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A display at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Wyoming. (BLM)
Pulling Together to Preserve History
By Mike Abel
Dust, heat, wind, cold . . . hardships, joys, triumphs, challenges . . . the adventure, the gamble, the seemingly endless march—all were experienced by travelers heading westward along the Oregon, Mormon, California, and Pony Express Trails, and all are part of a great story. Many paths and many characters all converged on the east to west journey along the North Platte River at the site of present day Casper, Wyoming. Here, over 160 years after the first organized Euro-American footsteps, the stories are still told, no longer by campfire and on horseback, but through the BLM’s National Historic Trails Interpretive Center (NHTIC).
On the eastern edge of the Rockies, it is still many days journey to South Pass. Where the tall and short grass prairies have been left far behind and high desert plant and animal communities abound, the river corridor is restricted to a mere one-half mile or less because of low mountains to the south and sand dunes and broken terrain to the north. The westward trails, which had ranged up to several miles apart and in width in some areas, converge by the design of nature for the last crossing of the Platte. The dry overland route to the Sweetwater and other drainages awaits many miles to the west and south.
|Old Oregon Trail marker. (BLM/Bob Wick)|
How did the early emigrants tackle the daunting task of moving West to begin new lives? They formed partnerships, they banded together, and they became teams of many sizes and kinds, for they understood that working together ensured the best chances for success (and survival). Teamwork is also the mainstay of the NHTIC. Envisioned well over 20 years ago by trail and history enthusiasts from the local area, the NHTIC concept was born of an idea to honor this amazing part of American history. As the concept grew, citizens formed the National Historic Trails Center Foundation to encourage support for accurately telling the stories of the mid-19th century pioneers traveling the trails across the state. The nonprofit foundation, facing many obstacles on its own journey, joined with the city of Casper and the BLM in a unique partnership to make this dream a reality.
By architectural design and color, the center reflects the influence of the land, water, and sky. It opened in 2002 on a high hill overlooking the Platte and the city. At nearly 24,000 square feet, it offers a 100-seat theater and seven exhibit galleries describing the Native American presence, early European explorers, and the four major national historic trails, along with multimedia and interactive displays that bring the history of the West to life. The connections to the journeys are accomplished by using stories from actual pioneer diaries.
This partnership is unique in that the city donated the land, the BLM built the building and staffs the facility, and the foundation raised funds for and owns and maintains the center’s exhibits and galleries. Each partner contributed millions of dollars, and together, through cooperation and joint determination, they reached their goal of establishing the center, just as the pioneers reached their goal of crossing the river only a short distance and many years away. The foundation’s executive director has an office in the center and focuses on fundraising and upkeep and planning for the exhibits. The BLM staff offers visitor orientations, information, and a regular schedule of speakers, programs, historic reenactments, and other special events.
The center hosts thousands of schoolchildren from all grade levels throughout the year. A strong volunteer corps assists the staff with tours and provides the backbone for telling the stories of the pioneers as they recorded them. The BLM also taps another important resource by employing youth, especially college students, to assist visitors and help them understand the cultural significance of the trails.
The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, part of the National Landscape Conservation System, is a gateway to learning about the pioneers’ stories, the commitments they made that changed their lives forever, and their journeys across the country. Visitors are awed by the actual sites and locations across Wyoming and the West where history was made and is still preserved, treasured, and enjoyed. In Wyoming, the BLM, through the NLCS, offers unmatched beauty and unspoiled remnants of the historic trails of the greatest overland migration in this nation’s history.
Mike Abel has been the Director of the BLM's National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper, Wyoming, since 2009. He has worked for municipal and state governments in Wyoming and Iowa in recreation, education, resource protection, land management, and urban planning over the past 30 years.
| 2.952406 |
Summer Fit Activity Books move summer learning beyond academics to also prepare children physically and socially for the grade ahead. Academic exercises are based on Common Core standards and include skills in math, reading, writing, language arts and science.
Fitness exercises are designed to jump start the recommended 60 minutes of active play a day that children need to grow up healthy. Role models from throughout the world including Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi and Harriet Tubman help reinforce core values such as honesty, respect and trustworthiness. Summer Fit extends the summer learning experience online with free reading and math digital downloads, book reports, health and wellness activities and fitness videos.
* Based on Common Core: math, reading, writing, language arts and science
* Exercises jump start the recommended 60 minutes of daily movement and play
* Role models reinforce core values, good character and social skills
* Integrated academics and physical activities reinforce the importance of the "body-brain" connection
* Free digital downloads
| 3.094828 |
According to the government website, flu.gov, if you have a fever over 100 degrees, a cough or sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, headaches or body aches, chills, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and or diarrhea, you may have the flu. Since there have been many people sick with either the flu some may not know they have it until they have been around a number of people. According to Boonville Dr. John Ward, this flu season is worse than it has been for at least two years and he feels it may get even worse. Ward said he started seeing the flu around Thanksgiving and once the weather started getting colder, the frequency of people having the flu increased. He said if the flu is caught early enough, a medicine such as Tamiflu can be used to decrease the length of the flu. The best treatment, he said, to deter the flu from the beginning is by getting a flu shot. The government flu website stated that treating the symptoms is the most common way of dealing with the flu. It is recommend that by getting plenty of rest, drinking clear fluids like water, broth, sports drinks, or electrolyte beverages to prevent becoming dehydrated, placing a cool, damp washcloth on your forehead, arms, and legs to reduce discomfort associated with a fever, putting a humidifier in your room to make breathing easier, gargling salt water (1:1 ratio warm water to salt) to soothe a sore throat and by covering up with a warm blanket to calm chills will make the flu symptoms slowly disappear. Ward added by cleaning items that are in constant contact with people is a must. He said such items as remotes, refrigerators and counter tops must be cleaned constantly. "Avoid areas of a lot of people," Ward said. "Keep washing your hands and keep a bottle of hand sanitizer around as well." Ward said the flu will run its course between seven to 10 days.
| 2.853916 |
Every museum strives to enrich its collection even further, but acquiring new objects is not always possible. Luckily, our storerooms have much to offer and with new research and conservation we are able to supplement the galleries with interesting and beautiful objects that have never been on display before. Recently, we had the opportunity to conserve an extraordinary plaster mummy mask from the Old Kingdom and we are especially excited about being able to share this mask with you because it is so rare. The fragility of the material, plaster, is probably the reason for the scarcity of such masks today.
