diverse forms but absence of systems means there is no way of capturing and expressing those assets properly. Failure to investment in data and evidence collection is a major reason why the financial sector continues to lag behind in understanding market operations of the new SMEs-driven economy. For instance, financial institutions do not realize that SMEs do not exist in isolation but are part of supply chains. As long as there is no system that can capture the whole supply chain there are no avenues for introducing the stock market. You cannot have one supply chain node transacting in bank transfers and the other insisting on cash. In as much as the money market may be a good idea, farmers and other actors are still licking their economic wounds from losses incurred when money lost value while stuck in banks in 2008-2009. The first important step for the financial sector is rebuilding people’s confidence in financial systems. It is also about setting up reliable systems which can run through supply chains connecting all nodes or actors especially SMEs. The Informal market and SMEs sector deals with diverse actors of different sizes. This is different from the past when processing companies dealt with large scale farmers in ways that integrated payment systems. Currently a trader can deal with large scale farmer or estates and with medium scale farmers and sell to individuals, wholesalers and corporates with different policies that make it difficult to harmonize payment systems. It is interesting to note that the informal and SMEs sectors have adopted a system that suits everyone. For instance, after discovering that everybody ultimately needs cash, they have insisted on cash. Just like other sectors that set rules for transacting, the informal and SMEs sector has set cash as its rule. Need for a thorough study of the new economy Each African country should conduct thorough studies to map the whole SMEs ecosystem in terms of actors, commodities traded and levels of literacy. This will create an entry point in the form of creating awareness and buy-in. The stock market remains a field that was reserved for the elite and formal institutions. It should have been promoted from primary school to tertiary level, the way ordinary people understand the meaning of money as a medium of exchange. Many people are still in the dark regarding financial issues and they are not even sure about whether storing value in foreign currency is a good idea. Seeking information is limited to what one wants to know and there is no time to look for what one is not sure about. That is why creating awareness is critical. Governments and financial authorities should simplify policies into economic growth-oriented initiatives among SMEs, mass markets and other economic ecosystems who are supposed to be the targeted audiences for development efforts. / / Website: / Written by Charles Dhewa Write to us : eMKambo
연구원 소개 논문기고 학술정보 자료실 알림마당 위원회 송도논집 논문자료 콜로키움 논문자료 학술 논문자료 학술대회 2013-05-09 (목) 14:41 Education Policy Using Cultural Heritage in China (송도논집 2권, 5-32) Joonho Jeong* China has rich heritage, yet its social consciousness about cultural heritage is still low in general, and the education to protect and utilize the cultural heritage is still inadequate. Thus, the implementation of systematic education about cultural heritage and enhancing social consciousness about cultural heritage has emerged as urgent policy challenges, and China, then is involved in various efforts to resolve these issues. The goals that the Chinese movernment wants to realize through the education of cultural heritage are the dissemination of knowledge on cultural heritage, the improvement of the consciousness about the protection of cultural heritage, and the patriotic education. When looking into the resulting cultural heritage education in China, the following characteristics can be found. First, the cultural heritage education is being promoted under the strong leadership of the Chinese government. Second, the cultural heritage education is an important means for the patriotic education. Third, the target of the cultural heritage education is being expanded. Key-words: China, education policy, cultural heritage, social education, patriotism * Department of Politics & Public Administration, Seoul Digital University (E-mail: [email protected]) 제19대 총선과 수도권의 선택 (송도논집 2권, 33-50) Labor movement and welfare state in East Asian countries (송도논집 1권, 143-159)
The steam engine, a major driver in the Industrial Revolution, underscores the importance of engineering in modern history. This beam engine is on display in the Technical University of Madrid. The discipline of engineering is extremely broad, and encompasses a range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied science, technology and types of application. The term Engineering is derived from the Latin ingenium, meaning "cleverness" and ingeniare, meaning "to contrive, devise". • Definition 1 • History 2 • Ancient era 2.1 • Renaissance era 2.2 • Modern era 2.3 • Main branches of engineering 3 • Practice 4 • Methodology 5 • Problem solving 5.1 • Computer use 5.2 • Social context 6 • Relationships with other disciplines 7 • Science 7.1 • Medicine and biology 7.2 • Art 7.3 • Other fields 7.4 • See also 8 • References 9 • Further reading 10 • External links 11 The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET)[1] has defined "engineering" as: The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation or safety to life and property.[2][3] Engineering has existed since ancient times as humans devised fundamental inventions such as the wedge, lever, wheel, and pulley. Each of these inventions is essentially consistent with the modern definition of engineering. The term engineering deriving from the word engineer, which itself dates back to 1300, when an engine'er (literally, one who operates an engine) originally referred to "a constructor of military engines."[4] In this context, now obsolete, an "engine" referred to a military machine, i.e., a mechanical contraption used in war (for example, a catapult). Notable examples of the obsolete usage which have survived to the present day are military engineering corps, e.g., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The word "engine" itself is of even older origin, ultimately deriving from the Latin ingenium (c. 1250), meaning "innate quality, especially mental power, hence a clever invention."[5] Ancient era The Ancient Romans built aqueducts to bring a steady supply of clean fresh water to cities and towns in the empire. The Pharos of Alexandria, the pyramids in Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Acropolis and the Parthenon in Greece, the Roman aqueducts, Via Appia and the Colosseum, Teotihuacán and the cities and pyramids of the Mayan, Inca and Aztec Empires, the Great Wall of China, the Brihadeeswarar Temple of Thanjavur and Indian Temples, among many others, stand as a testament to the ingenuity and skill of the ancient civil and military engineers. The earliest civil engineer known by name is Imhotep.[3] As one of the officials of the Pharaoh, Djosèr, he probably designed and supervised the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid) at Saqqara in Egypt around 2630-2611 BC.[6] Ancient Greece developed machines in both civilian and military domains. The Antikythera mechanism, the first known mechanical computer,[7][8] and the mechanical inventions of Archimedes are examples of early mechanical engineering. Some of Archimedes' inventions as well as the Antikythera mechanism required sophisticated knowledge of differential gearing or epicyclic gearing, two key principles in machine theory that helped design the gear trains of the Industrial Revolution, and are still widely used today in diverse fields such as robotics and automotive engineering.[9] Chinese, Greek and Roman armies employed complex military machines and inventions such as artillery which was developed by the Greeks around the 4th century B.C.,[10] the trireme, the ballista and the catapult. In the Middle Ages, the trebuchet was developed. Renaissance era William Gilbert is considered to be the first electrical engineer with his 1600 publication of De Magnete. He coined the term "electricity".[11] The first steam engine was built in 1698 by Thomas Savery.[12] The development of this device gave rise to the Industrial Revolution in the coming decades, allowing for the beginnings of mass production. Modern era The International Space Station represents a modern engineering challenge from many disciplines. Boeing 747-8 wing-fuselage sections during final assembly The inventions of Thomas Newcomen and the Scottish engineer James Watt gave rise to modern mechanical engineering. The development of specialized machines and machine tools during the industrial revolution led to the rapid growth of mechanical engineering both in its birthplace Britain and abroad.[3] Structural engineers investigating NASA's Mars-bound spacecraft, the Phoenix Mars Lander John Smeaton was the first self-proclaimed civil engineer, and is often regarded as the "father" of civil engineering. He was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton designed the third Eddystone Lighthouse (1755–59) where he pioneered the use of 'hydraulic lime' (a form of mortar which will set under water) and developed a technique involving dovetailed blocks of granite in the building of the lighthouse. His lighthouse remained in use until 1877 and was dismantled and partially rebuilt at Plymouth Hoe where it is known as Smeaton's Tower. He is important in the history, rediscovery of, and development of modern cement, because he identified the compositional requirements needed to obtain "hydraulicity" in lime; work which led ultimately to the invention of Portland cement. The United States census of 1850 listed the occupation of "engineer" for the first time with a count of 2,000.[13] There were fewer than 50 engineering graduates in the U.S. before 1865. In 1870 there were a dozen U.S. mechanical engineering graduates, with that number increasing to 43 per year in 1875. In 1890 there were 6,000 engineers in civil, mining, mechanical and electrical.[14] There was no chair of applied mechanism and applied mechanics established at Cambridge until 1875, and no chair of engineering at Oxford until 1907. Germany established technical universities earlier.[15] The early stages of electric motor in 1872. The theoretical work of James Maxwell (see: Maxwell's equations) and Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century gave rise to the field of electronics. The later inventions of the vacuum tube and the transistor further accelerated the development of electronics to such an extent that electrical and electronics engineers currently outnumber their colleagues of any other engineering specialty.[3] Chemical engineering developed in the late nineteenth century.[3] Industrial scale manufacturing demanded new materials and new processes and by 1880 the need for large scale production of chemicals was such that a new industry was created, dedicated to the development and large scale manufacturing of chemicals in new industrial plants.[3] The role of the chemical engineer was the design of these chemical plants and processes.[3] The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland Aeronautical engineering deals with • National Society of Professional Engineers position statement on Licensure and Qualifications for Practice • National Academy of Engineering (NAE) • American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) • The US Library of Congress bibliographyEngineering in History • History of engineering bibliography at University of Minnesota External links Further reading 1. ^ ABET History 2. ^ Engineers' Council for Professional Development. (1947). Canons of ethics for engineers 3. ^ a b c d e f g h Engineers' Council for Professional Development definition on Encyclopædia Britannica (Includes Britannica article on Engineering) 4. ^ Oxford English Dictionary 5. ^ Origin: 1250–1300; ME engin < AF, OF < L ingenium nature, innate quality, esp. mental power, hence a clever invention, equiv. to in- + -genium, equiv. to gen- begetting; Source: Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Random House, Inc. 2006. 6. ^ Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt, Routledge 2005, p. 159 7. ^ "The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project", The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project. Retrieved 2007-07-01 Quote: "The Antikythera Mechanism is now understood to be dedicated to astronomical phenomena and operates as a complex mechanical "computer" which tracks the cycles of the Solar System." 8. ^ Wilford, John. (July 31, 2008). Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C.. New York Times. 9. ^ 10. ^ Britannica on Greek civilization in the 5th century Military technology Quote: "The 7th century, by contrast, had witnessed rapid innovations, such as the introduction of the hoplite and the trireme, which still were the basic instruments of war in the 5th." and "But it was the development of artillery that opened an epoch, and this invention did not predate the 4th century. It was first heard of in the context of Sicilian warfare against Carthage in the time of Dionysius I of Syracuse." 12. ^ 13. ^ 14. ^ 15. ^ 16. ^ 17. ^ 18. ^ Journal of the British Nuclear Energy Society: Volume 1 British Nuclear Energy Society - 1962 - Snippet view Quote: In most universities it should be possible to cover the main branches of engineering, i.e. civil, mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering in this way. More specialised fields of engineering application, of which nuclear power is ... 19. ^ The Engineering Profession by Sir James Hamilton, UK Engineering Council Quote: "The Civilingenior degree encompasses the main branches of engineering civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical." (From the Internet Archive) 20. ^ 21. ^ Bronzino JD, ed., The Biomedical Engineering Handbook, CRC Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8493-2121-2 22. ^ 23. ^ 24. ^ Vincenti, Walter G. (1993-02-01). What Engineers Know and How They Know It: Analytical Studies from Aeronautical History. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4588-2. 25. ^ 26. ^ 27. ^ 28. ^ PDF on Human Development 29. ^ MDG info pdf 30. ^ Home page for EMI 31. ^ 32. ^ 33. ^ 34. ^ 35. ^ 36. ^ 37. ^ 38. ^ 39. ^ a b Bjerklie, David. "The Art of Renaissance Engineering." MIT's Technology Review Jan./Feb.1998: 54-9. Article explores the concept of the "artist-engineer", an individual who used his artistic talent in engineering. Quote from article: Da Vinci reached the pinnacle of "artist-engineer"-dom, Quote2: "It was Leonardo da Vinci who initiated the most ambitious expansion in the role of artist-engineer, progressing from astute observer to inventor to theoretician." (Bjerklie 58) 40. ^ Ethical Assessment of Implantable Brain Chips. Ellen M. McGee and G. Q. Maguire, Jr. from Boston University 41. ^ IEEE technical paper: Foreign parts (electronic body implants).by Evans-Pughe, C. quote from summary: Feeling threatened by cyborgs? 42. ^ Institute of Medicine and Engineering: Mission statement The mission of the Institute for Medicine and Engineering (IME) is to stimulate fundamental research at the interface between biomedicine and engineering/physical/computational sciences leading to innovative applications in biomedical research and clinical practice. 43. ^ IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology: Both general and technical articles on current technologies and methods used in biomedical and clinical engineering ... 44. ^ a b Royal Academy of Engineering and Academy of Medical Sciences: Systems Biology: a vision for engineering and medicine in pdf: quote1: Systems Biology is an emerging methodology that has yet to be defined quote2: It applies the concepts of systems engineering to the study of complex biological systems through iteration between computational and/or mathematical modelling and experimentation. 45. ^ Science Museum of Minnesota: Online Lesson 5a; The heart as a pump 46. ^ Minnesota State University emuseum: Bones act as levers 47. ^ UC Berkeley News: UC researchers create model of brain's electrical storm during a seizure 48. ^ a b Lehigh University project: We wanted to use this project to demonstrate the relationship between art and architecture and engineering 49. ^ a b National Science Foundation:The Art of Engineering: Professor uses the fine arts to broaden students' engineering perspectives 50. ^ MIT World:The Art of Engineering: Inventor James Dyson on the Art of Engineering: quote: A member of the British Design Council, James Dyson has been designing products since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1970. 51. ^ University of Texas at Dallas: The Institute for Interactive Arts and Engineering 52. ^ Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineering from NASA's Aeronautical Research 53. ^ Princeton U: Robert Maillart's Bridges: The Art of Engineering: quote: no doubt that Maillart was fully conscious of the aesthetic implications ... 54. ^ quote:..the tools of artists and the perspective of engineers.. 55. ^ Drew U: user website: cites Bjerklie paper See also In political science the term engineering has been borrowed for the study of the subjects of social engineering and political engineering, which deal with forming political and social structures using engineering methodology coupled with political science principles. Financial engineering has similarly borrowed the term. Other fields Among famous historical figures Leonardo da Vinci is a well-known Renaissance artist and engineer, and a prime example of the nexus between art and engineering.[39][55] The Art Institute of Chicago, for instance, held an exhibition about the art of NASA's aerospace design.[52] Robert Maillart's bridge design is perceived by some to have been deliberately artistic.[53] At the University of South Florida, an engineering professor, through a grant with the National Science Foundation, has developed a course that connects art and engineering.[49][54] There are connections between engineering and art;[48] they are direct in some fields, for example, architecture, landscape architecture and industrial design (even to the extent that these disciplines may sometimes be included in a university's Faculty of Engineering); and indirect in others.[48][49][50][51] Newly emerging branches of science, such as systems biology, are adapting analytical tools traditionally used for engineering, such as systems modeling and computational analysis, to the description of biological systems.[44] The heart for example functions much like a pump,[45] the skeleton is like a linked structure with levers,[46] the brain produces electrical signals etc.[47] These similarities as well as the increasing importance and application of engineering principles in medicine, led to the development of the field of biomedical engineering that uses concepts developed in both disciplines. Medicine, in part, studies the function of the human body. The human body, as a biological machine, has many functions that can be modeled using engineering methods.[44] Modern medicine can replace several of the body's functions through the use of artificial organs and can significantly alter the function of the human body through artificial devices such as, for example, brain implants and pacemakers.[40][41] The fields of bionics and medical bionics are dedicated to the study of synthetic implants pertaining to natural systems. Genetically engineered mice expressing green fluorescent protein, which glows green under blue light. The central mouse is wild-type. The study of the human body, albeit from different directions and for different purposes, is an important common link between medicine and some engineering disciplines. Medicine aims to sustain, repair, enhance and even replace functions of the human body, if necessary, through the use of technology. Leonardo da Vinci, seen here in a self-portrait, has been described as the epitome of the artist/engineer.[39] He is also known for his studies on human anatomy and physiology. Medicine and biology Although engineering solutions make use of scientific principles, engineers must also take into account safety, efficiency, economy, reliability and constructability or ease of fabrication as well as the environment, ethical and legal considerations such as patent infringement or liability in the case of failure of the solution. Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand nature. Engineers try to make things that do not exist in nature. Engineers stress invention. To embody an invention the engineer must put his idea in concrete terms, and design something that people can use. That something can be a device, a gadget, a material, a method, a computing program, an innovative experiment, a new solution to a problem, or an improvement on what is existing. Since a design has to be concrete, it must have its geometry, dimensions, and characteristic numbers. Almost all engineers working on new designs find that they do not have all the needed information. Most often, they are limited by insufficient scientific knowledge. Thus they study mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and mechanics. Often they have to add to the sciences relevant to their profession. Thus engineering sciences are born.[38] As stated by Fung et al. in the revision to the classic engineering text Foundations of Solid Mechanics: Christopher Cassidy of NASA works on the Capillary Flow Experiment aboard the International Space Station. In the book What Engineers Know and How They Know It,[37] Walter Vincenti asserts that engineering research has a character different from that of scientific research. First, it often deals with areas in which the basic physics or chemistry are well understood, but the problems themselves are too complex to solve in an exact manner. Engineers, Scientist and Technician works on target positioner inside National Ignition Facility (NIF) target chamber. — Theodore von Kármán[34][35][36] Relationships with other disciplines Engineering companies in many established economies are facing significant challenges ahead with regard to the number of skilled engineers being trained, compared with the number retiring. This problem is very prominent in the UK.[31] There are many economic and political issues that this can cause, as well as ethical issues[32] It is widely agreed that engineering faces an "image crisis",[33] rather than it being fundamentally an unattractive career. Much work is needed to avoid huge problems in the UK and well as the USA and other western economies. Radar, GPS, lidar, ... are all combined to provide proper navigation and obstacle avoidance (vehicle developed for 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge) Engineering is a key driver of human development.[28] Sub-Saharan Africa in particular has a very small engineering capacity which results in many African nations being unable to develop crucial infrastructure without outside aid. The attainment of many of the Millennium Development Goals requires the achievement of sufficient engineering capacity to develop infrastructure and sustainable technological development.[29] Engineering projects can be subject to controversy. Examples from different engineering disciplines include the development of sport utility vehicles and the extraction of oil. In response, some western engineering companies have enacted serious corporate and social responsibility policies. By its very nature engineering has interconnections with society and human behavior. Every product or construction used by modern society will have been influenced by engineering. Engineering is a very powerful tool to make changes to environment, society and economies, and its application brings with it a great responsibility. Many engineering societies have established codes of practice and codes of ethics to guide members and inform the public at large. Robotic Kismet can produce a range of facial expressions. Social context In recent years the use of computer software to aid the development of goods has collectively come to be known as product lifecycle management (PLM).[27] There are also many tools to support specific engineering tasks such as computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software to generate CNC machining instructions; manufacturing process management software for production engineering; EDA for printed circuit board (PCB) and circuit schematics for electronic engineers; MRO applications for maintenance management; and AEC software for civil engineering. One of the most widely used design tools in the profession is computer-aided design (CAD) software like CATIA, Autodesk Inventor, DSS SolidWorks or Pro Engineer which enables engineers to create 3D models, 2D drawings, and schematics of their designs. CAD together with digital mockup (DMU) and CAE software such as finite element method analysis or analytic element method allows engineers to create models of designs that can be analyzed without having to make expensive and time-consuming physical prototypes. As with all modern scientific and technological endeavors, computers and software play an increasingly important role. As well as the typical business application software there are a number of computer aided applications (computer-aided technologies) specifically for engineering. Computers can be used to generate models of fundamental physical processes, which can be solved using numerical methods. A computer simulation of high velocity air flow around a Space Shuttle orbiter during re-entry. Solutions to the flow require modelling of the combined effects of fluid flow and the heat equations. Computer use The study of failed products is known as forensic engineering, and can help the product designer in evaluating his or her design in the light of real conditions. The discipline is of greatest value after disasters, such as bridge collapses, when careful analysis is needed to establish the cause or causes of the failure. Engineers take on the responsibility of producing designs that will perform as well as expected and will not cause unintended harm to the public at large. Engineers typically include a factor of safety in their designs to reduce the risk of unexpected failure. However, the greater the safety factor, the less efficient the design may be. Engineers use their knowledge of science, mathematics, logic, economics, and appropriate experience or tacit knowledge to find suitable solutions to a problem. Creating an appropriate mathematical model of a problem allows them to analyze it (sometimes definitively), and to test potential solutions. A drawing for a booster engine for steam locomotives. Engineering is applied to design, with emphasis on function and the utilization of mathematics and science. Problem solving According to Billy Vaughn Koen, the "engineering method is the use of heuristics to cause the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources." Koen argues that the definition of what makes one an engineer should not be based on what he produces, but rather how he goes about it.[25] A general methodology and epistemology of engineering can be inferred from the historical case studies and comments provided by Walter Vincenti.[24] Though Vincenti's case studies are from the domain of aeronautical engineering, his conclusions can be transferred into many other branches of engineering, too. Constraints may include available resources, physical, imaginative or technical limitations, flexibility for future modifications and additions, and other factors, such as requirements for cost, safety, marketability, productibility, and serviceability. By understanding the constraints, engineers derive specifications for the limits within which a viable object or system may be produced and operated. If multiple options exist, engineers weigh different design choices on their merits and choose the solution that best matches the requirements. The crucial and unique task of the engineer is to identify, understand, and interpret the constraints on a design in order to produce a successful result. It is usually not enough to build a technically successful product; it must also meet further requirements. Engineers apply mathematics and sciences such as physics to find suitable solutions to problems or to make improvements to the status quo. More than ever, engineers are now required to have knowledge of relevant sciences for their design projects. As a result, they may keep on learning new material throughout their career. Design of a turbine requires collaboration of engineers from many fields, as the system involves mechanical, electro-magnetic and chemical processes. The blades, rotor and stator as well as the steam cycle all need to be carefully designed and optimized. One who practices engineering is called an engineer, and those licensed to do so may have more formal designations such as Professional Engineer, Designated Engineering Representative, Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer, Ingenieur or European Engineer. For each of these fields there exists considerable overlap, especially in the areas of the application of fundamental sciences to their disciplines such as physics, chemistry, and mathematics. New specialties sometimes combine with the traditional fields and form new branches - for example Earth Systems Engineering and Management involves a wide range of subject areas including anthropology, engineering studies, environmental science, ethics and philosophy. A new or emerging area of application will commonly be defined temporarily as a permutation or subset of existing disciplines; there is often gray area as to when a given sub-field warrants classification as a new "branch." One key indicator of such emergence is when major universities start establishing departments and programs in the new field. Beyond these four, a number of other branches are recognized. Historically, naval engineering and mining engineering were major branches. Modern fields sometimes included as major branches are manufacturing engineering, acoustical engineering, corrosion engineering, Instrumentation and control, aerospace, automotive, computer, electronic, petroleum, systems, audio, software, architectural, agricultural, biosystems, biomedical,[21] geological, textile, industrial, materials,[22] and nuclear[23] engineering. These and other branches of engineering are represented in the 36 institutions forming the membership of the UK Engineering Council. Engineering is a broad discipline which is often broken down into several sub-disciplines. These disciplines concern themselves with differing areas of engineering work. Although initially an engineer will usually be trained in a specific discipline, throughout an engineer's career the engineer may become multi-disciplined, having worked in several of the outlined areas. Engineering is often characterized as having four main branches:[18][19][20] The design of a modern auditorium involves many branches of engineering, including acoustics, architecture and civil engineering. Main branches of engineering Only a decade after the successful flights by the Wright brothers, there was extensive development of aeronautical engineering through development of military aircraft that were used in World War I . Meanwhile, research to provide fundamental background science continued by combining theoretical physics with experiments. The first PhD in engineering (technically, applied science and engineering) awarded in the United States went to Josiah Willard Gibbs at Yale University in 1863; it was also the second PhD awarded in science in the U.S.[17]
When strangers ask me why I don't eat certain animal foods, I usually say I'm a vegetarian. When it concerns dairy products, I usually add that I'm an extra 'consistent' vegetarian, which is also called a vegan. I do indeed feel I'm a kind of vegetarian where it concerns these matters. Yet from an ethical point of view there are differences between veganism and other types of vegetarianism. In this article I want to explore briefly if those differences are essential. The use of animals Of all ethical vegetarians can be said that, in principle, we don't want to kill animals for food. People who eat regular cheese while there are vegetarian alternatives without animal rennet, are no vegetarians in this respect. An important difference between vegans and other vegetarians is, however, that the former reject all types of (physically) avoidable use of animals. 'Moderate' vegetarians only remove products of dead animals from their menu, as is well-known, and in addition sometimes even wear leather shoes or clothing. They usually justify this by saying that the production of dairy does not necessarily involve animal suffering and therefore it can go hand in hand with a fundamental respect for the life and well-being of the animals involved. In this way, leather might come from animals that have died a natural death. According to some, this combination of animal use with a vegetarian respect for animals is socially much more viable and in this way would contribute more to animal well-being than veganism. As it happens, refraining as much as possible from all use of animals is much more complicated than a lacto-ovo-vegetarian way of life. Moreover there are no 'sinister' associations with extremism, so that you can expect fewer negative reactions from your acquaintances. Ethical vegetarianism is usually defined by the desire to prevent as much animal suffering as possible. The vegetarian concept of animal use implicates that you can use animals in a morally justified way, i.e. without causing the animals in question any harm that is worth mentioning. Is this a realistic impression of things? I can certainly imagine that certain uses of animal products have nothing to do with the animals being exploited. Think, for example, of chickens from factory farming that have found a safe haven with committed animal lovers. It is absurd to speak of 'animal suffering' when the people who care for such birds eat their unfertilized eggs. Something similar is true for using the remains of animals who have died a completely natural death. Commercial production The question is now whether or not the products used by lacto-ovo-vegetarians usually come from such sources. Of course this is definitely not the case. In most cases they will buy so-called 'animal friendly' milk and eggs, from ecological or biodynamic farms. Unfortunately these farms in reality always depend in part on the killing of surplus animals. For example, new calves and chicks have to be born all the time and only the female ones are commercially important, except for a few males used for breeding. If all animals were to be kept alive, this would surely mean the bankruptcy of farmers in no time at all. I was insufficiently aware of this while doing the research for this article. I actually believed it was financially achievable to commercially produce dairy without killing the males, who are (practically) useless from an economic point of view. This would not be necessary indeed in the case of small-scale personal use, but this is different from cattle breeding as a source of income. Since most vegetarians can't afford to keep farm animals, dairy production would in most cases be dependent on commercial companies and therefore on the killing of animals. By the way, Hindus have found an official solution for the surplus of male animals in dairy farming. Bulls, usually as oxen, are used for labor, keeping their lives 'profitable' form an economic point of view. Cows are impregnated only once every three or four years, keeping the number of male calves limited. Obviously there's a price tag to this practice: the website The Sacred Cow mentions for example over £1.5 per liter as a reasonable price. This system may work in India, in the West these days it isn't an option to keep all bulls alive on a large scale for insemination and agriculture. The relatively non-violent consumption of dairy that is the effect of this policy would be reserved for the rich. In a country like the Netherlands, therefore, the production of affordable dairy without a link to the killing of male animals would, in reality, never be sufficient. Naturally this is even more true for leather and other products of dead animals. The percentage of leather from animals that have died a natural death is almost zero and the chances that leather products have nothing at all to do with slaughter is negligible. A technological way out? It is sometimes said that animal products will be produced completely artificially in the future. This means they are cultivated from cells outside the bodies of living animals. It will, however, take quite a while before this is reality and then it will remain less cost-effective than the present-day cattle breeding for a long time. On top of that, many consumers will for a long time protest these hyper-technological developments from a concept of naturalness. In addition many animal experiments will probably be necessary in which many animals will no doubt be sacrificed. But in principle it is actually conceivable that most animal products in supermarkets someday will have nothing to do with the slaughter or captivity of animals. It is even possible that in the long term they will be cheaper than traditional meat or dairy. The acceptability of animal use Unfortunately many vegetarians realize insufficiently that consumption of dairy in the Western world is almost always connected to the slaughter of male animals. Starting from the technological developments mentioned above, the barely avoidable, evil link might one day be broken, but when this happens we are faced with a more fundamental question: how acceptable is it to use animals when it is not strictly necessary? Animals can't chose to produce certain foods and intentional interference in their lives takes place, even though this would, in specific cases, not involve much animal suffering. To me, the most important problem is that the concept that it is acceptable to use animals to a certain degree for your own pleasure when this is not physically necessary for your health lies at the basis of all forms of unjustified animal use. The specific vegetarian effects of this concept, in the form of animal use in an animal friendly way, is still rooted in a speciesistic view of animals. Note, I do not detract from the value of lacto-ovo-vegetarianism, which is an incredible improvement in comparison with the 'normal' way of things anyhow. Vegans will always be a kind of vegetarians and not opponents of vegetarianism. But from a philosophical point of view only a consistent rejection of the unnecessary use of animals is, in the end, truly credible.
What is JWT? This post explains what JWT is, without getting into technical details you don’t need to know. Intention of the post is to dispel some harmful misconceptions. In short, JWT is just a piece of data signed by someone. It doesn’t do much as-is but it’s a key building block useful in many applications. What JWT Looks Like If you look carefully, it’s basically three gibberish text separated by a period. Th role each part plays are: They look gibberish because they are encoded. Important part is the payload. Rest is there to describe (header) and protect (signature) the payload. What Each Part Does Header primarily describes (using JSON) how the Payload was signed so the Signature can be verified. "alg": "HS256", "typ": "JWT" Payload is a collection of name-value pairs presented as JSON like this: "sub": "1234567890", "name": "John Doe", "admin": true Signature protects both the Header and the Payload so that neither can be changed without detection. Key Points About JWT • JWT doesn’t say anything meaningful about its sender, recipient nor signer as-is. • JWT is not encrypted as-is. This is not to say JWT can’t but they have to be added. Allow me to go into a bit more detail on each points. JWT typically includes some info on its signer so the signature can be verified but that only proves it was signed by someone who can prove they signed it. Unless the signer is known that is. How one know calls for relationship and/or infrastructure. Same goes for sender and recipient. To verify sender or recipient, more has to be built-on top of JWT. JWT is not encrypted as-is. JWT is typically sent unencrypted over a secure channel of communication to a recipient but it may even be printed plainly using QR-code in newspapers. If you need to protect the token, encrypt it whole in way that only the recipient can decrypt it. If only part of the payload needs to be protected, then encrypt just the value. Follow up series of posts will discuss how to build with JWT to solve some common problems like protecting APIs or delegated authorization in a mobile app without issues OAuth has. Stay tuned. Why wasn’t OAuth Vulnerability found earlier? According to OAuth about page, it was Blaine Cook who initiated the birth of the the standard while working at Twitter in Nov. 2006. Blaine mobilized the initiative by getting Chris Messina involved which attracted others at CitizenSpace to join the effort (an excellent demonstration of benefits co-working social environments offer). By April 2007, the initiative got to formalize and, by October 2007, OAuth Core 1.0 spec was finalized. The question of interest to me is, why did it take a year and a half to uncover the first vulnerability? It’s puzzling because OAuth was well known and popularized, attracted a large body of developers, many of whom I presume read the spec, and implemented by many, some very large companies. I’ve read the spec as well and discussed it with peers and partners in the security and payment industry on several occasions. I think the right answer might be that our collective perspective in dealing with the standard was focused on implementation, application, and hype while wrongly assuming that the standard was secure. Recollecting my thoughts when I was reading the spec for the first time, I now realize that it was the safety in numbers and the lure of promising applications that influenced me to focus only on implementation. The good news is that I think OAuth will be given the proper shake it needs to get any remaining kinks out. The bad news is that we are likely to repeat the mistake when the next popular grassroots standard emerges in a hurry. Relatively fast pace of community/grassroots standard initiatives is not a concern only if mass appeal can be effectively leveraged to shine intensive searchlight on all aspect of the standard. On Twitter’s OAuth Fix While the OAuth team is working on addressing the OAuth session fixation vulnerability at the spec level, Twitter made following changes to reduce the exposure window: • Shorter Request Token timeout – This is good practice in general. Developers tend to be too generous and, all too often, forget to enforce or verify enforcement. • Ignore oauth_callback, in favor of URL set at regration time – this prevents hackers from intercepting callback. Double-callback is still possible though which means Twitter OAuth Consumers will have to detect extraneous callbacks and invalidate access to everyone involved because they have no way of telling who is who. Remaining exposure to the vulnerability is when hacker’s simulated callback arrives before the user. We are talking temporal exposure of a couple of seconds at most which, given current Twitter use-cases, is not that big a deal. I wouldn’t do banking over Twitter though. 😉 Facebook Disconnect Launch of Facebook Connect is a perfect example of how amazingly forgetful tech media can be. Despite regular appearance of phishing related news, there is no alarm being raised about glaring phishing vulnerability in Facebook Connect, just the usual armchair-general’s strategy bravos and hypes. First, there is zero phishing protection in Facebook Connect as it is implemented now. What they need, at the very least, is something like Bank of America’s SiteKey. Second, overall security of Facebook Connect sites depend on each and every one of them being secure. Is TechCrunch secure? Maybe. What about others? Is perpetual security audit a requirement for Facebook Connect? Third, I don’t buy “there is nothing to phish for in Facebook” argument. Not until Facebook makes it clear to all Facebook users, developers, and partner sites aware of the dangers. Disclaimer: I worked on the technology behind SiteKey while at PassMark which was acquired later by RSA/EMC and rebranded as Adaptive Authentication (AA). The core of the team that built SiteKey/AA now works at SafePage, company I co-founded a year ago.
The Pica Cats Syndrome – All About Pica In Cats That You Need To Know! You may have gotten stuck with disgust upon seeing your cat chewing a plastic bag but they are doing so because of the pica cats syndrome which is just an instinctual urge exhibited by the felines. Pica syndrome gets them high rewarding feelings and that can get them to get their favorite stuff at any cost. Continue to read as it is important to understand the problem first before moving on to the treatment. About the pica syndrome pica cats Pica is the term that refers to the behavior of consuming non-edible items and this can turn into becoming a behavioral tendency displayed by animals, cats being one of them. The range of the non-edible items that a cat showing the pica syndrome can consume is huge including things like plastic, paper, cotton, plants, cords, wool, leather, cardboards, rubber, etc. Cats with pica can either tear/chew things for playing with them simply or swallow the thing after grinding it for long under their back molar teeth. The consumption of non-edible items by cats can give them a sense of satisfaction, soothing, stimulation, or just dietary satisfaction. Facts about the pica cats syndrome This behavior can be much worrisome for the pet owners and here are some aspects of pica that you must know for a comprehensive understanding of the subject: • Pica comes under the category of obsessive-compulsive disorders where the urge to control and repeat the actions is high. • Certain breeds like the Oriental, Burmese, Siamese, and others are more prone to the pica condition. • Pica can be both genetic and non-genetic as it is basically like mental haywire that can happen in any cat due to different reasons. • It can mostly occur in cats as young as three months only and also the ones who got weaned very early. If trained and raised properly, pica in kittens can be cured by the time they reach the age of one or two years. • The cats who catch pica in adulthood are tougher to cure and more stubborn. • It is also referred to as wool eating sometimes when exhibited in the Oriental breeds. This simply involves mostly young kittens and cats as well sucking on the bedding. • Cats can show their preference for any specific item during pica depending upon the taste, texture, smell, etc. • An important thing to note is that every cat trying to consume a non-edible item isn’t necessarily suffering from pica. It may be just an unintentional incident or playful event. Factors that cause the pica syndrome It is difficult to pinpoint the source of the mental short-circuiting that happens in the pica cats but several factors have been pointed out by different pet experts. Medical problems Any medical issue with the cat can be the primary reason behind the pica syndrome getting triggered and then continuing into becoming a disorder. Health conditions like diabetes, brain tumors, anemia, feline immunodeficiency virus, leukemia, etc. have been usually associated with pica in cats. Dietary issues Insufficiency of the cat meal in delivering essential nutrients to the cat can lead it to search for them in other items that can even be non-edible and this behavior turns into becoming the pica disorder later. In such a case, cats tend to eat plants, litter, or anything that gives them good taste or smell. Behavioral tendency Your cat may tend to chew on random things in a learned pattern just to satisfy their primal urges or meet their stimulation needs as they get bored easily. Extreme stress, lack of attention, separation anxiety, unregulated behavior, noise exposure, re-location, etc. can also trigger pica behavior in cats. Genetic sourcing Your cat might be showing pica symptoms simply because it has gotten the genes of a pica cat. Several cat breeds show a higher risk of pica syndrome and cross-bred cats can produce such cats. Diagnosing the pica syndrome in cats As said, cats eating non-edibles aren’t pica all the time and you can check that by watching out for the following symptoms or actions: • Catching them in the act is the most assuring way you can know if the cat has pica or not. • Check if the cat is consuming the item or not after tearing and chewing it. • The cat may show favor for any specific item which they would lick, tear, play with, and even eat. • While chewing any non-edible item, a feeling of intense pleasure and relaxation is visible on their tiny faces. • The pica cats may also show an extreme obsession with any object. • Inappropriate consumption due to pica can cause health issues like vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, lethargy, and decreased appetite. If you see any of these symptoms, observe what the cat is eating and you will know. You can distinguish the pica syndrome from the basic urges to eat specific non-edibles that is displayed by some of the cat breeds. These urges are a result of particular medical conditions like hyperthyroidism, cancer, poisoning, feline infectious peritonitis, intestinal parasites, and other chronic deficiencies. Treatment for pica syndrome in cats The best step for getting your cat free from pica syndrome is to get her the help of a vet or a pet behaviorist as they will do the proper diagnosis and then prescribe the correct treatment. However, you may want to give some home therapy to your feline friend too, and here are some of the tips that can help: • Desensitizing the cat is a good option that involves redirecting them towards positive activities through training, minimizing exposure to unwanted items, and rewarding them for manners. • You must give your pica cat a lot of stimulation through the constant company, attention, care, and interactive playtime. • Give them alternatives like chew toys, prey mimicking toys, catnip, and other things that can meet their primal instincts safely. • Monitor their diet and ensure that they get all the required nutrients. • Take them for outdoor walks and give them various toys like scratching posts, puzzle feeders, kongs, etc. • You can apply deterrents sprays to the items they chew. Things like Feliway can also help that calm the pheromones in cats and relieve their stress. • To avoid contact catching of pica, limit the entry of other cats in your surroundings. • Never punish or abuse your cat while they are in their pica act and just take away the thing they are eating. The pica cats syndrome cannot be treated completely but they can be minimized up to a significant level. The best treatment sometimes can be to obstruct the cat if the disorder is at the early stage. Vigilant care and attention since the early levels can fade away the disorder in less time. Related posts: Luna Tran My name is Luna and I am a great cat lover and a cat owner of three lovely cats. I have owned many cats till now and have dedicated many years to nurturing and caring cats. Through this blog, I am here to share my knowledge and experience about cats.
Germany’s defeat in WW2 1. 7,171 Posts. lightbulb Created with Sketch. 51 . . .and the revisionists part in it. Yep, this is certainly true. Germany's defeat was mainly down to the war of attrition on the Eastern Front, during which the Russians sacrificed more of its blood than probably all the other combatants together. At the same time it has to be acknowledged that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty virtually signed over Western Europe and its resources to be employed in Germany's war effort for the duration. Russia continues to be treated shabbily by various western leaders in regard to the history
Unique Blog News [Parenting] How am I raising my child? Many psychologists have focused extensively on the impact of child development or parental role on child behavior and future personality formation. However, there are many cases in which the siblings or even the twins who grew up in the same environment reveal very different personality. In addition, some children have similar characteristics even though they were raised in completely different environments. The psychological theories It is difficult to establish. However, psychologists continue to believe that there is a clear correlation between parenting style and child development. Here are some of the main parenting methods. ▲ Dictatorial parenting style Parents who follow dictatorial parenting methods believe that children should follow the rules without exception. Also, do not allow your child to participate in the problem-solving process. She focuses on creating rules without taking into account her child's opinions and taking responsibility for consequences when she breaks rules. When the child asks the reason for the rule, he replies, 'Mom or Dad decided so.' Dictator parents punish children without disciplining them. The belief is that if you keep the hawk, you choose to give pain to your child rather than to teach him to make better choices. Children who grow up under dictatorial parenting often have very strong hostility or aggression in life, while keeping the rules well. It also becomes a child who lie well to avoid being punished. ▲ Authoritative parenting Like dictatorial parents, authoritative parents make some clear rules, but allow exceptions if there are reasonable grounds. Authoritative parents act logically when punishing children to teach them important life lessons. They also encourage positive behavior and encourage good behavior. When a child does a good act, he gives awards or gives praise. Authoritative parenting is a democratic way. Authoritative parents listen to the child and answer the child's questions eagerly. These parents have a lot of expectations for their children, but they also have lots of affection, actively responding to their behaviors and not forgetting appropriate support. The authoritative parent forgives and warms him more than punishes when his child does something that does not meet his or her expectations. Authoritative parents watch the child's behavior and provide clear criteria for the child's behavior. These parents actively intervene in the child's behavior but do not repress or bind the child. What these parents want is that the child will act actively and responsibly, be able to refrain, and be able to collaborate with others. Children who are raised under authoritarian parents are often emotionally stable and often accomplish what they are willing to do. They are also excellent at making the right decisions and have the ability to identify and avoid risks themselves. ▲ Free nonsense Parents who follow a liberal nurturing approach leave the child free. We set the rules, but they are rarely applied and we do not punish them. Even if you decide to punish you, if you promise your child that you did it wrong or promise you that you will not do it again, you will be punished without punishment. Generous parents value the belief that a child is childlike. Freedom-free parents usually want their children to be friends rather than parents. When a child develops a problem, he or she wants to talk without fault and does not actively prevent bad choices or actions. I intervene when I have a really serious problem for my child. A child who grows up under a free-spirited parent often ignores authority and rarely shows respect to anyone. In many cases, it is not very good in school. In addition, there are many health problems such as obesity and cavities. It is because parents do not actively intervene without eating junk food or brushing properly. ▲ indifferent parenting Parents who follow indifferent parenting require fewer children and do not respond to or communicate with their children. Unconscious parents want their children to size themselves and do not spend time or energy to solve their basic needs. There are many reasons for being indifferent parents, and there are many unintended reasons. Parents with drug addiction or mental problems are likely to neglect their children. They may also have little knowledge of parenting, or become indifferent parents who are hit by work or household chores. A child who grows up with an indifferent parent usually has very low self-esteem. There are many cases in which students can not concentrate on their studies and have behavioral problems, and happiness is generally low. This div height required for enabling the sticky sidebar
Let in the light at the end of the tunnel, take the vaccine Lisa Ferdinando A U.S. Army Specialist prepares a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 14, 2020, near the first phase of vaccinations for high-risk health workers and first responders. Since the vaccine for the novel coronavirus came out, there has been much controversy and doubt regarding its efficacy and safety when in reality, it has undergone the same testing as other commercial vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and necessary in order to guard against the virus and interrupt its spread. One of the most common concerns that has been expressed is the possibility of side effects. As with any vaccine, recipients react differently. Though this vaccine causes more side effects than most others, the symptoms are brief and usually not debilitating. Despite this, there are still those who are reluctant to take a chance on experiencing any side effects. “If there are unforeseen side-effects, the vaccine may not be worth it,” junior Eston Kuwahara said. The risk of side effects, however, is a lesser priority than the risk of contracting COVID-19 for many who have frequent interactions with infected individuals. “[All my colleagues are] glad they had it because we ended up seeing so many patients with COVID and we were going through such a significant surge that we want to protect ourselves,” said Mohit Shahani, the Chief of Nephrology at Kaiser Central Valley and medical director of multiple dialysis units. “Even those who had side effects, because they knew that they’d be back in the hospital, taking care of these patients.” Mark Golchereh is an MRI technologist at John Muir in Walnut Creek and Concord, who experienced adverse side effects after his vaccination “like kidney stones…to a point where even pain medicine and the emergency room weren’t really helping to reduce the pain.” However, Gochereh felt that security against the vaccine held a higher priority than his severe side effects, and he did not regret getting vaccinated. The benefits extend far beyond personal protection against COVID-19. Getting vaccinated would decrease the number of people the virus is able to infect, thus slowing its spread. It’s a way to build herd immunity without having to go through the death and sickness it would otherwise require. Even with this goal in sight, there remain reservations against the COVID-19 vaccine due to the speed at which it was developed. Normally, vaccines take several years to be developed, tested, and approved for the public. The COVID-19 vaccine, on the other hand, took less than one year to be released. The mechanism that the COVID-19 vaccine uses is different from all other vaccines in that it uses mRNA from the spike proteins on the virus to allow the body to form antibodies against it. This is the first time this type of mRNA vaccine has been approved for a disease, but that doesn’t mean mRNA technology is new. “[RNA] technology has been around for more than 10, 15 years,” Shahani said. “We would know if there was a serious problem with it.” There are also concerns that mRNA vaccines would be capable of altering a person’s DNA. This is impossible, as mRNA is destroyed by the cells’ exonuclease enzymes after being used. There is never any interaction between the mRNA and the body’s original genome. Of course, many more concerns have been expressed but the most significant point is that the vaccine is approved by experts. For those who are unable to get vaccinated at the moment, it is still important to wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines to minimize the chances of contracting the virus.
25 Behaviors That Support Strong Network Culture 25 Behaviors That Support Strong Network Culture E.M. Forster, from Howard’s End This is an excerpt from the final post in a series of five focused on networks for change in education and learning that have appeared on the Education Week and Next Generation Learning Challenges websites. In this series on network design and network thinking, I explored the power and promise of networks as residing in how connection and flow contribute to life, liveliness and learning. See, especially, Connection is Fundamental. In Why Linking Matters, I looked at how certain networks can more optimally create what are known as “network effects,” including small world reach, rapid dissemination, resilience, and adaptation. I also noted, in Structure Matters in particular, that living systems–including classrooms, schools, school districts, and communities–are rooted in patterns of connection and flow. That’s why shifts in connections–between people, groups, and institutions–as well as flows of various kinds of resources can equate with systemic change, and ideally they can lead to greater health (in other words, equity, prosperity, sustainability). Networks can also deliver myriad benefits to individual participants, including: inspiration; mutual support; learning and skill development; greater access to information, funding, and other resources; greater systemic or contextual awareness; breaking out of isolation and being a part of something larger; amplification of one’s voice and efforts; and new partnerships and joint projects. It’s also true, however, that not every network or network activity creates all of these effects and outcomes. The last two posts looked at two factors that contribute to whether networks are able to deliver robust value to individual participants and the whole, including network structure and what form leadership takes. Networks are by no means a panacea to social and environmental issues and can easily replicate and exacerbate social inequities and environmentally extractive practice. So values certainly have a place, as does paying close attention to dynamics of power and privilege. It is also the case that individual and collective behavior on a day-to-day basis have a lot to say about what networks are able to create. The following is a list of 25 behaviors for you to consider as part of your network practice as an educator: 1. Weave connections and close triangles to create more intricacy in the network. Closing triangles means introducing people to one another, as opposed to networking for one’s own self, essentially a mesh or distributed structure rather than a hub-and-spoke structure. 2. Create connections across boundaries/dimensions of difference. Invite and promote diversity in the network, which can contribute to resilience and innovation. 3. Promote and pay attention to equity throughout the network. Equity here includes ensuring everyone has access to the resources and opportunities that can improve the quality of life and learning. Equity impact assessments are one helpful tool on this front. 4. Name and work with power dynamics and unearned privilege in the direction of equity. 5. Be aware of how implicit bias impacts your thinking and actions in the network. Become familiar with and practice de-biasing strategies. 6. Think, learn, and work out loud, in the company of others or through virtual means. This contributes to the abundance of resources and learning in the network. 7. Don’t hoard or be a bottleneck. Keep information and other resources flowing in the network. 8. Identify and articulate your own needs and share them with others. Making requests can bring a network to life as people generally like to be helpful! 9. Stay curious and ask questions; inquire of others to draw out common values, explicit and tacit knowledge, and other assets. 10. Make ongoing generous offers to others, including services, information, connections. For behaviors 11-25, see this link. “… Keep reaching out, keep bringing in./This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,/for every gardener knows that after the digging, after/the planting, after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.” Marge Piercy, from “The Seven of Pentacles” Originally published on May 17, 2018 at Interaction Institute for Social Social Change.
How-to Write Public Comments to DEC North Brooklyn has many brownfields, contaminated sites that require remediation before being approved for use, and other sites that need environmental cleanup. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) oversees most environmental cleanups and runs a brownfield cleanup program in conjunction with the Department of Health. DEC sets rules and standards for site remediation. However, not all sites are required to be cleaned equally and not all sites can be used for all purposes. For example, a site with a certain level of contaminants in soil may make it dangerous if the location is turned into a children’s playground but the site is deemed safe to be used as a factory, with all soil sealed under concrete. For the most part DEC oversees the process, but a private entity pays for the cleanup. In some cases, that entity is the business responsible for causing the contamination, but more often other entities pay for remediation despite having no connection to historical contamination. Typically, those looking to develop the land take on the additional costs of environmental remediation in order to build. Public engagement is a required part of the cleanup process and as such, there exist opportunities for local residents and other stakeholders to provide feedback on the cleanup plans. Yet the public information can be difficult to access and the many steps in the cleanup process can be confusing. But a few simple tips can make the process of providing comments less daunting. Reading DEC fact sheets DEC releases short “fact sheets,” usually two to three pages, that summarize the site, its history, and the cleanup plans. The fact sheets contain many acronyms and technical jargon that can be difficult to understand, especially for someone who is unfamiliar with the process, and can make it hard to even know where to start. Here’s how to read the fact sheets. 1. Look at the “Site Location” section, found on the final page of a fact sheet. The satellite view with the site boundaries outlined is the best way to understand exactly what area is included. 2. Check out the “Site Description.” In addition to giving a written description of the site location, this section gives a background on previous land uses, which often gives clues as to the cause of the contamination. This section also contains a link to additional, detailed information. Following this link should only happen after you have a good understanding of the fact sheet and are interested in more detailed, technical information about the site in question. 3. Read through the “Summary of the Investigation.” This section briefly summarizes what is known so far about the contamination of the site. This is usually where the specific contaminants are listed. 4. Then read through the rest of the document, including the first page. This is where you will find information about where the site is in the cleanup process and how to provide input. Providing Input At this point, you know the basics of site’s contamination, what’s being done, and what is being proposed. Some fact sheets may describe next steps, propose action, or make the case for why specific actions are not necessary. If you choose to investigate further, the best place to start is at the link in the “Site Description” section. However, it is also acceptable to provide comments based solely on the fact sheet. For the vast majority of sites, these fact sheets are the DEC’s main form of public engagement and they should be aware of questions that remain after reading these materials. In addition to providing formal comments, you can also email or call the listed project manager any questions you may have about the comment-gathering process or flag any issues of concern. Formal comments can be made in any form, but the easiest way is to email the project manager, including the site number in that email. Comments can also be mailed. A good place to start comments would be to state who you are, and why the cleanup affects you and your community. Then you can list any questions or concerns you have. Below are some questions to help brainstorm: 1. What if the cleanup does not go as expected? How will the site plan change if a cleanup cannot be achieved? 2. Will the community have access to a person who can give updates? Who can they call if there is a problem? 3. What is being left in the ground? Why has that been deemed ok? 4. What are the chances that what is in the ground may get into the air or water? What kind of protections are being taken to ensure that doesn’t happen? 5. How is the waste material being transported from the site to a disposal facility? 6. What are the larger justice implications of this plan? If waste material is being taken elsewhere, how is it getting there? Will it cause additional traffic through already overburdened areas? What if the truck loses material? What about where it is dumped/landfilled? How are the people and ecology of that area being affected/protected? 7. What other cleanup measures were considered and why weren’t the other measures adopted? Do you agree with these reasons? 8. Does the plan fully take into account nearby vulnerable populations? Remember, it can be valuable to provide feedback even if something isn’t clear or understandable, this type of consistent feedback can help make the process more accessible in the long run. Public engagement is a required part of the process, but for too long the public engagement tools have been overly complicated, making it difficult for the non-technical expert to provide input. Any feedback helps to hold both private entities and local government accountable and will help create a safer and healthier North Brooklyn.
