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Racial component of white-black relationships Here, Miller explains that while black people for many years were forced to get along with whites, whites were never forced to accommodate to the needs of blacks. White teachers, he recalls, were sometimes uncomfortable in formerly black schools, but one white teacher did teach Miller a lesson about racial difference. In reflecting on racism, Miller remembers chasing down some students who were skipping class at Carmel Junior High School when he suddenly realized the significance of the image of a black man pursuing a white girl. The story is somewhat unclear, but it seems like a white man rammed his car in retaliation. Citing this Excerpt Oral History Interview with Leroy Miller, June 8, 1998. Interview K-0174. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Full Text of the Excerpt PG: Violence, yeah. Do you think at that time there were principals who were afraid to discipline in schools? LM: Well, the thing about it, if you’re a black person you had to know how to get along with a white person. Blacks have always had to get along with whites since slavery. But it wasn’t true of whites. The only blacks that some of the white principals had ever associated with were maybe their gardener or cook or somebody like that. They’d never had to associate with any blacks. I can recall when Dr. Garinger was the superintendent. We attempted to integrate the faculties when you had the freedom of choice. When I first came to Charlotte the superintendents used to meet with the blacks on one Saturday morning and the whites on another Saturday morning. Then they started having one meeting, and instead of having a black English group and a white one it was all English teachers and all industrial arts teachers. You’d be surprised. That was something that was hard to come by. PG: The white teachers didn’t want to meet with the black teachers? LM: No. They were resentful. I think it was just both of them. They were just resentful. You had some that didn’t matter. I know the first two white teachers we had at West Charlotte, had one in Social Studies by the name of Ann Fiber and another white teacher in English Anna Wiles, that was the freedom of choice. Ann Fiber she finished the University of Mississippi, and she came to West Charlotte when they said you had to integrate schools and sixty percent of your teachers had to be white and forty percent had to be black. I think it hurt Ann worse than anybody else. It was funny. When she was there by herself she was a little white princess, so to speak. But when other whites came there it sort of stole her thunder. I learned, now this is the God’s truth. One was a blond and the other one was a brunette. I remember I used to hand deliver the checks to the teachers on pay day. I’d go to Ann Fiber and I’d give her Miss Wiles’ check. She said, “Oh, this is Ann Fiber.” Until that time I’d never looked at a white woman, period. I guess about the second or third month Miss Fiber stopped me. She said, “Mr. Miller, if I can take the time to know that there’s a difference between blacks, seemingly you can do likewise. Look, I’m a blond. Anna Wiles is a brunette. Her hair is almost as black as your hair.” I said, “Thank you,” and I moved on out. I started looking at hair then. I said you can tell them by the hair. You can tell them by the eyes, but I’d never paid that much attention to white, period. LM: No. I can recall Miss Ledford, she was my curriculum coordinator. Back when they had the gas shortage we had a curriculum meeting over at Garinger High School. I went out to get in my car and she was out there. I said, “No, you aren’t going to ride with me.” She said, “I don’t have any gas. I don’t have gas enough to get home.” I didn’t want a rider, not in my car. I didn’t want to ride no white. When I was at West Charlotte I used to police the campus, to look, because kids would sneak off from school. The same thing was true when I went to Carmel. I remember that first year down at Carmel I had some girls and boys that had sneaked off the campus. They were going down Carmel Road. I went down there chasing them. These cars that were coming up from South Carolina, I was chasing little white girls running, them cars slowing down. I happened to think, “Man, some of these fools out here there’s no telling what they’d do.” So I came back to the campus and I got Mayor Brown and Sue. I said, “Listen, let’s go get them.” I made sure that I was going to protect myself. I remember Barbara. She said, “Mr. Miller, everybody knows that you’re the principal and I’m the curriculum coordinator. So she got in. I had a little old Mustang. She got in the car and we went over to Garinger High School from East Mecklenburg. On the way back I said, “Miss Ledford, I wish you would sit up straight in your seat.” She was turned sideways, and she was talking. I said, “Just sit straight.” There was one of those BFI trucks behind us. I saw the fellow when he passed us. As he passed us he was white and he decided he was going to slow down and see what that white woman was doing in that car with that black man. So he let us pass him. Then he got right behind us. When we go to Independence and Hawthorne there was an ambulance going down Hawthorne Lane. The red light was on, and I was in front of that BFI truck. I had to stop even though I had the light. It was on green, and when I stopped that BFI truck ran right into the back of me. It knocked me over on the corner. I got on the corner, and the ambulance stopped to see if we were hurt, and then proceeded. The police came. That old fellow that was driving the ambulance told the police, “That nigger had that white woman over there.” I’d gone over on the corner. I heard him. He said, “That nigger over there he had that little white woman over there.” The policeman sat there. He said, “That’s Mr. Miller. He’s principal at East Mecklenburg.” It just so happened that the officers that came out there had been one that worked at some of our games. He came over. I said, “I stopped for the ambulance. He ran into the back of me and knocked me over there.” The driver was over there telling George Powell. George was in charge of PE for the school system. He had been at the same meeting we had been at. He was telling George, “That man over there had that white woman.” George said, “We’ve got to take care of that pink half-wit.” Made a joke out of it. I said to Barbara after, “I told you. My mamma always told me white women were bad luck.” She was the first one that ever rode in a car with me. She was a nice young lady. I knew her mother and her husband, Buster. They were nice. She was just like a daughter of mine. Smart young lady.	3.284956
Epilepsy: Surgical Options for Epilepsy What Is Epilepsy Surgery? Medication can control seizures in most people with epilepsy, but for about 30% of patients, they aren't effective or are intolerable. In some cases, brain surgery may be an option. Epilepsy surgery is an operation on the brain to control seizures and improve the person's quality of life. There are two main types of epilepsy surgery: - Surgery to remove the area of the brain producing seizures - Surgery to interrupt the nerve pathways through which seizure impulses spread within the brain Surgery is considered only if the area of the brain where the seizures start, called the seizure focus, can be clearly identified, and if the area to be removed is not responsible for any critical functions, such as language, sensation and movement. Extensive evaluation and testing are necessary to determine if surgery is appropriate. Who Is a Candidate for Epilepsy Surgery? Surgery may be an option for people with epilepsy whose seizures are disabling and/or are not controlled by medication, or when the side effects of medication are severe and greatly affect the person's quality of life. Patients with other serious medical problems, such as cancer or heart disease, usually are not considered for epilepsy surgery.	3.232107
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. For six months, the United States had made use of intense strategic fire-bombing of 67 Japanese cities. Together with the United Kingdom, and the Republic of China the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration. The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum. By executive order of President Harry S. Truman, the U.S. dropped the nuclear weapon “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed by the detonation of “Fat Man” over Nagasaki on August 9. These two events are the only active deployments of nuclear weapons in war.The target of Hiroshima was a city of considerable military importance, containing Japan’s Second Army Headquarters, as well as being a communications center and storage depot. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. The Hiroshima prefectural health department estimates that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In a US estimate of the total immediate and short term cause of death, 15–20% died from radiation sickness, 20–30% from flash burns, and 50–60% from other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians. Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, on August 15, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers, signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, officially ending the Pacific War and therefore World War II. Germany had signed its Instrument of Surrender on May 7, ending the war in Europe. The bombings led, in part, to post-war Japan’s adopting Three Non-Nuclear Principles, forbidding the nation from nuclear armament. The role of the bombings in Japan’s surrender and the U.S.’s ethical justification for them, as well as their strategical importance, is still debated.	3.798385
Cholera outbreaks in Caribbean, Africa spark alerts Jul 22, 2011 (CIDRAP News) – European Union (EU) health officials today warned travelers about a risk of contracting cholera in the Dominican Republic, a magnet for tourists, while the World Health Organization (WHO) said cholera outbreaks along Africa's Congo River have killed 271 people. In a report released today but dated June 2011, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said cholera is becoming endemic in the Dominican Republic. The country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, which has been battling a large cholera epidemic since October 2010. Cholera first spread from Haiti to the Dominican Republic last November, and the latter had had 5,367 suspected cases with 46 deaths by mid-June, the ECDC reported. It said 1,727 cases were confirmed. "Despite intense efforts by the Ministries of Health in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and by humanitarian workers involved in the response to the epidemic, cholera is becoming endemic in both countries," the report says. "It is anticipated that further epidemic peaks will occur, particularly during the rainy season" (April to June and October-November). Two European tourists, a 69-year-old English woman and a 60-year-old German woman, contracted cholera while staying at resorts in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, in May, the report says. Theirs were the first Dominican-linked cases reported by EU member states since the epidemic began. The sources of their infections were not pinpointed and could have been either water or food. More than a million European tourists visit the Dominican Republic annually, according to the report. It said Haiti receives far fewer European visitors, with just 23,000 in 2007. Because of the size of the Dominican epidemic, occasional travel-related cases can be expected and may increase during the country's rainy seasons, the ECDC says. Overall, though, the risk of cholera in visitors to the country should be considered low. The ECDC says visitors to cholera-endemic countries should drink only bottled or chlorinated water, carefully wash all fruits and vegetables with potable water, regularly wash their hands, and eat seafood only if it is thoroughly cooked. In the EU, cholera vaccination is not routinely recommended for travelers, but it might be considered for people who work in refugee camps and certain other groups. Meanwhile, the WHO today said cholera outbreaks along the Congo River have caused more than 4,000 cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Congo. The outbreak in the DRC was first reported in March and has intensified in the past 3 to 4 weeks, the WHO said. As of Jul 20, authorities had reported 3,896 cases and 265 deaths, with a case-fatality rate (CFR) of 7%. The affected provinces are Bandundu, Equateur, Kinshasa, and P Orientale. In the Republic of Congo, 181 suspected cases including six deaths were reported between Jun 14 and Jul 20 in four provinces (Brazzaville, Cuvette, Likouala, and Plateaux), with a CFR of 3%, the WHO said. Four cases have been laboratory-confirmed. "There is high risk of the epidemic further spreading along the Congo River," the agency said. "The outbreak has been reported to have spread to new locations, particularly in Kinshasa, where there are large population groups with inadequate safe water." The governments of the two countries, along with international organizations, have set up cholera treatment centers and taken other steps to respond to the outbreaks, the WHO said. The agency said it is conducting a rapid risk assessment in the DRC to identify urgent needs and has sent four specialists to Kinshasa to support the response operations. ECDC warning on cholera risk in the Dominican Republic Cholera Epidemic Rising Higher in Dominican Republic Cholera epidemic is spreading speedily as the Dominican Republic's death toll has now risen to 87. Spreading from Haiti, it is suspected that the epidemic has affected more than 13,000 people till date. The concerned authorities also said on Friday that the epidemic has killed more than 5,500 people in Haiti and as the country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, people here need to be more cautious and must adopt all the possible preventive measures. According to the reports released from the Dominican health ministry, the death toll has risen big since July 8 as the new affected figures are 87 now. Since beginning, total 13,200 cases have been reported till date out of which past week recorded total 773 new cases. In context to same, US Centers for Disease Control also published an epidemiological study in which they highlighted that UN troops from Nepal are the main cause for the epidemic. Report from ECDC on epidemic said, "Despite intense efforts by the Ministries of Health in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and by humanitarian workers involved in the response to the epidemic, cholera is becoming endemic in both countries. It is anticipated that further epidemic peaks will occur, particularly during the rainy season (April to June and October-November).” Here is the Russian warning about Cholera in Dom Rep:	3.002518
Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers If a photon travels at the speed of light, why isn't its mass infinite? Because the photon is one of those handful of particles ( photon, graviton, gluon) which has 'zero rest mass'. The special relativistic formula that shows mass increasing with speed only applies to particles with non-zero rest mass such as neutrinos, electrons, quarks and so on. Return to the Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers page. All answers are provided by Dr. Sten Odenwald (Raytheon STX) for the NASA Astronomy Cafe, part of the NASA Education and Public Outreach program.	3.13753
Figure 3-29.Block diagram of a flip-flop with a toggle input. Figure 3-30.Flip-flop with three inputs (block diagram). Remember, a SET input will SET the flip-flop if it is in the CLEAR state, otherwise, it will not do anything; a trigger at the CLEAR input can only CLEAR the circuit if it is SET; and a trigger applied to the TOGGLE input will cause the bistable multivibrator to change states regardless of what state it is in. Q7. In a bistable multivibrator, how many trigger pulses are needed to produce one complete cycle in Q8. How many stable states are there for a flip-flop? Q9. If a voltage (positive or negative) is measured on the "1" output of a flip-flop, what state is it in? The BLOCKING OSCILLATOR is a special type of wave generator used to produce a narrow pulse, or trigger. Blocking oscillators have many uses, most of which are concerned with the timing of some other circuit. They can be used as frequency dividers or counter circuits and for switching other circuits on and off at specific times. In a blocking oscillator the pulse width (pw), pulse repetition time (prt), and pulse repetition rate (prr) are all controlled by the size of certain capacitors and resistors and by the operating characteristics of the transformer. The transformer primary determines the duration and shape of the output. Because of their importance in the circuit, transformer action and series RL circuits will be discussed briefly. You may want to review transformer action in NEETS, Module 2, Introduction to Alternating Current and Transformers before going to the next section. Figure 3-31, view (A), shows a transformer with resistance in both the primary and secondary circuits. If S1 is closed, current will flow through R1 and L1. As the current increases in L1, it induces a voltage into L2 and causes current flow through R2. The voltage induced into L2 depends on the ratio of turns between L1 and L2 as well as the current flow through L1.	3.569267
Introduction to Physical Science/Energy Many Forms of Energy By 9th grade (U.S. system) some students can identify potential energy (energy stored in objects due to their position - snow on a steep slope) and kinetic energy (displayed by snow when it breaks loose and an avalanche falls down the steep slope.) Some students recognize the heat is a form of energy as well. In fact, depending on the context of the discussion, students may identify many forms of energy, such as: Potential, Kinetic, Thermal, Chemical, Electrical, Magnetic, Sound, Nuclear and so on.	3.361873
In computer science and logic, a dependent type is a type that depends on a value. Dependent types play a central role in intuitionistic type theory and in the design of functional programming languages like ATS, Agda and Epigram. An example is the type of n-tuples of real numbers. This is a dependent type because the type depends on the value n. Deciding equality of dependent types in a program may require computations. If arbitrary values are allowed in dependent types, then deciding type equality may involve deciding whether two arbitrary programs produce the same result; hence type checking may become undecidable. The Curry–Howard correspondence implies that types can be constructed that express arbitrarily complex mathematical properties. If the user can supply a constructive proof that a type is inhabited (i.e., that a value of that type exists) then a compiler can check the proof and convert it into executable computer code that computes the value by carrying out the construction. The proof checking feature makes dependently typed languages closely related to proof assistants. The code-generation aspect provides a powerful approach to formal program verification and proof-carrying code, since the code is derived directly from a mechanically verified mathematical proof. Systems of the lambda cube Henk Barendregt developed the lambda cube as a means of classifying type systems along three axes. The eight corners of the resulting cube-shaped diagram each correspond to a type system, with simply typed lambda calculus in the least expressive corner, and calculus of constructions in the most expressive. The three axes of the cube correspond to three different augmentations of the simply typed lambda calculus: the addition of dependent types, the addition of polymorphism, and the addition of higher kinded type constructors (functions from types to types, for example). The lambda cube is generalized further by pure type systems. First order dependent type theory The system of pure first order dependent types, corresponding to the logical framework LF, is obtained by generalising the function space type of the simply typed lambda calculus to the dependent product type. Writing for -tuples of real numbers, as above, stands for the type of functions which given a natural number n returns a tuple of real numbers of size n. The usual function space arises as a special case when the range type does not actually depend on the input, e.g. is the type of functions from natural numbers to the real numbers, written as in the simply typed lambda calculus. Second order dependent type theory The system of second order dependent types is obtained from by allowing quantification over type constructors. In this theory the dependent product operator subsumes both the operator of simply typed lambda calculus and the binder of System F. Higher order dependently typed polymorphic lambda calculus The higher order system extends to all four forms of abstraction from the lambda cube: functions from terms to terms, types to types, terms to types and types to terms. The system corresponds to the Calculus of constructions whose derivative, the calculus of inductive constructions is the underlying system of the Coq proof assistant. Object-oriented programming \|Language\|\|Actively developed\|\|Paradigm[fn 1]\|\|Tactics\|\|Proof terms\|\|Termination checking\|\|Types can depend on[fn 2]\|\|Universes\|\|Proof irrelevance\|\|Program extraction\|\|Extraction erases irrelevant terms\| \|ATS\|\|Yes\|\|Functional / imperative\|\|No\|\|Yes\|\|Yes\|\|?\|\|?\|\|?\|\|Yes\|\|?\| \|Cayenne\|\|No\|\|Purely functional\|\|No\|\|Yes\|\|No\|\|Any term\|\|No\|\|No\|\|?\|\|?\| \|Coq\|\|Yes\|\|Purely functional\|\|Yes\|\|Yes\|\|Yes\|\|Any term\|\|Yes[fn 5]\|\|No\|\|Haskell, Scheme and OCaml\|\|Yes\| \|Dependent ML\|\|No[fn 6]\|\|?\|\|?\|\|Yes\|\|?\|\|Natural numbers\|\|?\|\|?\|\|?\|\|?\| \|Epigram 2\|\|Yes\|\|Purely functional\|\|No\|\|Coming soon[dated info]\|\|By construction\|\|Any term\|\|Coming soon[dated info]\|\|Coming soon[dated info]\|\|Coming soon[dated info]\|\|Coming soon[dated info]\| \|Guru\|\|No\|\|Purely functional\|\|hypjoin\|\|Yes\|\|Yes\|\|Any term\|\|No\|\|Yes\|\|Carraway\|\|Yes\| \|Idris\|\|Yes\|\|Purely functional\|\|Yes\|\|Yes\|\|Yes (optional)\|\|Any term\|\|No\|\|No\|\|Yes\|\|Yes, aggressively\| \|Matita\|\|Yes\|\|Purely functional\|\|Yes\|\|Yes\|\|Yes\|\|Any term\|\|Yes\|\|?\|\|OCaml\|\|?\| \|NuPRL\|\|No\|\|Purely functional\|\|Yes\|\|Yes\|\|Yes\|\|Any term\|\|Yes\|\|?\|\|Yes\|\|?\| \|Twelf\|\|Yes\|\|Logic programming\|\|?\|\|Yes\|\|Yes (optional)\|\|Any (LF) term\|\|No\|\|No\|\|?\|\|?\| See also - This refers to the core language, not to any tactic or code generation sublanguage. - Subject to semantic constraints, such as universe constraints - Ring solver - Optional universes, optional universe polymorphism, and optional explicitly specified universes - Universes, automatically inferred universe constraints (not the same as Agda's universe polymorphism) and optional explicit printing of universe constraints - Has been superseded by ATS - Anton Setzer (2007). "Object-oriented programming in dependent type theory". In Henrik Nilsson. Trends in Functional Programming, vol. 7. Intellect. pp. 91–108. - "Agda download page". - "Agda Ring Solver". - "Announce: Agda 2.2.8". - "ATS Changelog". - "email from ATS inventor Hongwei Xi". - "Coq CHANGES in Subversion repository". - "Epigram homepage". - "Guru SVN". - Aaron Stump (6 April 2009). "Verified Programming in Guru". Retrieved 28 September 2010. - Adam Petcher (1 April 2008). "Deciding Joinability Modulo Ground Equations in Operational Type Theory". Retrieved 14 October 2010. - "Idris git repository". - "Idris, a language with dependent types - extended abstract". - Edwin Brady. "How does Idris compare to other dependently-typed programming languages?". - "Matita SVN". - "Xanadu home page". Further reading - Martin-Löf, Per (1984). Intuitionistic Type Theory. Bibliopolis. - Nordström, Bengt; Petersson, Kent; Smith, Jan M. (1990). Programming in Martin-Löf's Type Theory: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. - Barendregt, Henk (1992). "Lambda calculi with types". In S. Abramsky, D. Gabbay and T. Maibaum. Handbook of Logic in Computer Science. Oxford Science Publications. - McBride, Conor; McKinna, James (January 2004). "The view from the left". Journal of Functional Programming 14 (1): 69–111. - Altenkirch, Thorsten; McBride, Conor; McKinna, James (April 2005). Why dependent types matter. - Norell, Ulf. Towards a practical programming language based on dependent type theory. PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden, September 2007. - Oury, Nicolas and Swierstra, Wouter (2008). "The Power of Pi". Accepted for presentation at ICFP, 2008. - Norell, Ulf (2008). Dependently Typed Programming in Agda.	3.078269
Interferon type I Human type I interferons comprise a vast and growing group of IFN proteins. Mammalian types The IFN-α proteins are produced by leukocytes. They are mainly involved in innate immune response against viral infection. They come in 13 subtypes that are called IFNA1, IFNA2, IFNA4, IFNA5, IFNA6, IFNA7, IFNA8, IFNA10, IFNA13, IFNA14, IFNA16, IFNA17, IFNA21. These genes for these IFN-α molecules are found together in a cluster on chromosome 9. IFN-α is also made synthetically as medication. Types are: The IFN-β proteins are produced in large quantities by fibroblasts. They have antiviral activity which is mainly involved in innate immune response. Two types of IFN-β have been described, IFN-β1 (IFNB1) and IFN-β3 (IFNB3) (a gene designated IFN-β2 is actually IL-6). IFN-β1 is used as a treatment for multiple sclerosis as it reduces the relapse rate. IFN-ε, –κ, -τ, -δ, and –ζ IFN-ε, –κ, -τ, and –ζ appear, at this time, to come in a single isoform in humans, IFNK. Only ruminants encode IFN-τ, a variant of IFN-ω. So far, IFN-ζ is found only in mice, while a structural homolog, IFN-δ is found in a diverse array of non-primate and non-rodent placental mammals. Most but not all placental mammals encode functional IFN-ε and IFN-κ genes. IFN-ω, although having only one functional form described to date (IFNW1), has several pseudogenes: IFNWP2, IFNWP4, IFNWP5, IFNWP9, IFNWP15, IFNWP18, and IFNWP19 in humans. Many non-primate placental mammals express multiple IFN-ω subtypes This subtype of Type I IFN was recently described as a pseudogene in human, but potentially functional in the domestic cat genome. In all other genomes of non-feline placental mammals, IFN-ν is a pseudogene; in some species, the pseudogene is well preserved, while in others, it is badly mutilated or is undetectable. Moreover, in the cat genome, the IFN-ν promoter is deleteriously mutated. It is likely that the IFN-ν gene family was rendered useless prior to mammalian diversification. Its presence on the edge of the Type I IFN locus in mammals may have shielded it from obliteration, allowing its detection. Sources and functions IFN-α and IFN-β are secreted by many cell types including lymphocytes (NK cells, B-cells and T-cells), macrophages, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, osteoblasts and others. They stimulate both macrophages and NK cells to elicit an anti-viral response, and are also active against tumors. Recently, plasmacytoid dendritic cells have been identified as being the most potent producers of type I IFNs in response to antigen, and have thus been coined natural IFN producing cells. IFN-ω is released by leukocytes at the site of viral infection or tumors. IFN-α acts as a pyrogenic factor by altering the activity of thermosensitive neurons in the hypothalamus thus causing fever. It does this by binding to opioid receptors and eliciting the release of prostaglandin-E2 (PGE2). Non-mammalian types Avian Type I IFNs have been characterized and preliminarily assigned to subtypes (IFN I, IFN II, and IFN III), but their classification into subtypes should await a more extensive characterization of avian genomes. Functional lizard Type I IFNs can be found in lizard genome databases. Turtle Type I IFNs have been purified (references from 1970s needed). They resemble mammalian homologs. The existence of amphibian Type I IFNs have been inferred by the discovery of the genes encoding their receptor chains. They have not yet been purified, or their genes cloned. Piscine (bony fish) Type I IFN has been cloned in several teleost species. With few exceptions, and in stark contrast to avian and especially mammalian IFNs, they are present as single genes (multiple genes are however seen in polyploid fish genomes, possibly arising from whole-genome duplication). Unlike amniote IFN genes, piscine Type I IFN genes contain introns, in similar positions as do their orthologs, certain interleukins. - Schultz et al., The interferon system of non-mammalian vertebrates. Developmental and Comparative Immunology, Volume 28, pages 499-508. - Samarajiwa et al., Type I interferons: genetics and structure. The Interferons: Characterization and Application, 2006 Wiley-VCH, pages 3-34. - Oritani and Tomiyama, Interferon-ζ/limitin: Novel type I Interferon that displays a narrow range of biological activity. International journal of hematology, 2004, Volume 80, pages 325-331 . - Hardy et al., Characterization of the type I interferon locus and identification of novel genes. Genomics, 2004, Volume 84 pages 331-345. - Todd and Naylor, New chromosomal mapping assignments for argininosuccinate synthetase pseudogene 1, interferon-beta 3 gene, and the diazepam binding inhibitor gene. Somat. Cell. Mol. Genet. 1992 Volume 18, pages 381-5. - Wang et al., Fever of recombinant human interferon-alpha is mediated by opioid domain interaction with opioid receptor inducing prostaglandin E2. J Neuroimmunol. 2004 Nov;156(1-2):107-12.	3.125041
Natural language generation Natural Language Generation (NLG) is the natural language processing task of generating natural language from a machine representation system such as a knowledge base or a logical form. Psycholinguists prefer the term language production when such formal representations are interpreted as models for mental representations. It could be said an NLG system is like a translator that converts a computer based representation into a natural language representation. However, the methods to produce the final language are different from those of a compiler due to the inherent expressivity of natural languages. NLG may be viewed as the opposite of natural language understanding: whereas in natural language understanding the system needs to disambiguate the input sentence to produce the machine representation language, in NLG the system needs to make decisions about how to put a concept into words. Simple examples are systems that generate form letters. These do not typically involve grammar rules, but may generate a letter to a consumer, e.g. stating that a credit card spending limit was reached. More complex NLG systems dynamically create texts to meet a communicative goal. As in other areas of natural language processing, this can be done using either explicit models of language (e.g., grammars) and the domain, or using statistical models derived by analysing human-written texts. The Pollen Forecast for Scotland demo shows a simple NLG system in action. This system takes as input six numbers, which give predicted pollen levels in different parts of Scotland. From these numbers, the system generates a short textual summary of pollen levels as its output. For example, using the historical data for 1-July-2005, the software produces Grass pollen levels for Friday have increased from the moderate to high levels of yesterday with values of around 6 to 7 across most parts of the country. However, in Northern areas, pollen levels will be moderate with values of 4. In contrast, the actual forecast (written by a human meteorologist) from this data was Pollen counts are expected to remain high at level 6 over most of Scotland, and even level 7 in the south east. The only relief is in the Northern Isles and far northeast of mainland Scotland with medium levels of pollen count. Comparing these two illustrates some of the choices that NLG systems must make; these are further discussed below. The process to generate text can be as simple as keeping a list of canned text that is copied and pasted, possibly linked with some glue text. The results may be satisfactory in simple domains such as horoscope machines or generators of personalised business letters. However, a sophisticated NLG system needs to include stages of planning and merging of information to enable the generation of text that looks natural and does not become repetitive. Typical stages are: Content determination: Deciding what information to mention in the text. For instance, in the pollen example above, deciding whether to explicitly mention that pollen level is 7 in the south east. Document structuring: Overall organisation of the information to convey. For example, deciding to describe the areas with high pollen levels first, instead of the areas with low pollen levels. Aggregation: Merging of similar sentences to improve readability and naturalness. For instance, merging the two sentences Grass pollen levels for Friday have increased from the moderate to high levels of yesterday and Grass pollen levels will be around 6 to 7 across most parts of the country into the single sentence Grass pollen levels for Friday have increased from the moderate to high levels of yesterday with values of around 6 to 7 across most parts of the country. Lexical choice: Putting words to the concepts. For example, deciding whether medium or moderate should be used when describing a pollen level of 4. Referring expression generation: Creating referring expressions that identify objects and regions. For example, deciding to use in the Northern Isles and far northeast of mainland Scotland to refer to a certain region in Scotland. This task also includes making decisions about pronouns and other types of anaphora. NLG systems effectively generate jokes (see computational humor), but from a commercial perspective, the most successful NLG applications have been data-to-text systems which generate textual summaries of databases and data sets; these systems usually perform data analysis as well as text generation. In particular, several systems have been built that produce textual weather forecasts from weather data. The earliest such system to be deployed was FoG, which was used by Environment Canada to generate weather forecasts in French and English in the early 1990s. The success of FoG triggered other work, both research and commercial. Recent research in this area include an experiment which showed that users sometimes preferred computer-generated weather forecasts to human-written ones, in part because the computer forecasts used more consistent terminology , and a demonstration that statistical techniques could be used to generate high-quality weather forecasts. Recent applications include the ARNS system used to summarise conditions in US ports. In the 1990s there was interest in using NLG to summarise financial and business data. For example the SPOTLIGHT system developed at A.C. Nielsen automatically generated readable English text based on the analysis of large amounts of retail sales data. More recently there is interest in using NLG to summarise electronic medical records. Commercial applications in this area are appearing , and researchers have shown that NLG summaries of medical data can be effective decision-support aids for medical professionals. There is also growing interest in using NLG to enhance accessibility, for example by describing graphs and data sets to blind people. An example of an interactive use of NLG is the WYSIWYM framework. It stands for What you see is what you meant and allows users to see and manipulate the continuously rendered view (NLG output) of an underlying formal language document (NLG input), thereby editing the formal language without learning it. As in other scientific fields, NLG researchers need to test how well their systems, modules, and algorithms work. This is called evaluation. There are three basic techniques for evaluating NLG systems: - Task-based (extrinsic) evaluation: give the generated text to a person, and assess how well it helps him perform a task (or otherwise achieves its communicative goal). For example, a system which generates summaries of medical data can be evaluated by giving these summaries to doctors, and assessing whether the summaries helps doctors make better decisions. - Human ratings: give the generated text to a person, and ask him or her to rate the quality and usefulness of the text. - Metrics: compare generated texts to texts written by people from the same input data, using an automatic metric such as BLEU. An ultimate goal is how useful NLG systems are at helping people, which is the first of the above techniques. However, task-based evaluations are time-consuming and expensive, and can be difficult to carry out (especially if they require subjects with specialised expertise, such as doctors). Hence (as in other areas of NLP) task-based evaluations are the exception, not the norm. Recently researchers are assessing how well human-ratings and metrics correlate with (predict) task-based evaluations. Work is being conducted in the context of Generation Challenges shared-task events. Initial results suggest that human ratings are much better than metrics in this regard. In other words, human ratings usually do predict task-effectiveness at least to some degree (although there are exceptions ), while ratings produced by metrics often do not predict task-effectiveness well. These results are preliminary. In any case, human ratings are the most popular evaluation technique in NLG; this is contrast to machine translation, where metrics are widely used. - R Turner, S Sripada, E Reiter, I Davy (2006). Generating Spatio-Temporal Descriptions in Pollen Forecasts. Proceedings of EACL06 - Goldberg E, Driedger N, Kittredge R (1994). "Using Natural-Language Processing to Produce Weather Forecasts". IEEE Expert 9 (2): 45–53. doi:10.1109/64.294135. - Reiter E, Sripada S, Hunter J, Yu J, Davy I (2005). "Choosing Words in Computer-Generated Weather Forecasts". Artificial Intelligence 167: 137–69. doi:10.1016/j.artint.2005.06.006. - Belz A (2008). "Automatic Generation of Weather Forecast Texts Using Comprehensive Probabilistic Generation-Space Models". Natural Language Engineering 14: 431–55. - Anand, Tej; Kahn, Gary (1992). "Making Sense of Gigabytes: A System for Knowledge-Based Market Analysis". In Klahr, Philip; Scott, A. F. Innovative applications of artificial intelligence 4: proceedings of the IAAI-92 Conference. Menlo Park, Calif: AAAI Press. pp. 57–70. ISBN 0-262-69155-8. - Harris MD (2008). "Building a Large-Scale Commercial NLG System for an EMR". Proceedings of the Fifth International Natural Language Generation Conference. pp. 157–60. http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W08-1120.pdf. - Portet F, Reiter E, Gatt A, Hunter J, Sripada S, Freer Y, Sykes C (2009). "Automatic Generation of Textual Summaries from Neonatal Intensive Care Data". Artificial Intelligence 173 (7–8): 789–816. doi:10.1016/j.artint.2008.12.002. - Law A, Freer Y, Hunter J, Logie R, McIntosh N, Quinn J (2005). "A Comparison of Graphical and Textual Presentations of Time Series Data to Support Medical Decision Making in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit". Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing 19 (3): 183–94. doi:10.1007/s10877-005-0879-3. PMID 16244840. Further reading - Dale, Robert; Reiter, Ehud (2000). Building natural language generation systems. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-02451-X. - ACL Special Interest Group on Generation (SIGGEN) - SIGGEN part of ACL Anthology (contains NLG research papers) - ACL NLG Portal (contains list of NLG resources) - Bateman and Zock's list of NLG systems - Introduction An open-ended review of the state of the art including many references (Last update: September 2002) - KPML — general-purpose natural language generation system - Yseop — business-oriented natural language generation system - SimpleNLG — Open source Java library to assist in NLG (English only) - SimpleNLG-EnFr — Open source Java library adaption of SimpleNLG which adds French support.	3.56677
Church of the East \|Part of a series on\| The Church of the East (Syriac: ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ ʿĒ(d)tāʾ d-Maḏn(ə)ḥāʾ), also known as the Nestorian Church,[note 1] is a Christian church, part of the Syriac tradition of Eastern Christianity. The church of the Persian Sassanid Empire, it quickly spread widely through Asia. Between the 9th and 14th centuries it was the world's largest Christian church in terms of geographical extent, with dioceses stretching from the Mediterranean to China and India. Several modern churches claim continuity with the historical Church of the East. The Church of the East was headed by the Patriarch of the East, continuing a line that, according to tradition, stretched back to the Apostolic Age. Liturgically, the church adhered to the East Syrian Rite, and theologically, it is associated with the doctrine of Nestorianism, which emphasizes the distinctness of the divine and human natures of Jesus. This doctrine and its chief proponent, Nestorius (386–451), were condemned by the First Council of Ephesus in 431, leading to the Nestorian Schism and a subsequent exodus of Nestorius' supporters to Sassanid Persia. The existing Christians in Persia welcomed these refugees and gradually adopted Nestorian doctrine, leading the Church of Persia to be known alternately as the Nestorian Church. The church grew rapidly under the Sassanids, and following the Islamic conquest of Persia, it was designated as a protected dhimmi community under Muslim rule. From the 6th century, it expanded greatly, establishing communities in India (the Saint Thomas Christians), Central Asia (where they had evangelical success among the Mongol tribes), and China, which was home to a thriving Nestorian community under the Tang Dynasty from the 7th to the 9th century. In the 13th and 14th century the church experienced a final period of expansion under the Mongol Empire, which had influential Nestorian Christians in the Mongol court. From its peak of geographical extent, the church experienced a rapid period of decline starting in the 14th century, due in large part to outside influences. The Mongol Empire dissolved into civil war, the Chinese Ming Dynasty overthrew the Mongols and ejected Christians and other foreign influences from China (also including Manichaeism), and many Mongols in Central Asia converted to Islam. The Muslim Mongol leader Timur (1336–1405) nearly eradicated the remaining Christians in Persia; thereafter, Nestorian Christianity was largely confined to Upper Mesopotamia and the Malabar Coast of India. In the 16th century, the Church of the East went into a schism from which two distinct churches eventually emerged; the modern Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See. Organization and structure The head of the church, the Patriarch of the Church of the East, also bears the title of Catholicos. Like the churches from which it developed, the Church of the East has an ordained clergy divided into the three traditional orders of deacon, priest (or presbyter), and bishop. Also like other churches, it has an episcopal polity: organization by dioceses, each headed by a bishop and made up of several individual parish communities overseen by priests. Dioceses are organized into provinces under the authority of a metropolitan bishop. The office of metropolitan bishop is an important one, and comes with additional duties and powers; canonically, only metropolitans can consecrate a patriarch. The Patriarch also has the charge of a province: the Province of the Patriarch. For most of its history the church had six or so Interior Provinces in its heartland in Mesopotamia and western Persia, and an increasing number of Exterior Provinces elsewhere. Most of these latter were located farther afield within the territory of the Sassanids (and later of the Caliphate), but very early on, provinces formed beyond the empire's borders as well. By the 10th century, the church had between 20 and 30 metropolitan provinces including in China and India. The Chinese provinces were lost in the 11th century, and in the subsequent centuries, other exterior provinces went into decline as well. However, in the 13th century, during the Mongol Empire, the church added two new metropolitan provinces in northern China, Tangut and Katai and Ong. The Church of the East is associated with Nestorianism, a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428 – 431, which emphasizes the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus. Nestorius's doctrine represented the culmination of a philosophical current developed by scholars at the School of Antioch, most notably Nestorius's mentor Theodore of Mopsuestia. This became a source of controversy when Nestorius publicly challenged usage of the title Theotokos (literally, "Bearer of God") for the Virgin Mary. He suggested that the title denied Christ's full humanity, arguing instead that Jesus had two loosely joined natures, the divine Logos and the human Jesus, and proposed Christotokos (literally, "Bearer of the Christ") as a more suitable alternative title. These statements drew criticism from other prominent churchmen, particularly from Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, leading to the First Council of Ephesus in 431, which condemned Nestorius for heresy and deposed him as patriarch. Nestorianism was officially anathematized, a ruling reiterated at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. However, a number of churches, particularly those associated with the School of Edessa in Mesopotamia, supported Nestorius—though not necessarily the doctrine ascribed to him—and broke with the churches of the Roman Empire. Many of Nestorius' supporters relocated to Sassanid Persia. These events are known as the Nestorian Schism. Although the "Nestorian" label was initially a theological one, applied to followers of the Nestorian doctrine, it was soon applied to all associated churches with little regard for theological consideration. While often used disparagingly in the West to emphasize the Church of the East's connections to a heretical doctrine, many writers of the Middle Ages and since have simply used the label descriptively, as a neutral and conventional term for the church. Other names for the church include "Persian Church", "Syriac" or "Syrian" (often distinguished as East Syriac/Syrian), and, more recently, "Assyrian". In modern times some scholars have sought to avoid the Nestorian label, preferring "Church of the East" or one of the other alternatives. This is due both to the term's derogatory connotations, and because it implies a stronger connection to Nestorian doctrine than may have historically existed. As Wilhelm Baum and Dietmar W. Winkler said, "Nestorius himself was no Nestorian" in terms of doctrine. Even from the beginning, not all churches called "Nestorian" adhered to the Nestorian doctrine; in China, it has been noted that none of the various sources for the local Nestorian church refer to Christ as having two natures. As such, in 2006 an academic conference changed its name from "Research on Nestorianism in China", explaining in the Preface, "...it was decided not to keep the term "Nestorianism" in the title of the future conferences and the present book, but to use the term Church of the East, which is correct and wide enough to cover the whole field of the research." The 2000 work, The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913, offers an explanation in the first chapter: The terminology used in this study deserves a word of explanation. Until recently the Church of the East was usually called the 'Nestorian' church, and East Syrian Christians were either 'Nestorians' or (for the Catholic group after the schism of 1552) 'Chaldeans'. During the period covered in this study, the word 'Nestorian' was used both as a term of abuse by those who disapproved of the traditional East Syrian theology, as a term of pride by many of its defenders (including Abdisho of Nisibis in 1318, the Mosul patriarch Eliya X Yohannan Marogin in 1672, and the Qudshanis patriarch Shem'on XVII Abraham in 1842), and as a neutral and convenient descriptive term by others. Nowadays it is generally felt that the term carries a stigma, and students of the Church of the East are advised to avoid its use. In this thesis the theologically neutral adjective 'East Syrian' has been used wherever possible, and the term 'traditionalist' to distinguish the non-Catholic branch of the Church of the East after the schism of 1552. The modern term 'Assyrian', often used in the same sense, was unknown for most of the period covered in this study, and has been avoided. The modern Assyrian Church of the East has shunned the "Nestorian" label. The church's present head, Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV, explicitly rejected the term on the occasion of his consecration in 1976. The Peshitta, in some cases lightly revised and with missing books added, is the standard Syriac Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition: the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Syrian Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, the Indian Orthodox Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Syro-Malabar Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated from the Hebrew, although the date and circumstances of this are not entirely clear. The translators may have been Syriac-speaking Jews, or the early Jewish converts to Christianity. The translation could have been done separately for different Old Testament texts, and the whole work was probably done by the 2nd century AD. Parthian and Sassanid periods Christians were already forming communities in Mesopotamia as early as the first century, when it was part of the Parthian Empire. By the third century, the area had been conquered by the Persian Sassanid Empire (becoming the province of Asuristan), and there were significant Christian communities in northern Mesopotamia, Elam, and Fars. The Church of the East traced its origins ultimately to the evangelical activity of the apostles Addai, Mari and Thomas, but leadership and structure was disorganized until the establishment of the diocese of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the bishop of which came to be recognized as Catholicos, or universal leader, of the church. This position received an additional title later, Patriarch of the East. These early Christian communities were reinforced in the fourth and fifth centuries by large-scale deportations of Christians from the eastern Roman Empire. However, the Persian Church faced several severe persecutions, notably during the reign of Shapur II (339–79), from the Zoroastrian majority who accused it of Roman leanings. The church grew considerably during the Sassanid period, but the pressure of persecution led to the Persian Church declaring itself independent of all other Christian churches in 424. Meanwhile, in the Roman Empire, the Nestorian Schism had led many of Nestorius' supporters to relocate to the Persian Empire. The Persian Church increasingly aligned itself with the Nestorian schismatics, a measure encouraged by the Zoroastrian ruling class. The church became increasingly Nestorian in doctrine over the next decades, furthering the divide between Roman Christendom and the Nestorians. In 486 the Metropolitan of Nisibis, Barsauma, publicly accepted Nestorius' mentor, Theodore of Mopsuestia, as a spiritual authority. In 489, when the School of Edessa in Mesopotamia was closed by Byzantine Emperor Zeno for its Nestorian teachings, the school relocated to its original home of Nisibis, becoming again the School of Nisibis, leading to a wave of Nestorian immigration into the Persian Empire. The Persian patriarch Mar Babai I (497–502) reiterated and expanded upon his predecessors' esteem for Theodore, solidifying the church's adoption of Nestorianism. Now firmly established in the Persia, with centers in Nisibis, Ctesiphon, and Gundeshapur, and several metropolitan sees, the Church of the East began to branch out beyond the Persian Sassanid Empire. However, through the 6th century the church was frequently beset with internal strife and persecution from the Zoroastrians. The infighting led to a schism, which lasted from 521 until around 539, when the issues were resolved. However, immediately afterward Roman-Persian conflict led to a renewed persecution of the church by the Sassanid King Khosrau I; this ended in 545. The church survived these trials under the guidance of Patriarch Mar Abba I, who had converted to Christianity from Zoroastrianism. By the end of the 5th century and the middle of the 6th, the area occupied by Nestorians included "all the countries to the east and those immediately to the west of the Euphrates", including Persia, Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Socotra, Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylonia), Media, Bactria, Hyrcania, and India; and possibly also to places called Calliana, Male, and Sielediva (Ceylon). Beneath the Patriarch in the hierarchy were nine metropolitans, and clergy were recorded among the Huns, in Persarmenia, Media, and the island of Dioscoris in the Indian Ocean. Islamic rule After the Sassanid Empire was conquered by Muslim Arabs in 644, the newly established Rashidun Caliphate designated the Church of the East as an official dhimmi minority group headed by the Patriarch of the East. As with all other Christian and Jewish groups given the same status, the Church was restricted within the Caliphate, but also given a degree of protection. Nestorians were not permitted to proselytize or attempt to convert Muslims, but their missionaries were otherwise given a free hand, and they increased missionary efforts farther afield. Missionaries established dioceses in India (the Saint Thomas Christians). They made some advances in Egypt, despite the strong Monophysite presence there, and they entered Central Asia, where they had significant success converting local Tartar tribes. Nestorian missionaries were firmly established in China during the early part of the Tang Dynasty (618–907); the Chinese source known as the Nestorian Stele describes a mission under a Persian proselyte named Alopen as introducing Nestorian Christianity to China in 635. In the 7th century, the Church had grown to have two Nestorian archbishops, and over 20 bishops east of the Iranian border of the Oxus River. The patriarch Timothy I (780–823), a contemporary of the caliph Harun al-Rashid, took a particularly keen interest in the missionary expansion of the Church of the East. He is known to have consecrated metropolitans for Damascus, for Armenia, for Dailam and Gilan in Azerbaijan, for Rai in Tabaristan, for Sarbaz in Segestan, for the Turks of Central Asia, for China, and possibly also for Tibet. He also detached India from the metropolitan province of Fars and made it a separate metropolitan province, known as India. By the 10th century the Church of the East had a number of dioceses stretching from across the Caliphate's territories to India and China. Nestorian Christians made substantial contributions to the Islamic Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, particularly in translating the works of the ancient Greek philosophers to Syriac and Arabic. Nestorians made their own contributions to philosophy, science (such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Qusta ibn Luqa, Masawaiyh, Patriarch Eutychius, Jabril ibn Bukhtishu) and theology (such as Tatian, Bar Daisan, Babai the Great, Nestorius, Toma bar Yacoub). The personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrian Christians such as the long serving Bukhtishu dynasty. The Church of the East had a vigorous corps of missionaries, who proceeded eastward from their base in Persia, having particular success in India, among the Mongols, and reaching as far as China and Korea. Nestorianism reached India at a very early date, becoming the religion of the Saint Thomas Christians of the Malabar Coast probably by the 6th century. Whether or not Christianity in India predated the Nestorian missions (the Saint Thomas Christians attribute their Christianization to Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century), in later times Southern India's Christian community maintained strong ties with the Nestorian Church in Persia. These ties were strengthened through a series of mass migrations by Syriac Christians to the Malabar Coast in the 9th century. After the 8th century the Thomas Christian community was organized as the Ecclesiastical Province of India. In the 12th century Indian Nestorianism engaged the Western imagination in the figure of Prester John, supposedly a Nestorian ruler of India who held the offices of both king and priest. The geographically remote Malabar church survived the decay of the Nestorian hierarchy elsewhere, enduring until the 16th century when the Portuguese arrived in India. The Portuguese at first accepted the Nestorian sect, but by the end of the century they had determined to actively bring the Saint Thomas Christians into full communion with Rome under the Latin Rite. They installed Portuguese bishops over the local sees and made liturgical changes to accord with the Latin practice. In 1599 the Synod of Diamper, overseen by Aleixo de Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, led to a revolt among the Saint Thomas Christians; the majority of them broke with the Catholic Church and vowed never to submit to the Portuguese in the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653. In 1661 Pope Alexander VII responded by sending a delegation of Carmelites headed by Chaldean Catholics to re-establish the East Syrian rites under an Eastern Catholic hierarchy; by the next year, 84 of the 116 communities returned, forming the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. The rest, which became known as the Malankara Church, soon entered into communion with the Syriac Orthodox Church; from the Malankara Church has also come the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. Christianity reached China by 635, and its relics can still be seen in Chinese cities such as Xi'an. The Nestorian Stele, set up on 7 January 781 at the then-capital of Chang'an, attributes the introduction of Christianity to a mission under a Persian cleric named Alopen in 635, in the reign of Tang Taizong during the Tang Dynasty. The inscription on the Nestorian Stele, whose dating formula mentions the patriarch Hnanishoʿ II (773–80), gives the names of several prominent Christians in China, including the metropolitan Adam, the bishop Yohannan, the 'country-bishops' Yazdbuzid and Sargis and the archdeacons Gigoi of Khumdan (Chang'an) and Gabriel of Sarag (Loyang). The names of around seventy monks are also listed. Nestorian Christianity thrived in China for approximately 200 years, but then faced persecution from Emperor Wuzong of Tang (reigned 840–846). He suppressed all foreign religions, including Buddhism and Christianity, causing it to decline sharply in China. A Syrian monk visiting China a few decades later described many churches in ruin. The Church disappeared from China in the early 10th century, coinciding with the collapse of the Tang Dynasty and the tumult of the next years (the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period). Christianity in China experienced a significant revival during the Mongol-created Yuan Dynasty, established after the Mongols had conquered China in the 13th century. Marco Polo in the 13th century and other medieval Western writers described many Nestorian communities remaining in China and Mongolia; however, they clearly were not as vibrant as they had been during Tang times. The Church of the East enjoyed a final period of expansion under the Mongols. Several Mongol tribes had already been converted by Nestorian missionaries in the 7th century, and Christianity was therefore a major influence in the Mongol Empire. Genghis Khan was a shamanist, but his sons took Christian wives from the powerful Kerait clan, as did their sons in turn. During the rule of Genghis's grandson, the Great Khan Mongke, Nestorian Christianity was the primary religious influence in the Empire, and this also carried over to Mongol-conquered China, during the Yuan Dynasty. It was at this point, in the late 13th century, that the Church of the East reached its greatest geographical extent. But Mongol power was already waning, as the Empire dissolved into civil war, and it reached a turning point in 1295, when Ghazan, the Mongol ruler of the Ilkhanate, made a formal conversion to Islam when he took the throne. Jerusalem and Cyprus Rabban Bar Sauma had initially conceived of his journey to the West as a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, so it is possible that there was a Nestorian presence in the city ca.1300. There was certainly a recognizable Nestorian presence at the Holy Sepulchre from the 1348 through 1575, as contemporary Franciscan accounts indicate. At Famagusta, Cyprus, a Nestorian community was established just before 1300, and a church was built for them ca.1339. Schism and later history Collapse of the exterior provinces The 'exterior provinces' of the Church of the East, with the important exception of India, collapsed during the second half of the fourteenth century. Although little is known of the circumstances of the demise of the Nestorian dioceses in Central Asia (which may never have fully recovered from the destruction caused by the Mongols a century earlier), it was probably due to a combination of persecution, disease, and isolation. The blame for the destruction of the Nestorian communities east of Iraq has often been thrown upon the Turco-Mongol leader Timur, whose campaigns during the 1390s spread havoc throughout Persia and Central Asia, but in many parts of Central Asia, Christianity had died out decades before Timur's campaigns. The surviving evidence from Central Asia, including a large number of dated graves, indicates that the crisis for the Church of the East occurred in the 1340s rather than the 1390s. Several contemporary observers, including the papal envoy Giovanni de' Marignolli, mention the murder of a Latin bishop in 1339 or 1340 by a Muslim mob in Almaliq, the chief city of Tangut, and the forcible conversion of the city's Christians to Islam. At the end of the 19th century, the last tombstones in two East Syrian cemeteries were discovered and dated in Mongolia. They dated from 1342, and several commemorated deaths during a plague in 1338. In China, the last references to Nestorian and Latin Christians date from the 1350s. It is likely that all foreign Christians were expelled from China soon after the revolution of 1368, which replaced the Mongol Yuan dynasty with the xenophobic Ming dynasty. By the 15th century, Nestorian Christianity was largely confined to northern Mesopotamia, in the rough triangle formed by Mosul and Lakes Van and Urmia. Small Nestorian communities were located further west, notably in Jerusalem and Cyprus, but the Malabar Christians of India represented the only significant survival of the once-thriving exterior provinces of the Church of the East. Schism of 1552 Around the middle of the fifteenth century the patriarch Shemʿon IV Basidi made the patriarchal succession hereditary, normally from uncle to nephew. This practice, which resulted in a shortage of eligible heirs, eventually led to a schism in the Church of the East. The patriarch Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb (1539–58) caused great offense at the beginning of his reign by designating his twelve-year-old nephew Hnanishoʿ as his successor, presumably because no older relatives were available. Several years later, probably because Hnanishoʿ had died in the interim, he designated as successor his fifteen-year-old brother Eliya, the future patriarch Eliya VII (1558–91). These appointments, combined with other accusations of impropriety, caused discontent throughout the church, and by 1552 Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb had become so unpopular that a group of bishops, principally from the Amid, Seert and Salmas districts, chose a new patriarch, electing a monk named Yohannan Sulaqa, the superior of Rabban Hormizd Monastery near Alqosh. However, no bishop of metropolitan rank was available to consecrate him, as canonically required. Franciscan missionaries were already at work among the Nestorians, and they persuaded Sulaqa's supporters to legitimize their position by seeking their candidate's consecration by Pope Julius III (1550–5). Sulaqa went to Rome to put his case in person. At Rome he made a satisfactory Catholic profession of faith and presented a letter, drafted by his supporters in Mosul, which set out his claims to be recognized as patriarch. On April 9, having satisfied the Vatican that he was a good Catholic, Sulaqa was consecrated bishop and archbishop in the basilica of Saint Peter. On April 28 he was recognized as "patriarch of Mosul" by pope Julius III in the bull Divina disponente clementia and received the pallium from the pope's hands at a secret consistory in the Vatican. These events, which marked the birth of the Chaldean Catholic Church, created a permanent schism in the Church of the East. Sulaqa was consecrated "patriarch of Mosul" in Rome in April 1553 and returned to Mesopotamia towards the end of the same year. In December 1553 he obtained documents from the Turkish authorities recognizing him as an independent "Chaldean" patriarch, and in 1554, during a stay of five months in Amid, consecrated five metropolitan bishops (for the dioceses of Gazarta, Hesna d'Kifa, Amid, Mardin and Seert). Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb responded by consecrating two more underage members of the patriarchal family as metropolitans for Nisibis and Gazarta. He also won over the governor of ʿAmadiya, who invited Sulaqa to ʿAmadiya, imprisoned him for four months, and put him to death in January 1555. Sees in Qochanis, Amid, and Alqosh The connections with Rome loosened up under Shimun VIII Sulaqa's successors, who all used the patriarchal name Shimun. The last patriarch to be formally recognized by the Pope died in the 1600, and the heredity of the office was reintroduced, and thus by 1660 the Church of the East had become divided into two patriarchates, the Eliya line in Alqosh (which comprised those who had not entered in Communion with Rome) and the Shimun line. In 1672 the Patriarch of the Shimun line, Mar Shimun XIII Denha, moved his seat to the village of Qochanis in the mountains of Hakkari. In 1692 he formally broke communion with Rome and he allegedly resumed relations with the line at Alqosh. In the Western regions, a new start for the Chaldean Patriarchate began in 1672 when Mar Joseph I, then the metropolitan of Amid, entered in communion with Rome, separating from the Patriarchal see of Alqosh. In 1681 the Holy See granted him the title of "Patriarch of the Chaldeans deprived of its patriarch" as leader of the Chaldean people who stayed in communion with Rome, and thus forming the third patriarchate of the Church of the East. Josephite line of Amid All Joseph I's successors took the name of Joseph. The life of this patriarchate was difficult: the leadership was continually vexed by traditionalists, while the community struggled under the tax burden imposed by the Ottoman authorities. Nevertheless its influence expanded from the original towns of Amid and Mardin toward the area of Mosul, where they relocated the see. Yohannan Hormizd, the last in the Eliya hereditary line in Alqosh, made a Catholic profession of faith in 1780. He entered full communion with the Roman see in 1804, but he was recognized as Patriarch by the Pope only in 1830. This merged the majority of the Patriarchate of Alqosh with the Josephite line of Amid, thus forming the modern Chaldean Catholic Church. The Shimun line of patriarchs at Qochanis, which extended mainly in the Northern mountains, remained independent of the Chaldean Church, and the patriarchate of the present-day Assyrian Church of the East, now located in Chicago, Illinois, forms the continuation of this line. 20th century The Assyrian Church of the East faced a further split in 1898, when a bishop and a number of followers from the Urmia area in Iran entered communion with the Russian Orthodox Church, and again in 1964 when some traditionalists responded to ecclesiastical reforms brought on by Patriarch Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII (1908–1975) by forming the independent Ancient Church of the East. Today the Assyrian Church has about 170,000 members, mostly living in Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The Patriarchate of the Assyrian Church of the East is in exile in Chicago, and that of the Ancient Church of the East is in Baghdad. In the Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East in 1994, the two churches recognized the legitimacy and rightness of each other's titles for Mary. See also - Ancient Church of the East - Assyrian Church of the East - Chaldean Catholic Church - Dioceses of the Church of the East to 1318 - Dioceses of the Church of the East, 1318–1552 - Dioceses of the Church of the East, 1552–1913 - List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East - Syriac Christianity - Though the "Nestorian" label is well established, it has been contentious. See the Nestorianism section for the naming issue and alternate designations for the church. - "History of the Nestorian Church". Nestorian.org. Retrieved May 1, 2013. - Wilmshurst, Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 21–2 - "Nestorian". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 28, 2010. - Wilmshurst, p. 4 - According to John Foster, Church of the Tang Dynasty, p. 34, in the 9th century there were 25 metropolitans - Silverberg, Robert (1972). The Realm of Prester John. Doubleday. pp. 20–23. - Foltz, p. 63 - "Cyril of Alexandria, Third epistle to Nestorius, including the twelve anathemas". Monachos.net. - "Nestorius". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 29, 2010. - Baum, W. & Winkler, D., (2000, 2003[tr.]) The Church of the East, London, RoutledgeCurzon, pp. 4–5 - Hofrichter, Peter L. (2006). "Preface". In Malek, Roman; Hofrichter, Peter (editors). Jingjiao: the Church of the East in China and Central Asia. Steyler Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH. ISBN 978-3-8050-0534-0. - Hill, p. 107 - Winkler, Church of the East: a concise history, p. 1 - Roberson, Ronald (1999) . The Eastern Christian Churches: a brief survey. Edizioni Orientalia Christiana. ISBN 8872103215. - Culture and customs of Iran, p. 61 - Foster, pp. 26–27 - Stewart, pp. 13−14 - Foster, p. 33 - Fiey, POCN, 47 (Armenia), 72 (Damascus), 74 (Dailam and Gilan), 94–6 (India), 105 (China), 124 (Rai), 128–9 (Sarbaz), 128 (Samarqand and Beth Turkaye) and 139 (Tibet) - Hill, Donald. Islamic Science and Engineering. 1993. Edinburgh Univ. Press. ISBN 0-7486-0455-3, p. 4 - Rémi Brague, Assyrians contributions to the Islamic civilization - Britannica, Nestorian - "Christians of Saint Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved February 9, 2010. - Ding, Wang (2006). "Renmants of Christianity from Chinese Central Asia in Medieval ages". In Malek, Roman; Hofrichter, Peter (editors). Jingjiao: the Church of the East in China and Central Asia. Steyler Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH. ISBN 978-3-8050-0534-0. - Stewart, p. 169 - Stewart, p. 183 - Moffett, pp. 14–15. - Jackson, Mongols and the West, p. 97 - H. C. Luke, "The Christian Communities in the Holy Sepulchre," in Jerusalem 1920–1922 (London: John Murray, 1924), pp. 46–56. - J. M. Fiey, Pour un Oriens Christianus novus; répertoire des diocèses Syriaques orientaux et occidentaux. (Beirut, 1993) p. 71. David Wilsmhurst, The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913 (Louvain: Peeters, 2000), p. 66. - Frazee, p. 55. - Wilmshurst, Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913, 345–7 - Wilmshurst, p. 19 - Wilsmhurst, p. 21. - Wilmshurst, pp. 21–22. - Wilmshurst, p. 22. - Habbi, "Signification de l'union chaldéenne de Mar Sulaqa avec Rome en 1553", L'Orient Syrien 11 (1966), 99–132 and 199–230; Wilmshurst, Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, pp. 21–22 - Heleen H.L. Murre. "The Patriarchs of the Church of the East from the Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries". Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. Retrieved 2009-02-04. - "Common Christological declaration between the Catholic church and the Assyrian Church of the East". The Holy See. November 11, 1994. Retrieved January 25, 2010. - Angold, Michael, ed. (2006). The Cambridge History of Christianity. Volume 5, Eastern Christianity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81113-2. - Baum, Wilhelm; Winkler, Dietmar W (1 January 2003). The Church of the East: A Concise History, London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-29770-2. Google Print, retrieved 16 July 2005. - Daniel, Elton L. (2006). Culture and customs of Iran. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-32053-8. - "Nestorius and Nestorianism". Catholic Encyclopedia. - Fiey, J. M., Pour un Oriens Christianus novus; répertoire des diocèses Syriaques orientaux et occidentaux (Beirut, 1993) - Foltz, Richard, Religions of the Silk Road, Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edition, 2010 ISBN 978-0-230-62125-1 - Foster, John (1939). The Church of the T'ang Dynasty. Great Britain: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. - Charles A. Frazee, Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire 1453–1923, Cambridge University Press, 2006 ISBN 0-521-02700-4 - Gumilev, Lev N. (2003). Poiski vymyshlennogo tsarstva [Looking for the mythical kingdom] (in Russian). Moscow: Onyx Publishers. ISBN 5-9503-0041-6. - Hill, Henry, ed (1988). Light from the East: A Symposium on the Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian Churches. Toronto: Anglican Book Centre. - Jackson, Peter (2005). The Mongols and the West: 1221–1410. Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-36896-5. - Jenkins, Philip. The Lost History of Christianity. HarperOne. ISBN 0-06-147281-6. - Moffett, Samuel Hugh (1999). "Alopen". Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions: 14–15. - Morgan, David (2007). The Mongols (2nd ed.). Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4051-3539-9. - Rossabi, Morris (1992). Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the first journey from China to the West. Kodansha International Ltd. ISBN 4-7700-1650-6. - Seleznyov, Nikolai N., "Nestorius of Constantinople: Condemnation, Suppression, Veneration, With special reference to the role of his name in East-Syriac Christianity" in: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 62:3–4 (2010): 165–190. - Stewart, John (1928). Nestorian missionary enterprise, the story of a church on fire. Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark. - Wilmshurst, David (2000). The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913. Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-90-429-0876-5.	3.521024