Such masks appear to have been created by coating the linen wrappings on the head of a mummy with plaster. So, while it’s not a “death mask” in the modern Western sense of the term, it was meant to portray the deceased. Only a few such plaster masks are known, and most of them date to the Old Kingdom (circa 2675–2170 B.C.E.). Very soon after, plaster masks went out of fashion, and were replaced by more elaborate and durable masks or head coverings made of wood, cartonnage and other materials.
This mask was excavated in tomb G 6104A in Giza, Egypt, by the Harvard-Boston expedition. In 1948 the fragile mask arrived to the Brooklyn Museum in four crumbling pieces. In this state, the fragments did not appear to amount to much of an image, and were carefully placed in our storerooms. But, with the wonderful work of our conservators, who put the pieces back together, the mask revealed a delicate face.
We discussed the best way to display this wonderful object. Although we have a pretty good idea of the original appearance of the mask, we simply could not know what the missing pieces were like. For this reason, we did not to fill in any of the losses. This meant that a hole in the middle of the mask would be very apparent and the color and kind of fabric for the backing had to be chosen. After some discussion, we finally decided on a fabric resembling the appearance of mummy wrappings—a neutral beige linen.
Kerith Koss was responsible for conserving the mask and creating its mount so that it could be properly displayed. The task of arranging and holding the fragments correctly required elaborate treatment. She told me about the work:
The result is fantastic! Come and see the beautiful face made over 4000 years ago—it’s on display now.
| 3.370638 |
In a recent Stanford study, two different groups of participants were asked to think of a number between one and ten.
Then, they were told they would be given five dollars if they gave an even number to the researchers.
Because people tend to think of odd numbers at a much higher rate than even ones, a large percentage of evens is a good indicator of cheating or dishonesty
In one group, about a fifth said they picked an even number. In the other, nearly half.
The only difference? One word. The first group, which cheated much less, was told that the study was examining "cheaters," and the other that it was looking at "cheating."
It's all about the ego and making it personal. The idea of being a "cheater" is much more immediate than the more abstract idea of "cheating." The effect goes both ways. Not only do people try to avoid seeing themselves in a negative light, they will go out of their way to put themselves in a positive light. Another study found that asking people to "be voters" was much more effective than encouraging them to "go vote."
From signs on tip jars to behavioral cues at work, the way things are phrased can be extremely important.
Read more about the research here
| 3.165225 |
Figure 1 - A sample generated maze using a 50 x 50 grid
Did you ever get the feeling that cubicles were laid out with the idea that there could be no escape? (Must be I am a bit overworked these days). Today's article focuses on how to generate a maze using the depth first search algorithm. This is a very simple but clever algorithm that creates a maze by randomly stripping one available wall between two cells for every cell in the grid. The steps to the algorithm are as follows:
- Pick any random cell in the grid (In this implementation we use the upper left hand corner.)
- Find a random neighboring cell that hasn't been visited yet.
- If you find one, strip the wall between the current cell and the neighboring cell.
- If you don't find one, return to the previous cell.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 (or steps 2 and 4) for every cell in the grid.
Note: A good place to visit to understand this algorithm is the MazeWorks site.
Having examined the algorithm, I was able to come up with a set of classes that would help me implement it. Below is the design for the Maze Generator Application. The Application allows you to generate a maze of any grid dimension and grid cell size. It also allows you to print and print preview the grid:
Figure 2 - Maze Generation Application Reverse engineered using the WithClass 2000 UML Tool
As you can see from the UML design, the Maze class generates the maze and contains a collections of Cells to work the algorithm. Each cell contains an array of 4 walls which can be "knocked down" by setting an element in the array to zero. The code for implementing the Depth First Search is shown below. It increments the total number of cells visited in a while loop and completes when the VisitedCells equals the n x n number of grid cells. As stated in the algorithm, first it gets a list of neighboring cells with 4 walls intact and picks one of them at random (if a neighbor exists). It then knocks down a wall between the current cell and the randomly chosen cell. The current cell is pushed onto a stack and the randomly chosen cell becomes the new current cell. If no adjacent neighbors exist with 4 walls intact, the previous cell is popped off the stack and made the current cell. public void Generate()
while (VisitedCells < TotalCells)
// get a list of the neighboring cells with all 4 walls intact
ArrayList AdjacentCells = GetNeighborsWithWalls(CurrentCell);
// test if a cell like this exists
if (AdjacentCells.Count > 0)
// yes, choose one of them, and knock down the wall between it and the current cell
int randomCell = Cell.TheRandom.Next(0, AdjacentCells.Count);
Cell theCell = ((Cell)AdjacentCells[randomCell]);
CellStack.Push(CurrentCell); // push the current cell onto the stack
CurrentCell = theCell; // make the random neighbor the new current cell
VisitedCells++; // increment the # of cells visited
else // No adjacent cells that haven't been visited, go back to the previous cell
CurrentCell = (Cell)CellStack.Pop();
Mazes are fun to solve, but are also a good background for graphic games. In my next article I'll attempt to combine the eater game with the maze generation. Enjoy some aMazing Puzzles in C# and .NET.
| 3.51116 |
This online calculator will convert a percent to a fraction. If the percentage is greater than 100% it will be converted into a mixed number. Enter percents to have them converted to fractions. The number you enter can also have a decimal part. Example: 3.5% or .625%.