Jump to: navigation, search Panagia Portaitissa 38 bytes removed, 19:34, April 20, 2008 some cleanup - duplicated links, spelling, added links ==History of the icon== This is the most famous and most revered miraculus miraculous icon of the [[Theotokos]] on the Holy Mountain. In the 9th century, during the reign of Theophilus the Eikonomachos (Iconoclast), it was the personal property of a devout widow from [[Nicaea ]] in Asia Minor, who kept it and honoured honored it in her private [[chapel]]. The Emperor's men who got to hear of this decided not to carry out immediately the order about [[icons]], but to start by trying to blackmail its rich owner. In the time which they gave her to collect the money they demanded, the widow took the [[icon]] and her dearly loved son and, after fervent prayer, took it to the sea and left it on the surface of the waves, so that it should not be defied by the iconoclasts. The [[icon]] stood upright on the water and began to head towards the west, while the widow's son, following her advice, also fled towards the west to escape persecution. Later he became a [[monk ]] and died on the north-east coast of [[Mount Athos]] near or in the Monastery of Clement, and so the anchorites round about heard from him the story of the [[icon]]. One evening, when monks from Georgia (Iberians) had started to live at the [[Monastery]] of Clement, an amazing phenomenon puzzled all the monks of the area: a column of fire stood upright on the sea and reached to the heavens. This vision continued to be seen for several days, and then the monks saw the [[icon]] adrift in the sea. They made their supplications to God that this priceless treasure should be given to them, and the [[Theotokos]] appeared to the devout anchorite Gabriel the Iberian and bade him to walk on the water to take the [[icon]] and to give it to the [[Abbot ]] and brethren of the Monastery. Nevertheless, after its reception and installation in the [[church]], the [[icon]] repeatedly disappeared and was found above the gate of the Monastery on the inside. In a dream, the [[Theotokos\|Blessed Virgin]] told St Gabriel that this was the place which she herself had chosen, so that she could protect the monks and not be protected by them. Thus the [[icon]] took the name of '''''“Portaitissa”''''', and until this very day its presence in the [[Monastery]] and on the [[Mount Athos\|Holy Mountain]] is regarded as a guarantee of the protection of Athonite [[monasticism]] by the [[Theotokos]]. Later, a chapel was built near the wall of the [[Monastery]] in which the [[icon]] was placed, while the old entrance was closed and another, grander, one built. The [[miracles]] performed by the '''Portaitissa''' are without number, especially on [[August 15]] and on Monday of Diakainisimi Week, when there is a procession and the finding of the [[icon]] is commemorated with a [[liturgy]] in the [[chapel]] on the shore, at the exact spot where St Gabriel took it out of the sea. Navigation menu
Custom «Syndrome Evidence» Essay Paper Sample Syndrome Evidence Battered women’s syndrome is defined as a type of post-traumatic stress that describes those individuals who have been the victims of severe and persistent domestic violence (Downs, 1996).According to Walker (1999), battered woman syndrome is not a gender specific issue, but can affect men and children. When an individual undergoes persistent domestic violence, he or she is likely to develop post-traumatic stress which is specifically called battered woman syndrome. Such individuals who undergo this type of syndrome have an increased likelihood of committing crimes such as murder (Downs, 1996). However, once an offender is proved suffering from the battered woman syndrome, the battered woman defense may be used in court to show that the offender cannot stand trial (Russell, 2010). However, this will only be applicable when the offender commits a crime when he or she is suffering from the battered woman syndrome (Russell, 2010). Currently, the existence of the battered woman syndrome cannot be classified in medical terms. The discussion will be against the legitimacy of the battered woman defense. Against the legitimacy of the battered woman defense A person who is persistently abused by his or her partner is likely to become depressed or unable to make appropriate decisions which will allow him or her to avoid the daily auses (Downs, 1996). Most of the individuals suffering from the syndrome are unable to make informed decisions because of the psychological or mental disorder. Such individuals may develop very low self-esteem as they sometimes believe that it is their fault to be battered (Walker, 1999). In some cases, individuals suffering from the battered woman syndrome become abusive or aggressive to other people who try to assist them to get out of their abuser’s hands (Downs, 1996). The law refers to this syndrome as a psychological condition, but it has not been accepted that the battered woman defense can be used to show that an offender cannot stand trial (Russell, 2010). Want an expert write a paper for you? Talk to an operator now! The courts in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United States, and United Kingdom have accepted the growing and extensive body of research demonstrating that the battered individuals can defend themselves by using force against their abuser or kill them because of the severe situations they find themselves in (Russell, 2010). Such individuals commit crimes while they make efforts to free themselves from their abusers. Even if battered woman syndrome has not been considered a legal defense, it may legally represent reduced responsibility, provocation, self-defense, and insanity (Downs, 1996). Investigations have been done to determine usefulness and validity of battered woman defense. The practicability battered woman defense has been rejected by courts (Russell, 2010). &nbssp; A good example of a case that involved battered woman syndrome in 2003 includes R v Charlton (Gurnham, 2009). Charlton kept abusing both his wife and daughter sexually as well as battering them on a daily basis (Gurnham, 2009). The woman killed her controlling, obsessive, and jealous partner as his hands were held together by handcuffs (Gurnham, 2009). She was found guilty of her partner’s death and was therefore incarcerated for five years. However, the prison term was reduced by two and half years because the court found that the man used to threaten as well as abuse the defendant and her daughter severely (Gurnham, 2009). Therefore, the threats created fear within the defendant for her own safety and her daughter. As a result of the fear for safety, the defendant made a decision do away with her partner by killing him (Gurnham, 2009). Hurry up! Limited time offer Use discount code Order now There has been a debate on whether or not battered woman defense will be used in court to determine whether those offenders who suffer from battered women syndrome can stand trial or not. Individuals with battered woman syndrome can commit crimes such as murder, because of reduced responsibility, provocation, self-defense, and insanity. An offender can only be considered as not able to stand trial if he or she is insane because insane people may do things out of their conscious. All the other triggers such as provocation, reduced responsibility, and self defense cannot be used as defense in the court. Most popular orders We provide excellent custom writing service Place your order now Testimonials Get 15%OFF your first order use code first15 Prices from $12.99/page Online - please click here to chat
Goldfish Diseases and Their Symptoms Contributor: Mychelle Blake Woman playfully holding a stethoscope to her goldfish bowl Goldfish are fairly hardy fish, and most will live for a long time if they are cared for properly. Even if you look after your pet like it's the most precious thing in the world, knowing goldfish diseases by symptoms will help to ensure your fish gets the right treatment before it's too late. Goldfish Diseases by Symptoms Most symptoms of disease you will observe in goldfish involve discoloration or a change in appearance of their fins and body. You may also observe changes in how they swim or their activity level. Goldfish Body Discolorations Colored spots, such as white spots or black spots on goldfish, can indicate the presence of disease: • Small, white spots indicate your goldfish has ich. • Red spots on your fish's body are probably parasites such as lice or anchor worms. • Black spots on your goldfish might occur after a case of fin rot or it can indicate your tank has too much ammonia. • Tiny yellowish spots that almost look like powder is a symptom of velvet. • Red streaks on the fins that eventually becomes white indicate a condition called fin rot or tail rot. • If the fish's color seems pale and washed out all over, this is a symptom of dropsy. • Pale or white gills means a parasitic infection such as flukes. • A slimy, milky coat on the fish indicates a fluke infection or anchor worms. Ragged Fins and Problems on the Body Parasites are often the cause of a change in your fish's appearance: • If you notice that your fish's fins no longer look bright and flowing but instead appear almost broken or torn, your fish is suffering from fin rot. If the fins appear "clamped" this means he either has either ich, flukes, lice or velvet. • Sores and ulcerations on the fish's body are also a sign that he has flukes or it could be hole-in-the-head disease. • If you notice what appear like tiny "threads" hanging from the fish, this is a sign of anchor worms. • Another parasite observable to the eye is lice, whose tiny bodies you can see moving by the goldfish's eyes, gills and fins. • If the fish's belly appears bloated and his fins are sticking out from his body, this means he has dropsy. This is also known as "pineconing" and gets its name from viewing the fish from the top. The body looks like a pinecone because of the bloat and the scales appearing somewhat separated from the fish's belly and sides. • Swollen eyes accompanied by a bloated body are a sign of dropsy. Swollen eyes can also be due to a condition known as pop eye. Unusual Goldfish Behavior Some strange behaviors you may see with your goldfish can be a warning sign that he is sick. Some of the most common symptoms are: • Rubbing against the tank and decorations most likely means he has either ich, flukes, lice or anchor worms. This is also known as "flashing" because it may be accompanied by rapid movements. • If your fish appears to have trouble swimming, such as moving with the body plane on an angle, floating almost upside down or with their heads pointing down, your fish has swim bladder disease. • Fish that have an extensive case of fin rot will also have similar problems swimming correctly, so if you observe this behavior accompanied by ragged fins, look for a treatment for fin rot. • A swollen belly accompanied by lethargy can also be a sign of constipation, particularly if the fish has not defecated in several days. Loss of Appetite If your goldfish stops eating, this can be a symptom of several diseases such as Ich and velvet. Lack of eating accompanied by ich can also lead to your fish swimming or floating upside down. A goldfish that is barely moving in the tank may be suffering from constipation or swim bladder disease. Breathing Problems If you notice a fish's gills moving rapidly or irregularly, this could indicate ich, flukes or constipation. Common Goldfish Diseases Anchor Worm Anchor worm is a parasite that is most commonly found in fish that are kept outside in ponds, like koi and other large goldfish. Anchor worm is not really a worm but rather it is the feeding stage of a copepod called Lernae. After mating, the female anchor worm burrows into the flesh of the goldfish and eventually transforms into a wormlike form. A part of the worm usually sticks out from the fish's body, resembling a reddish thread. It is usually found near the fins. An infected fish may shake its head vigorously to rid itself of the parasite. If left untreated, anchor worm eventually destroys the gill and muscle tissue around the affected area. Fin Rot Fin rot is caused by a number of things, from injury to disease. It can also be the result of either a primary or secondary infection. If the tail fin is very ragged looking, the fin rot is normally the result of a bacterial infection. On the other hand, if the tail is rotting away evenly, then it is the sign of a fungal infection. If the fin takes on a whitish margin, a bacterial infection has taken hold and if left untreated, it will eventually enter the body of the fish. As long as the fish is treated before the infection reaches its body, the tail fin will grow back. Ich (ick), sometimes called white spot disease, appears as white spots on the side of the fish. These spots are about the size of grains of salt, and they are actually parasites called Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. Ich is fast spreading and very lethal to goldfish if left untreated. Velvet Disease Velvet disease is caused by a parasite called Oodinium, and it results in a golden, velvet-like coating all over the fish's body. It is often difficult to identify in goldfish because the coating is almost the same color as the fish. Dropsy is one of the rarer goldfish diseases. While treatments are available, a full recovery is virtually impossible. Signs of dropsy include bloated eyes, a swollen body and protruding scales. This condition is usually a result of organ failure due to cancer or extremely poor environmental conditions. Fish Lice Fish lice is very rare, especially in goldfish, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still happen. Signs of fish lice include disc-shaped parasites noticeable on the skin of the fish and ulcers on the body of the fish. Black Spot Disease Black spot disease isn't really a disease but rather a natural reaction by the goldfish when their water has too high a concentration of ammonia. When this happens, black spots will form along the side or near the back side of the fish. This usually happens most often with goldfish and koi kept outside. Chilodonella is difficult to determine in goldfish because the disease has very few visible signs during the initial stages. In most cases, by the time the disease is detected, severe tissue damage has already occurred. Typical symptoms of chilodonella include clamped fins, lethargy, difficulty breathing and loss of appetite. Hole-in-the-head disease will usually start off as small sores on the head, usually around the eyes. Eventually, these sores erupt into tubular formations filled with cream-colored mucous. Pop Eye Pop eye is a condition that's typically caused either by parasites or very poor water conditions. The symptoms of pop eye include very inflamed eye sockets, protruding eyes and in some cases, a hazy film over the eyes. Slime Disease Slime disease is usually a result of another disease like chilodonella or parasites. Its symptoms include a grayish coating on the fins or body. The goldfish will also look as if it is trying to scratch itself against the tank or other objects inside the tank. Flukes are microscopic parasites that embed themselves in the gills of the goldfish and cause them to become red and swollen. The fish will also spend more time near the surface of the water because it will have difficulty breathing as a result of this disease. Treating Goldfish When treating goldfish disease by symptoms, cleaning and sanitizing the tank is one of the most important things you can do. Remove the affected goldfish and put it in an isolation tank. Thoroughly clean and sanitize the tank and refill it with fresh, clean water. Treat the water with stabilizers and wait for the environment to become stable before re-introducing your fish. In the meantime, ask your local aquarium shop to help you diagnose your pet's illness by the symptoms it exhibits, treat him with the medication they recommend and maintain the stability of his environment in order for your goldfish to have the best chance at recovery. Was this page useful? Goldfish Diseases and Their Symptoms
Betta Flaring: What It Means and What You Should Know Christy Caplan Betta showy flaring Betta flaring is a display of flared gills and occurs when the fish senses a threat. This flaring behavior is common among male bettas when the fish defend established territories or mating partners. Fortunately, the fight is mostly limited to displays of flaring and spread fins. Betta Flaring Betta flaring is perfectly normal, but the behavior is not always an expression of anger. When a betta flares, this may also be your fish stretching its muscles. With that in mind, fish keepers typically see bettas flare when two males fight with each other. For example, the betta splendens, or Siamese fighting fish, are selectively bred to be aggressive, and flaring helps the fish appear larger than life. Betta fish detect color visually and may easily spot a male betta. Many fish keepers think the male betta is looking for a fight, but conflict is the last resort. Bettas in the Wild The confrontations between two male bettas in the wild rarely end in death. One male usually retreats in defeat. The confinement of a home aquarium presents different challenges as the habitat is small, and there are not many escape routes for the fish. The general rule is only one male betta per aquarium in case the two fish are overly aggressive. Why Bettas Flare Gills and Spread Fins If a male sees his reflection in a mirror, the betta responds by adopting an aggressive posture. There are many other reasons bettas flare gills, and sometimes this behavior may happen after a water change! Betta flaring in showy display A Showy Ritual This showy ritual is what Siamese fighting fish are known for, and modern strains are far more belligerent than wild bettas. The fish initially try to deter one another with ritualized displays. The bettas raise fins and flare gills to make themselves look more prominent. Threats in the Environment Betta fish need suitable tankmates, or the environment may collapse. New hobbyists must watch the community to ensure the betta is not chased, or a fish does not try to nibble on the beautiful fins. The betta's gills may flare from stress. Hobbyists need to observe tank behavior closely to ensure minimal flaring behavior occurs. Betta flaring fings Stretching Muscles The fins and gills help propel bettas through the water. Every once in a while, the male betta needs to stretch its muscles. This behavior may be a form of exercise for your fish, but too much is harmful. More than 20 minutes a week is a problem. Tank Cleaning You may clean the tank and do a water change once a week. If you notice after you return your betta to the tank it flares at you, don't panic! This behavior rarely happens, but your fish needs to get to know you. Spend less time with your fish for a few days as you are the threat. Your betta needs to settle down a bit. Tank Mates Even though male bettas fight, a single male betta rarely bothers other fish in the aquarium. If you want to add tank mates for bettas, there are peaceful species to consider. • Common guppy • Platy • Swordtail • Black molly • White cloud • Cory • Glass catfish Males Versus Females Female bettas fight with each other on occasion, but it is a rare occurrence. Every once in a while, a little fin nipping may happen among females. Bettas Flare-up for Many Reasons Stress, environmental changes, and when a male encounters another male betta are the main reasons a fish keeper may notice ritualized displays. This gill flaring behavior is perfectly normal, and a fish keeper needs to follow simple rules to ensure the community tank remains peaceful. One male betta with select tank mates lives a healthy and happy life. Hobbyists need to watch the betta's behavior to ensure the fish is left alone and stress is not part of the equation. Make sure to eliminate any mirrors. Was this page useful? Betta Flaring: What It Means and What You Should Know
Socrates believed that knowledge and morality were one. In other words immoral behavior is due to a lack of knowledge or understanding. If you’re aware of all the facts of a matter — the real facts, not the assumed ones — you could expect to behave morally and rationally. To Socrates immoral behavior was caused by ignorance. You can get a lot of mileage out of Socrates’ idea, whether you fully agree with it or not. Sometimes if you simply assemble all the facts in one place, that’s enough to give you clarity. Bert at Open Loops made a post about reducing TV watching. If you feel that TV viewing might be hurting you, a good place to start is to get the facts. Find out exactly how much TV you’re watching and what you’re getting in return for that investment. When you see a whole month’s worth of your investment in one place, it’s easier to decide if your investment is a sound one. Take a TV Fast Go without watching TV for 30 days, and use this time to gather data on your viewing habits. If you have a digital video recorder like TiVo, use your DVR to record all the shows you would have normally watched — not just the shows you intend to watch in advance, but your best guess as to all the shows you would have actually watched if you weren’t on the fast. If this project would max out your DVR’s hard drive, then you really ought to leave your cave on occasion. At the end of the 30 days, review your recorded listings and see what you learn. Add up all the time you would have spent watching each TV show. Get clear on what value you could have expected from those shows and what else you might have done with your time. Most likely, you’ll realize that some shows aren’t worth your time. Their entertainment or educational value is too low for how much time they take to watch. Once you see this information in front of you, consciously decide what you’ll continue to watch and why. In her book Brain Building in Just 12 Weeks, Marilyn vos Savant (the woman who holds the Guinness record for the highest IQ) suggests that TV reduces your capacity for rational thought. One reason is that TV oversimplifies reality. You’re presented with subjects in a matter of minutes where everything is nicely wrapped up at the end. Reality is reduced to labels like good or bad, funny or serious, smart or dumb. This harms clear thinking by conditioning you to expect that most problems have a simple, clear solution (and if not, then it will be an overly dramatic solution). But real people and events defy labels. Real life weaves a much richer tapestry than TV, and too much TV viewing can make it hard to see and appreciate that tapestry for what it is. TV skews your map of reality. As you go through the fasting period, think about alternate ways to invest your TV time. If you weren’t watching TV, what else could you do? Be creative. What could you do for your health, relationships, family, work, education, etc? Question why you watch all the TV you do. Is it simply a habit? Do you watch TV by default because you haven’t consciously allocated that time to anything else? If TV is your default filler behavior when you have nothing else to do, switch to a different default behavior like reading or talking to actual human beings or hobbies like music or drawing. If you watch TV when you’re too tired to do anything else, then go to sleep or simply lie down. If you need to rest, then rest. What would happen if you increased your TV viewing? If you’re getting such a good value out of it, then why not do even more of it?
kidzsearch.com > wiki Explore:web images videos games KidzSearch Safe Wikipedia for Kids. (Redirected from Anarchist) Jump to: navigation, search This symbol is often used by anarchists. The "A" represents anarchy, and the "O" is said to represent order. Anarchism is a group of ideas in political philosophy against all enforced kinds of hierarchy. For example, anarchism says that the government should be removed because it is harmful and not needed. It also says that people's actions should never be forced by other people. Anarchism is called a libertarian form of socialism. Anarchism is a group of ideas centered on the belief that government is both harmful and not needed.[1][2] The word "anarchism" is from the Greek αναρχία, which means "without rulers", not "without rule"; it is also sometimes translated as "without government". In the common language, the word anarchy is often used to describe chaos or anomie. However, anarchists usually do not want this. Rather, they define "anarchy" as a way of relations between people. They believe that, once put into place, these relations work on their own. Anarchists are usually opposed by the systems they wish to remove. Individual freedom, voluntary association, and being against the state are important beliefs of anarchism. There are also big differences between anarchist philosophies on things like whether violence can be used to bring about anarchy; the best type of economy; the relationship between technology and hierarchy; the idea of equality; and the usefulness of some organization. The word "authority" is not clear, but anarchists are not against some types of authority (e.g. the authority of someone skilled in self-defence over someone that wants to learn self-defence), they are only against control by force. 1. Anarchism. The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. P. 14 "Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable." 2. Carl Slevin "anarchism" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Ed. Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan. Oxford University Press, 2003.
Build Text-To-Speech Application With TKinter And Python 3 Build Text-To-Speech Application With TKinter And Python 3 What you'll learn You will be empowered to build a project that will help you to secure a lucrative job for yourself at the end of this course!!! You will learn about Python GUI design You will learn how to use voice command in python You will know about Engine You will know how to use the entry box You will know how to create buttons You will know how to build a full text-to-speech alphabet application in python This course requires basic knowledge of Python 3 programming Basic knowledge of python GUI design would be a great plus A computer system is required to follow up with the instructor Text-To-Speech Application System With TKinter & Python 3 starts from the very beginning by teaching you how to build e-learning application system with Python programming basics and then going into advanced topics and different career fields in Python programming so you can get real life practice and be ready for the real world. Why Must I Take This Course And What Benefit Is It To ME As A Python Programmer? This is the only course on the internet that will help you to become a certified and successful programmer with an in-depth knowledge of the entire aspect of Python programming and prepare you with the required skills necessary to build you to face job interviews and get employed as a full stack Software developer. Emenwa Global instructors are industry experts with years of practical, real-world experience building software at industry leading companies. They are sharing everything they know to teach thousands of students around the world, just like you, the most in-demand technical and non-technical skills (which are commonly overlooked) in the most efficient way so that you can take control of your life and unlock endless exciting new career opportunities in the world of technology, no matter your background or experience. Who this course is for Anyone who wants to learn programming but doesn't know where to start. Anyone who wants to level up his/her python programming skill
IT207: Operating Systems -week 4 Week 4 assignment: In assignment one, you gave a brief description of an operating system. For this assignment, describe the functions of the OS with greater detail. • Describe how the OS interacts with the hard drive and RAM. • How does the OS share resources among applications when multi-processing? • How does the OS retrieve data and output processed information, per user commands? Submit a two-page paper in APA format. • a month ago • 10 Purchase the answer to view it • attachment • attachment
Longdendale celebrated the European Day of Languages on Wednesday 16th September. All week Miss Rogers delivered an assembly showing how languages helped her world to grow and showing that our world can be that bit bigger just by speaking another language. All members of staff took their registers in a different language and the Do Now activity in every subject was a vocabulary match up in French and Spanish! Language classes took part in a 'Guess the language' competition where they watched videos of friends of Miss Rogers to guess their native language. Miss Hulston prepared 20 reasons why languages are important which students discussed in tutor time. It was a fantastic day, and really showed students that knowing a language opens many more doors for them and provides them with a high level of enrichment and opportunities for their futures.
Which is faster? A. Light B. Current Light travels through empty space at 300,000 km per second. The electricity which flows through the wires in your homes and appliances travels much slower: only about 1/100 th the speed of light. Part of the reason is that light is massless; it has no weight, whereas the electricity flowing in the wires is made up of a stream of electrons, all of which have some small amount of weight. In addition, the electrons flowing through the wires constantly bump into the atoms of the wire, which slows them down considerably. If you were to take the electrons out of the wire and make them flow through space (which is essentially what you do when you make a spark), they can move faster, but no matter what, they cannot move as fast as light. • 57 What are you looking for?
A Complete Guide to Self Expression Self-expression doesn’t come naturally to everyone as it takes a certain level of vulnerability and transparency to be able to fully express yourself. If you aren’t aware of where the concept of self-expression revolves around, it’s the act of expressing your thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and everything you consider to be a reality. To be self-expressive, you need to be willing to be open with your mind, heart, and soul. Repressing who you leave us and others confused, which is what makes it important. What is Self Expression? Self-expression is revealing who you are and everything you believe to be your reality, whether it’s through your thoughts, emotions, behavior, or beliefs. These all comprise of who you are and it means you convey who you truly are to others. Your level of self-expression is how others grasp who you really are, especially when we live in a world where it’s so easy to pretend. How we reveal our truest identity to others sets the stepping stones of our lives. When you repress the core of who you are, this doesn’t affect anyone but yourself. There are several ways to express yourself, some of which can be wrong and some of which can be right. While self-expression is never easy, it’s a necessary skill to learn for your own self-development. The Importance of Self Expression Without self-expression, you can never truly reveal the very essence of your soul. Repressed emotions are something that could hurt you the most in this world. By refusing to open up about what you feel, you might end up exploding out of nowhere because of the several emotions you bottled up. Self-expression gives others access to who you truly are, especially your loved ones. It’s an outlet to release all your thoughts and feelings into the world in a healthy and calm manner. Repressed emotions cause more anxiety and stress than you think. You may think that it isn’t necessarily needed, but it’s what defines who you are. How can people get close to your entire being if you fail to express who you really are? Expressing yourself isn’t an option, but it’s needed – you owe that both to yourself and the people you love. If you’re someone who fears vulnerability and has a problem with expressing themselves, self-expression doesn’t always come in the form of words, but it can also be through creativity and art. The Power of Self Expression The very power of self-expression lies in being your true and authentic self. Every experience in this world will result in how you portray yourself to others. A false representation of who you are can lead to complications and wrong paths. You could have ended up where you aspired to be but because you didn’t dare to express yourself, you held yourself back from a great opportunity. Aside from this, you feel most complete and whole when you’re secure in who you are. Self-expression allows you to embrace the entirety of who you are, including your weaknesses, flaws, and shortcomings. It allows you to embrace every part of you, both your best aspects and the ones you wished to change. Self-expression was never about impressing people, but it’s putting yourself on a path that’s real and honest. 5 Forms of Self Expression #1 Expressive writing Words are the most powerful way to express who you are, which is why you can easily express in writing everything you can’t say out loud. Words leave a significant mark, especially when it represents your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. With just a combination of words, you can make someone feel something through what you just expressed. Don’t doubt your ability to express yourself in writing – whether it’s through poetry, journal, or another way entirely – as long as you write what is true, it’s a selfexpression that counts. #2 Fashion What you choose to wear can reflect the essence of who you are. Fashion is the most underrated and unappreciated form of art today, but your outfit represents your mood. Fashion makes a combination of color schemes, trends, styles, and comfort so it’s only natural that what you wear can identify who you are. Your clothing style reveals your mood and aesthetics that you believe aligns with your personality. #3 Dance If there’s something you can’t express in words or fashion, dance is a perfect way. It’s one of the most engaging, captivating, and unique ways of self-expression that never goes out of style. Whichever dance you choose – modern contemporary, hip hop, freestyle, ballet, jazz – these are all valid ways to express what you’re feeling inside. Dancers are often seen as individuals who shed open their naked souls to their audience as it can be that vulnerable. You can’t dance without emotions as you’ll look lifestyle and stiff. If dance is the only way you know how to express yourself, that’s completely okay. #4 Music They say music speaks what words can’t, and this is an accurate statement. Music is a common way to express yourself, whether it’s through playing an instrument or singing a song. Music allows you to get both lost and found in the melody, lyrics, and the overall feeling of getting to express what needs to be said through sound and music. Music can make you feel everything, all at once, and that’s what’s so beautiful and extraordinary about it. #5 Voice Another underrated form of expression, but using your voice to speak truths is a very powerful skill. It takes courage and bravery to speak your version of the truth, nobody what anybody else may say. Using your voice may come in ways like public speaking and as mundane as it sounds, it’s a powerful way to get your point across to others. You see various motivational speakers expressing who they are and what they believe in, which are admired by millions of people worldwide. This is just an example of the impact using your voice can leave. The Art of Self Expression Self-expression isn’t a mundane thing but it takes creativity and art to pour your soul out there. In a world that convinces you to harden your heart, expressing yourself is the most creative and alive thing you can do. It’s an art for the reason that it allows you to take a stand and use your creativity to show who you truly are. Whichever form you use to express yourself, it takes bravery, passion, and dedication to doing just that. Final Thoughts I hope this article was able to help you gain insight into everything you need to know about self-expression. If it’s not a concept you were aware of before this article, I hope this helped you gain knowledge and courage to express yourself better. Finding a way to be authentic and express yourself is the best thing you can do both for your self-development and creativity. In fact, most artists thrive and succeed because as much as possible, they aren’t afraid to show you they are through their creative work, and you shouldn’t be either.
• 52° Niveneh and Jonah’s anger Scripture: Jonah 3:10-4:11 Aim: To show the repentance of people of Nineveh and the wrongful response of Jonah. Golden Text: “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (Jonah 3:10). “Jonah, then fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live'” (Jonah 4:8b). Jonah had reluctantly gone to Nineveh to preach God’s message of judgment to the people. After having received a strong persuasion from the Lord by being swallowed by a whale, Jonah went and preached at Nineveh. The king, leaders and people heard the message of judgment and repented of their sins. They changed their sinful ways and began to seek Jehovah God. The result is ever the same. When sinful people repent and turn to God, He forgives them. The result of Nineveh’s repentance was that Jehovah stopped the judgment that He had promised (Jonah 3:10, Text above). The repentance was genuine and complete. From the least to the greatest of the people all repented and cried out to the Lord to forgive them rather than destroy them in judgment. I. Jonah was displeased at the repentance of the people and the stay of God’s judgment (Jonah 4:1-3). First, we are told that Jonah was displeased and became “very angry” because the judgment against Nineveh was stayed by the hand of Jehovah (vs. 1). Second, Jonah prayed about the situation. In essence this is what Jonah said to God, “Lord, I told you when I was back at home that You would forgive them. And if You forgave them, then they could fulfill the prophecy that You had given that Assyria would destroy Israel for Israel’s sins. If I did not come and preach, Your judgment would have destroyed them and Israel would be safe” (vs. 2, writer’s translation). Jonah told the Lord, “It is better for me to die, than to live” (vs. 3). II. Jehovah asked Jonah, “Doest thou well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4-9). Jonah, pouting, went out of the city, built a booth, and sat in the desert sun to wait and see if God would destroy Nineveh as he had preached (vs. 5). God made a gourd vine to sprout and cover over Jonah’s booth to give him relief from the heat. Jonah was glad for the shade (vs. 6). The next evening God prepared a worm to eat the gourd vine so that it died (vs. 7). Pouting Jonah was angry. God also sent a very hot (“vehement”) east wind (coming of the desert) so the sun beat down upon Jonah (vs. 8). Again, Jonah wished himself to be dead (vs. 8). Jonah is in a terrible fix! He has been disobedient to God, but when chastised he reluctantly obeyed. He preached judgment upon the Ninevehites, but they repented and judgment was averted. God gave a gourd for shade-Jonah glad. God sent a worm and wind-Jonah more angry. Now he just wanted to die! Poor, self-centered Jonah. Simple obedience and faith in God would have left Jonah at peace with God, Nineveh and himself. III. Jehovah’s question (Jonah 4:9-11). “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” Jonah’s reply, “I do well to be angry, even unto death” (vs. 9)! Jehovah said to Jonah that if he had a right to be angry at the gourd, was it not right that he should spare repentant Nineveh, which had more than 60,000 little children in the city? Jonah had been self-centered. Jehovah was concerned about the souls of others. God’s judgment is declared against all sinful and unrighteous persons. Yet, He desires that men repent and be spared the wrath that has been declared. Receiving Christ averts judgment.
November 14, 2019 Cuatro Santos: the Four Barrios Disputed by Lipa and Tiaong during the Spanish Era Satellite map shows the present boundary between Lipa and Tiaong. Image credit: Google Maps. On the eastern outskirts of the City of Lipa in Batangas, close to the shared border between Batangas and what is presently Quezon Province, there are four barrios collectively called “Cuatro Santos” or the Four Saints. These are the barrios of San Benito, San Celestino, San Francisco and Santo Toribio, all named after saints and, hence, the term “Cuatro Santos.” It is all but forgotten these days, but parts of these barrios were once claimed by both the Municipality of Tiaong and the then-Municipality of Lipa. From the so-called “historical data” for the barrio of San Celestino1 in Lipa City, we get this short narrative about the dispute [edited from the original for grammar]: “During the Spanish regime, a part of Cuatro Santos belonged to Tiaong, Quezon (formerly Tayabas). In those days, some men from Lipa decided to make arrangements with the people of Tiaong so that the portion that should belong to Lipa because of the mountain that separates Lipa from Tiaong might be given to Lipa. These men made negotiations with the Tiaong people, and after a long time of negotiation, the Lipa people were successful. An agreement was made. They decided to meet at a certain place to be the political boundary line between Tiaong and Lipa. A day was set for the rendezvous and both parties started from their respective towns and the point of the meeting became the boundary line. They happened to meet in a brook in the Malarayat Mountain. The parties declared that the brook where they met became the official boundary line. Since that time up to date, that brook has been called the Bulahan Brook. A marker was set to show that the portion east of it was Tiaong and that portion west of it was Lipa.” From this short narrative, we are able to discern that the lands in dispute were west of the Malepunyo mountain range (of which Malarayat is part). Examining the present day common boundary between the provinces of Batangas and Quezon (top graphic), we are also able to determine that the settling of the dispute also ceded part of the mountain range to Lipa. The excerpt from the “historical data” of San Celestino cited above suggests that despite the “long time of negotiation,” the dispute was amicably settled, especially since representatives from both sides even “met by the brook” to lay down the new boundary. However, the “historical data” from Santo Toribio2, another of the “Cuatro Santos,” paints a different story, one that says the conflict went all the way up to the Spanish courts: “During those days, there was a dispute between the municipalities of Tiaong and Lipa. Tiaong claimed that Cuatro Santos belonged to its jurisdiction. The municipality of Lipa had the same claim. The trouble was brought to the Spanish highest court. The decision was that this place belonged to the municipality of Lipa.” Because of the obscurity of this dispute, Batangas History is as yet unable to corroborate from official documentation that it ever occurred, nor find other details that would have enhanced this article such as the bases for each party’s claim or why the Spanish courts, if at all, ruled in favor of the then-Municipality of Lipa. ↓ Scroll down to leave a comment. Notes and references: 1History and Cultural Life of Barrio San Celestino, Lipa City,” online at the National Library of the Philippines Digital Collections. 2History and Cultural Life of Barrio Santo Toribio,” online at the National Library of the Philippines Digital Collections. Leave a comment:
A smart home power control system based on radio frequency network In recent years, the Internet of Things technology has developed rapidly, and the level of informationization in the whole society has continuously improved. Smart home is one of the main applications of the Internet of Things, and has become a hot research field and the future development direction of home life. It can provide users with a comfortable and convenient living environment. However, since most of the related products on the market are expensive, the penetration rate is still low. In the past, exploration and development often stayed on the transformation of electrical equipment itself. This attempt made smart home products once a luxury. This paper introduces a power control system, which is an important part of smart home. It realizes the remote automatic control function without changing the original electrical equipment. This article refers to the address: http:// 1 system structure The power control system is composed of a remote controller and a socket node, and its working principle is shown in FIG. 1 . When the user is at home, the socket is controlled by radio frequency through the remote controller. After receiving the signal, the socket node decodes by the microcontroller, and according to the result, the specific number of sockets are turned on and off, so that the connected electrical appliances are activated or turned off. When the user is far away from the residence, the mobile phone short message can be sent to the remote controller through the GSM network. After the microcontroller reads the information, the information is transmitted to the indoor wireless network through the radio frequency chip, so that the socket at the corresponding address is controlled. . It can be seen that the remote controller belongs to the gateway node in the whole smart home system. On the one hand, it forms an indoor radio frequency local area network with the socket node, and on the other hand, it is connected with the GSM network, and extends the remote control distance. The internal structure of the remote control is shown in Figure 2. It includes the temperature and humidity detection circuit, clock module, nRF905 RF transceiver module, GSM module and other functional circuits. These modules are connected to the control core LM3S811. The microcontroller uses the ARM Coaex-M3 architecture. Due to the high-density Thumb-2 instruction set, the memory overhead is greatly reduced, and the migration of the operating system is more convenient. Figure 1 How the remote control socket works Figure 2 Remote control block diagram The socket node mainly realizes the radio frequency communication with the remote controller and the on/off control of the relay, and its structural block diagram is shown in FIG. 3. Smoke sensors in the socket are used to prevent fire hazards. Once smoke or flammable gas is detected, the corresponding relay on the socket will be disconnected and reported to the remote controller through the RF transceiver module. After receiving the information, the remote controller will promptly remind the user to take corresponding measures through the SMS function of the GSM module. Prevent the occurrence of danger or further expansion of property damage. Due to the small amount of work at the socket end, the system uses the STC12C5620AD microcontroller as the main control chip of the socket end in terms of cost and performance. Figure 3 block node structure block diagram 2 hardware circuit design 2.1 Temperature and Humidity Detection Circuit The system uses the temperature sensor LM35 and the humidity measurement module CHM-02 for environmental monitoring. The voltage output of the LM35 is linear with Celsius temperature and can achieve Â±1/4Â°C measurement accuracy at room temperature without calibration. The CHM-02 module can detect humidity in the range of 20~95% RH at 0~70 Â°C, and the measurement accuracy at room temperature is 5% RH. The interface diagram of the temperature and humidity sensor and the MCU is shown in Figure 4. Since the analog signals output by the two sensors are within the detection range of the MCU's on-chip A/D sampling circuit, the outputs of the two are directly connected to the two ADC pins of the MCU. The use of analog sensors not only makes full use of the controller's on-chip resources, but also improves the utilization of subroutines. Figure 4 Schematic diagram of the interface between the temperature and humidity sensor and the MCU 2.2 Smoke detection circuit The smoke sensor MQ-2 is based on the electrochemical characteristics of SnO: and has good detection sensitivity for flammable gases and soot. The schematic diagram of the smoke detection circuit is shown in Figure 5. MQ.2 needs to preheat the Hh poles of the internal heating wire before normal operation. In order to prevent the internal signal line temperature from being too high due to excessive heating current, the heating wire is connected in series with the 100 Q resistor. When the smoke or flammable gas in the environment exceeds the warning threshold, the conductivity between the two poles of the sensor AB increases rapidly, and the voltage obtained by the load resistance m connected in series increases accordingly. After the voltage signal is amplified by the low-power operational amplifier TLC27M2, An analog output corresponding to the concentration of smoke or flammable gas is obtained, which is finally quantized by the ADC module of the controller. Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the smoke detection circuit 2.3 clock module In addition to displaying the system time, the clock module can also turn on and off the timing of a single outlet. The schematic diagram of the clock circuit is shown in Figure 6. The DS1302 communicates with the MCU in serial mode. To ensure the stability of signal transmission, the interface has been pulled up. The chip is powered by dual power supply. When the main power supply is working normally, it can charge the standby power supply with fine current; in the case of power failure, the backup power supply is started to avoid the clock stagnation caused by sudden power failure. The remote control is powered by a lithium battery, considering the ease of use. The DS1302's main power pin, VCC2, is connected to the 3.3 V output of the integrated regulator, while the alternate supply pin, VCC1, is connected in series with the 4700 Î¼F capacitor, and the two supply pins are diode-isolated. Since the power consumption of the chip is very low, the discharge of the capacitor can temporarily maintain the operation of the chip during the process of replacing the battery. Figure 6 clock circuit schematic 2.4 RF Transceiver Module nRF905 The RF transceiver module is a bridge connecting the socket to the remote controller. The nRF905 integrated transceiver can be configured for use in three ISM bands with low power consumption. All the nodes in the system are set in the 433 MHz band. The schematic diagram of the RF transceiver circuit is shown in Figure 7. The SMA interface is used to connect a single-ended antenna with a characteristic impedance of 5O Î©, which is beneficial to the omnidirectional radiation of the signal. . The single-ended antenna is also called an unbalanced antenna, and its main reference point is signal ground, while the antenna interface of nRF905 (pins ANT1 and ANT2) is a differential RF output port. In order to maintain the signal balance and ensure the impedance matching of the two ports, a balun (balanced monthly balance) circuit is added between the two to adjust the characteristics of the chip output. Figure 7 RF transceiver circuit 2.5 GSM communication module Combining the short-range RF network with the GSM technology not only makes the short-range RF network configuration flexible, but also takes advantage of the GSM technology in communication distance. The core of the GSM communication circuit is the SIM300 module, and its peripheral circuit is shown in Figure 8. Figure 8 GSM communication circuit schematic The schematic SIM300 communicates with the MCU through the serial port, and a 22 Î© resistor connected in series between the module and the SIM card is used for impedance matching. In order to ensure the transmission quality of the signal, the SIM card data line is pulled up, and the SMF05C type static suppressor connected in parallel with the pin is used for electrostatic protection. A 100 Î¼F tantalum capacitor and a 1 Î¼F ceramic capacitor connected in parallel between the power supply and ground are used to remove low frequency glitch and to some extent have high frequency characteristics. Pressing the S1 button causes the potential of the PWRKEY pin to be pulled low for about 2 s to complete the power-up and power-down of the module. The current state is indicated by the LEDs connected in series on the VDD_EXT pin. In order to facilitate the program control, a triode switch circuit is added on the basis of the original button. When the module works abnormally, the state of the PWR port can be rewritten by software to realize the automatic reset of the SIM300. 3 software design The remote control and the socket are the nodes of the entire RF wireless network, but the difference in hardware structure determines the difference in function and status between the two, and also makes the difference in the way of software design. 3.1 Remote control node program design The remote control is the control core of the system and the link between the user and the socket. Therefore, there are many concurrent modules in the program and the tasks are heavy. Considering that the ARM processor used in the remote control can provide full support for the operating system, using the Î¼C/OS-II operating system to schedule multiple tasks in the node can effectively ensure the real-time performance and stability of the system. Conducive to the expansion of functions. Before the operating system is transplanted, the tasks need to be divided. Each function corresponds to one system task. At the same time, the problem of excessively thinning and frequent scheduling should be avoided. The program flow of the remote controller node is shown in Figure 9. It contains 7 tasks, and the tasks are synchronized and communicated by means of semaphores, message queues, message mailboxes, and the like. From the user's perspective, these tasks are performed concurrently. Figure 9 remote control node program flow chart Key scan tasks have the highest priority among all user tasks. Reading the key value of the user input by interrupting, the data is stored in the message mailbox KeyMbox, if the number key 1-6 is pressed, the radio frequency sending task is notified; if the clock setting button is pressed, the clock adjustment is performed or Timer settings. The clock timing task is used to obtain the clock output value of the DS1302. After the timing time arrives, a message is sent to notify the RF transmission task to be processed, and the hang is automatically completed after completion. The radio frequency transmission task is to send an on/off control signal to the corresponding numbered socket by radio frequency according to the control code obtained in other tasks, and then wait for the socket end to return the action information. If there is no feedback after timeout, it will be resent once, and the task will hang after resending 3 times. The dangerous alarm task needs to pass the same frequency carrier detection. After the address matching is confirmed, the RF signal is received, and then the information is sent to the mailbox. After decoding and confirming the danger alarm identifier, the user is notified by short message through the GSM module. The SMS receiving task is responsible for receiving the user's text message and storing it in the message mailbox GSMMbox. Through the AT command "AT+CMGR=I", only the short message with sequence number 1 is read at a time, and after successfully extracting the control code (including the socket ID number and the switch action code), the piece of information is deleted and transmitted to the radio frequency transmission task. news. The environmental monitoring task is responsible for cyclic sampling of indoor temperature and humidity information. Although the linearity of the temperature sensor is good, the external environment has a great influence on the humidity sensor, and the output voltage value needs to be linearized. The data is stored in the message queue and the final result is the arithmetic mean of the 3 measurements. The liquid crystal display task has the lowest priority. After the above tasks are completed, it is responsible for displaying the final status of each socket, clock information, and indoor temperature and humidity measurement results. 3.2 socket node programming The program flow of the socket node is shown in Figure 10. The most important task is to realize the reception and transmission of RF signals. When there is no smoke alarm, nRF905 enters the receiving mode and listens to the channel; if the same frequency carrier is detected and the data packet address is valid, the receiving is started; when the CRC check result is correct, the hardware will remove the preamble of the data packet and the school. The code and address code are checked, and the MCU data is notified to be ready, and the MCU reads the received information through the SPI serial bus. Figure 1O socket node program flow chart RF signal transmission is essentially the inverse of reception. When the nRF905 enters the standby mode, the MCU transmits the address and data information to the transmit register of the radio frequency chip, and simultaneously starts the chip to enter the radio frequency transmission mode, and then the on-chip hardware automatically completes the task of packing, encoding, modulating, and transmitting the data. After the transmission of one frame of data is finished, the RF chip goes into standby mode and waits for the next activation. Each receiving or transmitting process of the RF circuit is accompanied by a turn-on or turn-off action of the relay. By default, the smoke sensor is enabled. In order to prevent the user from ignoring the smoke in the room, the smoke detection function can also be set to invalid. 4 Testing and analysis On-site testing was conducted in the house shown in Fig. 11, and six sockets and one remote controller were placed in the seven areas A to G. In order to assess the system's immunity to interference, two sources of interference were placed at the junction of each region at frequencies of 432 MHz and 434 MHz. Change the position of the remote control, remotely control the 6 sockets 200 times, and record the feedback signal at the socket end. If an error message is returned or no feedback is returned, it is recorded as a packet loss. Figure 11 Test site network node distribution map It is found that the average error rate of the remote control in the two areas C and E is slightly higher than other areas; when the remote control is in the G area, the average bit error rate is the lowest and the effect is the best. 5 Conclusion The system realizes the intelligent wireless control of the household socket. On the basis of not changing the internal structure of the original home appliance, the user can control the on-off state of the socket through radio frequency, short message, timing and the like. When a fire or flammable gas leaks in the room, the outlet can be automatically powered off. The whole system has no special requirements for the control object, and it has strong adaptability, and it is a cheap smart home solution. ATV61 Series Inverter Transformer And Frequency Converter,3 Phase Inverter Air Conditioner,Inverter Vs Generator,Voltage And Frequency Converter Wuxi Trenty Machinery & Equipment Co., Ltd. , https://www.elec-inverter.com
Why Do We Watch Live Theatre? What is the role of drama in society? What skills does Theatre education give you for other career fields? Life Skills Learned in TheatreOral Communication Skills. … Creative Problem Solving Abilities. … More than “Get It Done” … Motivation and Commitment. … Willingness to Work Cooperatively. … The Ability to Work Independently. … Time-budgeting Skills. … Initiative.More items…• What is live Theatre? Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. … Modern theatre includes performances of plays and musical theatre. What is the purpose of Theatre? Things to know about theatre In fact the purpose of theater is to provide through joy to people. The theatre is a branch of the performing arts and it is concerned with the acting out stories in front of the audience. The main benefits of performing arts include improving life skills and academic performance. What is the difference between a film and a play? Plays are live shows with actors and actresses acting out a story in front of a live audience. A movie is a pre-taped showing of actors and actresses acting out a story. There are benefits and hindrances both to seeing a play and a movie. How can watching theater benefit the mind? Theater encourages embracing and expressing emotions in their most extreme form. Not only do actors feel a range of emotion in theater, but they also exaggerate them. As a human, watching others express emotions can trigger that emotional response in you as well. How can Theatre enrich your life? Why do some plays fit into multiple genres? Why are some plays able to fit into multiple genres? Every play is unique. … It helps in understanding important differences between individual plays. It helps in perceiving important similarities between plays. Why do we like Theatre? Theatre is collective, inclusive, and immersive. It allows you to be both present and escape at the same time. It requires work and participation from the audience- a low energy in the audience translates into a lesser performance- the audience cannot be passive. I love this about theatre. How can watching Theatre benefit the mind? “Attending a performance can promote a connection with and understanding of humanity in a bigger sense.” Watching a play also allows the audience to access emotions they often don’t. … Emotional benefits that surfaced included an increased ability to comprehend and empathize with other people’s feelings and reactions. What is the meaning of Theatre? Why do I love performing? I love performing just because it’s super fun. It’s a bit of an adrenaline rush, but also you just get to basically mess around on stage with friends for 2 hours (and potentially get paid for it). … ‘I got into theatre quite late actually; it wasn’t until secondary school. What benefits can be derived from writing a play review? By writing a play review, you are able to help the author/producer and actors with constructive criticism. You are also able to tell other people whether they should watch the play or not. What is unique about Theatre? What makes theater unique as an artistic medium is that the audience can talk directly to the play — and the play can talk back. The immediacy of theater makes it more moving, but that same immediacy also makes it more vulnerable to disruption, from both sides of the fourth wall. What is difference between Theatre and cinema? So cinema is really just another word meaning moving picture. It also has come to mean more generally the process of film-making and also the building where films are shown. Theater is similar to cinema, in that it can mean the building, or more generally the industry of live performance (i.e. plays, musicals, etc). What are the benefits of live Theatre? Live theatre improves learning and tolerance. Taking students on excursions to see live theatre produces significant educational benefits, including higher levels of tolerance, social perspective taking, and stronger command of the plot and vocabulary of those plays, new research shows. Why is live Theatre better than movies? The most obvious difference between the movies and live theatre is that live theatre has more immediacy. In the movies the events aren’t really happening before your eyes but are projected onto the screen. In the best west end shows, the events are unfolding right in front of you. Why is theater so important? Being fully present with a group of tangible, living, breathing people is important to the art of acting and for the human spirit. Theatre helps us to see a different perspective from our own. … Theatre promotes us to give power to truth, to take risks and to advocate for new and diverse voices.