Pausanias (Greek: Παυσανίας) (died c. 470 BC) was a Spartan general of the 5th century BC. He was a scion of the royal house of the Agiads but not in the direct line of succession himself: the son of Cleombrotus and nephew of Leonidas I, serving as regent after the latter's death, since Leonidas' son Pleistarchus was still under-age. Pausanias was also the father of Pleistoanax, who later became king, and Cleomenes. Pausanias was responsible for the Greek victory over Mardonius and the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, and was the leader of the Hellenic League created to resist Persian aggression during the Greco-Persian Wars. After the Greek victories at Plataea and the Battle of Mycale, the Spartans lost interest in liberating the Greek cities of Asia Minor. However, when it became clear that Athens would dominate the Hellenic League in Sparta's absence, Sparta sent Pausanias back to command the League's military. In 478 BC Pausanias was suspected of conspiring with the Persians and was recalled to Sparta, however he was acquitted and then left Sparta of his own accord, taking a trireme from the town of Hermione. After capturing Byzantium Pausanias was alleged to have released some of the prisoners of war who were friends and relations of the king of Persia. However, Pausanias argued that the prisoners had escaped. He sent a letter via Gongylus of Eretria to King Xerxes (son of Darius), saying that he wished to help him and bring Sparta and the rest of Greece under Persian control. In return, he wished to marry the king’s daughter. After receiving a letter back from Xerxes in which Xerxes agreed to his plans, Pausanias started to dress like a Persian aristocrat and he started to adopt Persian customs. Many Spartan allies joined the Athenian side because of Pausanias’ arrogance and high-handedness. The Spartans recalled him once again, and Pausanias fled to Kolonai in the Troad before returning to Sparta because he didn’t wish to be suspected of Persian sympathies. On his arrival in Sparta, the ephors had him imprisoned but he was later released. Nobody had enough evidence to convict him of disloyalty; even though some helots gave evidence that he had offered certain helots their freedom if they joined him in revolt. One of the messengers that Xerxes and Pausanias had been using to communicate provided written evidence to the Spartan ephors that they needed to formally prosecute Pausanias. The ephors planned to arrest Pausanias in the street but he was warned of their plans and escaped to the temple of Athena of the Brazen House. The ephors walled up the doors, put sentries outside and proceeded to starve him out. When Pausanias was on the brink of death they carried him out, and he died shortly thereafter. This chain of events prevented Pausanias's death from taking place within the sanctuary of the temple, which would have been an act of ritual pollution. See also - Thucydides I,133 s:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 1#Second Congress at Lacedaemon - Preparations for War and Diplomatic Skirmishes - Cylon - Pausanias - Themistocles	3.285453
Postmodernism is a term which describes the postmodernist movement in the arts, its set of cultural tendencies and associated cultural movements. It is in general the era that follows Modernism. It frequently serves as an ambiguous overarching term for skeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. It is often associated with deconstruction and post-structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twentieth-century post-structural thought. One of the most well-known postmodernist concerns is "deconstruction," a concern for philosophy, literary criticism, and textual analysis developed by Jacques Derrida. The notion of a "deconstructive" approach implies an analysis that questions the already evident deconstruction of a text in terms of presuppositions, ideological underpinnings, hierarchical values, and frames of reference. A deconstructive approach further depends on the techniques of close reading without reference to cultural, ideological, moral opinions or information derived from an authority over the text such as the author. At the same time Derrida famously writes: "Il n'y a pas de hors-texte (there is no such thing as outside-of-the-text)." Derrida implies that the world follows the grammar of a text undergoing its own deconstruction. Derrida's method frequently involves recognizing and spelling out the different, yet similar interpretations of the meaning of a given text and the problematic implications of binary oppositions within the meaning of a text. Derrida's philosophy influenced a postmodern movement called deconstructivism among architects, characterized by the intentional fragmentation, distortion, and dislocation of architectural elements in designing a building. Derrida discontinued his involvement with the movement after the publication of his collaborative project with architect Peter Eisenmann in Chora L Works: Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman. Postmodernism and Structuralism \|\|This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2012)\| Structuralism was a philosophical movement developed by French academics in the 1950s, partly in response to French Existentialism. It has been seen variously as an expression of Modernism, High modernism, or postmodernism[by whom?]. "Post-structuralists" were thinkers who moved away from the strict interpretations and applications of structuralist ideas. Many American academics consider post-structuralism to be part of the broader, less well-defined postmodernist movement, even although many post-structuralists insisted it was not. Thinkers who have been called structuralists include the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, and the semiotician Algirdas Greimas. The early writings of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and the literary theorist Roland Barthes have also been called structuralist. Those who began as structuralists but became post-structuralists include Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze. Other post-structuralists include Jacques Derrida, Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-François Lyotard, Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, and Luce Irigaray. The American cultural theorists, critics and intellectuals they influenced include Judith Butler, John Fiske, Rosalind Krauss, Avital Ronell, Hayden White. Post-structuralism is not defined by a set of shared axioms or methodologies, but by an emphasis on how various aspects of a particular culture, from its most ordinary, everyday material details to its most abstract theories and beliefs, determine one another. Post-structuralist thinkers reject Reductionism and Epiphenomenalism and the idea that cause-and-effect relationships are top-down or bottom-up. Like structuralists, they start from the assumption that people's identities, values and economic conditions determine each other rather than having intrinsic properties that can be understood in isolation. Thus the French structuralists considered themselves to be espousing Relativism and Constructionism. But they nevertheless tended to explore how the subjects of their study might be described, reductively, as a set of essential relationships, schematics, or mathematical symbols. (An example is Claude Lévi-Strauss's algebraic formulation of mythological transformation in "The Structural Study of Myth"). Post-structuralists thinkers went further, questioning the existence of any distinction between the nature of a thing and its relationship to other things. Post-Structuralists generally reject the notion of formulations of “essential relations” in primitive cultures, languages, or descriptions of psychological phenomena being forms of Aristotelianism, Rationalism, or Idealism. Another common thread among thinkers associated with the Post-Structuralist movement is the criticism of the absolutist, quasi-scientific claims of Structuralist theorists as more reflective of the mechanistic bias inspired by bureaucratization and industrialization than of the inner-workings of actual primitive cultures, languages or psyches. Generally, Post-structuralists emphasize the inter-determination and contingency of social and historical phenomena with each other and with the cultural values and biases of perspective. Such realities were not to be dissected, in the manner of some Structuralists, as a system of facts that could exist independently from values and paradigms (either those of the analysts or the subjects themselves), but to be understood as both causes and effects of each other. For this reason, most Post-structuralists hold a more open-ended view of function within systems than did Structuralists and were sometimes accused of circularity and ambiguity. Post-structuralists countered that, when closely examined, all formalized claims describing phenomena, reality, or truth, rely on some form or circular reasoning and self-referential logic that is often paradoxical in nature. Thus, it was important to uncover the hidden patterns of circularity, self-reference and paradox within a given set of statements rather that feign objectivity, as such an investigation might allow new perspectives to have influence and new practices to be sanctioned or adopted. In this latter respect, Post-structuralists were, as a group, continuing the philosophical project initiated by Martin Heidegger, who saw himself as extending the implications of Friedrich Nietzsche's work. Post-structuralist writing tends to connect observations and references from many, widely varying disciplines into a synthetic view of knowledge and its relationship to experience, the body, society and economy - a synthesis in which it sees itself as participating. Structuralists, while also somewhat inter-disciplinary, were more comfortable within departmental boundaries and often maintained the autonomy of their analytical methods over the objects they analyzed. Post-structuralists, unlike Structuralists, did not privilege a system of (abstract) "relations" over the specifics to which such relations were applied, but tended to see the notion of “the relation” or of systemization itself as part-and-parcel of any stated conclusion rather than a reflection of reality as an independent, self-contained state or object. If anything, if a part of objective reality, theorization and systemization to Post-structuralists was an exponent of larger, more nebulous patterns of control in social orders – patterns that could not be encapsulated in theory without simultaneously conditioning it. For this reason, certain Post-structural thinkers were also criticized by more Realist, Naturalist or Essentialist thinkers of anti-intellectualism or anti-Philosophy. Post-structuralists, in contrast to Structuralists, tend to place a great deal of skepticism on the independence of theoretical premises from collective bias and the influence of power, and reject the notion of a "pure" or "scientific" methodology in social analysis, semiotics or philosophical speculation. No theory, they said – especially when concerning human society or psychology – was capable of reducing phenomena to elemental systems or abstract patterns, nor could abstract systems be dismissed as secondary derivatives of a fundamental nature: systemization, phenomena, and values were part of each other. Postmodernism and Post-postmodernism \|\|This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2012)\| Recently the notions of metamodernism, Post-postmodernism and the "death of postmodernism" have been increasingly widely debated: in 2007 Andrew Hoborek noted in his introduction to a special issue of the journal Twentieth Century Literature titled "After Postmodernism" that "declarations of postmodernism's demise have become a critical commonplace". A small group of critics has put forth a range of theories that aim to describe culture and/or society in the alleged aftermath of postmodernism, most notably Raoul Eshelman (performatism), Gilles Lipovetsky (hypermodernity), Nicolas Bourriaud (Altermodern), and Alan Kirby (digimodernism, formerly called pseudo-modernism). None of these new theories and labels have so far gained very widespread acceptance. The exhibition Postmodernism - Style and Subversion 1970-1990 at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 24 September 2011 – 15 January 2012) was billed as the first show ever to document postmodernism as a historical movement. History of term The term "Postmodern" was first used around the 1870s. John Watkins Chapman suggested "a Postmodern style of painting" as a way to move beyond French Impressionism. J. M. Thompson, in his 1914 article in The Hibbert Journal (a quarterly philosophical review), used it to describe changes in attitudes and beliefs in the critique of religion: "The raison d'etre of Post-Modernism is to escape from the double-mindedness of Modernism by being thorough in its criticism by extending it to religion as well as theology, to Catholic feeling as well as to Catholic tradition." In 1917, Rudolf Pannwitz used the term to describe a philosophically-oriented culture. His idea of post-modernism drew from Friedrich Nietzsche's analysis of modernity and its end results of decadence and nihilism. Pannwitz's post-human would be able to overcome these predicaments of the modern human. Contrary to Nietzsche, Pannwitz also included nationalist and mythical elements in his use of the term. In 1921 and 1925, Postmodernism had been used to describe new forms of art and music. In 1942 H. R. Hays described it as a new literary form. However, as a general theory for a historical movement it was first used in 1939 by Arnold J. Toynbee: "Our own Post-Modern Age has been inaugurated by the general war of 1914-1918." In 1949 the term was used to describe a dissatisfaction with modern architecture, and led to the postmodern architecture movement, perhaps also a response to the modernist architectural movement known as the International Style. Postmodernism in architecture is marked by the re-emergence of surface ornament, reference to surrounding buildings in urban architecture, historical reference in decorative forms, and non-orthogonal angles. After that, Postmodernism was applied to a whole host of movements, many in art, music, and literature, that reacted against tendencies in the imperialist phase of capitalism called "modernism," and are typically marked by revival of historical elements and techniques. Walter Truett Anderson identifies Postmodernism as one of four typological world views. These four world views are the Postmodern-ironist, which sees truth as socially constructed; the scientific-rational, in which truth is found through methodical, disciplined inquiry; the social-traditional, in which truth is found in the heritage of American and Western civilization; and the neo-romantic, in which truth is found through attaining harmony with nature and/or spiritual exploration of the inner self. Postmodernist ideas in philosophy and the analysis of culture and society expanded the importance of critical theory and has been the point of departure for works of literature, architecture, and design, as well as being visible in marketing/business and the interpretation of history, law and culture, starting in the late 20th century. These developments—re-evaluation of the entire Western value system (love, marriage, popular culture, shift from industrial to service economy) that took place since the 1950s and 1960s, with a peak in the Social Revolution of 1968—are described with the term Postmodernity, Influences on postmodern thought, Paul Lützeler (St. Louis) as opposed to Postmodernism, a term referring to an opinion or movement. Postmodernism has also been used interchangeably with the term post-structuralism out of which postmodernism grew, a proper understanding of postmodernism or doing justice to the postmodernist thought demands an understanding of the poststructuralist movement and the ideas of its advocates. Post-structuralism resulted similarly to postmodernism by following a time of structuralism. It is characterized by new ways of thinking through structuralism, contrary to the original form. "Postmodernist" describes part of a movement; "Postmodern" places it in the period of time since the 1950s, making it a part of contemporary history. Influence on art The movement of Postmodernism began with architecture, as a response to the perceived blandness, hostility, and Utopianism of the Modern movement. Modern Architecture, as established and developed by people such as Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Philip Johnson, was focused on the pursuit of a perceived ideal perfection, and attempted harmony of form and function, and dismissal of "frivolous ornament." Critics of modernism argued that the attributes of perfection and minimalism themselves were subjective, and pointed out anachronisms in modern thought and questioned the benefits of its philosophy. Definitive postmodern architecture such as the work of Michael Graves and Robert Venturi rejects the notion of a 'pure' form or 'perfect' architectonic detail, instead conspicuously drawing from all methods, materials, forms and colors available to architects. Modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is associated with the phrase "less is more"; in contrast Venturi famously said, "Less is a bore." Postmodernist architecture was one of the first aesthetic movements to openly challenge Modernism as antiquated and "totalitarian", favoring personal preferences and variety over objective, ultimate truths or principles. It is this atmosphere of criticism, skepticism, and emphasis on difference over and against unity that distinguishes the postmodernism aesthetic. Among writers defining the terms of this discourse is Charles Jencks, described by Architectural Design Magazine as "the definer of Post-Modernism for thirty years" and the "internationally acclaimed critic..., whose name became synonymous with Post-modernism in the 80s". Urban planning Postmodernism is a rejection of 'totality', of the notion that planning could be 'comprehensive', widely applied regardless of context, and rational. In this sense, Postmodernism is a rejection of its predecessor: Modernism. From the 1920s onwards, the Modern movement sought to design and plan cities which followed the logic of the new model of industrial mass production; reverting to large-scale solutions, aesthetic standardisation and prefabricated design solutions (Goodchild 1990). Postmodern also brought a break from the notion that planning and architecture could result in social reform, which was an integral dimension of the plans of Modernism (Simonsen 1990). Furthermore, Modernism eroded urban living by its failure to recognise differences and aim towards homogenous landscapes (Simonsen 1990, 57). Within Modernism, urban planning represented a 20th century move towards establishing something stable, structured, and rationalised within what had become a world of chaos, flux and change (Irving 1993, 475). The role of planners predating Postmodernism was one of the 'qualified professional' who believed they could find and implement one single 'right way' of planning new urban establishments (Irving 1993). In fact, after 1945, urban planning became one of the methods through which capitalism could be managed and the interests of developers and corporations could be administered (Irving 1993, 479). Considering Modernism inclined urban planning to treat buildings and developments as isolated, unrelated parts of the overall urban ecosystems created fragmented, isolated, and homogeneous urban landscapes (Goodchild, 1990). One of the greater problems with Modernist-style of planning was the disregard of resident or public opinion, which resulted in planning being forced upon the majority by a minority consisting of affluent professionals with little to no knowledge of real 'urban' problems characteristic of post-Second World War urban environments; slums, overcrowding, deteriorated infrastructure, pollution and disease, among others (Irving 1993). These were precisely the 'urban ills' Modernism was meant to 'solve', but more often than not, the types of 'comprehensive', 'one size fits all' approaches to planning made things worse., and residents began to show interest in becoming involved in decisions which had once been solely entrusted to professionals of the built environment. Advocacy planning and participatory models of planning emerged in the 1960s to counter these traditional elitist and technocratic approaches to urban planning (Irving 1993; Hatuka & D'Hooghe 2007). Furthermore, an assessment of the 'ills' of Modernism among planners during the 1960s, fuelled development of a participatory model that aimed to expand the range of participants in urban interventions (Hatuka & D'Hooghe 2007, 21). Jane Jacobs's 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities was a sustained critique of urban planning as it had developed within Modernism and marked a transition from modernity to postmodernity in thinking about urban planning (Irving 1993, 479). However, the transition from Modernism to Postmodernism is often said to have happened at 3:32pm on the 15th of July in 1972, when Pruitt Igoe; a housing development for low-income people in St. Louis designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, which had been a prize winning version of Le Corbusier's 'machine for modern living' was deemed uninhabitable and was torn down (Irving 1993, 480). Since then, Postmodernism has involved theories that embrace and aim to create diversity, and it exhaults uncertainty, flexibility and change (Hatuka & D'Hooghe 2007). Postmodern planning aims to accept pluralism and heighten awareness of social differences in order to accept and bring to light the claims of minority and disadvantaged groups (Goodchild 1990). It is important to note that urban planning discourse within Modernity and Postmodernity has developed in different contexts, even though they both grew within a capitalist culture. Modernity was shaped by a capitalist ethic of Fordist-Keynesian paradigm of mass, standardized production and consumption, while postmodernity was created out of a more flexible form of capital accumulation, labor markets and organisations (Irving 1993, 60). Also, there is a distinction between a postmodernism of 'reaction' and one of 'resistance'. A postmodernism of 'reaction' rejects Modernism and seeks to return to the lost traditions and history in order to create a new cultural synthesis, while Postmodernity of 'resistance' seeks to deconstruct Modernism and is a critique of the origins without necessarily returning to them (Irving 1993, 60). As a result of Postmodernism, planners are much less inclined to lay a firm or steady claim to there being one single 'right way' of engaging in urban planning and are more open to different styles and ideas of 'how to plan' (Irving 474). Literary postmodernism was officially inaugurated in the United States with the first issue of boundary 2, subtitled "Journal of Postmodern Literature and Culture", which appeared in 1972. David Antin, Charles Olson, John Cage, and the Black Mountain College school of poetry and the arts were integral figures in the intellectual and artistic exposition of postmodernism at the time. boundary 2 remains an influential journal in postmodernist circles today. Jorge Luis Borges's (1939) short story Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, is often considered as predicting postmodernism and conceiving the ideal of the ultimate parody. Samuel Beckett is sometimes seen as an important precursor and influence. Novelists who are commonly connected with postmodern literature include Vladimir Nabokov, William Gaddis, John Hawkes, William Burroughs, Giannina Braschi, Kurt Vonnegut, John Barth, Donald Barthelme, E.L. Doctorow, Jerzy Kosinski, Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Pynchon's work has also been described as "high modern") Ishmael Reed, Kathy Acker, Ana Lydia Vega, and Paul Auster. In 1971, the Arab-American scholar Ihab Hassan published The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern Literature, an early work of literary criticism from a postmodern perspective, in which the author traces the development of what he calls "literature of silence" through Marquis de Sade, Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway, Beckett, and many others, including developments such as the Theatre of the Absurd and the nouveau roman. In 'Postmodernist Fiction' (1987), Brian McHale details the shift from modernism to postmodernism, arguing that the former is characterized by an epistemological dominant[clarification needed], and that postmodern works have developed out of modernism and are primarily concerned with questions of ontology. In Constructing Postmodernism (1992), McHale's second book, he provides readings of postmodern fiction and of some of the contemporary writers who go under the label of cyberpunk. McHale's "What Was Postmodernism?" (2007), follows Raymond Federman's lead in now using the past tense when discussing postmodernism. \|\|This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2012)\| Postmodern music is either music of the postmodern era, or music that follows aesthetic and philosophical trends of postmodernism. As the name suggests, the postmodernist movement formed partly in reaction to the ideals of the modernist. Because of this, Postmodern music is mostly defined in opposition to modernist music, and a work can either be modernist, or postmodern, but not both. Jonathan Kramer posits the idea (following Umberto Eco and Jean-François Lyotard) that postmodernism (including musical postmodernism) is less a surface style or historical period (i.e., condition) than an attitude. The postmodern impulse in classical music arose in the 1960s with the advent of musical minimalism. Composers such as Terry Riley, Krzysztof Penderecki, György Ligeti, Henryk Górecki, Bradley Joseph, John Adams, George Crumb, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, and Lou Harrison reacted to the perceived elitism and dissonant sound of atonal academic modernism by producing music with simple textures and relatively consonant harmonies, whilst others, most notably John Cage challenged the prevailing Narratives of beauty and objectivity common to Modernism. Some composers have been openly influenced by popular music and world ethnic musical traditions. Postmodern Classical music as well is not a musical style, but rather refers to music of the postmodern era. It bears the same relationship to postmodernist music that postmodernity bears to postmodernism. Postmodern music, on the other hand, shares characteristics with postmodernist art—that is, art that comes after and reacts against modernism (see Modernism in Music). A clarifying example of this phenomenon would be a rock band that sells T-shirts, ostensibly an adjunct business to their primary musical pursuit, yet the T-Shirts become more popular or are deemed "cooler" that the band's original musical output. Though representing a general return to certain notions of music-making that are often considered to be classical or romantic, not all postmodern composers have eschewed the experimentalist or academic tenets of modernism. The works of Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, for example, exhibit experimentalist preoccupation that is decidedly anti-romantic. Eclecticism and freedom of expression, in reaction to the rigidity and aesthetic limitations of modernism, are the hallmarks of the postmodern influence in musical composition. Influential postmodernist philosophers \|\|This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2012)\| - Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) - Rejected the philosophical basis of the concepts of "subjectivity" and "objectivity" and asserted that similar grounding oppositions in logic ultimately refer to one another. Instead of resisting the admission of this paradox in the search for understanding, Heidegger requires that we embrace it through an active process of elucidation he called the "Hermeneutic Circle". He stressed the historicity and cultural construction of concepts while simultaneously advocating the necessity of an atemporal and immanent apprehension of them. In this vein, he asserted that it was the task of contemporary philosophy to recover the original question of (or "openness to") Dasein (translated as Being or Being-in-the-World) present in the Presocratic philosophers but normalized, neutered and standardized since Plato. This was to be done, in part, by tracing the record of Dasein's sublimation or forgetfulness through the history of philosophy which meant that we were to ask again what constituted the grounding conditions in ourselves and in the World for the affinity between beings and between the many usages of the term "being" in philosophy. To do this, however, a non-historical and, to a degree, self-referential engagement with whatever set of ideas, feelings or practices would permit (both the non-fixed concept and reality of) such a continuity was required - a continuity permitting the possible experience, possible existence indeed not only of beings but of all differences as they appeared and tended to develop. Such a conclusion led Heidegger to depart from the Phenomenology of his teacher Husserl and prompt instead an (ironically anachronistic) return to the yet-unasked questions of Ontology, a return that in general did not acknowledge an intrinsic distinction between phenomena and noumena or between things in themselves (de re) and things as they appear (see qualia): Being-in-the-world, or rather, the openness to the process of Dasein's/Being's becoming was to bridge the age-old gap between these two. In this latter premise, Heidegger shares an affinity with the late Romantic philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, another principal forerunner of Post-structuralist and Postmodernist thought. Influential to thinkers associated with Postmodernism are Heidegger's critique of the subject-object or sense-knowledge division implicit in Rationalism, Empiricism and Methodological Naturalism, his repudiation of the idea that facts exist outside or separately from the process of thinking and speaking them (however, Heidegger is not specifically a Nominalist), his related admission that the possibilities of philosophical and scientific discourse are wrapped up in the practices and expectations of a society and that concepts and fundamental constructs are the expression of a lived, historical exercise rather than simple derivations of external, apriori conditions independent from historical mind and changing experience (see Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Heinrich von Kleist, Weltanschauung and Social Constructionism), and his Instrumentalist and Negativist notion that Being (and, by extension, reality) is an action, method, tendency, possibility and question rather than a discreet, positive, identifiable state, answer or entity (see also Process Philosophy, Dynamism, Instrumentalism, Pragmatism and Vitalism). - Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) - Re-examined the fundamentals of writing and its consequences on philosophy in general; sought to undermine the language of 'presence' or metaphysics in an analytical technique which, beginning as a point of departure from Heidegger's notion of Destruktion, came to be known as Deconstruction. Derrida utilized, like Heidegger, references to Greek philosophical notions associated with the Skeptics and the Presocratics, such as Epoché and Aporia to articulate his notion of implicit circularity between premises and conclusions, origins and manifestations, but - in a manner analogous in certain respects to Gilles Deleuze - presented a radical re-reading of canonical philosophical figures such as Plato, Aristotle and Descartes as themselves being informed by such "destabilizing" notions. - Michel Foucault (1926–1984) - Introduced concepts such as 'discursive regime', or re-invoked those of older philosophers like 'episteme' and 'genealogy' in order to explain the relationship among meaning, power, and social behavior within social orders (see The Order of Things, The Archaeology of Knowledge, Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality). In direct contradiction to what have been typified as Modernist perspectives on epistemology, Foucault asserted that rational judgment, social practice and what he called 'biopower' are not only inseparable but co-determinant. While Foucault himself was deeply involved in a number of progressive political causes and maintained close personal ties with members of the far-Left, he was also controversial with Leftist thinkers of his day, including those associated with various strains of Marxism, proponents of Left libertarianism (e.g. Noam Chomsky) and Humanism (e.g. Jürgen Habermas), for his rejection of what he deemed to be Enlightenment concepts of freedom, liberation, self-determination and human nature. Instead, Foucault focused on the ways in which such constructs can foster cultural hegemony, violence and exclusion. In line with his rejection of such 'positive' tenets of Enlightenment-era Humanism, he was active, with Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, in the Anti-Psychiatry Movement, considering much of institutionalized psychiatry and, in particular, Freud's concept of repression central to Psychoanalysis (which was still very influential in France during the 1960s and 70s), to be both harmful and misplaced. Foucault was known for his controversial aphorisms, such as "language is oppression", meaning that language functions in such a way as to render nonsensical, false or silent tendencies that might otherwise threaten or undermine the distributions of power backing a society's conventions - even when such distributions purport to celebrate liberation and expression or value minority groups and perspectives. His writings have had a major influence on the larger body of Postmodern academic literature. - Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998) - Identified in The Postmodern Condition a crisis in the "discourses of the Human Sciences" latent in Modernism but catapulted to the fore by the advent of the "computerized" or "telematic" era (see Information Revolution). This crisis, insofar as it pertains to academia, concerns both the motivations and justification procedures for making research claims: unstated givens or values that have validated the basic efforts of academic research since the late 18th century might no longer be valid (particularly, in Social Science & Humanities research, though examples from Mathematics are given by Lyotard as well). As formal conjecture about real-world issues becomes inextricably linked to automated calculation, information storage and retrieval, such knowledge becomes increasingly "exteriorised" from its knowers in the form of information. Knowledge is materialized and made into a commodity exchanged between producers and consumers; it ceases to be either an idealistic end-in-itself or a tool capable of bringing about liberty or social benefit; it is stripped of its humanistic and spiritual associations, its connection with education, teaching and human development, being simply rendered as "data" - omnipresent, material, unending and without any contexts or pre-requisites. Furthermore, the 'diversity' of claims made by various disciplines begins to lack any unifying principle or intuition as objects of study become more and more specialized due to the emphasis on specificity, precision and uniformity of reference that competitive, database-oriented research implies. The value-premises upholding academic research have been maintained by what Lyotard considers to be quasi-mythological beliefs about human purpose, human reason and human progress - large, background constructs he calls "Metanarratives". These Metanarratives still remain in Western society but are now being undermined by rapid Informatization and the commercialization of the University and its functions. The shift of authority from the presence and intuition of knowers - from the good-faith of Reason to seek diverse knowledge integrated for human benefit or truth fidelity - to the automated database and the market had, in Lyotard's view, the power to unravel the very idea of 'justification' or 'legitimation' and, with it, the rationale for research altogether - esp. in disciplines pertaining to human life, society and meaning. We are now controlled not by binding extra-linguistic value paradigms defining notions of collective identity and ultimate purpose, but rather by our automatic responses to different species of "language games" (a concept Lyotard imports from JL Austin's theory of Speech Acts). In his vision of a solution to this "vertigo," Lyotard opposes the assumptions of universality, consensus, and generality that he identified within the thought of Humanistic, Neo-Kantian philosophers like Jürgen Habermas and proposes a continuation of experimentation and diversity to be assessed pragmatically in the context of language games rather than via appeal to a resurrected series of transcendentals and metaphysical unities. - Richard Rorty (1931–2007) - Argues in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature that contemporary Analytic philosophy mistakenly imitates scientific methods. In addition, he denounces the traditional epistemological perspectives of Representationalism and Correspondence theory that rely upon the independence of knowers and observers from phenomena and the passivity of natural phenomena in relation to consciousness. As a proponent of anti-foundationalism and anti-essentialism within a Pragmatist framework, he echoes Postmodern strains of Conventionalism and Philosophical Relativism, but opposes much Postmodern thinking with his commitment to Social Liberalism. - Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007), - In Simulacra and Simulation, introduced the concept that reality or the principle of the "Real" is short-circuited by the interchangeability of signs in an era whose communicative and semantic acts are dominated by electronic media and digital technologies. Baudrillard proposes the notion that, in such a state, where subjects are detached from the outcomes of events (political, literary, artistic, personal, or otherwise), events no longer hold any particular sway on the subject nor have any identifiable context; they therefore have the effect of producing widespread indifference, detachment, and passivity in industrialized populations. He claimed that a constant stream of appearances and references without any direct consequences to viewers or readers could eventually render the division between appearance and object indiscernible, resulting, ironically, in the "disappearance" of mankind in what is, in effect, a virtual or holographic state, composed only of appearances. - Fredric Jameson (born 1934) - Set forth one of the first expansive theoretical treatments of Postmodernism as a historical period, intellectual trend and social phenomenon in a series of lectures at the Whitney Museum, later expanded as Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991). Eclectic in his methodology, Jameson has continued a sustained examination of the role that Periodization continues to play as a grounding assumption of critical methodologies in Humanities disciplines. He has contributed extensive effort to explicating the importance of concepts of Utopianism and Utopia as driving forces in the cultural and intellectual movements of Modernity, and outlining the political and existential uncertainties that may result from the decline or suspension of this trend in the theorized state of Postmodernity. Like Susan Sontag, Jameson served to introduce a wide audience of American readers to key figures of the 20th Century Continental European intellectual Left, particularly those associated with the Frankfurt School, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism. Thus, his importance as a 'translator' of their ideas to the common vocabularies of a variety of disciplines in the Anglo-American academic complex is equally as important as his own critical engagement with them. - Douglas Kellner (born 1943) - In "Analysis of the Journey," a journal birthed from postmodernism, Kellner insists that the "assumptions and procedures of modern theory" must be forgotten. His terms defined in the depth of postmodernism is based on advancement, innovation, and adaptation. Extensively, Kellner analyzes the terms of this theory in real life experiences and examples. Kellner used science and technology studies as a major part of his analysis; he urged that the theory is incomplete without it. The scale was larger than just postmodernism alone, it must be interpreted through cultural studies where science and technology studies play a huge role. The reality of the September Eleventh attacks on the United States of America is the catalyst for his explanation. This catalyst is used as a great representation due to the mere fact of the planned ambush and destruction of "symbols of globalization", insinuating the World Trade Centers. One of the numerous, yet appropriate definitions of postmodernism and the qualm aspect aids this attribute to seem perfectly accurate. In response, Kellner continues to examine the repercussions of understanding the effects of the September Eleventh attacks. He questions if the attacks are only able to be understood in a limited form of postmodern theory due to the level of irony. In further studies, he enhances the idea of semiotics in alignment with the theory. Similar to the act of September 11 and the symbols that were interpreted through this postmodern ideal, he continues to even describe this as "semiotic systems" that people use to make sense of their lives and the events that occur in them. Kellner's adamancy that signs are necessary to understand one's culture is what he analyzes from the evidence that most cultures have used signs in place of existence. Finally, he recognizes that many theorists of postmodernism are trapped by their own cogitations. He finds strength in theorist Baudrillard and his idea of Marxism. Kellner acknowledges Marxism's end and lack of importance to his theory. - The conclusion he depicts is simple: postmodernism, as most utilize it today, will decide what experiences and signs in one's reality will be one's reality as they know it. Criticisms of postmodernism are intellectually diverse, including the assertions that postmodernism is meaningless and promotes obscurantism. For example, Noam Chomsky has argued that postmodernism is meaningless because it adds nothing to analytical or empirical knowledge. He asks why postmodernist intellectuals do not respond like people in other fields when asked, "what are the principles of their theories, on what evidence are they based, what do they explain that wasn't already obvious, etc?...If [these requests] can't be met, then I'd suggest recourse to Hume's advice in similar circumstances: 'to the flames'." See also - Culture and politics - Opposed by - Ruth Reichl, Cook's November 1989; American Heritage Dictionary's definition of "postmodern" - Derrida (1967), Of Grammatology, Part II, Introduction to the "Age of Rousseau," section 2 "...That Dangerous Supplement...", title, The Exorbitant Question of Method, pp. 158–59, 163. - Benoît Peeters, Derrida: A Biogaphy, pg. 377-8, translated by Andrew Brown, Polity Press, 2013, ISBN 9780745656151 - Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Trans. Claire Jacobson and Brooke Grundfest Schoepf (First published New York: Basic Books, 1963; New York: Anchor Books Ed., 1967), 324. Lévi-Strauss, quoting D'Arcy Westworth Thompson states - "To those who question the possibility of defining the interrelations between entities whose nature is not completely understood, I shall reply with the following comment by a great naturalist - In a very large part of morphology, our essential task lies in the comparison of related forms rather than in the precise definition of each; and the deformation of a complicated figure may be a phenomenon easy of comprehension, though the figure itself has to be left unanalyzed and undefined. - Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Anthropologie Structurale. Paris: Éditions Plon, 1958. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Trans. Claire Jacobson and Brooke Grundfest Schoepf (New York: Basic Books, 1963), 228. - See the following web reference for a common critique of from an "Anti-positivist" perspective. - Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. Capitalism and Schizophrenia, vol. II: A Thousand Plateaus. Trans. Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1987), p. 101. Orig. published as Mille Plateaux, in 1980 by Les Editions de Minuit, Paris. Deleuze, here echoing the sentiments of Derrida's reflection on Foucault's "The History of Madness" (1961) in his essay "Cogito and the History of Madness" (1963), makes a very thinly veiled reference to semiological certainty of both Saussure and Lacan (who speaks of "The Unity of the Father" in his theory of semantic coherence), critiquing the premise of objectivity in their methodology - "The scientific model taking language as an object of study is one with the political model by which language is homogenized, centralized, and standardized, becoming a language of power, a major or dominant language. Linguistics can claim all it wants to be science, nothing but pure science -- it wouldn't be the first time that the order of pure science was used to secure the requirements of another order...The unity of language is fundamentally political. There is no mother tongue, only a power takeover by a dominant language that at times advances along a broad front, and at times swoops down on diverse centers simultaneously...The scientific enterprise of extracting constants and constant relations is always coupled with the political enterprise of imposing them on speakers and transmitting order-worlds." - The Postmodern Turn, Essays in Postmodern Theory and Culture, Ohio University Press, 1987. p12ff - Thompson, J. M. "Post-Modernism," The Hibbert Journal. Vol XII No. 4, July 1914. p. 733 - Pannwitz, Rudolf. Die Krisis der europäischen Kultur, Nürnberg 1917 - OED long edition - Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004 - Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 2004 - Walter Truett Anderson (1996). The Fontana Postmodernism Reader. - Yilmaz, K 2010, 'Postmodernism and its Challenge to the Discipline of History: Implications for History Education', Educational Philosophy & Theory, 42, 7, pp. 779-795, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 18 April 2012. - Sullivan, Louis. "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,” published Lippincott's Magazine (March 1896). - Loos, Adolf. "Ornament and Crime,” published 1908. - Manfredo Tafuri, 'Architecture and utopia: design and capitalist development', Cambridge: MIT Press, 1976. - Venturi, et al. - "Radical Post-Modernism: Architectural Design". Retrieved 12 February 2012. - Goodchild, B 1990, 'Planning and the Modern'Postmodern Debate', in The Town Planning Review, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 119–137. - Hatuka, T & D'Hooghe, A 2007, 'After Postmodernism: readdressing the Role of Utopia in Urban Design and Planning', in Places: Forum of Design for the Public Realm, vol. 19, Issue 2, pp. 20–27/ - Irving, A 1993, 'The Modern/Postmodern Divide and Urban Planning', in The University of Toronto Quareterly, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 474–487. - Simonsen, K 1990, 'Planning on 'Postmodern' Conditions', in Acta Sociologica, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 51–62. - Anderson, The origins of postmodernity, London: Verso, 1998, Ch.2: "Crystallization". - boundary 2, Duke University Press, Boundary2.dukejournals.org - Elizabeth Bellalouna, Michael L. LaBlanc, Ira Mark Milne (2000) Literature of Developing Nations for Students: L-Z p.50 - Stavans (1997) p.31 - "7 - Pynchon’s postmodernism Cambridge Companions Online - Cambridge University Press". Universitypublishingonline.org. Retrieved 2013-04-04. - JSTOR 21101765853833 - "Mail, Events, Screenings, News: 32". People.bu.edu. Retrieved 2013-04-04. - "What Was Postmodernism?". Electronic Book Review. 2007-12-20. Retrieved 2013-04-04. - Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Les Éditions de Minuit, 1979. English Translation by Geoffrey Bennington and Brian Massumi. Manchester University Press, 1984. See Chapter 1, The Field: Knowledge in Computerised Societies.// - Lule, Jack. "The Postmodern Adventure (Book)." Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 78.4 (2001): 865-866. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Apr 2012. - Danto, AC 1990, "The Hyper-Intellectual", New Republic, 203, 11/12, pp. 44-48, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 2 April 2012. . - Noam Chomsky on Post-Modernism Further reading - Powell, Jim (1998). "Postmodernism For Beginners" (ISBN 978-1-934389-09-6) - Alexie, Sherman (2000). "The Toughest Indian in the World" (ISBN 0-8021-3800-4) - Anderson, Walter Truett. The Truth about the Truth (New Consciousness Reader). New York: Tarcher. (1995) (ISBN 0-87477-801-8) - Anderson, Perry. The origins of postmodernity. London: Verso, 1998. - Ashley, Richard and Walker, R. B. J. (1990) “Speaking the Language of Exile.” International Studies Quarterly v 34, no 3 259-68. - Bauman, Zygmunt (2000) Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. - Beck, Ulrich (1986) Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. - Benhabib, Seyla (1995) 'Feminism and Postmodernism' in (ed. Nicholson) Feminism Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange. New York: Routledge. - Berman, Marshall (1982) All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity (ISBN 0-14-010962-5). - Bertens, Hans (1995) The Idea of the Postmodern: A History. London: Routledge. (ISBN 0-145-06012-5). - Best, Steven Best and Douglas Kellner. Postmodern Theory (1991) excerpt and text search - Best, Steven Best and Douglas Kellner. The Postmodern Turn (1997) excerpt and text search - Bielskis, Andrius (2005) Towards a Postmodern Understanding of the Political: From Genealogy to Hermeneutics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). - Braschi, Giannina (1994), Empire of Dreams, introduction by Alicia Ostriker, Yale University Press, New Haven, London. - Brass, Tom, Peasants, Populism and Postmodernism (London: Cass, 2000). - Butler, Judith (1995) 'Contingent Foundations' in (ed. Nicholson) Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange. New Yotk: Routledge. - Callinicos, Alex, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist Critique (Cambridge: Polity, 1999). - Drabble, M. The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6 ed., article "Postmodernism". - Farrell, John. "Paranoia and Postmodernism," the epilogue to Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau (Cornell UP, 2006), 309-327. - Featherstone, M. (1991) Consumer culture and postmodernism, London; Newbury Park, Calif., Sage Publications. - Giddens, Anthony (1991) Modernity and Self Identity, Cambridge: Polity Press. - Gosselin, Paul (2012) Flight From the Absolute: Cynical Observations on the Postmodern West. volume I. Samizdat (ISBN 978-2-9807774-3-1) - Goulimari, Pelagia (ed.) (2007) Postmodernism. What Moment? Manchester: Manchester University Press (ISBN 978-0-7190-7308-3) - Grebowicz, Margaret (ed.), Gender After Lyotard. NY: Suny Press, 2007. (ISBN 978-0-7914-6956-9) - Greer, Robert C. Mapping Postmodernism. IL: Intervarsity Press, 2003. (ISBN 0-8308-2733-1) - Groothuis, Douglas. Truth Decay. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2000. - Harvey, David (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (ISBN 0-631-16294-1) - Hicks, Stephen R. C. (2004) Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (ISBN 1-59247-646-5) - Honderich, T., The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, article "Postmodernism". - Hutcheon, Linda. The Politics of Postmodernism. (2002) online edition] - Jameson, Fredric (1991) Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (ISBN 0-8223-1090-2) - Kimball, Roger (2000). Experiments against Reality: the Fate of Culture in the Postmodern Age. Chicago: I.R. Dee. viii, 359 p. (ISBN 1-56663-335-4) - Kirby, Alan (2009) Digimodernism. New York: Continuum. - Lash, S. (1990) The sociology of postmodernism London, Routledge. - Lyotard, Jean-François (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (ISBN 0-8166-1173-4) - --- (1988). The Postmodern Explained: Correspondence 1982-1985. Ed. Julian Pefanis and Morgan Thomas. (ISBN 0-8166-2211-6) - --- (1993), "Scriptures: Diffracted Traces." In: Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 21(1), 2004. - --- (1995), "Anamnesis: Of the Visible." In: Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 21(1), 2004. - McHale,Brian, (1987) 'Postmodernist Fiction. London: Routledge. - --- (1992), 'Constructing Postmodernism. NY & London: Routledge. - --- (2008), "1966 Nervous Breakdown, or, When Did Postmodernism Begin?" Modern Language Quarterly 69, 3:391-413. - --- (2007), "What Was Postmodernism?" electronic book review, - MacIntyre, Alasdair, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (University of Notre Dame Press, 1984, 2nd edn.). - Magliola, Robert, Derrida on the Mend (Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1984; 1986; pbk. 2000, ISBN I-55753-205-2). - ---, On Deconstructing Life-Worlds: Buddhism, Christianity, Culture (Atlanta: Scholars Press of American Academy of Religion, 1997; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-7885-0295-6, cloth, ISBN 0-7885-0296-4, pbk). - Manuel, Peter. "Music as Symbol, Music as Simulacrum: Pre-Modern, Modern, and Postmodern Aesthetics in Subcultural Musics," Popular Music 1/2, 1995, pp. 227–239. - Murphy, Nancey, Anglo-American Postmodernity: Philosophical Perspectives on Science, Religion, and Ethics (Westview Press, 1997). - Natoli, Joseph (1997) A Primer to Postmodernity (ISBN 1-57718-061-5) - Norris, Christopher (1990) What's Wrong with Postmodernism: Critical Theory and the Ends of Philosophy (ISBN 0-8018-4137-2) - Pangle, Thomas L., The Ennobling of Democracy: The Challenge of the Postmodern Age, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991 ISBN 0-8018-4635-8 - Park, Jin Y., ed., Buddhisms and Deconstructions (Lanham: Rowland & Littlefield, 2006, ISBN 978-0-7425-3418-6; ISBN 0-7425-3418-9. - Sim, Stuart. (1999). "The Routledge critical dictionary of postmodern thought" (ISBN 0415923530) - Sokal, Alan and Jean Bricmont (1998) Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science (ISBN 0-312-20407-8) - Vattimo, Gianni (1989). The Transparent Society (ISBN 0-8018-4528-9) - Veith Jr., Gene Edward (1994) Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture (ISBN 0-89107-768-5) - Windshuttle, Keith (1996) The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists are Murdering our Past. New York: The Free Press. - Woods, Tim, Beginning Postmodernism, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999,(Reprinted 2002)(ISBN 0-7190-5210-6 Hardback,ISBN 0-7190-5211-4 Paperback) . \|Look up postmodernism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.\| \|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Postmodernism\| - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's entry on postmodernism - Discourses of Postmodernism. Multilingual Bibliography by Janusz Przychodzen (PDF file) - Modernity, postmodernism and the tradition of dissent, by Lloyd Spencer (1998) - Dueling Paradigms: Modernist v. Postmodernist Thought * Characterizing a Fogbank: What Is Postmodernism, and Why Do I Take Such a Dim View of it? - Postmodernism and truth by philosopher Daniel Dennett - Postmodernism is the new black: How the shape of modern retailing was both predicted and influenced by some unlikely seers (The Economist 19 December 2006) - Gaining clarity: after postmodernism, Eretz Acheret Magazine	3.350512
Sawmill process A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end. - After trees are selected for harvest, the next step in logging is felling the trees, and bucking them to length. - Branches are cut off the trunk. This is known as limbing. - Logs are taken by logging truck, rail or a log drive to the sawmill. - Logs are scaled either on the way to the mill or upon arrival at the mill. - Debarking removes bark from the logs. - Decking is the process for sorting the logs by species, size and end use (lumber, plywood, chips). - The head saw, head rig or primary saw, breaks the log into cants (unfinished logs to be further processed) and flitches (unfinished planks) with a smooth edge. - Depending upon the species and quality of the log, the cants will either be further broken down by a resaw or a gang edger into multiple flitches and/or boards - Edging will take the flitch and trim off all irregular edges leaving four-sided lumber. - Trimming squares the ends at typical lumber lengths. - Drying removes naturally occurring moisture from the lumber. This can be done with kilns or air-dried. - Planing smooths the surface of the lumber leaving a uniform width and thickness. - Shipping transports the finished lumber to market. Early history The Hierapolis sawmill, a Roman water-powered stone saw mill at Hierapolis, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) dating to the second half of the 3rd century AD is the earliest known sawmill. It is also the earliest known machine to incorporate a crank and connecting rod mechanism. The earliest literary reference to a working sawmill comes from a Roman poet, Ausonius who wrote an epic poem about the river Moselle in Germany in the late 4th century AD. At one point in the poem he describes the shrieking sound of a watermill cutting marble. Marble sawmills also seem to be indicated by the Christian saint Gregory of Nyssa from Anatolia around 370/390 AD, demonstrating a diversified use of water-power in many parts of the Roman Empire. Sawmills became widespread in medieval Europe again, as one was sketched by Villard de Honnecourt in c. 1250. They are claimed to have been introduced to Madeira following its discovery in c. 1420 and spread widely in Europe in the 16th century. Prior to the invention of the sawmill, boards were rived and planed, or more often sawn by two men with a whipsaw, using saddleblocks to hold the log, and a saw pit for the pitman who worked below. Sawing was slow, and required strong and hearty men. The topsawer had to be the stronger of the two because the saw was pulled in turn by each man, and the lower had the advantage of gravity. The topsawyer also had to guide the saw so that the board was of even thickness. This was often done by following a chalkline. Early sawmills simply adapted the whipsaw to mechanical power, generally driven by a water wheel to speed up the process. The circular motion of the wheel was changed to back-and-forth motion of the saw blade by a connecting rod known as a pitman arm (thus introducing a term used in many mechanical applications). Generally, only the saw was powered, and the logs had to be loaded and moved by hand. An early improvement was the development of a movable carriage, also water powered, to move the log steadily through the saw blade. A type of sawmill without a crank is known from Germany called a "knock and drop" or "drop mill": "The oldest sawmills in the Black Forest are "drop sawmills" also referred to as "knock and drop sawmills". They have all disappeared in Europe except for three in the Black Forest, one of which is in the Open Air Museum in Gutach. In these drop sawmills, the frame carrying the saw blade is knocked upwards by cams as the shaft turns. These cams are let into the shaft on which the waterwheel sits. When the frame carrying the saw blade is in the topmost position it drops by its own weight, making a loud knocking noise, and in so doing it cuts the trunk. From 1800 onwards.” A small mill such as this would be the center of many rural communities in wood-exporting regions such as the Baltic countries and Canada. The output of such mills would be quite low, perhaps only 500 boards per day. They would also generally only operate during the winter, the peak logging season. In the United States, the sawmill was introduced soon after the colonisation of Virginia by recruiting skilled men from Hamburg. Later the metal parts were obtained from the Netherlands, where the technology was far ahead of that in England, where the sawmill remained largely unknown until the late 18th century. The arrival of a sawmill was a large and stimulative step in the growth of a frontier community. Industrial revolution Early mills had been taken to the forest, where a temporary shelter was built, and the logs were skidded to the nearby mill by horse or ox teams, often when there was some snow to provide lubrication. As mills grew larger, they were usually established in more permanent facilities on a river, and the logs were floated down to them by log drivers. Sawmills built on navigable rivers, lakes, or estuaries were called cargo mills because of the availability of ships transporting cargoes of logs to the sawmill and cargoes of lumber from the sawmill. The next improvement was the use of circular saw blades, and soon thereafter, the use of gangsaws, which added additional blades so that a log would be reduced to boards in one quick step. Circular saw blades were extremely expensive and highly subject to damage by overheating or dirty logs. A new kind of technician arose, the sawfiler. Sawfilers were highly skilled in metalworking. Their main job was to set and sharpen teeth. The craft also involved learning how to hammer a saw, whereby a saw is deformed with a hammer and anvil to counteract the forces of heat and cutting. The circular saw was a later introduction, perhaps invented in England in the late 18th century, but perhaps in 17th century Holland (Netherlands). Modern circular saw blades have replaceable teeth, but still need to be hammered. The introduction of steam power in the 19th century created many new possibilities for mills. Availability of railroad transportation for logs and lumber encouraged building of rail mills away from navigable water. Steam powered sawmills could be far more mechanized. Scrap lumber from the mill provided a ready fuel source for firing the boiler. Efficiency was increased, but the capital cost of a new mill increased dramatically as well. By 1900, the largest sawmill in the world was operated by the Atlantic Lumber Company in Georgetown, South Carolina, using logs floated down the Pee Dee River from as far as the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. A restoration project for Sturgeon's Mill in Northern California is underway, restoring one of the last steam-powered lumber mills still using its original equipment. Current trends In the twentieth century the introduction of electricity and high technology furthered this process, and now most sawmills are massive and expensive facilities in which most aspects of the work is computerized. The cost of a new facility with 2 mmfbm/day capacity is up to CAN$120,000,000. A modern operation will produce between 100 mmfbm and 700 mmfbm annually. Small gasoline-powered sawmills run by local entrepreneurs served many communities in the early twentieth century, and specialty markets still today. A trend is the small portable sawmill for personal or even professional use. Many different models have emerged with different designs and functions. They are especially suitable for producing limited volumes of boards, or specialty milling such as oversized timber. Technology has changed sawmill operations significantly in recent years, emphasizing increasing profits through waste minimization and increased energy efficiency as well as improving operator safety. The once-ubiquitous rusty, steel conical sawdust burners have for the most part vanished, as the sawdust and other mill waste is now processed into particleboard and related products, or used to heat wood-drying kilns. Co-generation facilities will produce power for the operation and may also feed superfluous energy onto the grid. While the bark may be ground for landscaping barkdust, it may also be burned for heat. Sawdust may make particle board or be pressed into wood pellets for pellet stoves. The larger pieces of wood that won't make lumber are chipped into wood chips and provide a source of supply for paper mills. Wood by-products of the mills will also make oriented strand board (OSB) paneling for building construction, a cheaper alternative to plywood for paneling. Additional Images Wood from Victorian mountain ash, Swifts Creek A sawmill in Armata, on mount Smolikas, Epirus, Greece. A preserved water powered sawmill, Norfolk, England. See also - "Lumber Manufacturing". Lumber Basics. Western Wood Products Association. 2002. Retrieved 2008-02-12. - Ritti, Grewe & Kessener 2007, p. 161 - Ritti, Grewe & Kessener 2007, pp. 149–153 - Wilson 2002, p. 16 - C. Singer et at., History of Technology II (Oxford 1956), 643-4. - Charles E. Peterson, 'Sawdust Trail: Annals of Sawmilling and the Lumber Trade' Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology Vol. 5, No. 2. (1973), pp. 84-5. - Adam Robert Lucas (2005), "Industrial Milling in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: A Survey of the Evidence for an Industrial Revolution in Medieval Europe", Technology and Culture 46 (1): 1-30 [10-1] - Peterson, 94-5. - Oakleaf p.8 - Norman Ball, 'Circular Saws and the History of Technology' Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology 7(3) (1975), pp. 79-89. - Edwardian Farm: Roy Hebdige's mobile sawmill - Steam traction engines - IN-TIME Timber Supply Chain Optimization http://www.mjc2.com/real-time-manufacturing-scheduling.htm - Grewe, Klaus (2009), "Die Reliefdarstellung einer antiken Steinsägemaschine aus Hierapolis in Phrygien und ihre Bedeutung für die Technikgeschichte. Internationale Konferenz 13.−16. Juni 2007 in Istanbul", in Bachmann, Martin, Bautechnik im antiken und vorantiken Kleinasien, Byzas 9, Istanbul: Ege Yayınları/Zero Prod. Ltd., pp. 429–454, ISBN 978-975-8072-23-1 - Ritti, Tullia; Grewe, Klaus; Kessener, Paul (2007), "A Relief of a Water-powered Stone Saw Mill on a Sarcophagus at Hierapolis and its Implications", Journal of Roman Archaeology 20: 138–163 - Oakleaf, H.B. (1920), Lumber Manufacture in the Douglas Fir Region, Chicago: Commercial Journal Company - Wilson, Andrew (2002), "Machines, Power and the Ancient Economy", The Journal of Roman Studies 92: 1–32 \|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sawmills\| - Steam powered saw mills - The basics of sawmill (German) - Nineteenth century sawmill demonstration - Database of worldwide sawmills - Reynolds Bros Mill, northern foothills of Adirondack Mountains, New York State - L. Cass Bowen Mill, Skerry, New York	3.878622
WikipediaRead full entry The shells are long, narrow, and parallel-sided. This shape resembles a closed, old-fashioned straight razor (a cut-throat razor), or a closed jackknife (pocket knife) and sometimes these clams are known as razor shells or jackknives. The shells in these species are fragile and can easily be damaged when digging for these clams. Ensis species live in clean sand on exposed beaches. They are capable of digging very rapidly; see the description under the Atlantic jackknife clam. Some clammers catch jackknives by pouring salt on the characteristic keyhole-shaped breathing holes. The clam then tries to escape the salt by coming up out of its hole, and at this point it is possible to gently grab the shell and pull it out of the ground. Thirteen species are currently recognised: - Ensis arcuatus (Jeffreys, 1865) – razor shell - Ensis californicus Dall, 1899 - Ensis directus (Conrad, 1843) – Atlantic jackknife clam - Ensis ensis (Linnaeus, 1758) - Ensis goreensis (Clessin, 1888) - Ensis macha (Molina, 1782) - Ensis magnus Schumacher, 1817 - Ensis megistus Pilsbry & McGinty, 1943 - Ensis minor (Chenu, 1843) – jackknife clam - Ensis myrae Berry, 1954 - Ensis nitidus (Clessin, 1888) - Ensis siliqua (Linnaeus, 1758) – pod razor - Ensis tropicalis Hertlein & Strong, 1955 - S. Gofas (2010). "Ensis Schumacher, 1817". In P. Bouchet, S. Gofas & G. Rosenberg. World Marine Mollusca database. World Register of Marine Species. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=138333. Retrieved April 26, 2010.	3.119189
- capital (adj.) - early 13c., "of or pertaining to the head," from Old French capital, from Latin capitalis "of the head," hence "capital, chief, first," from caput (genitive capitis) "head" (see capitulum). Meaning "principal" is early 15c. Of letters, "upper case," from late 14c. A capital crime (1520s) is one that affects the life or "head;" capital had a sense of "deadly, mortal" from late 14c. in English, a sense also found in Latin. The felt connection between "head" and "life, mortality" also existed in Old English: e.g. heafodgilt "deadly sin, capital offense," heafdes þolian "to forfeit life." Capital punishment was in Blackstone (1765) and classical Latin capitis poena. Capital gain is recorded from 1921. Capital goods is recorded from 1899. Of ships, "first-rate, of the line," attested from 1650s. Related: Capitally. - capital (n.1) - early 15c., "a capital letter," from capital (adj.). The meaning "capital city" is first recorded 1660s (the Old English word was heafodstol). The financial sense is from 1610s (Middle English had chief money "principal fund," mid-14c.), from Medieval Latin capitale "stock, property," noun use of neuter of capitalis "capital, chief, first." (The noun use of this adjective in classical Latin was for "a capital crime.") [The term capital] made its first appearance in medieval Latin as an adjective capitalis (from caput, head) modifying the word pars, to designate the principal sum of a money loan. The principal part of a loan was contrasted with the "usury"--later called interest--the payment made to the lender in addition to the return of the sum lent. This usage, unknown to classical Latin, had become common by the thirteenth century and possibly had begun as early as 1100 A.D., in the first chartered towns of Europe. [Frank A. Fetter, "Reformulation of the Concepts of Capital and Income in Economics and Accounting," 1937, in "Capital, Interest, & Rent," 1977] Also see cattle, and cf. sense development of fee, pecuniary. - capital (n.2) - "head of a column or pillar," late 13c., from Anglo-French capitel, Old French chapitel, or directly from Latin capitellum "little head," diminutive of caput (see capitulum).	3.404309
SEATTLE — May 16, 2002 — Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center scientists report a finding in the common fruit fly that may open new paths for understanding some of the key genetic missteps that lead to cancer in humans. The discovery also could offer a better testing ground for anti-cancer drugs. Susan Parkhurst, Ph.D., and Miriam Rosenberg, both of Fred Hutchinson's Basic Sciences Division, describe in the May 17 issue of Cell how a gene called Sir2, long studied in yeast and worms, has a counterpart in fruit flies that plays a dynamic role in the genetic regulation of early development. "Because of the important role of the Sir2 gene to basic life functioning, this gene has been the focus of laboratories worldwide," said Parkhurst, a member of Fred Hutchinson's Basic Sciences Division. "This finding represents a major step in understanding what the Sir2 gene does in a complex, multi-cellular system and further establishes the fruit fly as an important animal model for the study of cancer genetics in humans," she said. Cancer is a disease of genetic mistakes. Errors in the DNA blueprint that cause single genes or entire chromosomal regions to switch off at the wrong time or turn on inappropriately can result in uncontrolled cell growth and malignancy. Understanding the mechanisms that turn genes on and off during normal development is crucial for decoding — and ultimately correcting — any flawed and potentially fatal operating instructions within cells that may lead to cancer and developmental defects. Until now, the Sir2 gene, short for "silent information regulator No. 2," has been known to act as a silencer, quieting large regions of the genome for extended periods to shut down the production of proteins that are no longer needed in the course of early development. For the first time, Parkhurst and colleagues report that in Drosophila, or fruit flies, Sir2 appears to play a dual role. It also acts as a repressor gene, turning off the short-term expression of specific gene products throughout the complex cellular choreography of normal growth. "These results support the idea that in higher organisms, the mechanisms of silencing and dynamic gene regulation — once believed to be separate functions governed by separate genes — in fact represent two sides of the same coin," said Parkhurst, a developmental biologist. While Sir2 has been studied extensively in yeast, analogous versions of the gene exist in many higher life forms as well. Human cells, for example, have seven such silencing genes. Because some of the key genetic components of Sir2's gene-silencing pathway in lower organisms are identical to those in humans, scientists can exploit the power of yeast and fruit fly genetics to study complex human processes, from early development to cancer growth. "It appears that Sir2 in higher organisms, including humans, can get the right gene to shut on or off at the right time. This is crucial for maintaining the integrity and normal functioning of cells," said Parkhurst, also an affiliate associate professor of zoology at the University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences. Mutations, or defects, in Sir2 result in disastrous effects. In lower organisms, for example, such genetic errors have been associated with a shortened life span. In the Parkhurst lab, Sir2 mutations have been linked to drastic developmental defects and foiled gender assignment, taking a significant toll on equality of the sexes, at least as far as the fruit fly population is concerned. "We noticed that flies with Sir2 mutations weren't too happy," said Rosenberg, a graduate student in the Parkhurst lab. "There were far too few males in the fly stocks." "In the absence of Sir2, there's the wrong kind of gene expression for the sex chromosomes present. A female can express as if she's a male, and vice versa. That can lead to all kinds of problems. In flies, it leads to death," Parkhurst said. In humans, inappropriate gene silencing is thought to account for various sex-linked genetic disorders, in which the affected genes are located on the X chromosome. Such developmental abnormalities, which nearly always affect males, include xeroderma pigmentosum (a rare, inherited skin disease that causes extreme sensitivity to sunlight and increased risk of skin cancer), color blindness and hemophilia. Malfunctions in gene silencing also have been implicated in several human cancers, including acute myelogenous leukemia, colon cancer and several forms of breast cancer. Sir2 is an attractive drug target because it has been found to modulate the function of p53, an important tumor-suppressor protein which, when defective, can increase cancer risk in humans. One drug under investigation at Fred Hutchinson, called Splitomicin, is a potent inhibitor of gene silencing. It works by interfering with Sir2's ability to cloak the chromosome in proteins that shield it from factors needed for activation. The compound is highly specific, halting the function of Sir2. Such precision is an attractive feature in drug design because it increases a drug's effectiveness and decreases its side effects. Fred Hutchinson researchers scientifically reported the drug's discovery last December and the center has filed patent protection for it. In the Cell paper, Parkhurst and Rosenberg report that the drug, which already has been shown to reverse global gene silencing in yeast, also works in fruit flies. "With fruit flies, we now have a multi-cellular model system that is more complex than yeast that will allow us to study all of the functional components of the pathway that are required for the drug to work," Parkhurst said. "Now that we know the drug works on fruit fly Sir2, this opens up all kinds of possibilities that we wouldn't have thought to try before." For example, this finding now hints at the drug's potential for treating diseases that result from the faulty regulation of a single protein, such as certain forms of leukemia. Fred Hutchinson researchers also have found the compound to be effective in sensitizing human cells to DNA-damaging agents, a finding that could be exploited to increase the effectiveness of cancer chemotherapy, since many anti-cancer drugs inflict DNA damage. Another potential clinical application may be activating silent tumor-suppressor genes, such as p53, to fight cancer growth. In addition to treating certain cancers, silencing inhibitors such as Splitomicin may be effective against sickle-cell anemia, which arises from defects in the gene for the adult form of hemoglobin. Sufferers do, however, possess a normal version of the fetal hemoglobin gene, which gets silenced early in life as part of normal development. Reversing the silencing of fetal hemoglobin could potentially compensate for the lack of functioning hemoglobin in those with the disease. Likewise, Parkhurst envisions using Sir2 inhibitors to compensate genetically for various certain sex-linked conditions. The Splitomicin used in Parkhurst's laboratory was developed by Fred Hutchinson researchers Antonio Bedalov, M.D., Ph.D., a research associate the Clinical Research and Human Biology divisions; Dan Gottschling, Ph.D., a member of the Basic Sciences Division; and Julian Simon, Ph.D., a member of the Clinical Research Division. Grants from the National Institutes of Health supported this work. To obtain a copy of the Cell paper "Drosophila Sir2 Is Required for Heterochromatic Silencing and by Euchromatic hairy/E(Spl) bHLH Repressors in Segmentation and Sex Determination," contact Kristen Woodward in Fred Hutchinson Media Relations, (206) 667-5095. # # # Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, home of two Nobel Prize laureates, is an independent, nonprofit research institution dedicated to the development and advancement of biomedical technology to eliminate cancer and other potentially fatal diseases. Fred Hutchinson receives more funding from the National Institutes of Health than any other independent U.S. research center. Recognized internationally for its pioneering work in bone-marrow transplantation, the center's four scientific divisions collaborate to form a unique environment for conducting basic and applied science. Fred Hutchinson, in collaboration with its clinical and research partners, the University of Washington Academic Medical Center and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in the Pacific Northwest and is one of 38 nationwide. For more information, visit the center's Web site at www.fhcrc.org.	3.134869