To convert a percent to a fraction you first convert the percent to a decimal then use the same procedure as converting a decimal to fraction.
| 2.981814 |
By Nancy Ripton
My husband wants our sons to be left-handed. He dreams of at least one landing a “free ride” to university on a sports scholarship and reasons that a left-hander has better odds. I used to laugh at his theory, but it turns out he’s right.
Research suggests the right hemisphere of the brain is dominant in left-handers. While it’s overly simplistic to say all left-handers excel in right-brain functions such as spatial awareness and perception, lefties do seem to have an advantage in sports demanding rapid reactions and good spatial judgment such as tennis and fencing. Many also seem to excel in other right hemisphere functions such as visual concepts, creativity and music. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Julius Caesar and Winston Churchill were south paws. So is U.S. president Barack Obama.
In addition to favouring the right hemisphere of the brain, lefties must learn to function in a right-handed world. “Left-handers need to do most tasks back-to-front, with equipment that wasn’t made for them,” says Lauren Milsom, author of Your Left-Handed Child (Hamlyn). “They learn to be very adaptable, which can pay off later in life when it comes to problem solving.”
But with about 13 percent of the population identifying as left-handed, being in the minority can sometimes be challenging for young children. Here’s what you need to know about having a lefty and how to make life easier for your child.
Most babies use both hands at first but a few can start to favour one side as early as their first birthday. “We usually start to get a feeling for a distinct preference by about age two or three,” says Dr. James Hilton, a Toronto-based pediatrician. But some children won’t choose a side until as late as the age of five.
For the most part, parents don’t need to make many adaptations for a left-handed child — after all, one of the huge benefits of using the non-dominant hand is versatility. But there are a few exceptions, especially when it comes to right-biased equipment. “All left-handers should have a proper pair of left-handed scissors at home and at school,” says Milsom. If your child’s school does not provide them, bring your own. “There is no such thing as ambidextrous scissors.”
Teaching proper writing technique at an early age — from grip posture to paper position — is also essential. “Left to right movement across a page is not a natural direction for left-handed writers,” says Milsom. “The left hand follows the writing, pushing the tip into the paper, creating too much pressure and often smudging the work.” Your child may adapt with poor posture and awkward hand positions to compensate.
Start by showing your child how to set up their paper. Position the page to the left of their body midline and tilt the top of the page clockwise about 30 degrees. Then, encourage a tripod writing grip with the thumb and first two fingers. “Using a triangular pencil grip or an oversized pen barrel can help,” says Milsom. Lastly, the hand should be positioned at least two centimetres away from the end of the pen tip so it won’t obscure writing and smudge the page.
“As a right-handed parent, I want to make sure I’m supporting Tatum as much as possible,” says Jennifer Graham Hillier of her left-handed five year old. “I still pass to her right hand and feel bad about it. It’s a hard habit to break,” admits the Toronto mom.
Milsom suggests that right-handed parents spend a day using predominantly their left hand in order to get a feeling for what life will be like for their child. She also encourages parents to face their child when teaching how to do up a zipper or tie shoelaces. “That way you’ll present a mirror image your child can copy.” And remember, chances are your little left-hander is a creative thinker, so she’ll learn to adapt.
Nancy Ripton is a Toronto-based freelancer and co-founder of justthefactsbaby.com. She is right-handed and will never be a world leader.
| 2.958065 |
No one would have guessed that the small, fancy dry goods store that opened on the corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue in New York City in 1858 would grow to be one of the largest department store retailers in the world.
But after several failed retail ventures, Rowland Hussey Macy's determination and ingenuity paid off at the age of 36 with the launch of R.H. Macy & Co. He adopted a red star as his symbol of success, dating back to his days as a sailor. First-day sales totaled $11.06 but by the end of the first full year, sales grossed almost $90,000. By 1877, R.H. Macy & Co. had become a full fledged department store occupying the ground space of 11 adjacent buildings.
Always the innovator, Macy's is known for several firsts that changed the retail industry. Macy's was the first retailer to promote a woman, Margaret Getchell, to an executive position, making business history. Macy's pioneered such revolutionary business practices as the one-price system, in which the same item was sold to every customer at one price, and quoting specific prices for goods in newspaper advertising. Known for its creative merchandising, Macy's was the first to introduce such products as the tea bag, the Idaho baked potato and colored bath towels. Macy's also was the first retailer to hold a New York City liquor license.
By November 1902, the store had outgrown its modest storefront and moved uptown to its present Herald Square location on Broadway and 34th Street, establishing an attraction for shoppers from around the world. With the store's 7th Avenue expansion completed in 1924, Macy's Herald Square became the “World's Largest Store,” with over 1 million square feet of retail space.
By 1918, R.H. Macy & Co. was generating $36 million in annual sales. Yet, the prosperity of the retailer was never more apparent than when the company went public in 1922 and began to open regional stores and take over competing retailers. In 1923, the Toledobased department store LaSalle & Kock was acquired; the next year, Davison-Paxton in Atlanta was acquired, and in 1936, the Newark-based Bamberger's was purchased.
To help celebrate their new American heritage, Macy's immigrant employees organized the first Christmas Parade in 1924. The procession featured floats, bands, animals from the zoo and 10,000 onlookers, beginning a time-honored tradition now known as the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
In 1945, the company expanded west and purchased O'Connor Moffatt and Company in San Francisco. Two years later, O'Connor Moffatt stores, including the landmark Union Square store that opened in 1866, were converted to Macy's after a survey indicated that San Franciscans would welcome the name.