Skip to main content Acoustic positioning in a reflective environment: going beyond point-by-point algorithms Acoustic positioning telemetry is nowadays widely used in behavioural ecology of aquatic animals. Data on the animal’s geographical location and its changes through time are used to study for instance movement patterns, habitat use and migration. The acoustic signals are detected by stand-alone receivers, allowing to collect huge amounts of data over long periods of time. However, large volumes of data might contain large errors. The traditional Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) method used to calculate underwater positions, is a point-by-point approach: every position is calculated independently of all other positions. This method assumes that the acoustic transmissions follow a linear path. In many environments, this assumption is violated, for instance by reflections of the acoustic signal against hard surfaces, such as rock formations and concrete walls, or by diffractions around obstacles. Hence, acoustic positioning datasets usually require additional filtering. Unfortunately, the performance of the available filtering techniques is often unclear or ambiguous, especially when reflections occur. An alternative to the point-by-point approach, is a track-oriented approach, as used by YAPS (Yet Another Positioning System). This novel algorithm uses the information that is present in previous and subsequent positions, by combining a model of fish behaviour with Time of Arrival (TOA) of the signals on the receivers. In this study, we investigated the performance of two filtering techniques applied to positions provided by the Vemco Positioning System (VPS) in a highly reflective environment. We compared the unfiltered VPS positions with a standard filtering technique, making use of the Horizontal Positioning Error (HPE), and developed a new filter based on receiver cluster classification. Finally, we recalculated the positions with YAPS and compared the performance of this system to the two filtering techniques. The performance of the VPS system was strongly impeded by the multiple reflections occurring in this study area, but lowering the power output of transmitters can slightly attenuate this issue. None of the filtering techniques was able to compensate for reflections and to improve the positioning accuracy significantly. Only the YAPS algorithm could cope with the high level of reflectivity in this study site. Point-by-point algorithms might fail to provide accurate fine-scale tracks in a highly reflective acoustic environment. As this study has shown, the YAPS algorithm can provide a successful alternative, even in these difficult conditions. Since the late 1950s, underwater positioning has added important information to the traditional sampling and fishing techniques: the movement of aquatic animals could finally be (indirectly) observed beneath the water surface [1, 2]. Both radio and acoustic telemetry have since been developed further and are nowadays widely used in behavioural ecology of aquatic animals. In acoustic telemetry, animal-implanted transmitters periodically emit acoustic signals that are heard and decoded by receivers. By installing receivers at key locations, aquatic animals can be tracked to investigate migration routes, barrier passage, delay at structures, entrainment at water intakes [3] and movement patterns along rivers during migration [4]. Single receiver detections yield presence/absence data, but do not allow to investigate fine-scale movement, such as for instance swimming behaviour related to hydrodynamics near structures [5, 6] and fine-scale habitat use [7, 8]. In this case, a dense network of receivers with overlapping ranges is used to calculate 2D (or 3D) positions, resulting in movement tracks. The accuracy required on these positions depends on the research questions. When fish are moving hundreds of kilometres or when large-scale migrations are studied, accuracy of a km or so is adequate. In contrast, high accuracies are needed for instance in ecohydraulic studies, where the interaction between animals and hydraulics is studied at metre to sub-metre scale. One of the most widely used acoustic positioning systems for fine-scale positioning is the Vemco Positioning System (VPS; Halifax, NS, Canada). Vemco provides acoustic transmitters or tags, together with an autonomous receiver system that collects the transmitted signals of animals present within the system. They also provide a positioning service based on the Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) algorithm [9], a hyperbolic positioning system. The difference in detection time between 2 receivers is converted into a range difference, by use of sound speed in water. This gives 3 equations for each set of 3 receivers, that can be solved to find the position and time of the transmitter and its transmission independently of all other transmissions. Vemco uses a weighted average of positions calculated from each available triangle of receivers. The weights are determined by use of an error sensitivity measure: the Horizontal Position Error (HPE). HPE is a dimensionless measure based on the sensitivity of the calculated position to injected errors in range differences and transmitter depth [9]. The accuracy of TDOA positioning is influenced by 3 main types of errors [9]: uncertainty in the receiver positions, uncertainty in the transmitter depth, and errors on range difference. In this study, the receivers were attached at fixed structures and walls, minimising receiver movement. The canal depth (about 5 m) is small compared to the distance between receivers (80 m on average), therefore depth error is also minimal. Range difference error is primarily determined by error on the detection time, which depends on the receiver’s time resolution, e.g., when a receiver has a time resolution of 1 ms, an uncertainty of about 1.4 m (with 1435 m/s sound speed in water) can be expected. Another source of error on range difference is non-ideal sound propagation: TDOA positioning assumes that the signal travels straight from transmitter to receiver. When this assumption is not fulfilled, errors are introduced. Any time a signal is reflected or diffracted, its actual detection time does not match the theoretical detection time and as a result, the calculated distance between transmitter and receiver will be wrong. Reflections occur in many environments: signals can for instance bounce off the ocean floor, the water surface and rock formations [10]. Particularly, human-made structures in concrete such as canal walls, dams and sluices are very prone to reflecting acoustic signals. Diffractions occur when a signal is deflected around an object, such as corners, pillars and other structures in the water column. In addition, a low signal-to-noise ratio might also contribute to positioning error [11, 12]. Manufacturers usually provide a filtering measure, such as the dilution of precision and reliability index of Lotek Wireless Inc. [13], and the HPE and more recently root mean square error (RMSE) in VPS. Depending on the research question, these filtering techniques can result in sufficient data quality for the study (e.g., [7, 8, 14,15,16]). In highly reflective environments, however, such filters might be affected and not work as expected. A new development in the fine-scale acoustic positioning domain is YAPS (Yet Another Positioning Solver; [17]). While traditional positioning methods depart from TDOA-data, YAPS uses the time of arrival (TOA) data directly to calculate the transmitter position. A state–space model, describing acoustic signal transmission and fish behaviour, is fitted to the TOA data, and the error-minimising track is found by a maximum likelihood analysis. The algorithm simultaneously estimates transmission time, x and y coordinates and speed of sound. If available, calculated sound speed data based on temperature measurements can be incorporated in the model. Contrastingly to the TDOA algorithm, YAPS can also use detections picked up by less than three receivers and optimises as such the use of available information. Moreover, the movement model constrains the track to biologically plausible positions, hence avoiding large errors. This paper evaluates the performance of a TDOA-based system (here the 69-kHz VPS) in a highly reflective case study in the Albert Canal in Belgium, comprising concrete canal walls (causing reflection) and a corner (causing deflection) protruding in the receiver array. It compares different filtering techniques on the VPS data with the novel YAPS algorithm, which is directly based on TOA. The outcome of this study can probably be extended to other TDOA-based systems such as Lotek (Lotek Wireless Inc., Newmarket, Ontario, Canada) and Thelma Biotel (Trondheim, Norway). Verification of system performance The positioning efficiency of the fixed transmitters was 82% on average. The lower-power V7 reference transmitter (R4) did not deviate much from this average, and performed with 79% positioning efficiency even better than one of the high-power V16 synchronisation transmitters (S12, 76%). The measured noise was best related to ship passage (Fig. 1; R2 = 55%, p = 1e-28), and not to discharge of the hydropower turbines. The average noise level was 257 mV, well below the level expected to cause issues for detection efficiency (< 300 mV; [18]). Consistent with this expectation, there was no significant relationship between noise and positioning efficiency. Fig. 1 Time series of average daily noise (blue line) and average daily ship passage (red dotted line). The horizontal dotted red line indicates the noise level for good detection efficiencies, i.e. 300 mV [18] The accuracy of positioning of fixed transmitters varied among transmitters and over time (Figs. 2 and 3), with errors up to 255 m (S16). 75% of the errors were below 2.5 m and 8% above 5 m. Especially the transmitters located next to a wall, showed deviations mainly inwards the array (Fig. 3). Note that the guiding structures to which some receivers and fixed transmitters are attached, are only superficial structures and no walls. The errors were not statistically related to any environmental variable (precipitation, temperature, discharge, ship passage). Fig. 2 VPS positions calculated for the fixed transmitters S17 (purple), S15 (blue), S16 (green), S13 (orange) and S7 (red) during the entire study period, illustrating the variation in errors among transmitters. In UTM coordinates to allow background plotting from the ArcGIS Map server Fig. 3 3D-timeseries of the daily average VPS position of fixed transmitters: synchronisation transmitters (green) and reference transmitters (red). The study area is outlined in the xy plane. The calculated positions are in the z-direction. Perfect positions would result in a straight vertical line; any deviations from the vertical line indicate positioning errors To compare the influence of power output, we compared the error on the V7 reference transmitter (R4) to the error on V16 fixed transmitters. The error on R4 (power output 136 dB) was significantly lower than the error on all V16 fixed transmitters (power output 150–62 dB), according to a Mann–Whitney test (p = 0.00). Comparison of VPS, filtering techniques and YAPS Fixed transmitter positioning The 3 filtering methods retained similar numbers of positions for the fixed transmitters (76 to 79%; Table 1). While the HPE filter decreased the on-land positions with 9%, the receiver cluster filters even slightly increased this percentage. Although the latter filters did remove some positions on land, they removed a higher number of positions in the water (resulting in a slightly higher percentage of positions on land). YAPS positioning obtained 30% more positions than VPS, and very few of these positions were on land. All filtering methods succeeded in removing some erroneous positions (in which the good performance filter was most successful), but none of the methods achieved the accuracy of the YAPS positions. Table 1 Performance measures on fixed transmitter positioning for the different filtering techniques (VPS-NF, no filtering; HPE, 75%-quantile HPE as threshold; good p., only positions from good performing receiver clusters; bad p., removing positions from bad performing clusters) and for YAPS positioning Test track positioning The HPE filter succeeded in removing some erroneous positions, decreasing the mean error to 3.8 m (Table 2). In general, this filter removed mainly points outside of the receiver array (Figs. 4b and 5b). The good and bad performance filters omitted the largest errors, but barely decreased the mean positioning error. Moreover, the good performance filter retained only half of the VPS positions, therefore losing a lot of information. YAPS calculated almost twice the number of positions, compared to VPS. However, this larger amount of information came with some extra errors: a few YAPS positions ended up on land, and the mean and median error were larger than on the unfiltered VPS positions. Nevertheless, YAPS did succeed in avoiding positions that were completely off track, given the strongly reduced maximum error and the reduced 99%-quantile error. Figures 4e and 5e show that the errors occurred mainly in the entrance of the northern lock chamber and on the parts of the track outside of the array. Both VPS (with or without filtering) and YAPS gave different results for the V13 versus the V7 track (Fig. 4), even though both transmitters were deployed simultaneously. Table 2 Performance measures on test track positioning for the different filtering techniques (VPS-NF, no filtering; HPE, 75%-quantile HPE as threshold; good p., good performance filter, i.e. only positions from good performing receiver clusters; bad p., bad performance filter, i.e. removing positions from bad performing clusters) and for YAPS positioning Fig. 4 Test track performed on August 4th 2016, resulting from the different methods: VPS (a), HPE filter (b), good performance filter (c), bad performance filter (d) and YAPS (e). The gray line represents the ground truth, measured by a high-precision GPS. The green line connects positions calculated for the V13 test transmitter, the blue dashed lined connects positions (with smaller dots) for the V7 test transmitter. The dots are shaded according to their accuracy: darker shades green or blue indicate larger deviations from the GPS position. The gray polygon marks the contour of the receiver array Fig. 5 Test track performed on August 5th 2016, resulting from the different methods: VPS (a), HPE filter (b), good performance filter (c), bad performance filter (d) and YAPS (e). The gray line represents the ground truth, measured by a high-precision GPS. The green line connects positions calculated for the V13 test transmitter. The dots are shaded according to their accuracy: darker shades indicate larger deviations from the GPS position. The gray polygon marks the contour of the receiver array Fish positioning All 3 filtering methods reduced the number of impossible fish positions on land, as well as the percentage of velocities that exceeded the sustained and burst swimming velocity (Table 3). However, especially the good performance filter led to huge data loss, retaining only 20 to 30% of the positions. In contrast, YAPS calculated 2 to 4 times more positions than VPS, hence significantly increasing the amount of information. Moreover, YAPS calculated the fewest positions on land and the lowest percentage of velocities exceeding sustained/burst velocity. Table 3 Performance measures on eel and salmon positioning for the different filtering techniques A visual comparison of all the methods on 3 fish tracks (Figs. 67 and 8) confirms that the YAPS tracks are biologically the most plausible. Figure 8a shows the difference between YAPS and VPS when the fish is out of array: whereas YAPS continues to estimate a quite plausible track, the VPS track becomes very noisy and calculates positions that are very implausible from a biological point of view. Only the good performance filter (Fig. 8d) is able to filter out these erroneous positions originating from outside the array. Fig. 6 Track of salmon 34435, tagged with a V7 transmitter (rbi 40–80 s). The time series (a) show the X- and Y-coordinates of the VPS track (blue) and YAPS track (green). The other panels show the track in 2D from 13:00 on, resulting from the different methods: VPS (b), HPE filter (c), good performance filter (d), bad performance filter (e) and YAPS (f). The gray polygon marks the contour of the receiver array Fig. 7 Track of eel 100, tagged with a V13 transmitter (rbi 17–33 s). The time series (a) show the X- and Y-coordinates of the VPS track (blue) and YAPS track (green). The other panels show the track in 2D resulting from the different methods: VPS (b), HPE filter (c), good performance filter (d), bad performance filter (e) and YAPS (f). The gray polygon marks the contour of the receiver array Fig. 8 Track of eel 103, tagged with a V13 transmitter (rbi 17–33 s). The time series (a) show the X- and Y-coordinates of the VPS track (blue) and YAPS track (green). The other panels show the track in 2D until 03:00, resulting from the different methods: VPS (b), HPE filter (c), good performance filter (d), bad performance filter (e) and YAPS (f). The gray polygon marks the contour of the receiver array For 11 of the 119 tagged fish that reached the VPS array, the YAPS algorithm did not converge in 5 attempts, and hence no track was obtained. These fish had either very few observations (< 30) or were detected only in periods with large burst intervals (Table 4). The large burst intervals were programmed to save battery life for eels in periods when we did not expect them to migrate. Table 4 Acoustic transmitter (tag) types, burst interval and power output In this study, we investigated different positioning approaches in a highly reflective environment: two filtering techniques, applied on vendor-supplied VPS positions, and YAPS tracks calculated directly from the raw detection data. As our results showed: YAPS performed well in a situation where VPS (and the associated filters) did not. Before comparing the performance of the different systems, we will discuss the performance of the VPS-system, investigated by use of fixed transmitters. The vicinity of a navigation lock complex is a challenging environment for acoustic positioning. Ship traffic through the study site amounts to 74 vessels per day on average (except on Sundays, when the navigation locks are not operating). The operation of the locks and the hydropower installation might increase the noise level already produced by the ships. Nevertheless, the measured noise level was in a favourable range, resulting in a good acoustic positioning efficiency of about 80%. Despite the good positioning efficiency, the positioning accuracy of the VPS system was moderate: 8% of the fixed transmitter positions had 5 to 255 m error. According to Vemco, errors up to 7 m can be expected from VR2W-receivers due to their low time resolution of 1 ms, but higher inaccuracies are probably caused by non-ideal sound propagation. The concrete canal walls surrounding the system can reflect up to 98% of acoustic energy [19]. After receiving a transmission, each receiver sleeps for 260 ms and hence is deaf for reflected signals arriving in this time span [10]. However, when the direct signal is not heard, this protection is absent. Smith et al. (1998) [11] stated that reflections cannot be predicted, because they depend on each position individually. This chaotic behaviour of reflections is apparent when analysing fixed transmitter positions over time (Figs. 2 and 3). Especially the receivers close to the walls are prone to errors, with positions deviating mostly inwards the array (Fig. 3). The main cause of diffraction in this study site is probably the presence of corners within the receiver array (Fig. 9). The path length of a signal travelling around the corner, for instance from transmitter S15 to receiver S7, is augmented with about 30%, causing an error on the range difference between receiver S7 and other detecting receivers. The passing ships are probably another source of reflections and diffractions. Fig. 9 Aerial view of the navigation lock complex and receiver array for 2D-positioning in Kwaadmechelen. The green dots are the receivers, the blue dots are the synchronisation tags (collocated with receivers). The blue triangles are reference tags, of which R4 was only installed towards the end of the study, since April 5th 2017. On that day, S8 was also moved to another position, indicated with S8-2. Background from Google Maps Satellite The observation that the error on the V7 reference transmitter was significantly lower than on the V16 transmitters, while keeping a good positioning efficiency, is promising. This lower-output transmitter appears to be less prone to reflections than the other fixed transmitters. Since the fish were tagged with similar output transmitters (V7 and V13), their positioning accuracy is probably better than for the V16 transmitters. We compared the performance of VPS, the three filter methods and YAPS on three sources of data: fixed transmitter positions, test tracks and fish tracks. The fixed transmitter positions allow error calculation, since the real position is known. However, the positioning of V16 transmitters might not be fully representative for positioning of the fish transmitters (V7, V9 and V13), which have a lower power output. Therefore, we used V7 and V13 transmitters in the test tracks. Since the test tracks contain only a small amount of data, we also used the proper fish tracks to compare the different filtering and positioning methods. We used optimal swimming speed and burst speed as biological thresholds to verify positioning quality by means of measured swimming velocities. These can be merely used to check for unlikely and impossible swimming velocities. Although positions with velocities that do not exceed these values are not necessarily correct, positions that do exceed the limits are guaranteed to be wrong, and hence a measure of wrongness (rather than correctness). Despite successful implementation in other studies [7, 20], we could not find a relation between HPE and the 2DRMS statistic on fixed transmitters in this case study. The reason is that HPE does not take into account the error caused by reflected or diffracted signals. More precisely, reflections do not only cause positioning error, but also error estimation error (personal communication with Frank Smith, Vemco). This can result in positions with high error but low HPE value, and hence inconsistencies in its representation of error sensitivity. In the absence of a more supported HPE threshold, we used the 75%-quantile HPE value as a threshold. HPE values are high outside the array and small within the array [9]. This is reflected in the ability of the HPE filter to decrease the number of positions situated on land (hence out-of-array). Also, the HPE-filtered test tracks and fish tracks clearly show the filter’s bias towards inside-array positions. At the same time, the filter did not completely remove on-land positions and retained some erroneous positions inside the array. Although the HPE filter improved the accuracy on fixed transmitter positions and test tracks, the filtered fish tracks do not show an improvement in quality: rather they are fragmented and noisy. (Note that the number of unlikely swimming velocities nevertheless decreased.) Hence, the usability of the HPE-filter in this type of study site seems limited. Both receiver cluster filters slightly improved the accuracy on fixed transmitter positions and test tracks, but removed less positions on land. Although these filters removed a lot of test track positions wrongly (i.e. false negatives), they were not biased towards inside-array positions and hence retained more information outside of the array. However, in general the cluster filtering resulted in a large information loss, especially for the V7 transmitter (Fig. 4c, d). The loss of information and abundance of false negatives indicate the shortcomings of this method: the receiver clusters were classified based on V16 fixed transmitter data, and hence the derived filtering probably only works well on V16 transmitters. V13 transmitters are less likely to be heard by the same groups of receivers, and V7 transmitters even less, due to the lower output. The fish tracks confirmed the unsuitability of these filters, and especially the salmon track (V7) was heavily deformed by both bad and good performance filters. The positioning accuracy of fixed transmitter was better for YAPS than for any VPS filtering approach. Surprisingly, this was not the case for the test tracks, where the average error on YAPS positions was even larger than on unfiltered VPS positions. The main cause of the larger average error is YAPS’ ability to calculate more positions. Signals coming from the out-of-array zone are detected by fewer receivers. Therefore, VPS can calculate only a few positions, resulting in a very noisy track. YAPS, which does not need three receivers to calculate a positions, retains almost the same frequency of positioning. However, the low number of detecting receivers, combined with a random burst interval (so that the algorithm has to almost interpolate between points with more receivers), results also for YAPS in a lower out-of-array accuracy. And since YAPS calculates more positions, these errors contribute more in the average error than in the case of VPS. In contrast to the VPS track, the YAPS tracks captured better the form of the boat path, especially outside of the array. Since this zone is not the main zone of interest, exact positions are less important here, but it can be interesting to have an idea on how a fish is behaving just before entering the study area. Moreover, this avoids that erroneous positions from out-of-array end up inside the array, disturbing the interpretation of behaviour inside the zone of interest (as observed in VPS-tracks). Due to the presence of guiding structures in the study site, the boat tracks covered a restricted area (around the guiding structures) and are not entirely representative for fish tracks. More test tracks covering the entire receiver array could probably enhance this comparison exercise. Although the V7 and V13 YAPS tracks are slightly different outside of the array, the difference is by far less pronounced than in the VPS tracks and the filtered tracks. Apparently, YAPS is less sensitive to the power output of the transmitter. This is related to its resilience against reflected signals and its capacity to calculate tracks with little information, which are probably the causes of the difference between V7 and V13 VPS tracks. The power of YAPS to use all available detection information, is unmistakable in the fish tracks. Especially the salmon tracks contain a multitude more YAPS than VPS positions. These lower-power V7-transmitters are more prone to signal loss than the V16-fixed transmitters and V13-transmitters. Hence, YAPS’ ability to estimate a track from few detections, in contrast to VPS, is emphasised on V7 transmitters. Moreover, visual analysis indicates that the YAPS tracks are the closest to the real fish tracks. When comparing the fish tracks visually, three features of YAPS stand out. Firstly, its ability to calculate more positions results in more information about behaviour (Fig. 6), and a biologically plausible track. In contrast, the numerous missing points in the VPS track, combined with some erroneous positions from reflections, make it difficult to interpret the track correctly, and none of the filters provide an improvement. Secondly, YAPS can correct for reflected signals, in contrast to VPS (Fig. 7). Note that the eel transmitter suffers more from reflections than the salmon transmitter, due to its higher power output. Thirdly, YAPS is able to capture the behaviour of a fish outside the study area, where most VPS positions are completely off track (Fig. 8). These erroneous VPS positions not only fail to capture the out-of-array behaviour, but also disturb the interpretation of the track inside the array. The average burst interval of fish transmitters in this study was at least 22.5 s. Smaller burst intervals would cause more signal collisions, especially when many fish are present simultaneously in the receiver array. This is due to the type of signal transmission (PPM or pulse position modulation), which takes 3 to 5 s to transmit [21], and inherently limits the amount of information that can be obtained on a fish track. Recently developed systems now allow using smaller burst intervals (in the order of seconds). Examples are the high residency (HR) system (Vemco) and the code division multiple access (CDMA) system (Lotek), which use signals that take < 10 ms to transmit [21]. In combination with a better temporal receiver resolution, these systems are expected to allow sub-meter accuracy [22]. Hence, it would be useful to repeat this paper’s comparison exercise with these systems. Despite the promising performance of YAPS, one cannot ignore the extra effort it demands from practitioners. Before running the YAPS algorithm, the raw detections must be synchronised in time, cleaned-up and rearranged. Especially the time synchronisation is an essential, but potentially tedious task. The details of these preprocessing steps are not discussed in this paper, but references to online available code are given in the “Methods” section. In addition, recent developments of the YAPS package have added the possibility to perform the time synchronisation inside the package [23], in an effort to make YAPS positioning accessible to all. Our results suggest that for research questions on detailed fish behaviour (with required meter or submeter precision), company-provided black-box positions and filtering methods might not provide the required precision, where YAPS does. This statement specifically holds for reflective environments as presented here. Reflective case studies form a challenge for traditional point-by-point positioning algorithms. Additional filtering on these methods is not likely to succeed, given the lack of information to detect which positions originate from reflected or diffracted signals. Indeed, neither the standard HPE filter nor a newly developed filtering method based on receiver cluster classification was able to provide sufficiently reliable fish tracks in this highly reflective study site. The positioning accuracy of VPS in a reflective study site depends on the power of the transmitters used. Therefore, it is advisable to incorporate some reference transmitters of the fish transmitter type in the study. The resulting dataset will be more representative to monitor fish positioning during the study than a set of V16 transmitters. Also, corners in the receiver array should rather be avoided, since these create non-linear transmission paths (although in some case studies, like the present one, this might not be possible). Methods that incorporate models of fish behaviour are promising because positions that deviate from the path due to reflections can be intercepted. YAPS proved to be high-performing in reflective environments, conditions with a low signal-to-noise ratio (in this case due to a low-power signal), and even in grasping information about fish behaviour outside of the receiver array. Hence, it seems that this new algorithm manages even less convenient study sites. Despite the necessary effort in the time synchronisation of the dataset, and the possible effort needed to adapt YAPS to certain case studies, we advocate that the strain is more than worth it to obtain scientifically sound results in difficult study sites such as the one presented. Case study The Albert Canal is an impounded shipping canal connecting the Meuse River in Liège to the Scheldt Estuary in Antwerp. The canal contains 6 navigation lock complexes to bridge the level difference of 56 m between Liège and Antwerp. We collected information about fish behaviour in a 200 × 150 m area (about 5 m deep) in front of the navigation lock complex of Kwaadmechelen, which embarks about 74 vessels daily (Fig. 9). Adjacent to this navigation lock, a combined hydropower/pumping installation generates energy at high flow and can pump water upstream at low flow. VPS data collection We tracked European eels (Anguilla anguilla) in the silver eel phase and Atlantic salmons (Salmo salar) in the smolt phase during 3 deployments, starting, respectively, in November 2015, January 2016 and August 2016. The data of the last deployment were offloaded in June 2017. The mature and large silver eels were tagged with V13 transmitters, while the juvenile salmon smolts required the smaller V7 transmitters. All acoustic transmitters had a random burst interval, transmitting on average each 22.5 (salmon), 25 (eel) or 60 s (salmon) (Table 4). To collect fish positions, we attached 12 69-kHz VR2W receivers (with time resolution 1 ms) to the guiding structures of the lock complex, on average about 80 m apart (Fig. 9). The configuration of the receivers ensured that every location in the area of interest was covered by at least 3 receivers. Since the receivers of the Vemco system are not cable-connected, synchronisation of the receiver clocks happens by synchronisation transmitters. Additionally, we installed 3 reference transmitters in the receiver array. Both synchronisation and reference transmitters produce signals every 10 min on average (randomly between 540 and 660 s). These data were used to verify the system performance. During placement, we measured the position of synchronisation and reference transmitters with a hand-held Garmin GPS (about 5 m accuracy). To make sure that the synchronisation signal is not lost during the study, we used synchronisation (and also reference) transmitters of the V16-family, characterised by a high power output (Table 4). In the course of the study (on April 5th 2017), we added a 4th V7 reference transmitter (R4), to also verify positioning performance of a low-power transmitter. Simultaneously, we moved one of the receivers (ST08) about 50 m to the east, to improve the coverage of the receiver array. Receiver S9 was originally not collocated with a synchronisation transmitter, but on January 11th 2017, we replaced this receiver with the newer VR2TX type, containing an internal synchronisation transmitter and capable of measuring noise (one measurement every 10 min). After each deployment, we offloaded the receivers and sent the data to Vemco for positioning (Fig. 10). Fig. 10 Workflow of the study During the 2nd deployment, we collected 3 test tracks with 3 different test transmitters. We mounted a Trimble TSC2 GPS with 0.01 m average horizontal accuracy on a boat, measuring the true position every second. We attached the test transmitters to a rope with a heavy weight to keep them vertically underneath the boat, and towed them through the study site. On August 4th 2016, we combined a V13 (17–33 s) and a V7 (15–30 s) transmitter in one boat track (average ground speed 0.24 m/s). On August 5th, we performed a second boat track (average ground speed 0.40 m/s) with another V13 transmitter, having a fixed delay of 10 s. Verification of system performance The performance of a positioning system depends on positioning accuracy and efficiency. The fixed transmitters in the VPS array allow verifying both measures. Positioning efficiency is the number of calculated positions in proportion to the number of expected positions in a given time frame and is related to the signal-to-noise ratio. The transmitter’s output level determines the power of a signal and is different for different transmitter sizes (Table 4). The main source of acoustic noise in this study can be expected to be ship noise and noise related to the operation of the navigation lock complex and hydropower installation. We used the noise measurements of the VR2TX receiver to verify the influence of noise on positioning efficiency. Accuracy is determined by the error between real and calculated transmitter position. We analysed the error on fixed transmitter positions visually, by use of 3D timeseries plots. Furthermore, we compared the error on the V7 reference transmitter (R4) to the V16 fixed transmitters, to verify the influence of power output. Filtering methods Every VPS position is delivered with some additional information, containing the HPE value (a dimensionless error sensitivity measure) and the set of receivers used for the position calculation. We used this information in two filtering techniques: HPE threshold and receiver cluster classification. HPE threshold According to Coates et al. (2013) [7], calculated positions can be filtered by use of an HPE threshold, determined by a relationship between HPE and a statistic on the positioning error on fixed transmitters. To find this relationship, we binned the HPE values of all fixed transmitter positions per unit of 1 HPE and calculated the “twice the Distance Root Mean Square error” (2DRMS) in each group [20]. Since the HPE measure is to be interpreted for each deployment separately, we did this for the 3 deployments. However, in none of the deployments, a linear relationship between HPE and 2DRMS could be found (Fig. 11). As an alternative, we used the 75%-percentile of HPE values as HPE threshold: 3.0, 5.7 and 6.7 for the 3 deployments, respectively. Fig. 11 HPE versus calculated error on each fixed transmitter position (gray dots) for the first (a), second (b) and third (c) deployment. The black crosses represent the twice the distance root mean square error (2DRMS) statistic for each group of 1 Horizontal Position Error (HPE) unit Classification of receiver clusters In this approach, we filtered positions based on the overall performance of the receivers used for the position calculation. To this end, we classified every receiver cluster (i.e. every group of receivers used at least once to calculate a position) in two performance categories. The classification of receiver clusters assumes that the choice of receivers used to calculate a position, influences the accuracy of that position. The performance of a receiver cluster can be verified by use of the positions calculated for synchronisation and reference transmitters. We classified every cluster that calculated at least 10 stationary transmitter positions, according to its performance. If a receiver cluster calculated at least 95% of the positions with an error of max 5 m, it is classified as a well performing cluster, otherwise as a badly performing cluster [24]. This results in 2 options to filter the positions: (1) only keep the positions calculated with well performing clusters (and hence omit the unclassified clusters that calculated too few positions) or (2) remove all positions calculated with badly performing clusters (and hence keep unclassified positions). The first is further referred to as ‘good performance filter’, the second as ‘bad performance filter’. YAPS positioning Although the default time precision of the detection data is only 1 s, the softwares VUE and FATHOM provided by Vemco allow to obtain the millisecond time precision (see the APosTel web page). This precision is needed to execute a positioning algorithm independent from VPS. The YAPS R package is available online [25] and can be user-adapted to specific case studies and situations [23]. The results come with an estimated error, indicating model uncertainty for each position estimate. Since we had water temperature measurements available, we incorporated sound speed data calculated by use of the Mackenzie equation [26]. To position fixed transmitters, we split the observations whenever a silence of 60 min occurred (an observation is defined as all receiver detections originating from one transmission). We split the resulting groups in chunks of 2000 observations, and if the algorithm did not converge, we truncated these chunks further to size 1000, 500, 250 and 100. For each run, we allowed 5 attempts of YAPS to find a solution, for each new attempt changing the initial conditions and requiring the estimated error to be smaller than 2. For the synchronisation transmitters, we omitted each transmitter’s self detections, i.e. on the receiver collocated with the transmitter. In addition, we omitted detections on receivers that were completely outside direct-line-of-sight. For instance for receiver S15, these are S7, S10 and S12. The test tracks needed no splitting of the data and were run until an estimated error < 10. To estimate the fish tracks, we split the observations at silences of 30 minutes (again no further chunking needed). We allowed 5 attempts and used an estimation error threshold of 100. A higher threshold was needed since the model uncertainty was overall larger for fish tracks than for fixed transmitter positions. An essential step preceding each positioning algorithm is time synchronisation of the receiver clocks [27]. Additionally, some preprocessing in terms of rearrangement and clean-up of the raw detection data are needed before feeding the TOA data to YAPS [28]. Examples of the actual YAPS positioning on fish, fixed and test data can be found online [29], even as all resulting YAPS tracks [30]. Measures to compare performance To compare the two filtering techniques with unfiltered VPS positions and with the YAPS algorithm (Fig. 10), we calculated performance measures on the fixed transmitter positions, test tracks and fish tracks. With the VPS positions on fixed transmitters, Vemco also provides the positioning error in reference to the so-called ‘derived’ GPS positions. These GPS positions originate from a receiver station calibration [9], performed prior to VPS analysis, by use of calculated distances between receiver pairs. A calibration is required, since GPS positions may come with a significant error. To ensure a fair comparison, we also performed a station calibration on the YAPS analysis, where the most frequently prevailing YAPS position of a fixed transmitter was used as ‘true’ position. This is comparable to the result of the Vemco calibration, where the derived position of a transmitter is close to its most abundant VPS position. In the receiver cluster filter, the cluster classification is directly based on the fixed transmitter data. Therefore, we used 3-fold cross validation to calculate the error on the fixed transmitter positions that remained after this filtering. For the test tracks, we used the high-precision Trimble GPS tracks as ground truth to calculate the error on the positions. Furthermore, we visually compared the tracks resulting from the different methods. In case of fish tracks, the real track is unknown. However, the biological plausibility of fish tracks can be estimated by use of knowledge on the swimming velocities. Fish are characterised by an optimal swimming speed, at which the energetic cost is minimal. For silver eels this is about 0.66 m/s [31, 32]. This speed would optimise the eels’ energy use during their long trip to the Sargasso Sea. Salmon smolts can sustain a velocity of 0.54 m/s during a few hours [33]. We can assume that swimming velocities above these values are less likely to occur, therefore the percentage of such positions is a measure for possibly erroneous positions. Another measure is the burst speed, which is the highest speed a fish can attain and can be maintained for less than 20 seconds [34]. Large fish such as silver eels (with an average length of 840 mm in this study) can reach a speed of 4 body lengths/s [35], or 3.4 m/s in this case. Small fish such as salmon smolts (average length of 160 mm) can reach 25 body lengths/s [35], or 3.9 m/s. Swimming velocities that exceed these respective values can be considered with high certainty as originating from erroneous positions, therefore we calculated the percentage of positions where this occurred. In addition, we calculated the 95 and 99%-percentile of swimming velocities, and the maximum occurring swimming velocity for each method. We summarised all performance measures separately for the 2 species, since they have different swimming velocities. A frequently occurring phenomenon are positions situated on the embankment and the surrounding land. These are obviously erroneous positions, indicating directly how a method is performing. Since 5 receivers were fixed on the canal walls, the majority of calculated positions for their collocated synchronisation transmitters will be on the wall and hence on land. To account for this, we applied a buffer of 3 m around the walls to determine on-land positions. Furthermore, every filtering of the positions is a trade-off between increasing the accuracy and retaining information. Therefore, we calculated the percentage of positions retained relative to the VPS results (i.e. the positions delivered by Vemco without any filtering or positioning effort). Both measures were calculated for the 3 groups of positions (fixed transmitters, test and fish tracks). Availability of data and materials The dataset analysed during the current study is available at Zenodo: Acoustic positioning telemetry in a case study on the Albert Canal (Belgium): VPS and YAPS positions. [30]. The python code for classification of receiver clusters is available on GitHub: Archived on: JennaVergeynst/code_cluster_classification: First release of cluster classification code. Zenodo. The python and R code used for data preparation and positioning by use of the YAPS algorithm is available on GitHub: Time synchronisation of the receiver clocks: Archived on: JennaVergeynst/time_synchronization: Code for time synchronisation of an acoustic positioning system. Zenodo. [27]. Preparation of TOA matrices: Archived on: JennaVergeynst/prepare_toa_for_yaps: Code to prepare TOA-data for YAPS. Zenodo. [28] Examples of YAPS positioning on fish, fixed and test data: Archived on: JennaVergeynst/YAPS_on_casestudy_AlbertCanal: Case study in the Albert Canal using YAPS. Zenodo. 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Author information JV analysed and interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript. TVW helped with running the YAPS algorithm on the data. RB and IP assisted with the data collection and with data interpretation. IP, TDM, AM and IN supervised the work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Corresponding author Correspondence to Jenna Vergeynst. Ethics declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate The study is approved by the Ethical Committee of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (ECINBO09). Consent for publication Not applicable Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Additional information Publisher's Note Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions About this article Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark Cite this article Vergeynst, J., Vanwyck, T., Baeyens, R. et al. Acoustic positioning in a reflective environment: going beyond point-by-point algorithms. Anim Biotelemetry 8, 16 (2020). Download citation • VPS • Acoustic positioning telemetry • HPE • YAPS • Reflective environment • Multipath
Ahead of the Curve: Early-Stage Studies Show Promise science of supplements Herbs may have a long-standing history of traditional uses, but what happens when you place them under the microscope, so to speak? These studies of various promising supplements show the potential for further exploration, as well as the growing body of evidence for the efficacy of proper nutrition and health. In fact, good results in the lab can lead to larger human trials. Here are some of the most promising recent findings. Sea buckthorn protects heart, liver, immunity Doctors reviewed four human studies and 11 animal studies on the effects of sea buckthorn. One study found sea buckthorn protected the liver against oxidized lipids; in another, the fruit, seeds, and peel protected against stress-induced suppression of natural immune killer white blood cells; and in five studies, sea buckthorn had heart-protective benefits. The unsaturated fatty acids, phytosterols, and vitamins A and E in sea buckthorn may produce these benefits. Reference: Journal of Ethnopharmacology; 2018, Vol. 213, 183-90 Aloe vera boosts beneficial gut bacteria Fructans and mucopolysaccharides in aloe vera stimulated the growth of common probiotics. In the lab, doctors used these aloe vera extracts to ferment several common probiotics in the lactobacillus and bifidobacterium families. On average overall, aloe vera fructans boosted these beneficial bacteria populations by two to three times, comparable to the fructooligosaccharides in inulin. In a separate test in human fecal bacteria, aloe fructans boosted the bifidobacterium population by 14 percent. Reference: Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry; 2017, 7b04100, Published Online L-glutamine may slow liver disease A high-sugar, Western-style diet can trigger non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. In the lab, doctors fed mice a high-fructose, high-fat diet or a healthy high-complex carbohydrate, low-fat diet. Some in each group got 2.1 grams of l-glutamine per kilogram of body weight. After eight weeks, those on the high-fructose diet without l-glutamine had significantly higher levels of liver inflammation, while those with l-glutamine had levels similar to those on the healthy diet. Reference: Journal of Nutrition; 2017, Vol. 147, No. 11, 2041-149 Selenium and seizure Special nerve cells in the brain, called parvalbumin PV interneurons (PVI), connect the nerve cells responsible for the senses (sensory) to the nerve cells responsible for actions and movement (motor). The body builds PVIs using an enzyme that normally contains selenium. In the lab, doctors found that mice lacking selenium in these enzymes failed to develop PVIs and subsequently had a fatal seizure within three weeks. Discussing the findings, doctors said that this study demonstrates for the first time that selenium is an essential factor for early development of a specific type of interneuron, PVI. Reference: Cell; 2018, Vol. 172, No. 3, 409-22 In the lab, doctors introduced S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) into human breast cancer cells and found a direct link between the dosage of SAM and decreases in cell proliferation, invasion, migration, growth, and programmed cell death. SAM also reduced tumor size and the spread from an initial cancer site to other sites. Doctors analyzed gene expression and found SAM decreased the expression of several key genes that promote cancer growth and spread. Discussing the findings, doctors said the results provide compelling evidence that SAM can reduce cancer-related disability and death, and call for further therapeutic study. Reference 2: Oncotarget; December, 2017, Vol. 9, No. 4, 5169-83 Synbiotics, body weight and fat Synbiotics combine probiotics with prebiotics, such as inulin. In the lab, mice that had synbiotics added to their diets for the first six weeks after birth had reduced body fat mass and lower body weight after an eight-week high-fat diet, compared to those that did not get synbiotics. The synbiotics group also had lower total cholesterol levels, and greater insulin sensitivity—the ability to use insulin to efficiently metabolize sugar—as adults. The gut microbiome in the synbiotics group also had higher levels of bifidobacterium as early as three weeks of age and continuing through 14 weeks. Reference 3: Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism; 2018, Vol. 20, No. 6, 1408-18 Betsy’s Note: This article is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease or condition. Consult your healthcare provider before beginning a supplement, especially if you take medications, even OTC drugs, or have a medical condition. For example, SAMe is contraindicated with bipolar disorder. Many of these supplements thin blood. Many supplements are also contraindicated with serious medications such as those prescribed for seizure disorders.
Chakra Series: The Root—the foundation on which everything else rests In the December 2005 Catalyst, we introduced the Indian system of human energy. In brief, chakras are vortices or spinning centers which emerge through the interaction of matter and energy. Chakras act as interfaces between our physical bodies and larger cosmic forces. Each chakra associates with a specific nerve ganglion or network, and each ganglion works like an antenna that receives and transmits information relevant to the areas governed by its chakra. The first of the seven major human energy centers is the root chakra. As the names imply, the first, root or base chakra is the foundation upon which everything else rests. Any chakra can be excessive or deficient or both. Deficiency in the first chakra may create an inability to draw to oneself the material things needed for survival. To compensate for the anxiety this creates, a person might eat continually, creating excess weight in order to feel secure and grounded. Imbalances in this chakra manifest as obesity, hemorrhoids, constipation, sciatica, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and knee and foot trouble. Fear, panic and anxiety dominate the emotions. When this center is balanced, individuals feel safe and secure in having what is needed. Until this chakra is balanced and its issues tackled, individuals find it hard to focus attention elsewhere. Always in a crisis or survival mode, one has little energy to devote to other areas of life. Whether the threats to survival are real or merely perceived makes little difference; both situations trigger the fear and anxiety response. The root chakra is closely associated with the adrenal glands, which lie atop the kidneys. Through understanding the physiology and function of the adrenals, we can better understand its scope of influence. The adrenals are actually two glands in one — the adrenal cortex and the adrenal medulla. The adrenal cortex secretes the steroid hormones like cortisol, also called hydrocortisone, aldosterone, and DHEA. These hormones mediate our longer term response to stress by managing the blood sugar level and fluid balance, among other things. The adrenal cortex also produces small amounts of testosterone, estrogen and progesterone in both men and women. The adrenal medulla releases adrenalin, responsible for our ability to respond instantaneously to stress. We have all felt the effect of adrenalin when frightened: the heart rate increases, muscles tense, palms sweat. We become hyperalert and wide awake, ready to respond to ensure survival. Short-term stress does little harm, but we are not meant to endure the chronic, unrelenting stress so many experience today. When this happens, our coping mechanisms malfunction, first by going on overdrive and getting out of synch, then by becoming exhausted. For example, a person may feel run down and exhausted all day, but when bedtime arrives be all wired up and unable to quiet the incessant mental chatter. Adrenal stressors include constant anger, fear, worry or guilt, especially if these emotions concern issues we feel are related to our survival or security. Skipping meals, inadequate protein and too much sugar or junk food, insufficient sleep and relaxation, prolonged infection, trauma, chronic pain, severe allergies, and any ongoing toxic exposure all create stress on the adrenals as they attempt to compensate for these stresses. Signs of adrenal dysfunction include fatigue, nervousness, anxiety, unrefreshing sleep, poor recovery from illness or frequent illnesses, hypoglycemia, low blood pressure, low body temperature, progressive exhaustion with physical exertion, low physical reserves in general, and any sleep disturbance. Of course there are other possible causes for all of these problems, but if you are plagued by very many having, an exam done to evaluate your adrenals may be helpful. Conventional western medical tests will reveal little unless the condition is extreme. From the conventional medical standpoint, the glands are either perfectly healthy or they present life-threatening situations. Western medicine fails to understand that areas exist outside of normal which do not constitute medical emergencies. Many people suffer from adrenal exhaustion without complete failure of the gland, or relative adrenal excesses which don’t qualify as disease. More relevant and progressive tests exist which evaluate the saliva for the adrenal hormones cortisol and DHEA. If your primary care practitioner is unfamiliar but interested, two companies performing the tests provide excellent information: Diagnos-Techs, Inc. in Seattle (800) 878-3787 and Great Smokies Lab in North Carolina (800) 522-4762. Treatment can include the use of both DHEA and cortisol but these should be done only with proper guidance since these hormones function within optimal ranges and more is not necessarily better. Steps you can take at home to balance the adrenal include addressing all the issues relating to the first chakra. Examine the relationship you have with the Earth and your body. Do you view them as prisons from which you will be set free at death? Look around your house. Is it a home? Your adrenals will not rest until you feel safe and secure. A healthy diet which stabilizes the blood sugar through proper balance of protein and carbohydrates is of paramount importance. Minimizing stimulants like caffeine is essential; by themselves, stimulants can create the panic state. A well-balanced multivitamin can help offset deficiencies created by chronic stress, and additional vitamin C and B5 (pantothenic acid) may also be useful. Herbs known as adaptogens play a special role in helping us respond to stress. As the name implies, adaptogens help us adapt, calming an overactive adrenal system or energizing an underactive one. Panax ginseng and Siberian ginseng are among these adaptogens. Licorice root, which contains substances very similar to the adrenal hormone alderostone, is a specific for low adrenal function. Aldosterone acts to help the body retain fluids by retaining sodium, so be cautious if high blood pressure is a concern. Chinese medicine also has a large repertoire of formulas to address adrenal imbalances, including the kidney qi tonics and herbs to strengthen kidney yin or yang. A Chinese medical diagnosis is necessary to use them appropriately. Additional ideas to reduce stress and balance the first chakra include massage or any body work, colonic therapies, yoga, gardening and exercise. To improve the quality of our terrestrial home, buy organic, recycle, join the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. The greatest assistance of all, however, is always available from the Earth herself. A simple exercise to enhance this connection (in warm seasons) is to walk barefoot outside in contact with the ground. Walk around and really feel that you are always supported. Next let a tree find you and sit with your back against the trunk. Feel how it’s anchored, its roots reaching deep into ground. Just being with the tree with a sense of appreciation is enough. Sit back and relax. Or get a pedicure or a professional reflexology treatment. Reflexology is a therapy where practitioners methodically massage the entire foot. Besides feeling incredible, it can benefit the entire body. Todd Mangum, M.D., of the Web of Life Wellness Center is a holistically oriented physician practicing in Salt Lake City.