Discussion about a core curriculum brings to light some fundamental differences in thinking about education and learning. A core curriculum is a set of educational goals that focuses on making sure that all students using it will learn set material tied to age/grade level. The design of the curricula are based on things that do not have much relevance to a homeschooler: grade levels, learning divided into discrete subjects (math, science, history, etc), testing goals and classroom management needs. Recently the idea of a national core curriculum has been receiving a lot of attention. The Core Knowledge Sequence/ Common Core State Standards is a national initiative to create a standard path of education across the states, in part to make sure that students across states have similar academic skills, in part to simplify the production of text books and in part to create a “level” playing field for future job prospects. A recent periodical (American Educator, Winter, 2010-2011) calls the core curriculum an idea whose time has come. The article subtitle reads ” How a core curriculum could make our education system run like clockwork.” The article goes on to state: A curriculum sets forth that body of knowledge and skill our children need to grow into economically productive and socially responsible citizens. A common curriculum—meaning one that is shared by all schools—is what binds all the different actors together; instead of going off in radically different directions and inadvertently undermining each other, teachers, administrators, parents, textbook writers, assessment developers, professors of education, and policymakers all work in concert. A common core curriculum—meaning one that fills roughly two-thirds of instructional time—leaves teachers ample room to build on students’ interests and address local priorities. In countries with a common core curriculum, the benefits are many: - Teachers need not guess what will be on assessments; if they teach the curriculum, their students will be prepared. - Students who change schools are not lost, so time is not wasted on review and remediation. Their new teachers may have different lesson plans and projects, but the core content and skills to be mastered in each grade are the same. - Textbooks are slim, containing just the material to be learned in a given year (not hundreds of incoherent pages trying to “align” to different states’ vague standards and different notions of proficiency). - Teacher preparation programs ensure that candidates have mastered the curriculum, and ways to teach it, before they become teachers. - Teachers across the hall, across town, and (thanks to the Internet) across the country are able to collaborate on developing and refining lesson plans and other instructional materials. In other words, a core curriculum is there to help teachers, schools, test companies, textbook manufacturers create an infrastructure for traditional, school based education. The idea of a core curriculum in the presented format doesn’t make sense for homeschooling. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that the learning process can be tailored to the learner. A curriculum guide uses a variety of sources to create a philosophical framework for education. The choices for what get taught and when are based on sociology, politics, educational theory, developmental psychology and the needs of a large institutional system. What has gotten lost along the way is developing a system of learning that benefits the individual. Instead of tying learning to a chart, you can personalize your child’s learning. A curriculum is a terrific place to find ideas and to help organize your thoughts and plans for learning, but don’t let it define your family’s homeschooling. Look at two different aspects of education: the learning process & the materials/opportunities. - Let ability and comprehension determine the pace of the subject material - Assist the learner with taking control of the learning process - Spend as much or more time on understanding logic, critical thinking, problem solving, etc as on fact acquisition - learn to examine and evaluate the structure creating the information base being used for learning - Teach how to evaluate learning as it is in progress so that the learning process is continually developed - Build learning experiences so that the learner can apply previous knowledge and processes to current learning. - Don’t limit learning to the contents of a textbook or syllabus. Let the learner follow the ideas and information. - Expand the resource base- wider variety of materials, different formats, different interpretations, different sources, different foci. - Build learning communities that challenge ideas and create opportunities to talk about ideas & learning - Make the most of the community learning opportunities Let me start by saying that I agree there is a set of foundation knowledge that makes learning easier. However, people have taken a very large step from the idea of basic skills, ideas and facts to a K-12 guide detailing what should get taught when. For example, the folks at the Core Curriculum site have stated: The more you know, the more you are able to learn. In one sense, this is a truism. In another, it’s just wrong. This is a misinterpretation of how learning works. Yes, the larger your knowledge base, the more information you have for processing new experiences and ideas. However, a knowledge base is much more than facts. The most critical part of the knowledge base is the ability to process and integrate information in a way that gives you a framework to evaluate new information. Programs that focus on facts first, thinking later takes away one of the most valuable learning skills- the ability to put information in context. Many educational program will focus on a parts to whole style of instruction. First we’ll teach the basic components, then we’ll show how it all goes together and makes sense. Others insist that whole to parts is the only way to go. We have to show the ideas as larger concepts, and then we will take it apart and look at what went into it. The assumption in the whole/parts debate is that one method is significantly better than the other. The decision about how to approach a topic and where to start shouldn’t be set in stone. How much experience does the learner have with the subject? If the ideas are completely new, it is worth taking some time to help the learner get an idea about the larger picture. Does the learner have previous understanding of a similar situation which will make decoding this one more straightforward? Does the learner see the link between the two situations. Instead of worrying about parts and whole, we can focus on finding ways for the learner to determine which learning approach will be best for this situation. The approach will differ from person to person based on learning styles, experience and the materials available. One complaint about asking kids to think critically is that we are really asking them to guess how to figure things out. Wouldn’t it be much simpler to just give them the steps and the facts and go from there? Yes, it would– if your goal is the ability to recall and return a set of preprocessed information. However if your goal is for a student to be able to assess unfamiliar ideas and information and to determine a structure to think about it, then no. The advantage to building critical thinking skills early on is that the learner is learning how information is gathered, how it is analyzed and how to develop ideas and theories. With these skills, a learner in a totally unknown situation can figure out what’s happening & develop an approach to solving a problem or putting together the facts for a larger picture. Rather than fuss over parts to whole/whole to parts, the structure of introducing the information and learning structure should reflect the learner’s prior knowledge and experience both with the subject and the learning skills needed.	4.00763
\|Graphing Random Walk\| I am trying a produce a random walk for a distance n and my task is to find how many times along the walk the difference between the two values produced is 0. The walk gives a binary output and is linked to two selective groups. I feel I have successfully completed this bit, but am having difficulty plotting a graph to show this. The plot should be the x value against the natural numbers, thus a visual description of how many times the graph goes through the x-axis, to prove the Y value produced. What function should I use to plot this graph? Does the function need to be done within the "For" function? If anyone has any ideas or clues as to how I can overcome this problem, please be in touch. Attachment: RandomWalk.nb, URL: ,	3.018824
Very efficient algorithms exist to draw cubic Bezier curves. In fact, these algorithms are so efficient that other types of curves are often converted to Bezier curves. For example, it is possible to approximate a 90 degree circular arc with a Bezier curve. Recall that a cubic Bezier curve has four control points. Derive the coordinates of the four control points of a Bezier curve that approximates this circular arc. This approximation should touch and be tangent to the arc at both endpoints as well as the midpoint. Hint: Find control points such that the midpoint of the Bezier curve (t=1/2) lies on the midpoint of the circular arc. Let P0, P1, P2 and P3 be the four control points of the Bezier curve. P0 and P3 must be coincident with the endpoints. Thus, P0 = (0,1) and P3 = (1,0). P1 and P2 must be chosen so that the curve is tangent to the arc. The tangent to the arc at (0,1) is (1,0); thus, P1 must have the same y coordinate as P0. Similarly, the tangent at (1,0) is (0,1), and thus P2 must have the same x coordinate as P3. Since the arc is symmetric, the best approximating Bezier curve should also be symmetric. Thus, P1 = (a,1) and P2 = (1,a). The final unknown a can be found by requiring the midpoint of the Bezier curve to like at the midpoint of the arc, (sqrt(2)/2,sqrt(2)/2). Using the midpoint subdivision rule, we arrive at the following: P0 P1 P2 P3 (0,1) (a,1) (1,a) (1,0) 1/2(a,2) 1/2(1+a,1+a) 1/2(2,a) 1/4(1+2a,3+a) 1/4(3+a,1+2a) 1/8(4+3a,4+3a) Seting 1/4(4+3a)=sqrt(2)/2 and solving for a we get a = 4(sqrt(2)-1)/3 = .552. +6 points for getting the endpoints right. +6 points for getting the tangent contraints right. +4 points for noticing the symmetric and reducing the problem to a single unknown. +4 points for knowing the correct subdivision rules, for being able to evaulate the Bezier curve at the midpoint. Certain errors resulted in the following deductions: -2 for formulating the problem correctly but making a math error in the final answer. There were lots of answers that we almost right. Most of these received 14 points. They were wrong in that they did not satisfy the constraints that the curve should go through the endpoints and touch the midpoint. One common solution was to compute the intersection of a 45 degree downward sloping line with the y=1 and x=1 lines and setting P1 and P2 to the points of intersections. Several bisected the 45 degree angle and computed the intersection of a line through the origin at 22.5 with the x=1 and y=1 lines, and used those intersection points as the control points. Another common error was to use a quadratic Bezier curve; or to use subdivision rules that reduced to the quadratic case. Another approach was to reduce the problem to Hermite interpolation by setting the endpoint and tangent conditions. This can be made to work, but you must find a way to constrain the curve to go through the midpoint. A clever approach was to try to set the tangent of the Bezier curve at the midpoint to have a slope of -1 and try to find separate Bezier curves for top and bottom part of the arc.	3.86301
The Canadian Lynx The Canadian Lynx stands about 30-40 cms tall, and ranges in length from about 90-110 cms. They weigh anywhere between 10-20 kgs. The lynx has characteristics that stand out, such as its amazing triangular shaped ears with black tufts at the end. The lynx usually has thick light brown or grayish colored fur which helps to keep it warm during cold winters. They have large paws which assist them in moving fast through the snow. The Canadian Lynx inhabits Canada, and also the northern United States and Alaska. \|These cats are too small to hunt people, but will hunt domesticated cats and birds, etc. The lynx is a carnivorous animal, meaning that it only feeds on meat. The lynx feeds on the snowshoe hare wherever possible, and will feed solely on these if given the opportunity. Their sharp claws and teeth aid them in their hunt, and they can bring down animals as large as a deer. The lynx is also known to store food for later consumption, and they do this by covering the carrion (dead animal) with snow. They are agile creatures, and can climb trees with ease. They will use their position in a tree as a vantage point, spotting potential prey. Once spotted, they can leap from the branch and pounce on their prey. After the lynx has bought down its prey, and ready to feast it may be interrupted by animals such as the wolverine. The wolverine will growl and snare at the lynx, and the lynx will not contest with the wolverine, leaving its fresh kill for the other animal. Amazing Fact: The Canadian lynx will cover its prey with snow for later feeding. Further Information on the Canadian Lynx: E-mail [email protected] to add your Canadian Lynx related website.	3.693352
In the average healthy human being alcohol is metabolized by the liver at the rate of about one standard drink (0.6 oz ethanol) per hour. In people who frequently engage in heavy drinking alcohol tolerance develops. Changes occur in the brain and the liver which work to adapt them to the steady presence of alcohol. When alcohol tolerance develops people need to drink much more alcohol to get the same effect as they used to. Reverse Tolerance occurs when a heavy drinker develops liver damage and the liver no longer produces as great a quantity of the enzymes needed to break down alcohol in the body as it did before. Since people with a lot of alcoholic liver damage can no longer metabolize alcohol very well, these people can get very intoxicated on small quantities of alcohol--much smaller quantities than are needed to affect the person who rarely drinks. This phenomenon is known as Reverse Tolerance. The way that Reverse Tolerance can develop over a lifetime is illustrated by the curve in Figure 1. As we can see from Figure 1, tolerance in an adult who has never had a drink of alcohol in his/her life remains steady. Once a person begins to drink alcohol on a regular basis the dose response goes down--in other words the same dose of alcohol produces less intoxication than it used to. Saying that the dose response to alcohol goes down is exactly the same as saying that alcohol tolerance goes up--and vice versa. Dose response and tolerance are mirror images of each other. As long as a steady consumption of alcohol is maintained, tolerance will tend to increase and dose response will tend to drop. If liver damage begins to occur, however, tolerance will begin to drop once again and dose response will tend to increase. When there is sufficient damage to the liver there will be considerably less tolerance and considerably greater dose response to alcohol than there was before the person ever took their first drink. It is important to note that most heavy drinkers do NOT develop liver damage or Reverse Tolerance. The majority of heavy drinkers will not suffer liver damage and hence will not develop Reverse Tolerance. One should be very careful not to confuse Reverse Tolerance with the Healthy Tolerance Reversal which occurs when a heavy drinker does a period of abstinence from alcohol or a period of moderate drinking. When the amount of alcohol to which the liver is exposed on a daily basis is greatly decreased, liver enzymes begin to return to normal levels and alcohol tolerance (as well as dose response) tends to return to levels similar to those before the subject began drinking heavily. The essential difference between Reverse Tolerance and Healthy Tolerance Reversal is that Reverse Tolerance is caused by damage to the liver which is often irreversible. In Healthy Tolerance Reversal the liver is actually becoming more healthy than it was during the period of heavy drinking--and the reason why the tolerance is dropping is that the excessive and unhealthy levels of liver enzymes associated with heavy drinking are now returning to normal and healthy levels. In Reverse Tolerance many of the cells needed to produce these enzymes have died and that is the reason why less of the enzymes are produced. In Healthy Tolerance Reversal the liver cells are going back to producing normal levels of these enzymes rather than the excessive levels which they produced during the heavy drinking period--no cells die when Healthy Tolerance Reversal takes place. A period of abstinence may not necessarily return tolerance to the same levels as before the person ever took a drink of alcohol, however, an abstinence period significantly reduces tolerance from the levels it was at during the time of heavy drinking. Figure 2 illustrates the course of Healthy Tolerance Reversal in a typical individual. How much time is needed for Healthy Tolerance Reversal to take place? There is not an exact answer to this. Tolerance will start dropping as soon as heavy drinking ceases, but experts say that it takes a month or two for the full effect of Healthy Tolerance Reversal to take place. For more information about alcohol tolerance please visit our web page What Is Alcohol Tolerance?	3.23344
Schools' Chemical Hygiene Officers There have been several state-funded chemical clean-outs for high schools. Schools with chemicals on the state banned-chemicals list should have them properly disposed of as soon as possible. For private chemical disposal services, there are several companies certified to transport hazardous waste. For information on specific companies, consult the SAFECHEMRI listserv to find out who other Chemical Hygiene Officers have used in the past. You may want to call several companies to compare costs. Common mistakes made in the utilization of acid storage cabinets - Incompatible storage of concentrated nitric acid (oxidizer) with glacial acetic acid (a - Incompatible storage of concentrated nitric acid (oxidizer) with ethyl alcohol or acetone (flammable, but not acids). - Storage of multiple bottles of the same reagent (EPA regulations allow storage of no more than one year’s supply of any one hazardous chemical). - Storage of acids in bottles with glass stoppers instead of vapor-proof screw-on plastic - Storage of bases in acid cabinets (mixing concentrated acids and bases results in an extremely exothermic reaction). - Storage of concentrated acids with concentrated ammonia (also a base). Acid and ammonia vapors mix and form a white coating of ammonium chloride on everything in the cabinet. - Storage of acid bottles without appropriate secondary containment such as plastic - Use of a metal cabinet to store acids. Corrosive acid vapors are best contained by a cabinet made out of coated wood or plastic laminate	3.021904
SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARNING: A PSYCHOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE 1978 survey reprinted in V. Kinsella (1982) Surveys 1, CILTR the early 1960s we were satisfied that we knew all about how people learnt a second language. Then the impact of Chomsky's ideas exposed the extent of our ignorance. Some people's reactions were that we should stop interfering with the learner, since nature knew best (Newmark & Reibel, 1968). Others admitted the error of their ways in principle but in practice continued to use the same teaching techniques; by and large the changes in the content of language teaching from 'structures' to 'functions' were not accompanied by any changes in teaching methods. However, in the past few years the question of second-language learning has been reopened; this review attempts to give a critical account of some directions that research in this field is taking. Our ignorance is not quite as boundless as it once was; before long we may be able to base language teaching at last on a solid foundation of knowledge about second-language learning itself. The learner's development in a second language starting point is the language that the learner produces and understands. Inevitably this involves several methodological problems. One is the relationship of the learner's language to time; to show how learning takes place we need to see development in time: we need pictures of 'before' and 'after'. One way of achieving this is to describe the longitudinal language development of a group of learners or a single learner, as in Hakuta (1975). Another is to relate different points of time in different learners, as in Padilla and Lindholm (1976). Yet another is to relate the learner's language to the final point in time, the language of the native speaker, the approach often used in 'error analysis'. A second methodological problem is deciding what we count as evidence of the learner's language. The most common approach is to gather more or less natural samples of the learner's language; this has the disadvantage common to corpus-based descriptions of making it hard to know when generalisations can be made to the learner's language system as a whole. Kellerman (1974) has suggested supplementing it with 'lateralisation', that is to say, eliciting further information from the learner about specific points. There are also dangers in relying solely on the analysis of errors since this provides partial information about the learner's language; to describe it adequately we need to know more about it than its differences from the target language (Corder, 1971). An alternative approach consists of designing particular techniques that tap only the part of the learner's language that we are interested in. Also, compared to first-language acquisition, the second-language learner is more aware of learning a language and can be asked direct questions about what he knows. in the previous paragraph it was accepted implicitly that the learner has a language system of his own; though this system is related to both his first and second languages, it has its own distinctive characteristics. This implicit assumption has been called, with slightly different emphases, ' interlanguage' (Selinker, 1972), 'transitional competence' (Corder, 1967), 'approximative system' (Nemser, 1971), and 'language learner's system' (Sampson & Richards, 1973). It parallels the common assumption that a child acquiring a first language has a systematic language that is not simply a defective version of the adult's. In itself the assumption tells one nothing about the system or how it develops except that it is For the description of learning, an important characteristic of the learner's language system is that it is changing rather than static: Corder (1977) calls it a 'dynamic goal-oriented language system of increasing complexity'. However, one should not forget the effect of 'fossilisation', in which some aspects of the learner's language system remain fixed and do not develop (Selinker, 1972). aspect of the learner's development that has interested many people is the order in which particular grammatical points are acquired. A common approach starts from part of Roger Brown's work on first-language acquisition. Brown (1973) discovered that the chronological order in which children start to use grammatical morphemes such as the fairly constant: the child first uses -ing, the plural -s so on. Dulay and Burt (1973) first tried this approach on second-language learning, using the Bilingual Syntax Measure (BSM) to elicit samples of language from children at one moment of time: they scored the accuracy for grammatical morphemes and established an order of difficulty; though they found a common order among the children, this order had certain differences from Brown's order. This method was extended to show that children with different native languages share the same order (Dulay & Burt, 1974); that adults have a similar order to children (Bailey, Madden & Krashen, 1974; Krashen, Sferlazza, Feldman & Fathman, 1976); that the order varies according to the task involved (Larsen-Freeman, 1975); and that the order is not much affected by one month's classroom teaching (Perkins & Larsen-Freeman, 1975). At first glance, then, this research suggests that second-language learners share a common order of acquisition for grammatical morphemes in English. At closer inspection, the connections between the learner's language and time seem slightly dubious. The criteria used in Brown (1973), in which points of acquisition are arranged into a chronological order, are replaced by criteria of relative success at one point of time: Brown was talking about a 'codebreaking' order, the second-language research about aa 'decoding' order, to borrow two terms from cryptography. Rosansky (1976) argues that it is necessary to show that order of difficulty is the same as order of acquisition, if these results are to mean anything in terms of development, furthermore, comparison with Brown's results is obscured by the different methods collecting data, on the one hand elicitation techniques such as the BSM, on the other natural recordings; indeed, native children tested with the BSM do not show Brown's order (Porter, 1977). A naturalistic study has fact shown similarity between chronological order of acquisition in young bilingual children and Brown's order, but less similarity in older children (Padilla, to appear). So order of difficulty for grammatical morphemes is at present hard to interpret; it certainly does not in itself justify any statements about chronological order of acquisition or about differences from of syntactic development aspects of syntactic development have been investigated in less controversial ways. Much of the research has dealt with English and has been concerned with children. Many results show a fair amount of variation between learners (Cancino, Rosansky & Schumann, 1975; Bertkua, 1974). Even within the of one learner there is variation; Dickerson (1975) has suggested employing variable rules such as for the variation from one situation to Out of the plethora of studies one can mention representative handful concerned with different points of English syntax: negation (Milon, 1974); pluralisation (Natalico & Natalico, 1971); auxiliaries (Cancino et pronouns (Katz, 1976); possessives (Padilla & Lindholm, 1976); eager/easy to please (Cook, 1973; d'Anglejean & Tucker, 1975). Other languages have been studied to lesser degree: French relative clauses and indirect objects (Chun, 1976); Spanish verb and noun phrases (Dato, 1975); Swedish negation (Hyltenstem, 1977). Mostly the writers have concluded that there are general similarities between the order of acquisition of foreign learners and native children, though there are some differences; for example a stage has been described in learning of English negation by Germans in which a negative element occurs immediately after the verb, unlike any stage in first language acquisition wealth of information about the learning of English syntax should not blind us to the paucity of research in other areas of development; semantic development has hardly been touched upon, apart from Young (1973); phonological development is equally under-researched, with some exceptions (Dickerson, 1975;Tarone, 1976; Wode, 1976 a). This bias towards syntax leaves the study of learner's language in a curiously isolated position. On the one hand, it is cut off from recent ideas in first-language acquisition which are more concerned with semantic, cognitive and social development than with syntax. On the other hand, it is cut off from recent work in applied linguistics which stresses communicative functions rather than grammatical form. While the grammatical data that have been unearthed are interesting in themselves, one may question where they lead. Ultimately, so far as learning is concerned, the learner's language and the order in which he acquires various items are only interesting as evidence for underlying processes at work: the question to be answered is why his language takes the form that it does. So, rather than attempt to summarise the vast mass of descriptive studies of learner's language that are now available, a task resembling Hercules' in the Augean stables, the rest of this survey looks at some of the underlying causes of the learner's language system. 2. The learner's contribution to second language learning and production strategies with a new language the learner applies certain strategies both conscious and unconscious to what he hears, which partly determine his language system (Selinker, 1972; Richards, 1971). The positive effects of the learner's conscious awareness that he is learning a new language have been described in terms of the strategies that the good language learner adopts (Rubin, 1975; Stern, 1975; Naiman, Frohlich & Stern, 1975). Broadly speaking, the profile of the good learner shows that he is actively involved in the learning process: he listens carefully and checks what he says himself; he is eager to participate and to communicate with others; he practices the language of his own accord. Though these strategies necessarily appear 'obvious', any model of second-language learning has to take them into account; if, for instance, adult learners feel that second-language learning is chiefly a matter of vocabulary (Hatch, 1976), this clearly has an effect on their learning, regardless of whether they are right or wrong. At the opposite pole from these conscious strategies are those revealed in an experiment, where, after 27 minutes of exposure to an unknown language, people were able to distinguish pauses located at grammatical boundaries from those that were not: somehow they had employed a strategy that yielded quite accurate information about the grammatical structure of the language (Wakefield, Doughtie & Yom, 1974). The learner then, consciously or unconsciously, absorbs or extracts information from what he hears. One strategy is to impose the structure of his first language: he transfers rules or items to his learner-language system from his first language and shows signs of 'interference' (Selinker, 1972). Another strategy is to attempt to guess the system of the target language, resulting in ' overgeneralisation'; his use of this strategy increases as he learns more of the language (Taylor, 1975). The learner also pays great attention to word order (Chun, 1976; Lattey, 1975). He may appear to 'simplify' the second language; his sentences have a simpler grammar and use reduced forms, similar in many ways to a pidgin language (Schumann, 1975a). Schumann claims this similarity is no coincidence: pidgins and learner languages are both produced under the pressure of a need to communicate with people from another culture. There are nevertheless difficulties in accepting either that the pressures on an individual and on a community are the same, or that the similarities between pidgins are necessarily due to a general communication strategy rather than common source languages. A slightly different explanation for simplification is that it represents an attempt to return to an earlier, more basic form of the language (Corder, 1977), resembling the view that early language is closest to deep structure (McNeill, 1965). There are, however, dangers in the over-literal use of the term 'simplification ' since this suggests that in some way the learner is aware of the whole grammar of the language rather than extracting a ' simple' system from what he hears. Finally there are the production strategies that the learner uses in a speech situation. One of these is' avoidance'; Schachter (1974) pointed out that learners often do not make the predicted mistakes because they can avoid producing a form that they are likely to get wrong. The idea of avoidance has been extended to include various types of lexical avoidance (Blum & Levenston, 1977). In general, the conscious and unconscious strategies that the learner employs are of vital importance and we need to know more about them, not only in linguistic terms but also in the cognitive and social terms that are starting to be studied (Chun, 1975; Fillmore, 1976). ways in which a learner learns a second language are also affected by his attitudes and psychological motivations. The two main types of motivation that have been described are the 'integrative', in which the learner wants to communicate actively with the speakers of the other language, and the 'instrumental', in which he wants to use the language for some utilitarian purpose; of these two the integrative now seems more important (Gardner, Smythe, Clement & Glicksman, 1976). A way in to the large body of literature on this subject can be found in the annotated bibliography compiled by Desrochers, Smythe & Gardner (1975). The causes of motivation are attitudes; success in second-language learning depends on the attitudes towards the foreign culture, towards learning a foreign language, and towards the classroom situation 1976). One's native language is an important factor in one's sense of identity as an individual and as a member of a group: learning a new language means adopting a new identity. Lambert (1974) distinguishes 'additive' bilingualism, in which the learner loses nothing by learning a second language, from ' subtractive' bilingualism, in which he is forced to give something up; Clarke (1976) talks of a clash between the level of 'modernity' in the two cultures; Schumann (1976) draws attention to the 'social distance' separating the learner from the target culture. While these concepts have obvious relevance to contact or immigrant situations, they are less important to language teaching in schools. However, one idea of equal importance to both is the loss of personal identity in learning a second language: culture-shock is like the alienated state of a schizophrenic unable to make sense of his surroundings (Clarke, 1976) and this is supported by similarities between the language of schizophrenics and second-language learners (Meara, 1977). Guiora, Brannon & Dull (1972) postulate a 'language ego' that is threatened by the new language; Green (1977) claims that students regress to an earlier Freudian stage in a foreign language and express ideas that are more childish than their level of thinking in their and memory processes and producing speech involves psychological processes that are only now starting to be understood. In second-language learning their nature is even more obscure. One issue is whether these processes are substantially the same in all languages; some semantic processes involved in verifying the truth of sentences have in fact been found to be similar in different languages (Just & Carpenter, 1975). Another issue is whether these processes can be transferred to a second language; in terms of syntax it has been shown that foreign adults do not benefit from knowing embedding in a first language but fall back on the same processes as the young native child (Cook, 1975). The work on grammatical morphemes can also be interpreted as showing some of the processing limitations common to learners. At least some speech processes then have to be relearnt in a second language. Indeed some of them may never be so efficient in a second language: even skilled bilinguals are worse at a cloze test in their second language (d'Anglejean & Tucker, 1973); advanced learners cannot summarise texts as well as natives (Long & Harding-Esch, 1977). now to memory processes, it is convenient to distinguish short-term from long-term memory. The characteristics of short-term memory are that information is stored for only a few seconds, capacity for information is small, and the information is stored in the form of sounds. Nothing is known about the duration of short-term memory in a second language but some research has looked at capacity. Glicksberg (1963) found adult learners of English remembered 6-4 digits at a time compared with 7-1 in their first language, improving to 6-7 during five weeks of an intensive course; Cook (1977) found a capacity of 5-9 in beginners and 6-7 in advanced learners. So far as the form of storage is concerned, capacity has been related to syntactic complexity (Harris, 1970) and to phonological encoding (Cook, 1977); Henning (1973) traced a development from phonological to semantic storage. So short-term memory seems to work in a similar fashion in a second language; we can store slightly less information than in our first language but we store it in similar ways. Long-term memory has also been studied. Lambert (1956) tested word associations and concluded that, while advanced learners were more like native speakers in such aspects as number and range of associations, they were still unlike them in type of associations; the clustering effect in which adults normally remember words from the same semantic category together was not found to any great extent with advanced foreign learners nor was there much difference between advanced learners and beginners (Cook, 1977). Ultimately this line of research leads to the issue of how the two language systems are related in the mind of the bilingual: is there a distinct memory system for each language or are they linked in some way? The evidence is inconclusive: in the same kind of task where bilinguals had to switch languages, Taylor (1971) found the languages were stored separately, while Neufeld (1976) found they were stored together; a task involving naming colours, on the other hand, produced evidence for close links between the languages (Lambert & Preston, 1967). answer to the question about transfer to a second language is then complex. The conclusion arrived at in Cook (1977) was that memory processes are transferred more easily the less they depend on language. This has affinities with the claim that 'capacity increases with processing depth since we can make greater use of learned rules at deeper levels of analysis' (Craik, 1973), if language is equated with learned rules. Indeed some recent experiments can be taken to support this claim by showing little difference between beginners, advanced learners, and bilinguals in a deductive reasoning task in their second language (d'Anglejean, Gagnon, Tucker & Winsberg, 1977). A related issue is the extent to which these memory processes can be employed in learning a second language, as opposed to using it, in codebreaking rather than decoding. Some attempts have been made to apply conscious mnemonic techniques to the learning of vocabulary: Atkinson (1975) describes a 'keyword' technique and Paivio (1976) a 'pegword' technique, both of which involve forming mental images. However, as Rivers and Melvin (1977) point out, 'a word learnt out of context is for the most part a useless bauble': mnemonic techniques are only useful if the vocabulary learnt with them is available to the speaker for normal language use. A general application of memory research is discussed in Melvin and Rivers (1976), who describe an information processing model which emphasises that procedures for speaking and learning are learnt through meaningful use of language rather than memorisation. A two-stage model of memory has also been proposed in which an initial memory fills up with formulas, and a second-stage memory creates rules to account for the overflow (Gallagher, 1976); this connects with the discovery of 'prefabricated utterances' in a young Japanese learner of English (Hakuta, 1974). people take it for granted that an important factor in second-language learning is the learner's age; most discussions assume that children are better than adults and then go on to suggest explanations for this. It is useful to consider the evidence that might support this assumption. Some Canadian research indeed showed that children who arrived there under the age of seven fared better at learning English than those who arrived at an older age (Ramsay & Wright, 1974). But on the other hand there is a mass of evidence that adults are either superior to, or the same as, children: adults are better than children at understanding spoken Russian by the total physical response method (Asher & Price, 1967); teenagers are better at learning grammar than younger children whether in English (Fathman, 1975) or Dutch (Snow & Hoefnagel-Hohle, 1975); nine-year-olds learn French morphology and syntax faster than four-year-olds (Ervin-Tripp, 1974); Israeli census returns show that the age of immigration makes no difference to the pattern of acquisition, in terms of reported use, and that, while there is decline with age, the main watershed is at the age of 30 (Smith & Braine, n.d.). Nevertheless, some people might say, the superiority of children is at learning pronunciation rather than grammar. Again some evidence confirms this belief: older learners either retain more foreign accent (Oyama, 1976; Asher & Garcia, 1969) or report they retain it (Seliger, Krashen & Ladefoged, 1975); the younger children tested in Fathman (1975) were better at pronunciation than the teenagers. But, on the other hand, adults learn German sounds better than children in the same teaching situation (Olson & Samuels, 1973); adults have an initial advantage at pronouncing and imitating Dutch (Snow& Hoefnagel-Hohle, n.d.); older children up to ten make fewer mistakes with unfamiliar phonological structure (Kuusinen & Salin, 1971). So far from showing the superiority of children, most of the hard evidence warrants the opposite conclusion: adults are better than children at learning a second language when the tests are conducted under controlled lack of evidence has not prevented many ingenious explanations being offered for children's alleged superiority at second-language learning. The most general is that there is a critical period for language learning; after we have left this period we can learn language only with difficulty. The reasons for this critical period may be ' lateralisation', that is to say, the tendency for brain functions to become specialised to one side or the other in the early teens (Scovel, 1969). The evidence for locating lateralisation in the early teens is, however, debatable (Krashen, 1975), and the causal connection between lateralisation and language learning necessarily rests on evidence from pathological cases. A second explanation distinguishes 'acquisition', the normal process through which children learn a first language, from 'learning', an alternative process that can be used by adults because of their greater maturity (Krashen, 1976). This distinction has been enlarged into the 'monitor model' (Krashen, 1977), which claims that the distinctive feature of adult 'learning' is that adults can monitor what they are producing; thus tasks which show similarities between adults and children test 'acquisition' and do not provide sufficient time for the adult to monitor what he is doing. Obviously independent evidence of this monitor needs to be supplied; advanced learners, for example, have not been found to be better at correcting their own mistakes than beginners, as might have been expected (White, 1977). A third type of explanation is cognitive development: Rosansky (1975) suggests that the crucial point is the transition to the Piagetian stage of formal operations in the early teens; Tremaine (1975) correlates the transition to the earlier Piagetian stage of concrete operations at about seven with the syntactic development of bilingual children. as these explanations are, it is not clear they are needed. What differences there are between children and adults can be explained without recourse to some unique feature of language learning that changes with age. One simple cause is differences in situation: Macnamara (1973) distinguishes succinctly between the demands of the street and of the classroom; often the adult meets the classroom, the child the street. The types of social interaction also vary; the language play described in Peck (to appear) is rarely allowed to adults; children talk about different topics from adults (Hatch, to appear); the peer-group pressures on children are considerably different from those on adults (Macnamara, 1976) and the motivations and attitudes of the learner vary according to age (Schumann, 1975 b). common factor to the research cited above that found no disadvantage to adults was precisely that the situation of children and adults was kept the same (Asher & Price, 1967; Olson & Samuels, 1973). Another factor that the research on accents does not take into account is historical changes in the status of immigrants: age of arrival confounds moment of arrival. While it is certainly possible to explain some of the differences in terms of cognitive maturity, this does not necessarily involve linking them to the acquisition of formal operations or to some special process such as monitoring without further evidence. Given all the factors that distinguish adults from children, it would be strange if we found no differences between them but it is not necessary to invoke some peculiar property of language learning to explain them. While one does not wish to deny the strong impression that many people have that some adult immigrants speak their new language poorly, this may be ascribed not so much to an intrinsic defect in the adult's mind as to differences in situation, in motivation, in willingness to surrender part of one's identity, and so on, that separate children from adults. The learner’s situation language the learner hears important element in the learner's situation is the language he hears. Ferguson (1975) described 'foreigner talk', that is to say, the language variety addressed to foreigners, typified by its 'simpler' grammar and by certain vocabulary items. In a natural setting the learner may well encounter this variety; indeed it is not entirely unknown in the classroom (Hatch, 1978). While there are resemblances between 'simple' foreigner talk addressed to learners and 'simple' pidgin-like language produced by learners, there is no evidence that foreigner talk assists second-language learning any more than there is proof that babytalk helps the native child. Both these simple varieties reflect partly the adult's intuition about what learners find easy to understand, partly the language used by learners themselves, partly the sociolinguistic convention of what is appropriate for learners. Aside from foreigner talk, some work has linked the learner's language to what he hears and the types of interaction in which he takes part (Larsen-Freeman, 1976; Hatch, 1976). This link between input and learning is vital to language teaching. A feature of most teaching methods is that they control the language the learner hears in several dimensions - situationally, functionally, grammatically, notionally, and in other ways. Yet evidence for the effects of input hardly exists. Only Valdman (1975) has shown the possibility of basing the sequence of presentation of grammatical items on learner's errors. Though a central feature of most classrooms is the structuring and sequencing of input, we still have no solid evidence to challenge the assertion that a natural unstructured input is as effective (Newmark & learner's social interactions second-language learning, Evelyn Hatch has pioneered the study of conversational interactions between learners and native speakers (Hatch, to appear; Hatch, 1976). The central feature of interaction she sees as the need to find something to talk about: adults interpret children's utterances as naming a topic for discussion; foreign adults struggle hard to establish a topic of conversation. Adults in particular need 'repairs' to be able to check that they and the native are talking about the same thing (Hatch, 1976). The order of natural second-language acquisition is derived primarily from the learner's communicative needs rather than from grammatical complexity or frequency: the learner's language is a consequence of his interactions (Hatch, 1978). Some of the strategies for interaction among children have also been described in Fillmore (1976). As yet these interaction studies offer interesting insights into the learner's behaviour rather than a coherent theory; nevertheless they complement the ideas of integrative motivation and production strategies. language learners, however, do not engage in social interactions with native speakers; they sit in a classroom facing a teacher. This contrast is often put in terms of 'informal' learning which takes place in a natural setting and 'formal' learning which takes place inside a classroom. Macnamara (1976), however, denies that language teaching is strictly speaking formal, since the teacher cannot provide formal rules that are linguistically and psychologically valid. Krashen (1976) sees aspects of both formal and informal learning in the classroom, defining 'formal' as teaching one rule at a time and having feedback; he suggests that an adult may benefit from formal teaching since this exploits his adult capacity to 'learn' rather than 'acquire' language. But we still have little idea of what goes on in a classroom in terms of interaction; certainly it is very different from the conversation strategies that Hatch describes. We do have some ideas about correction of errors (Cohen, 1975; Holley & King, 1971) but more information is needed about all the other aspects of classroom behaviour by students and teachers. obvious conclusion from this research is the complexity of second-language learning; any model has to account not just for grammatical development but also for the contributions made by the learner and by the learner's environment, not to mention the individual differences between learners, and the effects of learning a second language on the learner, a field too vast to include here. If nothing more, we can rule out simple accounts of second-language learning. A further general issue is whether a second language can be learnt in the same way as a first. An adequate discussion of this can only take place if we settle in advance which model of first-language acquisition we are comparing to second-language learning: it is hardly satisfactory to try to prove or disprove the similarity between the processes by choosing select examples from either field. At present this issue can only be discussed in fairly limited terms because the research in second-language learning is restricted in scope. Nevertheless there have been several discussions of this issue (Cook, 1969; Ervin-Tripp, 1975; Macnamara, 1976; McLaughlin, 1977; Spolsky, 1977). The general tenor of these emphasises the broad similarities between first- and second-language learning but draws attention to some specific differences. Much of the grammatical evidence has already been mentioned in section 1.3 above. In addition, one can mention an analysis of learner's errors that found most could be explained in terms of first-language acquisition rather than interference (Dulay & Burt, 1972) and the results of an experiment in which foreign adults and native children repeat sentences in similar ways (Cook, 1973). firm conclusion, as in any research survey, is that more research is needed; in some areas we have barely started to scratch the surface. Nevertheless, since the interest of this research for many people lies in its potential application to language teaching, it seems fair to risk some tentative conclusions. Obviously any teaching syllabus or materials will be more effective if they pay attention to what is known about the developmental sequence the learner goes through, the comprehension and production strategies he uses, his attitudes and motivations, the interactions he wants to take part in, and so on. But what can the teacher do who is unable to change the syllabus or course that he uses ? Above all, the teacher has to recognise the active contribution made by the learner; regardless of what the teacher wants him to do, the learner adopts certain learning and production strategies; success in learning is a product of many different factors in the learner, most of them out of the teacher's control. In particular, the successful learner wants to communicate actively through the language. The teacher's recognition of the learner's contribution, in particular of the integrative motivation, will lead him not only to stress the ultimate aim of interacting with native speakers but also to encourage the students to interact with each other and with him in meaningful ways in the classroom; this probably means providing a variety of interaction patterns, not just the one in which all communication is channelled through the teacher. The teacher's awareness of the learner's contribution will also make him more conscious of the extent to which he can call upon the maturer cognitive processes of the second-language learner in activities where language is less involved. In terms of teaching techniques, it leads to activities that encourage the students to communicate and interact through the new language about things that vitally concern them, here and now in the classroom, rather than with a native speaker on some far-off occasion in the future; thus the teacher will rely heavily on role-play, communication games, and the like. This new emphasis brings us to a point where the goals of language teaching are no longer defined simply by the language syllabus the student is expected to know, or by the usefulness of the language to some conjectured function in the student's later life, but by their contribution to the social and psychological development of the individual; it may restore a central educational role to language teaching in addition to its academic and utilitarian roles. the original publication of this article, a large amount has been published, too much to summarise here as a postscript. The following, however, represent the essential reading in book form that has become available. F. & Hastings, A. J. (eds.) (1977). Studies in first and second language acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1979. P. A. (ed.) (1977). Bilingualism. York: Academic Press. S. W. (ed.) (1980). Second language development. Tubingen: R. C. (ed.) (1978). Second language acquisition and foreign language teaching. Arlington, Va.: Center for Applied Linguistics. Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: D. (ed.) (1980). Discourse analysis in second language research. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. S. H. (1981). Psychology in foreign language teaching. London: Allen & Unwin. B. (1978). Second-language acquisition in childhood. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. D. (ed.) (1980). Studies in language acquisition*. Heidelberg: Julius Groos. New York Academy of Sciences (to appear). Proceedings of the Conference on First and Second Language Learning; January 1981. A. & Begg, I. (1981). Psychology of language. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. W. G. (ed.) (1978). Second language acquisition research. New York: Academic Press. to journals titles: LL, Learning; ML/, Modern Language Journal. A., Gagnon, N., Tucker, G. R. & Winsberg, S. (1977). Solving problems in deductive reasoning: the performance of adult second language learners. Paper presented to the 8th Conference on Applied Linguistics, University of A. & Tucker, G. R. (1973). Communicating across cultures: an empirical of Cross Cultural Psychology, 4, A. & Tucker, G. R. (1975). The acquisition of complex English structures by adult learners. LL, 25, J. J. & Garcia, R. (1969). The optimal age to learn a foreign language. J. J. & Price, B. S. (1967). The learning strategy of the total physical response: some age differences. Child R. C. (1975). Mnemotechnics in second-language learning. American N., Madden, C. & Krashen, S. (1974). Is there a' natural sequence' in adult second language learning? LL, J. S. (1974). An analysis of English learner speech. LL, 24, S. & Levenston, E. (1977). Strategies of communications, through lexical avoidance in the speech and writing of second-language teachers and learners and in translation. Mimeo. R. W. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Harvard H., Rosansky, E. J. & Schumann, J. H. (1975). The acquisition of the English auxiliary by native Spanish speakers. TESOL J. (1975). Selected processes in second language acquisition. Paper presented to the Fourth AI LA Congress, Stuttgart. J. (1976). Word order in second language acquisition. I n G. Drachman (ed.), Proceedings of the First Salzburg Colloquium on Children's Language. Tubingen: Verlag Gunter Narr. M. A. (1976). Second language acquisition as a clash of consciousness. LL, 26, V. J. (1969). The analogy between first and second language learning. IRAL, V. J. (1973). The comparison of language development in native children and foreign adults. IRAL, V. J. (1975). Strategies in the comprehension of relative clauses. Language and Speech, 18, V. J. (1977). Cognitive processes in second language learning. IRAL, A. C. (1975). Error correction and the training of language teachers. MLJ, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners' errors. IRAL, Reprinted in Richards (1974). S. P. (1971). Idiosyncratic dialects and error analysis. IRAL, 147-60. Reprinted in Richards (1974). S. P. (1977). Language continua and the interlanguage hypothesis. In S. P. Corder & E. Roulet (eds.), The notions of simplification, interlanguages and pidgins and their relation to second language pedagogy. Geneva: Droz; Neuchatel: Universite de Neuchatel. F. I. M. (1973). A 'levels of analysis' view of memory. In P. Pliner, L. Kramer & T. Alloway (eds.), Communication and affect. New York: Academic Press. D. P. (1975). On psycholinguistic universals in children's learning of Spanish. In D. P. Dato (ed.), Developmental psycholinguistics: theory and application. Georgetown University Press. (Georgetown University Round Table.) A. M., Smythe, P. M. & Gardner, R. C. (1975). The social psychology of second language acquisition and bilinguality: an annotated bibliography. Research Bulletin No. 340, University of Western Ontario. L. (1975). The learner's language as a system of variable rules. TESOL H. C. & Burt, M. K. (1972). Goofing: an indicator of children's second language learning strategies. LL, H. C. & Burt, M. K. (1973). Should we teach children syntax ? LL, 23, 2, H. C. & Burt, M. K. (1974). Natural sequences in child second language acquisition. LL, 24, 1, 37-53. S. E. (1974). Is second language learning like the first ? TESOL A. (1975). The relationship between age and second language productive ability. LL, 25, C. A. (1975). Toward a characterization of English foreigner talk. Anthropological L. W. (1976). Individual differences in second language acquisition. Asilomar Conference on Individual Differences in Language Ability and Language W. E. (1976). Investigation of the relationship between memorisation and rule acquisition. In. J. E. Fanselow & R. H. Crymes (eds.), On R. C, Smythe, P. C, Clement, R. & Gliksman, L. (1976). Second language learning: a social psychological perspective. Canadian Modern Language Review, 32, D. H. (1963). A study of the span of immediate memory among adult students of English as a foreign language. University of Michigan, PhD thesis. M. F. (1977). Regression in adult learning of a second language. Foreign Language Annals, 10, A. Z., Brannan, R. C. L. & Dull, C. Y. (1972). Empathy and second language learning. LL, 22, 2, 111-30. K. (1974). Prefabricated patterns and the emergence of structure in second language acquisition. LL, K. (1975). Learning how to speak a second language: what exactly does the child learn? In D. P. Dato (ed.), Developmental psycholinguistics: theory and application. Georgetown University Press (Georgetown University Round Table.) D. P. (1970). Report on an experimental group-administered memory span test. TESOL E. (1976). Conversational analysis: an alternative methodology for second language acquisition research. Proceedings of the NWAVE-V Conference, E. (1978). Discourse analysis and second language acquisition. In E. Hatch language acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. G. H. (1973). Remembering foreign language vocabulary: acoustic and semantic F. M. & King, J. K. (1971). Imitation and correction in foreign language K. (1977). Implicational patterns in interlanguage syntax variation. Work in Progress, 10, Department of Linguistics, Edinburgh University. M. A. & Carpenter, P. A. (1975). Comparative studies of comprehension: an investigation of Chinese, Norwegian and English. Memory and Cognition, 3, J. T. (1976). Case, gender, and pronominal diamorphy in child second language acquisition. Paper delivered at First Annual Boston Conference on Language Development. E. (1974). Elicitation, lateralisation and error analysis. York Papers in Linguistics, 4. Studies Bulletin, 1, S. (1975). The development of cerebral dominance and language learning: more evidence. In D. P. Dato (ed.), Developmental psycholinguistics: theory and application. Georgetown University Press (Georgetown University Round Table). S. D. (1976). Formal and informal linguistic environments in language acquisition and language learning, TESOL S. D. (1977). The monitor model for adult second language performance. In M. Burt, H. Dulay & M. Finocchario (eds.), Viewpoints on English as a second language. New S. D., Sferlazza, V., Feldman, L. & Fathman, A. K. (1976). Adult performance on the SLOPE test: more evidence for a natural sequence in adult second language acquisition. LL, 26, J. & Salin, E. (1971). Children's learning of unfamiliar phonological Motor Skills, 33, W. E. (1956). Developmental aspects of second language acquisition: I. Associational fluency, stimulus provocativeness and word order influence. Journal of Social Psychology, 43, W. E. (1974). Cultural and language factors in learning and education. In F. Aboud & R. Meade, The Fifth Western Symposium on Learning. Washington: Western Washington State College. W. E. & Preston, M. S. (1967). The interdependences of the bilingual's two languages. In K. Salzinger & S. Salzinger (eds.), Research in verbal behaviour and some neurophysiological implications, 115-21. New York: Academic Press. D. E. (1975). The acquisition of grammatical morphemes by adult ESL students. TESOL D. E. (1976). An explanation for the morpheme acquisition order of second language learners. LL, E. (1975). Second-language acquisition: environments and strategies. In C. Molony, H. Zobl & W. Stolting (eds.), German in contact with other languages. Monographs in Linguistics and Communication Sciences. Kronberg: Skriptor Verlag. P. M. (1977). French L2 learners: what they're talking about. Paper presented at the first annual Second Language Acquisition Research Forum, University of California, Los Angeles. J. & Harding-Esch, E. (1977). Summary and recall of text in first and second languages; some factors contributing to performance differences. In H. W. Sinaiko and D. Gerver (eds.), Proceedings of NATO Symposium on Language, Interpretation and Communication. New York; London: Plenum Press. Second language learning in children. Psychological J. (1973). Nurseries, streets and classrooms: some comparisons and deductions. J. (1976). Comparison between first and second language learning. Die Neuren Sprachen, 75, D. (1965). Some thoughts on first and second language acquisition. Mimeo, P. (1977). Schizophrenic symptoms in foreign-language learners. Paper presented to BAAL Annual Conference, Colchester. B. S. & Rivers, W. M. (1976). In one ear and out the other: implications of memory studies for language learning. In J. E. Fanselow & R. Crymes J. P. (1974). The development of negation in English by a second-language N., Frohlich, M. & Stern, H. H. (1975). The good language learner. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. D. S. & Natalico, L. F. S. (1971). A comparative study of English pluralisation by native and non-native English speakers. Child W. (1971). Approximative systems of foreign-language learners. IRAL, 115-23. Reprinted in Richards (1974). G. G. (1976). The bilingual's lexical store. IRAL, L. & Reibel, D. A. (1968). Necessity and sufficiency in language learning. L. L. & Samuels, S. J. (1973). The relationship between age and accuracy of foreign-language pronunciation. Journal of Educational Research, 66, S. (1976). A sensitive period for the acquisition of a non-native phonological of Psycholinguistic Research, 5, A. M. (to appear). Acquisition of 14 grammatical morphemes in the speech of A. M. & Lindholm, K.J. (1976). Development of interrogative, negative and possessive forms in the speech of young Spanish/English bilinguals. Bilingual A. (1976). On exploring visual knowledge. Paper presented at the Iowa Invitational Conference on Visual Learning, Thinking and Communication. University of Iowa. S. (to appear). Language play in second language acquisition. In C. Henning of the First Annual Los Angeles Second Language Research Forum. K. & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1975). The effect of formal language instruction on the order of morpheme acquisition. LL, 25, J. H. (1977). A cross-sectional study of morpheme acquisition in first language learning. LL, 27, C. A. & Wright, E. N. (1974). Age and second language learning. Journal of Social Psychology, 94, J. C. (1971). Error analysis and second language strategies. Language J. C. (ed.) (1974). Error W. M. & Melvin, B. S. (1977). Memory and memorization in comprehension and production: contributions of I P theory. Canadian Modern Language Review, 33, E. J. (1975). The critical period for the acquisition of language; some cognitive developmental considerations. Working Papers in Bilingualism, 6, E. J. (1976). Methods and morphemes in second language acquisition research. J. (1975). What the 'good language learner' can teach us. TESOL G. P. & Richards, J. C. (1973). Learner language systems. Language Reprinted in Richards (1974). J. (1974). An error in error analysis. LL, 24, J. H. (1975a). Implications of pidginization and creolization for the study of adult second language acquisition. In J. H. Schumann & N. Stenson (eds.), New frontiers in second language learning. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. J. H. (1975 6). Affective factors and the problem of age in second language acquisition. LL, 25, J. H. (1976). Social distance as a factor in second language acquisition. LL, 26, T. (1969). Foreign accents, language acquisition, and cerebral dominance. LL, 19, H. W., Krashen, S. D. & Ladefoged, P. (1975). Maturational constraints in the acquisition of second language accent. Language L. (1972). Interlanguage. IRAL, 209-31. Reprinted in Richards (1974). K. H. & Braine, M. D-. S. (no date). Miniature languages and the problem of language acquisition. Mimeo. C. E. & Hoefnagel-Hohle, M. (1975). Age differences in second language acquisition. Paper read to Fourth AILA Congress, Stuttgart. C. E. & Hoefnagel-Hohle, M. (no date). Age differences in the pronunciation of foreign sounds. Mimeo, University of Amsterdam. B. (1977). The comparative study of first and second language acquisition. Paper read at Sixth Annual University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Linguistics Symposium on H. H. (1975). What can we learn from the good language learner ? Canadian Modern Language Review, 31, E. (1976). Some influences on interlanguage phonology. Working Papers in Bilingualism, 8, B. P. (1975). The use of overgeneralization and transfer learning strategies by elementary and intermediate students of ESL. LL, 25, I. (1971). How are words from two languages organized in a bilingual's memory ? Canadian Journal of Psychology, 23, R. V. (1975). Piagetian equilibration processes in syntax learning. In D. P. Dato (ed.), Developmental psycholinguistics: theory and application. Georgetown University Press. (Georgetown University Round Table.) A. (1975). Error analysis and pedagogical ordering and the determination of pedagogically motivated sequences. In S. P. Corder & E. Roulet (eds.), Some implications of linguistic theory for applied linguistics. Brussels: J. A., Doughtie, E. G. & Lee Yom, B. H. (1974). The identification of structural components of an unknown language. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 3, L. (1977). Error analysis and error correction in adult learners of English as a Second Language, Working Papers in Bilingualism, 13, H. (1976a). Redding-> [wedin]: the acquisition of L2 /r/. Arbeitspapiere zum Spracherwerb, 11. Department, University of Kiel. H. (19766). Developmental sequences in naturalistic L2 acquisition. Working Papers in Bilingualism, 11, Young, R. W. (1973). The development of semantic categories in Spanish-English and Navajo-English bilingual children. In P. T. Turner (ed.), Bilingualism in the South West. Tucson: University of Arizona Press	3.244885
National Coming Out Day An internationally observed civil awareness day celebrating individuals who publicly identify as bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender. Observed annually on October 11, the anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Queer Community Reception The other Homecoming dance where all are always welcome. Trans Week of Remembrance A week memorializing those who have been killed as a result of transphobia, or the hatred or fear of transgender and gender non-conforming people. KINK on Campus National Day of Silence The Day of Silence is a national event that brings attention to bullying and harassment in schools. Students from middle school to college take a vow of silence in an effort to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT. Night of Noise After the Day of Silence, the Night of Noise is the time to break the silence, release tension, and celebrate.	3.123691
Directional control valves are the most widely used . . . and the least understood . . . valves in fluid power circuits. Many people are confused by the schematic symbol representations, and have difficulty understanding the terms ways, positions, and operators. Learning to read schematic drawings is similar to learning a foreign language. To the trained eye, a symbol speaks volumes even when no words are present. This chapter attempts to take away some of the confusion and apparent magic of fluid power schematic drawings, and thus help make designing and maintaining fluid power systems easier. Directional control valves can only perform three functions: - stop or block fluid flow - allow fluid flow, and - change direction of fluid flow. At first glance, the valve type shown in Figure 10-1 does not appear to be a directional control valve. However, check valves do allow flow in one direction and block flow the opposite direction. Use a check valve in any line where back flow cannot be tolerated. Also pilot-operated check valves (discussed in the next section) can be shifted by an external source to allow reverse flow or stop free flow. The cross-sectional views show the standard poppet design used in most check valves. As in most early designs, the symbol still pictures a ball on a seat. Ball check valves work well until they are disassembled for repair or when troubleshooting. As these valves operate, they wear a groove where the ball contacts the seat. If this wear groove is not reinstalled exactly where it was, the valve is no longer leak free. On the other hand, a guided poppet always goes back in the same relationship to the seat and seals easily after reassembly. It is easy to understand the function of a check valve. Fluid entering opposite a spring pushes against the poppet and spring to move it out of the way. The inline valve has holes around the angled seat face above the body seat to allow flow to pass. The right-angle design pushes the poppet out of the way and fluid flows by with little restriction. Check valves are almost trouble-free devices. Seldom is one the cause of a problem. Potential problems can be minimized further if the check valves are: right-angle types, screw-in cartridges, or subplate mounted. Note that an inline check valve’s plumbing must be disassembled before the valve can be checked. Check valves also can control pressure. Almost all check valves use a spring to return the poppet. In most valves, this spring has very light force, because any spring force results in an energy loss and heat. The light springs from most suppliers require about 5 psi to move the poppet against them (some go as low as 1 psi). Some large check valves, when they are mounted vertically, may require no spring because the weight of the poppet causes it to fall onto its seat. Strong springs give extra resistance to flow so a check valve could replace a relief valve when low-pressure bypass is required. Many manufacturers have check valves with springs that require as much as 125 psi to push their poppets back. These valves work for low-pressure circuits such as a bypass around a low-pressure filter or heat exchanger, or to maintain minimum pilot pressure for pilot-operated directional control valves. When the spring functions as a backpressure or relief valve, the symbol usually shows the spring as part of the symbol. Another lesser-known use for check valves is as a fixed-orifice flow-control function. Figure 10-2 shows an inline check valve with an orifice drilled through the poppet. The orifice allows free flow in one direction and measured flow the opposite way. The orifice is non-adjustable, so this component is tamper proof. The only way to change actuator speed is to physically change the orifice size. This orificed check valve could protect an actuator that might run away if a line broke or a valve malfunctioned. It will not affect speed in the opposite direction. For this application it should be flange fitted or hard piped directly to the actuator port. Pilot-operated check valves The check valves in Figure 10-3 operate like standard check valves, but can permit reverse flow when required. They are called pilot-to-open check valves because they are normally closed but can be opened for reverse flow by a signal from an external pilot supply. The first cutaway view of a pilot-to-open check valve in Figure 10-3 is a standard design using a pilot piston with a stem to unseat the check valve poppet for reverse flow. The pilot piston has an area three to four times that of the poppet seat. This produces enough force to open the poppet against backpressure. Some pilot-operated check valves have area ratios up to 100:1, allowing a very low pilot pressure to open the valve against high backpressure. The second valve in Figure 10-3 shows a pilot-to-open with decompression function. It has a small, inner decompression poppet that allows low pilot pressure to open a small flow passage to reduce backpressure. After releasing high backpressure, the pilot piston can easily open the main poppet for full flow to tank. (This arrangement does not work when the high backpressure is load-induced or generated by other continuous forces.) The third valve, pilot-operated with external drain, isolates the stem side of the pilot piston from the in free-flow port backpressure that would resist pilot pressure trying to open the poppet. Notice that in the other two cutaway views, any pressure in the in free-flow port pushes against the pilot piston stem side and resists pilot pressure’s attempt to open the poppet. Backpressure could be from a downstream flow control or counterbalance valve in some circuits. The external-drain port also can be used to make the pilot piston return when using the valve for a pilot-operated 2-way function. The circuit in Figure 10-4 shows a typical application for pilot-operated check valves. Spool-type directional control valves cannot keep a cylinder from moving from a mid-stroke position for any length of time. All spool valves allow some bypass, so a cylinder with an outside force working against it slowly moves out of position when stopped. Installing pilot-operated check valves in the cylinder lines and connecting the directional valve’s A and B ports to tank in center position assures that the cylinder will stay where it stops (unless the piston seals leak). The circuit in Figure 10-5 shows a pilot-operated check valve holding a load on the rod end of a vertically mounted cylinder. Pilot-operated check valves can hold potential runaway loads in place without creep, but this circuit usually has problems on the extend stroke. This is because a pilot-operated check valve opens the rod end of the cylinder to tank, letting it run away. When the cylinder moves faster than the pump can fill it, pressure in the cap end and pilot pressure to the pilot-operated check valve’s pilot port drops and the valve closes quickly. This can generate high-pressure spikes that may cause pipe and part damage. Almost immediately, pressure to the pilot-operated check valve’s pilot port builds again and the runaway/stop scenario repeats until the cylinder meets resistance or something fails. The best valve to control runaway loads is the counterbalance valve explained in Chapter 14. Figure 10-6 illustrates another problem with using a pilot-operated check valve to hold back a runaway load: a pilot-operated check valve may not open when signaled to let a cylinder with an oversize rod and heavy load extend. When the directional valve shifts to extend the cylinder, load-induced pressure can hold the pilot-operated check valve poppet closed. It may take 300 to 400 psi to force the poppet open, even with its 3:1 or 4:1 area difference. Pressure builds at the pilot port, but at the same time it increases in the cylinder cap end. With a 2:1 rod-differential cylinder, it can add 600 to 800 psi to the load-induced pressure. The additional downward force causes pilot pressure to increase, which causes more downward force, which causes more pilot pressure -- until the circuit reaches maximum pressure. At that point, the relief valve bypasses or the pump compensator kicks in to stop flow. The cylinder simply cannot start to extend . . . and even if it could, the action would be erratic, as in Figure 10-5. Pilot-to-close check valves There is also a pilot-to-close check valve, but it is seldom used. It is rarely necessary to have a valve that always stops flow in one direction and also is capable of stopping it the opposite direction. Notice in the cutaway view in Figure 10-7 that the spring-loaded poppet does not have communicating holes through it to the spring chamber. Flow passes freely from inlet to outlet until a pilot signal is fed to the pilot port. Because the pilot port side of the main-flow poppet has more area than the inlet side, this valve can be closed against free flow.Part 2	3.512787