Macy's California broke new ground with the first department store flower show in 1946. What began as a fragrance promotion in the cosmetics department now annually welcomes the spring season, treating visitors to a botanical, cultural and community spectacle. In 1971, Macy's Union Square store's lower level, once cluttered with bargains, was transformed into “The Cellar,” changing the way customers shop for house wares. Due to its success, the Herald Square store followed suit five years later.
On December 19, 1994, Federated Department Stores, Inc. (now known as Macy's, Inc.) acquired R.H. Macy & Co., creating the world's largest premier department store company. Federated Department Stores operated over 400 department stores and more than 157 specialty stores in 37 states.
A & S Department Stores were converted to the Macy's nameplate in May 1995. Also in 1995, Federated acquired The Broadway Department Stores, bringing Broadway, Emporium and Weinstocks to the Macy's family, as well as six former I. Magnin stores. Some 46 stores were converted to Macy's. Following the lead of A & S, Jordan Marsh Department Stores of Boston, already owned by Federated, were converted to Macy's in March 1996. In January 2001, Macy's absorbed 17 Stern's Department Stores located in New York and New Jersey. In June 2001, Federated purchased the Liberty House operations in Hawaii and Guam, bringing the proud Macy's tradition and heritage to the Pacific.
Macy's entered 2005 with about 240 locations, primarily on the East and West Coasts. With the conversion of all Federated's regional store nameplates in March 2005, Macy's grew to about 425 locations across the country. In September 2006, with the conversion of stores acquired from May Company, Macy's now serves customers through more than 800 stores in virtually every major geographic market in the United States, as well as the macys.com Web site.
| 3.070758 |
Bod Pod – Body Composition Testing
With this body composition test you will learn the amounts of fat and lean tissue that make up your weight, facilitating sensible decisions regarding nutrition and exercise programs. You will get the "whole picture" of what's really going on with your body, and rationally plan your improvements.
Based on the same whole-body measurement principles as hydrostatic weighing, the BOD POD employs patented air displacement technology instead of a water dunk. Subjects sit comfortably inside the capsule while computerized pressure sensors determine the amount of air displaced by their body. This test is very accurate, safe, and quick, with a complete analysis taking under 10 minutes.
|Bod Pod pricing||Members||Non-members|
|Set of 3 tests||$90||$120|
Why Body Composition is Important
Body Composition is a leading indicator of health. Body composition (percent fat and lean) reflects the results of both physical activity and nutritional practices. Body weight alone can be misleading. The scale cannot differentiate between a pound of fat and a pound of muscle. Over time, people tend to gain fat and lose muscle without any obvious change in their weight. While we do need a certain amount of fat in our body for good health, excess body fat is proven to increase the risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. On the other hand, too little body fat can also pose a number of serious health risks, especially for women.
Not All Weight is Created Equal
Our bodies can be divided into two main components - fat and lean mass. Fat comes in two types. "Essential fat" is necessary for our normal body functions. "Storage fat" is the extra fuel we store under the skin and around organs. Lean mass primarily consists of muscle, the major "metabolic" engine of the body, and skeleton. The more muscle in our body, the more calories we burn, even when we are resting. Although we often make reference to being "overweight", having excess body weight and excess body fat are two completely different things. Indeed fat and muscle differ in an important way - muscle is much denser than fat. So a pound of fat takes up 18% more volume than a pound of muscle. Therefore, lean and muscular individuals can have high body weight without any excess body fat.
| 2.861533 |
Died about 470. Her story belongs to that group of legends which relate how Christian virgins, in order the more successfully to lead the life of celibacy and asceticism to which they had dedicated themselves, put on male attire and passed for men. According to the narrative of her life in the "Vitæ Patrum", Euphrosyne was the only daughter of Paphnutius, a rich man of Alexandria, who desired to marry her to a wealthy youth. But having consecrated her life to God and apparently seeing no other means of keeping this vow, she clothed herself as a man and under the name of Smaragdus gained admittance into a monastery of men near Alexandria, where she lived for thirty-eight years after. She soon attracted the attention of the abbot by the rapid strides which she made toward a perfect ascetic life, and when Paphnutius appealed to him for comfort in his sorrow, the abbot committed the latter to the care of the alleged young man Smaragdus. The father received from his own daughter, whom he failed to recognize, helpful advice and comforting exhortation. Not until she was dying did she reveal herself to him as his lost daughter Euphrosyne. After her death Paphnutius also entered the monastery. Her feast is celebrated in the Greek Church on 25 September, in the Roman Church on 16 January (by the Carmelites on 11 February).
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The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.
Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.
No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.
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Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
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| 2.924792 |
- Spatial Relationships
- Problem Solving
- Number Sense
- Symbolic Play
- Attention Maintenance
- Understanding of Personal Care Routines
"The last two decades of infancy research have seen dramatic changes in the way developmental psychologists characterize the earliest stages of cognitive development. The infant, once regarded as an organism driven mainly by simple sensorimotor schemes, is now seen as possessing sophisticated cognitive skills and even sophisticated concepts that guide knowledge acquisition” (Madole and Oakes 1999, 263).
“What we see in the crib is the greatest mind that has ever existed, the most powerful learning machine in the universe” (Gopnik, Meltzoff, and Kuhl 1999, 1).
The term cognitive development refers to the process of growth and change in intellectual/mental abilities such as thinking, reasoning and understanding. It includes the acquisition and consolidation of knowledge. Infants draw on social-emotional, language, motor, and perceptual experiences and abilities for cognitive development. They are attuned to relationships between features of objects, actions, and the physical environment. But they are particularly attuned to people. Parents, family members, friends, teachers, and caregivers play a vital role in supporting the cognitive development of infants by providing the healthy interpersonal or social-emotional context in which cognitive development unfolds. Caring, responsive adults provide the base from which infants can fully engage in behaviors and interactions that promote learning. Such adults also serve as a prime source of imitation.