Gray’s Anatomy por Henry Gray Llegaste aquí para descargar Gray’s Anatomy en pdf y otros formatos. Bajar Gray’s Anatomy epub es sencillo. Aquí tienes toda la información necesaria. ¿De qué se trata este título? Sin reseña Acerca de Henry Gray Henry Gray [1827-1861] was an English anatomist and surgeon most notable for publishing the book Gray’s Anatomy. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) at the age of 25.Biography:Gray was born in Belgravia, London, in 1827 and lived most of his life in London. In 1842, he entered as a student at St. George’s Hospital, London (then situated in Belgravia, now moved to Tooting), and he is described by those who knew him as a most painstaking and methodical worker, and one who learned his anatomy by the slow but invaluable method of making dissections for himself.While still a student, Gray secured the triennial prize of Royal College of Surgeons in 1848 for an essay entitled The Origin, Connexions and Distribution of nerves to the human eye and its appendages, illustrated by comparative dissections of the eye in other vertebrate animals. In 1852, at the early age of 25, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in the following year he obtained the Astley Cooper prize of three hundred guineas for a dissertation “On the structure and Use of Spleen.”In 1858, Gray published the first edition of Anatomy, which covered 750 pages and contained 363 figures. He had the good fortune of securing the help of his friend Henry Vandyke Carter, a skilled draughtsman and formerly a demonstrator of anatomy at St. George’s Hospital. Carter made the drawings from which the engravings were executed, and the success of the book was, in the first instance, undoubtedly due in no small measure to the excellence of its illustrations. This edition was dedicated to Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bart, FRS, DCL. A second edition was prepared by Gray and published in 1860. The book is still published under the title Gray’s Anatomy and is widely appreciated as an extraordinary and authoritative textbook for medical students.Henry Gray wrote the original version of Gray’s Anatomy with an audience of medical students and physicians in mind, especially surgeons. For many decades however, precisely because Gray’s textbook became such a classic, successive editors made major efforts to preserve its position as possibly the most authoritative text on the subject in English. Toward this end, a long-term strategy appears to have been to make each edition come close to containing a fully comprehensive account of the anatomical medical understanding available at the time of publication. Given the explosion of medical knowledge in the 20th century, it is easily appreciated that this led to a vast expansion of the book, which threatened to collapse under its own weight in a metaphorical and physical sense. Acerca de Murat Ukray Murat Ukray, aynı zamanda yayıncılık da yapan yazar, 1976 yılında İstanbul’da doğdu. Üniversite’de Elektronik Mühendisliği okuduktan sonra, Yazarlık ve Yayıncılık hayatına atıldı. Yayınlanmış -14- kitabı vardır. Küçük Elisa, Yazarın 12. Kitabıdır. Gray's Anatomy Henry Gray Datos del libro E-Kitap Projesi & Cheapest Books 2019 ISBN: 9786057861313 Idioma: Español El autor es Henry Gray Datos del fichero: • Visitas al PDF: 1662 • Descargas totales: 791 • Tamaño del archivo: 677KB Ver más Libros de Ciencia Términos de búsqueda: Gray’s Anatomy epub, Gray’s Anatomy gratis completo, Gray’s Anatomy sin registrarse en pdf El precio de este libro en otras tiendas es de… >>> Pero AQUÍ lo tienes GRATIS <<< ¿Cómo descargar este y todos los libros del sitio? 1. 📕Registrate gratis AQUÍ por 1 mes 2. 📕Antes que termine el mes, CANCELA la membresia 3. 📕Disfruta de todos los libros y contenidos que necesites Registrate aquí
Contemporary Human Geography The territory of the Americas is demarcated into some 22 sovereign nation states and one overseas territory, Guyane (French Guiana). The geographical size, population, economic clout, and role in the world political system of these nation states, varies tremendously. The United States, as one of the world's most powerful nation states, is both the region's most populous nation, with close to 300 million inhabitants, as well as its most powerful. In terms of political and economic geography, the America's clearly fall within the sphere of influence of the United States, but rapidly growing trade with China and its increasingly active diplomacy and economic investment in the region are challenging longstanding US hegemony. After the United States, Brazil and Mexico stand out as the most significant regional powers in terms of areal extent, population, and economic activity. Argentina has at times projected itself successfully as a regional power and leader, while Venezuela, bolstered by oil revenues and the vision of a charismatic leader, has recently attempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to do so as well. Population Characteristics Overwhelmingly, the people of the Americas are urban dwellers, living in towns, cities, and major metropolitan centers, and their values and lifestyles reflect that fact. Throughout the region some 75–80% of the total population is urban, although in some countries, especially in Central America, the average is slightly lower. A few of the world's most important urban places, as well as some of its most populous ones, are found here. New York, a city of about 10 million, is one of the world's toptier metropolitan centers and a global center for financial activity. Other world class metropolitan centers whose populations near or exceed 10 million include Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires, while Mexico City and Sa?o Paulo, whose populations exceed 20 million, are among the world's most populous urban places. Despite many shared cultural characteristics and similar economic systems, the nation states of the Americas vary tremendously in terms of their population numbers and socioeconomic status. The population of the region stands at about 850 million and represents slightly less than 15% of the world's population. Population distribution is highly uneven, and most of the region's population is concentrated along or near the coastal margins of the continents with vast interior regions which are sparsely populated (e.g., the Great Plains, the Pampas, the Amazon Basin). Overall, population densities in most countries are comparatively low and pressure on the natural resources modest. Central America is a notable exception, and there population densities are high and pressure on natural resources is also great. Among the various nation states, population distribution is also uneven and there is considerable variation between countries. The United States, with 300 million inhabitants, is the most populous country and alone accounts for well over one third of the entire regional population. Brazil and Mexico, with populations of about 190 and 105 million, respectively, are the next most populous nation states in the region. Nearly three fourths of the region's total population resides in just these three countries. No other countries have populations that exceed 45 million inhabitants, and about half of the region's nation states have populations of less than 10 million. A handful, are really mini states, with populations less than 1 million – BelizeGuyana, and Suriname. Some parts of the Americas, notably Latin America, experienced rapid population growth during the twentieth century. In Brazil and Mexico, population numbers increased by a factor of five during the course of the century and similar patterns pertained in many Latin American countries. In the more economically developed nations of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay population growth was more modest. By the end of the twentieth century, population growth rates had begun to moderate as populations became increasingly urban, social norms and values changed, and birth control and abortion both became more widespread. Overall, the rate of natural population growth across Latin America stands at about 1.5%, although it is higher in Central America (>2.0) and less in the historically developed countries of South America (o1.0). In Anglo America, natural population growth rates are very low – 0.6 in the United States and 0.3 in Canada. In both cases however, pro immigration policies have lead to steady and appreciable increases in total population numbers since the 1960s as large numbers of both legal and illegal immigrants have migrated to those two countries. Socioeconomic Conditions Compared to many other major world regions, especially at a continental scale, for the vast majority of the population, socioeconomic conditions in the Americas are adequate and basic human needs are largely met. However, that said, income levels and socioeconomic conditions across the region are quite uneven. One way to explore the level of economic development of a region is to examine its gross national income (GNI) per capita. But, because the cost of the same goods or services can vary dramatically from one country to another, economists adjust the GNI using a measure called purchasing power parity (PPP). This measure, GNI PPP, measures how much in goods and services can be purchased in a particular country. Thus, it can be used to effectively compare the true purchasing power of money from one country to another and the standard of living. Dramatic disparities in GNI–PPP are evident between Anglo America and Latin America. The United States and Canada are far and away the most eco nomically prosperous nation states of the Americas, where per capita GNI–PPP stands at US$44 260 and $34 610, respectively. In comparison to affluent Anglo America, there is a precipitous drop in the per capita GNI–PPP in Latin American countries. Surprisingly, despite a myriad of economic problems and economic policy blunders, Argentina has the highest per capita incomes in Latin America, US$15 000. Only a handful of other countries have per capita rates that exceed US$10 000 – Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. Many of the region's remaining nation states have per capita GNI–PPP that is below US$5000, while the region's poorest country is Bolivia with a rate of US$2900. Nevertheless, in some ways these data may misrepresent living conditions on the ground. Bolivia, for instance, is indeed a poor country, but hunger and abject poverty are not at all the rule. Continuing advancements in communications technology and the spread of these technologies to all sectors of society will continue to transform the Americas promoting both economic and social integration. Telephones, cellular telephones, and Internet access have increased the level of social and political interaction throughout the Americas. In both the United States and Canada, there are more phones than people and telephone and cell phone service is essentially ubiquitous. Nearly 70% of Anglo America has access to the Internet, with both Canada and the United States enjoying similar levels of access. In Latin America, access to telecommunications technology is more restricted especially in poorer countries and in rural environments, but in most urban environments and among at least the middle class, access to telephones, cell phones, and the Internet is common. In Mexico and Costa Rica, two comparatively well off countries, only about 25% of the population have access to either a telephone or a cell phone and this climbs to a high of over 40% in Chile. At the other end of the spectrum are countries like Guyana and Nicaragua where less than 10% of the population has access to a telephone or a cell phone. Access to computers and the Internet follows a similar pattern. About 20% of the population has access to these technologies in Mexico and Costa Rica, and this figure increases to 30–40% in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. Nevertheless, in the region's poorer nations, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Ecuador, this statistic does not exceed 10% (Figure 2). Contemporary demographic and economic conditions in the Americas.
Module: Storytelling 101 Time: 14 minutes In a nutshell: A good narrative is a story, or part of a larger story, that conveys a sentiment or feeling in an effective way to the audience. It’s noteworthy, memorable and engaging. That doesn’t mean, however, that it needs to be overly complicated or grand. When you’re able to identify a good narrative, you can make sure that your audience becomes emotionally connected to the piece of content you’re sharing with them. An effective narrative It was pouring rain on my walk to the office. The proposal my manager was expecting later in the afternoon was picking away at my attention. What on earth was I going to say that hadn’t already been said a hundred times before? An ineffective narrative: I walked to the office this morning, and it was raining. Luckily, I’d remembered to bring my umbrella, and so I stayed dry. When I got to the office, I sat down at my desk, and got to work on a big proposal for my manager that he was expecting in an afternoon meeting. Remember that a good narrative can be the recounting of an entire business history, or a 2-minute exchange at the office. The defining characteristic of a good narrative is that it takes the audience along on a journey they’ll feel part of, and so remember. The best way of bringing the audience along is by appealing to their emotions; by painting a picture, rather than explaining it out point-blank. Show them, don’t tell them. In 14 minutes, you’ll be able to make your stories more evocative and so meaningful to your audience. Workshop goal: You are able to identify a good narrative and use it as part of your business storytelling efforts. 1. Pick a piece of content or a learning you’d like to share with your audience. Now, write a brief story to go with it (real or fictional). 4 mins 2. Take a look at your narrative. Does it have one or more characters? Are they believable? Is it likely the audience will care about them? If not, try inserting some dialogue or description that brings them to life. 4 mins 3. Is there conflict in the narrative? It doesn’t need to be big, and it doesn’t need to be conflict between different people – internal conflict works, too. This can be as substantial as losing your job, or as small as not knowing how to bring up how someone mispronounces your name at the office. 3 mins 4. Finally, is there a clear connection between the story and the learning you’d like to impart to your audience? A good narrative works best in context; when the audience can clearly see how it conveys a sentiment or message that’s meaningful to them. 3 mins Now you’ve learnt how to identify a good narrative, in the specific context of your business content. When you use more stories in your communications and marketing, the storytelling side of your audience’s brain is switched on. That substantially increases the chances of them remembering your message, as well as beginning to feel like they can trust your brand and business. They’ll feel like you empathise with them – and that you’re speaking to them as humans, not just customers. Which is necessary to build long-term customer relationships worth cultivating.
None of us can be oblivious to the endless stream of bad news – bad stories, bad media coverage. Horrible events and forecasts of doom, amplified and recycled, at times almost indistinguishable from the grossest forms of entertainment and inextricably linked to the hate speech used to generate fear and violent divisions. Social media means that people, including many children, receive news bulletins while they are alone, undefended against images of horror and messages designed to isolate and terrify. How have we come to create, and tacitly condone, such a world, when every instinct of parents and teachers is to shield and protect our children? How can we honestly sustain hope and optimism for them? All of us have a part to play in creating hope, but not by parroting the same old answers to outdated ideas. Hope does not spring from unthinking compliance and unquestioning obedience to institutional authority; nor does it grow out of the mindless refusal to recognise truth or deny facts. Hope arises from the experience of finding creative solutions, sharing them and seeking out those others who see opportunities for change. Hope comes from that understanding that change is generated from our imaginations; that imagination needs to be nurtured and respected as the greatest of human capacities. Preshil has always stood for the primacy of human imagination, expressed through play and creativity, through questioning orthodoxies and having the courage and the self-belief to articulate a different view. Many of our students experienced last week’s action on climate change as a moment of hope and possibility. They had the opportunity to experience the thrill of action, of joining with thousands of others with the dream of creating change and taking charge of their own futures. As adults we may not always agree with them – but then that’s the point, isn’t it?
Why Do Rabbits Dig Holes? why do rabbits dig holes Why do rabbits dig holes in your yard and in their hutch? In the wild, rabbits dig holes to create shelter, somewhere safe from predators, and even to give birth. Our domestic bunnies don’t necessarily need these things, but digging for them is still fun and stimulating. Why Do Rabbits Dig Holes? There are a number of reasons why your rabbit might be digging holes in your yard. Rabbits dig holes to create dens and warrens. These are safe spaces that can offer security from predators, a cool temperature, somewhere to sleep, and somewhere to give birth. Lots of rabbits also just enjoy digging! It can be quite a stimulating behavior for many bunnies, even our domestic pets. So, if you don’t like your rabbit digging in the yard, it’s a good idea to create a digging box for them. We’ll take a closer look at this towards the end of the article. why do rabbits dig holes Do Wild Rabbits Dig Holes? Digging is a natural behavior for domestic rabbits as well as the wild European rabbit that they descend from. In fact, digging is vital for the survival of wild European rabbits. They dig warrens and live in large groups inside these warrens. Warrens are a series of connected burrows that can offer wild rabbits safety, security, somewhere to sleep, and somewhere to give birth. Wild rabbits are more vulnerable to predators than our domestic bunnies. So, digging nests, burrows, and warrens offers them a safe retreat from predators. Do Rabbits Need to Dig? We might think that our domestic bunnies don’t need to dig. After all, they don’t have the same needs as their wild counterparts. Domestic rabbits are safe from predators, they have comfortable places to sleep, we can keep their homes at a proper temperature, and we can control when they breed – if they do at all. But, digging is a natural behavior. As well as these purposes, it can be stimulating for rabbits to dig, and offers some great exercise. If your rabbit doesn’t have somewhere they can dig, you might find that they dig things you’d rather they didn’t. Many owners consider their rabbits to be destructive diggers. But, it’s a very natural behavior. If your rabbit is scratching and digging at hard surfaces in your home, their hutch, or the ground when they are outside, they may benefit from some time to dig in a safe area! Do Rabbits Enjoy Digging? Most rabbits enjoy digging! So, it’s a great idea to find a safe place for them to practice this behavior. Digging provides rabbits with mental stimulation, and exercise to keep them in tip top physical condition. On top of this, digging a little hole or burrow can make rabbits feel secure and comfortable. If your rabbit is feeling anxious from perceived threats, or they are overheating in hot weather, digging helps them to calm down and cool off. So, although digging isn’t necessary for the survival of domestic rabbits, it is great for their mental wellbeing and happiness. Should I Let My Rabbit Dig? If you have a yard, it is a great idea to choose a safe area for your rabbit to dig. But, make sure you keep a close eye on your bunny so that they stay safe. Make sure no predators can get them, like birds or cats. Make sure they can’t eat anything they shouldn’t, and that they can’t dig their way out of your yard. Not everyone has a yard for their bunnies to dig in. But, this isn’t the end of the world! There are options for you, even if you don’t have a yard or a safe outside area for your bunny to dig. Digging Box for Rabbits Instead of letting your rabbit dig outside, you might choose to make a digging box for them. Simply get a large box that has plenty of space for your rabbit to move around in, and fill it with a bunny-safe material that they will enjoy digging. Lots of rabbits also enjoy shredding things. So, filling options include: dirt, paper, hay, paper bags, towels. Avoid substances that could irritate your bunny, or that are known to be unsafe to rabbits. Why Do Rabbits Dig Holes? A Summary Digging is a natural behavior for rabbits, both wild and domestic. It creates somewhere safe for them to sleep, give birth, and shelter from predators. Digging is also a great form of exercise for your domestic rabbit. If you don’t have a secure yard, you can make a digging box for your rabbit instead! Does your rabbit love to dig holes? More Great Rabbit Guides References and Resources Please enter your comment! Please enter your name here
Machiavelli vs. Mohandas Gandhi-Martin Luther King Jr. on Power Essay The term ‘power’ has been explicatively the most contriving subject, a deep political discourse and a philosophical thought since generations and among great thinkers of the bygone era and even of today. What exhibits a power within a paradigm of political intrigues and among ruling elite is a question answered by philosophers with their philosophical juxtaposition to the contemporary political situation of the era. For some philosophers, the rule by force or law justifies power politics but through abiding by the moral principles. Following the ethical principles makes the ruler rightful heir to the powers he can exert. However the term ‘power’ has much more deep intensity and depth explored and applied into the consciousness of the people with great dexterity into the current political scenario. Machiavelli in his most famous treatise The Prince criticized this moral principle of authority to explain the power. For him there is no moral or ethical ground on the basis of which legitimate or illegitimate use of power can be discussed, instead a person who is in authority has a right to command. This power position and explanation of power is contrary to the principles of Mahatma Gandhi-Martin Luther King Jr. for whom power is a means not an end in the political circle and when deep apathetic political overtures are being undertaken. The following essay will be a discussion on the Machiavelli’s concept against much lighter in intensity Mahatma Gandhi’s and Martin Luther King’s concept of power. The Prince as a political treatise was written around 1513 AD using a Latin title De Principatibus (About Principalities) soon after Medici took the control of Florence in his hands and soon after the arrest and torture of Machiavelli’s himself. He contrived the notion of ‘power’ in its real sense, in other words, power and authority are synonymous to each other: if a person is powerful he has the right to command too, but if a person is good that does not ensure he has the power too. Quite in contrary to early theories of moral values, a political ruler will always strive to retain his authority and position which has nothing to do with his legitimate right of a ruler and ownership. Machiavelli’s experience with the Florentine government made him develop and contrive his idea of ‘power’ in kingship. He said right and goodness are not sufficient conditions to gain and win over political seat. It is very necessary for a successful ruler to get to know how the power should be applied. Through the application of the power in an adequate way that a ruler can be successful in making his subjects obey. Machiavelli insists to follow the path drafted by Cesare Borgia who became an exemplary figure of Machiavelli’s concept of a ruler. It was debated that the choice of Machiavelli of Cesare Borgia, also known as Duke, to get the status of hero in his The Prince was a great mistake because it could undermine his reputation at the later stage. “Cesare had committed crimes on his way to power, and it might be added that he had committed other crimes too.” It appeared that he was expecting such criticism but he stood by his point as he said, “Reviewing thus all the actions of the Duke, I find nothing to blame, on the contrary I feel bound, as I have done, to hold him up as an example to be imitated by all who by fortune and with the arms of others have risen to power.” To retain the status, even a mythic historical figure of Rome, Romulus murdered his brother Remus to garner power in his hands. He too agreed to the death of Titus Tatius, who was chosen to have the equal right to power with him. Machiavelli contrives the notion that these murders will ultimately prove to be beneficial for all. However it is to be noted here that though Machiavelli’s agreed that these evil acts were against the moral norms yet he fully contrived to the notion of these violations purporting his view that “[…] in the actions of men, and especially of princes, from which there is no appeal, the end justifies the means.” To these cruelties and destructive tendencies he termed as “destructive purification”, which could be very beneficial to all in the long run. Political theory of Machiavelli is an attempt to leave out questions on authority and right of ruler-ship while making any political decisions or framing political judgment. His views come out very clearly in his discussion on the law and force. Machiavelli believed that good arms and laws are essential parts of the well established political system. As human beings have a tendency to be selfish, they want to gain maximum benefits for themselves but there are theories that claim human beings as good and can be won by goodness or love, but Machiavelli denied it as he said men never live in this way. This is a provocation enough for the political rulers to adopt the policies that could be enforced upon the people for their mutual benefits. His vision of the power politics can well be understood with the help of the term ‘virtue’ which in conventional terms is moral goodness but for Machiavelli, it implies qualities a prince should possess while running the state. Power of Machiavelli was the most effective tool in a political circle of sixteenth century however twentieth century deciphered a complete different perspective- a movement started by great spiritual leader of India, Mahatma Gandhi and political leader Martin Luther King Jr. Mahatma Gandhi’s ideologies on power politics had a much profound influence on the political leaders all over the world as he thwarted what had been a conventional approach of the power with notwithstanding Machiavelli’s power politics. Particularly stand taken by Nelson Mandela against apartheid in South Africa and Martin Luther King Jr. to fight against racism in America had an influence of Mahatma Gandhi’s step taken against the British dominating rule in India. Mahatma Gandhi had said in one of the treatises, “Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment” (quote of Gandhi). For Gandhi attaining the power and position in the nation through love can turn out to be more effective rather than exerted by force. Gandhi made use of non-violence as the most effective weapon in his fight against the British’s rule and its policies in India. Gandhi was not a philosopher but a political strategist as he never tried to conceptualize his views rather he brought a complete political and social change not only in the history of India but also the world. He believed in asserting the voice through not by force but by what David Cortright suggests “social coercion”. Gandhi used “Satyagraha”, in other words, the most peaceful means to make enemies especially ruling class to succumb to the demands but not by hurting anyone. Satyagraha is the most dynamic concept involving constant persuasive strategies and pressure and not a symbol of cowardice as it made out to be by many. For John Wallis, Gandhi’s policy was a “spiritual politics.” It is Gandhi’s “Karma” means task or a moral duty for human kind. Human beings are virtually good and they ought to be won by goodness. This is the concept of “Karma” however paradoxically if we go by Machiavelli’s concept, human beings are selfish too as Gandhi and even Martin Luther King Jr. did not deny this fact. The Satyagraha movement was started in Transvaal, South Africa against Asiatic Registration Act in 1906. At a massive protest in Johannesburg on 11 September 1906, Gandhi persuaded Indians to reject the new law and suffer punishments rather than adopting violent means. The plan was initiated leading to seven long years of struggle whereby Indians refused to register and even burned their registration cards. This caused British government to lavish extravagant brutalities on Indians- thousands of them were put behind bars, slogged and brutalized and even shot to death for not compiling with the orders. Though government attained success in suppressing the protestors yet the outcry of the public was enough for the South African General Jan Christiaan Smuts to come on negotiating terms with Gandhi. This was the most powerful movement that led almost whole India into the wave of their struggle for independence. Again in 1930, Salt Satyagraha was started as a non-violent protest against the British salt tax. Gandhi from Sabarmati Ashram led popularly known as Dandi March on 12th March, 1930 to oppose unjustified salt tax and for complete independence from the British yoke. Protestors in large numbers joined Gandhi along the way for Dandi in Gujarat to produce the salt from the sea without paying a single penny as tax. On 6 April 1930, Gandhi picked up the salty mud and forcefully asserted, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire…I want world sympathy in this battle of Right against might.” This incident was a direct strike against the British yoke yet with the most peaceful means. Though Gandhi was put under arrest soon afterwards yet this small incident created a spark of Indian Independence and attracted people from around the world. The agitation continued for one year and in the end Gandhi was released from prison and Viceroy Lord Irwin was forced to bring Gandhi for negotiations at the Second Round Table Conference in September 1931. Though it was a great achievement as Indians now were joining in large numbers for their war for Independence yet it did not evoke to attain maximum concessions from the British. In United States too, Martin Luther King Jr. started the civil right movement to cure the evils in the society and against racism. Martin Luther King Jr. principles of non violence and civil rights movement to bring about changes in the society were Agape Love, courage, perseverance and others including education, non compliance, boycott, protests and marches among others. These are the most vital elements of power if garnered by the masses in their daily lives could bring in massive change in the society including eradication of the social ills that were preponderating on the American soil since centuries. King in Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963) advocated, “One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” Rosa Park declined to obey the law which compelled her to leave the seat on the bus because she happened to be black. Sit-ins too became one of the most popular non-violence strategic moves and mass protests that resulted into Civil Rights Act of 1964, which brought to end racial segregation in the United States. We must possess civil rights as a power to decline the laws and that would make us serf and refuse to obey any injustice and inalienable rights and anything that does not allow us to enjoy our rights. Martin Luther King Jr. finally said to the people that “we know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” It’s time for the people to raise their voice to attain the freedom and that is possible only by adopting the above principles. However freedom through the above means cannot be obtained overnight as it is a constant persistent effort on the part of the human beings. Further he said that once it is attained, it needs to be protected. During 1963, King gave to the people his A Bold Design for a New South. It was his voice making President John F. Kennedy to realize that the South had been divided into two parts- one was already prepared to accept the change while the other obstinately defied to accede to any change except for the trivial changes. King demanded administration to “place its weight behind the dynamic South, encouraging and facilitating its progressive development.” He thought “this was the moment for government to drive a wedge into the splitting South” and widely spread it giving ample opportunity for the civil rights movement to attain success. What was so defined in this essay was his voice on “tokenism”. He believed that at this moment the decline of civil rights movement was a direct result of the people’s agreement to “tokenism”. He believed that people had not yet stopped their fight to attain equal rights but have been forced to accede to certain symbolic victories which he termed as “tokenism”. After the decades of struggle, Martin Luther King Jr. understood the Civil Rights Act as a mere tokenism, which for him was just the “cynical manipulation of symbols to create the illusion of progress- as perhaps the paramount threat to the work of democracy.” He criticized sharply the limited privileges gained by the Blacks which were for him mere mercy of the whites which they could revoke at their own sweet will. King was able to understand that tokenism in the form of few legislative laws could neither gain them security nor full freedom and for the purpose of the same they had to continue with their struggle. Tokenism, as accepted by everyone, was unavoidable in the circumstances that were compelling the administration to resolve the discrimination issues. Administration on one hand wanted the Negros to feel they felt worried for them but on the other hand they also wanted the backing of the whites. This was the most skeptical situation faced by the administration. This made them compel to resort to certain ways to keep Negros satiated and retain the position of whites still superior. King’s and Gandhi’s approach towards power as a means of influencing others and the states was the most potent means of power adopted to make ardent changes in the society. These actions were also to a certain degree a part of coercion as they involved consistent persuasion and adopting of the means that forced the government to accept to the demands. Here the ardent leader of non cooperation movement and stringent in his views had to change his strategies as he sat for negotiations. But overall change in the strategy was neither adopted by Gandhi till his end nor by Martin Luther King Jr. and even not by Machiavelli himself, as for him any means that justify the ends, is a righteous way. However Judith Brown criticized Gandhi by asserting that his method of moral persuasion reduced his efficacy as a political leader and a person who could easily be carried away for negotiations and for compromises. His decision to put an end to the Salt Satyagraha entered into wide controversy at the time when British officials refused to give adequate relaxation to their tax laws during their Round Table negotiations. Gandhi was seen so desperate to enter into negotiation that according to Stanley Wolpert’s words he “retreated from the brink of victory.” There is a vast difference in approach of Machiavelli and Mahatma Gandhi-Martin Luther King but both views had the same basis as they explicitly believed in the means justifying the end. Machiavelli ways were the wickedest and cruelest whereby it involved killing, deceiving and even betraying others but by making use of these means, Prince would become more powerful and attain complete authority to govern his subjects in the most fruitful way. Berlin connotes that he was earnest as whatever the way might be but the end result he achieved was the same. Machiavelli never said we cannot use the other ways of winning the heart of the people to attain the same result. This means that he can change the strategy as and when situation demands to calculate correctly political mileage a Prince or a ruler needs to cover to win over his subjects. This is possible through all means and ways. He further said everything is allowed to sustain the interest of the society. How could then Gandhi- King’s perspective become a game of power politics with non-violent means? Gandhi’s and King’s non aggressive movements were sufficient enough to control the ills of the ruling powers. Gandhi became for the colonial government most “dangerous radical” and Martin Luther King Jr. the most powerful force. Through their power of persuasion, they were able to impose upon the government to dispose their rules to their ways making further path for the complete freedom. Gandhi and King too were rigid in their response to the gap between the ends and the means but through “law of Karma”, in other words through the moral ways, they tried to reduce the dichotomy tendency between the ends and the means. Power in politics is a game of powerful and of the ones who can win the hearts of the people either by adopting Machiavelli’s means or Mahatma Gandhi-Martin Luther King’s ways and who can utilize the circumstances to evoke the policies for the overall social benefits. Works Cited Cortright, David. Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print. Holler, Manfred J. “Niccolò Machiavelli on Power.” Rationality, Markets and Morals 0 (2009): 335-354. Print. King Jr., Martin Luther. “A Bold Design for a New South.” The Nation. 30 March 1963. Web. 19 February 2011. King Jr., Martin Luther. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963).” The Political Theory Reader. Ed. Paul Schumaker. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2010. 343-346. Print. Machiavelli, Niccolo. “The Prince.” Princeton Readings in Political Thought: Essential Texts since Plato. Eds. Mitchell Cohen and Nicole Fermon. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996. 167-193. Print. Parel, Anthony. Gandhi, Freedom, and Self-rule. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000. Print. Severance, John B. Gandhi, Great Soul. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1997. Print. Related Essays Find Free Essays We provide you with original essay samples, perfect formatting and styling Popular Topics Cite this page Machiavelli vs. Mohandas Gandhi-Martin Luther King Jr. on Power. 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Dry breakfast in deep space NASA has developed four types of bars with different flavors for breakfast for the crew members of the Orion spacecraft. In 2021–2023, the Orion spacecraft with a crew of four astronauts will fly around the moon, and then to Mars. If this happens, people on board will need high-quality and healthy food. The crew of the International Space Station has no problems with food - they can choose from about 200 products, almost like in a restaurant, and they have enough space to store supplies, and new products come from the Earth regularly. With the spacecraft "Orion" the situation is fundamentally different. Power crew during a long mission in deep space puts a number of special conditions. This is a unique task that NASA scientists are now solving. The crew module of the Orion spacecraft during the tests of the Underway Recovery Test 5 rescue operation in the Pacific Ocean. October 27, 2016. Photo: NASA / Bill White First, Orion has limited space for storing food stocks during a mission. It is impossible to send a cargo ship to it, which will fill up the supplies and take the garbage. The crew will initially have to take with them everything they need. Considering the distance to the destination, engineers must optimize nutrition by weight, because every extra kilogram of cargo means extra kilograms of fuel with an oxidizer. This is in addition to the reserves of water and air, which, in any case, astronauts will have to take with them, at the rate of consumption, about 0.8 kg of oxygen and 2.2 kg of water per day for each crew member(water and oxygen can be partially obtained from excreted liquids and water vapor). For food in life support systems, the rate is 500 g per person per day. Orion spaceship with crew module and service module In order to minimize the weight of the cargo on the Orion spacecraft, scientists are developing various options for nutritional bars. Nutritionists have determined that a dense high-calorie replacement for an ordinary breakfast will help reduce the overall weight of the load. It is clear that food with a calorie of 700−900 kcal in any case will have some significant mass and take place, so experts are experimenting with the most optimal form of the bar and its packaging. If you count on a 500-day mission for four people, this is 2000 cereal on the way only in one direction - here every millimeter and gram matters. Key differences between male and female astronauts seen during observations on Earth and in space On the ISS for astronauts there is a large selection of thermally stabilized and dehydrated food in sealed packages. On Orion, the challenge is to develop a set of nutritional bars with different tastes. Thus, astronauts' breakfast during the long journey to Mars will also be varied. For lunch and dinner, astronauts will receive about the same set of power as on the ISS. They will have the opportunity to warm up the food and add water if necessary. Currently developed bars calorie 700−800 kilocalories of four tastes: • banana-nut; • orange-cranberry; • vanilla ginger; • nutty barbecue. Scientists say that there are no nutritional bars on the market right now that would satisfy NASA’s requirements for a long-term space mission in terms of mass and caloric content, so we have to develop a new product. It is desirable with a multi-year shelf life. The influence of the nutritional bars on the morale of the crew must also be taken into account. Indeed, during the many months of travel, the variety of tastes and palatability of the bars is of great importance in order to maintain optimism and good mood among the astronauts. Nutrition bars, developed as part of the Human Research Program , have already been tested by participants in the HERA test program - the earth analog of a long-term space mission. Two men and two women are closed in an isolated small room on September 20, 2016 and at the moment have spent there 67 days and 7 hours. Tests are held in the Space Center. Johnson Such tests will help NASA avoid some problems before starting a real long-term flight. Including check how quickly people develop fatigue from a monotonous diet, how diverse should be breakfast. Current tests should determine how often people are ready to eat these bars: • everyday; • every five days; • not at all. While scientists continue to condense nutritional bars in a smaller volume and increase the number of flavors, NASA engineers are working to develop options for regenerating products in a long mission, and also make packaging that will preserve the nutritional properties of food in conditions of strong temperatures that are possible on Mars . The first test manned flight of the Orion is scheduled for 2021. The spacecraft will launch the Space Launch System launch vehicle into orbit, which is also currently under development. The first unmanned test mission Exploration Mission 1on the SLS carrier rocket scheduled for September 30, 2018 from the launch complex LC-39 in the territory of the Space Center. Kennedy. Without a crew, the Orion spacecraft will spend three weeks in space, including 6 days in retrograde orbit around the moon. Next will be the manned mission of Exploration Mission 2 with four astronauts around the moon in 2021–2023. How often are you ready to eat nutritious breakfast bars? Also popular now:
January 12, 2021 Half the pollution in the western US is caused by wildfires Half the pollution in the western US is caused by wildfires According to a new study from researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, San Diego, in recent years wildfire smoke has accounted for up to 50% of all health-damaging small particle air pollution in the western US. While pollution emissions have declined from other sources—including vehicle exhausts and power plants—warming global temperatures have fueled more destructive fires in the country. Large wildfires result in huge plumes of smoke filled with harmful microscopic particles that can drift hundreds, and potentially thousands, of miles. Analysis by the Associated Press found that at least 38 million people in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana were exposed to unhealthy levels of wildfire smoke for at least five days in 2020. According to health authorities and researchers, particles from those wildfires could be to blame for health problems ranging from difficulty breathing to a projected spike in premature deaths. Scientists studying long-term health problems have also found correlations between smoke exposure and decreased lung function, weakened immune systems, and higher rates of flu, underscoring the growing public health threat posed by climate change. “The well-known adverse human health consequences from exposure to elevated levels of pollution have led the WHO to describe the situation as a ‘public health emergency’,” writes Sefi Roth in his IZA World of Labor article. However, he further notes how “air pollution may also affect aspects of human life beyond health, such as learning outcomes.” Roth stresses that this finding “is of paramount importance, as a sound educational background is essential to many occupations. Therefore, it is vital to take these potential additional costs into account when formulating contemporary environmental policies.” Find more IZA World of Labor content on how environmental issues like climate change and air pollution affect the labor market.
A reference linkage map for Eucalyptus Genetic linkage maps are invaluable resources in plant research. They provide a key tool for many genetic applications including: mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL); comparative mapping; identifying unlinked (i.e. independent) DNA markers for fingerprinting, population genetics and phylogenetics; assisting genome sequence assembly; relating physical and recombination distances along the genome and map-based cloning of genes
NCERT Class 11-Biology: Chapter –4 Animal Kingdom Get top class preparation for NEET right from your home: fully solved questions with step-by-step explanation- practice your way to success. Multiple Choice Questions Question 1: In some animal groups, the body is found divided into compartments with at least some organs/ organ repeated. This characteristic feature is named a. Segmentation b. Metamerism c. Metagenesis d. Metamorphosis Answer: (b) Question 2: Given below are types of cells present in some animals. Each one is specialized to perform a single specific function except a. Choanocytes b. Interstitial cells c. Gastrodermal cells d. Nematocytes Answer: (b) Question 3: Which one of the following sets of animals share a four chambered heart? a. Amphibian, Reptiles, Birds b. Crocodiles, Birds, Mammals c. Crocodiles, Lizards, Turtles d. Lizards, Mammals, Birds Answer: (b) Question 4: Which of the following pairs of animals has non glandular skin a. Snake and Frog b. Chameleon and Turtle c. Frog and Pigeon d. Crocodile and Tiger Answer: (c) Question 5: Birds and mammals share one of the following characteristics as a common feature. a. Pigmented skin b. Alimentary canal with some modification c. Viviparity d. Warm blooded nature Answer: (d) Question 6: Which one of the following sets of animals belong to a single taxonomic group? a. Cuttlefish, Jellyfish, Silverfish, Dogfish, Starfish b. Bat, Pigeon, Butterfly c. Monkey, Chimpanzee, Man d. Silkworm, Tapeworm, Earthworm Answer: (c) Question 7: Which one of the following statements is incorrect? a. Mesoglea is present in between ectoderm and endoderm in Obelia. b. Radial symmetry is found in Asterias c. Fasciola is a pseudo coelomate animal d. Taenia is a triploblastic animal Answer: (a) Question 8: Which one of the following statements is incorrect? a. In cockroaches and prawns excretion of waste material occurs through malpighian tubules. b. In ctenophors, locomotion is mediated by comb plates. c. In Fasciola flame cells take part in excretion d. Earthworms are hermaphrodites and yet cross fertilization take place among them. Answer: (a) Question 9: Which one of the following is oviparous? a. Platypus b. Flying fox (Bat) c. Elephant d. Whale Answer: (a)
Process improvement is the proactive task of identifying, analyzing and improving upon existing business processes within an organization for optimization and to meet new quotas or standards of quality. · Determine the scope of your process-improvement project. Do you want to review all functions and processes within the company or concentrate primarily on one? · Pick a project champion. The person should be a decision-maker. Then select the team members from all levels involved in the workflow process to be overhauled and accountable. · Gain support. Good communication is necessary to gain buy-in from everyone affected by the changes. How do you plan to communicate why the process improvement is needed and how the project will affect your staff? How will you reassure workers of job security? · Develop a process-improvement goal. Be specific about your goals. For example, improve client services? · Identify what you already do. Review the current workflow for the process being overhauled. Use input from all staff who contribute to the process. Document every step from start to finish. Note all exceptions to the general rules. · Detail how each step is currently done. For example, what equipment and software are currently used? Who is doing the work? How is work being passed on to the next step in the process? · Develop new workflow options. Once you understand the current process and its problem areas, develop and evaluate workflow options. Evaluate each option against your process-improvement goal. For example, what are the costs involved? What savings will be realized? · Document the new process and procedures. Many people are visual learners. Include diagrams and /or flow charts, and narratives which will be used for training.
Rosacea: what it is and how to treat it Julie Delahaye If you find that your skin is often red, itchy or left with an acne-like appearance, you could be suffering from rosacea. Although one in ten people may be affected by the condition every day, a survey held by the National Rosacea Society found that 95 per cent of sufferers had known little or nothing about its signs and symptoms. We take a look at what rosacea is exactly, as well as its symptoms and treatments… ><img alt=VIEW GALLERY It is thought that one in ten people suffer from rosacea What is rosacea? Rosacea is a chronic skin condition which results in a red, irritated complexion. It's a relapsing condition which means that sufferers will have periods of time where the symptoms are particularly severe, followed by times when these can reduce. What causes the condition? Currently the exact cause of the condition is unknown, although it has been suggested that it's related to abnormalities in the blood vessels of the face. The blushing can be triggered by a number of factors from extreme temperatures or strenuous exercise to stress, anxiety, or moving from hot to cold temperatures. Certain foods and drinks such as spicy foods or caffeine can also trigger face flushing. ><img alt=VIEW GALLERY There is currently no known cure but there are a range of treatments to reduce symptoms What are the main symptoms? One of the most common signs of rosacea is flushing, when the skin turns red for a short period of time. However, other symptoms can arise such as burning or stinging sensations on the skin, spots and blemishes, or even small blood vessels in the skin becoming visible. Permanent red skin can also be a symptom. What are the best treatments? Although there is no cure for rosacea, there are treatments which can help control or reduce symptoms - although these are often a temporary option, for example by avoiding known triggers such as drinks containing caffeine and alcohol. Creams and gels can be applied directly to the skin to reduce redness, and some severe spots can be reduced with tablets or capsules – visit your GP who can advise you on the best course of action. If you think you could be suffering from rosacea, visit your GP who will be able to advise you.
Imperial College London Highly detailed map of the human heart could guide personalised heart treatments Tube map with heart shape Dr Michela Noseda from the National Heart and Lung Institute is part of an international collaboration aiming to better understand heart failure. Scientists have created a cellular and molecular map of the healthy human heart, to understand how this vital organ functions, and to shed light on what goes wrong in cardiovascular disease. Researchers from Imperial College London, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Harvard Medical School and their global collaborators analysed almost half a million individual cells to build a first extensive draft cell atlas of the human heart. The atlas reveals the huge diversity of cells including heart muscle cell types, cardiac protective immune cells, and cells of the intricate network of blood vessels. It also predicts how the cells communicate to keep the heart working. "Our datasets are a goldmine of information to understand subtleties of heart disease" Dr Michela Noseda Published today in Nature (September 2020), this study is part of the Human Cell Atlas initiative to map every cell type in the human body. The new molecular and cellular knowledge of the heart will enable better understanding of heart disease and guide more personalised medicine. In this new study, researchers studied nearly 500,000 individual cells and cell nuclei from six different regions of healthy hearts from 14 organ donors. Using cutting edge, single cell technology, machine learning and imaging techniques, the team could see exactly which genes were switched on in each cell. Unexpected findings The six areas of the heart contained 11 different cell types and the researchers discovered more than 62 different cell subtypes, which had never been seen before in this detail. The researchers discovered that there were major differences in the cells in different areas of the heart, and that each area of the heart had specific sets of cells, highlighting different developmental origins and potentially different responses to treatments. One unexpected finding was that the ventricles of the female hearts had higher numbers of muscle cells and fewer connective tissue cells than those of the male hearts – even though they are typically smaller. This finding may be a hint why women are less vulnerable than men to cardiovascular diseases. “It’s intriguing but it’s based on just seven hearts of each gender. We’ll have to see whether this result holds up to further investigation,“ says MDC researcher Dr Henrike Maatz. Tackling the number one killer Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, killing an estimated 17.9 million people each year, with heart attacks and strokes causing the majority of these. To understand what happens during heart disease and create better therapeutic strategies, it is vital to know the intricate molecular processes in the cells of the healthy heart. As part of this study, the researchers studied the blood vessels running through the heart in unprecedented detail. The atlas showed how the cells in these capillaries, veins and arteries are adapted to the different pressures and locations, and could help understand what goes wrong in the blood vessels during myocardial infarction and other diseases of the cardiac muscle. Dr Michela Noseda said: “Our international effort provides an invaluable set of information to the scientific community by illuminating the cellular and molecular details of cardiac cells that work together to pump blood around the body. We used data from the heart cell atlas to map the cardiac cells that can be potentially infected by SARS-CoV-2 and found that specialized cells of the small blood vessels are also virus targets. Our datasets are a goldmine of information to understand subtleties of heart disease and how our precious heart works”. Getting to the heart of the matter Professor Christine Seidman from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, said: “Millions of people are undergoing treatments for cardiovascular diseases. Understanding the healthy heart will help us understand interactions between cell types and cell states that can allow lifelong function and how these differ in diseases. Ultimately these fundamental insights may suggest specific targets that can lead to individual therapies in the future, creating personalised medicines for heart disease, and improving the effectiveness of treatments for each patient.” Read the full publication in Nature 'Cells of the adult human heart' Ms Helen Johnson Ms Helen Johnson National Heart & Lung Institute Click to expand or contract Contact details Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 6843 Show all stories by this author See more tags
What Is Cryptorchidism? Last Update: 06/30/2015 Cryptorchidism or undescended testicle is a congenital anomaly, that is to say, a birth defect in which one or both testicles do not descend normally during fetus development. Testicles remain in the abdominal cavity or in the inguinal canal instead of descending to the scrotum, where they should be at birth. Below you have an index with the 6 points we are going to deal with in this article. This anomaly is found with a frequency from 3% to 4% in full-term neonates and from 20% to 30% in prematurely born babies. In 80% of cases cryptorchidism is unilateral, i.e. only one testicle is affected and more frequently the left one. In most cases, the descent of the testicles takes place naturally between the first 6 to 12 months of life. Cryptorchidism is asymptomatic, the patient will only notice the empty scrotal bag. Cryptorchidism or hidden testicle may be caused by: • An anatomical anomaly like a Gubernaculum anomaly (a ligament of the epididymis where the testicle is inserted). • A mechanic obstacle found while the testicle migrates, spermatic vessels or nerves, or if the inguinal canal is very narrow. • An obstruction of the scrotum orifice. • Hormonal defect or insufficiency, since gonadotropins are needed for a normal development of the genital apparatus. • Lack of abdominal pressure. • Genetic causes: Prader-Willi syndrome, Kallmann syndrome, etc. Diagnosis is usually made by palpation of the scrotal bag and, subsequently, of the abdominal zone and the inguinal canal in search of the testicle or testicles. This physical examination is performed at birth or later during a routine check-up. In 15% of cases, the testicle is difficult to locate and a supplementary test, such as an abdominal ultrasound .has to be performed. If it is not located by this test, the following tests can be made: • Ultrasound • CT (computed tomography) • Magnetic resonance If the testicles are not detected by means of these tests, surgery may be made, generally a laparoscopy. This surgery is usually performed between the first and the second year of the baby’s life unless it is associated with a hernia. In such case, it would be necessary to operate later. Risks and complications The main risks and complications derived from cryptorchidism are: • Sterility: for a correct spermatogenesis to take place (sperm cells production), the temperature of testicles must be below body temperature. This is why testicles are located in the scrotal bag at 33ºC. A higher temperature may cause the death of germ cells. • Testicular cancer: people who have suffered from cryptorchidism have an increased risk of developing some tumours by atrophy or due to some hormonal imbalance. • Inguinal hernia: it can be developed in 65% of cases. • Smaller testicular size: due to this anomaly the testicle does not grow in a normal way. Body growth is delayed because the testicle is outside the body. • Testicular torsion: the spermatic cord of these children is more predisposed to suffer a torsion and to interrupt the blood supply to the testicle. • Psychological effects on adult male If the testicle does not descend naturally during the first 12 months of life, it will be necessary to resort to a treatment in order to avoid future injuries. There is a medical treatment with hormones, either beta-hCG or testosterone, that stimulates descent. However, it is falling into disuse because of its side effects. The surgery, called orchiopexy, is the most effective and mainly used treatment. This surgery is usually performed before the age of two. There are different studies dealing with the connection between surgery and subsequent fertility and the risk of developing a testicular tumour. In both cases, surgeries that were made at an earlier age had a better prognosis of testicular volume recovery, therefore in adult male fertility, as well as in a smaller risk of having cancer. Teresa Rubio Asensio Teresa Rubio Asensio BSc, MSc Master's Degree in Medicine and Reproductive Genetics from the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UHM). Teacher of different Clinical Embryology courses at the UHM. Member and writer of scientific contents at ASEBIR and ASPROIN. Embryologist specializing in Assisted Procreation at UR Virgen de la Vega. More information about Teresa Rubio Asensio Adapted into english by: Sandra Fernández Sandra Fernández Fertility Counselor Find the latest news on assisted reproduction in our channels.