However, wetlands along desert rivers are incredibly important for wildlife: for water, for fresh forage, for a place to escape the often harsh weather on canyon rims. On the 45 Ranch, set deep in one of the most remote corners of the Owyhee Canyonlands of southwestern Idaho, a new restoration project is returning wetlands to wildlife. Conservation buyers Charles Conn and Dennis Fitzpatrick bought the ranch from The Nature Conservancy in 2005, with the goal of funding conservation and restoration work on the ranch. “The owners had a vision to return the river bottom on their ranch to wetlands,” says Art Talsma, the Conservancy’s director of stewardship. “It’s one of the largest river bottoms along the Owyhee River, so it’s difficult to overstate how important it is to wildlife.” The owners and the Conservancy worked with GeoEngineers, a Boise firm specializing in river restoration, to restore 26 acres of wetlands and 45 acres of native grasses to the river bottom. Royce Construction handled the on-the-ground developments. The project has already garnered awards for its engineering, including recognition by the American Council of Engineering Companies and the Owyhee Conservation District. For the river (pictured above), it means the opportunity to behave more like a wild river—including moving from its channel and periodically flooding. For bighorn sheep, mule deer and sage grouse, it means a place to rest, to feed, to hide and to take cover from harsh weather. For waterfowl and other birds, the wetlands mean a place to rest in the middle of the harsh desert on a long migration. For rafters, it means a quieter float. Previously, the agricultural field was irrigated with a diesel generator, which also generated unwelcome noise for rafters on one of the country’s most remote rivers. The wetlands project is watered solely through gravity and now saves energy, too.	3.376667
MIT’s Technology Review featured Professor Catherine Klapperich’s SNAP device, co-developed as an IIH project, to purify DNA in the field. SNAP (System for Nucleic Acid Preparation) is able to purify DNA from field samples such as blood and saliva without any electricity or specialized training. This allows samples to be collected in the field, and stabilized without expensive refrigeration. By isolating DNA from the sample, the resulting material remains stable at room temperature for long periods of time. “Instead of taking blood samples and keeping them cold, with our technology, they would be able to prepare all the samples at the point of care,” says Klapperich, an assistant professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at Boston University. “They would also have a longer period of time to get a much more preserved sample to a central lab someplace else.” A standard bicycle pump is all that’s required to power a DNA purifying kit, designed by Catherine Klapperich and her students at Boston University. The thermos-size device, dubbed SNAP (System for Nucleic Acid Preparation), extracts genetic material from blood and other bodily fluids by pumping fluid through a polymer-lined straw designed to trap DNA. A user can then pop the straw out and mail it to the nearest lab, where the preserved DNA can be analyzed for suspicious bacteria, viruses, and genetic diseases. More at Technology Review	3.732568
Photo: elaine faith (Flickr) If your hair drier shrunk your head to the size of a grapefruit, you’d be astounded. If your wool pants shrank in the drier, you’d be angry but not amazed. How can clothing disobey the laws of common sense, and shrink in the laundry? What Happens In The Laundry? To understand why this happens, we need to take a closer look at the microscopic structure of natural fibers like wool. Each thready strand you can see is composed of millions of long, tangled molecules called “polymer chains.” Microscopically, these start out coiled like miniature, tangled springs, something like a mass of tangled telephone cords. These curly molecules are stretched and straightened as the wool is carded and spun. In your pants, the straightened polymer chains have a natural tendency to spring back to their original, tightly-coiled state. Fortunately for clothing manufacturers, it’s not exactly easy for the natural fibers to do this. In order to curl back up, they need a certain amount of energy. It’s hard to picture this, because we’re used to springs bouncing back to their original shape as soon as we take the tension off them. These microscopic springs don’t work that way though–they stay stretched out until they get a boost of energy to help them scrunch back up. Hot Drier Or Hot Water Running your pants through a hot drier, or washing them with hot water, can give them the energy they need to spring back. When this microscopic scrunching up happens all over the fabric, your pants shrink.	3.13951
The pocket gophers are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. These are the “true” gophers, though several ground squirrels of the family Sciuridae are often called gophers as well. The name “pocket gopher” on its own may be used to refer to any of a number of subspecies of the family. Pocket gophers are widely distributed in North America, extending into Central America. Gophers are heavily built, and most are 12 to 30 cm (4.7 to 12 in) long, weighing a few hundred grams. A few species reach weights approaching 1 kg (2.2 lb). Within any species, the males are larger than the females and can be nearly double their weight. Most gophers have brown fur that often closely matches the color of the soil in which they live. Their most characteristic features are their large cheek pouches, from which the word “pocket” in their name derives. These pouches are fur-lined, and can be turned inside out. They extend from the side of the mouth well back onto the shoulders. They have small eyes and a short, hairy tail, which they use to feel around tunnels when they walk backwards. All pocket gophers are burrowers. They are larder hoarders, and their cheek pouches are used for transporting food back to their burrows. Gophers can collect large hoards. Their presence is unambiguously announced by the appearance of mounds of fresh dirt about 20 cm (7.9 in) in diameter. These mounds will often appear in vegetable gardens, lawns, or farms, as gophers like moist soil (see Soil biomantle). They also enjoy feeding on vegetables. For this reason, some species are considered agricultural pests. They may also damage trees in forests. Although they will attempt to flee when threatened, they may attack other animals, including cats and humans, and can inflict serious bites with their long, sharp teeth. Pocket gophers are solitary outside of the breeding season, aggressively maintaining territories that vary in size depending on the resources available. Males and females may share some burrows and nesting chambers if their territories border each other, but in general, each pocket gopher inhabits its own individual tunnel system. Depending on the species and local conditions, pocket gophers may have a specific annual breeding season, or may breed repeatedly through the year. Each litter typically consists of two to five young, although this may be much higher in some species. The young are born blind and helpless, and are weaned at around forty days. Information Sourced From:	3.978688
Our work in room 7 concentrated on the conservation and removal of the large piece of plaster that was found in early 1980s. One of the biggest surprises was that we found a great number of schist slabs and pieces of limestone under the plaster. It is obvious that these stones made up the paved floor of the second story, which was preserved to a great extent some centimeters above the ground floor. The plaster we discovered on top of these stones likely once covered the paved floor. The excavation of room 8 had started in 2006. This year, we uncovered three pieces of limestone and two schist slabs, among them a complete handle-less conical cup. Across the east wall, we collected several pieces of white plaster with traces of black and red color. Also, we found some burnt wood, bones, and sherds, as well as a few crumbs of bronze. We continued to excavate at a lower level, where we uncovered a one-handled hemispherical cup, jug, open vessel, and some pieces of plaster. As usual, we found carbonized wood and bones. In addition, we uncovered a course of upright limestone across the western part of the south wall of the room. We are certain that these stones were intentionally positioned here in order to form a structure, which, however, we cannot yet identify. Across the rest of the south wall were several pieces of limestone that had fallen vertically. It seems that they came from some kind of structure, such as shelves on the same wall, or they may have fallen from the upper story. A socket at the southern part of the west wall may have facilitated the positioning of a wooden beam. We collected more pieces of white plaster, some of which had red paint. It is probable that these courses of stones, found across the south wall, are somehow related. As the excavation extended into the other parts of the room, we collected more pieces of white plaster and charcoal. The excavation of room 15 had started in the 1980s, and continued during 2006 with the removal of the upper fill. This year, we removed the lower fill and uncovered numerous pieces of limestone and schist slabs. The fallen masonry was mainly concentrated in the western part of the room, whereas the eastern part was distinguished by a large, complete pithos and part of the floor of the upper story. The latter was well preserved on the top of the pithos. The excavation gradually revealed the lower part of the inner walls. Two small rectangular gaps in the masonry may indicate the existence of niches. One larger gap on the west wall was most probably a window, similar to the one we found on the west wall of room 14. We uncovered a large amount of stones, among them some bones, plaster, and charcoal. At the southwest part of this fill, four miniature handle-less conical cups came to light. It is exactly the same place that we unearthed a complete amphora the previous year. At the same level, we also found some charcoal, bones, and two fragments of white plaster. In total, we documented 67 slabs from the story’s paved floor. The small and irregular size of the stones may explain why they needed to be covered with clay, which was burnt (and is why it was preserved to such a great extent). On the surface of the clay, there was a great quantity of carbonized wood, some sherds, and a handle-less conical cup. The pithos we found took up a substantial part of the southeast and central parts of the room. It is 1.15 meters high (3.7 feet), and has two rows of handles below the rim and at the lower part of its body. At the center of the room, and in contact with pithos’ rims, we found two thin pieces of limestone that do not resemble the stones fallen from the story. This probably means that they were used to cover the pithos. At the southeast corner of the room, we found a one-handled cup and a bell-shaped cup. At the northwest side, we revealed two more handle-less conical cups. The latter had most likely fallen from a shelf on the wall. We removed the rest of the southeast fill and uncovered four more vessels: two incense burners, a lamp, and a miniature handle-less conical cup. At the opening of the door, we found fragments of white plaster, burnt wood, bones, and a great amount of fallen stones from the east wall. At the north-central part of the room, we discovered two miniature conical cups, a milk jug, some bones, burnt wood, three fragments of plaster, and two handle-less cups. The excavation continued at a lower level, revealing four jugs, a bridge-spouted cup, the lower part of a stirrup jar, and a conical cup. Below these finds, we uncovered some limestone and schist slabs, which probably means that they came from a stone structure, maybe a bench. At the southern part of this fill, we found four more vessels, mainly cups, as well as some fragments of plaster, burnt wood, and some bones. At the southwest part of the room, an accumulation of four more vessels came to light. Among them were a cooking pot and a shallow angular bowl. The excavation continued mainly across the south and east walls, where we unearthed a great number of finds, including a lid, a tray, a cooking pot, two handle-less conical cups, a milk jug, and a miniature conical cup. The accumulation continued in the northern part of the east wall where we found a tray, two conical cups, a jug, and a quartz crystal. As usual, we also collected many bones and pieces of burnt wood. Lastly, two more dense accumulations of artifacts came to light beneath the lower part of the pithos and the northeast part of the room, including an amphoriskos, an incense burner, two handle-less cups, a cooking pot, a shallow bowl, and many sherds coming from a medium-size vessel. We also found bones and carbonized wood. The excavation of room 17 had started in 2005. The research up to now was mainly concentrated on the central and western parts of the room, while the eastern part remained unexcavated. This year, the excavation continued in the lower fill of the southwest part of the room. In addition, we removed the upper fill of the eastern part. The single most important find was a pithos, which we uncovered in front of the west doorjamb. At the same level, in the southwest corner of the room, we discovered big sherds that belonged to the rim and the body of another large pithos. At the floor level, we uncovered four vessels: a jug, a beaked jug, and two conical cups. In addition, we found numerous bones and pieces of charcoal. We began to excavate the room’s eastern part this year. The upper fill was full of medium and large pieces of limestone and a few schist slabs. Despite the masonry’s bad state of preservation at the southeast corner, it seemed that there was one more opening at the southern part of the east wall. The door is 0.80 centimeters (0.31 inches) wide and blocked by fallen stones. The disruption in this fill was confirmed by the pottery, since we found a lot of sherds from later periods. Among the various finds were numerous bones and pieces of carbonized wood. Lastly, at the lower part of this fill, there were a few more finds: a sherd of a tray, a handle of a cooking pot, a miniature cup, white plaster, and a probable stone tool. This year, we continued the excavation of passageway 16 at its southern end. We uncovered a great amount of fallen stones, which came from the upper parts of the east wall of room 15. In this fill, we found numerous sherds, bones, and pieces of burnt wood. Also, we discovered two greenish pebbles, a small black stone with reddish inclusions, and two pieces of white plaster. At the lowest level of this fill, we unearthed two handle-less cups and sherds from a large pithos. In addition, we found many pieces of charcoal, three incomplete vessels (a handle-less cup, hemispherical cup, and shallow bowl), a quartz crystal, and a fragment of white plaster. In order to better understand the area occupied by the Central Building and to complete its ground plan, we conducted a geomagnetic prospection to trace any structures, mainly walls, that remain covered to date.	3.009858
The ancient Egyptians encountered magical bricks on the way into life and on the way out. On the way in, these were four bricks, stacked in pairs, that served to elevate a birthing mother so that when her child emerged beneath her, the baby could easily be caught in the hands of the midwife. (According to midwives even today, a squatting or sitting posture is preferable to the supine position in which most modern Western women give birth, generally resulting in a faster, easier delivery.) On the way out, these were the four talismanic bricks that were placed in niches in the four quarters of a royal burial chamber. These bricks were decorated with amuletic figures: in the east, the Anubis jackel; in the south, a flame; in the west, the djed pillar of Osiris; and in the north, a mummiform male figure. All of them protected the deceased. Doubtless, the talismanic bricks that surrounded the body of the deceased in the tomb were meant to assist in her or his rebirth into the next life, just as the birthing bricks assisted in a child’s birth into physical life. The Goddess most closely associated with the birthing bricks is Meskhenet, Protectress of the Birthing Place. The bricks were called meskhenut (pl.) after Her. Meskhenet is depicted either as a woman-headed birthing brick or as a woman with a distinctive curling headdress that has been identified as a stylized cow’s uterus. She protects mother and child during the dangerous process of birth, She foretells the child’s destiny as the baby is born, and She is among the Deities of rebirth Who witness the judgment of the deceased in the Otherworld. With Isis’ own connection to both birth and rebirth, you will probably not be surprised to learn that Isis is closely associated with Meskhenet. At Osiris’ temple complex at Abydos, four Meskhenets serve as assistants to Isis in the great work of rebirth done there. At Hathor’s temple complex at Denderah, a combined form of Isis and Meskhenet (Meskhenet Nofert Iset or Isis, Meskhenet the Beautiful) is one of the four Birth Goddesses of Denderah. And in the famous story of the birth of three kings found in the Westcar papyrus, both Isis and Meskhenet are among the four Goddesses Who assist in the kings’ births. Both tomb bricks and birthing bricks were protective. An inscription from the temple at Esna, Khnum, the God Who forms the child’s body and ka on His Divine potter’s wheel, places four Meskhenet Goddesses around each of His various forms “to repel the designs of evil by incantations.” We even have a few spells that were used to charge the birthing bricks. These spells are supposed to repel the attacks of enemies to the north and south of Egypt and may indicate that the birthing bricks, like the tomb bricks, were connected with the directions. And here’s another tidbit showing parallels between the magical tomb bricks and birthing bricks. In an Egypt Exploration Society article by Ann Macy Roth and Catherine H. Roehrig, the authors point out an interesting gender-balanced aspect of these magical bricks. You may recall that four Sons of Horus are the Gods Who protect the four canopic jars that contain the internal organs of the mummy. These four Gods are, in turn, guarded by four Goddesses. In Tutankhamun’s tomb, the Goddesses are Isis, Nephthys, Selket, and Neith. We may be able to explain the amuletic figures associated with the tomb bricks in a similar, though opposite, manner. If the four meskhenets are personified as four Goddesses Who protect the birthing place, perhaps the four figures on the tomb bricks—the God Anubis, a mummiform male, a Divine pillar associated with Osiris, and a flame, the hieroglyph for which is rather phallic—may be considered Divine Males Who protect the four Meskhenet Goddesses, just as four Goddesses protect the four Sons of Horus. It is worth noting that these magical bricks were made in the same way as were the traditional mud bricks of Egypt. They were fashioned from the fertile Nile mud, which may be associated with Isis as Lady of the Fertile Earth, then they were dried in the brilliant heat of Isis-Re, the Radiant Sun Goddess. I haven’t tried this yet, but it would be interesting to create four miniature mud bricks, magically charge them by naming them Isis-Meskhenet the Beautiful, then placing them in the four quarters of the temple, or even outside, one on each side of the house. I suspect they would provide very fine magical protection.	3.037617
Garrett had a hard time waking up for school during his sophomore year. At first he thought it was because he'd been going to bed late over summer vacation and then sleeping in the next day. He assumed he'd adjust to his school schedule after a couple of weeks. But as the school year progressed, Garrett found himself lying awake in bed until 2 or 3 in the morning, even though he got up at 6:30 AM every day. He began falling asleep in class and his grades started to suffer. Most teens don't get enough sleep, but that's usually because they're overloaded and tend to skimp on sleep. But sleep problems can keep some teens awake at night even when they want to sleep. Over time, those nights of missed sleep (whether they're caused by a sleep disorder or simply not scheduling enough time for the necessary ZZZs) can build into a sleep deficit. People with a sleep deficit are unable to concentrate, study, and work effectively. They can also experience emotional problems, like depression. What Happens During Sleep? You don't notice it, of course, but while you're asleep, your brain is still active. As people sleep, their brains pass through five stages of sleep. Together, stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep make up a sleep cycle. One complete sleep cycle lasts about 90 to 100 minutes. So during an average night's sleep, a person will experience about four or five cycles of sleep. Stages 1 and 2 are periods of light sleep from which a person can easily be awakened. During these stages, eye movements slow down and eventually stop, heart and breathing rates slow down, and body temperature decreases. Stages 3 and 4 are deep sleep stages. It's more difficult to awaken someone during these stages, and when awakened, a person will often feel groggy and disoriented for a few minutes. Stages 3 and 4 are the most refreshing of the sleep stages — it is this type of sleep that we crave when we are very tired. The final stage of the sleep cycle is known as REM sleep because of the rapid eye movements that occur during this stage. During REM sleep, other physical changes take place — breathing becomes rapid, the heart beats faster, and the limb muscles don't move. This is the stage of sleep when a person has the most vivid dreams. Research shows that teens need 8½ to more than 9 hours of sleep a night. You don't need to be a math whiz to figure out that if you wake up for school at 6:00 AM, you'd have to go to bed at 9:00 PM to reach the 9-hour mark. Studies have found that many teens have trouble falling asleep that early, though. It's not because they don't want to sleep. It's because their brains naturally work on later schedules and aren't ready for bed. During adolescence, the body's rhythm (sort of like an internal biological clock) is reset, telling a teen to fall asleep later at night and wake up later in the morning. This change in the circadian rhythm seems to be due to the fact that the brain hormone is produced later at night in teens than it is for kids and adults, making it harder for teens to fall asleep. Sometimes this delay in the sleep-wake cycle is so severe that it affects a person's daily functioning. In those cases it's called delayed sleep phase syndrome. Changes in the body clock aren't the only reason teens lose sleep, though. Lots of people have insomnia — trouble falling or staying asleep. The most common cause of insomnia is stress. But all sorts of things can lead to insomnia, including physical discomfort (the stuffy nose of a cold or the pain of a headache, for example), emotional troubles (like family problems or relationship difficulties), and even an uncomfortable sleeping environment (a room that's too hot, cold, or noisy). It's common for everyone to have insomnia from time to time. But if insomnia lasts for a month or longer with no relief, then doctors consider it chronic. Chronic insomnia can be caused by a number of different problems, including medical conditions, mental-health problems, medication side effects, or substance abuse. People with chronic insomnia can often get help for their condition from a doctor, therapist, or other counselor. For some people, insomnia can be made worse by worrying about the insomnia itself. A brief period of insomnia can build into something longer lasting when a person becomes anxious about not sleeping or worried about feeling tired the next day. Doctors call this psychophysiologic insomnia. Periodic Limb Movement Disorder and Restless Legs Syndrome People with these conditions find their sleep is disrupted by leg (or, less frequently, arm) movements, leaving them tired or irritable from lack of sleep. In the case of periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), these movements are involuntary twitches or jerks: They're called involuntary because the person isn't consciously controlling them and is often unaware of the movement. People with restless legs syndrome (RLS) actually feel physical sensations in their limbs, such as tingling, itching, cramping, or burning. The only way they can relieve these feelings is by moving their legs or arms to get rid of the discomfort. Doctors can treat PLMD and RLS. For some people, treating an iron deficiency can make them go away; other people may need to take other types of medication. Obstructive Sleep Apnea A person with this sleep disorder temporarily stops breathing during sleep because the airway becomes narrowed or blocked. One common cause of obstructive sleep apnea is enlarged tonsils or adenoids (tissues located in the passage that connects the nose and throat). Being overweight or obese can also lead a person to develop obstructive sleep apnea. People with obstructive sleep apnea may snore, have difficulty breathing, and even sweat heavily during sleep. Because it disrupts sleep, someone with sleep apnea may feel extremely sleepy or irritable during the day. People who show signs of obstructive sleep apnea, such as loud snoring or excessive daytime sleepiness, should be evaluated by a doctor. If someone has gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), stomach acid moves backward up into the esophagus, producing the uncomfortable, burning sensation known as heartburn. GERD symptoms can be worse when someone is lying down. Even if someone doesn't notice the feelings of heartburn during sleep, the discomfort it causes can still interfere with the sleep cycle. Most teens have nightmares on occasion. But frequent nightmares can disrupt sleep patterns by waking someone during the night. Some things can trigger more frequent nightmares, including certain medications, drugs, or alcohol. Ironically, sleep deprivation can also be a cause. The most common triggers for more frequent nightmares are emotional, such as stress or anxiety. If nightmares are interfering with your sleep, it's a good idea to talk to a parent, doctor, or counselor. People with narcolepsy are often very sleepy during the day and have sleep "attacks" that may make them suddenly fall asleep, lose muscle control, or see vivid dreamlike images while dozing off or waking up. Someone's nighttime sleep may be disrupted, with frequent awakenings throughout the night. Narcolepsy can be disturbing because people fall asleep without warning, making it hazardous to do things like drive. A person's schooling, work, or social life can be affected by the unusual sleep patterns. Narcolepsy is not that commonly diagnosed in teens, although many cases go unrecognized. People usually first begin to have symptoms between the ages of 10 and 25, but may not be properly diagnosed until 10-15 years later. Doctors usually treat narcolepsy with medications and lifestyle changes. It's rare for teens to walk in their sleep; most sleepwalkers are children. Sleepwalking may run in families. It tends to happen most often when a person is sick, has a fever, is not getting enough sleep, or is feeling stress. Because most sleepwalkers don't sleepwalk often, it's not usually a serious problem. Sleepwalkers tend to go back to bed on their own and don't usually remember sleepwalking. (Sleepwalking often happens during the deeper sleep that takes place during stages 3 and 4 of the sleep cycle.) Sometimes, though, a sleepwalker will need help moving around obstacles and getting back to bed. It's also true that waking sleepwalkers can startle them (but it isn't harmful), so try to guide a sleepwalker back to bed gently. What Should I Do? If you think you're getting enough rest at night and you're still feeling tired during the day, it's a good idea to visit your doctor. Excessive tiredness can be caused by all sorts of health problems, not just difficulties with sleep. If a sleep problem is suspected, your doctor will look at your overall health and sleep habits. In addition to doing a physical examination, the doctor will take your medical history by asking you about any concerns and symptoms you have, your past health, your family's health, any medications you're taking, any allergies you may have, and other issues. The doctor also might do tests to find out whether any conditions — such as obstructive sleep apnea — might be interfering with your sleep. Different sleep problems are treated differently. Some can be treated with medications, whereas others can be helped by special techniques like light therapy (where someone sits in front of a lightbox for a certain amount of time each day) or other practices that can help reset a person's body clock. Doctors also encourage teens to make lifestyle changes that promote good sleeping habits. You probably know that caffeine can keep you awake, but many teens don't realize that playing video games or watching TV before sleeping can do the same thing.	3.514635
There's a reason why baseball has been called our national pastime for decades. It's as American as hot dogs and apple pie. It's been a summer tradition in big cities and little towns across the U.S.A. for generations. It's a great team sport, and it's fun. Why Is Baseball Safety Important? Baseball is by no means a dangerous sport. But it can present a very real risk of injuries from things like wild pitches, batted balls, and collisions in the field. At the high-school level, some pitchers can throw fastballs that reach 80-plus miles per hour, speedy enough to cause painful welts, broken bones, even concussions. Excessive pitching and improper throwing mechanics can lead to major league arm problems, and base runners and fielders frequently collide while running at top speed. As with all sports, wearing and using the right gear can go a long way toward preventing injuries. The amount of equipment required for baseball isn't on a par with football or hockey, but it is every bit as important. Players need to be sure they always have all the gear required by their league. Most leagues will insist on the following: Batting helmets must be worn whenever a player is at bat, waiting to bat, or running the bases. Some leagues may even require pitchers to wear them. Helmets should always fit properly and be worn correctly. If the helmet has a chin strap, make sure it is fastened, and if the helmet has an eye shield or other faceguard, this should be in good condition, securely attached to the helmet. A catcher should always be wearing a helmet, facemask, throat guard, full-length chest protector, athletic supporter with a cup, shin guards, and a catcher's mitt whenever they are catching pitches, whether it's in the game, in the bullpen, or during warm-ups. Baseball spikes should have molded plastic cleats rather than metal ones. Most youth leagues don't allow spikes with metal cleats. It's possible that your league could have guidelines dictating what kind of bat you can use. Some aluminum bats may be banned for hitting batted balls too hard. Be sure to check your league's policy before choosing a bat. All players should wear athletic supporters; most, particularly pitchers and infielders, should wear protective cups. Rules regarding which players must wear cups vary from league to league. Additional gear that some players like includes sliding pants, which are meant to go under your baseball pants to protect against scrapes and cuts; batting gloves, which can keep your hands from getting sore while hitting; shin and foot guards, which are designed to protect against balls fouled straight down; and mouthguards. Base paths are one of the most common places injuries happen. This is especially true when you slide into a traditional stationary base, which puts a rigid obstacle in your path as you slide. Sliding into a fixed base can result in foot, ankle, and lower-leg injuries. As a result, doctors have started recommending that leagues install breakaway bases in all of their playing fields. These bases, which snap onto grommets on an anchored rubber mat, can be dislodged when a runner slides into one, lessening the chances that a base runner will get injured. During the course of normal base-running, the base is stable and does not detach. Before You Start the Game Ideally, you should get plenty of exercise before the season begins and be in the best shape possible before you swing a bat for the first time. This will not only lower your risk of injury, it will also make you a better ballplayer. Be sure to warm up and stretch before a baseball game as you would for any other sport, but remember that in baseball, you have to pay particular attention to your throwing arm. Most arms require plenty of warm-up before they can safely attempt a long, hard throw. Different people have different preferences when it comes to warming up their arms. Some like to make short throws, while others prefer to start with long, easy tosses. Regardless of how you choose to warm up your arm, the idea is to start with soft throws meant to stretch your muscles and loosen up your joints. As your arm warms up, gradually increase the intensity of your throws until you are throwing as you would during a game situation. Make sure that all bats, balls, and other equipment used during warm-ups are safely put away before play begins, and always inspect the playing field for holes and debris, especially broken glass. When you're out in the field, you're going to want to go full speed after every ball hit your way. The problem is that so will your teammates. With your attention focused on the ball, it's easy to lose track of where people are, and painful collisions can and do occur. Make sure that if there is any doubt as to who should field a ball, one player calls for it as loudly as he or she can to let other players know to back away. Practice doing this with your teammates so you get used to listening for each other's voices. When you're batting, it's important to stand confidently in the batter's box and not be afraid of the ball. That being said, baseballs are hard objects. Getting hit with a pitch hurts. You'll get a free base if you get plunked, but it probably won't be worth the pain. Know how to safely get out of the way if a pitch is headed toward you. The best way to do this is to duck and turn away from the pitcher, exposing your back and rear end to the pitch instead of your face and midsection. On the base paths, practice running the bases with your head up, looking out for other players and batted balls, and know how to slide correctly. Many leagues make it illegal for kids to slide headfirst, as this can lead to head injuries and facial cuts. Pitching, particularly for adolescent arms that are still growing, puts an enormous amount of strain on joints and tendons. Injuries to wrists, elbows, rotator cuffs, ligaments, and tendons can result from excessive pitching but can be largely avoided if players and coaches follow a few simple guidelines: Make sure you adhere to your league's rules regarding the maximum number of innings a pitcher is allowed to throw. This will generally range from four to 10 innings per week. If you play for more than one team, include all innings pitched each week, not just the ones for each team. Most leagues follow rules regarding the number of pitches you can throw in a game. Keep in mind that even major league pitchers have strict pitch counts to keep their arms healthy. Here are the pitch count limits for teens recommended by U.S.A. Little League and the American Sports Medicine Institute: 13-16 years old; 95 pitches a day 17-18 years old; 105 pitches a day Pitchers under 14 should limit total pitches to less than 1,000 per season and 3,000 per year. All players should take at least 3 months off per year from overhead sports; in other words, sports that involve a lot of overhead arm movements like baseball or volleyball. If pitchers feel persistent pain in their throwing arm, they should not be allowed to pitch again until the pain goes away. A Few Other Reminders Make sure a responsible adult is on hand any time you play a baseball game, whether it's a parent, coach, or umpire. In the event someone gets seriously hurt, you'll want an adult around to take an injured player to the emergency room. Make sure first aid is readily available at the fields where you play. Steroids or human growth hormones aren't just illegal — they're harmful to your health. These tips should help you have a great time playing America's pastime. Picture yourself under the lights at Yankee stadium, hitting a home run to win game 7 of the World Series.	3.026825
Iron is a necessary mineral for body function and good health. Every red blood cell in the body contains iron in its , the pigment that carries oxygen to the tissues from the lungs. But a lack of iron in the blood can lead to iron-deficiency anemia, which is a very common nutritional deficiency in children. About Iron-Deficiency Anemia The body needs iron to make hemoglobin. If there isn't enough iron available, hemoglobin production is limited, which in turns affects the production of red blood cells (RBCs). A decreased amount of hemoglobin and RBCs in the bloodstream is known as anemia. Because RBCs are needed to carry oxygen throughout the body, anemia results in less oxygen reaching the cells and tissues, affecting their function. Iron-deficiency anemia (IDA), often caused by insufficient iron intake, is the major cause of anemia in childhood. It has become much less common in the United States over the past 30 years, primarily due to iron-fortified infant formulas and cereals. Iron-deficiency anemia doesn't develop immediately. Instead, a person progresses through stages of iron deficiency, beginning with iron depletion, in which the amount of iron in the body is reduced while the iron in RBCs remains constant. If iron depletion isn't corrected, it progresses to iron deficiency, eventually leading to IDA. Causes of IDA Iron-deficiency anemia can be the consequence of several factors, including: insufficient iron in the diet poor absorption of iron by the body ongoing blood loss, most commonly from menstruation or from gradual blood loss in the intestinal tract periods of rapid growth A diet low in iron is most often behind IDA in infants, toddlers, and teens. Kids who don't eat enough or who eat foods that are poor sources of iron are at risk for developing the condition. Poverty is a contributing factor to IDA because families living at or below the poverty level may not be getting enough iron-rich foods. Iron deficiency can also cause the body to absorb more lead, which increases the risk of lead poisoning in kids, especially those living in older homes. The combination of IDA and lead poisoning can make kids very ill and can put them at risk for learning and behavioral problems. During infancy and adolescence, the body demands more iron. Kids are at higher risk for IDA through these periods of rapid growth because they may not be getting enough iron in their diet to make up for the increased needs. In infants, discontinuing iron-fortified formula and introducing cow's milk before 12 months can lead to IDA. Cow's milk is low in the iron necessary for infant growth and development and it often replaces the consumption of iron-rich foods. Milk decreases the absorption of iron and can also irritate the lining of the intestine, causing small amounts of bleeding. This slow, gradual loss of blood in the stool — combined with low iron intake — may eventually result in iron deficiency and anemia. Prematurity and low birth weight are other factors that put an infant at risk for IDA. Before birth, full-term, normal-weight babies have developed iron stores that can last them 4 to 6 months. Because preemies don't spend as much time in the uterus getting nutrients from the mother's diet, their iron stores are not as great and are often depleted in just 2 months. Kids between 1 and 3 years old are at risk of iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia, even though it isn't a period of exceptional growth. Most toddlers are no longer consuming iron-fortified formula and infant cereal, and they aren't eating enough iron-rich foods to make up the difference. Toddlers also tend to drink a lot of cow's milk, often more than 24 ounces a day, an amount that injures the lining of the stomach causing chronic blood loss leading to iron deficiency. During the first stages of puberty, when a lot of growth occurs, boys are at risk of iron deficiency anemia. But adolescent girls are at higher risk than boys for IDA because of smaller iron stores and the iron lost in the blood in their monthly menstrual flow. Many girls also tend to consume a diet low in iron. Many kids with iron deficiency don't show any symptoms because the body's iron stores are depleted slowly. As the anemia progresses, you may recognize some of the following symptoms in your child: fatigue and weakness pale skin and mucous membranes rapid heartbeat or a new heart murmur (detected in an exam by your child's doctor) dizziness or a feeling of being lightheaded Rarely, a person with IDA may experience pica, a craving to eat nonfood items such as paint chips, chalk, or dirt. Pica may be caused by a lack of iron in the diet. Iron-deficiency anemia is often first noticed during a routine exam. Because IDA symptoms, such as fatigue and decreased appetite, are common to many conditions, the doctor will need more information to make a diagnosis. If IDA is suspected, the doctor will probably ask questions about your family's diet. To diagnose iron deficiency, one of these blood tests will probably be done: A complete blood count (CBC) may reveal low hemoglobin levels and low hematocrit (the percentage of the blood made up of RBCs). The CBC also gives information about the size of the RBCs; those with low hemoglobin tend to be smaller and each cell contains less hemoglobin. The reticulocyte count measures how fast these immature RBCs are produced. In IDA, they're made too slowly in the bone marrow to reach a normal level. Serum iron directly measures the amount of iron in the blood, but may not accurately reflect how much iron is concentrated in the body's cells. Serum ferritin reflects total body iron stores. It's one of the earliest indicators of depleted iron levels, especially when used in conjunction with other tests, such as a CBC. The doctor may also do a stool test because IDA can be caused by gradual loss of small amounts of blood through the gastrointestinal tract. Since the blood may not be visible, a stool sample is placed on a special paper card and a drop of testing solution is applied. A color change indicates the presence of blood. Even though most cases of IDA are the result of poor dietary iron intake, diet changes alone usually aren't enough to replenish depleted iron stores. Likewise, multivitamins with iron aren't adequate for kids with IDA who have such low iron stores, so a separate daily iron supplement may be required. It's extremely important to remember that your child should not be given potent iron supplements without first consulting a doctor. Taking too much iron is a major cause of serious poisoning in children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Iron is best absorbed on an empty stomach, because it can occasionally cause stomach upset. Kids who experience stomach problems when taking iron supplements may need to take them with a small amount of food. Iron should not, however, be given with milk or caffeinated beverages, which will interfere with absorption. Vitamin C enhances iron absorption, so try to include plenty of sources of vitamin C in your child's diet. After the first month on iron supplements, your doctor may want to repeat the blood tests to check that hemoglobin and hematocrit levels are improving. If there's a good response, the doctor will probably continue the iron supplement for several more months. Once corrected, iron stores can be maintained with an iron-rich diet. About 6 months after discontinuing iron therapy, the doctor may want to recheck your child's hemoglobin. Rarely, IDA is so severe and possibly life-threatening that hospitalization and a blood transfusion may be required. The effects of IDA will depend on the duration and severity of the anemia. If left untreated, it may lead to behavioral or learning problems. These may not be reversible, even with later iron supplementation. But in most cases, IDA is preventable by following some basic recommendations: Infants younger than 1 year old should drink only breast milk or an infant formula supplemented with iron. It is important for breastfed infants to receive iron-fortified solid foods starting at about 6 months of age. Kids under 2 years old should have no more than 24 ounces of cow's milk a day. As noted earlier, milk can inhibit absorption of iron, and drinking too much milk can dampen a child's appetite for other iron-rich foods. In addition, too much cow's milk has been shown to irritate the gastrointestinal tract, which may cause intestinal bleeding — a cause of iron loss. Iron-fortified products such as cereal can be a great way to get kids — especially those under 2 years old — to get more iron. A variety of foods can provide great sources of iron: lean meats; egg yolks; broccoli, spinach, and other green leafy vegetables; dried peas and beans; blackstrap molasses; raisins; and whole-grain bread. Make sure kids or teens on a vegetarian diet get enough iron. Because iron from meat sources is more easily absorbed than iron from plant sources, you may need to add iron-fortified foods to their diet. Proper nutrition, which includes a diet rich in iron, is important for all kids. Establishing good eating habits early in life will help to prevent iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia.	3.759516
hese peeled trees are at Indian Tree Campground in the Bitterroot National Forest, very near the route the Corps of Discovery may have followed on September 5, 1805, as they descended from the ridge now known as Lost Trail Pass, which separates the Salmon and Bitterroot River drainages. Photo: Bitterroot National Forest alking overland west of the Gates of the Mountains on July 19, 1805, Clark "saw where the natives had pealed the bark off the pine trees about this same season." This, Lewis reported, "the indian woman with us informs that they do to obtain the sap and soft part of the wood and bark for food." And on September 12, the second day of their toilsome journey over the Bitterroot Range from Travelers' Rest to Weippe Prairie, Clark wrote, "On this road, & particularly on this creek," — today's Lolo Creek — "the indians have peeled a number of Pine for the under bark, which they eate at certain Seasons of the year, I am told in the Spring." The species that was favored was Pinus ponderosa, ponderosa pine. Trees could be peeled early in May, after the bitterroot was judged ready for harvest, and never before. The process was steeped in ceremony; the result was literally the first sweet taste of spring. It was women's work. Hard work. They used sharpened juniper sticks or rib bones of elk or bison to pry heavy slabs of thick bark from each tree. Then, with slicing tools made from the horns of mountain sheep, they carefully scraped off the nutritious inner bark and ate it immediately. The treat had a brief shelf-life, because it was unpalatable after it dried out.1 It is often said that Indians ate the cambium, but that is incidental and irrelevant, for the cambium itself is functionally just one cell thick; its components divide to produce a cambial zone, which is only a few cells thick. Although it is a key to a tree's life, it has no value as human food. On its inner surface, the cambial zone generates the water-conducting cells, or xylem (ZY-lem), which, as the tree grows, expand the dead, woody center of the stem, or tree-trunk. On its other side the cambium merges into the phloem (pronounced FLO-um), or bast. About one-eighth to one quarter of an inch thick in a mature ponderosa pine, the phloem carries food between the tree's crown and its roots. In spring, at the onset of the tree's new growing season, it is rich in proteins and carbohydrates, and that is why it was once valued as food. As the outer cells of the phloem deteriorate, they become the corky interior surface of the outer bark.2 Peeled trees also served as trail signs. En route back across the Bitterroot Mountains, on June 17, 1806, over deep snowbanks that hid the ground, Clark noted: "I was in front and Could only pursue the derection of the road by the trees which had been peeled by the nativs for the iner bark of which they Scrape and eate." The peeling of ponderosa pine trees was discouraged and finally prohibited as settlers moved onto reservation lands, because it was considered injurious to trees that were valuable to them as sources of lumber for building. But since cuts such as that illustrated in the photo above did not sever the cambial zone around the whole circumference of the tree, they did no harm. In fact, a layer of cambium soon formed within the callus tissues to help heal the wound. --Joseph Mussulman, with help from Mark Behan 1. Jeff Hart, Montana: Native Plants and Early Peoples (Helena: Montana Historical Society, 1976), 50-51. 2. Stephen H. Spurr and Burton V. Barnes, Forest Ecology (3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1980), 89.	3.591987
The eustachian tube is a small canal that connects the middle ear to the back of the nose and upper throat (nasopharynx). Its purpose is to equalize the air pressure in the middle ear with the pressure outside it. Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) occurs when the tube fails to open during swallowing or yawning. This results in a difference between the air pressure inside and outside the middle ear. It causes discomfort in the ear and temporary hearing problems. The ear may feel blocked if the pressure outside the ear changes, but the pressure inside the ear does not change. When this happens, the eardrum cannot vibrate normally. It often occurs during altitude changes, like flying in an airplane, driving on steep hills, or scuba diving. Swallowing, yawning, or chewing usually make the symptoms go away. ETD occurs if the tube is blocked or swollen, trapping air and fluids in the middle ear. This causes symptoms to continue beyond a few hours. Sometimes it can lead to ear damage. A risk factor is something that increases your chance of getting ETD. Tell your doctor if you have any of these factors: - Activities with large, rapid altitude changes, such as flying in an airplane or scuba diving - Allergy, cold, or other upper respiratory infection - Ear or sinus infection - Narrow eustachian tube - Presence of obstructing tumors in the nasopharynx - Children with large adenoids - Age: Children (Their eustachian tubes are narrower.) - Environmental allergies Symptoms can include: - Feeling of fullness or clogging in the ear - Discomfort or pain in the ear - Hearing loss - Ringing in the ear (tinnitus) - Symptoms cannot be relieved by swallowing, yawning, or chewing - Pain if the blockage results in an infection Your doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history, and perform a physical exam. A lighted instrument, called an otoscope, will be used to look inside your ear. The doctor will check for a slight bulge around the eardrum, fluid, and swelling. If your case is severe, your may need to see an otolaryngologist, a doctor who specializes in ear disorders. Other possible tests include: - Tympanogram—to measure pressure in the ear canal and movement of the eardrum - Audiogram—to measure hearing - Examination of the nose and the back of the nose To deal with ear clogging, discomfort, or pain, you can try: - Swallowing, yawning, or chewing gum to relieve the pressure - Clearing your ears by breathing in and then gently breathing out while holding your nostrils and mouth closed If the symptoms do not go away within a few hours or are severe, your doctor may recommend the following medications: - Nasal or oral decongestants - Oral antihistamines - Nasal steroids to relieve nasal congestion and enable the eustachian tube to open - Pain medications (eg, acetaminophen or ibuprofen) In rare cases, a myringotomy may be necessary. The doctor makes an incision in the eardrum to allow the pressure to equalize and the fluid to drain. To help reduce your chances of getting ETD, take the following steps: - Avoid flying in an airplane or going scuba diving if you have allergies or a cold. - Use decongestants or antihistamines if you have an allergy or a cold. - Yawn or chew gum. Encourage swallowing by sucking on hard candy or drinking water. - When taking off and landing, clear your ears by breathing in and then gently breathing out while holding your nostrils and mouth closed. - Try special earplugs that slowly equalize the pressure in your ear. These earplugs can be found at drugstores and airports. - Reviewer: Kari Kassir, MD - Review Date: 09/2012 - - Update Date: 00/91/2012 -	3.819002
The theory behind fossil fuels is actually quite simple. Burning coal, natural gas, and petroleum releases energy stored in the fuel as heat. The energy contained by the fuels is derived from the energy of the sun. For more detailed explanations of the origins of the different fossil fuels, visit the coal, natural gas, and petroleum pages. The heat that is recovered upon combustion of the fuel can be used by us in several ways. Industrial processes that require extremely high temperatures may burn a great deal of very pure coal known as "coke" and use the energy released to directly heat a system. Some people make use of clean burning natural gas to heat their homes. Combustion of fossil fuels can also be used to generate electricity; the fuel is burned to heat water, and the steam from the boiling water spins turbines that power a generator, thereby manufacturing electricity: Next Page: "Pollution"	3.971279
Vitamins and Minerals for Babies The need for infant vitamins is a confusing topic. Babies do need vitamins to grow well and to be healthy. They need them for strong bones, healthy teeth, and to build up their blood and prevent anemia. The confusing part is that most infants get all of the vitamins and minerals they need through the foods that they eat and drink, including vitamin A, calcium, zinc, and the vitamins and minerals discussed in this section. So while they do need vitamins and minerals, they don't always need a supplement each day, unless they were born prematurely or have some other health problem. Will iron cause my baby to have any medical problems? No. Iron is essential for your baby's growth and development and it does not cause colic, constipation, or any other problems. Infants who drink a low-iron formula or plain cow's milk are likely to develop medical problems, though, including anemia. Iron is one of the more important minerals your baby needs. The effects of a diet poor in iron, which can lead to iron deficiency anemia, are well known. These include learning problems, developmental delays, and behavioral problems. However, your infant, unless he was born premature, should be able to get all of the iron he needs from breastmilk or an iron-fortified formula during his first four to six months. After that time he does need extra iron, but you can usually provide it from the baby foods that he is beginning to eat, such as an iron-fortified infant rice cereal, in addition to continuing to feed him his breastmilk or formula. If your baby is otherwise well, he probably won't develop an iron deficiency unless you switch him to cow's milk before his first birthday or you do not begin to give extra iron after he is six months old. Remember that premature babies often do need a vitamin supplement that has iron in it. Newborns don't need fluoride, but once your infant is about six months old and begins getting teeth, he will need fluoride to keep them strong and growing well. The main source of this fluoride isn't an extra vitamin though. You can instead provide it by offering your baby some fluoridated tap water each day. Your baby may not be getting enough fluoride if he is drinking any of the following: - Well water - Tap water that is not fluoridated - Bottled water that does not have added fluoride - Water that is filtered of fluoride - Breastmilk exclusively - Ready-to-feed formula exclusively You can start your baby on fluoride supplements, but getting too much fluoride can easily lead to fluorosis or staining of their teeth, so it is usually best to try to give your baby fluoridated water. If you are exclusively breastfeeding, offering some extra water with fluoride once your baby is six months old is the best way to avoid problems. Talk to your pediatrician to get a prescription for a fluoride supplement if your baby has no way of getting fluoride from the water he is drinking. Rickets, caused by a deficiency of vitamin D, is a serious disorder that causes skeletal deformities and poor growth. Although not as common as it used to be, it does still affect some children, especially those who are very dark-skinned, don't get any or little sun exposure, and are exclusively breastfed. Not getting enough vitamin D can cause a baby to get a bone disorder called rickets. Because infant formula is fortified with vitamin D, infants drinking at least 17 ounces of formula each day do not need any extra vitamin D. Unlike formula, breastmilk does not contain enough vitamin D for babies, but that wasn't thought to be a problem because it was believed that exclusively breastfed infants got enough vitamin D from sunlight exposure. However, now that the effects of excessive sun exposure are known and sunscreen is being used more often, it is thought that exposure to the sun is not enough for breastfed babies. The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that breastfed babies receive a vitamin D supplement beginning in the first two months of life. The need for vitamin D supplements is a controversial topic though, especially for light-skinned infants in sunny climates, so you might talk to your pediatrician about whether this is necessary for your baby. More on: Feeding and Nutrition From The Everything Father's First Year Book Copyright © 2005, F+W Publications, Inc. Used by permission of Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company. All rights reserved. To order this book go to Amazon.	3.192662
How the Creative Process Works If we want children to use painting as a tool for self-expression and self-discovery, we don't need to teach them technique. On the contrary: we need to unteach it. The less technique children have, the more they use their intuition. Technique overrides intuition. As adults we should clear out unnecessary baggage for children's freedom of creation to unfold. When painting they must be allowed to follow the dictates of their intuition. Free from rules, they can learn to paint images from deep inside and express what is unique about themselves. When at times a special technique is needed, technique spontaneously develops. Children invent or reinvent it. Their skill develops out of the intricate demands of their feelings, not from aesthetic concepts. Whatever they paint is done with their whole being and carries the stamp of authenticity and the beauty of their innocence. The way each child perceives and senses the world is unique. While the body and mind constantly grow, perceptions also change. If children paint naturally, we can actually document the evolution of their perceptions of the world. Their visual expressions of the sensations of the human body, for instance, change constantly, if they are not asked to copy models or respect proportions. For instance, the image of a person's head evolves spontaneously from very big (much bigger than the torso) to relatively small (close to standard proportion) within a few years. Every part of the body image goes through an evolution. Fingers, for instance, are first felt as long lines coming out of a circle. After a couple of years these five lines retract in length slowly to create fingers. Children must be encouraged to be spontaneous and to forget about the outcome by spontaneously expressing these differences and changes, which, in fact, they are not aware of. Children's sense of the material world and of the space around it also changes. They perceive space in a special way. First, not knowing the relationship between ground and object, very young children often paint objects and people floating in space. Then the ground appears just as a brown line or leaves of grass, but later fills with dirt and grass. The sky often starts as a blue line and also expands slowly. If children are left free to paint intuitively, a fascinating process happens: the two lines - the one from the sky and the one from the earth - gradually move toward each other, slowly filling the gap between them. After a few months of spontaneous process, the space is finally conquered. This final moment - when paint covers the entire space - is a very special moment. Watching that unique milestone always touches me greatly, because the children have reached within themselves to a brand-new place; in it there is no return. It is a time of initiation for children, a precious stage in which space is inwardly conquered. This powerful event cannot take place if they are taught perspective and are depicting space in their paintings through rules and techniques. Children never regress in their evolution. They keep moving ahead. A friend of mine has a ten-year-old boy. One day my friend was discussing with his son, just back from a painting class, how his drawing had three-dimensional qualities. The father was marveling at it. The son, a stern look on his face, didn't seem to think there was anything exciting about having struggled two hours for a little bit of perspective while painting a wooden chair he didn't care about. He seemed impatient to move on to other things, saying, in effect, I have worked hard enough, I deserve to play now. After that class he never wanted to paint again. Having not touched his true creativity, how could he want to go back to it? Learning technique often alienates the child and presents creativity as work without much reward. Perspective can be discovered spontaneously; children left to themselves come upon it bit by bit when the time is ripe. Painting in perspective becomes part of a natural instinct instead of a mental discipline; the resulting paintings breathe aliveness instead of the stiffness of those trying to do it right. Trying to paint right often ends with a painting that looks like a scientific study. It's fascinating to watch the evolution of children's paintings. Look at a table, for instance. When young children paint a table, they paint its legs hanging in the air. Then, within a few months to a couple of years, the table legs slowly lower, until one day they are set firmly on the ground. This also proves why children don't need technique if they are allowed to paint what they feel. We must let children experience their world and create intuitively from their natural perceptions if they are to enter the magic of creativity. If we force children to paint with "normal" proportions and with perspective, they miss an immense opportunity. They repress their intuition and grow up without much creativity. Don't worry about the rendering of children's paintings. The creative process is a process of exploration, and it stays with them wherever they go. That process has an internal intelligence that guides them as they grow. More on: Crafts for Kids From Kids Play: Igniting Children's Creativity by Michele Cassou. Copyright © 2004 by Michele Casso. Used by arrangement with Penguin Group (USA) Inc. If you'd like to buy this book, visitAmazon.	3.458625
Eat Healthy, Live Healthy The recent outbreak of Swine Flu -- Influenza A(H1N1) -- is not passed through eating meat but it does makes us reflect on healthy lifestyles and eating habits. Want to eat better but aren't sure what to begin? Here is great checklist of tips on what you and your family can do to eat healthier, shop smarter and make sustainable choices, from SustainableTable.org: - Educated Yourself -- Learn about the kind of food you're eating. Is it local? Is it sustainable? - Shop Sustainable -- Don’t expect to change everything overnight. Start with one item and pledge to buy it sustainably, such as buying one organic dairy, meat or produce item at your supermarket or one local food at a nearby farmers’ market. Visit the Eat Well guide to find local sources for sustainable food. - Ask Questions -- Ask questions everywhere you go. Were pesticides put on the produce? What were the animals fed? How were they raised? - Reduce Your Meat Consumption -- If we cut out meat just one day a week, it would have a huge positive impact on our environment and the health of our bodies too! Check out MeatlessMonday.com. - Eat Seasonal -- Buy locally grown fruits and vegetables when they are in season. - Grown Your Own -- Nothing is more special than the connection you have with the food you grow, whether it be a large backyard garden or herbs in a pot on your kitchen windowsill. - Cook -- Re-learn (or learn!) the joy of cooking. Find great recipes in the Sustainable Kitchen. - Take Back the Tap -- Bottled water causes a lot of problems, from environmental damage to plastic leaching into the water. Visit H2O Conserve to calculate your water footprint. Also check out the Take Back the - Spread the Word -- You can contact public officials, voice your opinion, and stay on top of current issues with food. You can also help to educate others about the problems with industrial agriculture and the benefits of sustainable food. Click here for more tools.	3.302247
Plants and Animals Species of Concern Eastern massasauga rattlesnake - Common Name: Eastern massasauga rattlesnake - Scientific Name: Sistrurus catenatus canenatus - Range: NE, NW and central Missouri - Classification: Critically imperiled - To learn more about endangered species: see listed links below. Missouri is on the southeastern edge of this venomous snake’s North American distribution. Voles and deer mice make up 90 percent of adult massasaugas’ diet. Although not aggressive, they will bite if disturbed. Female massasaugas bear four to 10 live young every other year in August or September. Adults are light to dark gray or grayish brown, with two dark stripes edged in white along each side of the head. They can grow up to 30 inches long, but most are much smaller. Massasaugas spend much of their time in crayfish burrows and are most often seen basking in the sun atop clumps of grass or in bushes in or near marshes or moist prairies in the flood plains of large rivers. Small, scattered massasauga populations have been documented in northern Missouri. If you see what you think is a massasauga, take a clear photograph of it and call your regional Conservation Department office. Spring’s Hallelujah Chorus Celebrating spring in a wetland near you For such tiny creatures, western chorus frogs pack a powerful vocal punch. Measuring no more than 1.5 inches long, they nevertheless form choirs that fill the air. They are the first frogs to become active across most of Missouri, with males starting to sing when the surrounding air temperature is as low as 35 degrees. Also amazing considering their tiny size, females lay as many as 1,500 eggs each spring. Hellbender Recovery Efforts Work moves forward on several fronts. Eastern and Ozark hellbenders have declined an average of 77 percent since the 1970s. Spurred by this alarming trend, the Conservation Department and numerous partners are moving on several fronts to understand and stop the decline. Besides continuing to check hellbender numbers in various streams, researchers are exploring the roles of the amphibian Chytrid fungus, hormone and heavy metal pollution, hellbenders’ interaction with native and nonnative fish and physical deformities afflicting the giant salamanders. Biologists are working to perfect captive-rearing techniques, understand hellbender genetics and learn how well captive-reared hellbenders survive in the wild. If you see a hellbender in the wild, report it to Jeff Briggler, PO Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180, (573) 751-4115, ext. 3201.	3.882935
Radiation Levels Along the West Coast Not A Concern The unprecedented earthquake occurring in Japan on Friday, March 11, 2011 and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan’s western seaboard also affected a nuclear power plant in Fukushima. Despite valiant on-going containment efforts, radioactive materials have escaped into the air, elevating radiation levels in surrounding areas. As of March 16, emergency evacuation has been ordered for people who live withing 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the troubled nuclear power plant. While these events are occurring more than 4500 miles from the West Coast of the United States, there is growing public concern regarding radiation. However, authorities from the Departments of Health in Washington, Oregon and Alaska (the three states in NN/LM PNR along the coast), state that there is no public health risk from the damaged nuclear reactor. Visit the Washington State Department of Health website for more information about the nuclear reactor in Japan and any associated health risks. Oregonians can visit the Oregon Health Authority’s web site. Alaskans can go to the State of Alaska Health and Social Services site to read about radiological preparedness. Lastly, the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness has published an open-access supplement on nuclear preparedness: http://www.dmphp.org/content/vol5/Supplement_1/index.dtl Articles from this and other publications of the Nuclear Detonation Scarce Resources Project Working Group can be accessed through the Radiation Emergency Medical Management (REMM) tool at http://www.remm.nlm.gov/triagetool_intro.htm . REMM is a source of evidence-based, online and downloadable guidance about clinical diagnosis and treatment of radiation injury for health care providers. And, for resources for disaster planning and response, remember to visit the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness Toolkit – http://nnlm.gov/ep/	3.038742
Lamp Shell Terebratulina septentrionalis It would be easy to mistake a lamp shell for a small bivalve mollusk, as both have a hinged shell in two parts and live attached to the sea floor. Lamp shells, however, have a very thin, light shell and the two parts are different sizes, with the smaller one fitting into the larger. The shell valves cover the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the animal whereas in bivalve mollusks they are on the left and right side of the body. Lamp shells attach their pear-shaped shell to hard surfaces by means of a fleshy stalk that emerges from a hole in the ventral shell valve. With the shell valves gaping open, the animal draws in a current of water that brings plankton with it. Taking up most of the space inside the shell is a feeding structure called the lophophore, which consists of two lateral lobes and a central coiled lobe covered in long ciliated tentacles. The beating of the cilia creates the water current. Lamp shells are found worldwide, but they are especially abundant in colder waters. In the northeastern Atlantic, Terebratulina septentrionalis is mostly found in deep water, while along the east coast of North America, it commonly occurs in shallow water. This species is very similar to Terebratulina retusa.	4.139333