Cultural context is important to young children’s cognitive development. There is substantial variation in how intelligence is defined within different cultures (Sternberg and Grigorenko 2004). As a result, different aspects of cognitive functioning or cognitive performance may be more highly valued in some cultural contexts than in others. For example, whereas processing speed is an aspect of intelligence that is highly valued within the predominant Western conceptualizations of intelligence, “Ugandan villagers associate intelligence with adjectives such as slow, careful, and active” (Rogoff and Chavajay 1995, 865.). Aspects of intelligence that have to do with social competence appear to be seen as more important than speed in some non-Western cultural contexts (Sternberg and Grigorenko 2004). Certainly, it is crucial for early childhood professionals to recognize the role that cultural context plays in defining and setting the stage for children’s healthy cognitive functioning.
Research has identified a broad range of cognitive competencies and described the remarkable progression of cognitive development during the early childhood years. Experts in the field describe infants as active, motivated, and engaged learners who possess an impressive range of cognitive competencies (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine 2000) and learn through exploration (Whitehurst and Lonigan 1998). Infants demonstrate natural curiosity. They have a strong drive to learn and act accordingly. In fact, they have been described as “born to learn” (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine 2000, 148).
Everyday experiences—for example, crying and then being picked up or waving a toy and then hearing it rattle—provide opportunities for infants to learn about cause and effect. “Even very young infants possess expectations about physical events” (Baillargeon 2004, 89). This knowledge helps infants better understand the properties of objects, the patterns of human behavior, and the relationship between events and the consequences. Through developing an understanding of cause and effect, infants build their abilities to solve problems, to make predictions, and to understand the impact of their behavior on others.
Infants learn about spatial relationships in a variety of ways; for example, exploring objects with their mouths, tracking objects and people visually, squeezing into tight spaces, fitting objects into openings, and looking at things from different perspectives (Mangione, Lally, and Signer 1992). They spend much of their time exploring the physical and spatial aspects of the environment, including the characteristics of, and interrelationships between, the people, objects, and the physical space around them (Clements 2004). The development of an understanding of spatial relationships increases infants’ knowledge of how things move and fit in space and the properties of objects (their bodies and the physical environment).
Infants exhibit a high level of interest in solving problems. Even very young infants will work to solve a problem, for example, how to find their fingers in order to suck on them (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine 2000). Older infants may solve the problem of how to reach an interesting toy that is out of reach by trying to roll toward it or by gesturing to an adult for help. Infants and toddlers solve problems by varied means, including physically acting on objects, using learning schemes they have developed, imitating solutions found by others, using objects or other people as tools, and using trial and error.
Imitation is broadly understood to be a powerful way to learn. It has been identified as crucial in the acquisition of cultural knowledge (Rogoff 1990) and language. Imitation by newborns has been demonstrated for adult facial expressions (Meltzoff and Moore 1983), head movements, and tongue protrusions (Meltzoff and Moore 1989). “The findings of imitation in human newborns highlighted predispositions to imitate facial and manual actions, vocalizations and emotionally laden facial expressions” (Bard and Russell 1999, 93). Infant imitation involves perception and motor processes (Meltzoff and Moore 1999). The very early capacity to imitate makes possible imitation games in which the adult mirrors the child’s behavior, such as sticking out one’s tongue or matching the pitch of a sound the infant makes, and then the infant imitates back. This type of interaction builds over time as the infant and the adult add elements and variations in their imitation games.
Infants engage in both immediate imitation and delayed imitation. Immediate imitation occurs when infants observe and immediately attempt to copy or mimic behavior. For example, immediate imitation can be seen when an infant’s parent sticks out his tongue and the infant sticks out his tongue in response. As infants develop, they are able to engage in delayed imitation, repeating the behavior of others at a later time after having observed it. An example of delayed imitation is a child reenacting part of a parent’s exercise routine, such as lifting a block several times as if it were a weight. Butterworth (1999, 63) sums up the importance of early imitation in the following manner: “Modern research has shown imitation to be a natural mechanism of learning and communication which deserves to be at centre stage in developmental psychology.”
The capacity to remember allows infants and toddlers to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar people and objects, anticipate and participate in parts of personal care routines, learn language, and come to know the rules of social interaction. The infant’s memory system is quite remarkable and functions at a higher level than was previously believed (Howe and Courage 1993). Although age is not the only determinant of memory functioning, as infants get older they are able to retain information for longer periods of time (Bauer 2004). Infants exhibit long-term recall well before they are able to articulate their past experiences verbally (Bauer 2002b).
The emergence of memory is related to the development of a neural network with various components (Bauer 2002b). Commenting on the different forms and functions of early memory development, Bauer (2002a, 131) states: “It is widely believed that memory is not a unitary trait but is comprised of different systems or processes, which serve distinct functions, and are characterized by fundamentally different rules of operation.” Bauer (2002a, 145) later adds that recent research counters earlier suggestions that preschool-aged children demonstrate little memory capacity and to speculations that younger children and infants demonstrate little or no memory capacity. Bauer (2002a, 145) concludes: “It is now clear that from early in life, the human organism stores information over the long term and that the effects of prior experience are apparent in behavior. In the first months of life, infants exhibit recognition memory for all manner of natural and artificial stimuli.”