Lean On Me 20 Apr, 2020 READ TIME 6 mins Jesse Imer Fixed Income Investment Strategist Today I would like to take the opportunity to talk about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which is a recent socio-economic view stemming from the 1990s. It may be surprising to know that MMT as a standalone concept was developed originally by Australian economist, Professor Bill Mitchell, as a development or extension of John Maynard Keynes work regarding monetarism. Today, I am taking you on this journey into the world of arcane wizardry that is macro-economics because we are starting to practice MMT across the globe, whether knowingly or not. With this practice comes consequences which we are better off being informed about – the positives, the negatives, the economic trade-offs etc so that we citizens and investors can better assess the outcomes. What is MMT? Modern Monetary Theory describes the use of government issued currency (fiat money), and the governments monopoly to issue this currency through a central banking institution. One of the core tenets is that employment is rarely at maximum levels, due to restricting the supply of financial assets (money) needed to pay taxes and satisfy savings desires. i.e. By setting the cash rate too high through money supply manipulation, there is not enough money in private sector hands, to allow for maximisation of employment which is assumed to be the number one economic goal of society. MMT espouses that a government could achieve full employment through creating new money to fund government purchases – i.e. creating money to fund budget deficits. The primary risk of this is that once full employment is reached, there should be inflation, but that can be addressed by raising tax levels to flatten the inflation curve and reduce the velocity of money. The velocity of money is another measure for economic output where GDP = money supply * velocity of money As I mentioned on Wednesday last week, the main tenets are: 1. Government can pay for goods, services, and asset purchases without a need to collect more money from private citizens in the form of taxes or debt issuance 2. Government cannot be forced to default on its own currency 3. Government is only limited in how much money it can create by inflation and inflation expectations 4. Inflation can be managed via taxation 5. Therefore the private sector savings rate will be higher and thus consumption should be higher due to more money being available and create a larger velocity of money. MMT in the year 2020 Governments around the world are using fiscal budget deficits to fund stimulus packages to support economies whilst COVID-19 disrupts industries and causes massive unemployment. However, the spending that is being transacted is so large that it is going to be hard to pay for it in the short and long term. Take the USA case for example, before the crisis their budget deficit was $1.9trn USD or 5% of their economic output (GDP). Since the crisis unfolded, they have approved another 2.2trn of spending with another $2trn proposed for infrastructure and jobs – not to mention that the initial 2.2trn will likely be not enough if lockdowns don’t end by early May. Combined we’re now around 6.trn deficit and that’s not counting what their central banks is spending in their QE program. Add to the above figures that it’s an election year which usually adds more “promises”, and if the government can spend $2trn USD bailing out the private sector, I can foresee a policy initiative to payoff student loans of roughly another $1.6trn. To put this in perspective, if you taxed every American worker at 100% of their income, this would not pay off the additional spending ~6trn USD of spending, let alone the existing budgetary gap. I am also interested to see how the US treasury is going to sell $6trn of treasury bonds in a short period of time and how the market is going to digest this deluge of supply. If the bond market reacts poorly, it is likely the Fed will use a technique known as “capping yields”, which they last did under President Roosevelt when the US government ran large deficits to rebuild and re-employ large masses of Americans. The below was a projection for the next 10 years of US budgets forecasting a 2trn deficit in case of 2020 recession. Well it’s going to be 4-6trn in reality with another 3.3trn of state and municipal budget deficits. This means the total US government debt will be closer to $50trn by 2030. MMT in practice What we are running into now is MMT in practice, whether it is intended or not. If the private market can’t absorb the bond supply from the US – and remember it’s also Japan, Australia, the EU, UK, China etc all at the same time – and the yields skyrocket in order for investors to be compensated for their scarce savings, then this is when central banks will “cap yields”. We are already doing so in Australia, with the RBA maintaining an unlimited bid for 3y Australian government bonds at 0.25%, effectively capping our yield curve in the short term. They could also attach target yields to cap the 10y or 20y government bonds as well. This is more or less what is described by MMT. Each country’s treasury department issues more bonds to fund the government spending, and the central bank buys the bonds by issuing more currency. Having your cake and eating it too I am critical of MMT as dismisses basis economic trade-offs. Under the normal reality you can either have your savings and wages or you could have your Medicare, but you can’t have your Medicare but not fund it. However, under MMT, you can have your Medicare and the government funds it. What MMT does not cover for me is the diminished purchasing power of your dollars by increasing the supply of the money so drastically. What I also worry about are tax rates. Tax rates are usually set at optimal levels where too low = not enough revenue, and too high = corporations and HNW individuals find ways to avoid paying these taxes. This is why taxation revenue in Australia has been roughly the same weighting of GDP, over the last 30 years. Investment outcomes I wish to note here that the below is moving into forecasting and involves a large array of unknown variables. Investors always need be nimble and able to change their minds at the drop of a hat. As always, I advocate not fighting central banks as their “bazookas” are overwhelming. This will depend what MMT outcome you see. If MMT causes inflation or the thought of MMT raises inflation expectations: We have an anchored price of money, where the central bank is keeping the cash rate low (capping yields) and potential inflation starting to move asset prices higher – remembering that higher inflation compounds longer term interest rates. The likely scenario is that longer term interest rates if free to do so would move higher, causing a steeper yield curve. Assets that appreciate from inflation expectations (commodities, property, REITS etc) also should perform well here – all else remaining equal. And if MMT does not cause the inflation outcomes above: Then it will likely be a very flat yield curve where the price of money is depressed, and long-term investment is not compensated too differently from short-term investments. At which, the discounting rates for equity ownership (private and public) should see higher price multiples applied, due to lower risk-free rates and an even longer “lower for longer” scenario. Yield producing assets with set running yields will be more in vogue, whether they are credit bonds, loan funds, toll roads and other infrastructure assets. Related Posts
The Health Benefits of Chocolate The Health Benefits of Chocolate I am sure the title of this article will have garnered a lot of attention, as the thought of chocolate (many people’s favourite treat) being healthy is an attractive proposition. Well as most of you will imagine, the low cocoa and high sugar and fat content of white and milk chocolate renders it a pretty poor choice for those health conscious individuals. No, this article is about the health benefits of dark chocolate, specifically chocolate that contains at least 70% cocoa solids. As we will soon see, some of the scientific evidence into dark chocolate is quite fascinating and at times surprising, thanks to its rich nutritional profile. So without further ado, let’s uncover the various benefits that dark chocolate can have on our health and discuss how meaningful these findings are. What Are the Benefits of Dark Chocolate? Rich in Essential Nutrients Dark chocolate is a fabulous source of a number of minerals which are essential to our health and wellbeing. Per 100g of dark chocolate there is: • 89% NRV for copper. Copper has a role in hair and skin pigmentation, connective tissue health and the function of the immune system. • 98% NRV for manganese, a nutrient that helps keep bones and connective tissue functioning properly. • 67% NRV for iron, a mineral that is important for circulation, cognitive function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. • 58% NRV for magnesium. Magnesium has an almost inexhaustible number of roles in good health, with energy levels, psychological health, muscles and bones all being positively influenced by a sufficient intake of this mineral. • 33% NRV for phosphorous, a nutrient that supports strong bones and teeth. • 22% NRV for potassium, an important electrolyte that helps us maintain healthy blood pressure. • 22% NRV for zinc. Like magnesium, zinc has so many important roles in the body, but immunity, reproductive function, metabolism and healthy hair, skin and nails are just some of zinc’s benefits. • 11% NRV for selenium, a key element of the production of glutathione – the body’s ‘master antioxidant’. Although 100g is a large amount of dark chocolate that would provide around 600kcal, it is clear to see that even a small portion would provide a meaningful contribution to many of the essential minerals. Interestingly, the latest national diet research by the British Nutrition Foundation has highlighted that many of us are consuming an insufficient amount of the essential minerals. So, regularly consuming dark chocolate could certainly have a role in rectifying this. Just like most of the essential minerals, fibre is a nutrient we simply are not getting enough of. Sometimes known as ‘roughage’, fibre is crucial for healthy digestion, controlling cholesterol levels and helping us to feel fuller for longer. The current Department of Health recommendation is 30g per day. However, latest statistics show that on average we are consuming just over half of this. As dark chocolate provides 11g of fibre per 100g, this shows that even a small portion can provide a valuable contribution to our daily fibre needs. Antioxidant Capacity It may come as a surprise to many, but cocoa is packed with compounds such as polyphenols, flavonoids, and catechins which are powerful antioxidants. Antioxidants are compounds which have the ability to donate an electron to free radicals which subsequently stabilised these molecules, rendering them harmless. Crucially, this action does not destabilise antioxidants themselves. Scientists have actually developed a procedure to measure the antioxidant activity of certain food. This is known as the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, or ORAC. This test requires researchers to test how well a food disarms a set of free radicals. What is fascinating is that a published research study has shown that cocoa has a greater ORAC than any fruit, even blueberries and acai berries! This antioxidant capacity should help protect cells in the body from the oxidative damage caused by free radicals. Specifically, numerous research trials have indicated that dark chocolate consumption has the ability to protect cholesterol from damage and forming what scientists call ‘oxidised cholesterol’. This type of cholesterol is unstable, is and much more likely to stick to the walls of the arteries, causing hardening and narrowing of the vascular system – a hallmark of coronary artery disease. Not only do the compounds within dark chocolate help in this manner, the same study noted reductions in LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol and an elevation in HDL (‘good’) cholesterol. This in theory would reduce the risk of developing heart disease – the most prevalent cause of death in the UK. Vascular Function A healthy vascular system is comprised of flexible blood vessels which allow for easy blood flow at a normal pressure. This tends to happen when the endothelium (the lining of the arteries) can readily produce nitric oxide. This molecule signals to the arteries to relax, lowering resistance to blood flow, therefore attenuating blood pressure. There is a catalogue of published clinical trials that have shown that dark chocolate can modestly lower blood pressure. Although these effects are indeed modest, they could certainly have an additive effect alongside other foods and positive lifestyle modifications. Insulin Resistance It may seem counter-intuitive that dark chocolate could improve insulin resistance – the major cause of type 2 diabetes. However, there is high quality research to show that a portion of dark chocolate daily is sufficient to decrease insulin resistance, improve the function of the pancreatic beta cells (which product insulin) and decrease CRP – a primary marker of inflammation in the body. As many people with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are trying to reduce their carbohydrate consumption and increase their fat intake, dark chocolate would be a good snack anyway. But now that there is evidence that it could aid their condition it now looks an even better choice. Heart Disease Risk Although we have already outlined dark chocolates ability to lower blood pressure, insulin resistance and favourably alter blood cholesterol, this is not meaningful if it doesn’t decrease the incidences of cardiovascular events. Interestingly, there have been studies which have in fact looked at this. One study followed 470 elderly men over a period of 15 years. After this timeframe, the researchers assessed how many of the participants had died from cardiovascular disease. What is fascinating is that it was found that those with the highest dark chocolate intake were 53% less likely to die from heart complications than those with the lower intake. The researchers also accounted for factors such as smoking, alcoholic intake, family history of heart disease and level of education. This means that we can be more confident that the reported benefit was due to diet. Although this type of study can help draw links between cocoa intake and heart disease, it cannot prove that dark chocolate consumption decreases death from heart ailments. However, performing a randomised control trial on this topic would almost be impossible, so this kind of evidence is probably going to be as good as it gets. To corroborate these results, a much larger study was conducted in 2011. Recruiting just shy of 5000 people, it was found that consuming dark chocolate 5 times per week decreased the chance of developing heart disease by 57%, when compared to those who didn’t eat it at all. Again, this research study was designed to take into account confounding factors so that only diet affected the end result. But as with the previous investigation, this type of study can only prove a link and not causality. Brain Function Aside from heart health, dark chocolate has demonstrated its ability to positively influence another organ – the brain. One study showed that the vascular benefits of dark chocolate influence the brain specifically. Just one serving of dark chocolate was shown to improve brain blood flow, with the researchers reporting that this was a significant improvement. The researchers concluded that “flavanol-rich cocoa can increase the cerebral blood flow to grey matter, suggesting the potential of cocoa flavanols for treatment of vascular impairment, including dementia and strokes, and thus for maintaining cardiovascular health”. The hypothesis from the above statement was actually tested in 2012. In this study, 90 older adults with mild cognitive impairment were randomly assigned to receive either a high flavanol cocoa drink or a placebo daily for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks it was found that those taking the cocoa drink lowered their insulin resistance, blood pressure and the amount of oxidised cholesterol in the blood compared to the placebo group. In addition, the same group saw large improvements in numerous tests of cognitive ability compared to placebo. The scientists conduction the investigation believe that this cognitive benefit was due to improved brain blood flow and the increased insulin sensitivity that augmented the amount of glucose getting to the brain. Furthermore, cocoa naturally contains stimulants such as caffeine and theobromine which could also have been a contributing factor to the improve brain function. Protection from Sun Burn Did you know that the foods we eat can actually provide a certain amount of protection against sunburn? Foods such as tomatoes, green and orange fruits and vegetables, green tea and dark chocolate all have research behind them suggesting they help protect the skin. This is because they all contain powerful antioxidant compounds that provide what scientists call ‘endogenous photoprotection’. Numerous studies have shown that dark chocolate consumption can improve the skins resistance to sun burn by up to 50%. Not only that, one study has even reported that 6 months of daily cocoa consumption improves skin elasticity and decreases the appearance of wrinkles. So it seems that if you want to increase your protection against the sun or improve the condition of your skin, dark chocolate could certainly have a role to play. How Much Dark Chocolate Should I Have? Earlier in the article we mentioned how 100g of chocolate was extremely nutritious but was high calorie. For this reason, most experts recommend an ounce (28g) of dark chocolate as a serving because this would still make a large contribution to mineral, fibre and antioxidant requirements whilst not being too calorific. In most instances, this equates to a couple of large squares, which is a tasty and nutritious snack that is surprisingly filling. Although a lot of people may not like dark chocolate due to its ‘acquired taste’, hopefully this article has encouraged people to try swap out milk chocolate for dark at least occasionally. As the benefits of chocolate are due to its cocoa content, it is recommended that you choose a chocolate with a minimum of 70% cocoa. From the evidence that we have looked at in this article, it seems that all it takes is a couple of squares a handful of times a week to have a positive impact on numerous key aspects of health.
Bible Commentaries The Pulpit Commentaries 1 Kings 12 Verses 1-24 THE REVOLT OF THE TEN TRIBES.—With the reign of Rehoboam, on which our historian now enters, we begin the second great period in the history of the Hebrew monarchy, so far as it is related in these Books of KINGS. The first, which comprises the Augustan age of Israel, the short-lived maturity of the race in the reign of Solomon, has extended over forty years, from B.C. 1015 to B.C. 975. The second, which is the period of the existence of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah side by side—that is to say, from the disruption to the carrying away of Israel into captivity—extends over two centuries and a half, viz; from B.C. 975 to B.C. 722, and is, with few exceptions, a period of steady and shameful decline. And in giving his account of the division of the kingdom, our historian, more suo, confines himself to the recital of actual facts, and hardly speaks of their hidden causes. Yet the sixteenth verse of this chapter reveals to us very clearly one of the secret springs of the dissatisfaction which existed at the date of Rehoboam's accession, one of the influences which ultimately led to the disruption of Israel. Jealousy on the part of Ephraim of the powerful tribe of Judah had undoubtedly something to do with the revolution of which we now read. The discontent occasioned by Solomon's levies and the headstrong folly of Rehoboam were the immediate causes, but influences much deeper and of longer standing were also at work. The tribe of Ephraim had clearly never thoroughly acquiesced in the superiority which its rival, the tribe of Judah, by furnishing to the nation its sovereigns, its seat of government, and its sanctuary, had attained. During the two former reigns the envy of Ephraim had been held in check, but it was there, and it only needed an occasion, such as Rehoboam afforded it, to blaze forth. That proud tribe could not forget the glowing words in which both Jacob (Genesis 49:22-26, "the strength of my head") and Moses (Deuteronomy 33:13-17) had foretold their future eminence. They remembered, too, that their position—in the very centre of the land was also the richest in all natural advantages. Compared with their picturesque and fertile possessions, the territory of Judah was as a stony wilderness. And for a long time they had enjoyed a certain superiority in the nation. In the time of Joshua we find them fully conscious of their strength and numbers (Joshua 17:14), and the leader himself admits their power (verse 17). When the tabernacle was first set up, it was at Shiloh, in the territory of Ephraim (Joshua 18:1), and there the ark remained for more than three hundred years. And the pre-eminence of Ephraim amongst the northern tribes is curiously evidenced by the way in which it twice resented ( 8:1; 12:1) campaigns undertaken without its sanction and cooperation. It and its sister tribe of Manasseh had furnished, down to the time of David, the leaders and commanders of the people—Joshua, Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech, and Samuel—and when the kingdom was established it was from the allied tribe of Benjamin that the first monarch was selected. "It was natural that, with such an inheritance of glory, Ephraim always chafed under any rival supremacy". It was natural, too, that for seven years it should refuse allegiance to a prince of the rival house of Judah. Even when, at the end of that time, the elders of Israel recognized David as "king over Israel" (2 Samuel 5:8), the fires of jealousy, as the revolt of Sheba and the curses of Shimei alike show, were not wholly extinguished. And the transference of the sanctuary, as well as the sceptre, to Judah—for Jerusalem, whilst mainly in the territory of Benjamin, was also on the border of Judah—would occasion fresh heart burnings. It has been supposed by some that Psalms 78:1-72, was penned as a warning to Ephraim against rebellion, and to reconcile them to their loss of place and power; that, if so, it was not effectual, and that the jealousy endured at a much later date Isaiah 11:13 shows. There had probably been an attempt on the part of Jeroboam the Ephraimite to stir up his and the neighbouring tribes against the ascendancy of Judah in the person of Solomon. That first attempt proved abortive. But now that their magnificent king was dead, now that the reins of government were held by his weak and foolish son, the men of Ephraim resolved unless they could wrest from him very great concessions, to brook the rule of Judah no longer and to have a king of their own house. 1 Kings 12:1 And Rehoboam [see on 1 Kings 11:26, and compare the name εὐρύδημος. The name possibly indicates Solomon's ambitious hopes respecting him. The irony of history alone emphasizes it. Ecclesiastes 2:18, Ecclesiastes 2:19 would seem to show that Solomon himself had misgivings as to his son's abilities. "As the greatest persons cannot give themselves children, so the wisest cannot give their children wisdom" (Hall). His mother was Naamah, an Ammonitess (1 Kings 14:31). It would appear from 1 Kings 14:21, and 2 Chronicles 12:13, that he was 41 years of age at his accession. But this is, to say the least, doubtful. For 1 Kings 12:2 And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat [see on 1 Kings 11:26], who was yet in Egypt [The usual, and indeed the necessary, interpretation, if we retain our present Hebrew text, is that these words refer, not as the context would lead us to suppose, to the time indicated in 1 Kings 11:1, 1 Kings 11:3, etc; but to the time of Solomon's death. But see below], heard of it [The words "of it," though not in the original, are a fair and legitimate interpretation of its meaning. Whether they are retained or not, the natural and grammatical interpretation is that it was the visit to Shechem, just before mentioned, of which Jeroboam heard. But according to our received text, Jeroboam was one of the deputation which met king Rehoboam at Shechem. It has been found necessary, consequently, to understand the words of the death of Solomon, which has been related in 1 Kings 11:43. So the Vulgate, Audita morte ejus. Similarly the LXX. Cod. Vat. inserts the substance of this verse as part of 1 Kings 11:43. (The Cod. Alex. follows the Hebrew.) But this interpretation is surely strained and unnatural] (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;) [The parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 10:1-19. has here, "And Jeroboam returned from Egypt" ( ויַּשָבָ יר ממץ instead of וַיֵּשֶׁב יר במץ). And as some copies of the LXX. have καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν ἱερο βοὰμ ἐξ αἰγύπτου and the Vulgate has "Reversus est de Aegypto," Dathe, Bähr, al. would adopt this reading here. It is true it involves but a slight change, and it may simplify the construction. But no change is really required, Bähr's objection, that in the text, as it stands, we have an unmeaning repetition, "He was still in Egypt… and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt," loses all its force if we understand Jeroboam to have continued his residence in Egypt (as the LXX. says he did) after hearing of Solomon's death. until summoned by the tribes to be their leader. In any case the repetition accords with Hebrew usage.] 1 Kings 12:3 That [Heb. and] they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came [It has been held that this verse is largely an interpolation. The LXX. Cod. Vat. has simply, "And the people spake unto king Rehoboam, saying." Of more importance, however, is the fact that it is at direct variance with verse 20, which places the appearance of Jeroboam on the scene after the revolt of the tribes. Indeed, these two verses can only be brought into agreement by the questionable device of understanding the "all Israel" of verse 20 very differently from the same expression in verse 1. If, however, we follow in this instance the LXX; which omits the name of Jeroboam both here and in verse 12 (and which thereby implies that he was not one of the deputation to Rehoboam, but, as verse 2 states, was at that time still in Egypt), the difficulty vanishes. Verse 20 then becomes the natural and logical continuation of verses 2, 3. "And Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt. And they sent and called him [to the country.]… And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again [at their summons] they sent and called him unto the congregation," etc. And in favour of the omission of Jeroboam's name is the fact that the Hebrew text, both in verse 3 and in verse 12, betrays some little confusion. In verse 3, the Cethib has וַיָּבֹאוּ and וַיָּבֹוּ in verse 12, whereas the Keri has וַיָּבֹא in both cases. The words look, that is to say, as if a singular nominative had been subsequently introduced], and spake unto Rehoboam, saying. 1 Kings 12:4 Thy father made our yoke [see for the literal sense of the word, Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3, etc.; for its tropical use, Le Deuteronomy 26:13; Deuteronomy 28:48, etc.] grievous [Heb. heavy. Was this complaint a just one? It is one which occasions us some surprise, as the reign of Solomon had not only been glorious, but the people had apparently enjoyed the greatest plenty and prosperity (1 Kings 4:20, 1 Kings 4:25; cf. 1 Kings 8:66). Bishop Hall, Bähr, and other writers, consequently, who see in the fact that the ten tribes had chosen Jeroboam for their mouthpiece a settled determination on their part to revolt, affirm that their grievances were purely factitious. But we must not forget that, despite the unbroken peace (see Hall, "Contempl." 2:136) and general prosperity and affluence, the people had had one burden at least to bear which is always galling and vexatious, the burden of a conscription. It is by no means certain, though it is constantly assumed, and is not in itself improbable, that the taxes and imposts had been heavy, the passages alleged in support of that view (1 Kings 10:15, 1 Kings 10:25; 1 Kings 12:4, LXX.) being quite inconclusive. But while we have no right to speak of the, enormous exactions of the late king" (Stanley), we may be perfectly sure that such an establishment as his (1 Kings 4:22, 1 Kings 4:26) and such undertakings (1 Kings 6:14, 1 Kings 6:22; 1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 7:1-51.; 1 Kings 9:26, 1 Kings 9:17, 1 Kings 9:18) would be extremely costly, and that their cost was not altogether defrayed by the presents of subject princes (1 Kings 4:21; cf. 1 Kings 10:10, 1 Kings 10:14), the profits of the king's merchants (1 Kings 10:28), or the imports of the fleet (1 Kings 5:1-18 :21). But the people had certainly had to pay a more odious tribute, that of forced labour, of servile work (1 Kings 4:6, Hebrews; Hebrews 5:14; cf. 1 Kings 9:21. מַס is almost always used of a tribute rendered by labour, Gesen.) It is quite true that Solomon was not the first to institute this; that David had exacted it before him (2 Samuel 20:24); that the burden was one with which all subjects of the old-world monarchies, especially in the East, were familiar; and that in this case it had been imposed with peculiar considerateness (1 Kings 5:14). But it is none the less certain, when we consider the magnitude of Solomon's undertakings, and the number of men necessarily employed in executing them, that it must have involved some hardships and created much dissatisfaction; such results are inevitable in all conscriptions. "Forced labour has been amongst the causes leading to insurrection in many ages and countries. It alienated the people of Rome from the last Tarquin; it helped to bring about the French Revolution; and it was for many years one of the principal grievances of the Russian serfs" (Rawlinson). But we may find instances of its working perhaps as more Eastern, more closely illustrative of the text amongst the Fellahin of Egypt. "According to Pliny, 360,000 men had to work 20 years long at one pyramid" (Bähr). In the construction of the great Mahmoudieh canal, by Mehemet All, over 300,000 labourers were employed. They worked under the lash, and such were the fatigues and hardships of their life that many thousands died in the space of a few months (cf; too, Exodus 1:11 sqq.; Exodus 2:23]: now therefore make thou the grievous [Heb. hard, heavy] service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter [lit; "lighten somewhat from," etc.], and we will serve thee. [Their stipulations seem reasonable enough. Bähr, who says, "We cannot admit the complaint of too hard tribute work to be well founded," and Keil, who maintains that "there cannot have been any well-grounded occasion for complaint," surely forget that both the aged counsellors (verse 7) and also the writer of this book (verses 13-15) manifest some degree of sympathy with the complainants.] 1 Kings 12:5 And he said unto them, Depart yet for three days [so as to afford time for counsel and deliberation. It has been assumed that both the old and young advisers of Rehoboam had been taken by him, as part of his retinue, to Shechem (Bähr). But it is quite as likely that some of them were summoned from Jerusalem to advise him, and that the three days' delay was in order to give time for their attendance. It is a long day's journey (12 hours) from Nablus to Jerusalem. Three days, consequently, would just afford sufficient time for the purpose] then come again to me, And the people departed. [The peaceable departure, like the respect-tiff demand, contradicts the idea of a settled purpose to rebel.] 1 Kings 12:6 And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men [According to Bähr," the זְקֵנִים are not old people, but the elders." No doubt the word is constantly used, as in the expressions, "elders of Israel," "elders of the city," etc. (cf. πρεσβυτέροι, senatores (from senex), aldermen=elder men), without any reference to age; but this is not the case here, as the strong contrast with "young men" (1 Kings 12:8, 1 Kings 12:13, 1 Kings 12:14) proves] that stood before [see on 1 Kings 1:2] Solomon his father [among them, perhaps, were some of the "princes" of 1 Kings 4:2 sqq.] while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people? 1 Kings 12:7 And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them [Keil questions the propriety and expediency of this advice. He says, "The king could not become the עֶבֶד of the people without prejudicing the authority entrusted to him by God." But they do not propose that he should become their servant, except for one clay, and then only in the sense of making reasonable concessions. What they mean is this: "If thou wilt brook for once to accede to their terms instead of dictating thine own," etc. The form of their answer was probably suggested by the temper of the king. They saw what was passing in his mind, viz; that he would fain play the autocrat, and that he resented it exceedingly that his subjects, just as he had begun to taste the sweets of royalty, should presume to parley with him; and they say in effect, "You think that they are reversing your relations, that they are making you, their sovereign, their servant. Be it so. It is but for one day. Then they will be your slaves forever"], and answer them [i.e; favourably; grant their request; cf. Psalms 22:22; Psalms 65:6], and speak good words to them, then will they be thy servants forever. ["Thy servants," in opposition to "a servant" above; "forever" in opposition to "this day."] 1 Kings 12:8 But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given [Heb. counselled] him ["We can easily imagine that their proposal was not very agreeable to the rash and imperious young king, in whose veins Ammonite blood flowed" (Bähr) ], and consulted with the young men [see on verse 1. "The very change argues weakness.. Green wood is ever shrinking" (Hall)] that were grown up with him [possibly his companions in the harem], and which stood before him [i.e; as his courtiers and counsellors (of. verse 6). The old men were the counsellors of Solomon; the young men alone are spoken of as the ministers of Rehoboam. 1 Kings 12:9 And he said unto them, What counsel give ye [emphatic in the original] that we [it is noticeable how Rehoboam identifies these young men with himself. He employs a different expression when addressing the old men (1 Kings 12:6). The A.V. perhaps gives its force by the translation, "that I may answer," etc.; lit; "to answer"] may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter? 1 Kings 12:10 And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people [There is a certain amount of contemptuousness in the expression (cf. St. John 7:49) ] that spake unto thee [The repetition, "speak, spake," is probably not undesigned. It suggests the idea of retaliation, or that it was a piece of presumption on their part to have spoken at all], saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us [lit; from upon us]; thus shalt thou say unto them [This iteration is expressive of determination and resentment. We may read between the lines, "I would make short work with them, and teach them a lesson they will not forget"], My little finger ["Finger" is not in the original, but the meaning is indisputable] shall be [or is, עָבָה, strictly, was thicker. The LXX. has simply παχυτέρα] thicker than my father's loins. [A figurative and perhaps proverbial expression. The sense is clear. "My hand shall be heavier than my father's, my force greater than his, my weakness even stronger than his strength." The counsel of the young men is full of flattery, which would be acceptable to a young king. 1 Kings 12:11 And now whereas my father did lade you with [or, lay upon you] a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips [It is probable that the expression is not entirely figurative. It is quite possible that the levies of Amorites, Hittites (1 Kings 9:20), etc; had been kept at their toils by the lash], but I will chastise you with scorpions. ["The very words have stings" (Hall). It is generally held that there is here "no allusion whatever to the animal, but to some instrument of scourging—unless, indeed, the expression is a mere figure". Perhaps it is safer to understand it as a figure of speech, although the scorpion, unlike the serpent, is little like, or adapted to use as, a lash. Probably it was in the pain the whip caused that the resemblance lay (Romans 9:5). All the commentators mention that the later Romans used a whip called a "scorpio," and cite Isidore (Orig. 5, 27) in proof. Gesenius, Keil, al. understand "whips with barbed points, like the point of a scorpion's sting;" the Rabbins, Virgae spinis instructae; others, the thorny stem of the eggplant, by some called the "scorpion plant." Compare our use of the word "cat." "The yoke and whips go together, and are the signs of labouring service (Ecclus. 30:26, or 33:27)" Bähr.] 1 Kings 12:12 So Jeroboam and [LXX. omits] all the people came to Rehoboam the third day ["Three days' expectation had warmed these smoking Israelites" (Hall) ], as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day. 1 Kings 12:13 And the king answered the people [the omission of Jeroboam's name, though perhaps it cannot he pressed in argument, is noticeable] roughly, and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him. 1 Kings 12:14 1 Kings 12:15 Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause [or course of events; lit; turn] was from the Lord ["Quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat." God did not inspire Rehoboam's proud and despotic reply, but used it for the accomplishment of His purpose, the partition of the kingdom (cf. Exodus 14:4; Matthew 26:24). God makes the wrath of man to praise Him], that [Heb. in order that] he might perform his saying, which the Lord spake by [Heb. in the hand of; cf. 1 Kings 14:18; 1 Kings 2:25, note] Ahijah the Shilonite [see on 1 Kings 11:11] unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 1 Kings 12:16 So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered [Heb. brought back word to; probably after some consultation amongst themselves] the king, saying, What portion have we in David? [Same expression as 2 Samuel 20:1. The words, interpreted by this passage and 2 Samuel 19:43, mean, "Since we have no kindness or fairness from David's seed, what is his house to us? Why render homage to his son? We receive nought from him, why yield aught to him?"] neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse [i.e; "his tribe is not ours; his interests are not ours." Bähr sees in the expression "son of Jesse" "an allusion to David's humbler descent," but surely without reason. It is simply a periphrasis for the sake of the parallelism. The rhythm almost elevates the words to the rank of poetry]: to your tents, O Israel [lit; thy tents, Or dwellings; i.e; "Disperse to your homes (see 1 Kings 8:66; and cf. 2 Samuel 18:17; 2 Samuel 19:8; 2 Samuel 20:1), and prepare for war." אֹהֶל, which means primarily a "tent," has for its secondary meaning, "habitation," "home." This cry—the Marseillaise of Israel—probably had its origin at a time when the people dwelt in tents, viz; in the march through the desert (see Joshua 22:4; Numbers 1:52; Numbers 9:18; Numbers 16:26) ]. Now see to thine own house, David [i.e; let the seed of David henceforth reign over the tribe of Judah, if it can. It shall govern the other tribes no longer. "It is not a threat of war, but a warning against interference" (Rawlinson). רָאָה has the meaning of "look after," "care for." "David, the tribe father, is mentioned in place of his family" (Keil) ]. So Israel departed unto their [lit; his] tents [see note on 2 Samuel 8:1-18 :66]. 1 Kings 12:17 But as for the children of Israel which dwelt In the cities of Judah [i.e; "the Israelites proper or members of other tribes, who happened to be settled within the limits of the land of Judah" (cf. 1 Kings 12:23). A number of Simeonites were (Rawlinson) certainly among them (Joshua 19:1-9). The term "children of Israel" is henceforward to be understood in its restricted sense (see on 1 Kings 12:1). It cannot include the men of Judah], Rehoboam reigned over them. 1 Kings 12:18 Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute [Probably the same officer as the Adoniram of ch. 1 Kings 4:6. For "Adoram," the LXX. and other versions read "Adoniram" here. It is curious that a person of the same name, Adoram (LXX. Adoniram), was over David's levy (2 Samuel 20:24). That there was a relationship, and that the office had descended from father to son, can hardly be doubted, but whether two persons or three are indicated it is impossible to say. It is of course just possible, though hardly likely that one and the same person (Ewald) can have been superintendent of servile work under David, Solomon, and Rehoboam. It is generally assumed that the young king sent this officer "to treat with the rebels and to appease them, as Josephus expressly says" (Bähr). It seems quite as likely that he was sent to coerce them, or to collect the taxes, as a summary way of showing that the king meant to enforce his rights and was not moved by their words. For it is hardly probable that such a proud and headstrong prince as Rehoboam would stoop, especially after the confident threats which he had just uttered, to parley with rebels. Such a man, guided by such counsellors, and inflated with a sense of his own power and importance, would naturally think of force rather than of conciliation or concessions. He would be for trying his whips of scorpions. And if conciliation had been his object, it is hardly likely that he would have employed Adoram, the superintendent of the levy, a man who would naturally be obnoxious to the people, to effect it. Moreover the sequel—Adoram's tragical end—also favours the supposition that he was sent, not "to arrange some alleviation of their burdens" (Rawlinson), but to carry out the high-handed policy Of the king]; and all Israel stoned him with stones ["With one exception, this was a bloodless revolution" (Stanley). It has been remarked that the practice of stoning is first heard of in the stony desert (Arabia Petraea). But in reality it is older than the date of the Exodus, as Exodus 8:26 shows. And it is an obvious and ready and summary way of despatching obnoxious persons (cf. Exodus 17:4; 1 Samuel 30:6; 1 Kings 21:10). It is to this day a favourite method of the East for testifying hatred and intolerance], that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed [So the LXX; ἔφθασεν. The Hebrew literally means, as margin, "strengthened himeself." But the A.V. gives the practical force of the word. He bestirred himself; he lost no time; the death of Adoram showed him the danger of a moment's delay. "He saw those stones were thrown at him in his Adoram" (Hall).] to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. 1 Kings 12:19 So Israel rebelled [lit; fell away (marg.) The common secondary meaning of the word is to transgress. Its use here may perhaps suggest that their rebellion was not without sin] against the house of David unto this day (see on 1 Kings 8:8)]. 1 Kings 12:20 And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again [These words are hardly consistent with the idea that Jeroboam had been from the first the spokesman of "all Israel" in their interviews with Rehoboam. If, however, the received text of 1 Kings 12:8, 1 Kings 12:12 is retained (see on 1 Kings 12:3), then we must understand the "all Israel" in 1 Kings 12:1 of the representatives of the different tribes, and here, of the entire nation who had heard from its representatives, on their return to their homes (1 Kings 12:16), of the presence of Jeroboam in the country], that they sent and called him unto the congregation [Where and when this gathering was held we are not informed. Probably it was at Shechem, and soon after Rehoboam's flight. After the open and irreparable breach which they had made (1 Kings 12:18), the leaders of the tribes would naturally assemble at once to concert measures for their defence and future government], and made him king [by anointing. Note on 1 Kings 12:1] over all Israel [This public and formal consecration of Jeroboam completed the secession of the northern tribes. Was this secession sinful? Bähr, Keil, and others, who start from the assumption that secession was determined upon even before Rehoboam came to Shechem, and that the complaints of the people respecting the grievous service to which they had been subjected by Solomon were groundless, naturally conclude that it was altogether treasonable and unjustifiable. But is this conclusion borne out by the facts? We may readily admit that the schism was not accomplished without sin: we cannot but allow that Israel acted with undue precipitation, and that Rehoboam, who was "young and tenderhearted," was entitled, for David's and Solomon's sake, as well as his own, to greater forbearance and consideration, and it is almost certain that both the "envy of Ephraim" and the ambition of Jeroboam largely influenced the result. At the same time, it is to be remembered that the division of the kingdom was ordained of God, and that the people had just cause of complaint, if not, indeed, sufficient warrant for resistance, in the arbitrary and insolent rejection of their petition by the young king. No law of God requires men to yield themselves up without a struggle to such cruel and abject slavery as Rehoboam threatened these men with. They judged—and who shall say unreasonably?—from his words that they had only tyranny and cruelty to expect at his hands, and what wonder if they stood on their defence? They are only to be blamed because they did more. But lawful resistance not uncommonly ripens into unlawful rebellion]: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. [This general statement is qualified immediately afterwards (1 Kings 12:21). The tribe of Benjamin, "the smallest of the tribes of Israel" (1 Samuel 9:21), "little Benjamin" (Psalms 68:27), is here omitted as of comparatively small account. Exact precision has never characterized Oriental writers. There is no suspicion of untruth: it is the genius of the people to "disdain the lore, Of nicely calculated less and more." It may be added here that Edom remained under the sway of Judah until the reign of Jehoram (2 Kings 8:20), just as Moab and other portions of Solomon's empire for a considerable period formed part of the new kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 1:1; 2 Kings 3:4, 2 Kings 3:5).] 1 Kings 12:21 And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah with [Heb. and] the tribe of Benjamin, [It is at first sight somewhat surprising that Benjamin, so long the rival of Judah, and which had so long resisted the rule of David, should on this occasion have detached itself from the leadership of Ephraim, its near and powerful neighbour, and a tribe, too, with which it had a sort of hereditary connexion. That a sort of jealousy existed at one time between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, consequent, no doubt, on the transference of the sceptre from the house of Saul to that of David, is very evident. A thousand men of Benjamin constituted the following of the rebel Shimei, (2 Samuel 19:17). The rising of Sheba the Benjamite, again (2 Samuel 20:1), proves that the enmity and discontent were not even then subdued. But when the ten tribes fell away, Benjamin seems never to have faltered in its allegiance. The change is easily accounted for. It was the glory of Benjamin that Jerusalem, the joy of the whole earth, the civil and religious capital of the nation, was largely within its border. "The city of the Jebusite" was in the lot of Benjamin (Joshua 18:28). But it was also on the boundary line of Judah. This fact had, no doubt, brought the two tribes into close contact, and had given them interests in common, in fact had "riveted them together as by a cramp"; and now Benjamin could not fail to see that separation from Judah would mean the loss of Jerusalem (which would be largely peopled by the men of Judah, David's tribe, and would be practically in their hands), while adhesion to Ephraim would not prevent the establishment of another sanctuary further north. The traditions of fifty years, consequently, and the common interest in the capital, prevailed over hereditary ties and ancient feuds, and decided Benjamin to cast in its lot with Judah;the more so, as the heads of this tribe may have felt, after once furnishing Israel with its king, as jealous of Ephraim as they had once been of Judah. It must not be forgotten, however, that some portions of Benjamin, including Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho, were incorporated in the northern kingdom (Ewald) ], an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men [the LXX. has ἑκατὸν καὶ ἐὶκοσι=120,000, but the larger number need create no astonishment. At the time of David's census, the men of Judah numbered—if the figures can be depended on—500,000, while Abijah could muster some 18 years afterwards an army of 400,000 (2 Chronicles 13:3) ], which were warriors [lit; making war], to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. [It is characteristic of Rehoboam that he proposes forthwith to subdue the rebellious tribes by force. Probably he had no idea to what extent the tribes would prove disloyal.] 1 Kings 12:22 But the word of God came unto Shemaiah [This part of the history is probably derived from the "book" which this prophet wrote (2 Chronicles 12:15). When Keil describes him as "a prophet who is not mentioned again," he has surely overlooked 2 Chronicles 12:7, 2 Chronicles 12:8, where we find him prophesying with reference to the army of Shishak], the man of God [a common expression in the books of Kings. It rarely occurs in the other Scriptures. This designation is not altogether synonymous with "prophet." It is used, for example, of angels ( 13:6, 13:8), of Moses (Deuteronomy 33:1), and of David (2 Chronicles 8:14), and would embrace any minister or servant of God, while נָבִיא is restricted to the teaching order. There were false prophets, but no false men of God. It is also worth considering whether the name of prophet may not have been practically restricted to, or bestowed by preference on, those who had received a prophetic training, the "sons of the prophets" who had been taught in the schools. Cf. 1 Samuel 10:5-12; 1 Samuel 19:20; Amos 7:14], saying. 1 Kings 12:23 Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin; and to the remnant of the people ["the children of Israel" mentioned in 1 Kings 12:17, where see note], saying. 1 Kings 12:24 Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren [a timely reminder of the unity of the race, notwithstanding the division of the kingdom] the children of Israel: return every man to his house: for this thing [i.e; the division, rupture] is [lit; was] from me. [A prophet of Judah now confirms what a prophet of Israel had already announced]. They hearkened therefore unto the word of the Lord, and returned [not "because they probably saw that a war with the numerically greater, and just now bitterly excited, ten tribes would bring them into a worse condition still" (Bähr), but because of the "word of the Lord." It was the remonstrance of the prophet alone restrained them. They knew their numerical inferiority before, but they nevertheless mustered for battle] to depart [a common Hebraism. The phrase in 2 Chronicles 11:4, יָשׁוּבוּ מִלֶּכֶת "they returned from going," was probably designed as an explanation], according to the word of the Lord. At this point the Vat. LXX. inserts along addition, which differs from, and indeed contradicts, the Hebrew text in some important particulars. Rehoboam is represented as 16 years of age (Hebrews 40), as reigning 12 years (Hebrews 17); his mother is Naanan (Heb. Naamah), and is the daughter of Ana, son of Nahash, king of Ammon. Jeroboam is described as son of Sarira, a harlot. He is appointed by Solomon superintendent of the levy of Ephraim, and builds for him a city Sarira, and also completes the circumvallation of Jerusalem. He has 300 chariots and aims at royalty. Solomon seeking to slay him, he flees to Shishak, king of Egypt, who treats him with distinction, giving him the sister of his own wife in marriage. Here his son Abijah is born, when Rehoboam has been, something like a year upon the throne. After his birth, Jeroboam asks a second time to be released: he returns to his own country, takes up his abode at Sarira, fortifies it, and gathers the tribe of Ephraim round him. Here Abijah falls sick, and the visit to the prophet, narrated in 2 Chronicles 14:1-15; takes place. The child dies; there is general mourning, after which Jeroboam goes to Shechem, and collects the tribes. Here the prophet Shemaiah (not Ahijah) tears a new garment in twelve pieces, gives him ten, and promises him the dominion over ten tribes. After which follow the events of 2 Chronicles 14:5 -24 of this chapter. The great circumstantiality of this narrative has led some scholars—Dean Stanley among them—to prefer it before the Hebrew version. But its details will not bear careful examination, and there is little doubt that it is a compilation of later date. Its untrustworthiness has been well shown among others by Rawlinson, Speaker's Commentary in loc. But he omits to notice what is perhaps its strongest condemnation, viz; that this LXX. addition is in conflict with the LXX. (and Hebrews) text of 2 Chronicles 11:1-23. The account of Jeroboam's marriage with the sister of the queen, e.g; is manifestly a variation of the history of Hadad (2 Chronicles 11:1-23. 2 Chronicles 11:19; see also 2 Chronicles 11:22). Nor does it harmonize with the preceding history of this chapter, as given by the LXX. 1 Kings 12:13-15 Judicial Infatuation. It is impossible to read this history of the great rebellion, even at the present day, without a certain feeling of sadness. We see here a young prince, heir to one of the greatest empires of antiquity, the inheritor of an illustrious and unequalled name, with all the advantages which the glory and greatness of his father could give him, reaping the benefits of a long peace, his coffers full of money, his cities filled with all manner of store, his fleets ploughing the sea, his army guarding his frontier; we see him wantonly flinging these singular advantages away from him, and absolutely courting his own destruction and the dismemberment of his kingdom. We see a position which has had but few, if any, parallels recklessly sacrificed for the lack of a few conciliatory words. It needed but the slenderest modicum of common sense and all would have gone well. He had but to stoop for one day in order to conquer forever (1 Kings 12:7). But no; we hear him instead hurling opprobrious words at the spokesmen of the ten tribes, and forthwith the land is ablaze with insurrection. He madly talks of the might of his little finger, of whips and scorpions, and from that hour his kingdom is divided; the holy people are ranged under hostile banners, and the way is opened for the schism in the Church. We talk sometimes of men who dance on the edge of a volcano, and we have read of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning, but it may be questioned whether history affords a more pitiable instance of folly and infatuation than this. And it was such infatuation that we can hardly resist the conclusion that it was, somehow, retributive and judicial. "Who would not have looked any whither for the cause of this evil, rather than to heaven? Yet the holy God challenges it to Himself" (Bp. Hall). "The cause was from the Lord." It is well that we should understand, however, that this gross infatuation was only one out of many factors which produced the disruption. The division of the kingdom—the first act in the long drama of retribution for the sin of Solomon—was to a large extent the natural result of the rule and policy of Solomon. No doubt of all the causes of revolt the prophecy of Ahijah was the most influential. It was that "beginning" which, as Aristotle sagely remarks, is often the larger half. Possibly but for that, Israel's "winter of discontent" would have been "made glorious by the summer sun" of the accession of a young prince. Probably but for that, Jeroboam would never have "lifted up his hand against the king." But we must not shut our eyes to the fact that the people had had a "heavy yoke" to hear. Rehoboam himself confessed to this (1 Kings 12:14). It is idle to say that their demands betray a foregone conclusion to revolt. The contrary is distinctly implied in 1 Kings 12:4, 1 Kings 12:7. Nor is it the fact that the rebellion was wholly due to the jealousy of Ephraim, for that proud tribe had readily acquiesced in the supremacy of Judah during the reign of David. Indeed, the rebellion is almost inexplicable, except on the supposition that, the people had suffered real hardships, and carried heavy burdens during Solomon s reign. Men do not soon forget the glories of such an empire as his, and do not wantonly tear it asunder, and reduce it to impotence, unless they have had substantial grievances. But in this case, so many were their grounds of disaffection that, remembering that Jeroboam, who no doubt appeared to them in the light of a champion and tribune of the people, was in reserve, should they need his services, it only needed the infatuation of Rehoboam to kindle the smouldering embers of discontent into a flame. And when we see in this inconceivable infatuation the immediate cause of the disruption, we must still remember how it was that Rehoboam came to be capable of such egregious folly. Are we to suppose that he was expressly blinded for the occasion? Is it implied that, like Saul, an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him, or that, like Ahab, he was the victim of heaven-sent delusions? Is it not rather enough to believe that he was simply left to himself, to be the sport of his own folly and pride? His infatuation would still be judicial, if we saw in it, not the strange perversity of a moment, but the spontaneous outcome of his birth and education. Indeed, in that case, it would be still more conspicuously the just and appropriate retribution for his father's sin. It was because of Solomon's foreign wives, and the idolatries which, with his sanction, they practised, that Solomon's empire was to be torn from his son (1 Kings 11:33). And now we find that the dismemberment of this empire was brought about by the son of one of these strange women—the child of an unregenerate Ammonitess. It has been said that "every great man is the son of his mother."£ The same remark might be made of every great fool. It was probably because Naamah was what she was that Rehoboam was what he was. "The two worst men in my parish," said a clergyman, "are what their mothers have made them." We could not expect much character, not to speak of wisdom, in Solomon's mistresses, who were chosen for their charms, and whoso cloistered life, amid the intrigues, and follies, and pettinesses of the harem, did not fit them to be the mothers of kings. What knowledge of the world or of men, what honour, what common sense could we hope to find in one brought up under such influences? The hearing of Rehoboam is precisely the bearing we should expect as the result of the training of an Eastern harem. It appears, consequently, that we may justly regard his infatuation as judicial, not so much in the sense of being inspired for the moment, but as being the natural consequence of his parents' folly and sin. But let us now consider what shape this same infatuation took: let us separate it into its constituent parts, that we may the better understand Rehoboam's character, and see the workings of his mind. Observe— I. HIS ENTIRE UNCONSCIOUSNESS OF DANGER. There were not wanting, to those who could read the signs of the times, many indications of peril. It was a "significant hint" that Shechem had been selected for his coronation; that the tribes insisted on a conference; that instead of acclamations he was met with stipulations. It was a presage of danger that their first words to Solomon's son, to David's grandson, were of a "heavy yoke" and a grievous burden. It was still more ominous that Jeroboam had already raised the standard of revolt, and that this arch rebel—according to the received text, but see on 1 Kings 12:3, 1 Kings 12:20—was present among the malcontents. Even if he had not at that time been recalled from Egypt, still Rehoboam knew full well that he was there, and ready to rebel again if opportunity offered. All these were mutterings of the coming storm, and no one who was not a fool could have failed to perceive their import. II. HIS VACILLATION AND IRRESOLUTION. Bishop Hall observes that his stipulating top three days in which to consider their demand was the only word he spoke which argued wisdom. Matthew Henry, on the other hand, thinks that it was "impolitic to take time to consider," and it may well be doubted whether this was not really a false and dangerous move. Had he bluntly refused all concessions and laid hands on the ringleaders, it is very probable that such a display of energy would have quelled the spirit of insurrection. Or had he graciously and instantly promised a redress of their grievances, he would have preserved his crown. But this delay was dangerous. It set them a-thinking what they would do in case of a refusal. A Fabian policy has saved some states, no doubt; but how many has it destroyed? And if, as has been suggested (on verse 5), the object of the three days' delay was that he might summon his young companions to his side, its unwisdom is still more apparent. III. HIS PRIDE AND OBSTINACY. It was pride, not mental incapacity, led him to reject the counsel of the old men and seek for further advice. It was because it went against the grain to be a "servant," even for one day. That they should have presumed to ask concessions, or to parley with him at all, was an offence in his eyes. It is easy to read his vexation between the lines. With his high-flown notions of Divine right, with the characteristic contempt of an autocrat for the masses, it was mortifying to find his subjects bandying words with him. We may be pretty sure that, had the old men advised "whips of scorpions," etc; we should have heard of no further consultation. The pride of Solomon and the pretensions of Naamah reappear in their son. IV. HIS FOLLY. This, which is conspicuous all the way through, is especially manifest in We might also instance the threats to which he stooped, and the mission of Adoram, but these come more appropriately under— V. HIS INSOLENCE AND DEFIANCE. Had he wished to provoke a rebellion, he could not have taken more effectual means to secure the end. "I will add to your yoke." "I will chastise you with scorpions." What cry could he possibly expect in return, except a war cry, such as he presently heard? If he had meant to punish, he should surely have held his tongue and used his hands. To boast of what he would do is like the Chinese warrior, who thinks to disperse his enemies by a ferocious shout. And to send Adoram, not to make overtures of peace—Rehoboam's folly would hardly go so far as to select him for such a mission—but, as it would seem, to collect tribute or to make a show of his authority, why, if he had designed to make the breach irreparable, and to stamp out the last faint hope of reconciliation, he could not have done more. It was the act of a spoilt child, it was the coming out in the flesh of what was bred in the bone. Amongst the lessons this history teaches are these: "A pebble in the streamlet's source, Hath turned the course of many a river; A dewdrop on the baby plant, Hath warped the giant oak forever." 1 Kings 12:1-5 The Dead and the Living. "The king is dead; long live the king!" This paradox expresses an important truth. Bathsheba recognized it when David on his deathbed promised her that Solomon, her son, should succeed him on the throne, and she said, "Let my lord king David live forever" (1 Kings 1:31). 1. His active form is no longer seen. 2. Where is the disembodied spirit? II. BUT HE SURVIVES IN REHOBOAM. This fact is the ground of— 1. Rehoboam's claim to the throne. 2. The nation's suit to the claimant. 1. A new individual appears. 2. New relationships have therefore to be formed. 1 Kings 12:6-11 Israel's Magna Charta. The question submitted to Rehoboam at Shechem concerned the constitution of the monarchy. Hitherto there had been no constitution defining the rights of the people and limiting the power of the crown. Rehoboam took three days to deliberate upon the people's Bill of Rights, and in that interval took counsel. The old men who stood before Solomon advised concession, while the young ones, who had grown up with him, recommended resistance. Wisdom was with the ancients. 1. Because it recognises their rights. 2. respects their happiness. 1. It encourages his virtues. 2. It gives stability to his throne. 1. The young counsellors give no reasons. 2. But may there not be a benevolant autocracy? 1 Kings 12:12-15 "Whom the gods mean to destroy they first infatuate." Such was the observation of a heathen philosopher; and it is true, only that the infatuators are devils, and God permits. The text furnishes a case in point. What but infatuation could have prompted Rehoboam to have acted so insanely? It is seen— 1. They assembled to honour him. 2. Their reservation was not unreasonable. 1. Respecting his father's administration. 2. Respecting his own. 1. It was deliberately given. 2. It was advisedly given. 3. He trusted in his fortune. 