Right after I finished mulching my rose garden with free wood chips I got from a tree service, I read that wood chips suck all the nitrogen out of the soil. Should I fertilize now? As soon as you spread mulch, there’s a population boom of bacteria, fungi, and other soil microbes that work to decompose organic matter. These beneficial organisms consume some of the nitrogen present in the soil. The nitrogen loss is temporary, however, because the nitrogen is once again available to plants when the microbes die. But in the meantime, the thin layer of soil that is in direct contact with the mulch will relinquish some of its fertility. The depletion of nutrients does not extend deep into the soil, so it won’t likely affect anything other than the shallowest-rooted annuals. The benefits of organic mulch outweigh the possibility of a temporary nitrogen shortage. Mulch conserves moisture and contributes to a healthy root zone. It also helps to suppress weeds. As mulch decomposes, the nutrients held within it—including a small amount of nitrogen—are released. For roses and other plants with high nutrient needs, it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for nitrogen deficiency, whether you’ve mulched with wood chips or not. Plants lacking nitrogen grow slowly and exhibit pale or yellow-green leaves; in extreme cases, growth may be stunted. To preclude the chance of nitrogen deficiency, many gardeners make a habit of distributing a small dose of slow-release nitrogen fertilizer every spring to roses, perennials, edible crops, and other heavy feeders. Good organic sources include alfalfa meal (about 5 percent nitrogen by weight), fish meal or fish emulsion (5 percent), blood meal (12 percent), and feather meal (15 percent). Compost and worm castings also contain small amounts of nitrogen. —Doug Hall Someone told me that sugar is good for plants. I sprinkled some around my vegetable garden this year but didn’t notice anything different. How much should I apply? Plants don’t need you to add sugar to their soil; they make their own. Through the process of photosynthesis, which is powered in nature by energy from the sun, plants turn water and carbon dioxide into sugars. Plants use their self-made sugars as a fuel for growth and reproduction. Sugar you add to the soil will instead feed soil microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. These naturally occurring microbes are nature’s recyclers; they help to nourish plants by breaking down the bits of organic debris in soil into their nutrient components—including the potassium, magnesium, nitrogen, and other elements that are essential for plant life. In this sense, sugar could benefit the plants in your garden by boosting the microbial population, thereby speeding up the rate at which nutrients become available. But plants already have a process for encouraging microbial life. Soil scientists have discovered that plant roots exude sugars—sugars produced by photosynthesis—as a way of developing mutually beneficial relationships with microbes. By controlling the types and amounts of sugars they release, plants can select which kinds of microorganisms will colonize the soil around their roots. Not coincidentally, plants choose to feed the microbes that will provide them with the nutrients they need most. Compared to this sophisticated à la carte system, a sprinkle of processed sugar from your pantry is just junk food for bacteria. By the way, there’s another reason some gardeners haul the sugar canister out to the garden. Sugar added to the planting holes of vegetable transplants is said to discourage root knot nematodes, a destructive soil-dwelling parasite that plagues many Southern gardens. —Doug Hall	3.15353
Surrounded just by the constant murmur of the Patagonian wind, open the Pinturas River Canyon. There, among the folds of its high walls, rock art is found in the Cueva de las Manos, where people from 9,000 years ago sealed their art and their life testimony. Its fame is not for nothing. Those hands, guanacos and geometric patterns in the stone of the cave are the oldest expression of South American peoples are aware. Unesco understood this when in 1999 it was appointed Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Its location, alone, in the middle of the desert northwest of Santa Cruz, lets kept intact. The nearest town, Perito Moreno, is 163 kilometers away. And beyond, and near the mountain range, there is Los Antiguos, which was the resting place of the elders of the tribes that disappeared. This whole area and not just the cave, including the Perito Moreno National Park, is a rich archaeological and paleontological site. The valleys, canyons, lakes and rivers that make it up jealously shelter paintings and different types of archaeological sites in which men walked 14,000 years before Christ. And between the weeds there are fossils that testify the existence of a sea in this region long before man inhabited. In fact, the town of Perito Moreno is called the Archaeological Capital of the Province of Santa Cruz. Caves of Pinturas river saved works done by the Indians and their ancestors tehuelches. Its age is 9300 years, according to research. There are, besides negative handprints, pictures of guanacos, geometric patterns, clusters of lines, dots and solar figure. The largest congregation is in the actual cave, Cueva de las Manos, which is 24 meters deep, 15 meters wide at the entrance and about 10 meters high up to the beginning of the visor. On both sides of the entrance, there are small spaces in the light, but partially protected by the projection of the Visors. The eaves are formed by protrusions that protect the paintings from the wind and sun. It includes three levels of culture, with an estimated range from 7370 BC to 1000 AD. Although this assessment is relative, since the realization of the paintings may have taken place in short time, in an almost synchronous or far apart in time. The color of the negative imprints of hands depended on obtaining raw materials close to each site, but most are in red (hematite), white (limestone), black (manganese or charcoal) and yellow (limonite or yellow ocher).	3.237834
Pronounced: Gas-tro-ee-sof-a-geal re-flux diseaseEn Español (Spanish Version) Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is the back up of acid or food from the stomach to the esophagus. The esophagus is the tube that connects your mouth and stomach. GER is common in infants. It may cause them to spit up. Most infants outgrow GER within 12 months. GER that progresses to esophageal injury and other symptoms is called gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The backed-up acid irritates the lining of the esophagus. It causes heartburn, a pain in the stomach and chest. GERD can occur at any age. Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc. GERD is caused by acid or food from the stomach that regularly backs up into the esophagus. It is not always clear why the acid backs up. The reasons may vary from person to person. There may also be a genetic link in some GERD. Acid is kept in the stomach by a valve at the top of the stomach. The valve opens when food comes in. It should close to keep in the food and acid. If this valve does not close properly, the acid can flow out of the stomach. In addition to GERD, the valve may not close because of: The following factors increase the chances of developing GERD: Symptoms of GERD include: Your doctor will ask about your child’s symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. Your child may need to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. This type of doctor focuses on diseases of the stomach and intestines. Tests may include: Talk with your doctor about the best treatment plan for your child. Treatment options include the following: Medications options include: Many of these are over-the-counter medications. Surgery or endoscopy may be recommended for more severe cases. It may be considered if lifestyle changes and medications do not work. The most common surgery is called fundoplication . During this procedure, a part of the stomach will be wrapped around the stomach valve. This makes the valve stronger. It should prevent stomach acid from backing up into the esophagus. This surgery is often done through small incisions in the skin. Last reviewed May 2013 by Michael Woods Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.	4.074734
\|Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson\| General Jackson's "Chancellorsville" Portrait, taken at a Spotsylvania County farm on April 26, 1863, seven days before he was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville. \|Nickname\|\|Stonewall, Old Jack, Old Blue Light, Tom Fool\| \|Born\|\|)January 21, 1824 Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia) \|Died\|\|May 10, 1863) (aged 39) \|Place of burial\|\|Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery \|Years of service\|\| Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and one of the best-known Confederate commanders after General Robert E. Lee. His military career includes the Valley Campaign of 1862 and his service as a corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee. Confederate pickets accidentally shot him at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. The general survived with the loss of an arm to amputation, but died of complications from pneumonia eight days later. His death was a severe setback for the Confederacy, affecting not only its military prospects, but also the morale of its army and of the general public. Jackson in death became an icon of Southern heroism and commitment, joining Lee in the pantheon of the "Lost Cause". Military historians consider Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in U.S. history . His Valley Campaign and his envelopment of the Union Army right wing at Chancellorsville are studied worldwide even today as examples of innovative and bold leadership. He excelled as well in other battles; the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) where he received his famous nickname "Stonewall", Second Bull Run (Second Manassas), Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Jackson was not universally successful as a commander, however, as displayed by his weak and confused efforts during the Seven Days Battles around Richmond in 1862. Early life Paternal ancestry Thomas Jonathan Jackson was the great-grandson of John Jackson (1715 or 1719 – 1801) and Elizabeth Cummins (also known as Elizabeth Comings and Elizabeth Needles) (1723 – 1828). John Jackson was a Protestant from Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland. While living in London, England, he was convicted of the capital crime of larceny for stealing £170; the judge at the Old Bailey sentenced him to a seven-year indenture in America. Elizabeth, a strong, blonde woman over 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, born in London, England was also convicted of larceny in an unrelated case for stealing 19 pieces of silver, jewelry, and fine lace, and received a similar sentence. They both were transported on the prison ship Litchfield, which departed London in May 1749 with 150 convicts. John and Elizabeth met on board and were in love by the time the ship arrived at Annapolis, Maryland. Although they were sent to different locations in Maryland for their indentures, the couple married in July 1755. The family migrated west across the Blue Ridge Mountains to settle near Moorefield, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1758. In 1770, they moved farther west to the Tygart Valley. They began to acquire large parcels of virgin farmland near the present-day town of Buckhannon, including 3,000 acres (12 km²) in Elizabeth's name. John and his two teenage sons were early recruits for the American Revolutionary War, fighting in the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780; John finished the war as captain and served as a lieutenant of the Virginia Militia after 1787. While the men were in the Army, Elizabeth converted their home to a haven, "Jackson's Fort," for refugees from Indian attacks. John and Elizabeth had eight children. Their second son was Edward Jackson (March 1, 1759 – December 25, 1828), and Edward's third son was Jonathan Jackson, Thomas's father. Early childhood Thomas Jackson was the third child of Julia Beckwith (née Neale) Jackson (1798–1831) and Jonathan Jackson (1790–1826), an attorney. Both of Jackson's parents were natives of Virginia. The family already had two young children and were living in Clarksburg, in what is now West Virginia, when Thomas was born. He was named for his maternal grandfather. Thomas's sister Elizabeth (age six) died of typhoid fever on March 6, 1826, with two-year-old Thomas at her bedside. His father also died of a typhoid fever on March 26. Jackson's mother gave birth to Thomas's sister Laura Ann the day after Jackson's father died. Julia Jackson thus was widowed at 28 and was left with much debt and three young children (including the newborn). She sold the family's possessions to pay the debts. She declined family charity and moved into a small rented one-room house. Julia took in sewing and taught school to support herself and her three young children for about four years. In 1830, Julia Neale Jackson remarried. Her new husband, Blake Woodson, an attorney, did not like his stepchildren. There were continuing financial problems. The following year, after giving birth to Thomas's half-brother, Julia died of complications, leaving her three older children orphaned. Julia was buried in an unmarked grave in a homemade coffin in Westlake Cemetery along the New River and Kanawha Turnpike in Fayette County within the corporate limits of present-day Ansted, West Virginia. Working and teaching at Jackson's Mill As their mother's health continued to fail, Jackson and his sister Laura Ann were sent to live with their uncle, Cummins Jackson, who owned a grist mill in Jackson's Mill (near present-day Weston in Lewis County in central West Virginia). Their older brother, Warren, went to live with other relatives on his mother's side of the family, but he later died of tuberculosis in 1841 at the age of 20. Thomas and Laura Ann returned from Jackson's Mill in November 1831 to be at their dying mother's bedside. They spent four years together at the Mill before being separated—Laura Ann was sent to live with her mother's family, Thomas to live with his Aunt Polly (his father's sister) and her husband, Isaac Brake, on a farm 4 miles from Clarksburg. Thomas was treated by Brake as an outsider and, having suffered verbal abuse for over a year, ran away from the family. When his cousin in Clarksburg besought him to return to Aunt Polly's, he replied, "Maybe I ought to, ma'am, but I am not going to." He walked 18 miles through mountain wilderness to Jackson's Mill, where he was welcomed by his uncles and he remained there for the following seven years. Cummins Jackson was strict with Thomas, who looked up to Cummins as a schoolteacher. Jackson helped around the farm, tending sheep with the assistance of a sheepdog, driving teams of oxen and helping harvest wheat and corn. Formal education was not easily obtained, but he attended school when and where he could. Much of Jackson's education was self-taught. He once made a deal with one of his uncle's slaves to provide him with pine knots in exchange for reading lessons; Thomas would stay up at night reading borrowed books by the light of those burning pine knots. Virginia law forbade teaching a slave, free black or mulatto to read or write, as enacted following Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion in Southampton County in 1831. Nevertheless, Jackson secretly taught the slave to write, as he had promised. Once literate, the young slave fled to Canada via the underground railroad. In his later years at Jackson's Mill, Thomas was a school teacher. Early military career West Point In 1842, Jackson was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Because of his inadequate schooling, he had difficulty with the entrance examinations and began his studies at the bottom of his class. As a student, he had to work harder than most cadets to absorb lessons. Displaying a dogged determination that was to characterize his life, however, he became one of the hardest working cadets in the academy, and moved steadily up the academic rankings. Jackson graduated 17th out of 59 students in the Class of 1846. It was said by his peers that if he had stayed there another year, he would have graduated first. His roommate in his junior year at West Point was George Stoneman, who later served as a Union cavalry general and became the Governor of California. U.S. Army and the Mexican War Jackson began his United States Army career as a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Artillery Regiment and was sent to fight in the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848. He served at the Siege of Veracruz and the battles of Contreras, Chapultepec, and Mexico City, eventually earning two brevet promotions, and the regular army rank of first lieutenant. It was in Mexico that Thomas Jackson first met Robert E. Lee. During the assault on Chapultepec Castle, he refused what he felt was a "bad order" to withdraw his troops. Confronted by his superior, he explained his rationale, claiming withdrawal was more hazardous than continuing his overmatched artillery duel. His judgment proved correct, and a relieving brigade was able to exploit the advantage Jackson had broached. In contrast to this display of strength of character, he obeyed what he also felt was a "bad order" when he raked a civilian throng with artillery fire after the Mexican authorities failed to surrender Mexico City at the hour demanded by the U.S. forces. The former episode, and later aggressive action against the retreating Mexican army, earned him field promotion to the brevet rank of major. Lexington and the Virginia Military Institute In the spring of 1851, Jackson accepted a newly created teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), in Lexington, Virginia. He became Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Instructor of Artillery. Parts of Jackson's curriculum are still taught at VMI, regarded as timeless military essentials: discipline, mobility, assessing the enemy's strength and intentions while attempting to conceal your own, and the efficiency of artillery combined with an infantry assault. However, despite the high quality of his work, he was not popular as a teacher, and the students called him "Tom Fool." He memorized his lectures and then recited them to the class; any students who came to ask for help were only given the same explanation as before. And if students came to ask again, Jackson viewed this as insubordination and likewise punished them. The students mocked his apparently stern, religious nature and his eccentric traits. In 1856, a group of alumni attempted to have Jackson removed from his position. Little as he was known to the white inhabitants of Lexington, Jackson was revered by many of the African-Americans in town, both slaves and free blacks. He was instrumental in the organization in 1855 of Sunday School classes for blacks at the Presbyterian Church. His second wife, Mary Anna Jackson, taught with Jackson, as "he preferred that my labors should be given to the colored children, believing that it was more important and useful to put the strong hand of the Gospel under the ignorant African race, to lift them up." The pastor, Dr. William Spottswood White, described the relationship between Jackson and his Sunday afternoon students: "In their religious instruction he succeeded wonderfully. His discipline was systematic and firm, but very kind. ... His servants reverenced and loved him, as they would have done a brother or father. ... He was emphatically the black man's friend." He addressed his students by name and they in turn referred to him affectionately as "Marse Major." Jackson's family owned six slaves in the late 1850s. Three (Hetty, Cyrus, and George, a mother and two teenage sons) were received as a wedding present. Another, Albert, requested that Jackson purchase him and allow him to work for his freedom; he was employed as a waiter in one of the Lexington hotels and Jackson rented him to VMI. Amy also requested that Jackson purchase her from a public auction and she served the family as a cook and housekeeper. The sixth, Emma, was a four-year-old orphan with a learning disability, accepted by Jackson from an aged widow and presented to his second wife, Mary Anna, as a welcome-home gift. After the American Civil War began he appears to have hired out or sold his slaves. Mary Anna Jackson, in her 1895 memoir, said, "our servants ... without the firm guidance and restraint of their master, the excitement of the times proved so demoralizing to them that he deemed it best for me to provide them with good homes among the permanent residents." James Robertson wrote about Jackson's view on slavery: Jackson neither apologized for nor spoke in favor of the practice of slavery. He probably opposed the institution. Yet in his mind the Creator had sanctioned slavery, and man had no moral right to challenge its existence. The good Christian slaveholder was one who treated his servants fairly and humanely at all times. While an instructor at VMI in 1853, Thomas Jackson married Elinor "Ellie" Junkin, whose father, George Junkin, was president of Washington College (later named Washington and Lee University) in Lexington. An addition was built onto the president's residence for the Jacksons, and when Robert E. Lee became president of Washington College he lived in the same home, now known as the Lee-Jackson House. Ellie gave birth to a stillborn son on October 22, 1854, experiencing a hemorrhage an hour later that proved fatal. After a tour of Europe, Jackson married again, in 1857. Mary Anna Morrison was from North Carolina, where her father was the first president of Davidson College. They had a daughter named Mary Graham on April 30, 1858, but the baby died less than a month later. Another daughter was born in 1862, shortly before her father's death. The Jacksons named her Julia Laura, after his mother and sister. Jackson purchased the only house he ever owned while in Lexington. Built in 1801, the brick town house at 8 East Washington Street was purchased by Jackson in 1859. He lived in it for two years before being called to serve in the Confederacy. Jackson never returned to his home. In November 1859, at the request of the governor of Virginia, Major William Gilham led a contingent of the VMI Cadet Corps to Charles Town to provide an additional military presence at the hanging of militant abolitionist John Brown on December 2, following his raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry on October 16. Major Jackson was placed in command of the artillery, consisting of two howitzers manned by 21 cadets. Civil War In 1861, as the American Civil War broke out, Jackson became a drill master for some of the many new recruits in the Confederate Army. On April 27, 1861, Virginia Governor John Letcher ordered Colonel Jackson to take command at Harpers Ferry, where he would assemble and command the famous "Stonewall Brigade", consisting of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33rd Virginia Infantry regiments. All of these units were from the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia, where Jackson located his headquarters throughout the first two years of the war. Jackson became known for his relentless drilling of his troops; he believed discipline was vital to success on the battlefield. Following raids on the B&O Railroad on May 24, he was promoted to brigadier general on June 17. First Bull Run Jackson rose to prominence and earned his most famous nickname at the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) on July 21, 1861. As the Confederate lines began to crumble under heavy Union assault, Jackson's brigade provided crucial reinforcements on Henry House Hill, demonstrating the discipline he instilled in his men. Brig. Gen. Barnard Elliott Bee, Jr., exhorted his own troops to re-form by shouting, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer. Rally behind the Virginians!" There is some controversy over Bee's statement and intent, which could not be clarified because he was killed almost immediately after speaking and none of his subordinate officers wrote reports of the battle. Major Burnett Rhett, chief of staff to General Joseph E. Johnston, claimed that Bee was angry at Jackson's failure to come immediately to the relief of Bee's and Bartow's brigades while they were under heavy pressure. Those who subscribe to this opinion believe that Bee's statement was meant to be pejorative: "Look at Jackson standing there like a damned stone wall!" Regardless of the controversy and the delay in relieving Bee, Jackson's brigade, which would thenceforth be known as the Stonewall Brigade, stopped the Union assault and suffered more casualties than any other Southern brigade that day; Jackson has since then been generally known as Stonewall Jackson. During the battle, Jackson displayed a gesture common to him and held his left arm skyward with the palm facing forward—interpreted by his soldiers variously as an eccentricity or an entreaty to God for success in combat. His hand was struck by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel and he suffered a small loss of bone in his middle finger. He refused medical advice to have the finger amputated. After the battle, Jackson was promoted to major general (October 7, 1861) and given command of the Valley District, with headquarters in Winchester. Valley Campaign In the spring of 1862, Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac approached Richmond from the southeast in the Peninsula Campaign, Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell's large corps were poised to hit Richmond from the north, and Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks's army threatened the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson was ordered by Richmond to operate in the Valley to defeat Banks' threat and prevent McDowell's troops from reinforcing McClellan. Jackson possessed the attributes to succeed against his poorly coordinated and sometimes timid opponents: a combination of great audacity, excellent knowledge and shrewd use of the terrain, and the ability to inspire his troops to great feats of marching and fighting. The campaign started with a tactical defeat at Kernstown on March 23, 1862, when faulty intelligence led him to believe he was attacking a small detachment. But it became a strategic victory for the Confederacy, because his aggressiveness suggested that he possessed a much larger force, convincing President Abraham Lincoln to keep Banks' troops in the Valley and McDowell's 30,000-man corps near Fredericksburg, subtracting about 50,000 soldiers from McClellan's invasion force. As it transpired, it was Jackson's only defeat in the Valley. By adding Maj. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's large division and Maj. Gen. Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's small division, Jackson increased his army to 17,000 men. He was still significantly outnumbered, but attacked portions of his divided enemy individually at McDowell, defeating both Brig. Gens. Robert H. Milroy and Robert C. Schenck. He defeated Banks at Front Royal and Winchester, ejecting him from the Valley. Lincoln decided that the defeat of Jackson was an immediate priority (though Jackson's orders were solely to keep Union forces occupied away from Richmond). He ordered Irvin McDowell to send 20,000 men to Front Royal and Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont to move to Harrisonburg. If both forces could converge at Strasburg, Jackson's only escape route up the Valley would be cut. It was a classic military campaign of surprise and maneuver. Jackson pressed his army to travel 646 miles (1,040 km) in 48 days of marching and won five significant victories with a force of about 17,000 against a combined force of 60,000. Stonewall Jackson's reputation for moving his troops so rapidly earned them the oxymoronic nickname "foot cavalry". He became the most celebrated soldier in the Confederacy (until he was eventually eclipsed by Lee) and lifted the morale of the Southern public. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign toward Richmond stalled at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31 and June 1. After the Valley Campaign ended in mid-June, Jackson and his troops were called to join Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in defense of the capital. By utilizing a railroad tunnel under the Blue Ridge Mountains and then transporting troops to Hanover County on the Virginia Central Railroad, Jackson and his forces made a surprise appearance in front of McClellan at Mechanicsville. Reports had last placed Jackson's forces in the Shenandoah Valley; their presence near Richmond added greatly to the Union commander's overestimation of the strength and numbers of the forces before him. This proved a crucial factor in McClellan's decision to re-establish his base at a point many miles downstream from Richmond on the James River at Harrison's Landing, essentially a retreat that ended the Peninsula Campaign and prolonged the war almost three more years. Jackson's troops served well under Lee in the series of battles known as the Seven Days Battles, but Jackson's own performance in those battles is generally considered to be poor. He arrived late at Mechanicsville and inexplicably ordered his men to bivouac for the night within clear earshot of the battle. He was late and disoriented at Gaines' Mill. He was late again at Savage's Station and at White Oak Swamp he failed to employ fording places to cross White Oak Swamp Creek, attempting for hours to rebuild a bridge, which limited his involvement to an ineffectual artillery duel and a missed opportunity. At Malvern Hill Jackson participated in the futile, piecemeal frontal assaults against entrenched Union infantry and massed artillery, and suffered heavy casualties (but this was a problem for all of Lee's army in that ill-considered battle). The reasons for Jackson's sluggish and poorly-coordinated actions during the Seven Days are disputed, although a severe lack of sleep after the grueling march and railroad trip from the Shenandoah Valley was probably a significant factor. Both Jackson and his troops were completely exhausted. It has also been said by Longstreet that, "General Jackson never showed his genius when under the immediate command of General Lee." Second Bull Run to Fredericksburg The military reputations of Lee's corps commanders are often characterized as Stonewall Jackson representing the audacious, offensive component of Lee's army, whereas his counterpart, James Longstreet, more typically advocated and executed defensive strategies and tactics. Jackson has been described as the army's hammer, Longstreet its anvil. In the Northern Virginia Campaign of August 1862 this stereotype did not hold true. Longstreet commanded the Right Wing (later to become known as the First Corps) and Jackson commanded the Left Wing. Jackson started the campaign under Lee's orders with a sweeping flanking maneuver that placed his corps into the rear of Union Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia. At Manassas Junction, Jackson was able to capture all of the supplies of the Union Army depot. Then he had his troops destroy all of it, for it was the main depot for the Union Army. Jackson then retreated and then took up a defensive position and effectively invited Pope to assault him. On August 28–29, the start of the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas), Pope launched repeated assaults against Jackson as Longstreet and the remainder of the army marched north to reach the battlefield. On August 30, Pope came to believe that Jackson was starting to retreat, and Longstreet took advantage of this by launching a massive assault on the Union army's left with over 25,000 men. Although the Union troops put up a furious defense, Pope's army was forced to retreat in a manner similar to the embarrassing Union defeat at First Bull Run, fought on roughly the same battleground. When Lee decided to invade the North in the Maryland Campaign, Jackson took Harpers Ferry, then hastened to join the rest of the army at Sharpsburg, Maryland, where they fought McClellan in the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg). Antietam was primarily a defensive battle against superior odds, although McClellan failed to exploit his advantage. Jackson's men bore the brunt of the initial attacks on the northern end of the battlefield and, at the end of the day, successfully resisted a breakthrough on the southern end when Jackson's subordinate, Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill, arrived at the last minute from Harpers Ferry. The Confederate forces held their position, but the battle was extremely bloody for both sides, and Lee withdrew the Army of Northern Virginia back across the Potomac River, ending the invasion. Jackson was promoted to lieutenant general. On October 10 his command was redesignated the Second Corps. Before the armies camped for winter, Jackson's Second Corps held off a strong Union assault against the right flank of the Confederate line at the Battle of Fredericksburg, in what became a decisive Confederate victory. Just before the battle, Jackson was delighted to receive a letter about the birth of his daughter, Julia Laura Jackson, on November 23. Also before the battle, Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Lee's dashing and well-dressed cavalry commander, presented to Jackson a fine general's frock that he had ordered from one of the best tailors in Richmond. Jackson's previous coat was threadbare and colorless from exposure to the elements, its buttons removed by admiring ladies. Jackson asked his staff to thank Stuart, saying that although the coat was too handsome for him, he would cherish it as a souvenir. His staff insisted that he wear it to dinner, which caused scores of soldiers to rush to see him in uncharacteristic garb. So embarrassed was Jackson with the attention that he did not wear the new uniform for months. During the night at Fredericksburg, a medic asked would could be done after observing the destruction and looting done to the city. Jackson venomously replied, "Kill 'em, sir. Kill 'em all." At the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Army of Northern Virginia was faced with a serious threat by the Army of the Potomac and its new commanding general, Major General Joseph Hooker. General Lee decided to employ a risky tactic to take the initiative and offensive away from Hooker's new southern thrust—he decided to divide his forces. Jackson and his entire corps were sent on an aggressive flanking maneuver to the right of the Union lines. This flanking movement would be one of the most successful and dramatic of the war. While riding with his infantry in a wide berth well south and west of the Federal line of battle, Jackson employed Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry to provide for better reconnaissance in regards to the exact location of the Union right and rear. The results were far better than even Jackson could have hoped. Lee found the entire right side of the Federal lines in the middle of open field, guarded merely by two guns that faced westward, as well as the supplies and rear encampments. The men were eating and playing games in carefree fashion, completely unaware that an entire Confederate corps was less than a mile away. What happened next is given in Fitzhugh Lee's own words: So impressed was I with my discovery, that I rode rapidly back to the point on the Plank road where I had left my cavalry, and back down the road Jackson was moving, until I met "Stonewall" himself. "General," said I, "if you will ride with me, halting your column here, out of sight, I will show you the enemy's right, and you will perceive the great advantage of attacking down the Old turnpike instead of the Plank road, the enemy's lines being taken in reverse. Bring only one courier, as you will be in view from the top of the hill." Jackson assented, and I rapidly conducted him to the point of observation. There had been no change in the picture. I only knew Jackson slightly. I watched him closely as he gazed upon Howard's troops. It was then about 2 P.M. His eyes burned with a brilliant glow, lighting up a sad face. His expression was one of intense interest, his face was colored slightly with the paint of approaching battle, and radiant at the success of his flank movement. To the remarks made to him while the unconscious line of blue was pointed out, he did not reply once during the five minutes he was on the hill, and yet his lips were moving. From what I have read and heard of Jackson since that day, I know now what he was doing then. Oh! "beware of rashness," General Hooker. Stonewall Jackson is praying in full view and in rear of your right flank! While talking to the Great God of Battles, how could he hear what a poor cavalryman was saying. "Tell General Rodes," said he, suddenly whirling his horse towards the courier, "to move across the Old plank road; halt when he gets to the Old turnpike, and I will join him there." One more look upon the Federal lines, and then he rode rapidly down the hill, his arms flapping to the motion of his horse, over whose head it seemed, good rider as he was, he would certainly go. I expected to be told I had made a valuable personal reconnaissance—saving the lives of many soldiers, and that Jackson was indebted to me to that amount at least. Perhaps I might have been a little chagrined at Jackson's silence, and hence commented inwardly and adversely upon his horsemanship. Alas! I had looked upon him for the last time. — Fitzhugh Lee, address to the Association of the Army of Northern Virginia, 1879 Jackson immediately returned to his corps and arranged his divisions into a line of battle to charge directly into the oblivious Federal right. The Confederates marched silently until they were merely several hundred feet from the Union position, then released a bloodthirsty cry and full charge. Many of the Federals were captured without a shot fired, the rest were driven into a full rout. Jackson pursued relentlessly back toward the center of the Federal line until dusk. Darkness ended the assault. As Jackson and his staff were returning to camp on May 2, they were mistaken for a Union cavalry force by the 18th North Carolina Infantry regiment who shouted, "Halt, who goes there?", but fired before evaluating the reply. Frantic shouts by Jackson's staff identifying the party were replied to by Major John D. Barry with the retort, "It's a damned Yankee trick! Fire!" A second volley was fired in response; in all, Jackson was hit by three bullets, two in the left arm and one in the right hand. Several other men in his staff were killed, in addition to many horses. Darkness and confusion prevented Jackson from getting immediate care. He was dropped from his stretcher while being evacuated because of incoming artillery rounds. Because of his injuries, Jackson's left arm had to be amputated by Dr. Hunter McGuire. Jackson was moved to Thomas C. Chandler's 740 acres (3.0 km2) plantation named Fairfield. He was offered Chandler's home for recovery, but Jackson refused and suggested using Chandler's plantation office building instead. He was thought to be out of harm's way; but unknown to the doctors, he already had classic symptoms of pneumonia, complaining of a sore chest. This soreness was mistakenly thought to be the result of his rough handling in the battlefield evacuation. Lee wrote to Jackson after learning of his injuries, stating "Could I have directed events, I would have chosen for the good of the country to be disabled in your stead." Jackson died of complications from pneumonia on May 10, 1863. On his death bed, though he became weaker, he remained spiritually strong, saying towards the end "It is the Lord's Day; my wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday." Dr. McGuire wrote an account of his final hours and his last words: A few moments before he died he cried out in his delirium, "Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks"—then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression, as if of relief, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees." His body was moved to the Governor's Mansion in Richmond for the public to mourn, and he was then moved to be buried in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, Lexington, Virginia. However, the arm that was amputated on May 2 was buried separately by Jackson's chaplain, at the J. Horace Lacy house, "Ellwood", in the Wilderness of Orange County, near the field hospital. Upon hearing of Jackson's death, Robert E. Lee mourned the loss of both a friend and a trusted commander. As Jackson lay dying, Lee sent a message through Chaplain Lacy, saying "Give General Jackson my affectionate regards, and say to him: he has lost his left arm but I my right." The night Lee learned of Jackson's death, he told his cook, "William, I have lost my right arm" and "I'm bleeding at the heart." Harpers Weekly reported Jackson's death on May 23, 1863, as follows: DEATH OF STONEWALL JACKSON. - General "Stonewall" Jackson was badly wounded in the arm at the battles of Chancellorsville, and had his arm amputated. The operation did not succeed, and pneumonia setting in, he died on the 10th inst., near Richmond, Virginia. Jackson's sometimes unusual command style and personality traits, combined with his frequent success in battle, contribute to his legacy as one of the most remarkable characters of the Civil War. Although martial, stern in attitude, he was profoundly religious and a deacon in the Presbyterian Church. One of his many nicknames was "Old Blue Lights," a term applied to a military man whose evangelical zeal burned with the intensity of the blue light used for night-time display. He disliked fighting on Sunday, although that did not stop him from doing so after much personal debate. He loved his wife very much and sent her tender letters. In direct contrast to Lee, Jackson was not a striking figure, often wearing old, worn-out clothes rather than a fancy uniform. Physical ailments Jackson held a lifelong belief that one of his arms was longer than the other, and thus usually held the "longer" arm up to equalize his circulation. He was described as a "champion sleeper", even falling asleep with food in his mouth occasionally. A paper delivered to the Society of Clinical Psychologists hypothesized that Jackson had Asperger syndrome, although other possible explanations, such as a herniated diaphragm, exist. Indeed Jackson suffered a number of ailments, for which he sought relief via contemporary practices of his day including hydrotherapy, popular in America at that time, visiting establishments at Oswego, New York (1850) and Round Hill, Massachusetts (1860) although with little evidence of success. Jackson also suffered a significant hearing loss in both of his ears as a result of his prior service in the U.S. Army as an artillery officer. A recurring story concerns Jackson's love of lemons, which he allegedly gnawed whole to alleviate symptoms of dyspepsia. General Richard Taylor, son of President Zachary Taylor, wrote a passage in his war memoirs about Jackson eating lemons: "Where Jackson got his lemons 'no fellow could find out,' but he was rarely without one." However, recent research by his biographer, James I. Robertson, Jr., has found that none of his contemporaries, including members of his staff, friends, or his wife, recorded any unusual obsessions with lemons and Jackson thought of a lemon as a "rare treat ... enjoyed greatly whenever it could be obtained from the enemy's camp". Jackson was fond of all fruits, particularly peaches, "but he enjoyed with relish lemons, oranges, watermelons, apples, grapes, berries, or whatever was available." Jackson's religion has often been discussed. His biographer, Robert Lewis Dabney, suggested that "It was the fear of God which made him so fearless of all else." Jackson himself had said, "My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed." Stephen W. Sears suggests that "Jackson was fanatical in his Presbyterian faith, and it energized his military thought and character. Theology was the only subject he genuinely enjoyed discussing. His dispatches invariably credited an ever-kind Providence." However, according to Sears, "this fanatical religiosity had drawbacks. It warped Jackson's judgment of men, leading to poor appointments; it was said he preferred good Presbyterians to good soldiers." James I. Robertson, Jr. suggests that Jackson was "a Christian soldier in every sense of the word." According to Robertson, Jackson "thought of the war as a religious crusade," and "viewed himself as an Old Testament warrior - like David or Joshua - who went into battle to slay the Philistines." Jackson encouraged the Confederate States Army revival that occurred in 1863, although it was probably more of a grass-roots movement than a top-down revival. Jackson strictly observed the Sunday Sabbath. James I. Robertson, Jr. notes that "no place existed in his Sunday schedule for labor, newspapers, or secular conversation." Command style In command, Jackson was extremely secretive about his plans and extremely meticulous about military discipline. This secretive nature did not stand him in good stead with his subordinates, who were often not aware of his overall operational intentions until the last minute, and who complained of being left out of key decisions. Robert E. Lee could trust Jackson with deliberately non-detailed orders that conveyed Lee's overall objectives, what modern doctrine calls the "end state". This was because Jackson had a talent for understanding Lee's sometimes unstated goals and Lee trusted Jackson with the ability to take whatever actions were necessary to implement his end state requirements. Few of Lee's subsequent corps commanders had this ability. At Gettysburg, this resulted in lost opportunities. Thus, after the Federals retreated to the heights south of town, Lee sent one of his new corps commanders, Richard S. Ewell, discretionary orders that the heights (Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill) be taken "if practicable". Without Jackson's intuitive grasp of Lee's orders or the instinct to take advantage of sudden tactical opportunities, Ewell chose not to attempt the assault, and this failure is considered by historians to be the greatest missed opportunity of the battle. Jackson had a poor reputation as a horseman. One of his soldiers, Georgia volunteer William Andrews, wrote that Jackson was "a very ordinary looking man of medium size, his uniform badly soiled as though it had seen hard service. He wore a cap pulled down nearly to his nose and was riding a rawboned horse that did not look much like a charger, unless it would be on hay or clover. He certainly made a poor figure on a horseback, with his stirrup leather six inches too short, putting his knees nearly level with his horse's back, and his heels turned out with his toes sticking behind his horse's foreshoulder. A sorry description of our most famous general, but a correct one." His horse was named "Little Sorrel" (also known as "Old Sorrel"), a small chestnut gelding. He rode Little Sorrel throughout the war, and was riding him when he was shot at Chancellorsville. Little Sorrel died at age 36 and is buried near a statue of Jackson on the parade grounds of VMI. (His mounted hide is on display in the VMI Museum.) Mourning his death Jackson was greatly admired and respected throughout the South, and his death had a profound effect there on civilians and soldiers alike. A poem penned by one of his soldiers soon became a very popular song, "Stonewall Jackson's Way". Many theorists through the years have postulated that if Jackson had lived, Lee might have prevailed at Gettysburg. Certainly Jackson's discipline and tactical sense were sorely missed, and might well have carried an extremely close-fought battle. Many Southerners tried to put up a brave front following Jackson's death. As Margaret Mitchell noted in her historical novel, Gone with the Wind, "[t]rue, the South had suffered a sickening loss when Stonewall Jackson had been fatally wounded at Chancellorsville. True, Georgia had lost one of her bravest and most brilliant sons when General T. R. R. Cobb had been killed at Fredericksburg. But the Yankees just couldn't stand any more defeats like Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. They'd have to give in, and then this cruel war would be over." Remembering Jackson After the war, Jackson's wife and young daughter Julia moved from Lexington to North Carolina. Mary Anna Jackson wrote two books about her husband's life, including some of his letters. She never remarried, and was known as the "Widow of the Confederacy", living until 1915. His daughter Julia married, and bore children, but she died of typhoid fever at the age of 26 years. A former Confederate soldier who admired Jackson, Captain Thomas R. Ranson of Staunton, Virginia, also remembered the tragic life of Jackson's mother. Years after the War, he went to the tiny mountain hamlet of Ansted in Fayette County, West Virginia, and had a marble marker placed over the unmarked grave of Julia Neale Jackson in Westlake Cemetery, to make sure that the site was not lost forever. West Virginia's Stonewall Jackson State Park is named in his honor. Nearby, at Stonewall Jackson's historical childhood home, his uncle's grist mill is the centerpiece of a historical site at the Jackson's Mill Center for Lifelong Learning and State 4-H Camp. The facility, located near Weston, serves as a special campus for West Virginia University and the WVU Extension Service. He is memorialized on historic Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia; on the grounds of the state capitol in his native West Virginia; and in many other places. At VMI, a bronze statue of Jackson stands outside the main entrance to the cadet barracks; first-year cadets exiting the barracks through that archway are required to honor Jackson's memory by saluting the statue. The lineage of Jackson's Confederate Army unit, the Stonewall Brigade, continues to the present day in form of the 116th Infantry Brigade of the U.S. Army, currently part of the Virginia National Guard. The unit's shoulder sleeve insignia worn until 2008 depicted Stonewall Jackson mounted on horseback. The United States Navy submarine U.S.S. Stonewall Jackson (SSBN 634), commissioned in 1964, was named for him. The words "Strength—Mobility" are emblazoned on the ship's banner, words taken from letters written by General Jackson. It was the third U.S. Navy ship named for him. The submarine was decommissioned in 1995. During World War II, the Navy named a Liberty ship the SS T.J. Jackson in his honor. The Commonwealth of Virginia honors Jackson's birthday on Lee-Jackson Day, a state holiday observed as such since 1904. It is currently observed on the Friday preceding the third Monday in January. Jackson also appears prominently in the enormous bas-relief carving on the face of Stone Mountain riding with Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. The carving depicts the three on horseback, appearing to ride in a group from right to left across the mountainside. The lower parts of the horses' bodies merge into the mountainside at the foot of the carving. The three riders are shown bare-headed and holding their hats to their chests. It is the largest such carving in the world. "Stonewall" Jackson appeared on the CSA $500 bill (7th Issue, February 17, 1864). The towns of Stonewall in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Kentucky are named in his honor as is Stonewall County in Texas. During a training exercise in Virginia by U.S. Marines in 1921, the Marine commander, General Smedley Butler was told by a local farmer that Stonewall Jackson's arm was buried nearby under a granite marker, to which Butler replied, "Bosh! I will take a squad of Marines and dig up that spot to prove you wrong!" Butler found the arm in a box under the marker. He later replaced the wooden box with a metal one, and reburied the arm. He left a plaque on the granite monument marking the burial place of Jackson's arm; the plaque is no longer on the marker but can be viewed at the Chancellorsville Battlefield visitor's center . In popular media - Jackson is featured prominently in the novel and film Gods and Generals. In the film, he is portrayed by Stephen Lang. - The Theater at Lime Kiln, a local outdoor theater company in Lexington, Virginia, has performed a country-style musical about the life and times of Stonewall Jackson entitled Stonewall Country since 1984. - In the 2012 film Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies, Jackson is portrayed by Don McGraw as one of the heroes of the story, giving his life to save Lincoln and the rest of the surviving team. - John Dwyer's historical novel Stonewall covers Jackson's entire life, from childhood to death, with particular attention paid to the role his Presbyterian faith played in his life. - Stonewall Jackson has appeared in a number of alternative history novels. He is the subject of Douglas Lee Gibboney's short novel Stonewall Jackson at Gettsyburg, which dwells on Jackson's presence on the outcome of the Gettysburg Campaign. Jackson also appears in Harry Turtledove's How Few Remain, where Jackson leads the main army of an independent Confederacy in an 1881 war against the United States. Stonewall Jackson is the protagonist of Stonewall Goes West by R.E. Thomas, where Jackson survives his wounding at Chancellorsville to replace Braxton Bragg at the head of the Army of Tennessee. - In popular culture, the phrase "Stone Wall" has come to mean individuals whose combat styles are defensive, rather than offensive. Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyed by half their number. The other rule is, never fight against heavy odds, if by any possible maneuvering you can hurl your own force on only a part, and that the weakest part, of your enemy and crush it. Such tactics will win every time, and a small army may thus destroy a large one in detail, and repeated victory will make it invincible. —Jackson to General Imboden To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the fruits of victory, is the secret of successful war. The only true rule for cavalry is to follow the enemy as long as he retreats. —Jackson to Colonel Munford on June 13, 1862 War means fighting. The business of the soldier is to fight. Armies are not called out to dig trenches, to live in camps, but to find the enemy and strike him; to invade his country, and do him all possible damage in the shortest possible time. This will involve great destruction of life and property while it lasts; but such a war will of necessity be of brief continuance, and so would be an economy of life and property in the end. Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees. —Jackson, last words The time for war has not yet come, but it will come, and that soon; and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard. My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. ... That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave. See also - List of American Civil War generals - George Francis Robert Henderson (biographer) and his work Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War - William B. Ebbert, 1st Lt., W. Virginia Infantry, Union Army. (1923 quote recalling battle of Winchester, March 1862) - Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters Museum - Farwell, p. xi, states that the overwhelmingly common usage of the middle name Jonathan was never documented and that Jackson did not acknowledge it, instead using the signature form "T. J. Jackson." Robertson, p. 19, states that a county document on February 28, 1841, was the first recorded instance of Jackson using a middle initial, although "whether it stood for his father Jonathan's name is not known." All of the other references to this article cite his full name as Thomas Jonathan Jackson. - Eicher, High Commands, p. 316; Robertson, p. 7. The physician, Dr. James McCally, recalls delivering baby Thomas just before midnight on January 20, but the family has insisted since then that he was born in the first minutes of January 21. The later date is the one generally acknowledged in biographies. - Jackson biography at Civil War Home. - Wallace Hettle, Inventing Stonewall Jackson: A Civil War Hero in History and Memory (Louisiana State University Press, 2011) - Robertson, pp. 1-2. - Robertson, pp. 2-3. - VMI Jackson genealogy site; Robertson, p. 4. - Robertson, p. 7. - Robertson, p. 8. - Robertson, p. 10. - Robertson, pp. 9-16. Robertson refers to multiple bachelor uncles in residence at the mill, but does not name them. - Robertson, p. 17. - Robertson, p. 40. - Robertson, p. 69. - Robertson, pp. 108-10. He left the Army on March 21, 1851, but stayed on the rolls, officially on furlough, for nine months. His resignation took effect formally on February 2, 1852, and he joined the VMI faculty in August 1851. - Virginia Military Institute Archives: Stonewall Jackson FAQ - Jackson, Mary Anna, Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson, by His Widow (Louisville, Ky, 1895), 78. - Robertson, p. 169. - Robertson, pp. 191-92. - Jackson, 152. - Robertson, p. 191. - Isbell, Sherman. "Archibald Alexander Travelogue". Archived from the original on September 14, 2005. Retrieved 2008-12-17. "After 1844, the presidents resided in the neighboring brick house, known as the Lee-Jackson House. While Presbyterian minister George Junkin was president, the appendage on the right side of the Lee-Jackson house was from 1853 the residence of Junkin's daughter and her husband, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. After Jackson's wife died the next year, Jackson remained in the house for another three years. Robert E. Lee, president of the college from 1865 to 1870, resided in the brick house until 1869..." - Robertson, p. 157. - Eicher, High Commands, p. 316. - Freeman, Lee's Lieutenants, vol. 1, p. 82; Robertson, p. 264. McPherson, p. 342, reports the quotation after "stone wall" as being "Rally around the Virginians!" - See, for instance, Goldfield, David, et al., The American Journey: A History of the United States, Prentice Hall, 1999, ISBN 0-13-088243-7 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. There are additional controversies about what Bee said and whether he said anything at all. See Freeman, Lee's Lieutenants, vol. 1, pp. 733–34. - McPherson, p. 342. - Robertson, pp. 263, 268. - See, for instance, Freeman, R.E. Lee, vol. 2, p. 247: "... by every test, Jackson had failed throughout the Seven Days. This is in part to being unfamiliar with the area and to following orders which stated he was to wait until he had communicated with the others before starting a battle." Confederate politician Robert Toombs wrote that "Stonewall Jackson and his troops did little or nothing in these battles of the Chickahominy" (Robertson, p. 504). - Wert, p. 206. - Robertson, p. 645. - Robertson, p. 630. - Foote, Shelby, The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 2 - Apperson, p. 430. - Robertson, p. 739 - McGuire, pp. 162-63. - Sorensen, James. "Stonewall Jackson's Arm" American Heritage, April/May 2005. - Robertson, p. 746. - Hall, Kenneth. Stonewall Jackson and religious faith in military command. McFarland, 2005. - Harpers Weekly, May 23, 1863 - "Stonewall Jackson: Popular Questions". Virginia Military Institute. Retrieved 2009-05-06. - "Stonewall Jackson's Way". Retrieved December 24, 2011. - Gareth Atkins, review of Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, 1775-1815: Blue Lights and Psalm-Singers by Richard Blake (review no. 799) accessed Dec. 24, 2011 at www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/799 - Fitzgerald, Michael, Society of Clinical Psychologists paper. - Schildkrout, Enid (1997). Medical Diagnosis in Psychotherapy Patients: Identifying Medical Conditions Manifesting as Psychiatric Disorders. Canada: John Wiley. ISBN 0-471-16872-6 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Cartmell, Donald (2001). "The Legend of Stonewall". The Civil War Book of Lists. Franklin Lakes, New Jersey: The Career Press Inc. pp. 187–192. ISBN 1-56414-504-2 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Samaritan Medical Center (September 2008). "Stonewall Jackson and the Henderson Hydropath". in Samaritan Medical Center Newsletter. No.42. Retrieved 13 December 2009. - Taylor, p. 50 - Robertson, p. xi. - Dabney, Robert L.. "True Courage: A Memorial Sermon for General Thomas J. "Stone-wall Jackson". Retrieved 26 February 2013. - Selby, John Millin (2000). Stonewall Jackson As Military Commander. p. 25. - Sears, Stephen W. (16 March 1997). "Onward, Christian Soldier". New York Times. Retrieved 26 February 2013. Unknown parameter - White, Davin (15 October 2010). "Stonewall Jackson biographer says religion drove Civil War general". The Charleston Gazette. Retrieved 26 February 2013. - Duewel, Wesley L. (2010). Revival Fire. Zondervan. p. 128. - Summers, Mark. "The Great Harvest: Revival in the Confederate Army during the Civil War". Religion & Liberty 21 (3). Retrieved 26 February 2013. - Robertson, James I.. ""Stonewall" Jackson": Christian Soldier". Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. Retrieved 26 February 2013. - Robertson, p. xiv. - Pfanz, p. 344; Eicher, Longest Night, p. 517; Sears, p. 228; Trudeau, p. 253. Both Sears and Trudeau record "if possible". - Robertson, p. 499. - Robertson, p. 230. - "Little Sorrel Buried at VMI July 20, 1997"; Robertson, p. 922, n. 16. - See, for instance, Sears, Gettysburg, pp. 233-34. Alternative theories about Gettysburg are prominent ideas in the literature about the Lost Cause. - Jackson, Mary Anna (1895). Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson by His Widow. Louisville, KY: The Prentice Press. - VMI article about Jackson - Farwell, 1993, p. 513 - Horwitz, 1999, p. 232 - BroadwayWorld.com article - "Stone Wall". Television Tropes & Idioms. Retrieved October 22, 2012. - Underwood and Buel, Vol.2, p. 297. - Henderson, Vol. 2, chapter XXV, p. 481. - Henderson, Vol. 1, chapter XI, S. 392. - "Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Bull's Run", New York Times, May 3, 1885, citing the recollections of John D. Imboden. - Alexander, Bevin. Lost Victories: The Military Genius of Stonewall Jackson. New York: Holt, 1992, ISBN 978-0-8050-1830-1 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Apperson, John Samuel. Repairing the "March of Mars": The Civil War diaries of John Samuel Apperson, hospital steward in the Stonewall Brigade, 1861-1865. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-86554-779-3 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods. New York: Broadway Books, 1998. ISBN 0-7679-0251-3 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-84944-5 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Farwell, Byron. Stonewall: A Biography of General Thomas J. Jackson. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1993. ISBN 978-0-393-31086-3 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Freeman, Douglas S. Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command. 3 vols. New York: Scribner, 1946. ISBN 0-684-85979-3 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Freeman, Douglas S. R. E. Lee, A Biography. 4 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934–35. OCLC 166632575. - Henderson, G. F. R. Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War. New York: Smithmark, 1995. ISBN 0-8317-3288-1 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. First published in 1898 by Longman, Greens, and Co. (The 1900 version has an introduction by Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley.) - Hettle, Wallace. Inventing Stonewall Jackson: A Civil War Hero in History and Memory (Louisiana State University Press, 2011) - Johnson, Robert Underwood, and Clarence C. Buel, eds. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 4 vols. New York: Century Co., 1884-1888. OCLC 2048818. - McGuire, Dr. Hunter. "Death of Stonewall Jackson". Southern Historical Society Papers 14 (1886). - McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-19-503863-0 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg – The First Day. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8078-2624-3 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Robertson, James I., Jr. Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1997. ISBN 0-02-864685-1 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Sears, Stephen W. Gettysburg. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. ISBN 0-395-86761-4 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Sharlet, Jeff. "Through a Glass, Darkly: How the Christian Right is Reimagining U.S. History." Harpers, December 2006. - Taylor, Richard. Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal Experiences of the Late War. Nashville, TN: J.S. Sanders & Co., 2001. ISBN 1-879941-21-X [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. First published 1879 by D. Appleton. - Trudeau, Noah Andre. Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. ISBN 0-06-019363-8 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Wert, Jeffry D. General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. ISBN 0-671-70921-6 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Jackson genealogy site at Virginia Military Institute Further reading - Chambers, Lenoir. Stonewall Jackson. New York: Morrow, 1959. OCLC 186539122. - Cooke, John Esten, Moses Drury Hoge, and John William Jones. http://books.google.com/books?id=DKHFaHBX2isC Stonewall Jackson: A Military Biography]. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1876. OCLC 299589. - Cozzens, Peter. Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8078-3200-4 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Dabney, R. L. Life of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson). London: James Nisbet and Co., 1866. OCLC 457442354. - Douglas, Henry Kyd. I Rode with Stonewall: The War Experiences of the Youngest Member of Jackson's Staff. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940. ISBN 0-8078-0337-5 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Robertson, James I., Jr. Stonewall Jackson's Book of Maxims. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 2002. ISBN 1-58182-296-0 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Shackel, Paul A. Archaeology and Created Memory: Public History in a National Park. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2000. ISBN 978-0-306-46177-4 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - White, Henry A. Stonewall Jackson. Philadelphia: G.W. Jacobs and Co., 1909. OCLC 3911913. - Wilkins, J. Steven. All Things for Good: The Steadfast Fidelity of Stonewall Jackson. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-58182-225-1 [Amazon-US \| Amazon-UK]. - Robertson, James I., Jr. Stonewall Jackson The Man, The Soldier, The Legend. Macmillan Pub.; 1 edition (February 18, 1997). # ISBN-10: 0028646851 - ISBN-13: 978-0028646855 - Virginia Military Institute Archives Stonewall Jackson Resources - Jackson genealogy site - "Death of 'Stonewall' Jackson, Southern Confederacy, May 12, 1863. Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive. Digital Library of Georgia. - Find-a-Grave entry for Jackson - Find-a-Grave entry for Jackson's arm - Fitzhugh Lee's 1879 address on Chancellorsville - The Stonewall Jackson House - Animated history of the campaigns of Stonewall Jackson - Details on John Jackson's larceny trial in the Court Records of the Old Bailey - Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters, Winchester VA - Guinea Station, the place where Thomas Jackson died \|Commander of the Stonewall Brigade April 27, 1861 – October 28, 1861 Richard B. Garnett	3.190791
Image Size is the size of your original digital photo file, measured in pixels and DPI (Dots Per Inch, sometimes referred to as PPI, Pixels Per Inch). What is a pixel? A pixel is a small square dot. DPI refers to the number of dots (pixels) per inch. Why is this important? Well, if an image is too small, you might not be able to order a large size print or other photo product. A general rule of thumb for image size versus print size is: the image size should be at least the size of the print you want multiplied by 300, at 300 DPI. For example, if you want to order a 4x6 print, the image size should be 1200 pixels (4 x 300) by 1800 pixels (6 x 300) at 300 DPI. If the image size was half of that (600 by 900), then the 4x6 print would likely come out distorted or pixilated if you were to order a print. Camera Settings Decide in advance what is more important: image quality or room on your memory card. You can set your camera to take photos that are larger or smaller in size. If you know you will only be printing 4x6 photos, then you can reduce the image quality, which allows you to store more photos on your memory card. If you will be printing enlargements or other photo products like photo books, then keep the setting on "high" for higher quality images. The image sizes will be larger and you will not be able to store as many on your memory card at one time. Also, set the file type as "jpeg" if your camera allows you to control that detail. You might have a "tiff" option, but it is not necessary to save the photos as "tiff" files, and it will only take up more room on your memory card. If you have a point and shoot camera, open your main menu, and find the setting for "image quality" (or something similar). Usually, the options are "low," "medium," and "high." Choose "high" for higher quality (larger) photos. If you have an SLR camera, you probably have additional options. Just stick to high quality jpeg images, unless you know you will be doing extensive image editing and post-production. In that case, you might want to shoot RAW files. Resolution The resolution of your photo is directly impacted by the image size. The more pixels your photos have, the higher their resolution is. When you upload photos to your online account, you are given three upload options: "Regular," "Fast," and "Fastest." When you choose "Fast" or "Fastest," the photos are compressed, so the resolution will be less than the original photo file. So, if you are just uploading to order 4x6 prints, "Fastest" will be fine. But, if you wish to order enlargements, photo books, calendars, and other photo products, choose the "Regular" speed, which uploads the photos at their original resolution. Once the photos are uploaded, you will notice three bars for each photo in your account. If all three bars are green, that means that the resolution of the photo that is in the account is sufficient enough to order just about anything on the site. If the bars are all red, you have uploaded a low resolution photo. Try to find the original photo file and check the size. If the size is sufficient enough to order prints (based on the rule we mentioned above about multiplying the desired print size by 300 and comparing to the actual image size), re-upload the photo at "Regular" upload speed. Photos with two or three red bars will generate poor quality prints, especially if you are trying to order anything larger than 4x6 prints. We also will double check the resolution on our end. If we catch a low res file when printing, we always stop and notify you. We want you to be happy with your prints. Now that you understand image size and resolution a bit more, and understand why they are important when working in your online photo account, here are a few more extra tips about image size and resolution: - Most computer screens display photos at 72 DPI. That means the printed photo will look different than how it appears on your computer screen. - If you crop a photo too much (zoom in too much), it will always look pixilated and distorted, no matter how large the image size is. - Once you take the photo, you cannot increase the size or resolution by increasing the number of pixels in any photo editing program. If you wish to increase the resolution or file size, you must do so by adjusting your camera settings before you take any more photos.	3.33111
The interplay between indigenous Indian painting traditions and imported Persianate influences invigorated painting on the Indian subcontinent for over three hundred years. Primary Colors, featuring some thirty works from the Museum's collection, juxtaposes two intriguingly similar groups of paintings, one from seventeenth-century Central India and another from eighteenth-century Nepal. These works reflect indigenous painting traditions, characterized by expanses of intense red, blue, and yellow as well as figures seen in sharp profile, but they also include imagery of costume and architecture drawn from Islamic prototypes. Dynamic painting traditions flourished in Central India under Hindu, Jain, and Muslim patronage even before Mughal rulers imported Persian painters in the early sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century, the Hindu rulers of Malwa (an area of Central India) developed active workshops that re-emphasized pre-Mughal forms. In the eighteenth century, Nepalese painting took a surprising turn, leading to forms closely related to those produced in seventeenth-century Malwa. The installation explores why patrons and painters, separated by distance and time, chose a closely related aesthetic. Among the highlights of the installation are two recently acquired Nepalese paintings that will be seen in Philadelphia for the first time. The Celestial Abode of Shiva and Devi is a great sunburst-like representation of a divine palace surrounded by courtly and ascetic devotees, while Pilgrimage to Gosainkund—a fourteen-foot-long scroll—illuminates a meandering path through cities and towns, peppered by pilgrims and animals, ultimately leading to a sacred lake in the high Himalayas. CuratorsDarielle Mason • The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art Katherine Anne Paul • Assistant Curator, Indian and Himalayan Art	3.11011
A wolverine first photographed by a remote-controlled camera on the Tahoe National Forest in February 2008 is most closely related to Rocky Mountain populations, according to a team of 10 federal, state and university scientists. Their findings are published in the latest edition of Northwest Science and focus on genetic analysis of hair collected from the first scientifically verified California wolverine in 86 years. The U.S. Forest Service funded the study, which demonstrated the first evidence of connectivity between wolverine populations living in the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains. Determining where the male wolverine originated is important because it is a state-threatened species, and California wolverines are genetically unique from other North American populations. Last year, scientists collected hair and fecal samples from the photographed animal so that its DNA could be examined to help determine whether the wolverine had somehow survived as part of a historic population, escaped or was released from captivity, or dispersed on its own from outside of California. Scientists at the agency's Wildlife Genetics Laboratory in Missoula, Mont., later found the animal was not part of a historic population by comparing its genetic samples with specimens found in California museums. These scientists previously used the specimens to learn California wolverines are a distinct North American genotype. Further genetic analysis suggested the California wolverine most resembled a population comprised mostly of wolverines from Idaho, with a 73 percent confidence level. By comparison, the California wolverine had less than a five percent probability of belonging to most of the other North American wolverine populations evaluated. The scientists also used carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses to support the genetic results in the study, which is titled "Wolverine Confirmation in California after Nearly a Century: Native or Long-Distance Immigrant?" "We still can't be sure how this animal came to the Tahoe National Forest," said Bill Zielinski, one of the study's authors and a research ecologist at the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station. "But, this peer-reviewed study shows that other scientists agreed with our interpretation that it likely traveled here from the Rockies." Zielinski said the photographed animal would have traveled more than 400 miles to reach the national forest if it naturally dispersed from the nearest Rocky Mountain population. He said if the wolverine was accidentally or deliberately transplanted, it would have more likely originated from an area where wolverines are more common and legally trapped, such as Alaska or the Yukon Territory. Sierra Pacific Industries wildlife biologists also photographed the wolverine this winter using remote-controlled cameras on land it manages in California. Wildlife Genetics Laboratory scientists determined it to be the same wolverine photographed last year. More information: The published study is available online at www.bioone.org/toc/nwsc/83/2 . Source: US Forest Service Explore further: Front-row seats to climate change	3.830505