Number sense refers to children’s concepts of numbers and the relationships among number concepts. Research findings indicate that infants as young as five months of age are sensitive to number and are able to discriminate among small sets of up to three objects (Starkey and Cooper 1980; Starkey, Spelke, and Gelman 1990). Infants demonstrate the ability to quickly and accurately recognize the quantity in a small set of objects without counting. This ability is called subitizing.
According to one theoretical perspective, infants’ abilities to discriminate among numbers, for example, two versus three objects, does not reflect “number knowledge.” Rather, this early skill appears to be based on infants’ perceptual abilities to “see” small arrangements of number (Clements 2004; Carey 2001), or on their ability to notice a change in the general amount of objects they are seeing (Mix, Huttenlocher, and Levine 2002). The alternative view is that the infant’s early sensitivity to number is numerical in nature. In other words, infants have a capacity to distinguish among numbers and to reason about these numbers in numerically meaningful ways (Wynn 1998; Gallistel and Gelman 1992). In some sense, they know that three objects are more than one object. Whether early number sensitivity is solely perceptual in nature or also numerical in nature, developmental theorists agree that it sets the foundation for the later development of children’s understanding of number and quantity.
As children’s understanding and use of language increases, they begin to assimilate language based on number knowledge to their nonverbal knowledge of number and quantity (Baroody 2004). Between 18 and 24 months of age, children use relational words to indicate “more” or “same” as well as number words. They begin to count aloud, typically starting with “one” and continuing with a stream of number names (Fuson 1988; Gelman and Gallistel 1978), although they may omit some numbers and not use the conventional number list (e.g. “one, two, three, seven, nine, ten”). Around the same age, children also begin to count small collections of objects; however, they may point to the same item twice or say a number word without pointing to an object. And they begin to construct an understanding of cardinality (i.e., the last number word is used when counting represents the total number of objects).
Classification refers to the infant’s developing ability to group, sort, categorize, connect, and have expectations of objects and people according to their attributes. Three-month-olds demonstrate that they expect people to act differently than objects (Legerstee 1997). They also demonstrate the ability to discriminate between smiling and frowning expressions (Barrera and Maurer 1981). Mandler (2000) distinguishes between two types of categorization made by infants: perceptual and conceptual. Perceptual categorization has to do with similarities or differences infants sense, such as similarities in visual appearance. Conceptual categorization has to do with grouping based on what objects do or how they act. According to Mareschal and French (2000, 59), “the ability to categorize underlies much of cognition.” Classification is a fundamental skill in both problem solving and symbolic play.
Symbolic play is a common early childhood behavior also called “pretend play, make-believe play, fantasy play . . . or imaginative play” (Gowen 1995, 75). Representational thinking is a core component of symbolic play. At around eight months of age, infants have learned the functions of common objects (for example, holding a play telephone to “hear” Grandma’s voice). By the time children are around 18 months of age, they use one object to stand for, or represent, another. For example, an 18-month-old may pretend a banana is a telephone. At around 36 months, children engage in make-believe play in which they represent an object without having that object, or a concrete substitute, available. For example, they may make a “phone call” by holding their hand up to their ear.
As children approach 36 months of age, they increasingly engage in pretend play in which they reenact familiar events. Make-believe play allows older infants to try to better understand social roles, engage in communication with others, and revisit and make sense of past experiences. Research suggests that engaging in pretend play appears to be related to young children’s developing understanding of other people’s feelings and beliefs (Youngblade and Dunn 1995). Outdoor environments, such as sandboxes (Moser 1995) or play structures, offer rich opportunities for symbolic play or pretending. Although outdoor play areas are often considered most in terms of motor behavior or physical activity, they also offer special opportunities for symbolic play (Perry 2003). For example, children playing outside may pretend to garden or may use a large wheeled toy to reenact going on a shopping trip.
Attention maintenance has been described as a form of cognitive self-regulation. It refers to the infant’s growing ability to exercise control over his attention or concentration (Bronson 2000). Attention maintenance permits infants to gather information, to sustain learning experiences, to observe, and to problem-solve. Infants demonstrate attention maintenance when they attend to people, actions, and things they find interesting even in the presence of distractions. The ability to maintain attention/concentration is an important self-regulatory skill related to learning. There is significant variability in attentiveness even among typically developing children (Ruff and Rothbart 1996).
American Academy of Pediatrics. 2004. Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 (Fourth edition). Edited by S. P. Shelov and R. E. Hannemann. New York: Bantam Books.
Apfel, N. H., and S. Provence. 2001. Manual for the Infant-Toddler and Family Instrument (ITFI). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
Baillargeon, R. 2004. “Infants’ Physical World,” Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 13, No. 3, 89–94.
Bard, K., and C. Russell. 1999. “Evolutionary Foundations of Imitation: Social-Cognitive and Developmental Aspects of Imitative Processes in Non-Human Primates,” in Imitation in Infancy: Cambridge Studies in Cognitive and Perceptual Development. Edited by J. Nadel and G. Butterworth. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Barrera, M. E., and Mauer, D. 1981. “The Perception of Facial Expressions by the Three-month-old.” Child Development, Vol. 52, 203–6.
Bauer, P. 2002a. “Early Memory Development,” in Handbook of Cognitive Development. Edited by U. Goswami. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
Bauer, P. 2002b. “Long-Term Recall Memory: Behavioral and Neuro-Developmental Changes in the First Two Years of Life,” Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 11, No. 4, 137–41.
Bauer, P. 2004. “Getting Explicit Memory off the Ground: Steps Toward Construction of a Neuro-Developmental Account of Changes in the First Two Years of Life,” Developmental Review, Vol. 24, 347–73.
Bauer, P. 2007. “Recall in Infancy: A Neurodevelopmental Account,” Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 16, No. 3, 142–46.
Bauer, P. J., and J. M. Mandler. 1989. “One Thing Follows Another: Effects of Temporal Structure on 1- to 2-Year Olds’ Recall of Events,” Developmental Psychology, Vol. 8, 241–63.