1 Kings 12:16-20 The Revolution. The unconciliatory, insulting, insane conduct of Rehoboam in rejecting the Bill of Rights of the people of Israel provoked a revolution in the state. This is recorded in the text, in which we learn that— 1. This act was done in haste. 2. It was done in anger. 3. But their anger carried them too far. 1. Between these acts there was an interval. 2. But Rehoboam's .folly hastened the sequel 3. They now completed the revolution. 1 Kings 12:21-24 The Message of Shemaiah. In the order of Providence the words of the prophet Ahijah became so far translated into history, that ten of the tribes of Israel had revolted from the son of Solomon and had made the son of Nebat their king. Rehoboam, unwilling to lose so important a portion of his kingdom, was now mustering a formidable army to reduce them to submission. At this juncture the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah. Let us consider— 1. It was the word of Jehovah. 2. It came by the hand of Shemaiah. 3. It came to the whole community. 4. It commanded peace. 1. They hearkened to the word. 2. They returned to their houses. 1 Kings 12:12-16 The rending of the kingdom. The name of Rehoboam is remarkable as seen in the light of the facts of his history. The "enlarger of the kingdom" becomes the chief instrument in its disruption. The one strong nation, the throne of which he inherited from his father, is changed by his folly into two comparatively weak and distracted kingdoms, which maintain towards each other an attitude of perpetual jealousy and strife. The revolt of the ten tribes was a calamity from the ill effects of which the land never recovered. Both politically and religiously the unity of the chosen people was hopelessly broken, and the career of each separate division became henceforth one of ever deepening corruption. The northern kingdom was governed for two hundred and fifty years by a succession of men who followed only too closely in the steps of "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." Their reigns were little else than a story of crime and bloodshed and confusion. And though the history of Judah was not quite so dark, it tells very much the same tale. Few of its kings were wholly free from the prevalent wickedness. The efforts of the noblest of them, aided by all the moral influence of a long line of inspired prophets, were powerless to arrest the downfall of the state; till at last, after three hundred and eighty years, it sunk into the shame and misery of the Captivity. How can it be said of all this, that "The cause was from the Lord"? Look I. THE HUMAN ELEMENT. The rending of the kingdom was not a sudden event that came without warning. As in all such cases, a variety of circumstances prepared the way for it. There were slumbering sources of mischief, certain conditions of thought and feeling, specially old jealousies between the tribes of Ephraim and Judah, that made it inevitable. But having regard to the nearer occasions, note "Our deeds still travel with us from afar, And what we have been makes us what we are"— so in the line of succeeding generations. Germs of evil sown by the fathers spring up among their children. There is a conservation of moral forces as of material. Let a corrupting power be once set in motion, and, though hidden for awhile, it is sure to appear again in some riper and more extended form. The nation retains its visible unity under Solomon, but when the charm of his personal reign is over the disintegrating work that has been going on beneath the surface is made manifest. II. THE DIVINE ELEMENT. This is seen in two respects. 1 Kings 12:13, 1 Kings 12:14 Rehoboam's Folly. Such madness is scarcely credible in the son of Solomon. These two kings present a remarkable contrast. Solomon at twenty years of age is the wisest man of his times, Rehoboam his son, at forty, is unfit to rule himself or his people. Wisdom is not by descent, but is the gift of God. Describe the scene in the chapter: the visit of Rehoboam to Shechem, probably with a view to conciliate the ten tribes; the complaint of the people; the two councils of the king; the maddening effect of his reply. The study of small and foolish men is advantageous, as well as the study of the great and wise, that by their follies we may be warned. Rehoboam's faults he on the surface, as would be natural in so shallow a character as his, A careful study of the chapter reveals to us the following. I. REHOBOAM'S FEEBLENESS OF CHARACTER. We should expect of one who succeeded to the throne in the prime of his life some clear notions of the policy he would pursue. Brought up in a court to which the rulers of other peoples came (1 Kings 10:24), over which the wisest king of that age ruled, he was rich in natural advantages. He could also have discovered for himself the condition of the people, their causes of complaint, etc. Had he given himself to such thought he would have been prepared for prompt and resolute action on his accession. Instead of this he seems helpless; turns now to these and now to those for counsel, and has not even enough wisdom to weigh the value of advice when it is given. "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel," is a law of far-reaching application. Amongst the virtues we should inculcate in our children is that of sober self-reliance. It may be fostered in the home with safety and advantage. Trust a child with something which he is free to use or abuse, in order to test him, and develop in him this grace. Probably Rehoboam had been brought up in the harem, and so had the heart of a child, with the years of a man. All gifts must be exercised to increase their value. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways," and an example of this lies before us. II. REHOBOAM'S CONTEMPT OF EXPERIENCE. He consulted the old advisers of Solomon, it is true, but clearly for the look of the thing only. Directly after speaking with "the responsible ministers of the crown," he turned to the courtiers, who were far less able to advise in such a crisis. Job says, "With the ancients is wisdom; and in length of days understanding." This is not always true. A man may be old without being wise, he may go through many experiences without being experienced. Still, other things being equal, a long study of affairs gives knowledge and discretion. It would clearly be so, with men chosen by the wise Solomon. Besides, those who have already won their honours are more disinterested than those who are ambitiously seeking to win them; and those whose reputations are high are more careful to guard themselves against folly than those who have no reputation to lose. [Found on such principles the duties of submission to authority, of reverence to age, etc; which are the essentials of a happy home and of a peaceful society.] III. REHOBOAM'S RESORT TO THE FOOLISH. The answer of the young men showed their folly. That such a spirit should exist is a proof that in the later years of Solomon the people about him had sadly deteriorated. IV. REHOBOAM'S BOASTFULNESS OF HIS POWER. "My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins." A proverbial expression to denote that his power was greater than his father's. Such bragging is no sign of courage. At the first outbreak of rebellion, this boaster "made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem." A strong character expresses itself not in great words, but in great deeds. The boastful Peter fails, the silent Jn stands firm. The Pharisee is rejected, the publican justified. "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted, and he that exalteth himself shall be abased." V. REHOBOAM'S ABUSE OF HIS AUTHORITY. "My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke," etc. This was not the speech of one who felt himself to be a shepherd of God's flock, but of one who assumed despotic authority. This was never permitted to a king of Israel, nor is it intended by God that any man should thus rule. It would be an evil to the ruler himself as well as to his people. Least of all is it to be tolerated in the Christian Church. The highest in ecclesiastical office are forbidden to be "lords over God's heritage," but are to be "examples to the flock." Christ said, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them… but ye shall not be so" (Luke 22:24-29). VI. REHOBOAM'S NEGLECT OF PRAYER. How differently he began his reign from his father! Solomon went first to God; Rehoboam went hither and thither for counsel, but never turned to God at all. How often we act thus in our temporal perplexities, in our theological difficulties, etc. How sadly we forget the words, "If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God," etc. (James 1:5-8). Throw the lurid light of this story on Proverbs 1:1-33; and make personal application of the warning given there.—A.R. 1 Kings 12:16 The Revolt. This was the song of the insurrection. It is the Marseillaise of Israelitish history. We heard it first after the revolt of Absalom (2 Samuel 20:1). It appears to have originated with "Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite." The revolt described in our text was more serious, beginning as it did the ruin of Solomon's splendid kingdom. All such national events are worthy of study. Moral causes lie at the root of them all, and the hand of God is over them all. The moral and Divine are more clearly revealed in Old Testament history; hence in part its value. In tracing this great revolution to its causes, we do not forget, though we do not dwell upon, two factors to which our attention is called by Scripture— We must remember, however, in regard to the former that God expressly declared that He would base future events on the king's obedience or disobedience to His law. And as to the ambitious designs of Jeroboam, they would all have been futile if (as God had foreseen) there had not been popular discontent, combined with princely folly. What, then, were the ultimate causes of the event described? I. TRIBAL JEALOUSY. This had always existed. Ephraim and Judah had specially displayed it. The jealousy of Ephraim had asserted itself both against Gideon and Jephthah ( 8:1; 12:1). The pride of this tribe was fostered by such facts as these: Joshua sprung from it, Samuel was born within its borders, Saul was of Benjamin, hereditary with Joseph; its geographical position gave it power, etc. Hence, till David's time, the leadership of the nation was practically in the hands of Ephraim. He reigned seven years over Judah before he could obtain supremacy over the other tribes. He dealt wisely with those who belonged to Ephraim, selecting some of them for special favour, etc. Solomon, however, aggravated the discontent by his oppression towards the close of his reign, so that Rehoboam had no easy task before him. All was ripe for revolt. 1. National strength is impossible without national unity. Clans must lose their jealousies if they would become a strong people. The severance of the rich from the poor, the hostility between capital and labour, the disaffection of any section of the people must be a source of weakness, a sign of decadence. 2. The Church's power is sapped by sectarian hostility. There may be diversity in modes of work and worship, but amongst all Christians should be unity of spirit. "There are diversities of operations, but the same spirit." Each tribe may march through the wilderness with its own banner, but all must find their one centre in the Divine presence, and seek their one Canaan as a laud of rest. Isaiah foretells the day when "Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim" (1 Kings 11:13). II. HEAVY TAXATION. It affected the people's wealth, and still more painfully their personal labour. A more foolish step than that which Rehoboam took could scarcely be imagined. He sent to appease the people "Adoram, who was over the tribute;" the very man who represented the oppression they resented! Quem Dens vult perdere, prius dementat. Show how extravagance, disregard of the rights of others, unjust demands, carelessness of the interests of dependants, lead to disaster—in homes, in business, in national and ecclesiastical affairs. Illustrate this from history; the decline and fall of the Roman Empire; the dissolution of the formerly vast dependencies of Spain, etc. So if a Church demands too much, as Rome does, she loses all. The intelligent men of Roman Catholic countries are sceptics. III. RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE. That this existed is evident from the ease with which Solomon set up the worship of Ashtoreth, Milcom, and Chemosh; and from the fact that Jeroboam, directly after the revolt, erected the calves at Bethel and Daniel J.D. Michaelis and others have sought to justify the people in their rebellion, but there can be no doubt that so far as they were concerned the revolt was criminal Neither in this nor in any other act of man does higher causality affect the morality of an act. They were anxious about the decrease of taxation, but not about the removal of idolatry. To them it mattered little whether Jehovah were worshipped or not. But it was to represent Him, to fulfil His purpose, to preserve His truth, that the kingdom existed. Indifference to God is destructive of the stability of human hopes, of the kingliness of human character, of the peace and security of human kingdoms. Christ has come into the world to arouse it from indifference, that all men may go out to greet Him as "King of kings, and Lord of lords." If you lose the kingdom of heaven it is because, like Rehoboam, you throw it away. The lost opportunity never came to him again. He was forbidden to try to recover by force what he sacrificed by folly (verse 24). Over him and over many a man the lament may be heard," Oh that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes."—A.R. 1 Kings 12:1-20 The accomplishment of the predicted judgment. 1. It was a time of joyous expectation. Nothing betokened the nearness of rebellion and disaster. All Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. There was no dispute about the succession, and no unwillingness to own the sway of the house of David. All was hopeful. Danger may lurk in joy like a venomous insect in a flower. 2. The people's request was reasonable. Rehoboam could shield himself under no plea of Divine right. David was appointed to shepherd Israel, and the people had a right to protest against their burdens. 3. Their demand seems to have been urged with moderation. There was as yet no determination to rebel. The issue lay with the king. It was to bear the stamp of his mind as well as theirs. There are moments that face us with a sudden demand to manifest the spirit that is in us and to make or mar our future. Should the demand come to thee today, what mark would be left, what work would be done? 1. The importance of the juncture was felt and owned. He took time for consideration. A good decision is nothing the worse of a calm review: a bad one needs it. 2. He sought counsel. We are helped by the light of others' judgment, but above all we need the direction of God. 1. A grave defect. Among all that is said of these three days there is no mention of his inquiring of the Lord, or lifting up one cry for guidance. There is pride and passion in us which only God can subdue: these retained are worse than all our foes; they can only harm us through the enemies we harbour within our breast. 2. The counsels of wisdom are rejected (1 Kings 12:7, 1 Kings 12:8). 3. The counsels of folly accepted (1 Kings 12:8-11). He was seeking for the reflection of his own proud, vengeful thought, and he now found it in the advice of those who were like minded. What we need is not the strengthening of our own judgment, but its correction by the utterance of love and righteousness and truth. 1. The shame of rejection and desertion (1 Kings 12:16). 2. His last attempt to assert his authority defeated (1 Kings 12:18). 3. His ignominious flight. He who might have won a kingdom has to flee for his life. 4. The separation of the ten tribes completed (1 Kings 12:19, 1 Kings 12:20). If Rehoboam had fled from the evil which was in himself, he would not have required to flee from his people. We give birth to the terrors which pursue us. There is but one flight possible from loss and death—the flight from sin.—U. 1 Kings 12:21-33 I. AN ERROR THAT COULD NOT BE REPAIRED (1 Kings 12:21-24). Rehoboam had zeal and strength behind him in his attempt to bring back the tribes by force. One hundred and eighty thousand men responded to his call; but all were dispersed at the lifting up of God's hand. The attempt was forbidden, 1. Because of the ties of kindred. These were forgotten by Rehoboam when he threatened the people with a heavier yoke. Tyranny is possible only in the denial of the brotherhood of man. It was forgotten now as he gathered his hosts together. Wars are impossible in the recognition of the brotherhood of man. This is God's word to the nations, to England as to the rest: "Ye shall not… fight against your brethren." 2. Because the loss was of God. "This thing is from Me." These two thoughts assuage anger and beget repentance; they who are against us are our brethren, and the blow is from our Father's hand. Our mistakes are permitted, and we eat their bitter fruit in God's righteous judgment. Keep the way of love and lowly dependence on God. Every other is full of mistake and irreparable loss. II. THE BLINDNESS OF WORLDLY POLICY (1 Kings 12:25-33). Judged from a merely human standpoint, Jeroboam showed commendable foresight, and took effectual precautions against a great and possible danger. Yet he did not look far enough or high enough. The range of his vision did not embrace the mightiest of all forces. It shut out God, and every step he took ensured the destruction of the power he sought to guard, 1. His fear was unbelief. There did seem to be a danger in the recourse of the tribes to Jerusalem, but he had God's promise that he would build him a sure house if he would do that which was right in God's sight (1 Kings 11:38). Do not our fears go right in the face of the promises of God? 2. It was base forgetfulness of God's mercy. The Lord had fulfilled part of what He had said. The very circumstances in which the fear arose (the possession of the kingdom) were thus its answer. Our fears not only deny God's promises, but also the testimony of the past. Unbelief and ingratitude are the first steps in the path of sin (Romans 1:21). 3. His defiance of God. When unbelief has shut Him out of the heart, His commandments are lightly esteemed. To suit the exigencies of state, God's ordinances were overturned, other holy places were set up, the commandment against image worship broken, the priesthood and the feast time changed. Jeroboam's sin lives still in our statecraft, in the conduct of our business, etc. God's purpose regarding us and the world is nothing! His commandments are the only things that with safety can be disregarded! 4. His misdirected ingenuity. He cleverly takes advantage Verses 25-33 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL, AND THE SCHISM IN THE CHURCH.—The historian, after describing the great rebellion of the Jewish people, proceeds, in the rest of this chapter, to relate the measures which the new king took to secure his position. These were both external and internal. The external means were the erection of fortresses; the internal, the provision of new sanctuaries, priests, and ordinances. 1 Kings 12:25 Then Jeroboam built [i.e; rebuilt or fortified, בָּנָה naturally has both meanings] Shechem [see on 1 Kings 12:1 and on 1 Kings 14:1] in Mount Ephraim [The Har-Ephraim, or mountain district of Ephraim (in Joshua 11:16 called the "Mountain of Israel;" cf. Joshua 17:15-18; 4:5; 10:1; 1 Samuel 1:1), is "the central mass of the hills of Palestine, nearly equidistant from the northern and southern boundary of the whole country", and the richest and most beautiful part of the land. "The tower of Sichem had been burnt down by Abimelech and the tower of Penuel had been destroyed by Gideon, 8:17" (Keil). The city of Shechem had been destroyed at the same time as the tower, but had no doubt been rebuilt, at least in part, otherwise it could hardly have been selected for Rehoboam's coronation. It was naturally Jeroboam's first care to strengthen his position by fortitying his capital, and the more so as this city would be particularly obnoxious to Rehoboam as the scene of the revolution; but why he should at the same time have rebuilt Penuel—Ewald thinks the seat of government was placed here—is not at first eight so obvious, as it lay beyond the Jordan (Genesis 32:22, Genesis 32:30; Genesis 33:17) and was therefore presumably outside the circle of hostilities, should such arise. Probably it was because this was the gate to his Trans-Jordanic territory. A tower commanding the fords of the Jordan would secure Reuben, Gad, etc; against invasion from Judah. It is also not unlikely that Jeroboam. who was the great castle builder of that age, had some fears of "hostile attacks from the north and northeast" (Keil), or thought of "the caravan road which led over Gilead to Damascus" (Wordsworth), and of which he would wish, for the sake of his revenue, to retain the control], and dwelt therein [He made it his first residence and capital]; and went out from thence [i.e; when he had secured one fortified city. He could hardly be certain as yet which side some of the tribes would take. It is also possible that some of the workmen who had built Shechem were afterwards employed on the fortification of Penuel], and built Penuel. [Bähr says, "There is no doubt that he built these fortifications by tribute labour, like Solomon." But is this quite so certain? The people after the revolt would naturally conclude that Rehoboam, of whose proud temper they had had such proof, would want to wreak his vengeance on the city which had rejected him, and the instinct of self-defence would lead them at once to rebuild their walls. And the newborn kingdom would also earnestly desire to possess a suitable capital. Thus their self-interest and enthusiasm alike would obviate the necessity for a conscription.] 1 Kings 12:26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David [It needed much less prescience than Jeroboam seems to have possessed to perceive that fortresses and armies would be of no avail for the defence of his realm, so long as Jerusalem remained the one sanctuary of the land. He clearly foresaw that if the people went up thither, as in time past, three times a year, to keep the feasts, the religious sentiment would in time reassert itself and sweep him and his new dynasty away. With one religion, one sanctuary, one priesthood, there could not long be two kingdoms. People who had so much in common would, sooner or later, complete the unity of their national life under a common sovereign. And we find, indeed, that so powerful were the attractions of the temple, and the religious system of which it was the centre, that "the priests and Levites that were in all Israel," together with the more devout laity, fell away to Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:13, 2 Chronicles 11:16), while the speech of Abijah on Mount Zemaraim (2 Chronicles 13:11), proves that others as well as Jeroboam were well aware that the old religion and the new kingdom could hardly coexist.] 1 Kings 12:27 If this people go up to do sacrifice [Heb. sacrifices] in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem [as the law of Moses ordained (Deuteronomy 12:11, Deuteronomy 12:14; Deuteronomy 16:6, Deuteronomy 16:11)], then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord [The Syriac omits this word. The LXX. has πρὸς κύριον κὰι κύριον αὐτῶν], even unto Rehoboam king of Judah [When Wordsworth remarks that Jeroboam "here acknowledges Rehoboam as the 'lord' of the people," he surely forgets that these are not the actual words of Jeroboam, but the thoughts which the historian supposes him to have had (verse 26) ], and they shall kill me [as they would do, if they wished to return to Rehoboam's rule. Their first offering would be the head of the usurper, 2 Samuel 20:20, 2 Samuel 20:21; cf. 2 Samuel 4:7], and go again [lit; turn again, same word as above] to Rehoboam king of Judah. 1 Kings 12:28 Whereupon the king took counsel ["With his counsellors, or the heads of the nation who had helped him to the throne" (Keil). Bähr understands, "he reflected about it alone" (et excogitato consilio, Vulgate), alleging that so important a circumstance as the concurrence of the heads of the people in changing the system of worship would not have been passed over in silence. But while the text does not perhaps imply any formal deliberation with the elders, it is reasonable to suppose that Jeroboam, who owed his position to popular election, and who was far too sagacious not to follow the example of Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:6, 1 Kings 12:9), would summon others to advise him as to this critical and momentous step. Wordsworth refers to Isaiah 30:1, and says that "Jeroboam is the image and pattern of Machiavellian politicians." "Next to Ahithophel, I do not find that Israel yielded a craftier head than Jeroboam's" (Hall)], and made two calves [It is generally held that these were in imitation of, or were suggested by, the "golden calf" of Aaron (Exodus 32:2), and the close resemblance of Jeroboam's words (below), in inaugurating this new cultus, to Aaron's have been thought to prove it. But surely it has been overlooked that Jeroboam could hardly be so shortsighted and unwise as deliberately to reintroduce a worship which had provoked the "fierce wrath" (Isaiah 30:12) of God, and had nearly resulted in the extermination of the Jewish race. For of course neither Jeroboam nor his people could have forgotten the stern condemnation which Aaron's calf worship had received. The molten image ground to powder, the ashes mixed in the drink of the people, the slaughter of three thousand worshippers, etc; would assuredly have lived in the memories of the nation. A more impolitic step, consequently—one more certain to precipitate his ruin, by driving the whole nation into the arms of Judah—Jeroboam could not have taken, than to attempt any revival or imitation of the forbidden cultus of the desert. And it is as little likely that the worship of the calves was derived from the worship of Apis, as practised at Memphis, or of "Mnevis, the sacred calf of Heliopolis" (Stanley), though with both of these Jeroboam had recently been in contact. It would have been but a sorry recommendation in the eyes of Israel that the first act of the new king should be to introduce the hateful idolatry of Egypt into the land; and every consideration tends to show that the calf worship was not, and was not intended to be, idolatry, such as the worship of Egypt undoubtedly was. It is always carefully distinguished from idol worship by the historians and prophets. And the idea which Jeroboam wished to give his subjects was clearly this that, so far from introducing new gods or new sanctuaries, he was merely accommodating the old worship to the new state of things. He evidently felt that what he and his house had most to fear was, not the armies of Rehoboam but the ritual and religious associations of Jerusalem. His object, if he were wise, must therefore be to provide a substitute, a counterfeit worship. "I will give you," he virtually says, "at Bethel and Dan, old sanctuaries of our race long before Jerusalem usurped their place, those visible emblems of the heavenly powers such as are now found only in the temple. You too shall possess those mysterious forms which symbolize the Invisible, but you shall have them nearer home and easier of access." There can be little doubt, consequently, that the "calves" were imitations of the colossal cherubim of Solomon's temple, in which the ox or calf was probably the forma praecipua (1 Kings 6:23).] of gold [Hardly of solid gold. Possibly of. wood covered with gold plates, i.e; similar to the cherubim (1 Kings 6:23-28); probably of molten brass (see 1 Kings 14:9, and cf. Psalms 106:19), overlaid with gold; such images, in fact, as are described in Isaiah 40:19], and said unto them, It is too much for you [This translation, pace Keil, cannot be maintained. Nor can it be said that "the exact meaning of the original is doubtful" (Rawlinson), for a study of the passages where this phrase, רַב־לָכֶם occurs (see, e.g; Deuteronomy 1:6; Deuteronomy 2:8; Deuteronomy 3:26; and cf. Genesis 45:28; Exodus 9:28; 2 Samuel 24:16; 1 Kings 19:4) will convince the reader that it must be rendered here, "It is enough"—i.e; "you have gone long enough to a city which only owes its present position to the ambition of the tribe of Judah, and which is a standing testimony to your own inferiority; henceforth, desist." We have an exact parallel in Ezekiel 44:6; where the Authorized Version renders, "Let it suffice you." The LXX. supports this view by rendering ἱκανόυσθω ὑμῖν throughout. Vulgate, nolite ultra ascendere, etc.] to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods [rather "god," for Jeroboam had no idea of introducing polytheism. It is true he made two calves because of his two sanctuaries, but each was designed to represent the same object—the one God of Israel. The word is translated, gods" in Exodus 32:1, Exodus 32:4, Exodus 32:8, Exodus 32:23, Exodus 32:31; but as the reference is in every case to the one calf, it should be translated "god" there also. In Nehemiah's citation of the words (Nehemiah 9:18), the word is unmistakably singular. "This is thy god," etc. The words are not "exactly the same as the people used when setting up the golden calf" (Bähr). Jeroboam says, "Behold," etc.], O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. [It is at first sight somewhat difficult to resist the view, which is generally entertained, that Jeroboam, of set purpose, cited the ipsissima verba of the Israelites in the desert (Exodus 32:4). But a little reflection will show that it is much more difficult to believe that a monarch, circumstanced as Jeroboam was, could at the very outset of his career have acted in the teeth of history, and have committed the gross blunder, not to say wanton outrage, of deliberately connecting his new cult with the calf worship of the desert. He can hardly have dared, that is, to say, "This is no new religion, for this very form of worship our fathers used formerly in the desert, under the guidance of Aaron himself" (Seb. Schmidt, followed by Keil, al.) unless both he and his people alike—which is inconceivable—were ignorant of their nation's history recorded in Exodus 32:19-35. It has been argued by some that this action of Jeroboam and the ready compliance of the ten tribes, prove that the Pentateuch cannot then have been written. But, as Hengstenberg (cited by Wordsworth) rejoins, the same argument would lead to the conclusion that the Bible could not have been written in the dark ages, or, we might add, even at the present day. He can hardly have claimed, that is to say, to be reintroducing the calf worship, which God had so emphatically reprobated, unless he designed an open defiance of the Most High, and wished to shock all the religious instincts and convictions of his people. It is much more natural, consequently, to suppose, considering the very frequent recurrence, though sometimes in slightly different shapes, of the formula "the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 20:2; Exodus 29:45, Exodus 29:46; Le 19:36; 23:43; Exodus 25:38; Exodus 26:13, 45; Numbers 15:41; Numbers 16:13; Numbers 20:16; Deuteronomy 5:6, Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 8:14; Deuteronomy 9:26; Joshua 24:6, Joshua 24:17; 6:8; 1 Samuel 8:8; 1 Samuel 10:18; 1 Kings 8:21, etc.) that the correspondence is accidental, the more so as Jeroboam does not quote the exact words, and that he has used a phrase which was constantly in their ears, insisting thereby that his calves were emblems of the God of their race, the God whose great glory it was that He had taken their nation out of the midst of another nation, etc. (Deuteronomy 4:34), and delivered them from a thraldom with which, perhaps, the tyranny of Rehoboam is indirectly compared. Or it there was any reference to the golden calf, it must have been depreciatory, as if to say," That was rank idolatry, and as such it was punished. That calf was an image of Apis. My calves are cherubic symbols, symbols such as He has Himself appointed, of the Great Deliverer of our race. Behold thy God, which really brought thee up," etc.] 1 Kings 12:29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Daniel [Two considerations seem to have influenced Jeroboam in his choice of these sites. First, both these places were in some sort sanctuaries already. Bethel was already a makom, or holy place, in the days of Abraham; was consecrated by the visions and altar of Jacob (Genesis 28:11-19; Genesis 31:13; Genesis 35:1, Genesis 35:7, Genesis 35:15), and by the ark having been there ( 20:26-28, Hebrews; cf. Jos; Ant; 5.2. 10). And though Dan (Joshua 19:47; 18:29; 20:1) can hardly have had as sacred a character as the "house of God and the gate of heaven" (Genesis 28:17) had, still it had its shrine and its schismatic priesthood. A grandson of Moses ( 18:13, true reading) had ministered there, and his sons were the priests of Dan still. Secondly, these localities would suit the convenience of his subjects, being respectively at the southern and northern extremities of the kingdom. And this, no doubt, was one reason why Dan was chosen in preference to other places, such as Shiloh, which, though more sacred, were less conveniently situated. A sanctuary at Dan would save the northern tribes many tedious journeys. It should be remarked that Bethel properly belonged to Benjamin (Joshua 18:13, Joshua 18:22), though it was also on the border of Ephraim; and it has been suggested that it was Jeroboam's selection of this place as a seat of the calf worship decided the tribe of Benjamin to follow the lead of Judah. But the narrative seems to imply that their choice had been made at an earlier period (verse 21), and the city would seem to have been long in the possession of the house of Joseph ( 1:22). It is now known as Beitin, and is one of the most naked and dreary spots in Palestine. "The place seems, as it were, turned to stone; and we can well imagine that the patriarch found nothing softer than a stone for his pillow." Conder, p. 252, who suggests that from the time of Abraham Bethel was a מָקוֹם, a sacred place merely (Genesis 28:11), and distinct from the adjoining city of Luz (verse 19).] 1 Kings 12:30 And this thing became a sin [It was in itself sinful, for it both set at nought the express prohibition of the Decalogue (Exodus 20:4), and also disregarded the one sanctuary of God's choice (Deuteronomy 12:5). And it led to other sins, e.g; the intrusion of a schismatic and irregular priesthood, and the performance of unauthorized rites, and to "an ever-deepening corruption of the national faith" (Ewald). Cf. Hosea 8:5; Hosea 13:2. But the meaning is, it became an occasion of sin to the people ("Quod fuit postea causa gravissimi peccati"—Vatab.) Jeroboam "made Israel to sin" (1 Kings 14:16; 1 Kings 15:26, etc.) It is difficult to conceive, in the face of these and similar words, how any one can seriously maintain that "the church of Israel was the national church" (Stanley, 2:264) ]: for the people went to worship before the one even unto Dan. [The people frequented both sanctuaries; why, then, is that at Dan especially mentioned? Some (Rawlinson, e.g.) have suggested that the text is here corrupt, and that we should read, "before the one to Bethel, and before the other to Dan." According to others, "the one" ( הָאֶחַד) refers to the double הָאֶחַד ("the one," "the other"); cf. verse 29. They would interpret, that is, "the people went to both, even to the distant Dan" (Bähr, Thenius). Keil would force the text and understand, "the people, even unto Dan," i.e; the people throughout the whole kingdom. Similarly, Wordsworth. Ewald understands "before the one" to mean כְזֶחַד i.e; "as one," sc. man. On the whole it is better to take the words as they stand, literally. It is quite conceivable that, at first, the people resorted almost exclusively to the Danite sanctuary. Having been for long years a seat of worship, and having probably its "house of high places," or temple (see below), already built, it would naturally be in a position to receive worshippers some time before Bethel was prepared for that purpose. Jeroboam's offering in person at Bethel (verse 32) which marks the inauguration of his new ritual there, may have been partly designed to attract worshippers to a shrine, which, as being nearer Jerusalem, or for some other reason, was neglected. But the verse is patient of another interpretation. It may intend to convey that the rebellious tribes, in their defiant disregard of the old order of things, the order now represented by a hostile kingdom, went en masse to the opposite point of the compass, even to the unhallowed and hitherto despised sanctuary of the Danites. The LXX. (Vat.) addition here is noticeable, "And they forsook the house of the Lord."] 1 Kings 12:31 And he made an house of high places [See on 1 Kings 3:2, and cf. 2 Kings 17:29. It is often assumed (Keil, Rawlinson, al. after Josephus) that Jeroboam built two temples for his cherubim, and the statement of the text, that he built one, is explained on the ground that the historian contrasts the "house of high places" with the "house of the Lord." Ewald, too, after 2 Kings 17:29, 2 Kings 17:32, understands the words as plural. But is it not more probable that a chapel or sanctuary already existed at Dan, where an irregular priesthood had ministered for more than four hundred years? This verse would then refer exclusively to Jeroboam's procedure at Bethel (see next verse). There he built a temple and ordained a number of priests, but Dan had both already. We know that the Danite priests carried on the calf worship to the time of the captivity ( 18:30). This "house of high places" has grown in Ewald's pages into "a splendid temple in Canaanite style"], and made priests of the lowest of the people [Heb. מִקְצוֹת "from the ends," i.e; from all classes, ex universe populo (Gesen.), and not, as the writer explains presently, from the tribe of Levi alone. Genesis 19:4, 18:2, Ezekiel 33:2, prove this to be the correct interpretation of the word. Rawlinson, who remarks that "Jeroboam could have no motive for specially selecting persons of low condition," does not thereby dispose of the A.V. rendering, for the historian might mean that some of Jeroboam's priests were of the lowest stamp, because he could find no others, or because he was so little scrupulous as to take them. "Leaden priests are well fitted to folder. deities" (Hall)], which were not of the sons of Levi. [Jeroboam would doubtless have been only too glad to have retained the services of the Levitical priests, but they went over in a body to Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:13). The statement of Ezekiel 33:14, that, "Jeroboam and his sons" had "cast them out," suggests that they had refused to take part in his new cult and that thereupon he banished them, and, no doubt, confiscated their possessions. The idea of Stanley, that "following the precedent of the deposition of Abiathar by Solomon, he removed from their places the whole of the sacerdotal order," is a wild conjecture for which Scripture affords not the slightest warrant.] 1 Kings 12:32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah [i.e; the Feast of Tabernacles, which was held on the 15th of the seventh month (of. 1 Kings 8:2). This was the great feast of the year, and, as the feast of harvest or ingathering, the most joyous. See on 1 Kings 8:1. Had Jeroboam provided no counter attraction to this great festive gathering in Judah he might have found it a formidable temptation to his subjects. The reason usually given for the alteration of the time—in defiance of the law, which expressly fixed it in the seventh month (Le 23:34, 39, 41)—is that the eighth would be more generally convenient in the north, where the harvest or vintage was a month later (Then; Keil), as affording more time for the ingathering. In favour of this view is the consideration that the Jews not unfrequently had to intercalate a month—a second Adar—into their year, because of the season being a late one. Some of the older commentators, e.g; Vatab; think this time was chosen as the anniversary of his secession, but this is pure conjecture, and such an association would be contrary to the genius of the Hebrew people. Keil maintains that Jeroboam's design was to "make the separation, in a religious point of view, as complete as possible." But we can hardly be expected to believe that he altered the month, for the sake of creating a distinction, but "retained the day of the month, the fifteenth, for the sake of the weak who took offence at his innovations" (Keil). The day was retained, as Bähr points out, because, the months being lunar, the fifteenth was the day of the full moon], and he offered [Heb. as marg; "and he went up," i.e; ascended the altar; LXX. ἀνέβη. the altar was always raised. It was probably approached by s slope, as Exodus 20:26 forbade steps, though it is by no means certain that they were not used even in Solomon's temple, and Jeroboam probably would have no scruples on such a minute point of ritual. It has been thought (Kitto, 4:147) that he was moved to officiate in person by the precedent of the Egyptian kings, who exercised priestly functions; but it is much more probable that he was guided by the example of Solomon at the dedication of the temple] upon [i.e; he stood upon the ledge or platform (called in the A.V. "compass," Exodus 27:5) in the middle of the altar] the altar. So did he in Bethel [i.e; the feast was held at one centre only, and at Bethel alone the king offered in person. But I venture to suggest that instead of כֵן, "so did he," etc; we should read כִי. The LXX. seem to have had this word before them— ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον ὃ εποίησεν ἐν βαιθὴλ. And not only does this slight change bring the Hebrew into harmony with the LXX; but it also simplifies the construction. "He went up upon the altar which he made to sacrifice unto the calves which he made." The very tautology is instructive, as suggesting that altar, calves, and priests were all of Jeroboam's making, not of God's ordaining. The use of כי as a relative (= אֲשֶׁר) is strictly grammatical], sacrificing [marg; to sacrifice] unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel [Dan being already provided with its priesthood] the priests of the high places [i.e; of "the house of high places" (verse 31). Or it may be a contemptuous designation of Jeroboam's irregular priests] which he had made. 1 Kings 12:33 So he offered [Heb. went up, as before. This verse is really the introduction to the history of the next chapter] upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised [Josephus (Ant. 7.8. 5) seems unaware that this new feast was kept at a different date from the true Feast of Tabernacles. But these words are decisive] of his own heart [The Cethib has מִלְּבֹּד by which Maurer and Keil understand מִלְּבַד ("seoreum." But qu.) But the Keri מִלּבּוֹ is every way to be preferred, So LXX; ἀπὸ καρδίας αὑτοῦ. Similarly, Nehemiah 6:8]; and ordered [rather, kept, celebrated] a feast unto [Heb. for] the children of Israel: and he offered [went up] upon the altar, and burnt incense [Heb. to burn, etc. The context seems to imply that it was not incense, or not incense only, but the sacrifice, or sacrificial parts of the victim, that the king burned. See on 1 Kings 13:3 ( דֶּשֶׁן). And this meaning is justified by Le 1 Kings 1:9, 1 Kings 1:17; 1 Samuel 2:16; Amos 4:5, where the same word is used. It cannot be denied, however, that the word is generally used of incense, and it is very probable that both this and sacrifices were offered by Jeroboam on the same altar (cf. 1 Kings 11:8). We may perhaps see in Jeroboam's ministering in person, not only the design to invest the new ordinance with exceptional interest and splendour, but also the idea of encouraging his new priests to enter on their unauthorized functions with. out fear. The history, or even the traditions, of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-20.) and of Korah and his company (Numbers 16:40), and the threatenings of the law (Numbers 18:7, Numbers 18:22, cf. 2 Chronicles 26:20), may well have made them hesitate. To allay their fears the king undertakes to offer the first of the sacrifices. And that their fears of a Divine interposition were not groundless the sequel shows.] 1 Kings 12:30 The Sin of Jeroboam. What was this sin, of which, from this time forward, the historian has so much to say? It is mentioned more than twenty times in Scripture. It casts its dark shadow across fifteen reigns of the kings of Israel. Its baleful influences were felt for more than two and a half centuries. It was the prime cause (2 Kings 17:21-28) of that captivity from which the ten tribes have never returned. Surely we ought to know what it was. And as one help to a right conclusion, let us first clearly understand what it was not. I. IT WAS NOT THE SIN OF REBELLION. There may have been sin in the way which the rupture with Judah was brought about (see 2 Chronicles 13:6, 2 Chronicles 13:7), though that is by no means certain (notes on 1 Kings 12:19, 1 Kings 12:20). But even if Israel was set upon rebellion, and even if Jeroboam had rudely and wickedly precipitated the revolt, that cannot be "the sin" of which he is here and elsewhere accused. For, in the first place, later kings could not be held responsible for Jeroboam's conduct at the time of the disruption, i.e; they could not commit that sin of Jeroboam; and, secondly, the disruption itself was ordained of God (1 Kings 11:31 sqq.; 1 Kings 12:15; 2 Chronicles 11:4). 1 Kings 12:15, too, is decisive. "The cause was from the Lord." Those who sate on Jeroboam's throne, consequently, no less than the successors of Solomon, reigned de jure Divino. The former equally with the latter were the anointed of Heaven (2 Kings 9:3, 2 Kings 9:6). It was the Lord "raised up" (1 Kings 14:14) Baasha (1 Kings 15:28, 1 Kings 15:29), Zimri (1 Kings 16:12), Jehu (2 Kings 9:6), and the rest. II. IT WAS NOT THE SIN OF GOING AFTER OTHER GODS. If this were the sin referred to here it would probably have been called "the sin of Solomon," for Solomon is twice charged with that sin (1 Kings 11:4, 1 Kings 11:10), whereas Jeroboam never went after Baal, or Ashtoreth, or Milcom. It is true the calves are once called "other gods" (1 Kings 14:9), but they are only so called in derision, and in 1 Kings 16:31 the sin of Jeroboam is expressly distinguished from the worship of other gods. It was probably Jeroboam's boast (see note on 1 Kings 16:28), not that he was instituting a new religion, or setting up a rival Deity, but that he was worshipping the one true God in a more rational and primitive way. See Jos; Ant. 8. 8.4. And that the calf. worship was not idolatry, properly so called, is clear from this consideration, that "the sin of Jeroboam" is confined to the kingdom of Israel. Not one of the kings of Judah is ever taxed with it. And yet it was in Judah, and not in Israel, that idolatry prevailed. Of the kings of Israel, only Ahab and his two sons were guilty of idolatry; whereas of the kings of Judah only five set their faces against it. Yet the non-idolatrous kings of Israel are constantly charged with Jeroboam's sin, and the idolatrous kings of Judah never. Polytheism, therefore, it cannot have been. III. IT WAS NOT THE SIN OF IMAGE WORSHIP. The calves were not made to be worshipped, any more than the cherubim of Solomon's temple. Nor do we read that they received Divine worship. "The people went to worship before the one," etc. The Scripture, it is true, calls them "molten images," but Jeroboam doubtless said they were symbols of the heavenly powers, designed (like the images of the Roman Communion) to be helps to devotion, and they are nowhere called "idols," or "horrors," or "statues." We entirely misconceive Jeroboam's purpose, and discredit his sagacity, if we think that he had the worship of Apis or Mnevis or any similar idol in his mind. The last thing that would occur to him would be to set up a purely pagan system amongst such a people as the Jews. His was not the sin of idol worship. What, then, was it? I. IT WAS THE SIN OF HERESY. For "heresy" in the original meaning of the word simply implied an arbitrary selection of doctrines or practices— αἵρεσις = a choosing—instead of dutifully accepting those which God has enjoined. This is precisely what Jeroboam did. Instead of taking and handing down to his successors, whole and undefiled, the "faith once delivered," he presumed to modify it; to adapt it, as he thought, to the new order of things, etc. His heresy was threefold. 1. He chose his own places of worship. God had ordained that there should be one sanctuary for the whole nation. Both the law of Moses and the history of Israel alike taught that the religious centre of the nation should be one. From an early age it was predicted that God would choose Himself a place to put His name there (Deuteronomy 12:13, Deuteronomy 12:14; Deuteronomy 14:23). And this Divine choice had been recently and unmistakably made. He "chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved." And He built His "sanctuary," etc. (Psalms 78:67-69; cf. Psalms 132:18, Psalms 132:14). At the dedication of this sanctuary this choice had been publicly proclaimed (1 Kings 8:10, 1 Kings 8:11; 2 Chronicles 7:2, 2 Chronicles 7:12, 2 Chronicles 7:16). The whole nation then understood that God had "chosen Jerusalem to put His name there." And Jeroboam was aware of this, and was also aware that the division of the kingdom was to make no difference as to the oneness or the position of the sanctuary. To prevent misconception he was twice reminded in the message of Ahijah, his charter to the crown, that Jerusalem was "the city which God had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel" (1 Kings 11:32, 1 Kings 11:33). It was to be in the future, as it had been in the past, the one place of incense and sacrifice. And that Jeroboam knew it, his own thoughts (1 Kings 12:26, 1 Kings 12:27) reveal to us. "If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem." He is quite clear, then—indeed, he could not be otherwise—as to the place of God's choice. But that place, he argues, will not do for him. Political considerations demand that he shall find a religious centre elsewhere. So he "takes counsel," and decrees ex mero arbitrio that Israel shall have three holy places instead of one, and that Bethel and Dan shall henceforward divide the honours hitherto enjoyed by Jerusalem. 2. He chose his own modes of worship. Though the way in which God should be approached had been prescribed, though every detail of the Divine service had been ordered beforehand, and though he had been warned against adding aught to it or diminishing aught from it (Deuteronomy 4:2; Deuteronomy 12:1-32 :382), yet he decided otherwise. Perhaps he persuaded himself that he had good reasons for it; but all the same he chose otherwise than God had chosen. Though Exodus 20:4, etc; forbade the making of graven images, yet he "made molten images" (1 Kings 14:9). Though the law decreed that the sons of Aaron alone should offer sacrifice and burn incense, yet he determined to play the priest himself, and also "made him priests of the lowest of the people." Sic volo, sic jubeo, etc. 3. He chose his own times of worship. Nothing could have been more positively fixed than the date of the Feast of the Tabernacles. It was to be "the fifteenth day of the seventh month" (Le 23:34, 39). But this was not the day of Jeroboam's "choice." He "devised" a month "of his own heart;" he consulted, perhaps he thought, his people's convenience; but was there ever heretic yet that was not full of arguments, when all God asks is obedience? "In religion What dangerous error, but some sober brow Will bless it and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament." II. IT WAS THE SIN OF SCHISM. It is not without reason that in the Litany heresy and schism are coupled together, for the latter springs out of the former. Jeroboam's arbitrary choice led to a division in the Jewish Church. Let us briefly consider in what way the breach in the national unity, hitherto so close and conspicuous, was effected. 1. The one centre of unity gave place to three centres of division. Hitherto, three times a year (cf. 1 Kings 9:25) all the males of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, had gathered round one altar. Thither, "the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord." Now, instead of going, even from Dan, the people went to worship before the calves "even unto Daniel" The ten tribes turned their backs on Jerusalem, and sought, some of them, a sanctuary at the opposite point of the compass. Nor did those who worshipped at Bethel afford a less striking proof of disintegration, for that sanctuary was within sight of the temple mount. The two pillars of smoke ascending day by day from rival altars, but twelve miles apart, proclaimed to all that there was a "schism in the body." 2. The one priesthood of Aaron shared its ministry with the priests of Jeroboam. No longer were offerings brought exclusively to the sons of Levi, but "whosoever would" might burn the incense and sprinkle the blood. The schism was accentuated by the appointment of a new order of men, with vested interests in the perpetuation of division. 3. The one ritual of Divine obligation was travestied by rites and ceremonies of human appointment. If the breach was widened by the intrusive priesthood, it was deepened by the unauthorized and forbidden cultus of the calves. The stranger, who came out of a far country for God's name's sake (1 Kings 8:41, 1 Kings 8:42), to pray toward the house, found himself in the presence of rival systems, each claiming to be primitive and true, but differing so widely that he would go home to his own land, doubting whether both were not false. He would say, as others have said since, that before men compassed sea and land to make proselytes, they had better agree among themselves. 4. The one Feast of Tabernacles appointed of God was parodied by a Feast devised of man. That feast, the most joyous of the year, had once been the greatest manifestation of religious unity which Israel afforded. It was the very "dissidence of dissent" when the feast of the seventh month was straightway and ostentatiously followed by a feast of the eighth month, celebrated but a few miles distant. It was the culminating proof of διχοστασία. III. THE SIN OF KORAH (Numbers 16:1-50.) This has been already twice referred to, as a part of the heresy and as a factor in the schism. But it may well stand by itself as a substantive part of the sin. It was just as great a violation of the Divine law to use the ministry of unauthorized persons as to worship at shrines of man's choosing or with ordinances of man's devising. This, then, was "the sin of Jeroboam." It was not rebellion, not idolatry, but the worship of the true God in unauthorized places, with unauthorized rites, and by unauthorized ministers. Nor did it make it less a sin that it seemed to prosper. The church of Jeroboam straightway became the church of the majority. At the time of the captivity it could boast of some antiquity ( 18:30; 2 Kings 17:16). But all the same God put His brand upon it. Three miracles (1 Kings 13:1-34.) were wrought as a testimony against it. The voices of the prophets were raised to condemn it (Hosea, passim; Micah 6:16, etc.) But from year to year and reign to reign it flourished, and bore its baleful fruit, and then, after the schism had lasted two hundred and fifty years, while the kingdom of Judah, despite its idolatries, still retained for 185 years longer its place in the covenant land, the ten tribes were carried away to the cities of the Medes, were "scattered beyond the river" and disappeared from the page of history. And has this sin no lessons? has its punishment no warnings for ourselves? If, as some seem to think, we may pick and choose our doctrines at pleasure; if the Scripture is of private interpretation; if we are at liberty each one to set up his own dogmas against the quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus of the Catholic Church; or if there is no such thing as schism: if it is never mentioned or never reprobated in the New Testament; if the Babel of sects—there are over one hundred of them in this England of ours—is according to the plan and purpose of our Lord; or if, again, the "form of sound words," the depositum fidei, the creeds of the undivided Church, have no authority: if they can be added to by the autocrat of Rome, or diminished from by any state, or sect, or teacher; or, finally, if there is no such thing as a "mission" of Christ's ministers; if any man may take this honour to himself; if those who have never been sent themselves may nevertheless send others—then this history is void of all meaning. But if, on the other hand, Christianity is the child of Judaism, and the Christian Church the inheritor of the principles of the Jewish; if that church is One and Catholic and Apostolic; if the faith was once for all ( ἅπαξ) delivered to the saints; if our Lord Christ sent His apostles even as the Father had seat Him (John 20:21), if they in turn "ordained elders in every city" (Titus 1:5; cf. 2 Timothy 2:2), and by laying on of hands (Acts 13:8); if the tactual succession is not a mere piece of priestly assumption—then assuredly the history of Jeroboam's sin is full of meaning, and "very necessary for these times." And the prominence accorded to it in Scripture, the twenty references to its working—we can understand it all when we remember that "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning," and that the Spirit that moved the prophets foresaw the manifold heresies and schisms of Christendom. 1 Kings 12:25-27 Jeroboam's Despondency. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." Jeroboam's ambition was to be a king, and God gave him his desire. This was to punish Solomon and his house for their apostasy, and the men of Israel who had been led away in it. The sequel proved that the ambition of Jeroboam also brought its punishment, for he soon found his throne the reverse of a comfortable seat. 1. They seem to have become resistive under his rule. 2. He therefore became gloomily apprehensive. 1. Had he no assurance in the words of Ahijah? 2. But he was moved by ambition feather than piety. 1 Kings 12:28 Jeroboam's Calves. Unbelief is the root of all mischief. Had the king of Israel believed God, he would have obeyed Him; then he would have been under no temptation to set up a spurious religion to the confusion of his family and people. But what did he mean by these calves? 1. So he describes them in the text. 2. His error was a reproduction of Aaron's. 3. Yet this was idolatry. 1. He had the cherubim in his mind. 2. But the cherubim were emblems of the Holy Trinity. 3. Micah's teraphim were like Jeroboam's calves. 1 Kings 12:28-33 Jeroboam's Sin. The king of Israel, moved by personal ambition instead of zeal for God, fearing lest his people, in going to Jerusalem to worship, should see reason to regret having rent the kingdom, took counsel to prevent this. The result was the development of the policy described in the text. It was cunning— 1. As to its objects. 2. As to its modes. 3. As to its ministers. 1. Dan was chosen with sagacity. 2. Bethel also was chosen with sagacity. Thus practically did Jeroboam say, with another purpose in his heart, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem." Beware of religion made easy; it may laud you in perdition. Beware of imitations of Divine things. Keep rigidly to the Word of God.—M. 1 Kings 12:26-28 The Sin of Jeroboam. This passage describes the act which is so often referred to with horror, in the books of Kings and Chronicles, as "the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat." To an irreligious man like himself, nothing would appear more natural or politic than this conduct. He had been driven into Egypt by Solomon, had there married Pharaoh's daughter, and become familiar with the worship of Apis and Mnevis. Now he had returned, and found himself the ruler of the ten tribes, the first king of the separate "kingdom of Israel." Recognizing as he did the religious tendencies and memories of his people, he saw that the national assemblies for worship in the temple at Jerusalem would, sooner or later, unite the tribes again under one king. Hence his action. Looking at his conduct 3. It was an appeal to former memories. He made Shechem his capital, a place associated with Abraham and Jacob, and afterwards assigned to the Levites, and made a free city. He erected one of the calves at Bethel, a holy place on the borders of Benjamin and Ephraim (see Genesis 32:1-32.). No doubt his design was to conciliate those who were proud of past history. 4. It was a bold attempt to deceive the devout. He pretended that it was the old worship reestablished; that Jehovah was really represented by the calves: "These be thy gods (the old gods) that brought thee out of the land of Egypt." Not the first or last time in which the prince of darkness has appeared as an angel of light Shrewd as was the policy, it was not perfectly successful even during his reign. The best people emigrated to Judah (like the Huguenots to England), to enrich another kingdom by work and wealth; and the prophets and many of the priests were roused to hostility. Even had it succeeded, however, such policy deserved to be branded with infamy. Principle must never be sacrificed to expediency. Success never condones wrong doing with God. 1. It revealed his utter distrust of God. See the promise that had been given him (1 Kings 11:38): "I will build thee a sure house." He could not believe it. He would trust his own skill rather than God's favour. So had it been with Saul and Solomon. The path of simple obedience is strait and narrow, and few there be that find it." "Do My will and trust Me," is the lesson of life, but we are slow to learn it. Many professing Christians consider religion inappropriate to business competition and to political movements. In this they resemble the son of Nebat. 2. It violated the fundamental law of the Decalogue. If the first command was not actually broken, the second was, necessarily. Had these calves merely been the outward symbols of Jehovah, they were amongst the forbidden "images." Jeroboam knew this. He remembered the calf Aaron made, for his words were an echo of those of the first high priest. He knew that only the intercession of Moses then saved the people from destruction, yet again he defiantly disobeyed. Show the peril of allowing images, crucifixes, banners, the elements in the sacrament, etc; to take a false position in Christian worship. Even if the initiated worship God through these, they break (in spirit) the second command; while the more ignorant are with equal certainty led to the violation of the first. 3. It involved and necessitated other sins. 1 Kings 12:26-30 The Golden Calves. Jeroboam here earns for himself that name of evil repute—"the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." As the leader in the revolt of the ten tribes he was simply fulfilling a Divine purpose. "The thing was from the Lord,"—the ordained penalty of Solomon's transgression (1 Kings 11:31, 1 Kings 11:38). But this setting up of the golden calves, this only too successful attempt to sever the sacred bond that bound the people of the whole land in one common allegiance to the temple and the great invisible King who sat enthroned there, bore a widely different character. This was not "from the Lord." It was wholly evil. "The thing became a sin," and the sin of Jeroboam Became the prolific source of sin in Israel through all succeeding generations (see 1 Kings 14:7-16). This transaction illustrates— I. THE FATAL PERVERSITY OF A LAWLESS AMBITION. This was Jeroboam's ruin. God, by the prophet Ahijah, had promised to establish him in the kingdom on certain conditions (1 Kings 11:38). There was no wrong in the mere fact of his seeking to verify this prediction. His sin lay in the nature of the means he adopted. He thought it needful in order to his having a "sure house" that the people should be kept from going up to sacrifice at Jerusalem. In other words, he would strengthen his house at the expense of doing deep dishonour to the "House of the Lord." His own petty kingship was more to him than the infinite Majesty of Jehovah. Thus we see how a carnal ambition History is full of examples of the way in which men have sought power for themselves, either by the abuse or the degradation of things sacred, or have thought to serve ends right in themselves by unrighteous means. This was one form of Satanic temptation to which our blessed Lord was subject. "All these things will I give thee," etc. (Matthew 4:8, Matthew 4:9), and his professed followers have too often fallen before it, II. THE ARTIFICE OF A WICKED PURPOSE. This is seen in the way in which Jeroboam practised craftily, upon the religious sentiment of the people in the service of his own ambitious designs. III. THE DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. Jeroboam's wicked policy perpetuated and multiplied in Israel the evils of which the rending of the kingdom at first had been the penalty. With few exceptions all the kings that followed him "did evil in the sight of the Lord," and the record of their reigns is little else than a story of crime and bloodshed and misery. Moreover the leprosy of idolatry spread from the throne down through all classes of the people until the kingdom of Israel was completely overthrown and the ten tribes were carried captive into Assyria. Such are the woes that fall on a land when its princes are corrupt and reprobate. So true is it that "they that sow to the wind shall reap the whirlwind."—W. Copyright Statement These files are public domain. Text Courtesy of Used by Permission. Bibliographical Information Exell, Joseph S; Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice. "Commentary on 1 Kings 12". The Pulpit Commentary. 1897.