Eliminating diabetes and depression, as well as increasing education and fruit and vegetable consumption, are likely to have the biggest impact on reducing levels of dementia in the coming years, should no effective treatment be found, concludes a study published in the British Medical Journal today. These findings suggest priorities for future public health interventions. While the exact cause of dementia is still unknown, several modifiable risk factors have already been identified. These include vascular risk factors (heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol), a history of depression, diet, alcohol consumption, and education level. Based on this knowledge, a team of researchers based in France and the UK estimated which of these risk factors might be most effective in reducing the future burden of dementia, should no effective treatment be found. Their analysis involved 1,433 healthy people aged over 65 years living in the south of France and recruited between 1999 and 2001. Participants underwent cognitive testing at the start of the study and again at two, four and seven years. A reading test (the Neale score) was also used as an indicator of lifetime intelligence. Medical history and information on measures such as height, weight, education level, monthly income, mobility, dietary habits, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use was obtained. An individual's genetic risk of dementia was also measured: although it's not a factor that can be changed it served as a useful benchmark for dementia risk. Results showed that eliminating depression and diabetes and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption were estimated to lead to an overall 21% reduction in new cases of dementia, with depression making the greatest contribution (just over 10%). However, the researchers point out that the direct (causal) relationship between depression and dementia remains unclear. Increasing education would also lead to an estimated 18% reduction in new cases of dementia across the general population over the next seven years. By contrast, eliminating the principal known genetic risk factor from the general population would lead only to a 7% reduction in the number of new cases over the next seven years. Given these findings, the authors suggest that public health initiatives should focus on encouraging literacy at all ages irrespective of ability, prompt treatment of depressive symptoms, and early screening for glucose intolerance and insulin resistance (early stages in the development of diabetes). While these calculations can only provide a crude estimate of impact on incidence, they do make a significant statement about public health priorities in disease prevention in the face of current knowledge, conclude the authors. Further studies including younger adults are clearly needed to test the impact of intervention measures. A second study, also published in the British Medical Journal today, finds that death rates are more than three times higher in people with dementia than in those without dementia in the first year after diagnosis. The study also says that earlier and better detection of dementia in primary care is needed. An accompanying editorial suggests that key areas to focus on include better education and training in primary care, developing more integrated systems of care, and ensuring that policy makers and commissioners plan services that reflect the effects of dementia on primary care and other services. Explore further: New case of SARS-like virus in Saudi: ministry	3.404375
This is the first is a 3 part series. Part 1: Pagan origins of Christmas, Part 2: Christian origins of Christmas, and Part 3: Santa Claus and his Ilk. In part 1, I discussed the pagan origins of Christmas. However, that is not the whole story. Christmas, in its current form, did not simply spring up or evolve from just one source, Christian, pagan or otherwise. Therefore, in the interest of fairness, here are the Christian origins of Christmas. In the last post, I mentioned how Dies Natalis Solis Invicti was the reason that Christmas is celebrated on December 25. Well, that isn’t the whole story. While it is true that the celebration of the Sun (or Sun God) was celebrated on this day, and that some early Church Fathers commented on how appropriate it would be to celebrate Jesus’ birth on the day of the unconquered Sun, it is also true that the idea of Jesus’ birth being on December 25, predated those decisions. Hippolytus of Rome, a 3rd century theologian, makes it clear that he believes Jesus’ birth to have happened on December 25, not because of the Sun celebration, but because he believes that Jesus’ conception took place during the traditional date of the creation of the world on March 25 (which also happened to line up with the vernal equinox and often with the Jewish Passover), although he also put forth April 2nd as a date of conception in some writings. Regardless, Hippolytus felt that this proved a date of Jesus’ birth at December 25th. Still, it could have been an attempt of a Christian apologist to retroactively prove Jesus’ birth after other’s had connected the date already to Saturnalia or Dies Natalis Solis Invicti. Except… that Saturnalia was not celebrated on December 25. It was celebrated on December 17, and was lengthened over time to December 23, but never the 25. Sorry Mythicists. Further, while Dies Natalis Solis Invicti WAS indeed celebrated on December 25, there is no mention of this celebration being held on December 25 prior to AD 354, since before this, the celebration was held every 4 years, and not on the 25th of December, and often not in December at all. This is relevant because Hippolytus died in 235, over 100 years before Dies Natalis Solis Invicti was practiced on December 25. In fact, around 200 AD, Clement of Alexandria gives us an even better clue (through his consternation), complaining in frustration that some Egyption theologians are celebrating Jesus’ birth on December 25 (Stromata 1:21). So it seems that the December 25 date for Christmas IS actually a Christian tradition, not a lender from a pagan source. Note: this does not actually make it true that Jesus’ was born on December 25. He almost surely wasn’t. But it does mean that Christians have honored Jesus’ birth on that day by our own (often flawed) resources, and not as a direct result of other holidays. I did make a mention last time about Romans bringing in trees during this time, and even decorating them with 12 candles. However, no Christians are ever mentioned as taking on this tradition during the time of the Roman Empire. While this practice does seem similar to our Christmas tree tradition, the practice of bringing trees into homes to celebrate Saturnalia (or other mid-winter holidays) was long dead (by a millennium) by the time Christians began to celebrate it during Christmas time. While it is also true that many different cultures brought greenery and trees into the home during winter (from Egypt to Norway), it appears that the 16th century German Christians were the first to bring Evergreen trees into their homes and decorate them for Christmas. There is little chance that 16th century Germans relied on long forgotten Roman practice to initiate theirs. As the story goes, Martin Luther, the 16th Century German reformer, was the first to use candles and light up a Christmas tree. And while the tree has not always been accepted as a good thing in all Christian circles, it can certainly be said however, that it too, is of Christian origin. The Name “Christmas” Of course, it doesn’t really take a genius to realize that the actual word “Christmas” is of Christian origin. Cristes Maesse in old English, it appeared around 1038. Christes – Christ, Maesse meaning dismissal, or colloquially, the way to refer to a church service, as in “we are dismissed to be about the mission of God.” It came to refer to the service on Dec. 25. Not much pagan there. The first nativity scene is said to be the work of St. Francis of Assisi. He was attempting to reverse the tide of materialism encroaching in on Christmastime around 1223 CE. Imagine if he had been around today…. mercy. He made it up in a cave near Greccio and had live animals and people. Soon, it spread all around Italy, and was soon common practice in most churches. Statues soon replaced live people and eventually, homes adopted smaller versions. Clearly Christian in origin. St. Francis is hard to be for sheer Christianity. Early in the 20th century, electric lights became available for use on Christmas trees (don’t believe me? Watch Downton Abby). Soon after in the mid-2oth Century, folks began using Christmas tree light on the outside of their homes. Hmmm…. since this took place mostly in America, i don’t think we can call this one Christian origin…. but it is derivative of a Christian practice. Well, i don’t want to spoil next week’s addition to the conversation on Santa Claus, so it will have to suffice to say that this practice of hanging stockings on Christmas Eve is particular to his legend, and not anywhere beforehand. But I won’t give anymore away, next week’s will be awesome. So to summarize: December 25 date: Of Christian origin Trees in the house: Of Christian Origin (and yet attested to in many other cultures in parallel, not dependence) The word “Christmas:” of Christian origin Nativity Scenes: of Christian origin Christmas Lights: of Christian origin Stockings: of Christian origin	3.101551
If left untreated, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can seriously affect your daily functioning, relationships, success in school, ability to work, and mental health. OCD is usually treated with a combination of behavioral therapy (counseling) and medications. Behavioral therapy can help you gradually confront feared objects or ideas, either directly or by imagination. Medications are used to treat the obsessions, anxiety, distress, and other associated brain disorders. Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and specially trained primary care providers are trained to treat OCD. If your doctor doesn't have special training, ask for the name of a doctor or counselor who does. Treatment involves the following:MedicationsOther treatments—therapy Surgical procedures are not a treatment option for obsessive-compulsive disorder. - Reviewer: Michael Woods, MD - Review Date: 11/2012 - - Update Date: 11/26/2012 -	3.019128
This section of the website provides tips and information on how to conserve water inside and outside your home and/or office. You can help the program achieve a 10% reduction in water use per person within 10 years by saving 10 gallons of water per day or start by saving 1 gallon of water per day every year for 10 years. Here are some ways you can accomplish that: - Reduce shower time ~ 2.5 gallons/minute - Turn off water while brushing teeth ~ 2 gallons/minute Why Should We Conserve Water? Water is constantly being recycled through the earth’s water cycle. However, humans can consume fresh water faster than it is naturally replenished. We all use water, so we should do our part to protect and preserve it. Approximately 3% of the earth’s water supply is fresh but less than one third of 1% is available for human use! As water users, we must preserve our water supply so it will be available today and for generations to come. Water conservation allows us to use water more efficiently and reduce water waste. Making a habit of conservation makes sense. Conserving water is beneficial to our community, because it: - Helps protect our water supply for the future - Protects the environment and natural ecosystems - Saves energy - Saves money For more information about the water cycle, visit the US Geological Survey’s website Where Does Our Water Come From? The Great Lakes are the largest system of fresh, surface water on earth, containing roughly 18% of the world fresh water supply. Lake Michigan is the second largest of the Great Lakes. Nearly 750,000 people in DuPage County get their water from Lake Michigan, provided to them by their local water utility. The DWC buys water from the City of Chicago and sells it to the local water utilities in DuPage County. The people in DuPage County who do not get their water from Lake Michigan are served by ground water sources. The Great Lakes Compact limits how much water can be taken from Lake Michigan and requires all water utilities to have a water conservation program. Source: The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book. USEPA For more information on the Great Lakes Compact visit the websites for the Great Lakes Commission , Council of Great Lakes Governors , or Great Lakes and Saint Laurence Cities Initiative DuPage County Water Usage Summary Before we can start to preserve every drop, we must first understand how much water we use and for what purposes. Water usage in DuPage County can be divided up into four main categories as shown in the figure below. Did you know? - The average daily water use for Lake Michigan water users in DuPage County is 106 gallons/person/day. - Over 71% of total water use is for residential customers.	3.09778
Individual differences \| Methods \| Statistics \| Clinical \| Educational \| Industrial \| Professional items \| World psychology \| Philosophy Index: Aesthetics · Epistemology · Ethics · Logic · Metaphysics · Consciousness · Philosophy of Language · Philosophy of Mind · Philosophy of Science · Social and Political philosophy · Philosophies · Philosophers · List of lists Skepticism (or scepticism) has many definitions, but generally refers to any questioning attitude of knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, or doubt regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere. The word may characterise a position on a single matter, as in the case of religious skepticism, which is "doubt concerning basic religious principles (such as immortality, providence, and revelation)", but philosophical skepticism is an overall approach that requires all new information to be well supported by evidence. Skeptics may even doubt the reliability of their own senses. Classical philosophical skepticism derives from the 'Skeptikoi', a school who "asserted nothing". Adherents of Pyrrhonism, for instance, suspend judgment in investigations. - (a) an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object; - (b) the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain; or - (c) the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism that is characteristic of skeptics (Merriam–Webster). In philosophy, skepticism refers more specifically to any one of several propositions. These include propositions about: - (a) an inquiry, - (b) a method of obtaining knowledge through systematic doubt and continual testing, - (c) the arbitrariness, relativity, or subjectivity of moral values, - (d) the limitations of knowledge, - (e) a method of intellectual caution and suspended judgment. - Main article: Scientific skepticism A scientific (or empirical) skeptic is one who questions beliefs on the basis of scientific understanding. Most scientists, being scientific skeptics, test the reliability of certain kinds of claims by subjecting them to a systematic investigation using some form of the scientific method. As a result, a number of claims are considered "pseudoscience" if they are found to improperly apply or ignore the fundamental aspects of the scientific method. Scientific skepticism does not address religious beliefs, since these beliefs are, by definition, outside the realm of systematic, empirical testing/knowledge. - Main article: Philosophical skepticism In philosophical skepticism, pyrrhonism is a position that refrains from making truth claims. A philosophical skeptic does not claim that truth is impossible (which would be a truth claim). The label is commonly used to describe other philosophies which appear similar to philosophical skepticism, such as academic skepticism, an ancient variant of Platonism that claimed knowledge of truth was impossible. Empiricism is a closely related, but not identical, position to philosophical skepticism. Empiricists see empiricism as a pragmatic compromise between philosophical skepticism and nomothetic science; philosophical skepticism is in turn sometimes referred to as "radical empiricism." Philosophical skepticism originated in ancient Greek philosophy. The Greek Sophists of the 5th century BC were for the most part skeptics. Pyrrhonism was a school of skepticism founded by Aenesidemus in the first century BC and recorded by Sextus Empiricus in the late 2nd century or early 3rd century AD. One of its first proponents was Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360-275 B.C.), who traveled and studied as far as India and propounded the adoption of "practical" skepticism. Subsequently, in the "New Academy" Arcesilaus (c. 315-241 B.C.) and Carneades (c. 213-129 B.C.) developed more theoretical perspectives, by which conceptions of absolute truth and falsity were refuted as uncertain. Carneades criticized the views of the Dogmatists, especially supporters of Stoicism, asserting that absolute certainty of knowledge is impossible. Sextus Empiricus (c. A.D. 200), the main authority for Greek skepticism, developed the position further, incorporating aspects of empiricism into the basis for asserting knowledge. Greek skeptics criticized the Stoics, accusing them of dogmatism. For the skeptics, the logical mode of argument was untenable, as it relied on propositions which could not be said to be either true or false without relying on further propositions. This was the regress argument, whereby every proposition must rely on other propositions in order to maintain its validity (see the five tropes of Agrippa the Sceptic). In addition, the skeptics argued that two propositions could not rely on each other, as this would create a circular argument (as p implies q and q implies p). For the skeptics, such logic was thus an inadequate measure of truth and could create as many problems as it claimed to have solved. Truth was not, however, necessarily unobtainable, but rather an idea which did not yet exist in a pure form. Although skepticism was accused of denying the possibility of truth, in fact it appears to have mainly been a critical school which merely claimed that logicians had not discovered truth. In Islamic philosophy, skepticism was established by Al-Ghazali (1058–1111), known in the West as "Algazel", as part of the orthodox Ash'ari school of Islamic theology, whose method of skepticism shares many similarities with Descartes' method. René Descartes is credited for developing a global skepticism as a thought experiment in his attempt to find absolute certainty on which to base the foundation of his philosophy. Descartes discussed skeptical arguments from dreaming and radical deception. David Hume has also been described as a global skeptic. However, Descartes was not ostensibly a skeptic and developed his theory of an absolute certainty to disprove other skeptics who argued that there is no certainty. - ↑ See R. H. Popkin, The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes (rev. ed. 1968); C. L. Stough, Greek Skepticism (1969); M. Burnyeat, ed., The Skeptical Tradition (1983); B. Stroud, The Significance of Philosophical Skepticism (1984). Encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com - ↑ "Philosophical views are typically classed as skeptical when they involve advancing some degree of doubt regarding claims that are elsewhere taken for granted." URM.edu - ↑ Merriam–Webster - ↑ "Philosophical skepticism should be distinguished from ordinary skepticism, where doubts are raised against certain beliefs or types of beliefs because the evidence for the particular belief or type of belief is weak or lacking..." Skepdic.com - ↑ "...the two most influential forms of skepticism have, arguably, been the radical epistemological skepticism of the classical Pyrrhonian skeptics and the Cartesian form of radical epistemological skepticism" UTM.edu - ↑ Liddell and Scott - ↑ Sextus Empiricus, Outlines Of Pyrrhonism, Translated by R. G. Bury, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1933, p. 21 - ↑ Skeptoid.com: What is skepticism? - ↑ Scepticism – History of Scepticism - ↑ Najm, Sami M. (July–October 1966), "The Place and Function of Doubt in the Philosophies of Descartes and Al-Ghazali", Philosophy East and West (Philosophy East and West, Vol. 16, No. 3/4) 16 (3–4): 133–141, doi:10.2307/1397536 - A Greek-English Lexicon, Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones, with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK, 1940. Online, perseus.tufts.edu. - Richard Hönigswald, Die Skepsis in Philosophie und Wissenschaft, 1914, new edition (ed. and introduction by Christian Benne and Thomas Schirren), Göttingen: Edition Ruprecht, 2008, ISBN 978-7675-3056-0 - Keeton, Morris T., "skepticism", pp. 277–278 in Dagobert D. Runes (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littlefield, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ, 1962. - Runes, D.D. (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littlefield, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ, 1962. - Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged, W.A. Neilson, T.A. Knott, P.W. Carhart (eds.), G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, MA, 1950. - Butchvarov, Panayot, Skepticism About the External World (Oxford University Press, 1998). - Daniels, M.D., D.; Price, PhD, V. (2000), The Essential Enneagram, New York: HarperCollins - Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, R.G. Bury (trans.), Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY, 1990. - Richard Wilson, Don't Get Fooled Again - The skeptic's guide to life, Icon Books, London, 2008. ISBN 978-184831014-8 - Skeptical Inquiry at the Open Directory Project - "Most Scientific Papers are Probably Wrong", NewScientist, 30 August 2005 - "In the Name of Skepticism: Martin Gardner's Misrepresentations of General Semantics", by Bruce I. Kodish, appeared in General Semantics Bulletin, Number 71, 2004. - Classical Skepticism by Peter Suber - "Outstanding skeptics of the 20th century" – Skeptical Inquirer magazine - "CSICOP and the Skeptics" – critical essay by paranormal believer George P. Hansen - "Nonsense (And Why It's So Popular)" – course syllabus from The College of Wooster. - Template:CathEncy – A Christian (Catholic) account of scepticism Template:Template group Template:Use dmy datesar:شكوكية an:Scepticismo az:Skeptisizm br:Amgredoni bg:Скептицизъм ca:Escepticisme cs:Skepticismus da:Skepticisme de:Skeptizismus et:Skeptitsism es:Escepticismo eo:Metodologia Dubo eu:Eszeptizismo fa:شکگرایی fr:Scepticisme (philosophie) gl:Escepticismo ko:회의주의 hi:संशयवाद hr:Skepticizam id:Skeptisisme ia:Scepticismo is:Efahyggjahe:ספקנות kk:Скептицизм la:Scepticismus hu:Szkepticizmus nl:Scepticismeno:Skeptisisme uz:Skeptitsizmpt:Ceticismo ro:Scepticism ru:Скептицизм sq:Skepticizmi simple:Skepticism sk:Skepticizmus (filozofia) sl:Skepticizem sr:Скептицизам sh:Skepticizam fi:Skeptismi sv:Skepticism ta:ஐயுறவியல் te:సంశయవాదంuk:Скептицизм ur:ارتیابیت vi:Chủ nghĩa hoài nghi zh:怀疑论 \|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).\|	3.856452
In neuroanatomy, a sulcus (Latin: "furrow", pl. sulci) is a depression or fissure in the surface of the brain. It surrounds the gyri, creating the characteristic appearance of the brain in humans and other large mammals. Large furrows (sulci) that divide the brain into lobes are often called fissures. The large furrow that divides the two hemispheres—the interhemispheric fissure—is very rarely called a "sulcus". The sulcal pattern varies between human individuals, and the most elaborate overview on this variation is probably an atlas by Ono, Kubick and Abernathey: Atlas of the Cerebral Sulci. Some of the larger sulci are, however, seen across individuals - and even species - so it is possible to establish a nomenclature. The variation in the amount of fissures in the brain (gyrification) between species is related to the size of the animal and the size of the brain. Mammals that have smooth-surfaced or nonconvoluted brains are called lissencephalics and those that have folded or convoluted brains gyrencephalics. The division between the two groups occurs when cortical surface area is about 10 cm2 and the brain has a volume of 3–4 cm3. Large rodents such as beavers (Template:Convert/lbTemplate:Convert/test/A) and capybaras (Template:Convert/lbTemplate:Convert/test/A) are gyrencephalic and smaller rodents such as rats and mice lissencephalic. In humans, cerebral convolutions appear at about 5 months and take at least into the first year after birth to fully develop. It has been found that the width of cortical sulci not only increases with age , but also with cognitive decline in the elderly. ↑ 2.02.1Hofman MA. (1985). Size and shape of the cerebral cortex in mammals. I. The cortical surface. Brain Behav Evol. 27(1):28-40. PMID 3836731 ↑ 3.03.1Hofman MA. (1989).On the evolution and geometry of the brain in mammals. Prog Neurobiol.32(2):137-58. PMID 2645619 ↑Martin I. Sereno, Roger B. H. Tootell, "From Monkeys to humans: what do we now know about brain homologies," Current Opinion in Neurobiology15:135-144, (2005). Caviness VS Jr. (1975). Mechanical model of brain convolutional development. Science. 189(4196):18-21. PMID 1135626 Tao Liu, Wei Wen, Wanlin Zhu, Julian Trollor, Simone Reppermund, John Crawford, Jesse S Jin, Suhuai Luo, Henry Brodaty, Perminder Sachdev (2010) The effects of age and sex on cortical sulci in the elderly. Neuroimage 51:1. 19-27 May. PMID 20156569 ↑ Tao Liu, Wei Wen, Wanlin Zhu, Nicole A Kochan, Julian N Trollor, Simone Reppermund, Jesse S Jin, Suhuai Luo, Henry Brodaty, Perminder S Sachdev (2011) The relationship between cortical sulcal variability and cognitive performance in the elderly. Neuroimage 56:3. 865-873 Jun. PMID 21397704 ↑Gerhardt von Bonin, Percival Bailey, The Neocortex of Macaca Mulatta, The University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 1947	4.011791
In order for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to respond to evolving national and global priorities, it must periodically reflect on, and optimize, its strategic directions. This report is the first comprehensive science strategy since the early 1990s to examine critically major USGS science goals and priorities. The development of this science strategy comes at a time of global trends and rapidly evolving societal needs that pose important natural-science challenges. The emergence of a global economy affects the demand for all resources. The last decade has witnessed the emergence of a new model for managing Federal lands—ecosystem-based management. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program predicts that the next few decades will see rapid changes in the Nation’s and the Earth’s environment. Finally, the natural environment continues to pose risks to society in the form of volcanoes, earthquakes, wildland fires, floods, droughts, invasive species, variable and changing climate, and natural and anthropogenic toxins, as well as animal-borne diseases that affect humans. The use of, and competition for, natural resources on the global scale, and natural threats to those resources, has the potential to impact the Nation’s ability to sustain its economy, national security, quality of life, and natural environment. Responding to these national priorities and global trends requires a science strategy that not only builds on existing USGS strengths and partnerships but also demands the innovation made possible by integrating the full breadth and depth of USGS capabilities. The USGS chooses to go forward in the science directions proposed here because the societal issues addressed by these science directions represent major challenges for the Nation’s future and for the stewards of Federal lands, both onshore and offshore. The six science directions proposed in this science strategy are listed as follows. The ecosystems strategy is listed first because it has a dual nature. It is itself an essential direction for the USGS to pursue to meet a pressing national and global need, but ecosystem-based approaches are also an underpinning of the other five directions, which all require ecosystem perspectives and tools for their execution. The remaining strategic directions are listed in alphabetical order. Posted April 2007 U.S. Geological Survey, 2007, Facing tomorrow’s challenges—U.S. Geological Survey science in the decade 2007–2017: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1309, x + 70 p.	3.43255
Before the glory that was Greece and Rome, even before the first cities of Mesopotamia or temples along the Nile, there lived in the Lower Danube Valley and the Balkan and Carpathian foothills people who were ahead of their time in art, technology and long-distance trade. http://www.tkinter.smig.net/News/images/NYT2009-11-30a.jpg Rumyana Kostadinova Ivanova and Marius Amarie Harsova, (Gumelnita Culture) The Chalcolitic Village- 6,000 yers old whistle in working condition at: Spondylus artifacts in the Carpathian land at: The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World will present a series of public programs, accompanying The Lost World of Old Europe exhibition with the goal of furthering the understanding and appreciation of Romanian, Bulgarian and Moldovan culture. Public programs will include a Romanian Film Series, music nights, a scholarly lecture series, which will further elucidate topics explored in the exhibition and public tours. For 1,500 years, starting earlier than 5000 B.C., they farmed and built sizable towns, a few with as many as 2,000 dwellings. They mastered large-scale copper smelting, the new technology of the age. Their graves held an impressive array of exquisite headdresses and necklaces and, in one cemetery, the earliest major assemblage of gold artifacts to be found anywhere in the world. The striking designs of their pottery speak of the refinement of the culture’s visual language. Until recent discoveries, the most intriguing artifacts were the ubiquitous terracotta “goddess” figurines, originally interpreted as evidence of the spiritual and political power of women in society. New research, archaeologists and historians say, has broadened understanding of this long overlooked culture, which seemed to have approached the threshold of “civilization” status. Writing had yet to be invented, and so no one knows what the people called themselves. To some scholars, the people and the region are simply Old Europe. The little-known culture is being rescued from obscurity in an exhibition, “The Lost World of Old Europe: the Danube Valley, 5000-3500 B.C.,” which opened last month at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. More than 250 artifacts from museums in Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania are on display for the first time in the United States. The show will run through April 25. At its peak, around 4500 B.C., said David W. Anthony, the exhibition’s guest curator, “Old Europe was among the most sophisticated and technologically advanced places in the world” and was developing “many of the political, technological and ideological signs of civilization.” Dr. Anthony is a professor of anthropology at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., and author of “The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World.” Historians suggest that the arrival in southeastern Europe of people from the steppes may have contributed to the collapse of the Old Europe culture by 3500 B.C. At the exhibition preview, Roger S. Bagnall, director of the institute, confessed that until now “a great many archaeologists had not heard of these Old Europe cultures.” Admiring the colorful ceramics, Dr. Bagnall, a specialist in Egyptian archaeology, remarked that at the time “Egyptians were certainly not making pottery like this.” A show catalog, published by Princeton University Press, is the first compendium in English of research on Old Europe discoveries. The book, edited by Dr. Anthony, with Jennifer Y. Chi, the institute’s associate director for exhibitions, includes essays by experts from Britain, France, Germany, the United States and the countries where the culture existed. Dr. Chi said the exhibition reflected the institute’s interest in studying the relationships of well-known cultures and the “underappreciated ones.” Although excavations over the last century uncovered traces of ancient settlements and the goddess figurines, it was not until local archaeologists in 1972 discovered a large fifth-millennium B.C. cemetery at Varna, Bulgaria, that they began to suspect these were not poor people living in unstructured egalitarian societies. Even then, confined in cold war isolation behind the Iron Curtain, Bulgarians and Romanians were unable to spread their knowledge to the West. The story now emerging is of pioneer farmers after about 6200 B.C. moving north into Old Europe from Greece and Macedonia, bringing wheat and barley seeds and domesticated cattle and sheep. They established colonies along the Black Sea and in the river plains and hills, and these evolved into related but somewhat distinct cultures, archaeologists have learned. The settlements maintained close contact through networks of trade in copper and gold and also shared patterns of ceramics. The Spondylus shell from the Aegean Sea was a special item of trade. Perhaps the shells, used in pendants and bracelets, were symbols of their Aegean ancestors. Other scholars view such long-distance acquisitions as being motivated in part by ideology in which goods are not commodities in the modern sense but rather “valuables,” symbols of status and recognition. Noting the diffusion of these shells at this time, Michel Louis Seferiades, an anthropologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in France, suspects “the objects were part of a halo of mysteries, an ensemble of beliefs and myths.” Page 2 of 2) In any event, Dr. Seferiades wrote in the exhibition catalog that the prevalence of the shells suggested the culture had links to “a network of access routes and a social framework of elaborate exchange systems — including bartering, gift exchange and reciprocity.” At first, the absence of elite architecture led scholars to assume that Old Europe had little or no hierarchical power structure. This was dispelled by the graves in the Varna cemetery. For two decades after 1972, archaeologists found 310 graves dated to about 4500 B.C. Dr. Anthony said this was “the best evidence for the existence of a clearly distinct upper social and political rank.” Vladimir Slavchev, a curator at the Varna Regional Museum of History, said the “richness and variety of the Varna grave gifts was a surprise,” even to the Bulgarian archaeologist Ivan Ivanov, who directed the discoveries. “Varna is the oldest cemetery yet found where humans were buried with golden ornaments,” Dr. Slavchev said. More than 3,000 pieces of gold were found in 62 of the graves, along with copper weapons and tools, and ornaments, necklaces and bracelets of the prized Aegean shells. “The concentration of imported prestige objects in a distinct minority of graves suggest that institutionalized higher ranks did exist,” exhibition curators noted in a text panel accompanying the Varna gold. Yet it is puzzling that the elite seemed not to indulge in private lives of excess. “The people who donned gold costumes for public events while they were alive,” Dr. Anthony wrote, “went home to fairly ordinary houses.” Copper, not gold, may have been the main source of Old Europe’s economic success, Dr. Anthony said. As copper smelting developed about 5400 B.C., the Old Europe cultures tapped abundant ores in Bulgaria and what is now Serbia and learned the high-heat technique of extracting pure metallic copper.Smelted copper, cast as axes, hammered into knife blades and coiled in bracelets, became valuable exports. Old Europe copper pieces have been found in graves along the Volga River, 1,200 miles east of Bulgaria. Archaeologists have recovered more than five tons of pieces from Old Europe sites. An entire gallery is devoted to the figurines, the more familiar and provocative of the culture’s treasures. They have been found in virtually every Old Europe culture and in several contexts: in graves, house shrines and other possibly “religious spaces.” One of the best known is the fired clay figure of a seated man, his shoulders bent and hands to his face in apparent contemplation. Called the “Thinker,” the piece and a comparable female figurine were found in a cemetery of the Hamangia culture, in Romania. Were they thinking, or mourning? Many of the figurines represent women in stylized abstraction, with truncated or elongated bodies and heaping breasts and expansive hips. The explicit sexuality of these figurines invites interpretations relating to earthly and human fertility. An arresting set of 21 small female figurines, seated in a circle, was found at a pre-Cucuteni village site in northeastern Romania. “It is not difficult to imagine,” said Douglass W. Bailey of San Francisco State University, the Old Europe people “arranging sets of seated figurines into one or several groups of miniature activities, perhaps with the smaller figurines at the feet or even on the laps of the larger, seated ones.” Others imagined the figurines as the “Council of Goddesses.” In her influential books three decades ago, Marija Gimbutas, an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, offered these and other so-called Venus figurines as representatives of divinities in cults to a Mother Goddess that reigned in prehistoric Europe. Although the late Dr. Gimbutas still has an ardent following, many scholars hew to more conservative, nondivine explanations. The power of the objects, Dr. Bailey said, was not in any specific reference to the divine, but in “a shared understanding of group identity.” As Dr. Bailey wrote in the exhibition catalog, the figurines should perhaps be defined only in terms of their actual appearance: miniature, representational depictions of the human form. He thus “assumed (as is justified by our knowledge of human evolution) that the ability to make, use and understand symbolic objects such as figurines is an ability that is shared by all modern humans and thus is a capability that connects you, me, Neolithic men, women and children, and the Paleolithic painters in caves.” Or else the “Thinker,” for instance, is the image of you, me, the archaeologists and historians confronted and perplexed by a “lost” culture in southeastern Europe that had quite a go with life back before a single word was written or a wheel turned. Before the establishment of the first cities in Mesopotamia ca. 4500 BC, highly sophisticated societies with advanced technology and complex systems of symbolic representation had emerged in the southeastern part of Europe. The Neolithic people of the Balkans were the first in Europe to adopt of a new type of economy, based on agriculture and animal breeding. This happened in the 7th millennium BC and marked a radical shift in the way humans interacted with their environment. After a million of years of nomadic life – during which little had changed – people settled in permanent habitations and started developing new skills and modes of social interaction. Houses became foci of settled life and people started exploring previously unaddressed material and spiritual needs. They replaced their flimsy basket containers with sturdy vases made of clay. They understood the properties of metals creating new, more effective types of tools. They expressed their beliefs through the manufacture of figurines and the elaboration of funerary rituals. And they developed a complex system of exchanges between different communities. By the 5th millennium BC, the thriving cultures of the Balkans were among the most advanced in the Old World – featuring densely populated settlements, a sophisticated system of social hierarchy, highly symbolic cult rituals, complex long-distance exchange networks, and an amazing copper- and gold-working industry. By the mid-4th millennium, however, this brilliant world came to an abrupt end. The reasons are not clear: Invasions? Climatic changes? Overexploitation of natural resources? International Tour of the exhibit: The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology Oxford University, England May 20 - August 15, 2010 Museum of Cycladic Art September 30, 2010 - January 11, 2011 (dates to be confirmed) Please note, the dates are subject to change without notice. For more information on the venues please click on the link and you will be navigated to the exhibiting museum's website.In the media: "Dr. Jennifer Chi," television broadcast: Sunday Arts, WNET, January 27, 2010. "The Lost World of Old Europe," radio broadcast: The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, January 14, 2010. mp3 and slideshow of objects from the exhibition. "Ancient Artifacts," television broadcast: Eye on New York, WCBS, 6 December, 2009. Andrew Moseman, “Advanced, Overlooked Ancient European Culture Arrives in America,” 80beats \| Discover Magazine, December 1, 2009. John Noble Wilford, “A Lost European Culture, Pulled from Obscurity” The New York Times, November 30, 2009. Michael Balter, “The Lost World of Old Europe: See It in New York” Origins: A History of Beginnings (ScienceMag.org), November 25, 2009. Christine Lin, “Lost Artifacts of Old Europe Arrive in New York.” Epoch Times, November 13, 2009.	3.150286
ideo Byte: Jacana Class: Aves (Birds) Length: males—6 to 15 inches (15 to 39 centimeters); females—6 to 23 inches (15 to 58 centimeters) Weight: males—1.4 to 4.8 ounces (41 to 137 grams); females—1.4 to 9 ounces (41 to 261 grams) Life span: unknown Number of eggs laid: 4 eggs Incubation: 20 to 26 days Age of maturity: 1 year Status in the wild: Stable When spread out, a jacana’s toes and claws can cover an area up to 5 by 8 inches (12 by 20 centimeters). • Pheasant-tailed and northern jacana males will pick up the empty shell of their newly hatched chick and fly several yards (meters) away before dropping it. This may keep predators away from the nest. • Female jacanas can be almost twice as big as the males. Jacanas are colorful birds with long legs and incredibly long toes and claws. The super-long toes spread the bird’s weight over a large area. This allows them to walk across floating vegetation, especially lily pads. Jacanas often appear to be walking on the water itself! They are also very good swimmers and divers, and they can swim through open water from one area of vegetation to another while searching for food or to avoid danger. At home on the pad Lily pads and other floating vegetation in swamps and marshes are home to jacanas. They live out much of their lives on these floating islands, foraging for fish and insects to eat and building their nests. Jacanas are carnivores that use their bills to turn over lily pads or other aquatic vegetation. They can also grasp the edges of these plants with their toes to partially turn them over in search of food. These waterbirds often send out noisy alarms when they think predators are near. If threatened, young chicks, as well as adults, stay underwater for long periods of time with only the tips of their bills above water. They can also swim underwater to avoid predators. It is not known what types of animals prey on jacanas, as predation has not actually been observed. Researchers believe that jacana predators may be other birds, as well as fish or other aquatic life. Jacanas are weak fliers and usually only fly for short distances. Some species, such as the African jacana Actophilornis africanus, molt all of their wing feathers at the same time and are unable to fly until their new feathers grow in. Some jacana species, such as the northern jacana Jacana spinosa and the wattled jacana Jacana jacana, have chestnut- to cinnamon-colored bodies, with yellow to greenish yellow flight feathers, dark brown to black neck and head, and a yellow bill. The African jacana also has a chestnut body, but its neck and head are white in front and black in back, with a golden yellow breast. The Madagascar jacana Actophilornis albinucha has the same colors as the African jacana, but with the neck and head colors exactly reversed. There is even a pheasant-tailed jacana Hydrophasianus chirurgus with (what else!) a long tail like a pheasant. Most jacana species also have what is called a frontal shield, which is a bare, fleshy area that extends from the bill to as far as the top of the head. Most of these shields are red, but the African and Madagascar jacanas have a bright blue shield. It is thought that the blue color reflects light, or that it allows the bird to blend in with the water, allowing it to escape being seen by predators. Jacana eggs are true works of art. They are a deep tan color, with very dark markings that look like dribbled lines of paint, crisscrossing the entire egg in an abstract design that is different on each egg. The eggs are very glossy and shiny and look as though they have been highly polished. This “wet” appearance is nature’s camouflage, helping the eggs resemble the glossy surface of surrounding vegetation. Male jacanas do most of the nest building. After the female has laid a clutch of four eggs, the male takes over the parenting responsibilities. He incubates the eggs and protects them from danger. Jacana nests are built on mostly submerged plants. If the nest starts to sink, or the eggs are otherwise endangered, the male may pick them up and carry them under his wings to a new site. Meanwhile, the female has left the male to find more males to breed with. She does not participate in raising chicks. If, however, the eggs or chicks are lost, she will return to breed and produce a replacement clutch with the first male. Only one species, the lesser jacana Microparra capensis, is known to be monogamous. Jacana chicks are precocial, so the male quickly teaches them how to forage for the insects, snails, worms, small crabs, fish, mollusks, and seeds that make up their diet. Jacana species at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park are fed mealworm larvae, crickets, a special zoo carnivore food, and commercial flamingo food. Chicks stay with the male for their first 40 to 70 days. The father will even carry his young chicks under his wings if they are in danger.	3.689801
Roland Piquepaille points out a news release from the University of Michigan where researchers are looking to birds and bats for insights into aerospace engineering. Wei Shyy and his colleagues are learning from solutions developed by nature and applying them to the technology of flight. A presentation on this topic was also given at the 2005 TED conference. From the news release: "The roll rate of the aerobatic A-4 Skyhawk plane is about 720 degrees per second. The roll rate of a barn swallow exceeds 5,000 degrees per second. Select military aircraft can withstand gravitational forces of 8-10 G. Many birds routinely experience positive G-forces greater than 10 G and up to 14 G. Flapping flight is inherently unsteady, but that's why it works so well. Birds, bats and insects fly in a messy environment full of gusts traveling at speeds similar to their own. Yet they can react almost instantaneously and adapt with their flexible wings."	3.152297
We live in the age of information. It pours upon us from the pages of newspapers and magazines, radio loudspeakers, tv and computer screens. The main part of this information has the form of natural language texts. Even in the area of computers, a larger part of the information they manipulate nowadays has the form of a text. It looks as if a personal computer has mainly turned into a tool to create, proofread, store, manage, and search for text documents. Our ancestors invented natural language many thousands of years ago for the needs of a developing human society. Modern natural languages are developing according to their own laws, in each epoch being an adequate tool for human communication, for expressing human feelings, thoughts, and actions. For the last two centuries, humanity has successfully coped with the automation of many tasks using mechanical and electrical devices, and these devices faithfully serve people in their everyday life. In the second half of the twentieth century, human attention has turned to the automation of natural language processing. People now want assistance not only in mechanical, but also in intellectual efforts. The most-used language on the Internet according to Wikipedia is English. Although the total number of native English speakers in the world is about 322 millions, which is only around one fifth of the total internet users; the amount of English web content approaches 80%. Generally speaking, when a language has got the position of a universal language, the position tends to be affirmed and extended by itself. Since "everyone" knows and uses English, people are almost forced to learn English and use it, and learn it better. Besides the importance of the Internet grows rapidly in all fields of human life, including not only research and education but also marketing and trade as well as entertainment and hobbies. This implies that it becomes more and more important to know how to use Internet services and, as a part of this, to read and write English. But English is changing fast too. There is no area of the culture that collision's more intensely than that, for the web has changed English more radically than any invention since paper, and much faster. According to Paul Payack, who runs the Global Language Monitor, "there are currently 988,974 words in the English language, with thousands more emerging every month". By his calculation, English will adopt its one millionth word in late November. To put that statistic another way, for every French word, there are now ten in English. So far from debasing the language, the rapid expansion of English on the web may be enriching the mother tongue. Like Latin, it has developed different forms that bear little relation to one another: a speaker of Hinglish (Hindi-English) would have little to say to a Chinglish speaker. But while the root of Latin took centuries to grow its linguistic branches, modern non-standard English is evolving at fabulous speed. The language of the internet itself, the cyberisms that were once the preserve of a few web boffins, has simultaneous expanded into a new argot of words and idioms: Ancient or Classic Geek has given way to Modern Geek.	3.121621
Greenhouse Effect Basics: Warm Earth, Cold Atmosphere Posted on 29 February 2012 by Tom Curtis Heating and Heat Flow Some physics, everyone knows. In our daily lives we encounter the effects of physics all the time, and as a result, we know what physics predicts in those circumstances at a gut level. We may not be able to put it into numbers. We may not be able to apply it in novel situations. But we know it all the same. One example is as simple as putting on a blanket. We know that if we want warm something up, we can increase the supply of heat - or we can reduce the escape of heat. Either is effective. If you have a pot that is simmering and you want to bring it to the boil, you can turn the heat up, or you can put on the lid. If we put on the lid, the pot will go nicely from simmering to boiling, and we don't need to turn up the heat even slightly. Indeed, if we are not careful to turn down the heat, the pot may well boil over. Likewise, if you have two identical motors running with an identical load and speed (Revolutions Per Minute), one with the water pump working and one without, we are all physicist enough to say that the second one will run hotter. It does not matter that the energy supplied as fuel is identical in both cases. The fact that heat escapes more easilly with water circulating through the radiator will keep the first cooler. The consequence is that stopping the the water from circulating will lead second motor to disaster. Nor do we find people who doubt this. Suppose somebody told us their water pump was broken, but that the Second Law of Thermodynamics prohibited transfer of heat from a cooler place (the water) to a hotter place (the engine block), so they'ld be fine so long as they didn't rev any faster than normal, we'ld look at them in complete disbelief. Or we would if we were too polite to burst out laughing. And if they set out cross country confident in their belief, it doesn't matter what destination they claim they're heading for. Rather, as we all know, they're really heading for a breakdown! (Image copyright to iStock, and not to be reproduced without their permission.) Heat Flow to Space This physics that everyone knows is not only true of pots and radiators. It is true of the Earth as well. The Earth is warmed by our remarkably stable Sun. As a result, the Earth's surface radiates energy to space, and over time the incoming energy balances the outgoing energy. The process is made more complicated, however, by the existence of Infra Red (IR) absorbing molecules in the atmosphere. Without those molecules, Infra Red radiation from the Earth's surface would travel directly to space, cooling the Earth quickly and efficiently. At certain wavelengths of Infra Red radiation, however, those molecules absorb many, or all, of the photons emitted from the Earth's surface. That energy is often redistributed among other molecules by collision, but eventually some of the redistributed energy will be reradiated by the Infra Red absorbing molecules. This process absorption, redistribution and then re-emission may occur many times before the energy escapes the atmosphere, but eventually it will either by being emitted to space, or back to the surface. Intuitively, the energy that goes through multiple stages of absorption, redistribution and re-emission will not escape to space as fast that which is emitted directly to space from the surface. This intuition is sound, but it depends essentially on one factor, the temperature of the atmosphere. We can see this by considering a fundamental law that governs the radiation of energy, the Stefan-Boltzmann Law: In words, that is J-star equals epsilon sigma T to the fourth power, but we don't need to worry about that. What we need to notice is that J-star, which is the energy radiated over a given time from a given area, is proportional to the fourth power of T, ie, temperature. If the temperature doubles, the energy radiated increases sixteen-fold. If it triples, it increases eighty-one- fold. And so on. So, if the temperature of the atmosphere is different from that of the surface, the absorption, redistribution and re-emission of IR radiation by molecules in the atmosphere will certainly change the rate at which heat escapes to space. Higher is Colder There is another piece of physics everyone knows. It is that as you go higher in the atmosphere, the atmosphere gets colder. That is the reason why some mountain peaks are snow covered while their bases are still warm. This is not a universal law. It is not true, for example, in the stratosphere where the absorption of UltraViolet radiation from the Sun causes temperatures to rise with increased height. But eighty percent of the Earth's atmosphere is in the troposphere (the lowest layer of the Earth's atmosphere), and most radiation leaving the top of the troposphere escapes to space. And in the troposphere, as you get higher, the temperature gets lower. On average, the temperature drops by 6.5 degrees C for every thousand meters of altitude you climb. That means, for example, that the temperatures fall by about 24.5 degrees C as you climb to the summit of Mount Fuji, and by 50 to 100 degrees as you rise to the top of the troposphere. We have already seen that temperature significantly effects the radiation of heat. Colder objects radiate less energy, and the Infra-Red absorbing molecules in the atmosphere are colder than the surface. Therefore it is no surprise that the Infra-Red absorbing molecules in the atmosphere radiate less energy to space than they absorb from the warmer surface. That difference is the essence of the greenhouse effect. No More Arm Waving It would be helpfull to recapitulate at this point. So far we have noted four simple facts: - That if you reduce the escape of heat, but do not reduce the incoming heat, things warm up; - That the atmosphere contains molecules that absorb Infra-Red radiation; - That radiated energy depends on the temperature of the radiating object; and - That the atmosphere gets cooler as you get higher, so that the Infra-Red absorbing molecules in the atmosphere radiate less energy to space than they absorb from the surface. These four facts imply the existence of an atmospheric greenhouse effect, ie, that the presence of Infra-Red absorbing molecules in the atmosphere results in the surface being warmer than it otherwise would be. In science, however, purely verbal reasoning like this is considered suspect. The reason is that sometimes odd effects occur that render verbal reasoning moot. So in science, there is no substitute for putting the theory into a mathematical form. It gets rid of the arm waving. Fortunately for us, scientists have already put this theory into mathematical form, at a very detailed level. We can access this work, free of charge, by using the Modtran Model. The Modtran Model shows the radiation up or down over a column of atmosphere under particular conditions. By changing the conditions, you can explore the predicted effects of those changes on upward or downward radiation at any level of the atmosphere from 0 to 70 kilometers altitude. Setting the altitude to 70 kilometers effectively shows the radiation upward to space from the top of the atmosphere, or downward from space at the top of the atmosphere. Setting the altituded to 0 kilometers effectively shows the radiation upward, or downward at the surface. Using Modtran, I determined the energy output looking downwards from an altitutude of 70 kilometers using the US Standard Atmosphere (1). The result can be seen on the following graph as the green shaded area. I repeated the model run, but this time with the altitude set at 0 km. The result is shown by the outer curve defining the red area in the graph below. That means that the red area itself, which is the upwards radiation from the surface minus the upward radiation to space, is the reduction in energy radiated to space because of the presence of Infra-Red absorbing molecules in the atmosphere. That is, it is the greenhouse effect. We have all heard how inaccurate models can be. Therefore the fact that a particular model predicts this difference in radiation only shows what the theory predicts. It does not show what is actually happening. Scientists are not happy with theories whose only support is a model. So in 1969, Conrath and associates compared the results of model calculations of radiation to space with the actually observed radiation using the IRIS instrument on the Nimbus 3 Satellite. The following graph shows the result of their comparison. The dotted line shows the modelled values, while the solid line shows the observed values: The effect of a particular Infra-Red absorbing molecule, Carbon Dioxide, is clearly visible. With the publication of this data in 1970, the greenhouse effect ceased to be theoretical. It was an observed fact. (1) Default settings except for adjusting surface temperatures (Ground T offset, c) to approximately match the Earths Global Mean Surface Temperature (about -10 degrees C offset).	3.219426
In 1863 Bill Fairweather and his party discovered gold in southwestern Montana. They were on their way to Yellowstone Country from Bannack but were waylaid by a band of Crows. While hiding from the Indians in a gulch they found gold. They named the gulch after the alder trees lining the gulch. Alder was one of the great gold producers of all time. The site of the largest placer gold strike in world history. It produced $10,000,000.00 during the first year. A year later the boom town of Virginia City had a population of 10,000. People lived in makeshift tents and shacks and every third construction was a saloon. The site gave birth to two of Montana's most famous towns: Virginia City and Nevada City. The discoveries at Alder Gulch drew people away from Bannack, reducing the population, making Virginia City the territorial capital from 1865 to 1875. - American Heritage - Art Gallery - Art Show - Childrens Activities - Folk Art Alder Gulch is located west of Virginia City, in the southwestern area of Montana, on US Highway 287. Season / Hours Of Operation - Memorial Day - Labor Day	3.251014
To the people of the ancient world, every bright star had a personality. Some stars were welcomed into the dawn sky like a lost child, while some were treated more like a mother-in-law packing a month's worth of luggage. And sometimes, a single star could bring both responses. A prime example is Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. It's lost in the twilight now, but it'll start popping into view before sunrise within a few days or weeks, depending on your location. Thousands of years ago, the star made its first morning appearance a little earlier in the year. From ancient Greece and Rome, it showed up at the start of summer's heat -- a time that could bring disease and famine. Since Sirius is known as the Dog Star, this time of year was known as the Dog Days -- a time that hardly brought rejoicing. Even earlier, though, the star did bring rejoicing to the people of Egypt. Sirius first appeared around the time of the annual Nile floods, which deposited fertile soil on the fields. This time was so important that the first appearance of Sirius marked the beginning of the Egyptian year. Because of its role in resurrecting the land, the star itself represented the goddess Isis. In Egyptian lore, she resurrected her husband Osiris, and bore their son, Horus, who united Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom. So Sirius was a welcome presence in the morning sky -- a star with a pleasant personality. Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2008 For more skywatching tips, astronomy news, and much more, read StarDate magazine.	3.385684
See here for an explanation of the bengali transliteration scheme used Before discussing bengali history, it is useful to define the scope of the investigation. In these pages, Bengal, as a historical entity, refers to the land bounded on the north by himAlaya and the lands of nepAla, sikima, and bhoTAna; on the north east by the brahmaputra river and its highlands; extending to the northwest along the northern plains of bhAgirathi upto dvArbhAGga; bounded on the east by the gAro, khAsia, jaintiA, tripurA, and caTTagrAma ranges; and on the west by mountaineous forests of rAjamahala, sA~otAla parganA, choTanAgpura, mAnabhUma, dhalabhUma, keoJjar and mayUrabhaJja. It thus extends beyond the combined region comprising the present state of West Bengal in India and the country of Bangladesha; and is a people united by a common language, Bengali, a common social structure, a common religious mixture of Hindus and Muslims, and a largely shared history. Little is known about the prehistory of Bengal, or the origin of the name itself. The name may be of Austrasiatic or Dravidian origin, which form a substratum to the predominantly Indoeuropean Bengali language. Archaelogy shows that parts of this land supported an agricultural culture since at least 1250 B.C. However, the identity of these people can only be guessed from anthropological and linguistic evidence. The historic period of Bengal is usually classified into the Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods: as opposed to the custom in Indian history, the customary beginning of the medieval period in bengal starts with the period of muslim domination. You are visitor number since I started counting. For other pages discussing Bengali history, you can also look at NOVO's page and Bongoz' page about the history of bengal. Palash Biswas's blog often cuts and pastes information about Bengal: see this as an example. The official pages of the West Bengal government also have a short history section. Finally, there is a site giving a timeline of Indian history in general. Among the various sources, I should especially acknowledge extensive help from the classic work by nIhAraraJjana rAYa, a book by Irfan Habib, and the textbooks by ramezacandra majumadAra. Research by various individuals and/or their views have often been consolidated into my understanding, and that understanding or lack thereof is represented in these pages. At this stage of this project, I do not provide references to the original articles as I am concentrating more on finishing an overview. This lack of verifiable references to the original sources means one should not take these pags as serious historical writing, just my musings on the origins and development of a culture and a people. It would probably be remiss of me to not mention my views about the epistemology of historical truth, and my views about history in general. So, I state my views in brief here.	3.485055
- The Flight of Moses to Midian. Moses made the first effort to Emancipate his enslaved brethren. At the age of forty he forsook the Court of Pharaoh and attempted to ally himself with the chosen people (Exodus 2:11,12; Acts 7:22-25; Hebrews 11:23-27). His brethren understood him not; his efforts on their behalf were futile, and he was compelled to flee For Midian for his life (Exodus 2:11-15). - Sojourn in Midian. Moses spent forty years in Midian (Acts 7:29,30). He married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, a descendant of Abraham by his wife Keturah (Genesis 25:1-3; Exodus 2:16-25), and became the father of two sons (Exodus 2:22; Exodus 4:20; Exodus 18:1-4). - Moses Commission'. While in the land of Midian, Moses led the Quiet and peaceful life of a shepherd (Exodus 3:1). The angel of the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush and commanded him to return to Egypt and lead his brethren out of their bitter bondage (Exodus 3:2-10 Acts 7:30-35). Moses declined to go because of - his insignificance, (Exodus 3:11,12), - the fear that his brethren would not believe him (Exodus 4:1), - and his inability to speak with fluency (Exodus 4:10-12). - Aaron Chosen. The Lord met every objection urged by Moses, but Still he persisted in his desire to shrink from the task (Exodus 3:2-22; Exodus 4:1-13). Aaron was therefore selected to assist him and to be the Spokesman (Exodus 4:14-16). - The Return to Egypt. Moses departed from Midian, taking his wife And two sons with him. On the way the Lord met him and was about to Take his life, but this calamity was averted by Zipporah, who took a Sharp stone and circumcised her son (Exodus 4:18-26). - Brothers Meet. Moses and Aaron met at the mount of God. After an Affectionate greeting Moses communicated to him the word of the Lord And showed him the signs that had been given him (Exodus 4:27,28). - Arrival in Egypt. They arrived in Egypt and informed the elders Of Israel of the revelation from God, and the people believed and bowed Their heads in worship (Exodus 4:30,31). - Demand on Pharaoh. Moses and Aaron approached the king and in The name of God demanded the release of his children. Pharaoh Insolently and rebelliously refused the request, and the great contest Between the King of Heaven and the mighty earthly potentate began (Exodus 5:1-6). - Ten Plagues. The Lord plagued the Egyptians in order to multiply His signs and wonders, and that they might known that He is God (Exodus 7:1-5). The first nine plagues were - the waters turned to blood (Exodus 7:15-25), - frogs filled the land (Exodus 8:1-14), - lice afflicted people and beasts (Exodus 8:16-19), - flies filled the land (Exodus 8:20-24), - murrain destroyed the cattle (Exodus 9:1-7), - people afflicted with boils and blains (Exodus 9:8-14), - hail smote the growing crops (Exodus 9:13-35), - locusts filled the land (Exodus 10:13-15), - and darkness covered Egypt (Exodus 10:21-23). - Special Command to Moses. The Lord commanded Moses to tell the People to borrow of their Egyptian neighbors jewels of silver and gold (Exodus 11:1,2). The justice of this command can be seen in the fact that they had served the Egyptians many years without remuneration (Exodus 1:6-14; Exodus 5:1-19). - Harmony of Exodus 9:6,19,25. It is asserted that all the cattle of Egypt died. But is is plain that only the cattle died that remained (Exodus 9:3) in the field during the murrain. The cattle that were destroyed by the hail-storm were those that were saved from the murrain (Exodus 9:17-25). - Explanation of Exodus 9:16; Romans 9:17. The Egyptians were idolaters (Exodus 5:1-3; Exodus 9:30; Exodus 14:18). Pharaoh was "raised up" in order that God might manifest His power and glory. "Raised up" has no Reference to his birth or his elevation to the throne of Egypt. It Means "roused up" or "made to stand." When Moses and Aaron demanded the Release of the Hebrews he wickedly, rebelliously, and insolently denied The true God and refused to let them go (Exodus 5:1-3). He had already made himself a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction (Romans 9:22). God listened to the cries of his people and endured for a while this vessel fitted for destruction, and at last, when the time Came, unloosed the burning fires of judgment, roused Pharaoh up from His infidelity, and proclaimed his name throughout Egypt, and in the Ears of Israel (Exodus 7:5; Exodus 14:17,18,31). - The Passover. The Lord commanded Moses to speak unto the Children of Israel and command them to select a lamb for each household On the tenth day of the month, assuring them that this should be to Them the first month of the year (Exodus 12:1-5). They were to keep the lamb until the fourteenth day of the month and kill it at the going Down of the sun. They were to strike the posts of the doors of their Dwellings with the blood. They were to roast the flesh and eat it in Haste, with bitter herbs and unleavened bread (Exodus 12:6-20). On that night the Lord passed through the land and smote the firstborn of Man and beast (Exodus 12:21-29). - The Emancipation Proclamation. When Pharaoh heard the mighty Cry he called for Moses and Aaron and gave them permission to depart And take their property with them (Exodus 12:30-33). - The Departure. The children of Israel departed from Rameses 2513 Years after the creation of Adam (Genesis 5:3-32; Genesis 7:6; Genesis 11:10-32; Genesis 12:4,5 Genesis 21:5; Genesis 25:26; Genesis 41:46,53,54; Genesis 45:4-6; Genesis 47:9; Genesis 50:26; Exodus 7:7; Exodus 12:40,41; Galatians 3:17). There were six hundred thousand men. Allowing one woman to each man, And two children to each family, the population was at least two Million four hundred thousand (Exodus 12:37). - Sanctification of the Firstborn. In memory of the preservation Of the children of Israel during the last night in Egypt, the Lord took Unto himself the first born of man and beast (Exodus 13:1-16). - The Precious Burden. The triumphant host of Israel carried the Remains of their great benefactor Joseph with them (Genesis 50:24-26 Exodus 13:19). - The Great Leader. As they departed from Egypt the Lord went Before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:20-22). - At the Red Sea. Moses and his mighty host encamped by the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his army drew near. The people were afraid, but Moses Commanded them to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, Assuring them that they would see the Egyptians no more, for the Lord Would fight for them, and they should hold their peace (Exodus 14:1-18). The angel of the Lord took his position between the two camps, Appearing as darkness to the Egyptians and light to the children of God. The Lord opened the sea, and the children of Israel went forward On dry ground, but the Egyptians following were drowned (Exodus 14:19-31). - Apostolic Endorsement. This mighty historical event was Endorsed by the apostle Paul (1 1 1 Corinthians 10:1-12). - Salvation of Israel. - The Lord saved the children of Israel by opening up the way for them; - and they saved themselves by using the means placed within their reach; God opened the way, and they passed through! of the Israelites from Egypt. the common chronology places the date of this event at B.C. 1491, deriving it in this way: --In (1 Kings 6:1) it is stated that the building of the temple, in the forth year of Solomon, was in the 480th year after the exodus. The fourth year of Solomon was bout B.C. 1012. Add the 480 years (leaving off one years because neither the fourth nor the 480th was a full year), and we have B.C. 1491 as the date of the exodus. This is probably very nearly correct; but many Egyptologists place it at 215 years later, --about B.C. 1300. Which date is right depends chiefly on the interpretation of the Scripture period of 430 years, as denoting the duration of the bondage of the Israelites. The period of bondage given in (Genesis 15:13,14; Exodus 12:40,41) and Gala 3:17 As 430 years has been interpreted to cover different periods. The common chronology makes it extend from the call of Abraham to the exodus, one-half of it, or 215 years, being spend in Egypt. Others make it to cover only the period of bondage spend in Egypt. St. Paul says in (Galatians 3:17) that from the covenant with (or call of) Abraham the giving of the law (less than a year after the exodus) was 430 years. But in (Genesis 15:13,14) it is said that they should be strangers in a strange land,a nd be afflicted 400 years, and nearly the same is said in (Exodus 12:40) But, in very truth, the children of Israel were strangers in a strange land from the time that Abraham left his home for the promised land, and during that whole period of 430 years to the exodus they were nowhere rulers in the land. So in (Exodus 12:40) it is said that the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years. But it does not say that the sojourning was all in Egypt, but this people who lived in Egypt had been sojourners for 430 years. (a) This is the simplest way of making the various statements harmonize. (b) The chief difficulty is the great increase of the children of Israel from 70 to 2,000,000 in so short a period as 215 years, while it is very easy in 430 years. But under the circumstances it is perfectly possible in the shorter period. See on ver. 7 (C) If we make the 430 years to include only the bondage in Egypt, we must place the whole chronology of Abraham and the immigration of Jacob into Egypt some 200 years earlier, or else the exodus 200 years later, or B.C. 1300. in either case special difficulty is brought into the reckoning. (d) Therefore, on the whole, it is well to retain the common chronology, though the later dates may yet prove to be correct. The history of the exodus itself commences with the close of that of the ten plagues. [PLAGUES, THE TEN, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS] In the night in which, at midnight, the firstborn were slain, (Exodus 12:29) Pharaoh urged the departure of the Israelites. vs. (Exodus 12:31,32) They at once set forth from Rameses, vs. (Exodus 12:37,39) apparently during the night v. (Exodus 12:42) but towards morning on the 15th day of the first month. (Numbers 33:3) They made three journeys, and encamped by the Red Sea. Here Pharaoh overtook them, and the great miracle occurred by which they were saved, while the pursuer and his army were destroyed. [RED SEA SEA, PASSAGE OF] 1841. exodos -- a departure ... Phonetic Spelling: (ex'-od-os) Short Definition: an exit, departure, death Definition: (a) an exit, going out, departure from a place; the exodus, (b) death. ... //strongsnumbers.com/greek2/1841.htm - 6k ... EXODUS. ... i.19). It may therefore originally have stood after Exodus 34:9 or before Numbers 10:29.] [Footnote 2: Or rather, the ten words. ... //christianbookshelf.org/mcfadyen/introduction to the old testament/exodus.htm ... The Exodus. A Sermon (No.55). Delivered on Sabbath Morning, December 9, 1855, by the. REV. CH SPURGEON. At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. ... /...//christianbookshelf.org/spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 2 1856/the exodus.htm Exodus iii. 6 ... LECTURE XXVIII. EXODUS iii. 6. EXODUS iii.6. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Luke 23:30. Then shall ... /.../arnold/the christian life/lecture xxviii exodus iii 6.htm ... Book I. Chapter XXXV."The Exodus. "After this, Moses, by the command of God, whose providence is over all, led out the people ... /.../unknown/recognitions of clement /chapter xxxv the exodus.htm Who is on the Lord's Side? Exodus 32:26. ... Who is on the Lord's side? Exodus 32:26. The question was addressed by Moses to the professed people of God, immediately after their ... /.../finney/lectures to professing christians/who is on the lords.htm Who is on the Lord's Side? Exodus 32:26. ... Who is on the Lord's side? Exodus 32:26. Last Friday evening, you will remember, that in discoursing from this text, I mentioned ... /.../finney/lectures to professing christians/who is on the lords 2.htm Lii. Manna. Exodus xvi. 4. ... LII. MANNA. EXODUS xvi. 4. I."Manna like salvation, because undeserved. The people murmured at the very first difficulty. If they ... //christianbookshelf.org/champness/broken bread/lii manna exodus xvi 4.htm ... For the Outline Study of the Bible by Books. * * * * Chapter II. Exodus. Chapter 2. Exodus. Name. The name Exodus means a going out or departure. ... /.../gerberding/the way of salvation in the lutheran church/chapter ii exodus.htm It is Proved that Jesus was the Name of God in the Book of Exodus. ... Chapter LXXV."It is proved that Jesus was the name of God in the book of Exodus. ... Footnotes: Exodus 23:20, 21. [Numbers 13:16.]. ... /.../chapter lxxv it is proved that.htm Of the Old Testament, Therefore, First of all There have Been ... ... Of the Old Testament, therefore, first of all there have been handed down five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Then Jesus Nave ... /.../37 of the old testament.htm The After Life The Age of Accountability The Age of Earth The Alabaster Box the Amorites Amorite The Angel of Death The Angel of Light The Appearance of Evil The Ark of Covenant The Armor of God The Babylonish Captivity the Baptize John The Battle is the Lords The Bermuda Triangle The Big Bang Theory The Birth of Christ The Blood Covenant The Blood of Jesus The Body of Christ The Body of the Church The Book Of the Book Of Daniel the Book Of Enoch the Book Of Esther the Book Of Jeremiah the Book Of Judith the Book Of Micah the Book Of Nehemiah the Book Of Numbers the Book Of Proverb the Book Of Psalms The Book of the Secrets Of the Book Of Zechariah The Bride of Christ the Brook Besor the Brook Cherith the Brook of The Willows The Canon of Scripture The Christian Family The Christmas Tree The City Underwater the Cliff Of Ziz The Color Blue The Color Purple The Color Yellow The Consequences of Sin The Cost of Discipleship The Cost to Follow Jesus The Daniel Fast the Day Of Atonement The Day of Judgement The Day of Pentecost The Earth Orbiting the Sun The End of Days the Epistle Of James the Epistle of Paul To Philemon the Epistle To The Colossians the Epistle To The Ephesians the Epistle To The Galatians The Ethiopian Eunuch the Feast Of Tabernacles the First Epistle General Of John The First Resurrection The Five Senses The Fivefold Ministry The Four Seasons The Fruit of the Spirit The Fullers Field the Garden Of Uzza the General Epistle Of James The Great Commission the Great Synagogue The Great Tribulation The Greek Language The Hebrew Monarchy the Hill Gareb the Hill Hachilah The Holy Land The Holy Spirit The Holy Trinity the House Of Millo The Ice Age the Jews of The Dispersion The Kingdom or Church of Christ the Land Of Benjamin the Land Of Canaan the Land Of Shalim the Land Of Shalisha the Land Of Shual The Last Supper The Law of Moses the Lord Of Sabaoth the Lords Brother Judas The Lords Day the Man of God Moses The Moabite Stone The New Jerusalem The Number 10 The Number 12 The Number 30 The Number 5 The Number 7 The Number One the Plain Of Tabor the Pool Of Siloah The Potters Field The Power of Prayer The Prodigal Son The Prophet Isaiah The Red Heifer the Rock Etam the Rock Oreb The Rose of Sharon the Salt Sea the Sea Of Tiberias the Second and Third Epistles Of John the Second Book Of Esdras the Ten Plagues the Three Taverns the Tribe Of Benjamin the Tribe Of Gad The Twelve Apostles the Two Thieves the Valley Eshcol the Valley Of Charashim the Valley Of Elah the Valley Of Rephaim the Valley Of Zared the Waters Of Shiloah the Wife Of Pharaoh The Wisdom of Solomon the Wood Of Ephraim The World Ending The Year 2012 The Year of Jubilee	3.328525