Bayley, N. 2006. Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Third edition). San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment, Inc.
Brazelton, T. B. 1992. Touchpoints: Your Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Development. New York: Perseus Books.
Bronson, M. 2000. Self-regulation in Early Childhood: Nature and Nurture. New York: Guilford Press.
Brooks-Gunn, J., and G. Duncan. 1997. “The Effects of Poverty on Children,” The Future of Children, Vol. 7, No. 2, 55–71.
Butterworth, G. 1999. “Neonatal Imitation: Existence, Mechanisms and Motives,” Imitation in Infancy: Cambridge Studies in Cognitive and Perceptual Development. Edited by J. Nadel and C. Butterworth. New York: Cambridge University Press.
California Department of Education (CDE). 2005. “Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP),” Sacramento, CA: California Department of Education. http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/desiredresults.asp (accessed February 7, 2007).
Carey, S. 2001. “On the Very Possibility of Discontinuities in Conceptual Development,” in Language, Brain, and Cognitive Development: Essays in Honor of Jacques Mehler. Edited by E. Dupoux. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Clements, D. H. 2004. “Major Themes and Recommendations,” in Engaging Young Children in Mathematics: Standards for Early Childhood Educators. Edited by D. H. Clements and J. Samara. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Coplan, J. 1993. Early Language Milestone Scale: Examiner’s Manual (Second edition). Austin, TX: Pro-ed.
Engaging Young Children in Mathematics: Standards for Early Childhood Mathematics Education. 2004. Edited by D. H. Clements and J. Sarama. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Fenson, L., and others. 1976. “The Developmental Progression of Manipulative Play in the First Two Years,” Child Development, Vol. 47, No. 1, 232–36.
Fogel, A. 2001. Infancy: Infant, Family, and Society (Fourth edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Fuson, K. C. 1988. Children’s Counting and Concepts of Number. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Gallistel, C. R., and R. Gelman. 1992. “Preverbal and Verbal Counting and Computation,” Cognition, Vol. 44, No. 1–2, 43–74.
Gelman, R., and C. R. Gallistel. 1978. The Child’s Understanding of Number. Oxford, England: Harvard University Press.
Ginsburg, H. P., and S. Opper. 1988. Piaget’s Theory of Intellectual Development (Third edition). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gopnik, A.; A. Meltzoff; and P. K. Kuhl. 1999. The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn. New York: William Morrow.
Gowen, J. W. March, 1995. “Research in Review: The Early Development of Symbolic Play,” Young Children, Vol. 50, No. 3, 75–84.
Hart, B., and T. R. Risley. 1999. The Social World of Children: Learning to Talk. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
Howe, M., and M. Courage. 1993. “On Resolving the Enigma of Infantile Amnesia,” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 113, No. 2, 305–26.
Hulit, L. M., and M. R. Howard. 2006. Born to Talk: An Introduction to Speech and Language Development (Fourth edition). New York: Pearson Education.
Kail, R. 1990. The Development of Memory in Children (Third edition). New York: W. H. Freeman.
Lally, J. R., and others. 1995. Caring for Infants and Toddlers in Groups: Developmentally Appropriate Practice. Washington, DC: Zero to Three Press.
Legerstee, M. 1997. “Contingency Effects of People and Objects on Subsequent Cognitive Functioning in Three-Month-Old Infants,” Social Development, Vol. 6, No. 3, 307–21.
Lerner, C., and A. L. Dombro. 2000. Learning and Growing Together: Understanding and Supporting Your Child’s Development. Washington, DC: Zero to Three Press.
Lerner, C., and L. A. Ciervo. 2003. Healthy Minds: Nurturing Children’s Development from 0 to 36 Months. Washington, DC: Zero to Three Press and American Academy of Pediatrics.
Madole, K., and L. Oakes. 1999. “Making Sense of Infant Categorization: Stable Processes and Changing Representations,” Developmental Review, Vol. 19, No. 2, 263–96.
Mandler, J. M. 2000. “Perceptual and Conceptual Processes in Infancy,” Journal of Cognition and Development, Vol. 1, No. 1, 3–36.
Mandler, J., and L. McDonough. 1993. “Concept Formation in Infancy,” Cognitive Development, Vol. 8, No. 3, 291–318.
Mandler, J., and L. McDonough. 1998. “On Developing a Knowledge Base in Infancy,” Developmental Psychology, Vol. 34, No. 6, 1274–88.
Mangione, P. L.; J. R. Lally; and S. Signer. 1992. Discoveries of Infancy: Cognitive Development and Learning. Sacramento, CA: Far West Laboratory and California Department of Education.
Mareschal, D., and R. French. 2000. “Mechanisms of Categorization in Infancy,” Infancy, Vol.1, No. 1, 59–76.
Meltzoff, A. N., and M. K. Moore. 1983. “Newborn Infants Imitate Adult Facial Gestures,” Child Development, Vol. 54, 702–9.
Meltzoff, A. N., and M. K. Moore. 1989. “Imitation in Newborn Infants: Exploring the Range of Gestures Imitated and the Underlying Mechanisms,” Developmental Psychology, Vol. 25, No.6, 954–62.
Meltzoff, A. N., and M. K. Moore. 1999. “Persons and Representation: Why Infant Imitation Is Important for Theories of Human Development, “ in Imitation in Infancy: Cambridge Studies in Cognitive and Perceptual Development. Edited by J. Nadel and G. Butterworth. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Meisels, S. J., and others. 2003. The Ounce Scale: Standards for the Developmental Profiles (Birth–42 Months). New York: Pearson Early Learning.