发布于 5年前作者来自外太空的鱼 683 次浏览来自其他 As an economic rule goes, when supply outweighs demand,the price decreases. 从经济规律上来说当供过于求时价格上涨。 The same seems true for the current situation for college graduates. 这样的理论同样适用于当今的大学生。 Since 1999,the central government has implemented the Grand College Enrollment Plan, 1999with the total number of college graduates on the increase in the following years. 从1999年以来政府实行了大学扩招计划,随后的几年大学毕业生的数量逐年上升。 But the boomed economy does not provide enough jobs for those graduates coming out at a time. 但是增长的经济并没有给这些应届生带来足够的工作机会。 Therefore,many people reason that college graduates are not as competent as before,for many of them have difficulties in finding jobs. 所以许多人认为应届生没有了以往的能力,许多应届生找不到工作。 But I disagree with this conclusion. 但是我不同意这样的结论。 Firstly, admittedly, there are some college graduates who are not competent,but these students can not represent all the students. 首先毋庸置疑许多大学毕业生没有足够的技能,但是我们不能以偏概全。 Due to the Grand College Enrollment Plan,more and more high school students have access to the higher education. 由于大学扩招政策越来越多的高中生接受了高等教育。 Inevitably, the standard has been lowered,otherwise, university can not admit so many applicants. 不可避免的是大学的水平降低了,否则大学不能够招收这么多的学生。 While those smart students in high schools are more likely to have excellent performance,other not-so-good students would have difficulties in college learning. 那些高中的好学生更有可能发挥出色,许多中等学生会发现大学的学习很困难。 As a result,those graduates with bad performance in college can not demonstrate the value of higher learning to the society and hence they gradually form the incompetent image of college graduates. 所以那些大学学习不好的应届生就不能向社会展示高等教育的价值,他们也造就了大学毕业生没能力的事实。 Secondly,those who hold this negative opinion do not take the social context into consideration. 第二那些持消极观念的人并没有把社会的因素考虑在内。 As is known,in the period when China carried out planned economic policies,college graduates did not need to worry about their jobs,for iron-bowls waited for them after graduation. 众所周知在中国实施计划经济时期,大学毕业生不需要担心他们的工作问题,毕业以后他们就会有所谓的“铁饭碗”。 But after the reform of higher education,college graduates have to find jobs for themselves. 但是高等教育改革以后应届生必须自己寻找工作。 When hundreds of thousands of graduates compete for a limited number of job vacancies,there are inevitably many who can not procure ideal jobs. 数十万毕业生竞争那有限的职位时,就会有人不能获得他们理想的工作这是不可避免的。 Besides,employment is always influenced by global and national economy. 此外就业总是受全球和国内经济的影响。 When economy slows down,the corporate world would not recruit as many employees as before. 当经济下滑时世界上的企业将不能雇佣向以前一样多的员工。 For example, in 2009, many college graduates, from both prestigious universities and less-known universities, have difficulties in hunting jobs. 2009-例如2009年许多来自名牌大学和普通大学的应届生都很难找到工作。 In this sense,it is not college graduates that are incompetent,instead, it is the social context that is unfavorable to college graduates. 从这一点看并不是大学学生的能力问题,而是社会因素对应届生不利。 As factors combine to lead to a result,one can not simply reach conclusions without taking various factors into account. 因素导致结果,人们不能在没有考虑各方名因素的情况下做出结论。 Otherwise, one would make reductionist mistakes. 否则人们就犯了还原论者的错误。 In this case, those who think college students are not as competent as before have made this kind of mistake. 在这一事件中那些认为大学生没有以前的学生有能力这一论断就是犯了这样的错误。 They just attribute college graduates difficulties in finding jobs to their incompetence, without exploring the social and economic situations. 他们仅仅把毕业生找工作难归咎于无能力,而并没有考虑社会和经济的情况。更多精彩学习资料，请关注知米英语资讯平台微信公众平台：知米英语（微信号：ZhimiEnglish）新浪微博：知米英语百度贴吧：知米背单词 (文章来源：网络)
New Study: Plant-Based Diets Benefit Cancer Survivors 2015-10-14-1444849192-8443078-dietandcancer-thumb(Huffington Post) Cancer survivors can get real benefit from leafy greens and whole grains, according to a new study in the journal Cancer. It’s the same advice I’ve been recommending for years in my book The Cancer Survivor’s Guide: Eat a plant-based diet and avoid meat and dairy products to reduce your risk of cancer and cancer recurrence. Fang Fang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., the new study’s lead author, says that “dietary changes that include more fiber, fruit, and vegetables in the diet and less fat, sodium, and added sugar would be important for cancer survivors.” Dr. Zhang’s advice reflects recommendations my colleagues and I recently made in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. We published six precautionary principles to reduce the risk of occurrence: 1. Avoid dairy products to reduce risk of prostate cancer. 2. Limit or avoid alcohol to reduce the risk of cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, colon, rectum, and breast. 3. Avoid red and processed meat to reduce the risk of cancers of the colon and rectum. 4. Avoid grilled, fried, and broiled meats to reduce the risk of cancers of the colon, rectum, breast, prostate, kidney, and pancreas. 5. Women should consume soy products in adolescence to reduce risk of breast cancer. Breast cancer survivors should consume soy products to reduce risk of cancer recurrence and overall mortality. 6. Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables to reduce risk of several forms of cancer. To read the recommendations in detail and for more resources on fighting cancer with a plant-based diet, visit Please follow and like us: Leave a Reply
Culture and Cognition Anthropology 139 Culture and Cognition Marida Hollos Brown University Semester II, 2000-01 This course will focus on the central question: Are there cultural differences in thought and perception? If so, what are these differences, what are they attributable to and how do they manifest themselves? The history of interest in the question of cross-cultural differences in thought is long and fraught with disagreements and contradictions. Some of the research in the field is based on scientifically rigorous collection of data, while others depend on ethnographic field methods. Since the current interest is rooted in a historical tradition, the course will first review the beginnings of the controversy on “primitive thought”, then focus on and critically evaluate more recent work. The topics under consideration will include the relationship between language and thought; the influence of culture and the environment on perception and concept formation; the development of cognitive operations; differences in logical processes and conceptualization in other cultural contexts; and research on modes of cultural representation. The required readings are located in the texts and the packet of xeroxed readings available in the Brown Bookstore. Articles marked with * are found in the packet. Examinations will consist of a mid-term and a final. The mid-term will be taken in class, the final will be a take-home exam, questions for which will be handed out on the last day of the reading period. There will be one term paper due on the date indicated in the syllabus. The paper will be based on original field research, topics for which will be selected in consultation with the instructor. The lectures will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In addition to the lectures, there will be a discussion section after the Thursday lecture. This will provide an opportunity for sharing ideas, discussing readings and raising questions. Attendance at the section meetings is required and performance in the discussions will contribute towards the students’ final grade. D’Andrade, Roy (1995) The Development of Cognitive Anthropology. D’Andrade, Roy and Claudia Strauss (1992) Human Motives and Cultural Models. Rogoff, Barbara and Jean Lave (1984) Everyday Cognition. Copyright © 2001 Marida Hollos
Constructing Infrastructure Construction Constructing Infrastructure Construction In Britain, infrastructure was slow to get off the ground, or actually, to get on it. The Ancient Britons seemed to have had to concentrate on staying alive too hard to bother with engineering. Then came the Romans, and with them came previously unimaginable constructions, the Roman roads. The Romans brought a level of engineering that would not be seen again for over a millennia. The routes for roads were surveyed meticulously, and constructed of a base of large stones with a centre crown and drainage ditches to each side, covered with rammed flints, or fired clay, with fitted stone or aggregate surface, creating famously straight highways complete with drainage for durable all weather roads. The Roman engineers built bridges, aqueducts, docks, ports, forts and more, and when they left, the Britons, for the most part simply ignored these engineering marvels, or for others, they were a source of stone for building grossly inferior constructions. The Romans left Britain in the 5th century AD and little infrastructure was built for over a thousand years. The Anglo-Saxons built a few stone bridges and churches, but even with Norman influence, building was centred around castles and places of worship. By the seventeen hundreds the population was growing, as were towns and cities and ports handling increases in imports and exports, and the infrastructure was a fractured hotch-potch that needed direction, and from Scotland came two engineers, independent of each other, who were to put infrastructure firmly on the map. Thomas Telford and John McAdam both designed modern roads. They understood the concept of raising the foundation of the road in the centre for effective drainage, grading stone sizes, predicting traffic flows, arranging alignment and gradient slopes. McAdams technique differed slightly, was more economical and was the first to incorporate tar in the pavement aggregate, making Tarmacadam. Telford built thousands of miles of road, including the London to Holyhead road, the A5, included in it, of course, the pioneering first suspension bridge over the Menai straits. Telford went on to oversee the building of over a thousand bridges, canals, railways, viaducts, aqueducts, docks and ports, almost all of which can be seen today. It takes a vivid imagination to imagine the building of such projects with technology the available. Thousands of navvies, mules and horses toiling for years to achieve what we can see today, happening in a fraction of the time and effort. Motorway construction, with modern powerful machinery, lays road as we watch. Bridges appear almost overnight, and drainage dug by a few monster machines, and not a thousand shovels!
Spitfire redux: The WWII guns firing after 70 years buried in peat From the BBC’s news site: An excavation at the site of a 1941 Spitfire crash in a bog in the Irish Republic uncovered huge, remarkably preserved chunks of plane and six Browning machine guns. After 70 years buried in peat could they be made to fire? They certainly could, writes Dan Snow. It was June in Donegal, when we stood on a windswept hillside in hard hats and high-vis surrounded by a crowd of locals and watched by an Irish army unit while we filmed an archaeological excavation. This was the place where, in 1941, Roland “Bud” Wolfe, an American pilot flying a British RAF Spitfire, paid for by a wealthy Canadian industrialist, had experienced engine failure while flying over the neutral Republic of Ireland. After flying a sortie over the Atlantic, Wolfe was on his way back to his base in Northern Ireland when he was forced to bail out. He parachuted safely to the ground – his plane smashed into the boggy hillside. Fast-forwarding 70 years and local aviation expert Johnny McNee was able to identify the wreck site. The ensuing dig was accompanied by intense anticipation. There’s a video on site of the excavation work and more details about what was recovered. But the highlight (also seen in the video) was the recovery of six Browning .303-inch machine guns. However, to say the guns “still fired” may cross a fine point for us purists: The machine guns looked as good as new. Soil conditions were perfect for preservation. Beneath the peat there had been a layer of clay. Clay is anaerobic, it forms an airtight seal around all the parts, so there is no oxygen, which limits corrosion….. The Irish specialists had chosen the best preserved body and added parts from all six guns, like the breech block and the spring, to assemble one that they thought would fire. They made the decision to use modern bullets, to reduce the risk of jamming. But I do agree with the reporter’s assessment: The gun fired without a hitch. There can be no greater testament to the machinists and engineers in UK factories in the 1940s who, despite churning out guns at the rate of thousands per month, made each one of such high quality that they could survive a plane crash and 70 years underground and still fire like the day they were made. The article concludes with a note that the Spitfire and its guns will go on display at the nearby town of Derry. – Craig. 1 thought on “Spitfire redux: The WWII guns firing after 70 years buried in peat” Comments are closed.
SOLUTION: Emirates National School Functions and Graphs Exam Practice UMC Advanced Calculus Numerical Sequences Inequalities & Number Sets Exam Practice In Questions 1-5 prove your answer. In this test you can use without proofs theorems that were proved in the lectures or in the book, just give a reference. 1.(10 pts) Let S be a subset of R, and u ∈ R. Two of the following statements, if combined, imply that u = inf(S). Which two statements? A: u ≤ s for every s ∈ S. B: There exists ε > 0 and s ∈ S so that s < u + ε. C: For every ε > 0, the number −u−ε is not an upper bound of the set−S={x∈R: −x∈S}. D: There exists ε > 0 so that u + ε is not a lower bound of S. and let ε > 0. Suppose that \|xn\| < M for every n. Select one of the following sets of constants ε1 and ε2 for which the inequalities 2. (10 pts) Let {xn} and {yn} be two sequences, limxn =L1 ̸=0, limyn =L2 ̸=0, \|xn −L1\|<ε1 imply \|xnyn − L1L2\| < ε. A: ε1 = 2M , ε2 = 2\|L1\|. B: ε1 = 2\|L1\|, ε2 = 2M . C: ε1 = 2\|L2\|, ε2 = 2M . D: ε1 = 2M , ε2 = 2\|L2\|. and \|yn −L2\|<ε2 3. (10 pts) Which of the following statements imply that a sequence {xn} does not have a limit: A: for every ε > 0 there exist n, m ∈ N such that \|xn − xm\| > ε. B: there exist a natural number K and ε > 0 such that for every n > K we have \|xn − xK \| > ε. C: {xn} is an increasing sequence and \|xn\| > 1000 for every n > 1000. D: there exists ε > 0 such that for every natural number K there exist m, n > K with \|xm − xn\| > ε. 4.(10 pts) Which two of the following statements combined imply that limx→3 f(x) = 2? A: limn→∞ f (3 + 1 ) = limn→∞ f (3 − 1 ) = 2. B: limx→3+ f(x) = 2 C: limx→3+ f(x) and limx→3− f(x) exist D: For every sequence xn → 3 with xn ≥ 3 for every n, one has lim f(xn) = 2. 5. (10 pts) Which two of the following statements combined imply that the equation f (x) = 1 has a solution in the interval [1, 3]? A: 0 < f(1) and f(3) < 2. B: f is continuous on [1, 3]. C: f(1) < 0 and f(3) > 2. D: f is monotone on [1, 3]. 6. (10 pts) Suppose that lim\|xn\| = 3, but {xn} does not have a subsequence with limit 3. Prove that lim xn = −3. 7. (10 pts). Suppose {xn} and {yn} are bounded sequences and for every n ∈ N xn + yn+1 ≤ xn+1 + yn, Prove that both sequences {xn} and {yn} converge. xn + yn ≥ xn+1 + yn+1. 8. (10 pts) Prove using the definition that the following limit is equal to −∞ : lim x+1 =−∞. x→2− x2 − 4 9. (10 pts) Prove that if a function f is non-negative and continuous on the interval [1, ∞), and limx→∞ f (x) = 0, then there exists xM ∈ [1,∞) such that f(xM) ≥ f(x) for every x ∈ [1,∞). 10. (10 pts) Prove that the function f(x) = x1/3 is uniformly con- tinuous on [1, ∞). Hint: Use x − y = (x1/3 − y1/3)(x2/3 + x1/3y1/3 + y2/3). Order a unique copy of this paper (550 words) Approximate price: $22 Our Basic features • Free title page and bibliography • Plagiarism-free guarantee • Unlimited revisions • Money-back guarantee • 24/7 support Our Options • Writer’s samples • Expert Proofreading • Overnight delivery • Part-by-part delivery • Copies of used sources Paper format • 275 words per page • 12 pt Arial/Times New Roman • Double line spacing AcademicWritingCompany guarantees Read more Zero-plagiarism tolerance guarantee Read more Free-revision guarantee Read more Privacy and Security policy Read more Adherence to requirements guarantee Read more Calculate the price of your order 550 words Total price: The price is based on these factors: Customer Academic level Number of pages required Urgency of paper
New February Special! What Is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy? what is hyperbaric oxygen therapy Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Overview Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber. In a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, the air pressure is increased so that your lungs can gather more oxygen than would be possible when breathing pure oxygen at normal air pressure. There are two broad categories of hyperbaric chambers cleared by the FDA for human use in the United States. These include acrylic chambers that generally hold one person, also known as monoplace chambers and steel chambers that hold more than one person, also known as multiplace chambers. At Benessair Health, we not only use state-of-the-art hyperbaric chambers and we always have a doctor on-site to ensure that treatments are performed under strict medical scrutiny and that patients always understand the details of the treatment they are receiving. Uses Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy There are several situations in which a doctor may recommend alternate uses of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Here are some of the most common instances: Surgery Preparation and Accelerated Athletic Recovery All surgeries, even those used to improve medical conditions, will result in wounds that the body needs to heal. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy optimizes the oxygenation of tissue prior to surgery and thus increases the healing potential post-operation. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is especially effective in complex surgeries where there is a high risk of wound healing complications. Other examples of situations where pre and post-surgical hyperbaric oxygen therapy can improve recovery include: • Orthopedic procedures such as an ACL tear • Improving tissue healing after cancer surgeries • Decreasing bruising post plastic surgery For athletes, optimizing their performance is always a top priority. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy allows athletes to recover at an accelerated rate, cutting cellular healing and recovery time down considerably. By flushing tissues with high levels of oxygen, athletes can experience: • Better stem cell activation • Faster bone and cartilage regeneration • Reduced muscle fatigue and exhaustion • Cellular detoxification Concussion and Neurological Treatment Concussions are traumatic brain injuries that damage the brain and are often caused by an external force. They can have varying degrees of severity but all are serious injuries that should be evaluated by a medical professional. Athletes, both professional and adolescent tend to be a greater risk, particularly those involved in contact sports. Symptoms can be physical, cognitive, and emotional including, dizziness, headaches, memory loss, and personality changes. They can last a short time or go years without resolving. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for concussions and traumatic brain injuries works to relieve symptoms and accelerate recovery by promoting damaged tissue repair and blood vessel growth. Hyperbaric treatment allows oxygen to infuse with the liquid components your body needs to heal after neurological trauma including blood, plasma and cerebral fluids. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS/RSD) Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome, also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (RSD/CRPS) is a chronic condition that can cause serious pain. Symptoms include swelling, sensitivity to touch, burning, and alterations in skin color (usually to blue or purple). Using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy to treat Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome may decrease swelling and pain while improving blood flow to affected areas. Cancer (Treatment Synergy) Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy can work synergistically with chemotherapy, radiation, and a ketogenic diet when receiving treatment for cancer. It can also mitigate some of the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation while reducing the recovery time after surgical procedures. The use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat cancer side effects works to reduce the damage to healthy tissue and blood vessels caused by radiation exposure. This helps the body become stronger to help fight off the disease. A stroke occurs when the blood flow to an area of the brain is cut off. When this happens, brain cells and tissue deprived of oxygen and nutrients will begin to die within minutes. Depending on the size and location of oxygen deprivation in the brain, a stroke can result in small or very serious motor, cognitive, or sensory deficits. The use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy can reverse tissue damage from oxygen deprivation in the acute setting and after the damage has occurred. It can also help regrow blood vessels and regenerative nerve cells. Benessair Health provides a wide range of services to optimize your overall wellness including Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Infusion Therapy, and Genetic Testing. We use the latest technology and cutting edge science to provide proactive solutions to improve your health before issues arise. Contact us today to start your wellness journey and learn more about our health, fitness, and wellness services. Benessair Wellness Medical Center
Saratoga Battlefield The tents were created for a reenactment of the first battle of Saratoga, usually referred to as the Battle at Freeman's Farm, for the 151st anniversary of the battle. The farmhouse behind them is unidentified, but is likely the Neilson Farm where American troops camped, the middle portion of which was standing during the battle. This battle, and the following battle three weeks later, is thought to be the turning point of the war. This image was created to record the historic site activities of the New York State Conservation Department. September 1928 New York State Archives, New York (State). Conservation Dept. Photographic prints and negatives, [ca. 1904-1949], 14297-87_3582. Geographic Locations Saratoga County
When Superman: Man of Steel came out people were saying that the film was too gritty and cynical and it was that cynicism that destroyed the Superman we have always know and loved. That it was that very cynicism that had Superman break his cardinal rule of do not kill and had him that very thing, kill. As the reviews come out about Batman vs Superman and the bleakness and cynicism of that film I posit that the reason Superman has killed and the reason he is so unrecognizable as the hero we grew up with and the hero we loved and looked up to is because every essence of his Jewishness has been meticulously and calculatingly been scrubbed out. Superman was written by two Jewish teens in the early 30′s and they imprinted onto Superman a Jewish identity. Superman is in Diaspora. His homeland gone, his language, his culture, and his heritage both alien and foreign to were he lives. Living day to day with a part of himself hidden so as to be live a somewhat unmolested life. He must struggle with what it means to be a member of his people while not having his people or culture around him and while having the outside culture imposed upon him and expected to assimilate to this outside force. A great example of this can be seen oddly enough in Man of Steel when Lois Lane asks Superman what the S on his chest stands for. He tells it means hope in his people’s language and Lois responds by saying that here it is a S. Superman is expected to accept this new reality and to let go of his culture and understand that he must rather assimilate instead. That he must let go of what it means in his language and culture and understand that it is now a S. It is the internal struggle of the Jew. To survive in Diaspora. To endure and still maintain a sense of self and one’s roots. To keep your people’s language, customs, and culture alive especially surrounded by a world where you are the alien. You are the foreign being and you must assimilate and then be grateful that you were allowed to be forced to assimilate in the first place. Superman has two masks. The mask of Superman and the mask of Clark Kent. Kal-el, is the face of Superman and not the mask. Kal-el is the struggle to survive when you are the alien. Superman in the films and especially Man of Steel and even more so in Batman vs Superman is meant to be a jesus figure. A Messiah. But that is not what he really is. He is rather the personification of Tikkun Olam. Tikkun Olam is that each and every person is obligated to fix the world. To leave it a better place that when it was when you got there. To work towards justice, peace, and truth, the three pillars of Judaism. Superman is meant to reflect what each of us can be. What we should be and should do. That when given the opportunity to good we should take it with both hands. That is whatever way we can with whatever our own abilities and powers are we should help others when given the chance. That is Tikkun Olam and that is Superman. The new Superman does not fail because it is cynical. The new Superman fails because he is not Jewish. You forgot to mention that kal-el, which in Hebrew is famously and intentionally spelled קל א-ל means “voice of G-d”. His story specifically was based on that of Moshe in many ways. His father and mother – knowing that if he stayed with them he would only find death – placed him in a basket. And that basket, they floated down a vast river. The river of stars and particles, and seemingly nothingness. A nothingness that swallows everything which has falls into it. And that basket came to a place where he could grow up, and where in the end, he was needed. I personally don’t know much about the movies – my job as colony paper pusher leaves no time for such fun, but I agree with you. To erase superman’s jewish identity is to erase superman and create an entirely new character, empty and devoid of its original meaning and purpose. Running with this, I want to point out fundamentally different approaches between Christian and Jewish traditions on heroism, and good and evil. To simplify a couple hundred years of literature and parable: in Christian fantasy, you have to eradicate evil. The narrative of Christian goodness is generally a strenuous, violent opposition to badness, and frankly this moral philosophy makes people really fucking dangerous, because in order to define themselves as good, they have to be fighting something bad. Purge their sins, slay their demons, drive out the unbelievers. In Jewish fantasy, to do good, you have to actually find things to do that are helpful and needed. It’s not so oppositional, it’s… supplemental. If no one is helping someone, you help them. If no one is fixing something, you fix it. The hunger of children is as important as the enemy at the gate. Kal-El, the voice of god, protects his people both as a super-man and as a human reporter. In both cases, on both stages, he asks people to stand up for truth and justice, and to stand up for each other. I did not know this and it is VERY NEAT
What is Compounding? Pharmacy compounding is the art and science of preparing personalized medications for patients. Compounded medications are “made from scratch” – individual ingredients are mixed together in the exact strength and dosage form required by the patient. This method allows the compounding pharmacist to work with the patient and the prescriber to customize a medication to meet the patient’s specific needs. Innovative Compounding Technology & Techniques Meet Patient Needs Fortunately, compounding has experienced a resurgence as modern technology and innovative techniques and research have allowed more pharmacists to customize medications to meet specific patient needs. Trained compounding pharmacists now can personalize medicine for patients who need specific: • Strengths • Dosage forms • Flavors • Ingredients excluded from medications due to allergies or other sensitivities Do Compounded Medications Require FDA Approval? The FDA approval process is intended for mass-produced drugs made by large manufacturers. Because compounded medications are personalized for individual patients, it is not possible for each formulation to go through the FDA’s drug approval process, which takes years to complete and is prohibitively expensive, often costing hundreds of millions of dollars. However, every compounding pharmacy must comply with the regulations set by the State Board of Pharmacy of the state in which the pharmacy is located. Each State Board of Pharmacy has the power to set and enforce regulations for compounding in its state, just as traditional pharmacies are regulated. The ingredients used by compounding pharmacies to make compounds come from FDA-registered and inspected facilities. Is compounding legal? Is it safe? Compounding has been part of healthcare since the origins of pharmacy, and is widely used today in all areas of the industry, from hospitals to nuclear medicine. Over the last few decades, compounding’s resurgence has benefited largely from advances in technology, quality control and research methodology. The Food and Drug Administration has stated that compounded prescriptions are both ethical and legal as long as they are prescribed by a licensed practitioner for a specific patient and compounded by a licensed
Myrtle Beach Psychiatrist Anxiety DisordersMyrtle Beach, SC All of us experience uneasiness, distress, dread, and fear preceding certain situations or events, keeping us alert and aware. However, when these feelings are at high levels or become debilitating, it is referred to as an anxiety disorder. Many anxiety disorders can be successfully treated and managed by a psychiatrist. At Future Psych Ketamine Clinics, our specialized psych professionals can diagnose and treat various mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders. They are trained in psychotherapy and administering medications proven to reduce anxiety symptoms and relieve patients of the condition itself. Our doctors provide patients with the necessary tools they need to properly manage their symptoms independently upon completion of treatment. Treatment for anxiety disorders is available at Future Psych Ketamine Clinics and the surrounding area. Call us today at 843-788-9718 to learn more about anxiety or schedule an appointment. Request An Appointment What is Anxiety? Anxiety is referred to as intense, persistent worry or fear of everyday situations and events that can limit a person’s activity or prevent them from completing normal tasks. The mind and body naturally react to stressful, dangerous, and unfamiliar situations, giving us our fight or flight mechanism. However, when situations are continually difficult because of high levels of worry or fear, the patient may have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders create feelings that are far from average and may cause a patient to feel that they are abnormal. A psychiatrist, psychologist, or neurologist can diagnose various anxiety disorders, provide psychotherapies, and prescribe medications. A single doctor will monitor and treat a patient through the entirety of their treatment, maximizing their success. Types of Anxiety Disorders The five major types of anxiety disorders are generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and social phobia, or social anxiety disorder. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, each disorder has its own set of signs, symptoms, and treatments. When we diagnose a patient’s disorder, a psychiatric evaluation is curated and discussed thoroughly before treatment. The five major anxiety disorders: • Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): anxiety disorders that cause excessive tension and worry • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): recurrent and unwanted thoughts or repeated behaviors that provide temporary relief but increase anxiety over time • Panic disorder: recurrent or repeated behaviors of intense fear that may cause physical symptoms such as chest pain, increased heart rate, and dizziness • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): developed after a traumatic event that causes episodes of heightened anxiety and physical fear • Social anxiety disorder: extreme self-consciousness in social settings and around others Causes and Symptoms of Anxiety Although every person experiences anxiety to some extent and in varying situations, anxiety disorders create abnormal feelings and can lead to various risks when untreated. Causes of anxiety disorders include comorbidities, genetics, environmental factors, medical conditions, behavioral choices, and demographics. Comorbidity refers to the presence of more than one medical condition, and many people who have another medical condition experience one or multiple anxiety disorders. Symptoms of anxiety vary with every type of disorder. People with anxiety may experience a general feeling of worry or fear in most or all situations or experience it in only specific situations (such as driving a car because of a traumatic accident). Common symptoms of general anxiety include increased heart rate, rapid breathing, restlessness, trouble concentrating, and difficulty falling asleep. Patients experiencing other symptoms are highly encouraged to inform their doctor to ensure complete treatment. Treating Anxiety Disorders Psychiatrists are well trained and experienced in diagnosing and treating all types of anxiety disorders. As anxiety can range from mild to severe and can arise from early childhood or spark up from a specific incident, accurately diagnosing symptoms is crucial to the treatment process and more sustainable recovery. Anxiety treatment falls under two main categories: psychotherapy and medication. Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy or counseling, involves talking through symptoms with a psychiatrist. The most effective form of psychotherapy for generalized anxiety disorders is cognitive-behavioral therapy. Mayo Clinic states that “cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses on teaching you specific skills to directly manage your worries and help you gradually return to the activities you've avoided because of anxiety.” Through this treatment, patients are able to mitigate their symptoms gradually while acquiring the tools to manage their anxiety. There are a plethora of medications available for the treatment of anxiety disorders. Our psychiatrists discuss all crucial health information to accurately prescribe an appropriate medication for patients on a case-by-case basis. Many anxiety medications work effectively to treat general anxiety, but more complicated cases may need differing drugs and dosages to target specific areas of the brain without risking addiction. Preventing and Managing Anxiety Often, medical treatment and therapy are not necessary to mitigate symptoms or treat anxiety and can be managed at home through various lifestyle changes. Similarly, patients who are treated for anxiety and given the proper tools can successfully manage their symptoms proceeding treatment. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) found that patients with anxiety disorders and people without a disorder that occasionally suffer from anxiety could reduce their stress and worry through various coping strategies and fitness tips. Coping strategies help when a person feels overwhelmed, helpless, stressed, scared, or worried in a situation or event that can prevent these feelings from developing further. These strategies include breathing exercises, taking time to self, getting a good rest, and writing or talking to someone. Fitness tips are ways in which exercise can help reduce stress and anxiety while clearing the mind and increasing serotonin and dopamine. This can be in the form of workouts, mindful walks, or listening to music while running. Call Us Today Be proactive in eliminating anxiety from your life. We at Future Psych Ketamine Clinics look forward to meeting you and treating your anxiety symptoms. Call us now at 843-788-9718 to learn more and schedule an appointment. Frequently Asked Questions About Anxiety Disorders Can a psychiatrist treat mild anxiety in a patient without a disorder? Psychiatrists and psychologists are available for one appointment only if the patient seeks occasional care. In some cases, a patient may have suffered an accident or situation that sparked anxiety and needs someone to talk to. Our clinic is open to treating patients with any form of anxiety ranging from mild to severe. Are anxiety disorders a lifelong condition or can they be completely treated? Unfortunately, diagnosed anxiety disorders are a lifelong chronic condition and cannot be cured. The severity and number of episodic occurrences vary depending on the patient’s condition, but symptoms can significantly be reduced and others prevented. Seeking psychiatric help also greatly decreases the amount of anxiety a person feels compared to those who do not seek treatment. How prevalent are anxiety disorders? Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., according to the ADAA. They affect 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population, every year. Although anxiety disorders are highly treatable, only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment making it all the more prevalent. What are risk factors for acquiring an anxiety disorder? Anxiety disorders can be the result of many factors. The most common factors include: genetics (children of adults with an anxiety disorder have a higher risk of developing one), psychological (individual tends to overestimate danger), and experiences (an embarrassing moment or a traumatic event). What will I need to tell my psychiatrist? Write down symptoms you have had and in which situations, key personal information, medical and family history, a list of all medications you are taking, and questions you have. Discuss all of your symptoms and describe how they affect your life (i.e., racing thoughts that cause you to lose focus). Your doctor will suggest or provide appropriate therapy. How can you recognize an anxiety episode and help someone experiencing it? An anxiety episode often looks similar to experiencing intense fear, such as encountering a wild animal or public speaking. An episode can result in sweating or chills, shaking, pounding heart, yelling or screaming, difficulty breathing, and head and chest pain. To help a person experiencing an episode, offer medicine the person usually takes during an attack, speak to the person in short, simple sentences, and help slow the person's breathing by breathing with him or her or counting slowly to 10. Contact Us Future Psych Ketamine Clinics is located at 1601 N Oak St Suite 307 Myrtle Beach, SC (843) 788-9718
Best Plant-Based SuperfoodsTo Include In Your Diet Plant-Based Food Plant-Based Food Plant-Based Food Plant-Based Food In the food industry, superfoods are foods that are rich in nutrients and have the ability to create positive impacts on health. Including such foods in your diet can provide you a large number of health benefits. The following are some plant-based superfoods that you have to include in your diet for improving your health and lowering the risk of different diseases. Green Leafy Vegetables Different dark green leafy vegetables such as kale, turnip greens, Swiss chard, collard greens, spinach, etc. are some excellent sources of a wide range of nutrients including folate, calcium, zinc, iron, vitamin C, magnesium, and fiber. These plant-based foods can also be beneficial for you to prevent the risk of many chronic illnesses including heart diseases, cancer, type 2 diabetes, etc. In addition to this, such foods also contain abundant anti-inflammatory compounds called carotenoids. Therefore, including them in your plant-based meal can promote your health. Berries are referred to as superfoods because they are a nutritional powerhouse of minerals, vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants. The wonderful antioxidant property of berries can be useful for reducing the risk of cancer, heart diseases, and many other inflammatory conditions. Therefore, make sure to add different types of berries like raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and cranberries in your plant-based diet. Green Tea Green tea is a type of lightly caffeinated beverage that contains a wide variety of medicinal properties. Green tea contains high levels of antioxidants and polyphenolic compounds that exhibit great anti-inflammatory properties. These compounds can be helpful for lowering the risk of different chronic conditions like heart diseases, cancer, diabetes, and more. It might also aid in weight loss in people. Including various legumes like lentils, beans, peas, and peanuts can provide a wide array of nutrients that are required for your body. They are wonderful sources of B vitamins, protein, various minerals, and fiber. Hence, they became an important addition to the superfoods list. Nuts And Seeds Another category of superfoods that you have to make a part of your diet is nuts and seeds. There are a wide variety of nuts and seeds available for you. Some of the important nuts include almonds, walnuts, cashew nuts, Brazil nuts, etc. Popular seeds to add to your diet are pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, etc. They are rich in nutrients and can help to prevent the occurrence of many chronic health conditions. There are many superfoods that you must add to your daily diet. The plant-based foods listed above are powerhouses of a wide array of nutrients. Hence, including them in your diet can provide you a lot of health benefits.
Definition: Epoxy resin is a two-component thermo-hardening liquid polymer. Apart from the “technical” definitions, epoxy resin is a liquid product which, if exposed to a minimum temperature of 10-15°C [50-59 F], begins to catalyse and then solidifies. Here are some “fundamental” points for who approaches this product for the first time. How do you dose resin? Since it is a two-component product, the package features 2 containers, one with resin “A” and the other with hardener “B”. Equip yourself with an electronic scale to weigh the grams and with a container to mix the liquids • Put the amount of A you think you need in the container, trying to get a round number in grams (e.g. 200 gr [0,44 lb]), this will make it easier to count how much hardener to add; • Each product features on the container of B (or even on both) the usage ratio; • Let’s make an example with 100A: 60B. Multiply the grams of A previously weighed (200g [0,44 lb]) by 60 and then divide by 100, the result will indicate the grams of B to be added. Practical example (ratio 100: 60) 40 gr [0,08 lb] component A. how much component B should I add? Solution A 40/100 = 0.40 A 0.40×60 = 24. This means 24 gr [0,05 lb] of B. This formula can be used for any usage ratio, 100:50, 100:30, etc. How to prepare the resin? After having been accurately measured, the resin must be mixed in an irregular way (so, not always in the same direction) for at least 2-3 minutes. This passage is fundamental, since if you mix it only for a few seconds, the resin won’t be well homogeneous at the molecular level, and therefore it will remain soft/opaque in some parts How much does the resin harden? Hardness depends on the formulation, the resting time and the catalysis temperature. Furthermore, the mechanical resistance of the resin continues to increase up to 4-5 days after application. So, after 24 hours it may still seem soft, but in the following days it will continue to harden until it becomes like “hard” plastic (let’s say “plexiglass-like”) How long does it take for epoxy resin to solidify? Is it possible to accelerate hardening? Also in this case, it depends on the formulation and on the temperature. However, since it is a “THERMO-HARDENING” polymer, the more it is exposed to heat, the faster catalysis is. As a general rule, every 10°C [50 F] more, the catalysis time is reduced by half. 20°C [68 F] = 3h00’ 30° C [86 F] = 1h30’ 40°C [104 F] = 0h45’ To accelerate the catalysis, it is therefore sufficient to keep the casting close to a heat source (even a simple radiator). Be careful, however, not to heat up castings over 1 cm [0,39”] thickness. Resin may in fact heat up too much due to the mass effect (which is explained in the guide) “Mass” effect. This term is used to describe the exothermic phenomenon (i.e. heat release) that occurs when the resin is poured in high thicknesses (greater than 1 cm [0,39”]). The A molecules, indeed, release heat when they bind with the B molecules, and it is immediately which is immediately dispersed in minimum thicknesses. When the casting thickness is instead higher than 1 cm [0,39”], the heat is dissipated more slowly, so the casting starts to heat up. This heating further accelerates the reaction, which causes the temperature to rise even more. For this reason, it is necessary to avoid pouring too much resin all at once, in order to prevent it from “cooking” (creating cracks, bubbles and darkening). Does the resin yellow? Any resin (even with “advertised” UV filters) sooner or later, if exposed to sunlight, will tend to change colour, turning towards an amber shade. It may take a few weeks or many years depending on exposure to sunlight (outdoor it will yellow sooner), on the thickness of the resin (the thicker it is, the more it will be visible) and the type of colouring. For example, if the resin is coloured in a “strong” tone such as red or black, the yellowing won’t be visible… while if it is white or pink, you will detect it sooner. Resins usually feature reduced-yellowing characteristics and can therefore be used for manufactured products that should not change colour for several years (if stored indoor), such as paintings, tables or jewellery. How to remove surface opacity or small ripples that appeared right after solidification? These surface opacities (especially in the cold season) are the result of the effect of ambient humidity, which creates a patina on the surface of the casting. At first you won’t notice it, but as soon as it solidifies, you will see matt auras and even a crinkled film, in some points. To avoid this, there are several strategies: 1. Working in a low humidity (dehumidified) or warm environment; 2. Heat up the 2 components before pouring them (for example by holding them over a radiator); 3. Mix the resin with the hardener and apply it only when it starts to heat up (so that the reaction starts when it is still in the container). This operation is essential, but requires a little care. Resin (according to the quantity you have prepared, because of the “mass” effect) may in fact need a few dozen minutes before heating up. It should be checked every 5 minutes and as soon as it reaches 40°C [104 F] (that is when it is warmer than our hand), it can be applied. In this way, a part of the molecules has already reacted and it is therefore less vulnerable to ambient humidity. But be careful not to wait too long before pouring, otherwise it may solidify in the container! 4. It would be a good rule not to apply it in the evening or when it rains (as the ambient humidity increases); 5. Do not apply on surfaces that still retain moisture such as, for example, wet concrete or undried wood. How to polish resin? There are several methods. Much depends on the size and regularity of the surface to be polished. The larger a surface (or irregular, such as a jewel or a miniature), the better it is to use spray paint. Transparent polyurethane spray used for the furniture lacquering is the ideal. If it is not available, the transparent acrylic spray you can find at the hardware store is a very common fallback. However, 2-3 sprays coats at least are necessary for a good finish. The method that surely grants the best aesthetic effect is manual polishing with abrasive paper (up to grain 1500) and then finish it with the classic “polish” (i.e. the polishing paste) used to polish the plastic of car headlights. This technique however requires experience and an orbital polishing machine, otherwise there were still be scratches and irregularities. Recommended only for professionals with proper equipment, and for not too large and fairly regular objects. Another method is to apply an epoxy resin finish with a brush (or by casting), after sanding up to grain 400. We suggest to wait for the resin to become more viscous (by letting it rest in the container after the preparation) and then to reach a consistency close to “honey”. At that point, you can start applying it with a brush (or by casting, if you want to achieve a mirror effect). How do you remove air bubbles from resin castings? Although degassers are required to 100% remove the air bubbles, there are some tricks that can help you minimise the appearance of bubbles in the artifact. 1. mix the resin for a longer time but more carefully; 2. when you pour the resin, try not to drop it from above, but pour as close as possible to the surface; 3. after mixing the resin, let it rest for a few minutes, in order for the air bubbles to rise; 4. once casted, move a heat source (heat gun or flame, NOT hair dryer) over it to burst the bubbles on the surface. Once the resin has hardened, is it possible to sand, cut or pierce it? Of course. Once well catalysed (24h-48h) depending on the catalysis temperature, resin can be worked just like normal hard plastic. What can be used to colour resin? Basically, with anything. Including powders, natural earths, metallic pigments. As long as the colouring agents are “dry” (for example powders or sand), there are no problems (provided they are perfectly dry). Instead, when you want to add paste or liquid colours, you need to verify if they are compatible with epoxy resins. If they are not compatible (for example lacquers or gouache), only a few drops can be added, since an excess dosage may affect the mechanics of the resin and its shine (for example, by making it squishier or stickier). To summarise… the Three Golden Rules As it is difficult to remember all the tips, we recommend the beginners to focus on 3 key points: 1. Properly dosing and mixing with electronic scale and mixing for at least 2 minutes. 2. Apply at a minimum temperature of 20°C [68 F], damp application environments (or surfaces) should be avoided (if you are not sure of the moisture, let the resin heat up before pouring it, as described at the beginning of this guide). 3. Use a heat gun / flame to remove air bubbles on the surface. Leave a Reply
ORB Online Encyclopedia Overview of Late Antiquity--The Fifth Century Section 2: Weak Emperors and Warlords Steven Muhlberger Theodosius I died in 395, shortly after his second reconquest of the western provinces. Like other emperors before and since, he hoped to pass the empire he had worked so hard to acquire to his descendents. Arcadius, his elder son, had been established in Constantinople, and Honorius, the younger, in Rome. Both were underage in 395, and so real power passed quickly to their ministers: in the west, Stilicho, a military man who had married into the Theodosian dynasty, and in the east, a series of civilian officials. This division of authority quickly resulted in hostility. Stilicho claimed that the dying Theodosius had bequeathed the regency of the entire empire to him. Arcadius's advisors were unwilling to accept this claim. Until 408, when Stilicho was killed in a coup, a cold war obtained between the two courts. It was thus possible for other ambitious men to play eastern and western courts off against each other, or otherwise take advantage of their weaknesses. In 397, a North African general named Gildo transferred his allegiance from Honorius (W) to Arcadius (E), and cut off the grain shipments from Carthage that fed the city of Rome. In 400, Gainas, a Gothic general in Roman service, exploited the revolt of another Gothic commander in Asia Minor, and briefly seized power in Constantinople. In 405, Radagaisus, an independent Gothic king, invaded Italy. All of these men were quickly defeated and executed, yet they kept the imperial governments off balance. The most important of the opportunists was the Gothic king Alaric. In 395, he was the leader of the Gothic federates in the Balkans, and ideally placed to make trouble. One issue between the two courts was which should control the dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia. Because he had the largest military force in this area, Alaric could alternate between bargaining with each side for concessions and looting vulnerable cities. Alaric invaded Italy twice, then, in 407, made up with Stilicho and agreed to help him invade the east. But Stilicho's power was already crumbling. On the last day of 406, a disorganized group of Vandals, Alans and Sueves had crossed the Rhine frontier into Gaul. At about the same time, the Roman army of Britain revolted, and its leader, Constantine (III), quickly crossed to the continent to establish his claim to the imperial purple. Alaric demanded payment, then invaded Italy for a third time. Stilicho, discredited, was killed by political rivals. His policy, which continued Theodosius' of using barbarians rather than massacring them, was castigated as treasonous and the cause of the disaster. ILLUSTRATION: Ivory portrait of Stilicho. Yet, once Stilicho was gone, an alternative policy proved impossible. Between 408 and 416, the court of Honorius, now hiding at Ravenna, had to face a plethora of hostile imperial claimants and barbarian kings. Armies of one sort or another crossed every province of the west, and a multitude of cities were plundered -- most notably Rome, taken by Alaric in 410. (Alaric died soon afterwards, to be succeeded by his brother.) In this many-sided struggle, the priorities of Honorius's ministers were clear -- and traditional. Rival emperors, who threatened the life of Honorius and the continuation of the Theodosian dynasty, had to be destroyed. Barbarians, even the Goths of Alaric who had sacked Rome, could be bargained with. Indeed, it is remarkable how the Goths were treated with kid gloves. One reason for this was that, from 410 to 416, they held captive the emperor's sister Galla Placidia; but an equally important consideration was that the Goths were a military resource too valuable to waste. By 417, Constantius, Honorius' chief general, had brought the situation in the west under control. All the usurping emperors were dead, and an agreement with Alaric's Goths (later called the Visigoths) had been reached. They were assigned a territory in Aquitaine, where they were to be supported not by the imperial commisary, but directly by the local tax revenues formerly used to pay the regular army. In return, they were to be available for military service. In peace, the Goths were to live among the Aquitainians, and live off their taxes, but to remain a people apart, ruled by their own kings. This was a much better deal than any other group of barbarians had ever received, because it gave the Goths both security and autonomy. In other ways, too, the order restored by Constantius was not the order that had obtained in 395. The western court had effectively abandoned direct control of large areas. For instance, Britain was no longer part of the imperial defense system -- the local authorities were now on their own, to look out for themselves as best they could. Parts of the Rhineland, previously the chief military frontier, had been turned over to Frankish and Burgundian allies. Large areas in Spain were left to the Sueves and the Vandals. Where formerly all these regions had been an integral part of the empire, they were now, in the years around 420, border zones where the civilian population had been entrusted to the care, gentle or otherwise, of warlords. The provincial population sometimes both resisted this fate and imperial restoration. In Armorica (northwestern France), the people had expelled the officials of the usurper Constantine III in 409 or 410, and refused to receive Honorius's replacements in 417? until a Roman army forced them to do so. Yet in the early 420s, people at Rome and Constantinople were impressed by Constantius' success. The core area of the empire -- the Mediterranean coasts, especially Italy, Sicily, Provence and Africa -- were still secure. The extent of the change in what southerners had always seen as the cold and barbarous north was perhaps not apparent, even to well- informed observers. However, the strategic situation of the entire western wing of the empire had changed. With both the regular army and the taxpayers who supported it devastated by the previous round of civil wars, imperial control of the west could only be maintained through a web of alliances and ad hoc agreements. And following the death of Constantius in 421 (after a brief period as Honorius's imperial colleague), competition among the ambitious to control the feeble Honorius (d. 423) and his underage nephew Valentinian III (r. 425-455) destabilized politics once again. In this situation, warlords were the key political figures. There were two types: generalissimos holding high rank in the regular army, and kings. Generalissimos of the regular army might be either barbarians or Romans. Kings were by definition barbarians. Yet all warlords were much alike. No one of them had enough power to destroy his rivals, and they fought and bargained by turns. The kings might seize cities by force, but also sought subsidies, grants of land and revenue, and legitimacy through treaties with the emperor or deals with his generals. The generalissimos pursued power at court, and dominance within the army, by gaining reputations as barbarian-tamers -- reputations which were obtained not only by fighting kings, but also through peaceful accommodations with them. Indeed, each generalissimo's worst enemies were others of his sort, for they all competed for a single prize, control of the central government. The career of Aetius, sometimes called "the last of the Romans," and famous for stopping Attila the Hun's invasion of Gaul in 451, is illustrative. Son of a Roman general, Aetius was sent at an early age to the Huns as a hostage guaranteeing a Roman-Hunnic alliance. He learned their language and customs, and his intimate knowledge of the Huns became his passport to power within the Roman military hierarchy. In the 420s and 430s Aetius repeatedly used the feared Hunnic horsemen against the Goths, the Burgundians, the Franks, and rival Roman generals. Hunnic support made Aetius the key figure at court after 433; but at the same time the concessions he made to the Huns helped create the power of Attila. By the 440s, the Huns were the major threat to both imperial courts, and Aetius's greatest headache. It was only by turning to old enemies like the Goths and the Franks, who were also terrified of Attila, that the generalissimo won his most famous victory. After the precedent-setting grant of Aquitaine to the Goths, wide concessions to barbarians were a constant expedient. Occasionally a barbarian people was humbled; more often, the weak western government or an ambitious generalissimo turned over land or rights to tax revenue to a king in exchange for support in whatever crisis was current. Sometimes the results were catastrophic. In 429, one of two competing generalissimos invited the Vandals to cross from Spain to Africa. Their king, Geiseric, quickly seized the richest grain-growing regions, and in 439, Carthage, the second city of the west. This drastically enfeebled the imperial government. Geiseric's pirate fleets became as feared as Attila's horsemen, and did as much damage to the imperial cause. The competition of warlords likewise harmed the structure of Roman life all over the west. Kings looted cities and whole regions when they could. Roman efforts to restore imperial authority over barbarians or native secessionists were equally destructive. The experience of Armorica in the 440s is noteworthy. Again restive under a regime that could not protect it, the region revolted. According to a fifth-century account, Aetius "the Magnificent, who then governed the state," was enraged, and decided to turn Armorica over to Goar, king of the Alans, who was permitted to subdue it for his own profit. Goar, who "with a barbarian's greed was thirsting for its wealth," was turned back by the pleas of a holy and influential bishop, Germanus of Auxerre, who seized Goar's reins and refused to let go until the punitive expedition was postponed. Germanus then went to Ravenna and gained a pardon for the Armoricans. Yet after a further rebellion, "not even the intercession of the bishop could do anything for them, for common prudence made it impossible for the imperial government to trust them." Similarly in 456, Galicia (the northwest corner of Spain), which had long been under Suevic domination, was offered by the emperor to the Goths, who invaded, killed the Suevic king, plundered the chief towns, and enslaved hundreds of the local Romans. Our contemporary witness, Bishop Hydatius, believed the Goths had thus betrayed the empire and that their story of acting under imperial authority was a pretext. From our distance it appears that the imperial government, favoring one warlord over another for policy reasons, was willing to sacrifice a province it had already lost to maintain a fragile balance of power. With such policies the order of the day, central authority and civil government collapsed. The area of direct imperial rule in the west shrank until it was restricted to Italy. Valentinian III, who had been a figurehead most of his life, was murdered in 455, and his shortlived successors in the west found it impossible to regain control of their commanders-in-chief. The latter were, effectively, the warlords of Italy, no stronger than the warlord of Africa (the Vandal king), or the warlord of southern Gaul (the Gothic king), yet more powerful than their titular masters. To be a warlord, the real master of an army, was far more important than to hold the hollow title of emperor, and be the theoretical master of everything. In 476, Odoacer, the commander in Italy, took the next logical step. He deposed the emperor Romulus Augustulus, the young son and puppet of the previous warlord, and had his troops declare him King of Italy. A group of senators took the imperial regalia to Constantinople, and asked the emperor Zeno to recognize Odoacer's royal title and authorize his power in Italy, because "a single emperor would be sufficient for both territories [east and west]." Zeno temporized, but it was clear that there would not soon be another emperor in the west. Next Section. Index, Overview of Late Antiquity. Copyright (C) 1996, Steven Muhlberger. 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Are Biometrics Safer Than Passwords? Despite their simplicity and easy handling - we never need to remember our face, eyes, voice or finger tips - and the unique features of each body, biometrics (using body measurements and calculations as a form of identification and access control) can indeed be prone to attacks, too. For example, in some cases, facial recognition and other biometrics representatives can be deceived or bypassed by means of stolen social media profile pictures or similar means. As mentioned in the news (see German version for links to German press articles), there is a real danger of data leaks and cyber attacks. As opposed to quickly changing one´s password, it is difficult - if not impossible - to change one´s biometrics upon discovering such a leak or attack. In other words, simply substituting passwords for biometrics would constitute a dangerous and irresponsible move. Furthermore, stolen biometrics could also be (ab)used to create false ID´s or passports. Our security experts therefore recommend using a robust password manager. The main principle needs to be: never use the same password for multiple accounts or applications (e.g. email, online banking, social media etc.). In addition, your passwords should have sufficient length and complexity based on a considerable pool of possible characters. Avoid real words or parts of words and change your password regularly. There is also the option of activating two-factor- or multi-factor-authentication (2FA or MFA, respectively), for further protection and risk reduction. This way, you are able to respond quickly in case of a hacker attack or data leak. Whatever damage may have been caused - and any damage is at least annoying - will be under control and confined to manageable dimensions, not spreading to other platforms. 5 out of 5 found this helpful Please sign in to leave a comment.