The obvious answer to drought stress on lawns is to apply water. Deep, infrequent watering to the depth of the root system is the ideal situation. This should be done when lawns show the first signs of drought stress, such as wilting, darkening color, and footprints remaining after walking across the lawn. A variety of factors, including budgets, site factors, and watering restrictions all might make this impossible. When an organic lawn care program is in place, the organic matter used to topdress and the resulting improved soil structure will likely extend the greening period farther into the summer before the lawn goes dormant. This improved soil structure will also allow the grass plant to take full advantage of the moisture present and food uptake into the grass plant. Good soil structure will allow the lawn to return to active growth and recover quickly. Once cool-season turfgrasses have gone dormant (stopped active growth, turned off-color) it's best to leave them in that condition rather than watering heavily to cause the grass to green-up again. Breaking dormancy actually drains reserves within the plant, and if conditions remain dry and the weather is hot, the plant is not likely to replace those reserves. In a 'typical' summer, lawns go dormant and resume active growth when conditions improve. The downside of dormancy is the appearance of the lawn and the risk of problems arising on the inactive lawn, such as weed invasions. The common question is how much water is enough to keep the turf alive? Applying 1/4 to 1/2 inch every two to four weeks should be enough to maintain moisture in the crown and roots so the turf can survive and resume growing when conditions improve. Mow lawns higher for the summer. A range of 2.5 to 3 inches would be suggested for most turf stands where Kentucky bluegrass is the primary species. As always, mowing should be on a frequent basis so that no more than one-third of the leaf blade is removed in any one cutting. Taller turf allows more shading of the soil, conserving what moisture is in the soil. Avoid applying excess nitrogen fertilizer during hot, dry conditions. Lawn grasses will respond by putting out excessive growth when they should be going dormant. Wait until the early September period for fertilizing most lawns, rather than summer. Use fertilizers providing adequate potassium, in addition to nitrogen. When growing using organic materials, nitrogen will be available as needed but never in excess. Whenever possible, limit traffic of any type on the lawn. Drought stress will occur faster on turf stands with poor soil conditions underneath. Soil compaction, clay fill, high pH, and general poor conditions for root growth becomes very evident under stress conditions such as drought. Although immediate corrections may not be possible, make notes of problem areas that will need to be addressed later. Work on improving rooting of the lawn grasses. Lawns with problem thatch layers will experience drought stress sooner. Many of the same soil factors just mentioned are likely to be the cause. In addition, take a close look at management practices that may contribute to thatch, such as overfertilizing or overwatering.	3.090799
Enlistment Data on Soldier from the 27th US Colored Infantry Source: Military Service Record, Pvt. Jacob Thomas, National Archives Publication M1824 As one who has researched their ancestors' involvement in the Civil War, I have come to understand something about the myths and the realities of who did and did not serve in the Civil War. The reasons why some stories are not refuted even when they are purely nonsensical, and downright untrue, is because many of us who descend from enslaved people, have never studied the Civil War. For example---in a recent genealogy chat, the involvement of black men who enlisted in the Union Army came up. One member described information about her ancestor who served in a unit from Mississippi. Another member of the same group---a regular to the chat for over 10 years, remarked that it was amazing to him, to hear that her Mississippi Ancestor enlisted in the Union Army. Soldier is buried in Dripping Springs Cemetery in Crawford County Arkansas. (Cemetery was documented by Tonia Holleman) I asked him why that was so unusual. and he replied that "well, her ancestor was not from the North, but he lived in the South." I wanted to make sure that I understood what he meant, and I wondered if he was going to start talking about the infamous mythical confederate issue, but he did not. He then innocently and sincerely asked the question, "well----weren't most black soldiers in the Union Army from places in the north, like Massachusetts?" I pointed out to him that a majority of the United States Colored Troops were units that were organized in the South. He was surprised, amazed and confused! He was truly trying to understand---- "But how could that be? " he asked. I was stunned by his word. But then I got it----I realized that other than what he had learned from the movie "Glory!" his knowledge of the role of African American soldiers from the south, in the Civil War, was non-existent! He knew nothing! And this is a man in his 60s, who has been dabbling in family history for more than a decade! He was curious and asked honest and innocent questions---how could they get up north to enlist? The impression that he had, was that black men had to escape to the north to enlist in the Union Army. His sense was that all black Civil War soldiers were organized in the north like the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. Famous Image of the 54th Massachusetts at Ft. Wagner. Source: Library of Congress There was no sense of time, nor place----and I pointed out to him that the war was fought in the south, on southern soil, and as federal soldiers came into an area, THAT provided the opportunity for them to enlist! This was foreign to him. Now I must point out, this is a gentleman whom I have respected as being a long lasting researcher, but I was so surprised at how there was almost no concept of how black men entered the Civil War, and where and under what circumstances. He did ask good questions-----how did they get a chance when they were still held as slaves? Wouldn't the slave masters have prevented their leaving to fight? Another member then reminded him----this was wartime! The slave masters and the overseers were not there----they had entered the confederate army to fight! When Union soldiers came--they could raid area farms both large estates and small farms, and so many times the white men folk were not present, and slaves had access to the Union lines for the first time! Recruitment Handbill, for soldiers to join Union Army This small concept had never occurred to him, and he had never read anything about the recruitment of black soldiers---and up until that time----he always thought that a majority of black soldiers came from New England!!! It was pointed out that the 130 + regiments of United States Colored Troops, were organized in the south and he was truly amazed! I too was amazed, but for another reason---I had to ask, how many of our own elders in our communities were also under the impression that either we had no role in the War, or that only a few blacks from New England enlisted in the Union Army to fight? Was he alone in his misconception of black participation? Is this why the black confederate myth went unchallenged for so long? Could it be, that our lack of knowledge of the true involvement of our ancestors in the Fight for Freedom, assisted the myth makers and revisionists in creating confederate regiments that never existed? After all, the story was created by hobbyists, reenactors and not by historians. But as we who descend from US Colored Troops have had so few Civil War enthusiasts in our own midst, until recent years, and there was no one for a long time to refute this revised history and newly created myths. I realized that until the past 20 years----there were no monuments to the USCTs. African American Civil War Memorial Monument But---almost every town large and small in the south has confederate monuments in the town square or on the ground of the local courthouse. And they have had them for decades! Monuments such as this one in Arkansas are found in hundreds of towns throughout the south. The local and state histories show the photos of the confederate reunions well into the 20th century. But no textbooks or state histories show images of USCT reunions. Though many GAR chapters were integrated, the reunions of black regiments were rare----if any occurred at all. And in the south----did any occur ever? What are the results of this lack of knowledge? Did the actions of Andrew Johnson to restore the secessionists to their status of "first class" status over an oppressed second class, lead to a silencing of the soldiers, denying those men who fought and died, who were of African descent no chance to spread honor and pride to their descendants. Were they thus prevented in their expressions of pride and dignity from passing this knowledge to the next generations? Did the use of the confederate flag----a flag of the enemy for the US Colored Troops---- did the use of the flag officially flown in front of courthouses and as well as the flag use in terrorist acts, such as lynchings, force these honorable men, into a silence, requiring them to never speak to the next generation about their fight for freedom? Is this how and why our stories got lost in our own families? And what was the result of this forced silence? Shame? Poor self-esteem, powerlessness? The better question----what comes from knowing one's history? I can only say that having told the story twice at a family reunion, about our ancestors from Tennessee who served in the 111th US Colored Infantry, were captured, escaped and re-enlisted----I can only say that I saw with my own eyes----the changes in body language as the young males heard this story of our Uncle Sephus, Uncle Braxton, Cousins Henry and Emmanuel Bass. I was asked to tell this story again to a new generation only this past year and once again----the effect was amazing. Did they hear it and understand it? I don't know----but I know that in order for us to get to the story----we have to learn the Facts. * There were 138 regiments of the US Colored Troops who were volunteers in the Union Army. * Most of these regiments were organized in the South. * There were 7 additional units part of the regular army. They were from Mass, Conn, and La. * All of these units served and/or saw action in the south. * The US Colored Troops saw action in 268 different battles/skirmishes between 1863-1866. Memorize these few facts and pass them on!!! Many stories lie untold in the unread pages of the official records of the Civil War. As we speak of honoring our ancestors----we have to tell their stories and in order to get to the story----we must learn the facts! Unknown Soldier, United States Colored Troops Source: Library of Congress	3.139344
Since 2010, schools across America have been taking part in Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move' initiative to help fight childhood obesity in America — with parents, principals and teachers trying to promote healthy living in and out of the classroom. So, how well is it working? Have schools in Walnut Creek found ways to keep local children fit and healthy? The Mount Diablo School District adheres to USDA nutrition standards for its school meals, offering unlimited fruits and vegetables and using whole grains. The district hired a chef for the 2012-13 school year to "introduce some exciting new healthy recipes" on school menus. The Walnut Creek School District has a wellness policy that provides nutrition guidelines for school meals and stipulates that students get an hour a day of exercise. But "Let's Move" wants schools to do more than ditch junk food and give P.E. lessons. Teachers are encouraged to incorporate nutrition education and physical activity into the curriculum, by making such concepts part of the daily routine. For example, the Active Schools Acceleration Program is currently offering grants for schools to take more innovative steps toward getting the kids active. Programs include "an academically integrated curriculum of in-class movement breaks," a before-school group aerobic work-out program, and a "100-mile club" where the kids work throughout the school year to run 100 miles. How is your child's school helping students stay fit and healthy? What do you think are the most effective methods to fight childhood obesity in school? Share your experience in the comments.	3.109006
Cicadas: Superfamily Cicadoidea The drone of cicadas is one of Sydney's most recognisable sounds of summer. Cicadas are the loudest insects in the world and there are more than 200 species in Australia. It is thought that the sound produced by some communal species can act as a defence against predatory birds and some are even loud enough (120 decibels) to be painful to the human ear. Cicadas also often sing in chorus, which makes it more difficult for a predator to locate an individual. Cicadas are so conspicuous that many of their common names were initially given to them by children. As a result cicadas probably have the most colourful common names in the insect world. Some of these include: Black Prince (Psaltoda plaga), Double Drummer, Floury Baker, and the Green Grocer or Yellow Monday, Cyclochila australasiae. - Only male cicadas sing. They do this in an attempt to find a mate. - Different species have different songs to attract only their own kind. - Adult cicadas have short lives, usually only a few weeks. - Most of their lives are spent as nymphs underground. For some species this can be up to several years. - Cicadas feed only on plant sap using their piercing, sucking mouthparts. - Cicadas feed on a huge range of plants, including eucalypts and grasses. - Birds, bats, spiders, wasps, ants, mantids and tree crickets all prey on cicadas. What are cicadas? They are classified in the order Hemiptera, which includes all insects with piercing and sucking mouth-parts. (Other insects in this order are bugs, aphids and scale insects). There are more than 200 Australian species of cicadas, most of which belong to the one large family, the Cicadidae. Cicadas are sometimes known as locusts in Australia, but that term is more correctly applied to certain migratory species of grasshopper. What do cicadas look like? Adult cicadas have stout bodies with two pairs of wings. The wing spans of the different species range from about 2.5 cm - 15 cm. When not in use, the wings fold back along the sides of the body. The longer fore wing covers the short hind wing, but the wings of each side do not overlap. The fore wing is usually glassy and transparent although in a few species it is dull and opaque. The wings are strengthened by a number of thin, firm veins. Adult cicadas have three pairs of legs all about the same length. The femur (thigh joint) of the fore leg is thicker than that of the other legs. Cicadas have large compound eyes situated one on each side of the head They also have three very small glistening simple eyes (ocelli) on the top of the head. The cicada's antennae (feelers) are quite small and bristle-like. The mouth parts of the cicada are enclosed in a long, thin, beak-like sheath. The sheath (labium) passes backwards from the lower surface of the head between the legs when the insect is not feeding. It contains four fine, needle-like stylets used in feeding. Cicadas feed by piercing the surface of plants with their mouth stylets. They then suck up the sap through a tube formed by the concave surfaces of two of the stylets. This piercing and sucking kind of feeding apparatus can be contrasted with the biting and chewing kind found in grasshoppers, cockroaches, beetles and caterpillars. Cicadas may cause some slowing of the growth of trees from the amount of sap that they consume, but the effects are not very noticeable. They do not bite, though they may cling to the skin with their sharp claws when handled. They are considered harmless to people, despite the fact that their high-pitched call may annoy some people. The adults of larger kinds of cicadas can be found on the trunks or branches of trees in summer. They are often wary and fly away when approached. Smaller kinds often live on low shrubs, or even on long grass. Cicadas are eaten in large quantities by birds. They are also carried off by wasps as food for their young, and undoubtedly serve as food for many other animals Even the nymphs beneath the ground are parasitised by the larvae of Feather-horned Beetles (family Rhipiceridae). Cicadas are notorious singers. The song is a mating call produced by the males only. Each species has its own distinctive call and only attracts females of its own kind even though rather similar species may co-exist. Cicadas are the only insects to have developed such an effective and specialised means of producing sound. Some large species such as the Greengrocer/Yellow Monday and the Double Drummer produce a noise intensity in excess of 120 dB at close range (this is approaching the pain threshold of the human ear). In contrast, some small species have songs so high in pitch that the noise is beyond the range of our hearing. The apparatus used by cicadas for singing is complex and research is still continuing on the mechanisms involved. The organs which produce sound are the tymbals, a pair of ribbed membranes at the base of the abdomen. Contracting the internal tyrnbal muscles causes the tymbals to buckle inwards and produces a pulse of sound. By relaxing these muscles, the tymbals pop back to their original position. In some cicada species, a pulse of sound is produced as each rib buckles. Both male and female cicadas have organs for hearing. A pair of large, mirror-like membranes, the tympana, receive the sound. The tympana are connected to an auditory organ by a short tendon. When a male sings, it creases the tympana so that it won't be deafened by its own noise. Many species of cicada sing during the heat of the day. The loud noise produced by some day-singing cicadas actually repels birds, probably because the noise is painful to the birds' ears and interferes with their normal communication. The males of many cicada species, including the Greengrocer/Yellow Monday, and the Double Drummer, tend to group together when calling which increases the total volume of noise and reduces the chances of bird predation. Some cicada species only sing at dusk. Often these species are weak fliers (as in the case of the Bladder Cicada). They gain some protection from predatory birds by confining their activity to dusk. Cicadas spend most of their life underground. It has been suggested that some of the large, common Australian species of cicada may live underground as nymphs for around 6-7 years. This would explain why adult cicadas are much more abundant during some seasons that others, with peaks occurring every few years. The periodical cicadas of North America spend 13 or 17 years underground. In contrast to that of the nymph, the life of adult cicadas is very short, lasting only a few weeks. After mating, the adult female cicada lays its eggs. It does this by piercing plant stems with its ovipositor (egg-laying spike at the tip of the abdomen) and inserting the eggs into the slits it has made. The eggs hatch into small wingless cicadas which are known as nymphs. They fall to the ground and burrow below the surface. Here they live on the sap from plant roots for a period which may last several years. They shed their skin at intervals as they grow. When the nymph reaches full size it digs its way to the surface with its front legs, which are specially adapted for digging. It generally surfaces about nightfall in late spring or early summer. The nymph then climbs on to a tree trunk or other object and sheds its skin for the last time. The fully-winged adult cicada which emerges leaves its old empty nymphal skin behind. For enquiries relating to these insects in the Australian Museum collection please contact the Collection Manager - Moulds, M.S. 1990. Australian Cicadas. New South Wales University Press. 217 pp., 24 pls. Dr Dave Britton , Collection Manager, Entomology	3.476983
Fundoplication is a surgery on the stomach and esophagus. It is done to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). GERD is also called acid reflux, or heartburn. This occurs when acid from the stomach goes up the esophagus. A hiatal hernia may also be fixed during this procedure. This type of hernia occurs when a portion of the stomach pokes into the chest cavity. This hernia increases the chance and severity of GERD. Reasons for Procedure The surgery is most often done for the following reasons: - Eliminate persistent GERD symptoms that are not relieved by medicine - Correct acid reflux that is contributing to asthma symptoms - Repair a hiatal hernia, which may be responsible for making GERD symptoms worse - Eliminate the source of serious, long-term complications resulting from too much acid in the esophagus If you are planning to have fundoplication, your doctor will review a list of possible complications, which may include: - Anesthesia-related problems - Difficulty swallowing - Return of reflux symptoms - Limited ability to burp or vomit - Gas pains - Damage to other organs In rare cases, the procedure may need to be repeated. This may happen if the wrap was too tight, the wrap slips, or if a new hernia forms. Some factors that may increase the risk of complications include: What to Expect Prior to Procedure Your doctor may do the following: - Physical exam - X-ray —a test that uses radiation to take a picture of structures inside the body, especially bones - Endoscopy —use of a tube attached to a viewing device (an endoscope) to examine the inside of the lining of the esophagus and stomach; a biopsy may also be taken - Manometry—a test to measure the muscular contractions inside the esophagus and its response to swallowing Leading up to the surgery: Talk to your doctor about your medicines. You may be asked to stop taking some medicines up to one week before the procedure, like: - Anti-inflammatory drugs (eg, aspirin ) - Blood thinners, like warfarin (Coumadin) - Clopidogrel (Plavix) - Arrange for a ride to and from the hospital. Also, arrange for help at home. - The night before, eat a light meal. Do not eat or drink anything after midnight. General anesthesia will be used. It will block any pain and keep you asleep through the surgery. Description of the Procedure The doctor will make a small incision. The laparoscope (a small tool with a camera on the end) will be inserted into the abdomen. It will allow the doctor to view the inside of the body on a video screen. Gas will be pumped into the abdomen to improve the view. The doctor will make other, small incisions in the skin. Small surgical instruments will be inserted. The stomach will then be wrapped around the esophagus. If needed, the hernia will be repaired. In some cases, the doctor may need to switch to an open surgery . He will make a wide incision in the abdomen to do the surgery. How Long Will It Take? How Much Will It Hurt? You will have discomfort during recovery. Ask your doctor about medicine to help with the pain. Average Hospital Stay Two days or more (depending on your condition) - Walk with assistance the day after surgery. - Keep the incision area clean and dry. - Ask your doctor about when it is safe to shower, bathe, or soak in water. - You will start by eating a liquid diet. You will slowly be able to eat more solid foods. - After a successful fundoplication, you may no longer need to take medicines for GERD. - Be sure to follow your doctor's instructions . It will take about two weeks to recover. Call Your Doctor After you leave the hospital, contact your doctor if any of the following occurs: - Signs of infection, including fever and chills - Redness, swelling, increasing pain, excessive bleeding, or any discharge from the incision site - Nausea and/or vomiting that you cannot control with the medicines you were given after surgery, or which persist for more than two days after discharge from the hospital - Increased swelling or pain in the abdomen - Difficulty swallowing that does not improve - Pain that you cannot control with the medicines you have been given - Pain, burning, urgency or frequency of urination, or persistent bleeding in the urine - Cough, shortness of breath, or chest pain - Any other new symptoms	3.407849
Chemical Safety is achieved by undertaking all activities involving chemicals in such a way as to ensure the safety of human health and the environment. It covers all chemicals, natural and manufactured, and the full range of exposure situations from the natural presence of chemicals in the environment to their extraction or synthesis, industrial production, transport use and disposal. Chemical safety has many scientific and technical components. Among these are toxicology, ecotoxicology and the process of chemical risk assessment which requires a detailed knowledge of exposure and of biological effects. WHO programmes and activities Mechanisms of fibre carcinogenesis and assessment of chrysotile asbestos alternatives - WHO Policy paper: mercury in health care EHC 237 Principles for Evaluating Health Risks in Children - Guidelines on the prevention of toxic exposures	3.558352
Locating thermophiles in other parts of the universe could very well aid in the search for extraterrestrial life. Most people have agreed that if life is found among the stars, it will be microbial (at least in the near-term future). Many individuals have also suggested that intelligent life forms might very well be extinct in other parts of the universe. If scientists could locate thermophile microbes, they could piece together an archaeological picture of once powerful civilizations. Taiwan is well known for its hot springs. Most tourists that visit the island end up visiting at least one. Many people like to take relaxing baths in them. Hot springs can be great for people with arthritis. New research is proving that they can also be a great place to find astrobiological data. Photosynthetic thermophiles that live in hot springs may potentially be removing significant amounts of industrially produced carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They’ve thrived because of fundamental changes to the atmosphere caused by humanity. In fact, there are some scientists who feel that these microbes could play a vital role in regulating the planet’s climate. That role might become increasingly important in the future. Planets that were once inhabited by industrially developed civilizations that have since passed might be teeming with life similar to these. If a planet was sufficiently changed by another race of beings, it could have ultimately favored the development of these tiny beings. They could indicate that intelligent lifeforms once inhabited a planet, and that planet could be different today than it was in the past. While discovering a planet full of microbes would be initially interesting, in the future it could be a relatively common occurrence. Therefore, news services of the future might very well pass by such stories after a few weeks – much like they do today with the discovery of new exoplanets. Finding sufficient numbers of photosynthetic thermophiles would be telling about the history of a world, but it would also require a great deal of geological activity. Then again, there’s nothing to say that other civilizations wouldn’t also have the ability to increase the amount of geological activity on other planets. They might even do it on purpose, as a way of terraforming for instance. For that matter, humans might want to give that a try. Venus is superheated because of thermal runaway as a result of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If water were transported to that very hot world, colonists could use the resulting geysers to grow bacteria that would absorb the atmospheric gas. Leu, J., Lin, T., Selvamani, M., Chen, H., Liang, J., & Pan, K. (2012). Characterization of a novel thermophilic cyanobacterial strain from Taian hot springs in Taiwan for high CO2 mitigation and C-phycocyanin extraction Process Biochemistry DOI: 10.1016/j.procbio.2012.09.019	3.808342
Santa's magic based on science Ever wondered how Santa Claus can travel around the world in just one night on his reindeer-pulled sleigh and deliver toys to all the children? "He exploits the space-time continuum," says Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University. Santa's magic may go far beyond merely travelling across 322 million square kilometres to visit hundreds of millions of homes of children in just one night, Silverberg says. "He understands that space stretches, he understands that you can stretch time, compress space and therefore he can, in a sense, actually have six Santa months to deliver the presents," says Silverberg. "In our reference frame it appears as though he does it in the wink of an eye and in fact there have been sightings of Santa, quick sightings, and that's in our reference frame, but in Santa's reference frame he really has six months". Building on demand Silverberg says his research has established that Santa does not, as commonly thought, carry enough presents for each child in his sleigh. "How could he?" he says. "We believe that he uses nanotechnology to grow the presents under the tree and really, what he's done, is he's figured out how to turn what we call irreversible thermo-dynamic properties into reversible ones and so he really starts with soot, candy, other types of natural materials, he puts them under the tree and he actually grows them in a reverse process to create the presents, wrapping and all." And then there's the age-old question that Santa has to address every year - who's been naughty and who's been nice? "We believe, that there are large antennas miles long under the snow up at the north pole and we think the grid-spacing is in the order of millimetres so that you can receive radar-type signals," says Silverberg. Santa's trip takes in all continents and all time zones. Silverberg says his sleigh is equipped with an onboard sleigh guidance system. He says the reindeer are genetically bred to fly, balance on rooftops and see in the dark. Silverberg has been researching Santa for more than a decade. "It's certainly a worthy thing to spend time on and it has all sorts of ramifications in everyday life," he says.	3.411544
is a crime Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction... , the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud... , but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary. To engage in the act of burglary is to burgle (in British English British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere... ) or to burglarize (in American English American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States.... Common law definition The common law Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action... burglary was defined by Sir Matthew Hale Sir Matthew Hale SL was an influential English barrister, judge and jurist most noted for his treatise Historia Placitorum Coronæ, or The History of the Pleas of the Crown. Born to a barrister and his wife, who had both died by the time he was 5, Hale was raised by his father's relative, a strict... - Breaking can be either actual, such as by forcing open a door, or constructive, such as by fraud or threats. Breaking does not require that anything be "broken" in terms of physical damage occurring. A person who has permission to enter part of a house, but not another part, commits a breaking and entering when they use any means to enter a room where they are not permitted, so long as the room was not open to enter. - Entering can involve either physical entry by a person or the insertion of an instrument with which to remove property. Insertion of a tool to gain entry may not constitute entering by itself. Note that there must be a breaking and an entering for common law burglary. Breaking without entry or entry without breaking is not sufficient for common law burglary. - Although rarely listed as an element, the common law required that entry occur as a consequence of the breaking. For example, if a wrongdoer partially opened a window by using a pry bar and then noticed an open door through which he entered the dwelling, there is no burglary at common law. The use of the pry bar would not constitute an entry even if a portion of the prybar "entered" the residence. Under the instrumentality rule the use of an instrument to effect a breaking would not constitute an entry. However, if any part of the perpetrator's body entered the residence in an attempt to gain entry, the instrumentality rule did not apply. Thus, if the perpetrator uses the prybar to pry open the window and then used his hands to lift the partially opened window, an "entry" would have taken place when he grasped the bottom of the window with his hands. - House includes a temporarily unoccupied dwelling, but not a building used only occasionally as a habitation - Night time is defined as hours between half an hour after sunset and half an hour before sunrise - Typically this element is expressed as the intent to commit a felony “therein”. The use of the word “therein” adds nothing and certainly does not limit the scope of burglary to those wrongdoers who break and enter a dwelling intending to commit a felony on the premises. The situs of the felony does not matter, and burglary occurs if the wrongdoer intended to commit a felony at the time he broke and entered. The common law elements of burglary often vary between jurisdictions. The common law definition has been expanded in most jurisdictions, such that the building need not be a dwelling or even a building in the conventional sense, physical breaking is not necessary, the entry does not need to occur at night, and the intent may be to commit any felony or theft. Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during... originates from Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain Old English, their language Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term... or Old English, one of the Germanic languages The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe... . According to one textbook, "The word burglar comes from the two German German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union.... , meaning "house," and laron , meaning "thief" (literally "house thief"). Another suggested etymology is from the later Latin word burgare , "to break open" or "to commit burglary", from burgus , meaning "fortress" or "castle", with the word then passing through French and Middle English, with influence from the Latin latro , "thief". The British verb "burgle" is a late back-formation. Burglary is prosecuted as a felony A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors... A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences... and involves trespassing and theft, entering a building or automobile, or remaining unlawfully with intent to commit theft or any crime, not necessarily a theft for example, vandalism Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable... . Even if nothing is stolen in a burglary, the act is a statutory offense. Buildings can include sheds, barns, and coops; burglary of boats, aircraft, and railway cars is possible. Burglary may be an element in crimes involving rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The... Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires... In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority... , identity theft Identity theft is a form of stealing another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name... , or violation of civil rights; indeed the "plumbers" of the Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement... were technically burglars. As with all legal definitions in the U.S., the foregoing description may not be applicable in every jurisdiction, since there are 50 separate state criminal codes, plus Federal and territorial codes in force. Technically, a burglary committed during the hours of daylight is not burglary, but housebreaking. In many jurisdictions in the U.S., burglary is punished more severely than housebreaking. In California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area... , for example, burglary was punished as burglary in the first degree, while housebreaking was punished as burglary in the second degree. California now distinguishes between entry into a residence and into a commercial building, with the burglary into a residence with heavier punishment. In states that continue to punish burglary more severely than housebreaking twilight Twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise or between sunset and dusk, during which sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere, and the surface of the earth is neither completely lit nor completely dark. The sun itself is not directly visible because it is below... , night is traditionally defined as hours between 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise. Some academics consider burglary as an inchoate crime. Others say that because the intrusion itself is harmful, this justifies punishment even when no further crime is committed. Possession of burglar's tools, in jurisdictions that make this an offense, has also been viewed as an inchoate crime: Under Florida State Statutes The Florida law is based on the Florida Constitution , which defines how the statutes must be passed into law, and defines the limits of authority and basic law that the Florida Statutes must be complied with... , "burglary" occurs when a person "enter[s] a dwelling, a structure, or a conveyance with the intent to commit an offense therein, unless the premises are at the time open to the public or the defendant is licensed or invited to enter. Depending on the circumstances of the crime, burglary can be classified as third-, second-, or first-degree felonies, with maximum sentences of five years, fifteen years, and life, respectively. A person commits the offense of burglary when, without authority and with the intent to commit a felony or theft therein, he enters or remains within the dwelling house of another or any building, vehicle, railroad car, watercraft, or other such structure designed for use as the dwelling of another or enters or remains within any other building, railroad car, aircraft, or any room or any part thereof. A person convicted of the offense of burglary, for the first such offense, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 20 years. For the purposes of this Code section, the term "railroad car" shall also include trailers on flatcars, containers on flatcars, trailers on railroad property, or containers on railroad property. O.C.G.A. § 16-7-1 Burglary and the intended crime, if carried out, are treated as separate offenses. Burglary is a felony, even when the intended crime is a misdemeanor, and the intent to commit the crime can occur when one "enters or remains unlawfully" in the building, expanding the common law definition. It has three degrees. Third-degree burglary is the broadest, and applies to any building or other premises. Second-degree burglary retains the common-law element of a dwelling, and first-degree burglary requires one to be in a dwelling and to be armed with a weapon or to cause injury. A related offense, criminal trespass, covers unlawful entry to buildings or premises without the intent to commit a crime, and is a misdemeanor or, in the third degree, a violation. Possession of burglar's tools, with the intent to use them to commit burglary or theft, is a misdemeanor. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010... uses the term "burglary" to refer to a night-time breaking and entering of a dwelling with the intent to commit a felony. Burglary is a felony punishable by not more than twenty years; should the burglar enter with a dangerous weapon, they may be imprisoned for life. Unlawful entries of a structure other than a dwelling are labeled "breaking and entering" and punishments vary according to structure. In Maryland, under title 6, subtitle 2 of the criminal law code, the crime of burglary is divided into four degrees. The first three degrees are felonies, while fourth-degree burglary is a misdemeanor. Breaking and entering into a dwelling with intent to commit theft or a crime of violence is first-degree burglary. Breaking and entering into a "storehouse" (a structure other than a dwelling, also including watercraft, aircraft, railroad cars, and vessels) with intent to commit theft, arson, or a crime of violence is second-degree burglary. Third-degree burglary is defined as breaking and entering into a dwelling with intent to commit a crime. Simple breaking and entering into a dwelling or storehouse without specific intent to commit an additional crime is fourth-degree burglary. This degree also includes two other offenses that do not have breaking and entering as an element: Being in or on the yard, garden, or other property of a storehouse or dwelling with the intent to commit theft, or possession of burglar's tools with the intent to use them in a burglary offense. In the criminal code of New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian... , "A person is guilty of burglary if he enters a building or occupied structure, or separately secured or occupied section thereof, with purpose to commit a crime therein, unless the premises are at the time open to the public or the actor is licensed or privileged to enter." Under the penal law In the most general sense, penal is the body of laws that are enforced by the State in its own name and impose penalties for their violation, as opposed to civil law that seeks to redress private wrongs... in New York, burglary is always a felony, even in third degree. It is more serious if the perpetrator uses what appears to be a dangerous weapon, or if he or she enters a dwelling. In Pennsylvania, it is a defense to prosecution if the building or structure in question is rendered abandoned In Virginia, there are degrees of burglary, described as "Common Law Burglary" and "Statutory Burglary." Common Law Burglary is defined as: if any person breaks and enters the dwelling of another, in the nighttime, with intent to commit a felony or any larceny (Theft < 200$) therein, shall be guilty of burglary, punishable as a class 3 felony; provided, however, that if such person was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of such entry, he shall be guilty of a class 2 felony. Statutory Burglary is defined as: If any person in the nighttime enters without breaking, or in the daytime breaks and enters or enters and conceals himself in a dwelling house or an adjoining, occupied outhouse, or, in the nighttime enters without breaking or at any time breaks and enters or enters and conceals himself in any office, shop, manufactured home, storehouse, warehouse, banking house, church or other house, or any ship, vessel or river craft, or any railroad car, or any automobile, truck, or trailer, if such automobile, truck or trailer is used as a dwelling or place of human habitation, with intent to commit murder, rape, robbery or arson in violation of Virginia State code section 18.2-77, 18.2-79, or 18.2-80, shall be deemed guilty of statutory burglary, which offense shall be a class 3 felony. However, if such person was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of such entry, he shall be guilty of a class 2 felony. Additionally, if any person commits any of the acts mentioned in the VA state code section 18.2-90 with intent to commit larceny, or any felony other than murder, rape, robbery or arson in violation of VA state code section 18.2-77, 18.2-79, or 18.2-80, or if any person commits any acts mentioned in 18.2-89 or 18.2-90 with intent to commit assault and battery, shall be guilty of statutory burglary, punishable by confinement in a state correctional facility for not less than one or more than twenty years, or, in the discretion of the jury or the court trying the case without a jury, be confined in jail for a period not exceeding twelve months or fined not more than $2,500, either or both. However, if the person was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of such entry, he shall be guilty of a Class 2 felony. Finally, if any person break and enter a dwelling house while said dwelling is occupied, either in the day or nighttime, with intent to commit any misdemeanor except assault and battery or trespass (which falls under the previous paragraph), shall be guilty of a class 6 felony. However, if the person was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of such entry, he shall be guilty of a class 2 felony. In Wisconsin, burglary is committed by one who enters a building without consent and with intent to steal or to commit another felony. Burglary may also be committed by entry to a locked truck or trailer or a ship. The crime of burglary is treated as being more serious if the burglar is armed with a dangerous weapon when the burglary is committed or arms himself/herself during the commission of the burglary. England and Wales Burglary is defined by section 9 of the Theft Act 1968 The Theft Act 1968 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates a number of offences against property in England and Wales.On 15 January 2007 the Fraud Act 2006 came into force, redefining most of the offences of deception.-History:... which created two variants: The offence is defined in similar terms to England and Wales by the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969. Under Scots law Scots law is the legal system of Scotland. It is considered a hybrid or mixed legal system as it traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. With English law and Northern Irish law it forms the legal system of the United Kingdom; it shares with the two other systems some... , the crime of burglary does not exist. Instead theft by housebreaking covers theft where the security of the building is overcome. It does not include any other aspect of burglary found in England and Wales. It is a crime usually prosecuted under solemn procedure An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an... in a superiour court. Another common law crime still used is Hamesukin which covers forced entry into a building where a serious assault on the occupant takes place. Common law Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action... crimes in Scotland are gradually being replaced by statutes. In Canada, burglary is labelled as "Breaking and Entering" under section 348 of the Criminal Code A criminal code is a document which compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law... and is a hybrid offence A hybrid offence, dual offence, Crown option offence, dual procedure offence, or wobbler are the special class offences in the common law jurisdictions where the case may be prosecuted either summarily or as indictment... . Breaking and entering is defined as trespassing with intent to commit an indictable offence In many common law jurisdictions , an indictable offence is an offence which can only be tried on an indictment after a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is a prima facie case to answer or by a grand jury... . The crime is commonly referred to in Canada as "break and enter" which in turn is often shortened to "B and E". In Sweden, burglary does not exist as an offence in itself, instead there are two available offences. If a person simply breaks into any premise, he is technically guilty of either unlawful intrusion or breach of domiciliary peace ), depending on the premise in question. Breach of domiciliary peace is only applicable when a person "unlawfully intrudes or remains where another has his living quarters" The only punishment available for any of these offences is fines, unless the offence is considered gross. In that case, the maximum punishment is two years in prison. However, if the person who has forced himself into a house, steals anything (literally "takes what belongs to another with intent to acquire it" ), he is guilty of (ordinary) theft ). However, the section regarding gross theft (Chapter 6, 4s of the Penal Code, grov stöld ) states "in assessing whether the crime is gross, special consideration shall be given to whether the unlawful appropriation took place after intrusion into a dwelling." For theft, the punishment is imprisonment of at most two years, while gross theft carries a punishment of between six months and six years. As in Sweden, there is no crime of burglary as such in Finland. In the case of breaking and entering, the Finnish penal code states that A person who unlawfully (1) enters domestic premises by force, stealth or deception, or hides or stays in such premises [...] shall be sentenced for invasion of domestic premises to a fine or to imprisonment for at most six months. However, if theft is committed during unlawful entering, then a person is guilty of theft or aggravated theft depending on the circumstances of the felony. (1) If in the theft the offender breaks into an occupied residence, and the theft is aggravated also when assessed as a whole, the offender shall be sentenced for aggravated theft to imprisonment for at least four months and at most - R v Collins R v Collins 1973 QB 100 is a case decided by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales which examined the meaning of "enters as a trespasser" in the definition of burglary... Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels and trespass to land.Trespass to the person, historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding, mayhem, and maiming... - Home Invasion Home Invasion is the fifth solo album by Ice-T. Released in 1993, the album Home Invasion is the fifth solo album by Ice-T. Released in 1993, the album Home Invasion is the fifth solo album by Ice-T. Released in 1993, the album (which was originally set to be released in 1992 under the deal with... - Watergate burglaries - "Cat burglar" at Wiktionary Wiktionary is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in 158 languages...	3.095632
Agriculture Production Profile Why is agriculture important anyway? Aside from the nutritional value of food, agriculture is important to people, the economy, and our heritage. The City of Kawartha Lakes is home to approximately 1,500 farms. Assuming an average of 4 people per farm, that means approximately 6,000 people live on farms in the municipality. The 2006 Census estimated 8,387 people in the area are employed year round and 4,013 seasonal in the agri-food and related industries. Agriculture and agri-food sector is a mainstay of the economy. Kawartha Lakes has the largest number of beef cows in Central Ontario and the 4th largest number of beef cows in Ontario. Farm cash receipts for main commodities totaled $87.5 million in 2006. (Source: OMAFRA, Census 2006) Kawartha Lakes at a Glance (PDF) Farm Cash Receipts - Main Commodities: 2002 - 2006 Major Farm Types Kawartha Lakes is the fourth largest municipality/county in Ontario with respect to beef cow numbers. The fourth in ewe numbers and second largest in goats. With respect to total animal numbers, Kawartha Lakes has the third largest community pasture in Ontario. The largest field crop in acres is hay with 95,825 acres grown, representing 3.74% of the provinces crop. (Source: OMAFRA 2006) What else is growing in Kawartha Lakes? Over $8 million in Floriculture, Nursery & sod sales, covering 306,117 square feet of total greenhouse area. (Source: Census 2006) This area was originally surveyed and cleared for agriculture in the early 1,800's. The European settlers established mixed farms on these lands. Many of today's farmers are descendants of the original settlers to this area. The area has grown to include a world class seed production facility and a large independent family owned dairy processing business. Kawartha Lakes is a regional center for farm marketing and farm supply with a livestock sale barn, large commercial grain elevators and continues to pursue diverse and value added agricultural opportunities. Production Profile Field crops The largest acreage field crop grown is hay with 95,824 acres grown, representing 3.74% of the provinces crop. Fruit & Vegetable Production Comparative Acres 2006 Beef farming remains the largest type of farming with over 1900 Beef cattle in Kawartha Lakes. Farms By Industry 2006 Livestock Types 2006 - 271,460 hens and chickens (all types) - 792 turkeys (Source: 2006 Census)	3.193976
Chromosomes are structures found in the center (nucleus) of cells that carry long pieces of DNA. DNA is the material that holds genes. It is the building block of the human body. Chromosomes also contain proteins that help DNA exist in the proper form. Chromosomes come in pairs. Normally, each cell in the human body has 23 pairs of chromosomes (46 total chromosomes). Half come from the mother; the other half come from the father. Two of the chromosomes (the X and the Y chromosome) determine if you are born a boy or a girl (your gender). They are called sex chromosomes: Females have 2 X chromosomes. Males have 1 X and 1 Y chromosome. The mother gives an X chromosome to the child. The father may contribute an X or a Y. It is the chromosome from the father that determines if the baby is a girl or a boy. The remaining chromosomes are called autosomal chromosomes. They are known as chromosome pairs 1 through 22. Stein CK. Applications of Cytogenetics in Modern Pathology. In: McPherson RA, Pincus MR, eds.Henry's Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods. 22nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 68. David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by A.D.A.M. Health Solutions, Ebix, Inc., Editorial Team: David Zieve, MD, MHA, David R. Eltz, Stephanie Slon, and Nissi Wang.	4.17341
Chess requires you to think hard, analyze, plan, and execute. Problem-solving and learning are become a game! Studies conducted over the last 30 years show an increase in student IQ's, and test scores improve after less than a year of systematic chess study. Chess is also valuable due to its intellectual brand attributes: Chess is known to be a smart person's game, and kids who play chess believe they are smart. Why is this important? Because what kids believe can be self-fulfilling. What does chess do? - Develops self-esteem - Builds team spirit - Increases concentration. - Encourages and promotes pattern recognition - Enhances logical deductive reasoning to solve problems Chess levels the playing field. Age, gender, ethnic background, socioeconomic status, and spoken language are irrelevant factors when playing chess. Why Offer Chess in Schools? By Chessmaster Jerry Meyers - www.youthchess.net Chess is a classic game of strategy, invented more than 1500 years ago in India. Legend has it that the ruler of India asked his wise men to devise a way to teach the children of the royal family to become better thinkers and better generals on the battlefield. Chess was the result. In the centuries since its invention, chess has spread to every country in the world. While countless other games have died out, chess lives on. In the United States, it has received endorsements by many educators, ranging from Benjamin Franklin to former U.S. Secretary of Education, Terrell Bell. In Western Pennsylvania, more than 70 schools and a dozen libraries offer chess programs, reaching several thousand students each year. 2) Academic Benefits We have brought chess to the schools because we believe it directly contributes to academic performance. Chess makes kids smarter. It does so by teaching the following skills: Focusing - Children are taught the benefits of observing carefully and concentrating. If they don't watch what is happening, they can't respond to it, no matter how smart they are. Visualizing - Children are prompted to imagine a sequence of actions before it happens. We actually strengthen the ability to visualize by training them to shift the pieces in their mind, first one, then several moves ahead. Thinking Ahead - Children are taught to think first, then act. We teach them to ask themselves "If I do this, what might happen then, and how can I respond?" Over time, chess helps develop patience and thoughtfulness. Weighing Options - Children are taught that they don't have to do the first thing that pops into their mind. They learn to identify alternatives and consider the pros and cons of various actions. Analyzing Concretely - Children learn to evaluate the results of specific actions and sequences. Does this sequence help me or hurt me? Decisions are better when guided by logic, rather than impulse. Thinking Abstractly - Children are taught to step back periodically from details and consider the bigger picture. They also learn to take patterns used in one context and apply them to different, but related situations. Planning - Children are taught to develop longer range goals and take steps toward bringing them about. They are also taught of the need to reevaluate their plans as new developments change the situation. Juggling Multiple Considerations Simultaneously - Children are encouraged not to become overly absorbed in any one consideration, but to try to weigh various factors all at once. None of these skills are specific to chess, but they are all part of the game. The beauty of chess as a teaching tool is that it stimulates children's minds and helps them to build these skills while enjoying themselves. As a result, children become more critical thinkers, better problem solvers, and more independent decision makers. 3) Educational Research These conclusions have been backed up by educational research. Studies have been done in various locations around the United States and Canada, showing that chess results in increased scores on standardized tests for both reading and math. A study on a large scale chess program in New York City, which involved more than 100 schools and 3,000 children, showed higher classroom grades in both English and Math for children involved in chess. Studies in Houston, Texas and Bradford, Pennsylvania showed chess leads to higher scores on the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. 4) Social Benefits In the schools, chess often serves as a bridge, bringing together children of different ages, races and genders in an activity they can all enjoy. Chess helps build individual friendships and also school spirit when children compete together as teams against other schools. Chess also teaches children about sportsmanship - how to win graciously and not give up when encountering defeat. For children with adjustment issues, there are many examples where chess has led to increased motivation, improved behavior, better self-image, and even improved attendance. Chess provides a positive social outlet, a wholesome recreational activity that can be easily learned and enjoyed at any age. Why does chess have this impact? Why did chess players score higher on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking as well as the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal? Briefly, there appear to be at least seven significant factors: - Chess accommodates all modality strengths. - Chess provides a far greater quantity of problems for practice. - Chess offers immediate punishments and rewards for problem solving. - Chess creates a pattern or thinking system that, when used faithfully, breeds success. The chess-playing students had become accustomed to looking for more and different alternatives, which resulted in higher scores in fluency and originality. - Competition. Competition fosters interest, promotes mental alertness, challenges all students, and elicits the highest levels of achievement (Stephan, 1988). - A learning environment organized around games has a positive affect on students’ attitudes toward learning. This affective dimension acts as a facilitator of cognitive achievement (Allen & Main, 1976). Instructional gaming is one of the most motivational tools in the good teacher’s repertoire. Children love games. Chess motivates them to become willing problem solvers and spend hours quietly immersed in logical thinking. These same young people often cannot sit still for fifteen minutes in the traditional classroom. - Chess supplies a variety and quality of problems. As Langen (1992) states: “The problems that arise in the 70-90 positions of the average chess game are, moreover, new. Contexts are familiar, themes repeat, but game positions never do. This makes chess good grist for the problem-solving mill.” First Move Video See what First Move is all about. Watch our foundation video to see how chess is used in the classroom as a learning tool.	3.362197
Neolithic Man: The First Lumberjack? Thursday, August 9, 2012 Transition from hunting to agricultural society parallels development of woodworking tools, TAU research reveals A polished axe from the PPNB period. During the Neolithic Age (approximately 10000–6000 BCE), early man evolved from hunter-gatherer to farmer and agriculturalist, living in larger, permanent settlements with a variety of domesticated animals and plant life. This transition brought about significant changes in terms of the economy, architecture, man's relationship to the environment, and more. Now Dr. Ran Barkai of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations has shed new light on this milestone in human evolution, demonstrating a direct connection between the development of an agricultural society and the development of woodworking tools. "Intensive woodworking and tree-felling was a phenomenon that only appeared with the onset of the major changes in human life, including the transition to agriculture and permanent villages," says Dr. Barkai, whose research was published in the journal PLoS One. Prior to the Neolithic period, there is no evidence of tools that were powerful enough to cut and carve wood, let alone fell trees. But new archaeological evidence suggests that as the Neolithic age progressed, sophisticated carpentry developed alongside agriculture. Evolution of axes The use of functional tools in relation to woodworking over the course of the Neolithic period has not been studied in detail until now. Through their work at the archaeological site of Motza, a neighbourhood in the Judean Hills, Dr. Barkai and his fellow researchers, Prof. Rick Yerkes of Ohio State University and Dr. Hamudi Khalaily of the Israel Antiquity Authority, have unearthed evidence that increasing sophistication in terms of carpentry tools corresponds with increased agriculture and permanent settlements. The early part of the Neolithic age is divided into two distinct eras — Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB). Agriculture and domesticated plants and animals appear only in PPNB, so the transition between these two periods is a watershed moment in human history. And these changes can be tracked in the woodworking tools which belong to each period, says Dr. Barkai. Within PPNA, humans remained gatherers but lived in more permanent settlements for the first time, he says. Axes associated with this period are small and delicate, used for light carpentry but not suited for felling trees or other massive woodworking tasks. In PPNB, the tools have evolved to much larger and heavier axes, formed by a technique called polishing. The researchers' in-depth analysis of these tools shows that they were used to cut down trees and complete various building projects. "We can document step by step the transition from the absence of woodworking tools, to delicate woodworking tools, to heavier woodworking tools," Dr. Barkai says, and this follows the "actual transition from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture." He also identifies a trial-and-error phase during which humans tried to create an axe strong enough to undertake larger woodworking tasks. Eventually, they succeeded in creating a massive ground stone axe in PPNB. Whether the transition to an agricultural society led to the development of major carpentry tools or vice versa remains to be determined, says Dr. Barkai, who characterizes it as a "circular argument." Whatever the answer, the parallel changes led to a revolution in lifestyle. Beyond the change from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural economy, a new form of architecture also emerged. Not only did people begin to live in permanent villages, but the buildings in which they lived literally took a different shape. The round and oval structures of earlier domiciles were replaced by rectangular structures in PPNB, explains Dr. Barkai. "Evidence tells that us that for each home, approximately 10 wooden beams were needed. Prior to this, there were no homes with wooden beams." In addition, humans began to produce limestone-based plaster floors for their homes — which also represented a growing use of wood, since plaster is manufactured by heating limestone. These architectural developments, along with building pens and fences for domesticated animals, also necessitated the felling of trees in large quantities. For more archaeology news from Tel Aviv University, click here.	3.316572
Is Seaweed the Future of Biofuel? Monday, March 5, 2012 TAU scientist takes the search for alternative energy sources to the sea As scientists continue the hunt for energy sources that are safer, cleaner alternatives to fossil fuel, an ever-increasing amount of valuable farmland is being used to produce bioethanol, a source of transportation fuel. And while land-bound sources are renewable, economists and ecologists fear that diverting crops to produce fuel will limit food resources and drive up costs. Now, Prof. Avigdor Abelson of Tel Aviv University's Department of Zoology and the new Renewable Energy Center, and his colleagues Dr. Alvaro Israel of the Israel Oceanography Institute, Prof. Aharon Gedanken of Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Ariel Kushmaro of Ben-Gurion University, and their Ph.D. student Leor Korzen, have gone to the seas in the quest for a renewable energy source that doesn't endanger natural habitats, biodiversity, or human food sources.He says that marine macroalgae — common seaweed — can be grown more quickly than land-based crops and harvested as fuel without sacrificing usable land. It's a promising source of bioethanol that has remained virtually unexplored until now. The researchers are now developing methods for growing and harvesting seaweed as a source of renewable energy. Not only can the macroalgae be grown unobtrusively along coastlines, Prof. Abelson notes, they can also clear the water of excessive nutrients — caused by human waste or aquaculture — which disturb the marine environment. A man-made "ecosystem" While biomasses grown on land have the potential to inflict damage on the environment, the researchers believe that producing biofuel from seaweed-based sources could even solve problems that already exist within the marine environment. Many coastal regions, including the Red Sea in the south of Israel, have suffered from eutrophication — pollution caused by human waste and fish farming, which leads to excessive amounts of nutrients and detrimental algae, ultimately harming endangered coral reefs. Encouraging the growth of seaweed for eventual conversion into biofuel could solve these environmental problems. The system that the researchers are developing, called the "Combined Aquaculture Multi-Use Systems" (CAMUS), takes into account the realities of the marine environment and human activity in it. Ultimately, all of these factors function together to create a synthetic "man-made ecosystem," explains Prof. Abelson. Man-made fish feeders, which produce pollution in the form of excess nutrients and are generally considered harmful to the marine environment, would become a positive link in this chain. Used alongside an increased population of filter feeders such as oysters, which suck in extra particles and convert them food that the microalgae can consume, this "pollution" could be used to sustain a much greater yield of seaweed, which is needed for seaweed to become a sustainable source of fuel. "By employing multiple species, CAMUS can turn waste into productive resources such as biofuel, at the same time reducing pollution's impact on the local ecosystem," he says. Turning waste into opportunity The researchers are now working to increase the carbohydrate and sugar contents of the seaweed for efficient fermentation into bioethanol, and they believe that macroalgae will be a major source for biofuel in the future. The CAMUS system could turn seaweed into a sustainable bioethanol source that is productive, efficient, and cost-effective. For more environment and ecology news from Tel Aviv University, click here.	3.094528
Technically SSL works as follows: At the "https" Your browser recognises that he mentioned server, a certificate request. For the server the browser has returned a certificate, it must be certified by the certification body. Then notify the server of this certificate directly to the browser. The browser receives from the directory service of the certification authority information, whether the certificate is valid. Based on these data, the browser can now check whether he really is connected to the server, in the URL. If so, your browser indicates a secure connection. For Internet Explorer and Firefox, this is done by a closed padlock. The Netscape Navigator / Communicator shows a secure page by the key intact. Then the two agree on a balanced computer keys. This understanding is happening in the safe asymmetric encryption. To really on the safe side, your browser sends the server before the start of the actual data exchange some test messages. This can only answer the server when it is actually the server, which he pretends to be. Looking even further the three objectives of encryption: does the SSL protocol so that a secure connection: 1st Your data is confidential, because the content of your messages only encrypted over the network. 2nd The authenticity of the server. 3rd Your data is protected from tampering, as effective algorithms examine whether the data is complete and unaltered their respective recipients. Meanwhile, SSL as a standard for encryption established browser. Meanwhile, but also Transport Layer Security (TLS). TLS is in place by SSL 3.0 standardized and expanded the range of use encryption methods to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). TLS is based on the more complex encryption methods Triple DES (Data Encryption Standard - Datenverschlüsselungs standard) or other algorithms. It supports the encryption of e-mails and the proof of identity for commercial online transactions.	3.20397