Video: Red River Cart Red River Cart This movie is in Forgotten Trail and Making Camp. Red river carts were developed used by the Metis and Ojibwe tribes west of the Red River. Many thanks to Dr. Carol Davis and Debbie Gourneau, both of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (Ojibwe) for the information. Animation and sound done by Video: The Metric System The Metric System This video introduces how the metric system works as opposed to the imperial system of measurement. How far did you travel in miles as opposed to kilometers? Game This video is featured in Forgotten Trail, which teaches fractions and multi-step problem solving for grades 5-7. ESL Jeopardy Game Gamify ESL/ELL! Get your students excited about parts of speech or any other category. This can be adapted for math! This is the modified version from a collection found at BridgeUniverse. Play ESL Jeopardy remotely (by sharing your screen with the class) or with an in-person class (on your SMARTboard or whiteboard). Materials Whiteboard and Video: Native American Tobacco It’s the end of the week and that means that it’s time for the Freebie Friday. Today’s freebie is a video on how tobacco is considered sacred by most Native American tribes. The video talks about the way that tribes use tobacco and the reasons behind it. You can view the culture video below. Tobacco Video: Using Timelines with B.C.E. Two videos about B.C.E. timelines in both Spanish and English “Using Timelines With B.C.E.” is available in English below. (Grades 5-7) “How to Solve the Timeline Problem” is available in both English and Spanish. (Grades 5-7) Video: Using Timelines With B.C.E. Learn how the B.C.E. timeline works in this video. This is for Grades 5-7 Video: What’s the Word? World History Terms What’s the Word? World History Terms Here are five main key terms covered in this video. Check out the Spanish version below! ancient indigenous masters of mastery empire Términos de Historia Video: Explaining Distributions and Variability Explaining Distributions and Variability How can knowledge of distributions save you from angry, spear-wielding villagers? Watch this video from the AzTech series to find out.BONUS : Also available in Spanish below. Explicando distribuciones y variabilidad, con plátanos y aldeanos enojados. Explicando distribuciones y variabilidad, con plátanos y aldeanos enojados Video: Finding the Average Finding the Average What is the mean? Can you sing the formula for it? So first you are going to add up the numbers you have. The second step is to divide however many numbers there were in the first place. BONUS: Watch it in Spanish – extra bonus, no singing. Scroll down to Encontrando Video: Why Did the Maya Hunt? Why Did the Maya Hunt? What’s an X axis? What’s a Y axis? Another example of using bar graphs, explaining Mayan hunting practices.Scroll down to watch it in Spanish language version, “¿Por qué cazaban animales los Maya?” ¿Por qué cazaban animales los Maya? Una lección sobre gráficos de barras e historia al mismo tiempo.
Can You Eat Lye? What is the difference between food grade lye and regular lye? The Differences Soap supply company Essential Depot states via their website: “Food grade has a lower parts per million of heavy metal impurities.” In the U.S., food grade lye must meet strict guidelines prescribed by the FDA. Technical grade sodium hydroxide contains more impurities.. Where can I buy food grade lye? Sodium Hydroxide – Pure – Food Grade (Caustic Soda, Lye) (1 pound) – – Can you make pretzels without lye? It’s a small percentage of baking soda to water. You dip the pretzels into the solution, put them on a baking sheet, pop them in the oven and then you have freshly made pretzels. Why are pretzels dipped in lye? Lye is a strong alkali that can be dangerous if misused, but it’s lye that enhances the Maillard reaction on the outside of the dough. This reaction gives each pretzel a chewy crust, mahogany color, glossy sheen, and that unmistakable pretzel flavor typical of a German soft pretzel. Is Lye the same as baking soda? Lye is a stronger alkaline than baking soda or sodium bicarbonate, with a pH reading ranging from around 13 to 14. Its base of sodium hydroxide is created commercially by the electrolysis of sodium chloride solution, as well as reacting calcium hydroxide with sodium carbonate, according to the FDA. Why is lye so dangerous? Sodium hydroxide lye is highly caustic and has the potential to burn the skin. Like driving a car, sodium hydroxide is safe when handled properly. But because lye has the potential to be extremely dangerous, it’s important to take every safety precaution when making cold process soap. What does Lye do to dead bodies? The process is called alkaline hydrolysis and was developed in this country 16 years ago to get rid of animal carcasses. It uses lye, 300-degree heat and 60 pounds of pressure per square inch to destroy bodies in big stainless-steel cylinders that are similar to pressure cookers. Can I use baking soda instead of lye? Many home recipes replace the lye with baking soda, but the results taste like breadsticks, not pretzels. Baked soda does a much better job of approximating true lye-dipped pretzels. Is there a food grade lye? This is the highest quality food grade lye available. Also known as NaOH and caustic soda. This is an inorganic chemical at minimum 99% pure. … Olives are often soaked in sodium hydroxide for softening; Pretzels and German lye rolls are glazed with a sodium hydroxide solution before baking to make them crisp. Is lye water poisonous? Lye water (sometimes called ‘Lime Water’) is a strong (caustic) liquid that is safe to use in very small amounts in cooking, but it can be dangerous if lye water is swallowed undiluted straight from the bottle. It can cause severe corrosive burns to the throat, oesophagus and stomach with permanent damage if swallowed. Can you buy lye at Home Depot? Well-Known Member. My Home Depot does carry lye, in the plumbing section….in 3 kg plastic jugs. Where does Lye come from naturally? A lye is a metal hydroxide traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes, or a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. “Lye” most commonly refers to sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but historically has been used for potassium hydroxide (KOH). Is Lye dangerous to eat? If you were still worried about accidentally poisoning yourself after baking, know that lye reacts with carbon dioxide from the heat in the oven and forms a carbonate, according to The Kitchn, making the lye safe and the baked goods totally safe to eat (as long as you used a diluted enough lye solution in the first … Is it safe to eat pretzels dipped in lye? But it changes the pretzel’s flavor and color in a way you can’t really explain until you taste it, he says. Lye can be toxic in high concentrations, but is also commonly used for curing foods like lutefisk. … Since the lye dip is heavily diluted and the pretzel is baked after dipping, it won’t kill you. What is lye used for in cooking? Sodium Hydroxide aka lye or caustic soda is a strong alkaline compound that is used for preparing various foodstuffs. … German pretzels are poached in cold sodium hydroxide solution before baking, which contributes to their unique crust.
Explore is a "real forest of natural phenomena". That's how the physicist Frank Oppenheimer described this exhibit, originally designed for the San Francisco Exploratorium, and which has become a classic of science centres around the world. Each module is an authentic work of art where Man contributes with machines, and nature with the amazing beauty of its phenomena. Explore approximately 40 interactive modules independently or with our help, ask yourself questions, ask us questions, discover, experience and enjoy. Combine lights of various colours, observe the effects of lenses and prisms, discover the rainbow in bubbles and make many other experiments which will shed light on various phenomena. How does our eye work? Why we see the world the way we do? Do we experience the world as it really is? We don't only see with our eyes. The brain plays a key role on our perception of the world. Here you will find optical illusions and challenges that will put your head spinning. Can we see sound, stop a wave, observe harmonics on a guitar string? Go with the flow, vibrate with us. Don't be alarmed by the complexity of the phenomena. Enjoy the sand dunes scenery slowly shaped by the wind, feel the breeze of a tornado, dissolve it with your hand and see it regain its previous shape.
Human Anatomy and Physiology How are blood and water alike? Top Answer User Avatar Wiki User Answered 2011-12-22 15:43:53 Both blood and water are liquids. User Avatar Your Answer Still Have Questions? Related Questions Why did water and H2S look alike? Why did water and H2S look alike? Why is a heart and a pump alike? Because a heart pumps blood just like a pump would pump water. How are leaf cells and blood cells alike? Leaf cells and blood cells are alike because they both are living organisums, that were prodced by a living thing. How are sugar and salt alike? They are both soluble in water. They also look alike but they don't taste alike! How are fish and amphibians alike and different? AlikeThey can both live in waterDifferent Is water vapor and steam alike? Yes, they are alike, although they are not very alike. When water turns into water vapour it disolves into the air, and you cannot see it, but steam is created by heat, and doesn't disolve into the air and you can see it. How are the heart and lungs alike and different? the heart pumps blood and the lung is an air sack and it is alike because they are an organ How water and water vapor alike? they arent, water vapor has gas in it. How is a river and a lake alike and different? They are alike because they are both a body of water, different because lake has more water then a river. How is tap water and pure water alike? They both contain water molecules. How are artiries and veins alike? They both carry blood in them, but veins take blood to the heart, artiries take blood from the heart, usually! How are sharks and crabs alike and different? sharks and crabs are alike because they both like water. How are hailstorms and floods alike? Hail is made out of water, and floods are water! How are gullies and streams alike? Both have to do with water How are lakes and streams alike? They both have water in them. What has a higher percentage blood or water in the body? Water As blood is made from water and blood cells. How are aquifers and aqueducts alike? They are only alike in that both refer to water:An aqueduct is a passageway for water to flow from one area, usually a water supply site, to another area where the water is used.An aquifer is a natural underground supply of water. How are ice water and water vapor alike? they all share the smae elements How are liquid water and water vapor alike? The chemical formula is the same - H2O. How are fish and salamanders alike? Well they both lay eggs and have cold blood. How are red and white blood cells alike? they both travel in viens and arteries Can twins have different blood groups? Yup. My twin is an A and I am a B (done by the military, twice to double-check). We look and talk alike. Sound alike. How are a lake and a pond alike? they are both bodies of water How are tsunamis and tidal waves alike? they all have to do with water. Still have questions? Trending Questions How to Make Money Online? Asked By Wiki User Best foods for weight loss? Asked By Wiki User Does Neil Robertson wear a wig? Asked By Wiki User Previously Viewed How are blood and water alike? Asked By Wiki User Unanswered Questions How old is zak beggans? Asked By Wiki User Does arsenio hall have ms? Asked By Wiki User
Evaluating the interaction between CC-studs and pavement University essay from Uppsala universitet/Tillämpad materialvetenskap Author: Elias Helou; [2019] Keywords: ; Abstract: Studded tyres are used in many countries around the world. Excessive wear of the road is the result when using studded tyres, and thus time of usage is limited or prohibited. A stud consists of a hard metal part enclosed in steel, aluminium, plastic or rubber, which is anchored in the tyre. Both negative and positive impacts have been assessed by several research groups. Positive impacts is the removal of ice and roughening of the pavement, enhancing friction. Negative effects is regarding human health and pavement excessive wear. Studies on how road or equivalent material is worn require scanning electron microscopy (SEM). If in-depth knowledge of what really occurs on the microscale is obtained, this might provide tools for developing road coatings or studs that contribute to the reduction of particle emission and reduced road wear. Different tests were performed in order to obtain information about the wear mechanisms. Sliding with a stud over a granite specimen, using a scratch tester, gave rise to particles in the range of 1 to 100 micrometer. One single sliding contact (20 mm) resulted in transfer of rock material to the stud tip, meaning that the contact is between minerals from the pavement. One passage resulted in cracks along the contact path in the granite plate, while two scratches removed material. Static load with a stud gave rise to cracks in the granite, which indicate that the structure is weakened. Real over-run by car gave information about stud load, but no information about damage could be obtained on granite specimens from the over-run tests.
How to Cook Healthy Meat, Fish, and Poultry - Healthy Recipes Center - Everyday Health Keep It Lean: How to Cook Meat and Fish You've got your meat or fish and you're ready to cook a healthy meal. Do you know which cooking techniques will maximize flavor and minimize fat? Buying skinless chicken breasts to cut back on fat makes sense; breading and deep-frying them does not. Fortunately, you don’t have to fry — many cooking techniques seal in flavor while keeping out extra fat and calories. These easy tips will keep unwanted fat and calories out of your meat, poultry, and fish: • Always trim any fat you can see. Even lean cuts may be sold with fat on the edges —simply use a sharp knife to remove it. Before cooking chicken or turkey, pull all the skin off. • Add fish to your diet. Certain thick cuts of fish like tuna have a steak-like texture meat eaters might enjoy. Most fish are excellent healthy choices. Fatty fish like salmon, trout, and herring are extra good for you because of their omega-3 fatty acids. • Let hidden fat drain away from meat. Placing roasts and similar cuts on a rack in your cooking pan allows the fat to drip away as the meat cooks. • Choose healthy cooking methods. Use cooking techniques that don’t add calories, such as roasting, grilling, and poaching; avoid deep frying. • Look for healthy recipes that add flavor without fat and calories. As an example, use chopped herbs or sesame seeds rather than breadcrumbs for a breading-like crust. Some seeds and nuts, like flaxseeds and walnuts, provide essential fatty acids, while others, like sunflower seeds, almonds, and hazelnuts, are good sources of vitamin E and provide some protein. Nuts and seeds can be ground and used instead of a heavy breading. Related: The Right Way to Grill Cooking Techniques That Cut Fat and Preserve Taste Watching your weight and your health doesn’t mean that a dry chicken breast is your only option — far from it. These cooking techniques offer great flavor and lend themselves to easy recipes that use an herb or broth base and no added fat. • Roasting. All types of protein can be roasted, or baked, in the oven. This method lends itself to cooking a whole chicken, turkey, or fish, or a beef rib roast or pork shoulder. Dietician Susan Kraus, MS, RD, of Hackensack University Medical Center, in New Jersey, suggests using a cut of meat with a little more fat, because roasting tends to dry out meat. To keep juices or sauces locked in so food stays moist, cover the roasting pan. “Poultry that is cooked without the skin and fish fillets that are very low fat would need to be cooked in a moist medium (like a broth) and covered, while chicken parts that might have skin on them or a more fatty fish, like a salmon or sea bass, could be cooked uncovered, at least for part of the cooking process,” says Kraus. Experiment with herbs and spices to flavor meat — without adding calories. Look for easy recipes for dry rubs, usually herb and spice mixtures, that coat the meat's surface. • Grilling. Most people think of grilling on an outdoor barbecue or smoker, but grilling really involves any method that uses radiant heat from underneath the food, giving it crispy edges. (Broiling is another cooking technique that uses high heat, usually from above, in the oven.) “All foods taste great on the grill,” says Kraus. “Again, as with roasting in an oven, the chef needs to exercise caution in making certain the food doesn't dry out and is cooked slowly, so it doesn't burn.” You can do this by pre-cooking chicken in the microwave or covered in the oven before throwing the meat on the grill to achieve the barbecue taste. Kraus suggests placing pieces of fish in a grill rack in order to keep them tender and prevent them from falling apart. She adds that lean cuts of meat are best grilled, since any fat will drip off. First marinate your meat, chicken, or large fish steaks or thick fillets, then baste them regularly to retain the taste. Also be sure to monitor the flame on your grill so you can control the speed of cooking. The goal is to cook the meat or fish evenly on the inside, while preventing it from burning on the outside. • Stir-frying and sautéing. When you prepare food in an open cooking pan, the technique is called sautéing; use a wok and it’s stir-frying. Either way, you can cook food in a small amount of oil — be sure to choose one of the healthy unsaturated types, such as olive, canola, peanut, sunflower, or safflower — or just use cooking spray. Because you're using only one pan for both the protein and the veggies, these methods make for easy cleanup. Be sure to slice or a dice all of your ingredients, so the nutrients stay in the veggies. Says Kraus, “What is also nice about this way of cooking is you can use various types of veggies for flavor, and you don’t have to add a ton of sauce to give the food a wonderful taste.” • Poaching. This healthy cooking technique involves barely covering food in liquid that is brought to a simmer, rather than a boil -- between 160 and 180 degrees. Use a covered cooking pan or pot large enough for the food to be placed in one layer only. You can enhance the flavor of the liquid by using broth, wine, spices, and soup-stock vegetables like onions, celery, leeks, and carrots. Though poaching is probably the least popular cooking method, says Kraus, it keeps whatever protein you cook very moist. Salmon or other thick pieces of fish are perfect for poaching — and poaching chicken cutlets keeps them moist. “Cooking in this fashion is virtually fat-free since a fluid medium, like a broth or tomato base, is used,” says Kraus. Note that after cooking, you usually remove the food from the poaching liquid, which can be discarded. • Stewing. This slow-cooking method involves placing all your ingredients in liquid, but it's different from poaching because the liquid often becomes part of the finished dish or can be used as a light sauce. You can fill your pot with plenty of veggies and a protein. Kraus recommends using lean cuts of meat, as well as chicken or seafood, since this is moist cooking and will tenderize the food. If you do use a fattier cut of meat, you can precook it, then drain all the fat from the pot before adding other ingredients. Experiment with these healthy cooking techniques, and you’ll soon savor the natural taste of foods, enhanced with fresh herbs and spices rather than butter and other fats.
Streetcar: 5 Worst Calamities in New Orleans History At this point the pandemic is still a current, live tragedy, but before passing judgment we’ll wait until the incident is buffered by time. Besides, it is not just local, but global. Focusing instead on the regional disasters, here’s my list in ascending order, to date, of the worst. 5. RECONSTRUCTION. It could have been worse. We could have been Atlanta. That New Orleans was spared the torch may have been because the city surrendered easily. Nevertheless, the period from 1862 to 1877, when Reconstruction ended, was one of political upheaval and violence, frequently under the direction of rogues and thugs. The state’s agriculture economy was in ruins. New Orleans may have slipped badly in comparison to other cities, except that the rest of the South was equally unstable. (One good result: The Union won. Had it not, New Orleans would have likely been the capital of a small weakened nation subject to subsequent conquering and denied the largesse of United States support and funding.) 4. HURRICANE BETSY. After pushing across the Bahamas and a swath of Florida, Betsy entered the gulf and then turned toward the mouth of the Mississippi crushing Grand Isle and then leveling destruction, as a Category 3 hurricane, on eastern New Orleans, Gentilly and St. Bernard parish. The 1965 hurricane was, at the time, the costliest hurricane ever and came to be known as “Billion Dollar Betsy.” In its second landfall, the storm flooded approximately 164,000 homes. There were 76 fatalities. The rest of New Orleans was left able to operate. As a result of the storm, the Corps of Engineers started its Hurricane Protection Program and began rebuilding levees in New Orleans that were to be higher and stronger, though ultimately not strong enough. 3. THE GREAT FIRES. Only six years apart, these two fires combined leveled most of the French Quarter, which at the time comprised most of the existing city. The Easter week fire in 1788 destroyed over 800 houses and public buildings within hours. (Spanish Governor Esteban Miro wrote to authorities about the “abject misery, crying and sobbing” of the people.) Then in 1794, with rebuilding still on the way from the previous fire, another blaze leveled 212 Vieux Carré buildings, many more valuable than those lost in the previous fire. That year, the city had also suffered through two hurricanes. Building techniques (more reliance on bricks instead of cypress) would change. The city was rebuilt, but began to look different. 2. HURRICANE KATRINA. We know the story, and it continues. New Orleans’ history, Part II, from then on would be marked as beginning on August 29, 2005. Though we suspect that now there will be a Part III dated March 2020. 1. PESTILENCE. Katrina was terrible, but if you can read this at least you know the storm did not kill you. During the frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases, a person could be healthy one day and stricken the next. In 1804, Louisiana’s first territorial governor, William V.C. Claiborne lost his wife, daughter, private secretary and co-workers to the yellow fever. Smallpox was the worst. During the 20-year period from 1863 to 1882 there were, according to state estimates, 6,450 deaths due to the disease just in New Orleans. The era of infectious disease outbreaks lasted until 1914. Finally, in that year, a hospital specializing in smallpox cases was closed for lack of business. Life in New Orleans seemed more secure. Between challenges, people could enjoy the good times again. May the good times return, and may the celebrating be done during a hurricane-free summer.
Dislocated elbow \| Singapore\| PDF \| PPT\| Case Reports \| Symptoms \| Treatment Dislocated Elbow • Dislocated elbow An elbow dislocation occurs when the bones of the forearm (the radius and ulna) move out of place compared with the bone of the arm (the humerus). The elbow joint, formed where these three bones meet, becomes dislocated, or out of joint. Specific, serious injuries that can accompany elbow dislocation include breaking of the bones (fractures), injuries to the arteries in the arm (the vessels carrying blood to the hand), and injuries to the nerves that run through the elbow area, impairing movement and feeling in the arm and hand. • Dislocated elbow The cause of most elbow dislocations is usually a fall, most commonly with the arm extended completely. However, any traumatic injury (such as a car crash or fall skiing) can result in an elbow dislocation. "Nursemaid's elbow" is a particular type of elbow dislocation that most commonly occurs in young children who have had an abrupt yanking of their forearm. The result is a dislocation of the head of the radius bone at the elbow. It is common in children less than 5 years old. Severe pain in the elbow, swelling, and inability to bend the arm are all signs of an elbow dislocation. In some cases, people may lose feeling in their hand or lose a pulse (can't feel a heartbeat in the wrist) • Dislocated elbow The doctor will reduce (put back in place) your elbow by pulling down on your wrist and levering your elbow back into place. This is very painful, so powerful medications for pain may be given before reduction. After your elbow is back in place, the doctor will get X-rays and then put you in a splint that will keep your elbow bent. The splint will make an "L" around the back of your elbow. It will be made of plaster or fiberglass. Its purpose is to prevent movement of your arm at the elbow. Usually, your arm will be placed in a sling to help you hold up your splint. High Impact List of Articles Conference Proceedings
The Climate Anxiety Decade: How We Came to Terms With Our Warming World in the 2010s The 2010s was when society finally grasped the enormity of climate change. The 2020s will decide how we survive it. Nationwide Youth Climate Strike Held As United Nations Holds Climate Conference Scott HeinsGetty Images The Decade, Reviewed looks back at the 2010s and how it changed human society forever. From 2010 to 2019, our species experienced seismic shifts in science, technology, entertainment, transportation, and even the very planet we call home. This is how the past ten years have changed us. In February of 2010, North America was hit with a record-setting blizzard. Time discussed climate change extensively in their coverage, taking GOP politicians to task for throwing out the old this doesn’t seem like global warming chestnut in denial of the evidence. “Climate models also suggest that while global warming may not make hurricanes more common, it could well intensify the storms that do occur and make them more destructive,” they wrote. In 2014, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated it plainly: "Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems." The 2011-2012 winter was the fourth warmest in recorded history. In 2015-16, we set a new record. In 2017, we had the sixth warmest winter. People fixated on issues like disposable plastic straws while the U.S. pulled out of the Paris accord. Now, there’s a documented phenomenon of anxiety expressed as “a chronic fear of environmental doom,” which the most concerned climate scientists say is warranted by the situation. If climate anxiety is a fear of what's possible, how can we secure the future? An Ecological Tipping Point Saeed KhanGetty Images In November 2019, Bill Ripple of the Oregon State University College of Forestry published an overview of Earth’s climate crisis and attached a list of over 11,000 supporting signatures. “Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to ‘tell it like it is,’” that paper begins. The moral imperative is sometimes a religious one as well, with ideas like biblical stewardship of the Earth. Ripple’s plan in his paper is sixfold, an interlocking set of ideas that form a holistic approach to climate change. His warnings in the paper are grave, but he believes there’s both interest and capacity to make drastic changes to mitigate the harm. “I think we are entering into a social tipping point in our fight against climate change as the urgency of the conversation seems to be ramping up for governments, businesses, and individuals,” Ripple told Popular Mechanics in an email. “Governmental bodies are declaring a climate emergency. The Pope issued an encyclical on climate change. Schoolchildren are striking and grassroots citizen movements are demanding change.” Dave Goulson is an insect ecologist and biology professor at the University of Sussex. He has signed Ripple’s climate crisis paper. In his work, Goulson studies insects and specifically bumblebees. He published an alarming report of his own this year, a subject survey of insect populations and the number of insect species that are facing extinction. "We need to properly tackle climate change, with the aim of being carbon neutral by 2030." “Much attention focusses on declines of large, charismatic animals, but recent evidence suggests that abundance of insects may have fallen by 50% or more since 1970,” he wrote. Before the rapid onset of climate change events, insects were already struggling because of vanishing habitat, human encroachment, pesticides, and more. Goulson told Popular Mechanics that he doesn’t consider himself a climate expert, but that for insects and animals, climate change is adding insult to injury. “The basic problem for insects and other wildlife is that climate change is hitting them at a time when their populations are already massively reduced by habitat loss, pesticides and other pollutants, invasive species, and other man-made threats,” he said by email. “For many creatures it is likely to be the final straw.” But he also had constructive advice for a hypothetical turnaround. “It is not too late to save a fair proportion of insect life, but to do so we need to learn to tread more gently on the planet, and fast,” he said. “We need to properly tackle climate change, with the aim of being carbon neutral by 2030, and we need to radically change our farming system to set aside more land for nature by reducing food waste and meat consumption.” The First Climate Change Refugees Climate Change Refugees Global Warming Erosion Village Moving Residents from Newtok, Alaska, pack their things for a move to the Mertarvik after climate change claimed their homes, October 12, 2019. The Washington PostGetty Images The BBC Radio’s long-running agricultural soap The Archers, the oldest drama in the world, introduced rewilding as a village project. The show's setting also feels the drastic impact of climate change like other, real-world villages. Villages like Newtok. In 2015, the Atlantic profiled the Alaskan village, a settlement of natives who’ve lived in the region for thousands of years. The nearly 400 residents were told by the Army Corps of Engineers that they were going to be underwater by the end of the decade. Alaskan soil ecologist Lorene Lynn told Popular Mechanics that by the time people were finally able to move to a planned new site, their school was being washed away by a river. Moving the whole population will take a long time because of the cost. By a twist of fate, Alaska is a deep red state that is arguably most affected by climate change than any other U.S. state. Alaska's location in the sub-Arctic and Arctic, its place in the path of warming ocean currents, and its reliance on the outdoors compared to the continental U.S. all contribute to accelerated effects of climate change. Lynn worries that Alaska’s extremely low population density and high proportion of tiny villages means these stories are easier to ignore. Lynn describes the citizens of Newtok as some of the first climate refugees in the U.S. That wasn't the end of Alaska's climate woes in 2019. The state suffered raging wildfires through the Kenai Peninsula after a record hot, dry summer turned the grass to kindling. In northern Alaska, melting permafrost is releasing greenhouse gases that only further accelerate climate change, forming what Lynn calls “the positive feedback loop.” “That’s where the big alarm bells are going off with scientists,” she says. Towns in Louisiana have also been identified by the Army Corps as vulnerable enough to preventively move. Around the world, small island nations like Kiribati and Tuvalu are slowly disappearing. Low-lying Bangladesh is predicted to lose up to 25 percent of its landmass, mostly from the vital and fertile Ganges River delta. A Reason To Hope? Cristina QuiclerGetty Images In the 2010s, we've entered the fourth stage of climate change grief—depression. We must hope that the 2020s spur acceptance of the situation, and more importantly, definitive action. There's already reason to hope. Nearly 90 percent of young people believe they can work to slow climate change, including TIME's 2019 Person of the Year Greta Thunberg. The technology to slow climate change already exists (no silver bullet is required, though Bill Gates is welcome to keep searching for one). The number of climate laws passed around the world has doubled every five years. While it'll take all those carbon-spewing governments and corporations to cooperate in order to truly tackle climate change, don't underestimate personal commitment. “It’s no fun living without hope,” Lynn says, and adds that she keeps two ideas in mind. First, “The only person I can truly change is me,” including that she and her husband have committed to the Swedish idea of social flight shame. And the second? “I have a hope that people will start to think about where stuff comes from,” she says, including not just their direct waste but the impact of industrialized farms on workers, the human cost of cut-rate manufacturing, and on and on and on. When the human cost includes all of us, we can only make progress together. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below More From Earth
Reston, VA The U.S. Census count is underway, the enormous effort happens once every 10 years to count every person living in the United States regardless of age or immigration status. The census helps determine how much funding Fairfax County receives from money allocated by the federal government to improve transportation, provide education, healthcare, affordable housing and prepare for emergencies. It also determines how many representatives are sent to Richmond and Washington D.C to advocate for the county. According to the Community Foundation of Northern Virginia, Fairfax County could lose $12,000 in potential funding over the course of a decade for each person who does not respond to the census. In March, the U.S. Census Bureau began mailing every household an invitation to complete a simple questionnaire about who lives at their address on April 1. People can respond to the census online, by phone, or by mail. The census will ask for names, age, sex, race and the relation of everyone living in each household. Federal law keeps those responses safe, secure and confidential. Everyone should be counted to ensure Fairfax County receives its fair share of federal funds and representation. Learn more at Subscribe to our mailing list
How Far Can Recurve Bows Shoot? 🏹 Fact checked by Steven Lines, lifelong Hunter and Outdoorsman. Due to their shape, recurve bows can store far more energy, leading to more poundage and portability than a longbow. This leads to the question, how far can recurve bows shoot? A recurve bow can shoot hundreds of yards. While the limiting factors for a maximum shooting distance are draw weight, draw length, and arrow weight, the archer should also be mindful of their accuracy, weather conditions, and the arrow’s fletching. This ensures the arrows will fire straight and your aim is true. How Far Can Recurve Bows Shoot The world record for the furthest recurve bow shoot is well more than 400 yards. Getting such long shots is almost definitely down to the custom arrows and bows being used. However, it would be more typical to see something in the area of 300-400 yards for the maximum range on a standard recurve bow. What is so Important About the Shape? At the beginning of this, we mentioned in passing that the shape of the recurve bow is one of the most instrumental factors in the range that the bow can fire. As you can imagine from the name, a recurve bow is shaped in concrete design, with limbs that curve away instead of standard bows whose limbs are straight. The significance of this is that when drawing the bow to full strength, the strings can lift so that it will be conserving and harnessing far more significant amounts of energy for higher draw weight and shooting distance. This works because when the string draws across the curve, it simulates a far longer length of the bow but with all of the energy squeezed into a smaller space. What is the Draw Weight of a Recurve Bow? The draw weight of a recurve bow has a huge amount of variance. Recurve bow poundage can range from 10lb to 80lb draws. The draw weight is essentially how much power the bow can fire with, which will affect the speed and travel distance of the arrow. The downside of higher poundage bows is that they will be harder to control and accurately fire. This is the determining factor when it comes to attaining the longest shot possible. However, because of the incredible strength and control required at higher draw weights, getting an accurate long-distance shot is far harder. What is the Longest Accurate Shot? It’s perfectly possible to make an incredibly long shot with a recurve bow, as we’ve established. If we are talking about the longest accurate shot, then the numbThean experienced archer, the expected range of a recurve bow will be somewhere between 30-40 yards. For a beginner, it’s far less, at around 15-20 yards. Looking at some of the records for barebow accurate shots show the record ranges as being somewhere in the ballpark of 200-300 yards. Although these shots are possible at such long ranges, they are likely to be inconsistent. The world record for consistent shots with a normal recurve bow is around 80~90 yards for the top world record holders in recurve bow archery. In one of the categories of this kind of competition, there is a potential of 1440 points. Being accurate over this distance is such an incredible feat that only a few people have ever scored the maximum amount of points in this competition. The Guinness World Records holder for the longest shot with a recurve bow is Matt Stutzman, who managed to achieve a shot distance of 310 yards. This was the longest shot where the target was also successfully hit. Not only did he break the record, but Stutzman also did it without arms due to congenital disability, using his feet and shoulders to operate the bow. Are There Competitions for Longest Shot? There are multiple competitions and record holder organizations to keep track of who has the longest shot. One of those organizations is the Barebow division of the World Archery. This competition determines the longest shot without any sights or stabilizers to assist the archer. This creates a standardized set of testing rules, but it also measures what the bow and the archer alone can do. Although the competitions held aren’t specifically about the longest shot, they measure how consistently archers score over very long distances. As previously mentioned, only a few competitors have ever scored perfectly in the longest range competition. These competitions usually function in how each archer is given a set amount of arrows and then tasked with getting as high a score as possible to achieve the most points. The recurve bow is also the accepted bow for usage in the Olympics. The Olympics regard the recurve bow as The most readily available and easy to learn bow world-wide. There is also the issue that the addition of multiple bow types would skew the decision-making process, where judges would have to attempt to judge whether scores based on the bow used. History of the Recurve Bow The recurve bow, and its ingenious design goes back to many historical civilizations. The bow was more compact than its longer straight-limbed counterpart and allowed archers to maintain their shooting distance with more portability. Due to the bow’s shape and the draw weight mentioned earlier, a horseback rider could fire the bow with the same kind of strength and power that an average standing bow user would muster. Since so many different civilizations all simultaneously developed this style of bow, it’s hard to say precisely what its roots are. The bow would prove to be popular through much of history. The recurve was a particular favorite of horse archers because of the shape. The shorter limbs meant it was not only far easier to take on horseback but also allowed the rider to switch which side they were shooting from easily. In addition to having a quick-fire time, this made them a prime candidate for horseback archery. One of the most famous uses of the recurve bow in this way was its usage by the Mongols since their style of warfare revolved almost entirely around the horse archery One they were famed for. The Turkish empire was also well known for using these types of bows, building an empire upon their usage. Supposedly, the Turks claimed their archers were capable of firing at distances similar to what world record holders can manage today. Can a Recurve Bow Fire Further Than a Longbow? Longbows were famous in the medieval period for their usage in military scenarios. Of note especially were English longbowmen, trained from a young age to fire as accurately as possible. Do they fire faster than modern recurve bows or recurve bows from the time? The answer to both questions would appear to be “no.” A recurve bow would still possess a greater potential draw weight and arrow velocity, meaning they would have had a further firing range than the longbow. Although the recurve bow fires slightly further than the longbow, the problem would be accurate. The shape of the longbow allows it to fire more accurately at its maximum range. The other bonus of the longbow is that they are well known as forgiving and easy to use. Because of their design and the relatively low strength required to use one, a beginner who isn’t yet used to archery’s rigors will perform well with this bow at acceptable distances. Even someone who has used a longbow before may struggle at longer distances because of the far greater strength required to make the most use out of a recurve’s poundage. The other difference between a longbow and a recurve bow is that the longbow has a far quieter noise when releasing the strength. In contrast, the recurve is louder due to the huge amount of tension in the string. Can a Recurve Bow Fire Further Than a Compound Bow? Because of the incredibly complex system of strings and pulleys that it has, a compound bow can contain and generate an unbelievable amount of power with far less of a strength requirement. This means that a compound bow will typically have a far greater range than a recurve bow, with high accuracy as a bonus. However, certain powerful recurve bows with the highest draw weights available will have the potential to almost match the compound bow. When you combine this with the fact that a recurve bow is significantly smaller and more portable than a compound bow, it adds an extra dimension. If you are an experienced bow user, most of the compound bow’s advantages will be mitigated because you will compensate for the otherwise difficult to use nature of the recurve. Additionally to the lack of portability that a compound bow has, a compound bow is also significantly heavier, longer, and more complex, making it a high-maintenance and challenging piece of equipment compared to the recurve bow that is a survivalist’s dream. The recurve will keep its long-range, powerful, and fast arrow velocity and be easily carried around if you do something that requires a lot of movement. Can a Recurve Bow Fire Further Than a Crossbow? A modern crossbow will outstrip almost every single other bow when it comes to the total firing range. A crossbow can achieve ranges of up to 500 yards, although hitting anything at that range will be impossible. This is far beyond what the recurve bow can accomplish, and top it off. The crossbow is also incredibly simple to use. A crossbow will often have a scope attached to it will increase the accuracy even more. Compared to a recurve bow, which requires a great deal of skill and training to use, even a novice can pick up a crossbow and meet some success hitting targets. The only real downside to a crossbow over a recurve bow is that if noise is an issue to you, then a crossbow will make even more noise than a recurve will. One large bonus that a recurve bow has is that it will be far cheaper than a crossbow and will also likely be slightly less expensive to repair depending on the issue. The only bow device that comes anywhere close to the range of the crossbow is the foot bow. Both of the world records for crossbow and foot bows are held by Harry Drake, who managed to achieve firing ranges of 2000-2100 with them. What is the Significance of the Turkish Flight Arrows on Recurve Bow Shot Distance? Some of the most informative research and experimentation on the shooting distance of recurve bows can be taken from records of the Turks’ usage of recurve bows and flight arrows. Some of these records date back hundreds of years and apparently managed to attain shooting distances that are still over anything achievable today. The distances that Turkish archers were able to achieve were shots close to 1000 yards, far beyond anything achievable with modern recurve bows. A part of this was to do with the arrows that were being used. Turkish flight arrows were arrows that were specially designed for being able to travel great distances. It’s important to note here that when determining total distance for the shot from a recurve bow, almost all of the time that significantly large numbers are being achieved, it’s the work of the fact that the arrows being fired are designed to travel great distances, so are made to be lighter. When using an arrow designed to pierce or damage a target, such as in competition shooting or hunting, the arrow’s weight will play a massive role in the final distance that the shot can achieve. Historians noted this when looking at the Turkish flight arrows, seeing that they had been designed with the specific purpose in mind to achieve the longest shot possible, yet may not have been much help in anything else. Why Does Bow Quality Matter for Shot Distance? Due to the enormous amount of force that the high draw weight recurve bow requires, a considerable strain is put on the bow and the string. Bows made from inferior materials or have had their string damage by either overuse or repeatedly stringing and unstringing the bow can cause the recurve bow to lose shot distance over time. This is especially true of bows with higher draw-strength, as they will need to be made from high-quality materials that can handle the amount of tension they are being put through. Can a Beginner Achieve Similar Shot Distances? If you are a beginner or newcomer to archery, it is important to practice archery safely before aiming for legendary shooting distances. You will need a perfect form to fire at maximum range, not to mention the huge amount of experience required in using similar bows. Also, because these numbers are only achievable with a high draw-strength bow, you will need to have the control and the poise with the bow and have both qualities while exerting the strength required. If you wish to have a more reasonable chance of attaining some of these shot numbers, you will need a lot of practice with beginner recurve bows. These will allow you to find your minimum draw weight, brace height, and improve your shot placement before increasing your target distance. Recurve archers should also practice instinctive shooting. This is target practice without using additional equipment like sights or other devices you typically find in a modern bow. Comparison of Recurve, Compound, And Longbow Distances To help you find the right bow for you, let’s take a closer look at the distances each bow can fire at. As we do this, it’s important to note the weather conditions, which can significantly impact the type of distances that your arrow can travel. For example, to get an accurate shot on a windy day, you’ll need to switch to a heavier arrow to minimize wind disturbance. It’s best to use these figures as a guide, testing your equipment to understand better how your bow performs. How Far Can Recurve Bows Shoot? 🏹 How Far Can You Shoot A Longbow? How Far Can Recurve Bows Shoot? 🏹 Steven Lines is a hunter and outdoorsman from Safford, Arizona, USA. He has been hunting and fishing since a child and has over 20 years of experience in the outdoors. Steven works as a hunting guide in Arizona during his spare time and runs a Youtube channel dedicated to sharing his outdoor adventures with others. Hi, I'm Sam, and I love archery! I used to work as a caregiver, and I'm in medical school now. I started this blog to help people like my parents get healthier in fun and exciting ways, more than just going to the gym. If you like one of my articles, I'd appreciate it if you share it with your folks and help them get healthier too! Recent Posts
Project Topics Teaching and learning activities of the school. Supervision has been conceived as the improvement of teaching and learning process for the ultimate benefit of the learner who is regarded as the pivot of education. In the same vein, Supervision is essentially a leadership function, a kind of superior subordinate relationship, where a leader or an officer instructs, oversees and corrects subordinates in order to enhance effective performance. Supervision is needed in effective and efficient school activities, so that educators can really give their best in their various duties posts and as well make extra ordinary contribution to brandishing learners who will be capable of competing globally with their counterparts. Adelakun (2005). Supervision of teacher is the means by which subordinate staff of the school are mobilized and motivated towards the full attainment of the goals and objectives of the school they serve. Supervision ensures that the right thing is done through direction and monitoring of teacher activities in school. That is making checks and balances to some specially assigned duties. Key (2000) defines Supervision in education as “that phrase of school administration which focuses primarily on the achievement of education aims and objectives. He further opines that supervision is an activity which involves guiding refreshing, encouraging, improving and overseeing the teaching and learning with the hope of asking that co-operation of the teachers in order for the supervisor to be successful in his supervisory functions. The major goal of most nations of the world has been the achievement of educational excellence. This is so, because education has been adjudged the key with any nation could permanently close the door of poverty and ignorance, and simultaneously open the door of prosperity in terms of economic buoyancy, social advancement and civilization. Since education is accepted to be an instrument of change alongside the element of growth, teachers are the operators of the instrument while the students could be regarded as the raw materials on which the changes would be manifested over a period of time. However, both the teacher and students’ input are quite important and relevant to the school system, for they are the principal actors on stage. In the process of teaching and learning, some extraneous variables sometimes interfere with the plans and patterns of operation within the school, the teachers personality, his attitude to work, motivation, discipline, student background and environment which would individually or collectively have either positive or negative effects on the school system and its end results. The process of supervision is complex and it pervades the whole structure of the school system. There seems to be little or no area of operation within the school where the need for supervision would not arise, but it may be in varying degrees. Teachers have been accused of divided loyalty, non-chalant attitude and indiscipline among the teacher and the students was also discovered. There is a constant comparison of the past with the present, more especially when government or voluntary agencies or school inspectors are compared with those of today. Parents do complain about their children or ward’s inability to communicate effectively in other languages apart from their mother tongue. With this, they thought the school system is fast losing its glamour and orientation, which is indirectly affecting the attainment of the national aims of education. It is therefore very importance for these concerns to critically look into the crucial areas within the school system that requires supervision, these are the instructional and discipline areas, where both the content method and mode of delivery and personality of both the student and the teachers are examined to ensure their adequacy for the school system. Ajibade (1993). In teaching and learning situation, the materials to be transformed are the children. The people involved in the process of transforming the child in the school are the most appropriate academically qualified personnel’s being appointed to involve in this channel. Well qualified masters are also made head of department in school to co-ordinate the work of the teachers involved in the teaching of their various special subjects. The secondary schools system in Ogun State has under gone series of changes in administration these was a period when the secondary schools were been managed under the voluntary agencies like the Baptist, Roman Catholic, Private Owners and others together with the Local Education Authority. During those day’s principals of secondary schools were chosen by the administrative assistance of various agencies and the local education officer. At this period of time no university agreed rules and policy exists is such voluntary agency has her own criteria. The principal at that time worked in close relation with the administrative assistance in the running of the secondary school since the quality of an educational system of a country depends to a large extent on the qualities of the leaders, thus the opportunity open to principals in participating in the teaching and learning format of the school was in adequate as it did not allow for principals initiatives. The principal plays an important role in determines the kind of human being those students under his control will be later in the adult life. Therefore, it is advisable for the principal to know those qualities that are expected of him. Effective supervision of the school ensure proper function and mutual interaction of both human and non-human resources involved in the processing of the child and harmonize the efforts of all designated school personnel. The adverse effects of supervision may lead to a situation instead of being objective, he will be subjective and this supervision may lead to a situation whereby both the principal and the teachers put in their very best in order to satisfy the supervisor, after which they withdraw their efforts at the end of supervision. This leads to a kind of eye service performance in the school. Regular and through inspection of secondary school will meet the challenge posed by the rapidly changing school curriculum. It will also prevent the inculcation of poor curriculum into the mind of the student which if allowed to be taught would lead to the promotion of “half naked” school leavers and instead turning out productive student they will graduate to be liabilities to themselves In particular and to the society in general, therefore make the aims and purpose of education to be defeated. How best to get the optimum out of the school system in face of declining input has been a major problem facing the school system. How best to make both the learner and the teacher productive has also been the source of anxiety within and outside the school system. Generally, how to make the school system responsive to the need of the society individually and collectively has been a major concern for all the citizenry. However, when all resource are in place, the need to monitor the operation within the school system and by making use of the materials or resource effectively so as to get the best out of the school system. Hence, teaching and learning are the major activities going on in the school; therefore, there is a need for efficiency and effectiveness. This study is therefore carried out to investigate the effect of principal’s role supervision on teachers’ effectiveness in some secondary school in Water side Local Government Area of Ogun State. The study is borne out of the teachers’ ineffective teaching performance observed recently in Secondary schools, where teachers do what they like. It is assumed that the achievement of any student may be an indication of the teachers’ effectiveness in teaching. The main problem of this study is to find out the supervisory role played by principals on teachers’ teaching effectiveness? How effective is the supervisory role of the ministry of education on the secondary school. And how teachers of all these selected secondary schools performing their job. The Purpose of this study is to determine the effects of supervision on teachers towards the effective performance in teaching-learning situation. It has been realized that one of the most paramount factors that can hinder that student’s academic performance in school is in the effectiveness of any given teacher toward students learning abilities. To determine teacher whether teachers’ supervision activities have contributed to their effectiveness in school, it is also necessary to look into teachers’ supervisory role and its outcome. The study is also aimed at detecting how this supervision of teacher would be in continuous form so as to bring about improvement in the school activities especially in secondary schools. Attention will be taken and given adequately on the following question • How do we determine effectiveness of teaching as regards the teaching and learning process? • What are the roles of supervision operating in some secondary school? • How can we promote effectiveness in teachers’ performance? • What are the factors militating against teachers performance during teaching and learning exercise. In the study, the following null hypotheses will be tested:- Ho 1: There is no significant relationship between Principals’ supervisory roles and teachers teaching effectiveness in secondary schools in Ogun waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State. Ho 2: There is no significant relationship between Principals’ supervisory roles and the quality of educational outcomes in secondary school education in Ogun waterside Local Government of Ogun state. Ho 3: There is no significant relationship between Principals’ delegations of supervisory roles and teachers responses to class activities in secondary schools in Ogun waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State. Ho 4: There is no significant difference in supervisory roles performed by school Principals and Ministry of Education in Ogun waterside Local Government Areas of Ogun State. This study would provide useful information to the government, educational agencies and school administrators. The finding would further reveal the important and the effects of supervision on teachers’ effectiveness. Secondary school education in Nigeria is growing rapidly in number and population in recent times. The increase in number and population of secondary schools has led to an increase in demand for qualified and unqualified teachers in the schools. Finally, the study might help in revitalizing the issue of falling standard of education as a result of poor administration while it demands proper organization and planning. Thereby making the society to benefit from the study and also help in making effective use of human and materials resource that are available to the schools in the society. The scope for this study comprised of some selected public secondary schools in Ogun waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Both the teachers and the principals of these selected schools form the target population for this study. This study is limited to some secondary schools teachers and principals in Ogun waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State. In a research of this nature, one must anticipate some difficulties to arise particularly in the process of gathering necessary data for the study. Some of these problems may include:- · Lack of recognition by teacher about the importance of this research study. · Some of them might think of implicating themselves by filling the questionnaires. · Collection of the questionnaire might also pose problem because the teachers might misplace them and another set might need to be distributed. · Time and financial constrained might also hinder adequate research on the topic of the study. It is important to state the operational definitions of the concepts used or the term used in the study. The term includes: INVESTIGATION: The act of making enquiry into a particular study at hand. That is, going very deep into a subject matter. SUPERVISION: This is to see that the right thing is done through directing and proper monitoring. This means acting as a check and balances to some specially assigned duties. TEACHER: Someone who makes other people learn what they may not have known. A teacher is someone whose job is to impact knowledge to others. EFFECTIVENESS: Result produced due to an action taken on the long run, which is interesting enough to be noticed. PERFORMANCE: Action seen, noticed or felt due to its effects on other people.

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