(b Crevalcore; d before 1525). Italian painter and musician. Although Antonio da Crevalcore was highly regarded by his contemporaries as both a painter of still-lifes and a musician, his artistic oeuvre remains the subject of debate. It has been suggested that he trained in Ferrara, because of the stylistic similarities his work shares with other Ferrarese painters working in Bologna, such as Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de’ Roberti. The influence of Cossa’s Bolognese painting on Crevalcore is clear, especially of the Pala dei Mercanti (Bologna, Pin. N.), but the connection between Cossa’s Ferrarese works or Ercole de’ Roberti’s later Ferrarese paintings and Crevalcore is less evident. The Holy Family with St. John as a Boy The Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and another Saint Deposizione di Cristo dalla Croce Please note: site admin does not answer any questions. This is our readers discussion only.	3.082428
Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Izieu was the site of a Jewish orphanage during the Second World War. On April 6, 1944, three vehicles pulled up in front of the orphanage. The Gestapo, led by the 'Butcher of Lyon' Klaus Barbie, entered the orphanage and forcibly removed the forty-four children and their seven supervisors, throwing the crying and terrified children on to the trucks. As a witness later recalled: 'I was on my way down the stairs when my sister shouted to me: It's the Germans, save yourself! I jumped out the window. I hid myself in a bush in the garden. I heard the cries of the children that were being kidnapped and I heard the shouts of the nazis who were carrying them away.' Following the raid on their home in Izieu, the children were shipped directly to the "collection center" in Drancy, then put on the first available train towards the concentration camps in the East. Forty-two children and five adults were gassed in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. Two of the oldest children and Miron Zlatin , the superintendent, ended up in Tallinn a city in Estonia and were killed by a firing squad. One survivor of Auschwitz revealed during Klaus Barbie's trial what happened to the children: 'I asked myself where were the children who arrived with us? In the camp there wasn't a single child to be seen. Then those who had been there for a while informed us of the reality. 'You see that chimney, the one smoke never stops coming out of . .. you smell that odor of burned flesh ... ?' The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details	3.008718
Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Red Tory is a nickname given to a political tradition in Canada's conservative political parties. Red Tories were traditionally to the left of the rest of the party. Originally it referred to the branch of the Tory party that was committed to the welfare state. Modern Red Tories, however, define themselves as "fiscally conservative and socially progressive". The term Blue Tory has been coined to describe more right wing Canadian conservatives. The notion of Red Toryism was developed by George Grant in the 1950s and 1960s who argued that Canadian conservatism was strongly influenced by ideals such as collectivism and community responsibility. These Tories rejected liberal values such as individualism. Red Tories were thus socially conservative supporting traditional institutions like religion and the monarchy but fiscally liberal with a strong belief in the welfare state. Grant traced Red Toryism to the beginning of Canadian history. The collective nation building policies of Sir John A. Macdonald are seen as the foundation of the Red Tory tradition. The origin of the adjective "red" is not known. The reference may be to progressive aspects of Red Tory principles, since parties of the left have traditionally used the colour red. It may have been a reference to the British roots of the Tory old guard. Others think it comes from the Liberal Party of Canada. The Liberals often used red as their colour, while the Conservatives used blue. Grant and Gad Horowitz contrasted Canada with the United States which was lacking this collectivist tradition. Horowitz argued that Canada's strong socialist movement grew from Red Toryism, and that this explains why socialism has never had much success in the United States. In some ways, Red Tories were thus closer to the NDP than to the Liberals. The Red Tories historically served as the most powerful faction within the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and most of its leaders have been labeled Red Tories. These include Sir John A. Macdonald, John George Diefenbaker, and Robert Stanfield. The heartland of Red Toryism was the Maritimes and Ontario and Red Tories dominated the provincial politics of these regions. The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party has held power in that province for most of the time since Confederation. The Ontario PCs were often labelled Red Tory, for example under the leadership of William Davis from 1971 to 1985. Under Davis, the Tories often ran to the left of the Ontario Liberal Party. Some political commentators have suggested that the new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, John Tory, is in the mould of the Bill Davis Red Tory tradition. Throughout the Maritimes, Red Tories are the dominant force in the Conservative Party. This tends to explain why Canadian provinces are often ruled at the provincial level by a party that may be Conservative yet at the same time elect Liberal Members of Parliament to the Canadian House of Commons. Outsiders may not understand the large amount of ideological common ground shared by the two nominally different parties. The dominance of Red Toryism can be seen as a part of the international Post-War Consensus that saw the welfare state embraced by the major parties of most of the western world. With the end of the consensus globally in the 1980s Canadian conservatism also split. Red Toryism never held much sway in Western Canada where small-government and socially conservatism has been dominant. The growing population and power of the west also played an important role in this transformation. Eventually the explicitly anti-Red Tory Reform Party arose in the west and soon was larger than the Progressive Conservatives. Throughout the federal PC Party's decline, Red Tories were generally seen as the most vocal opponents of the Unite the Right initiative, which proposed merging or co-operating with the competing Reform Party of Canada (later the Canadian Alliance). Red Tories considered the Canadian Alliance to be too radically conservative. In recent years, "Red Tories" clashed with neoconservatives within the Progressive Conservative Party. Joe Clark's leadership was challenged by more conservative Blue Tory PC Party members who endorsed Brian Mulroney. At the provincial level, Albertan Red Tory supporters of Peter Lougheed were marginalized following Ralph Klein's assumption of power. As right-wing support for the Progressive Conservatives bled away to the Reform Party and then the Canadian Alliance, Red Tories increasingly gained control of the federal party. The controversial election of leader Peter MacKay, however, paved the way for merger with the Canadian Alliance. When the PCs did ultimately merge in late 2003 with the Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative Party of Canada, many Red Tories expressed the view that they were "now without a political home." Notable Red Tories such as Scott Brison, John Herron and Keith Martin (who, although ideologically a Red Tory, was actually a Canadian Alliance MP) defected to the Liberal Party of Canada. Some Red Tories joined the new Conservative Party. Some prominent Red Tories, including Joe Clark and André Bachand, refused to join the new party, or any other, and sat for the remainder of their terms as independents. A small number formed the fledgling Progressive Canadian Party led by Ernie Schreiber, while others may have joined other centre or centre-left parties. With the conservative movement's drift to the political right, the term Red Tory is often used today not to refer to those in the traditional Red Tory tradition of George Grant or Robert Stanfield but simply to Blue Tory moderates in the conservative movement, particularly those who reject or do not sufficiently embrace social conservatism such as James Moore, Gerald Keddy and Jim Prentice. For the most part the unmitigated faith in big government has disappeared from Canadian politics with even the NDP approaching the subject with some trepidation. Thus, in the 2004 Conservative Party leadership election, Tony Clement was sometimes referred to as a Red Tory even though Clement was on the right wing of the Mike Harris cabinet. Clement is a neoconservative, who advocates privatization, tax cuts, the curtailment of social and economic development spending and free trade with the United States. He opposes government intervention in the economy. Clement's stances are policies that most traditional Red Tories would reject. David Orchard and his supporters have put themselves as the modern inheritors of the Red Tory tradition, although many Red Tories would not embrace this strident opponent of free trade with the United States as a Red Tory. Red Tories post-merger One of the most important issues facing the newly created Conservative Party is what will happen with the Red Tories. Many high-profile Red Tories had opposed the merger and do not support the new party. The union has resulted in a number of Red Tories leaving the new party, either to retire or to defect to the Liberals. The latter group includes Members of Parliament (MPs) Scott Brison, André Bachand, Rick Borotsik, Keith Martin, and John Herron. Joe Clark served the balance of his parliamentary term as a Progressive Conservative, outside of the new Conservative party caucus. Other high-profile Red Tories such as Sinclair Stevens and Flora MacDonald applied to re-register the old Progressive Conservative Party name; however this was refused by Elections Canada. On March 26, 2004, the Progressive Canadian Party was registered with Elections Canada. It aims to be perceived as a revival of the "PC Party". It is not clear how successful it will be in this regard, since no prominent former PC Tories such as Clark, Stevens, or MacDonald, or any sitting MP or senator, is associated with the new party. Finally, some Red Tories have decided to join the new Conservative Party. A group of them formed the Red Tory Council , a group constructed to give voice to the Red Tories, monitor the party and its positions, and to prevent too great a swing to the right. Belinda Stronach, an instigator of the new party yet relative newcomer to politics who placed second in the first Conservative leadership election, spoke up for government intervention to ensure growth in the economy, and generally stood against social conservatism, particularly in her personal support for same-sex marriage rights. Stronach's positions on these issues are ones that Red Tories typically support, and she might be considered the most prominent Red Tory member of the Conservative caucus in the 38th Parliament. The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details	3.662696
ROMAIN WACZIARG FINDS LINK BETWEEN GENETIC DISTANCE AND INCOME DIFFERENCES Study provides new perspective on technology adoption Why are some countries rich and others poor? Much has been written on this question from a historical perspective, says UCLA Anderson Associate Professor Romain Wacziarg. "Countries that were colonized and populated by Europeans are generally more economically developed than countries that were not colonized, or were colonized but not populated by Europeans," he says. Wacziarg thought this might have to do with the links between developed countries and Northwestern Europe, where the Industrial Revolution originated. "In particular," he says, "with the fact that the colonizers who settled in these regions had been close to the industrial breakthroughs of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." So Wacziarg and Enrico Spolaore of Tufts University began looking at the long term determinants of economic performance by countries -- measured by per-capita income. The main hypothesis of their study was that, if a country has a significant population that is genetically related to the population in the country where a major technological innovation took place, the country is more likely to adopt this technology and develop economically. The results are presented in a paper by Wacziarg and Spolaore entitled, "The Diffusion of Development." "The idea is not about being European per se," says Wacziarg. "It's about being close to the source of innovation. Not just geographically close, but also genetically close. New Zealand and Australia are not geographically close to Europe, but they still got the industrial revolution sooner than Papua New Guinea in part because they were colonized by Europeans." Genetic distance measures the time since two populations had common ancestors. Much like siblings are more closely related than cousins since they share parents rather than grandparents, if two populations split apart 2,000 years ago, they will be genetically closer than two populations that split apart 10,000 years ago. The mechanism linking genetic distance to income differences can take a variety of forms. People who are genetically close are more likely to trust each other. Populations that are genetically close can also communicate more easily, understand each others' cultural norms and values, and adopt practices conducive to modern development -- such as rapid human capital accumulation, low fertility and better political institutions. One unique thing about this study is the notion that traits that account for differences across populations are transmitted vertically, from generation to generation, more easily than horizontally from one population to another. Because of this, separation between populations is associated with a host of differences in skills, culture and language that are potential barriers to development. "We needed a way to measure the distance between populations of different countries," says Wacziarg. It turned out that geneticists have identified genetic markers that enable them to distinguish populations. And since these markers evolve at a steady rate, it is possible to determine the length of time since two populations had a common ancestor. It's like a molecular clock, he says. Genetic distance is based on blood samples. Enzymes and protein markers vary from one population to another. The measure of genetic distance is known as FST Genetic Distance. "It's what geneticists call the measure of heterozygosity, which summarizes how different your genes are," says Wacziarg. In the study, Wacziarg and Spolaore found that genetic distance is significantly correlated with current per-capita income differences between countries, even controlling statistically for geographic distance and other differences such as climate and resources. The results hold for income differences measured around the world since the year 1500. Interestingly, genetic distance correlates with the current differences in income among European countries despite their close geographic proximity. "It's really quite simple," says Wacziarg. "The more genetically related people are, the more they will communicate, trust each other, imitate each other and share ideas. Closely related populations will exchange practices, values, and modes of production that are conducive to economic development." "What the paper does not argue," says Wacziarg, "is that a country will never develop if it is really far from the technological frontier. It ultimately might get it, but the time it will take is proportional to its genetic distance from the source of innovation." The study suggests that anything that fosters the exchange of ideas between populations that are genetically distant might help overcome barriers to development. One example, says Wacziarg, was the migration of engineers from India to the Silicon Valley as the area became a hub for information technology. He notes that this certainly helped make India a leader in software and IT services. "You can overcome some genetic distance by bringing people close," he says. Another reason for India's commercial success with IT, notes Wacziarg, is that the Indian population, particularly in North India, is actually quite genetically close to European populations. Indians also had the advantage of speaking English, a heritage of the history of British colonization. A population more genetically and culturally distant from Europe may not have fared as well. Wacziarg admits that his study may not have immediate policy implications for poor countries. "There is an aspect of pessimism involved in any study that says a current economic situation has roots in deep history," he explains. "You can't change deep history. There is a notion that poverty results from extremely persistent forces that are very hard to change." But he maintains that economic development remains possible for any population. "This study suggests that anything that facilitates the flow of ideas and exchange between distant populations might help," he says. "Countries do develop and become richer. India and China are cases in point." Read more about the study in Economic Principles.	3.54362
Wildlife Damage Management Brown Treesnake Research at NWRC Trapping is central to the control activities carried out on Guam, yet it is only one component of an integrated control program that simultaneously uses multiple methods, and employs a sequential, strategic approach for snake removal over large areas. NWRC scientists work closely with other Wildlife Services biologists to design trap placement strategies and to develop snake-trap attractants. Several trap placement strategies (factoring in optimal trap spacing, plot dimensions etc.) have been applied to forested plots. Perimeter trapping, interior trapping, and boundary trapping regimens are all employed. Once snake populations have been reduced in an area, maintaining some strategically placed traps around the plot helps deter population recovery. October 11, 2007	3.240912
THE APPALACHIAN HARDWOOD FOREST The Appalachian Hardwood Region is the mountainous area between New York and North Georgia with an approximate boundary at the 1,000-foot altitude contour. Within this area grow the finest hardwood timber to be found in the world. Thousands of years ago this area was bounded on the north by glaciers and on the east, south and west by a shallow sea. When the glaciers receded and the seas subsided, the mountains were the garden spot that seeded the surrounding areas. All species of trees found in the east are also found in these mountains. For nearly 200 years after the settlement of the coastal plains, the Appalachian mountains were the "Far West." The first white man to explore the Appalachian mountains is reported to have been Desoto in about 1540. He made no real settlement and few pioneers attempted to cross the rugged mountain ranges. Hunters who ventured into these lush mountains returned with glowing tales of the grandeur of the country. With the discovery of Cumberland Gap about 1750, a relatively easy route became available across the mountains. However, westward migration did not start until 1779 when Daniel Boone was commissioned by the Virginia Legislature to build a road through the Gap. He built what became known as the "Wilderness Road." From 1779 to 1795 a steady stream of settlers flowed across the mountain trail. Few stopped to settle in the rugged mountains to work out a living. Most of the people moved on through the mountains into the low rolling hills and river bottom lands of central Kentucky and beyond. The results of this migration can be seen in the timber stands of the region today. Within the Appalachian mountain territory there are vast areas of forest land containing billions of board feet of timber. Farther west beyond the mountains in Kentucky and Tennessee, the forest lands are mostly small tracts and farm wood When steam boat traffic started on the Ohio River, travel largely left the overland route, and the mountain section was nearly isolated from the outside world. Scattered logging operations were active near the river courses as early as 1825. However, it was not until about ten years after the Civil War when deposits of coal and iron were discovered that the railroads pushed into the mountains providing new transportation systems. The coming of the railroads was important to the timber industry because it provided outlets for the forest products so bountiful in the country. The demand for forest products, job opportunities, and new accessibility made the mountains more hospitable and hundreds of new settlements were established along the rail junctions. Lumbermen from New England and New York and Pennsylvania were looking for new sources of timber, having moved through the virgin forests of the northeast. Here was a new area of timber, the grandeur of which they had never seen. Great band mills were built throughout the mountains to saw the giant poplar, oak and ash. These Appalachian hardwoods found their way into furniture, flooring, wall paneling, railroad ties and hundreds of other products. They matched in elegance and beauty the foreign woods favored by woodworking craftsmen of the day. The area remains primarily a timber-producing region because the rugged nature of the country discouraged extensive land clearing for farming and conditions of soil, climate and topography are nearly perfect for growing trees. The Appalachian mountains, which represent about 15 percent of the hardwood forest land area, furnish more than 20 percent of the total hardwood lumber production. The story of early hardwood harvesting in the Appalachians is one of popularity for the different species. The first loggers went into the woods and cut white oak and yellow poplar 24 inches and larger in diameter. Timber harvest in the mountains continued to rise, with peak production reached in 1909 and 1910. During this period of timber production, the supply seemed infinite. Mammoth machines moved through the woods, knocking down what was not harvested and leaving great quantities of wasted wood in their wake. Following the harvests, fires often moved through the area, burning not only trees, but the soil as well, causing serious damage to the forest environment. The miracle of nature provided the vitality to recover from the devastating fires and today the forests have regenerated. In the old days of virgin timber, trees were cut for use and to clear the land. Now, with our frontier gone and our second growth timber before us, we are growing trees for use and changing our forest practices to meet not only the demands of today but the anticipated demands of generations to come. Today, landowners and operators alike have professional foresters in their employ who guide the destiny of our public, private and industrial forests. As our ancestors found wood important to their daily lives, we find it essential today. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live a week without touching anything that required the cutting of a tree. There would be no newspapers, magazines or books. Food would be very hard to find. New homes could not be built. Railroads could not operate. There would be no paper products---no toilet tissue, paper napkins, bags, boxes or containers. Fortunately for all of us, we will not run out of wood in the immediate future. Trees are our only major renewable resource. Unlike the oil and mineral resources of this nation, trees can go on forever. If we are intelligent enough as a society to grow, harvest and manage trees scientifically, we can count on a bountiful supply of wood forever. In the harvesting, sawing and processing of logs in the Appalachian region, thousands of jobs are created. People are needed to cut the trees, saw them into logs and haul them to sawmills. There the logs are cut into lumber. Other manufacturing plants process them into flooring, cabinets, panels, furniture and various finished products. Wood industry jobs now require highly skilled people and provide lifetime occupational employment for those who want meaningful productive work. Altogether the basic forest industries of the Appalachian region employ more than 50,000 people, with payrolls generating millions of dollars. Thus, you can see the forests of this region play and important part in the daily economic lives of Forest management practices in the region are making rapid strides. Future progress will depend on public cooperation and support. Trees were put here to use. Remember, timber is our only major natural resource. There is a direct relationship between the quality of timber and the quality of all other forest resources. When trees are maintained in a healthy vigorous condition, all other resources benefit. When trees are "cultured" or managed, watershed values, wildlife food and cover, recreational opportunities, and all other enjoyment values for people are the greatest.	3.936489
Cleaner Water: North Carolina's Straight-Pipe Elimination Project by Fred D. Baldwin Some years ago, William and Elizabeth Thomas tried unsuccessfully to install a properly designed septic system that would replace a four-inch pipe draining household wastewater straight into a little creek a few yards behind their home. "I scrounged up enough money to put one in," William Thomas says. Spreading his hands about two feet apart, he adds, "But I didn't get down this far until we hit water." The Thomases live on a small hillside lot in a rural area of Madison County, North Carolina. Their situation is similar to that of many rural Appalachian families who for one reason or another-money, the lay of the land, or both-live in older homes with inadequate septic systems. By the end of the year, however, they and many other Madison County residents will have new septic systems in place, thanks to a county program backed by an impressive team of state, federal, and local partners ranging from area conservation groups to the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). The genesis of the program goes back to 1995, when Governor James B. Hunt created the Year of the Mountains Commission to assess current and future issues affecting North Carolina's western mountain communities. To protect and improve water quality, the commission recommended that, in addition to reducing mine drainage and agricultural runoff, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) be directed to "aggressively pursue a program to eliminate the practice of 'straight-piping.' " For years, decades even, it had been politically easier to ignore this issue. The commission pointed out that the 1990 Census of housing showed that nearly 50,000 households in North Carolina did not have connections to either municipal sewage systems or adequate septic systems. This was true not only in mountainous areas, but also in low-income communities across the state. Some of these households were draining "black water," which includes raw sewage, into creeks or streams; others were piping toilet wastes to a septic tank but straight-piping soapy and bacteria-laden "gray water" from sinks, baths, and dishwashers. Still other households were relying on septic systems built before the installation of a dishwasher or a second bathroom; these older systems were now prone to backups or leaks. As early as 1958, the state took the first of many steps to regulate or eliminate straight-piping. This and subsequent measures were loosely enforced. In 1996, Governor Hunt established a goal to eliminate straight-piping of untreated wastewater into western North Carolina's rivers and streams by the end of the decade. "Every child should grow up in a community with clean, safe water," Hunt says. That same year, in response to the Year of the Mountains Commission report, the North Carolina General Assembly created the Wastewater Discharge Elimination (WaDE) program, which differed significantly from earlier, essentially punitive measures. The new law provided a temporary "amnesty" for households reporting conditions violating state environmental health codes and, more important, provided technical assistance to communities wishing to take advantage of the state's Clean Water Management Trust Fund (a fund established to finance projects that address water pollution problems). Terrell Jones, the WaDE team leader, praises Madison County for being the first county to conduct a wastewater discharge survey under the new law, and he emphasizes that straight-piping, especially of gray water, is a statewide problem. Driving around Madison County, you see why wastewater problems are costly to correct. Roads wind up and down past rocky, fast-flowing streams and creeks that drain into the French Broad River, where white-water rafters come for excitement. Houses on back roads are far apart but near streams. If there's enough land suitable for a septic tank and drainage field downhill from one of those houses, a conventional septic system can be installed for about $2,000. But if wastewater has to be pumped uphill, the cost can easily reach $8,000 or more. This explains why punitive measures against straight-piping have been loosely enforced. Local officials know that even $2,000 is beyond the means of many families. Who would tell cash-strapped people-more often than not, elderly-that they had to sell or abandon their home or family farmstead because of a housing code violation? A Growing List of Partners Madison County officials decided to take the lead on a positive approach. They first turned to the Land-of-Sky Regional Council, an Asheville-based local development district that represents 19 governmental units in four Appalachian counties, including Madison. The Land-of-Sky staff took advantage of an infrastructure demonstration grant from the North Carolina Division of Community Assistance and funds from ARC to begin a wastewater survey and community-planning process. From that point, the list of partners grew rapidly. They included the DENR WaDE program, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development, the North Carolina Rural Communities Assistance Project, the state-funded Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the Pigeon River Fund, the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, the Western North Carolina Housing Partnership, and ARC. The Madison County Health Department and Land-of-Sky took the lead locally, working with a grassroots planning committee representing a broad base of organizations, outdoor sports enthusiasts, environmental groups, and private-property owners (some of them living in homes with straight-piping). Among the decisions: to test every building in Madison County not connected to a municipal system, not just the older units. That way, no one would feel singled out, and all faulty septic systems would be spotted. "It's made the process go slower," says Heather Bullock, the Land-of-Sky regional planner assisting the project, "but it's made it better." Not all that much slower, either. By the end of September 1999, health department employees had surveyed 4,594 of an estimated 10,000 houses in Madison County. Where plumbing configurations weren't self-evident, the surveyors dropped dye tablets into sinks and toilets (different colors for each) to see if colored water emerged into a stream or septic tank area. The survey identified 945 noncompliant systems (20 percent of the total). Of these, 258 were straight-piping black water; 535, gray water. Another 116 had failing septic systems, and 36 had only outhouses. The incidence of problems closely tracked household income. A welcome surprise, says Kenneth D. Ring, health director of the Madison County Health Department, was how well the inspectors were received. "The cooperation has been overwhelming," he says. Although most people with poor systems knew they had problems and wanted to correct them, some knew little or nothing about the design of their systems. For example, Ronnie Ledford, the chief building inspector and environmental health supervisor on the health department staff, recalls a visit with a man living in a mobile home. "He thought he had a septic system," Ledford says. "He had a 55-gallon drum. We found a 'black' pipe draining into a ditch line. He was very shocked. It took him some time to get his money together, but he took care of it himself." The problem all along, however, had been that too few people had been able to get the money together to take care of things for themselves. All the agencies involved chipped in to the extent their guidelines permitted. A few septic systems were renovated with Community Development Block Grant funds, but that program's rules require that any unit being renovated in any way be brought up to code in all respects-prohibitively expensive for people in housing with other problems. The USDA provided Section 504 loans and grants for eligible elderly, low-income home owners. The largest pool of money came from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, which awarded Madison County $750,000 for a revolving loan and grant fund, plus funds for administration. Even so, setting up a workable program wasn't easy. Many low-income area residents had poor credit ratings and little collateral with which to guarantee loans. If the program's loan requirements were too tight, applicants wouldn't qualify for loans, and pollutants would continue to drain into streams; too loose, and the loan fund itself would soon drain away. Help with Funding The Madison County Revolving Loan and Grant Program was established with these concerns in mind. The program includes both grants and loans, the ratios based on household income. In determining credit-worthiness, the program coordinator looks at whether difficulties were caused by circumstances beyond the family's control, such as a medical emergency. If a loan still looks too risky, the applicant is referred to an educational program run by the nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Western North Carolina, in Asheville. When it appeared that Madison County might lack the legal flexibility for making the needed loans, the partners turned for help to the Center for Community Self-Help, a statewide nonprofit that offers loans as a community development tool. Self-Help agreed to make the loans from its funds, using the county's fund as its collateral. This somewhat complicated arrangement gives everyone involved some freedom to maneuver. The default rate is likely to be substantially higher than a bank could tolerate, but Self-Help makes sure applicants take the loan seriously. "The goal is to clean up the water," explains Tom Barefoot, the USDA Rural Development manager for the area. "We're trying to build on what it takes to get people in [the program], not on possible failure." "This is a multi-year program," adds Marc Hunt, a loan officer with Self-Help's western North Carolina regional office. "We say, ' Work on your credit and get back on the list in a few months.' We don't want to enable consumers to develop bad habits." Contracts were let this fall for installing the first batch of new septic systems (not counting a handful of early projects). By the end of the year 2000, Madison County hopes to have replaced 130 straight-pipes. The benefits will be both tangible and intangible. First of all, the streams of Madison County, some of which flow into a river providing drinking water for towns downstream, will be cleaner. That has important health and economic benefits for an area increasingly attractive to both outdoor recreationalists and people planning to build homes away from cities. Ironically, in some jurisdictions, worries about "image" have been a factor in unwillingness to deal more aggressively with straight-piping. "Madison County recognized an opportunity," says Barefoot, "and they had the courage to act. It's not always a politically safe decision." Marc Hunt agrees: "Many rural counties have similar situations. Any one of them could have done it, but Madison County took the lead." Governor Hunt also has praise for the county. "I am proud of everyone involved in Madison County's work to find and fix straight-piping problems in a cooperative effort. This will only help our economic development, our public health, and our environment. But most of all, we're helping to make sure our children can grow up in a community with clean, safe water." The various public and private partners involved hope that Madison County's experience will become a model for other counties. There have been expressions of interest from county officials inside and outside the Appalachian areas of the state. "It's really incredible to me," says Jody Lovelace, a community development specialist with USDA Rural Development, "how we've been able to pull this together. Everyone said, 'Let's not just clean up the water. Let's help these folks develop financial responsibility and financial pride.' " For the individual households involved, there are direct benefits. Some will have a chance to build or improve a credit history. Most will benefit at least somewhat from improved property values. All, of course, will be glad to be rid of septic systems that back up or of the unpleasant and potentially dangerous discharge of wastewater of any kind near their homes. "It's a health hazard," Elizabeth Thomas says. The Thomases, who were defeated by waterlogged soil when they tried to replace their old system years earlier, this time received help from a neighbor. He agreed to let them install a septic tank on his vacant field, downhill and off to one side of their house. "He's a good neighbor," William Thomas says. That pretty much sums up what Madison County, Land-of-Sky, and their various partners have accomplished. The straight-pipe elimination project began with a blue-ribbon commission's straight talk about an old problem. It's grown into a program that gives everyone involved-from agency officials to rural people living in houses built by their grandparents many decades ago-a chance to prove that they can be good neighbors to each other. Fred D. Baldwin is a freelance writer based in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.	3.432539
Wednesday 15 May Philippine duck (Anas luzonica) Philippine duck fact file - Find out more - Print factsheet Philippine duck description With its rusty-cinnamon head and bluish-grey bill, the Philippine duck is a rather distinctive bird. The cinnamon coloured head is boldly decorated with a black crown and a black stripe through the eye, while the rest of the plumage is brownish-grey. When in flight, a well-defined patch of glossy green on the wing can be clearly seen (2), which is bordered with black and has a narrow white edge (3), and the underside of the wing is also white (2). Immature Philippine ducks have slightly duller plumage than that of adults, while ducklings are olive-brown with a bright yellow face and neck (2). It calls with a typical duck-like quack (3). - Length: 48 – 58 cm (2) Philippine duck biology This shy and nervous species, which will quickly fly off if approached, may be seen in large flocks outside of the breeding season, but usually occurs in pairs or small groups (2). The breeding season is thought to extend between March and November, with a peak in activity in July and August, although this may vary throughout the range (2). The Philippine duck constructs a nest obscured from view under a thick cover of aquatic vegetation, such as water bindweed. Clutches consist of 8 to 10, sometimes 15 to 16, eggs, which are dull white with a brownish tinge. These are incubated for 25 to 26 days (2). Most active in the early morning, late afternoon, and during moonlit nights, the Philippine duck forages in shallow water for plants, molluscs and crustaceans (2). Fish and frogs may also be consumed, as well as insects, rice and the shoots of young plants; some farmers have complained of the damage this duck had done to newly sown fields and sprouting crops (4).Top Philippine duck rangeTop Philippine duck habitat The Philippine duck can be found in both freshwater and saltwater habitats, including small streams in forests, lakes, marshes, swamps, mangroves, tidal creeks, and the open sea (2) (4). It prefers areas with marsh vegetation, which offers vital food and cover, and is found up to elevations of 300 to 400 metres (2).Top Philippine duck status Classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List 2007 (1).Top Philippine duck threats Hunting and habitat loss pose the greatest threat to the Philippine duck’s survival, and evidence from the last 20 years suggest that numbers are declining (2). Since the 1960s, high levels of hunting and trapping of this species have been recorded, with thousands allegedly shot each week in certain months in the late 1980s (3), for both food and sport (5). Many wetland habitats of the Philippines have been drained, or converted for aquaculture and shrimp- or fish-ponds (3) (5). Most devastating to this species was the drainage of Candaba Marsh in the 1990s, which was once one of the most important sites for the Philippine duck, but is now too dry to support a large population (5). The recent extensive use of pesticides on rice-fields may also have had serious impacts on the Philippine duck (3).Top Philippine duck conservation The Philippine duck receives legal protection at five locations, including Lake Naujan National Park on Mindoro and Maria Aurora Memorial Natural Park on Luzon (3). In addition, hunting of all bird species is illegal in the Philippines, with the government banning firearms in 1972, although unfortunately, this law lacks enforcement (3) (5). Education and awareness programmes are required to enable local people to understand the effects of hunting on birds and the relevant laws (5). Further protection of the Philippine’s wetlands is also essential for this species’ survival; for example, the protection and restoration of Candaba Marsh has been recommended (3).Top Find out more For further information on the conservation of the Philippines’ wetlands see: - Society of the Conservation of Philippine Wetlands: For more information on this and other bird species please see: - BirdLife International: AuthenticationThis information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact: [email protected] - The cultivation of marine or freshwater food fish or shellfish under controlled conditions. - Diverse group of arthropods (a phylum of animals with jointed limbs and a hard chitinous exoskeleton) characterised by the possession of two pairs of antennae, one pair of mandibles (parts of the mouthparts used for handling and processing food) and two pairs of maxillae (appendages used in eating, which are located behind the mandibles). Includes crabs, lobsters, shrimps, slaters, woodlice and barnacles. - A species or taxonomic group that is only found in one particular country or geographic area. - A diverse group of invertebrates, mainly marine, that have one or all of the following; a horny, toothed ribbon in the mouth (the radula), a shell covering the upper surface of the body, and a mantle or mantle cavity with a type of gill. Includes snails, slugs, shellfish, octopuses and squid. - IUCN Red List (April, 2008) - Kear, J. (2005) Ducks, Geese and Swans. Oxford University Press, Oxford. - BirdLife International (April, 2008) - BirdLife International. (2001) Threatened Birds of Asia: the BirdLife International Red Data Book. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK. - Crosby, M.J. (2003) Saving Asia’s Threatened Birds: A Guide for Government and Civil Society. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK. MyARKive offers the scrapbook feature to signed-up members, allowing you to organize your favourite ARKive images and videos and share them with friends. Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials Copyright in this website and materials contained on this website (Material) belongs to Wildscreen or its licensors. 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Please see http://creativecommons.org for details. Any other use Please contact the copyright owners directly (copyright and contact details are shown for each media item) to negotiate terms and conditions for any use of Material other than those expressly permitted above. Please note that many of the contributors to ARKive are commercial operators and may request a fee for such use. Save as permitted above, no person or organisation is permitted to incorporate any copyright material from this website into any other work or publication in any format (this includes but is not limited to: websites, Apps, CDs, DVDs, intranets, extranets, signage, digital communications or on printed materials for external or other distribution). Use of the Material for promotional, administrative or for-profit purposes is not permitted.	3.422136
1. What is sequestration? A: Sequestration is a fiscal policy procedure adopted by Congress to deal with the federal budget deficit. Simply put, sequestration is the cancellation of previously approved spending— an automatic form of spending cuts. As modified by the fiscal cliff deal passed by Congress January 1, sequestration will take effect March 1, 2013 but impose cuts over a period of nine years, 2013–2021. Some federal programs are called “mandatory” and are mostly spared from sequestration. However, the rest of the government, the so-called “discretionary” programs, are subject to significant cuts starting in 2013 that will be divided between nondefense spending ($700 billion) and defense spending ($500 billion). 2. Why is sequestration happening now? A: A law passed by Congress and signed by the president in August 2011 created a Congressional supercommittee to deal with the federal budget deficit and pass a package of spending cuts by Thanksgiving. As an incentive for Democrats and Republicans to reach agreement, the law contains the threat of the across-the-board cuts (sequestration) if the deadline arrived and the deal wasn’t struck. Congress failed to reach agreement, thus triggering sequestration in January 2013. 3. Can sequestration be stopped? A: Yes. Although sequestration is the law right now, Congress can pass another law that would repeal it. However, additional spending cuts would most likely be required to replace the automatic cuts. Last year, the House and Senate proposed legislation that would have replaced the sequester, but would also have imposed dramatically deeper cuts to education and all other nondefense discretionary programs. For example, a House-passed Republican bill would have prevented any cuts to defense by increasing the cuts to domestic programs, including education, by $19 billion. The president’s FY13 budget proposal also would have eliminated the need for sequestration by reducing government spending in most areas (although it proposed a slight increase in education spending). 4. What can I do? A: Send messages to your senators and representative urging them to repeal sequestration. First, use the Sequestration Effect Calculator on the sequestration page to determine the dollar amount of cuts that your school budget or programs will face if sequestration is not repealed. Then, go to the Action Center and use the figure generated by the calculator to customize the e-mail message to your lawmakers. ^ Return to top.	3.503229
A collective biography of the nine children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who included King Edward VII; Victoria, Princess Royal, later Empress Frederick; and Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh Buy your copy! Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort, had nine children. Despite different characters and temperaments, they always remained a closely-knit, mutually supportive family group. Some married into European royal families and experienced the painful division of loyalties inevitable in the ever-changing world of 19th-century political and nationalist feeling. The life of Victoria, Princess Royal, later consort of the German Emperor Frederick III, was soured by the merciless opposition of Chancellor Bismarck and later her son, Emperor William II ('Kaiser Bill'). Similarly the marriage of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, to a Russian Grand Duchess, gave Britain a dynastic alliance with a country whom she had defeated in the Crimean War, and nearly cause her to take up arms against her old enemy once more. Even the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, inadvertently provoked German anger by taking a Danish princess as his bride. Yet their lives were not totally dominated by political controversy. All made their own contributions to public life in Britain and Europe. Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, whose children included the last Tsarina of Russia, worked tirelessly throughout her tragically short life on behalf of welfare and educational services in Germany, an example which her younger sisters faithfully followed in England. Leopold, Duke of Albany, was an active patron of the arts, although he died at the early age of 31, while Arthur, Duke of Connaught, served with distinction in the army, and as Governor-General of Canada. After the death of Edward VII in 1910, the four surviving children of Queen Victoria all lived through the family tragedy of the Great War; all but one witnessed the outbreak of Hitler's conflict in 1939, It was fortunate for Vicky (the Empress Frederick), Alice (Grand Duchess of Hesse) and Affie (Duke of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg Gotha) that they had all died at comparatively early ages, for the heartbreak of being at war with the country of their birth would surely have been too heavy a burden for them to bear. As it was, there would be distressing divisions of loyalty among the next generation. Charles, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, and Ernest, Grand Duke of Hesse, were sovereign princes in the Fatherland. Like Prince and Princess Henry of Prussia, they were on much more friendly terms with their easy-going relations in England than with the German Emperor and his sabre-rattling military entourage at the unbearably military Berlin court. But family ties counted for as little in 1914 as they had during Bismarck's ascendancy. Again, 'every family feeling was rent asunder'.	3.063325
TIMOTHY ACKER AND DRAKE BRANNON PERFORM WATER QUALITY TESTS. Students in James Galvin’s Agriculture classes are getting hands on education in Fresh Water Shrimp production. Yes, that’s right fresh water shrimp. The students are involved with the production with five hundred fresh water shrimp. The shrimp that the students are working with are close relatives of the shrimp that swim in the ocean, but these shrimp live in a fresh water environment. ACHS students are raising their shrimp in a closed recycling tank system. When working with this type of system students are taught that water quality is critical. Each day students must test the water for oxygen content, pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels. The students have discovered that the temperature of the water must be maintained at 80 degrees. Students learned that when the water temperature falls below 75 degrees that the shrimp will live, but will not consume feed and grow. Students working with the shrimp can clearly see and understand how chemistry, math and biology principles effect and play into everyday life. Technology plays a very large role in helping students test the water and maintain the environment for proper water quality and balance. Students have developed a strong interest in the shrimp project and look forward to continuing on with its development. The students would like to thank Mr. Starr for his continued support and enthusiasm for the project. The fresh water shrimp project has partnered with White Water Aqua Farms and they have been providing tremendous amount of technical advice, knowledge and experience to enhance this project. KALEB WRIGHT PREPARES THE FEED FOR FRESH WATER SHRIMP.	3.398934
By John Myers Even if scientists, regulators, politicians and industry leaders find common ground on how much sulfate is too much for wild rice, the issue of sulfate in Minnesota waterways isn’t going away. Scientists studying wetlands in northern Minnesota recently published the findings of a study that ties elevated sulfate to elevated toxic mercury levels and shows that, when sulfate stops flowing into a wetland, the level of toxic mercury goes back down. “Sulfate is an issue even if and where wild rice is not,” said Ed Swain, research scientist for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and a national authority on mercury in the environment. Scientists know the same bacteria that convert sulfate to hydrogen sulfide, which might damage wild rice, are the same ones that convert benign mercury that falls from the sky into methyl mercury — the toxic form of mercury that is unsafe for animals and humans in large doses. That means the more sulfate, the more active the bacteria, and the more bacteria, the more mercury turns toxic, at least in areas of low oxygen, such as underwater in wetlands. Swain said added sulfate will not stimulate bacterial growth if there is no organic matter such as plants and weeds. Wetlands and lakes that have a lot of plant growth would be much more affected by an increase in sulfate than a fast-moving stream that has a gravel bottom and little organic matter, he added. Added sulfate from human activity also has more impact in waters that had been low in sulfate naturally. Mercury “concentrations in fish may be the result of increased sulfate” in what had been low-sulfate waters, an earlier study by Minnesota scientists notes. A study published this summer by Minnesota scientists in the journal Environmental Science & Technology confirmed the correlation. Scientists are also tracking down a link between sulfate in the water and higher levels of phosphate, a key ingredient in algae blooms. That may be why some lakes that have seen increased levels of sulfate are showing signs of rapid aging, with more weeds and algae growth, a process called eutrophication. When bacteria convert sulfate to sulfide, it releases phosphate from sediment into the water, Swain noted, making it available for algae. That’s because phosphate is usually held in the sediment by iron, but sulfide binds with iron so that it no longer holds onto the phosphate. Meanwhile, higher water temperatures from a warming climate may be bolstering the bacteria that make all the conversions possible. The mercury comes from all over the world, going up in smoke from power plants as far away as China, and as close as taconite plants on the Iron Range. The sulfate also can come from all over the world, in the form of acid rain, but also originates locally, in the runoff from mining operations. Suddenly, sulfate has become a hot topic in Minnesota environmental protection. And officials agree that efforts to reduce the flow of sulfate into the environment are only likely to grow. “Its time has come,” Mark Tomasek, the PCA’s supervisor of water quality standards, said of sulfate. In the past, the primary source of human-caused sulfate increases came for acid rain. But rain has been getting less acidic for more than 20 years, thanks to controls on coal-burning power plants and other manufacturing. Now, the main sources of sulfate to Minnesota streams are municipal and industrial wastewater discharges and diffuse sources such as runoff from waste rock piles on the Iron Range, Swain said. Nancy Schuldt, water quality coordinator for the Fond du Lac band’s environmental program, said the PCA is late to the game in addressing the sulfate issue. Sulfate should have been a key part of water pollution permits for industry for decades, she said. But the state only recently began raising the issue, prompting vocal resistance from industry and the Legislature. “We’ve been concerned about sulfate for years,” Schuldt said. “We’re hoping this means the state is going to take it seriously.” Sulfate naturally leaches from rock and soil. But it is often seen at higher levels in some areas because of human activity, such as mining, mills and treatment plants. Some sulfate comes from the sky during rain and snow. And some runs off the land as water flows into local streams and lakes. On the Iron Range, it’s coming out of wastewater ponds and old stockpiles of mine rubble left behind by operations long since closed. The St. Louis River, for example, appears to have had a natural sulfate level of about 3 parts per million. But below mining areas, the river runs as high as 50 parts per million sulfate. Research by Department of Natural Resources scientists, however, notes that the amount of methyl mercury in streams below mining areas is about the same as nearby streams that don’t see runoff from mining, water where any sulfate would come from air pollution or naturally, hinting that sulfate from mining isn’t the reason fish have more toxic mercury. Another nearly $1 million study under way by the DNR this summer seeks to find a connection, if any, between Iron Range mining, sulfate and high toxic mercury levels in fish, also looking at whether high iron concentrations and other elements in the water may play a role. In other parts of the state, ethanol plants appear to be contributing sulfate into waterways, Swain said, and humans also pass it on to wastewater treatment plants. By John Myers	3.541388
Many, see text. Hummingbirds (family Trochilidae) are small birds capable of hovering in mid-air due to the rapid flapping of their wings (15 to 80 beats per second, depending on the size of the bird). They are named for the characteristic hum of this rapid wing motion. They are the only birds that can fly backwards. Hummingbirds bear the most glittering plumage and some of the most elegant adornments. Male hummingbirds are usually brightly coloured, females duller. The males take no part in nesting. The nest is usually a neat cup in a tree. Two white eggs are laid, which are quite small, but large relative to the bird's size. Incubation is typically 14-19 days. The names that admiring naturalists have given to hummingbirds suggest exquisite, fairylike grace and gemlike refulgence. Fiery-tailed Awlbill , Ruby-topaz Hummingbird, Glittering-bellied Emerald , Brazilian Ruby , Green-crowned Brilliant --are some of the names applied to the 233 species of the hummingbirds briefly described in Meyer de Schauensee's scientific Guide to Birds of South America. Iridescent colors are common among hummingbirds. By changing position, the direction of the reflected light might give the effect of two completely different colors of the same plumage parts. On the hummingbird's glittering throat or crown, the exposed surfaces of the barbules resemble tiny flat mirrors, which send forth their resplendence in the favored direction. This mechanism plays an important role in social interaction and species recognition. All the metallic colours of hummingbirds are caused by interference. Source (Skutch, 1973 Hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of all animals except insects in flight, a necessity in order to support the rapid beating of their wings. Their heartbeat can reach 500 beats per minute. They also typically consume more than their own weight in food each day, and to do that, they have to visit hundreds of flowers every day. But at any given moment, they're hours away from starving. Fortunately, they are capable of slowing down their metabolism at night, or any other time food is not readily available. They enter a hibernation-like state known as torpor. During torpor, the heartrate and rate of breathing are both slowed dramatically, reducing their need for food. Studies of hummingbirds' metabolism are highly relevant to the question of whether a migrating ruby-throated hummingbird can cross 500 miles of Gulf of Mexico on a nonstop flight, as field observations suggest it does. The ruby-throated hummingbird like other birds preparing to migrate, stores up fat to serve as fuel, thereby augmenting its weight by as much as 40 to 50 per cent--this would increase the bird's flying time. (Skutch, 1973) --Ccson 10:06, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC) Hummingbirds of the U.S. and Canada generally migrate to warmer climates, though some remain in the warmest coastal regions. In addition, there is an increasing trend for Rufous Hummingbirds to migrate east to winter in the eastern United States, rather than south to Central America, this trend being the result of increased survival with the provision of artificial feeders in gardens. In the past, individuals that migrated east would usually die, but now they survive, and their tendency to migrate east is inherited by their offspring. Provided sufficient food and shelter is available, they are surprisingly hardy, able to tolerate temperatures down to at least -20°C. Hummingbirds owe their wide distribution to their great power of flight and wandering habits no less than to their hardiness. Hummingbirds and People Hummingbirds will use feeders, particularly red ones. A suitable artificial nectar consists of one part sugar to four parts water. It is easiest to dissolve the sugar in boiling water, then cool it completely before putting it out for the birds. Sweet foods other than white sugar, such as honey, ferment too quickly and can injure the birds. Some commercial hummingbird foods are available, but they contain red dyes which are unnecessary and have been anecdotally reported to poison the birds. They also contain small amounts of nutrients, but hummingbirds apparently get their nutrients from the insects they eat, not from nectar, so the nutrients are also unnecessary. Thus plain white sugar and water make the best nectar. The feeder should be rinsed and the water changed weekly, or more often in warm weather. At least once a month, or whenever black mold appears, it should be soaked in a solution of chlorine bleach. Hummingbirds tend to avoid feeders that have been cleaned with soap, possibly because they dislike the smell. Much more detailed information is available at . Hummingbirds sometimes fly into garages and become trapped. It is widely believed that this is because they mistake the hanging (usually red-colored) door-release handle for a flower, although hummingbirds can also get trapped in enclosures that do not contain anything red. Once inside, they may be unable to escape because their natural instinct when threatened or trapped is to fly upward. This is a life-threatening situation for hummingbirds, as they can become exhausted and die in a relatively short period of time, possibly as little as an hour. If a trapped hummingbird is within reach, it can often be caught gently and released outdoors. It will lie quietly in the space between cupped hands until released. The Ohlone tells the story of how a Hummingbird brought fire to the world. Traditionally hummingbirds were placed in the order Apodiformes, which also contains the swifts. In the modern Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, hummingbirds are separated as a new hummingbird order Trochiliformes. There are between 325 and 340 species of hummingbird, depending on taxonomic viewpoint, divided into two subfamilies, the hermits (subfamily Phaethornithinae, 34 species in six genera), and the typical hummingbirds (subfamily Trochilinae, all the others). Hummingbirds have been thought by evolutionists to have evolved in South America, and the great majority of the species are found there. All the most familiar North American species are thought to be of relatively recent origin, and are therefore (following the usual procedure of lists starting with more 'ancestral' species and ending with the most recent) listed close to the end of the list. Genetic analysis has indicated that hummingbirds diverged from other birds 30 to 40 million years ago, but fossil evidence has proved elusive. Fossil hummingbirds have been found as old as a million years, but older fossils had not been securely identifiable as hummingbirds. Then, in 2004, Dr. Gerald Mayr of the Senkenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt-am-Main identified two 30-million-year old German hummingbird fossils and published his results in Nature. The fossils of the extinct hummingbird species, Eurotrochilus inexpectatus ("unexpected European hummingbird") had been sitting in a museum drawer in Stuttgart. They had been unearthed in a claypit in Frauenweiler, south of Heidelberg.	3.963592
Mid-Book Test (up to Chapter 7, Love) \|Name: _____________________________\|\|Period: ___________________________\| This test consists of 15 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions. Multiple Choice Questions Directions: Circle the correct answer. 1. Where does Joey think he is going in life? a) Joey thinks he's going to careen out of control. b) Joey thinks he's headed toward success. c) Joey doesn't think he's going anywhere. d) Joey thinks he's headed for failure. 2. How does Kopydra react when Joey tries to engage him in the schoolyard battle? a) He ignores Joey completely. b) He jumps out the window. c) He punches Joey in the face. d) He joins the battle. 3. How do the children react when they read Pimko's notes about their behavior? a) They are outraged. b) They are confused. c) They are apathetic. d) They are excited. 4. What language does Joey's... This section contains 555 words\| (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)	3.256877
Chapter abstracts are short descriptions of events that occur in each chapter. They highlight major plot events and detail the important relationships and characteristics of characters and objects. The Chapter Abstracts can be used to review what the students have read, or to prepare the students for what they will read. Hand the abstracts out in class as a study guide, or use them as a "key" for a class discussion. They are relatively brief, but can serve to be an excellent refresher of the text for either a student or teacher. Chapter 1 Abstract * Virginia "Vinnie" Miner is flying to London to research Play-Rhymes. * She is accompanied by Fido, an invisible dog that manifests when Vinnie is feeling depressed. Chapter 2 Abstract * A Western-attired man sits next to Vinnie. * He attempts to strike up conversation with Vinnie, even though she... This section contains 647 words\| (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page)	3.097325
This section provides a short description of all the major characters in the book. This can be printed out as a study guide for students, used as a "key" for leading a class discussion, or you can jump to the quiz/homework section to find worksheets that incorporate these descriptions into a variety of question formats. Niccolo Machiavelli - This person was a well-known Italian statesman, writer, philosophy, diplomat and political scientist and is most well-known for writing "The Prince", which was composed in 1513 and published after his death in 1532. His name is synonymous with wily and deceptive politicking. The Roman Empire/Republic - "The Discourses" is ostensibly a commentary on Titus Livius's history of this ancient civilization formed in 509 B.C. and continued for over 450 years. It was the basis for a wide range of modern governments. The Republic - "The Discourses" is focused on... This section contains 390 words\| (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)	3.850864
In the current era of massive deficits, federal, state and local government agencies are seeking ways to lower expenditures and still maintain essential services. Child welfare programs represent an area where significant savings could be achieved while actually improving the life circumstances of the young people affected. The way this could be accomplished is by increasing the number of children and youth who are adopted out of foster care. Findings from a recent national survey of child health provide new evidence that adoption can save the public money while improving the life prospects of youngsters who have been maltreated in their early years. Public Costs of Foster Care Children in foster care are children who were born to substance-abusing or mentally ill women, or youngsters who have been neglected or abused in the homes of their birth parents. They have been legally removed from their birth families and placed under the care and control of state-run child welfare agencies. There are close to a half-million children in the United States who are in foster care at any one time. Some are in foster care for only a brief period of days or weeks before being returned to their families. But almost a quarter of a million will remain in foster care for a year or more. Nearly 50,000 will stay in foster care five years or more, while 30,000 will remain there until they reach adulthood. The public costs of removing all these maltreated children from their birth families and caring for them in foster families, group homes, or institutions are substantial. Annual state and federal expenditures for foster care total more than $9 billion under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act alone. Although exact amounts are difficult to disentangle, even more money is spent for publicly-subsidized medical care for foster children and food stamps, cash welfare, and child care payments to the families that care for them. On top of that, there are longer-term costs that society incurs because of the developmental risks associated with child maltreatment and family disruption. Although children in long-term foster care represent only a small fraction of the total child population of the United States, they represent a much bigger portion of the young people who go on to create serious disciplinary problems in schools, drop out of high school, become unemployed and homeless, bear children as unmarried teenagers, abuse drugs and alcohol, and commit crimes. A recent study of a Midwest sample of young adults aged twenty-three or twenty-four who had aged out of foster care found that they had extremely high rates of arrest and incarceration. 81 percent of the long-term foster care males had been arrested at some point, and 59 percent had been convicted of at least one crime. This compares with 17 percent of all young men in the U.S. who had been arrested, and 10 percent who had been convicted of a crime. Likewise, 57 percent of the long-term foster care females had been arrested and 28 percent had been convicted of a crime. The comparative figures for all female young adults in the U.S. are 4 percent and 2 percent, respectively. Former foster youth are over-represented among inmates of state and federal prisons. In 2004 there were almost 190,000 inmates of state and federal prisons in the U.S. who had a history of foster care during their childhood or adolescence. These foster care alumni represented nearly 15 percent of the inmates of state prisons and almost 8 percent of the inmates of federal prisons. The cost of incarcerating former foster youth was approximately $5.1 billion per year. Adopting from Foster Care Increased adoption from foster care is a way of decreasing the number of young people who must spend much of their youth in unstable and less than ideal living arrangements. It may also be a way of preventing the long-term detrimental consequences of such an upbringing. As things stand now, less than 15 percent of all children in foster care will be adopted. There were 57,000 children adopted from foster care during Fiscal Year 2009, but there were twice as many-115,000-waiting to be adopted on September 30, 2009. (That is, adoption was the agency's case goal for the child and the parental rights of the biological parents had been legally terminated.) Adopting children from foster care is a risky proposition for prospective adoptive parents because of possible long-term effects on the child of both the traumatic early experiences they have endured and the detrimental genes they may carry in their DNA. Despite the risks involved, sizable numbers of middle-class couples are prepared to adopt these maltreated children. However, their efforts to adopt are often frustrated by federal laws and child welfare agency practices that require time-consuming efforts to preserve and reunify biological families and give preference to the placement of foster children with relatives. As a consequence, qualified couples who are eager to adopt an unrelated foster child may find themselves turned down by social workers in favor of a grandmother, aunt, or cousin of the child. This can occur even though the relative is reluctant to adopt and has only meager financial resources. An American couple can often complete an international adoption in less time and with fewer complications than adopting a child from foster care in the U.S. In addition, they have a better chance of obtaining an adoptive daughter or son near the time of the child's birth or within the first year or two of the child's life. Congress has passed a series of laws with provisions aimed at facilitating and encouraging adoption of foster children, such as by providing financial incentives including an income tax credit, subsidized medical care, and regular support payments for less affluent adoptive parents. There was an initial upward jump in the annual number of children adopted from foster care following the passage of the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act in 1997, from a base-period level of around 28,000 children per year to a level of around 51,000 children per year in 2000. Since then, however, the number of children adopted from foster care has fluctuated around 55,000, with no clear sustained upward trend. Likewise, the proportion of foster children waiting to be adopted to those who actually are adopted has hovered around 50 percent. There would be benefits for both the children who await adoption and for U.S. society as a whole if adoption of children in foster care by qualified non-relatives were made easier, faster, and more frequent. Yet advocates of family preservation have resisted efforts to make it so. Much of the controversy over adoption of children from foster care has gone on without the benefit of statistically reliable comparisons of how children fare if they are adopted from foster care as opposed to remaining in foster care or being reunited with their birth parents. Although definitive answers to this question can only be obtained through longitudinal studies and random-assignment experiments, there is useful information to be gleaned from a recent federal survey called the National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP). A major purpose of this brief is to summarize the results of a special analysis of data from this survey that the author carried out in collaboration with Matthew Bramlett, a survey statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The analysis was aimed at shedding as much light as possible on the life situations and wellbeing of children who had been adopted from foster care as well as those who were currently in foster care.	3.105072
The Solid Waste Management Department is committed to helping maintain a healthy environment for Albuquerque's current and future generations. Recycling helps keep disposal costs down while preserving natural resources and protecting the air, soil, and groundwater. Much of the more than 1,800 tons of trash generated by the city each day can be recycled. The manufacturing of new products requires considerable energy. If these materials are reused or recycled instead of being disposed of at landfills, less energy will be used, saving on scarce resources. For example, the production of an aluminum can from recycled metal uses 95% less energy than a can produced from raw aluminum. For more information on the Three R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - call the Solid Waste Management Department at (505) 761-8100. Recyclables are collected curbside at Albuquerque households, at recycling drop-off sites throughout the city, and at the city's . But collection is only the first step in the recycling process. To close the loop, materials then need to be processed into a form that allows them to be converted into a reusable product. For a complete data base of all recycling locations visit New Mexico Recycling Coalition.	3.129248

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