Mix, K.; J. Huttenlocher; and S. Levine. 2002. Quantitative Development in Infancy and Early Childhood. New York: Oxford University Press.
Moser, R. F. 1995. “Caregivers’ Corner. Fantasy Play in the Sandbox,” Young Children, Vol. 51, No. 1, 83–84.
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O’Brien, M. 1997. Meeting Individual and Special Needs: Inclusive Child Care for Infants and Toddlers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
Parks, S. 2004. Inside HELP: Hawaii Early Learning Profile: Administration and Reference Manual. Palo Alto, CA: VORT Corporation.
Perry, J. P. May, 2003. “Making Sense of Outdoor Pretend Play,” Young Children, Vol. 58, No.3, 26–30.
Rogoff, B. 1990. Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rogoff, B., and P. Chavajay. 1995. “What’s Become of Research on the Cultural Basis of Cognitive Development?” American Psychologist, Vol. 50, No. 10, 859–77.
Rogoff, B., and others. 2003. “Firsthand Learning Through Intent Participation,” Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 54, 175–203.
Ruff, H., and M. Rothbart. 1996. Attention in Early Development: Themes and Variations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Segal, M. 2004. “The Roots and Fruits of Pretending,” in Children’s Play: The Roots of Reading. Edited by E. F. Zigler, D. G. Singer, and S. J. Bishop-Josef. Washington, DC: Zero to Three Press.
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Starkey, P., and R. G. Cooper. 1980. “Perception of Numbers by Human Infants,” Science, Vol.210, No. 4473, 1033–35.
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Whitehurst, G., and C. Lonigan. 1998. “Child Development and Emergent Literacy,” Child Development, Vol. 69, No. 3, 848–72.
Wynn, K. 1998. “Numerical Competence in Infants,” in The Development of Mathematical Skills. Edited by C. Donlad. Hove, East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.Youngblade, L. M., and J. Dunn. 1995. “Individual Differences in Young Children’s Pretend Play with Mother and Sibling: Links to Relationships and Understanding of Other People’s Feelings and Beliefs,” Child Development, Vol. 66, 1472–92.
| 3.906317 |
Summarising and tracking children's progress
These tracking tools are available to support managers and practitioners in periodic, systematic evaluations to see how well children are learning and developing across all areas of the EYFS.
We've also published a series of information sheets called the 'Good Practice Guidelines' designed as quick reference guides and tips for areas of learning and development in the EYFS.
Previous Ealing EYFS Progress & Profile Tool - Birth to 5 for reference purposes
Ealing Progress Tracking Tools
These tools can be used from birth to 5 to track and provide gap analyses of children's progress for individual, whole group and specific groups.
Revised EYFS (Sep 12) tracking tools:
Summarising individual children's progress
The Early Years Foundation Stage Progress Check at Age Two
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requires that parents and carers must be supplied with a short written summary of their child‟s development in the three prime learning and development areas of the EYFS: Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Physical Development; and Communication and Language; when the child is aged between 24-36 months.
The following example can be used alongside the guidance and support in the Know How Guide (ncb)
| 3.021346 |
Babies between six and nine months of age understand the meaning of some spoken words, according a new University of Pennsylvania study, which challenges previous beliefs about early childhood learning.
Although many babies vocalize aloud with sounds such as “ba ba,” “da da” and “goo goo,” the study finds they can still learn the meanings of words for foods and body parts, through daily experiences and interactions with caregivers.
Babies have been thought to understand certain sounds related to their native languages, but experts believed babies between 6 to 9 months old – often referred to as “pre-linguistic” – did not have the ability to understand the meaning of spoken words.
It was thought that children’s word comprehension abilities really didn’t appear until they were closer to the first birthday.
The researchers reached their conclusion after completing two kinds of tests.
For the first test, the baby, while sitting on their caregiver’s lap faced a screen that had the images of one food item and one body part.
Wearing headphones, the caregiver was fed statements like, “Look at the apple” or “Where’s the apple?” to repeat to the child.
As a precaution, the caregivers also wore visors to keep them from looking at the screen. Using an eye-tracking device, which showed where a child was looking and when, the researchers were able to follow the child’s gaze.
The second test, instead of displaying a food item and body part on the screen, showed objects arranged in natural contexts, such as a few foods laid out on a table or a human figure.
The researchers used both tests to see whether the baby, after hearing a word for something on the screen, would look at that specific object more, indicating that they understood the spoken word.
The test results showed the 6-to-9-month-old babies tended to fix their gaze more on the picture named by their caregiver rather than on the other images on display.
For the researchers, this demonstrated that the babies are able to understand the word associated with the appropriate object.
The researchers tested 33 6- to-9 month-old children.
They also gave the same tests to 50 children between 10-to-20 months of age, in order to compare test results of the younger children with those who were older.
Interestingly, the researchers found no noticeable improvement in word recognition in 8-and-9-month-old babies as compared to 6-to-7 month olds.
Researchers found little improvement until the children reached roughly 14 months, at which point word recognition spiked dramatically.
The researchers think that increase in the babies’ performance may either be due to the little ones being able to better understand the nature of the task because it’s part of a game they’re playing, or that it may be due to natural language development.
Source: Voice of America - http://goo.gl/R5nIs
| 3.481539 |
The history of corporal punishment goes all the way back to the 10th century BC, when it was already present in numerous civilizations, including Greece, Egypt and Rome. Back then, it was used for judicial and educational discipline. The best example in this sense is Sparta, which used such punishments cruelly in order for men to build willpower and physical strength. Even though many things have changed since then and the world has evolved hugely, these punishments are still being used in today’s modern society. They represent a form of physical punishment involving the infliction of pain deliberately. There are three main types of such punishments: parental (domestic), school, and judicial.
Parental or domestic corporal punishments are applied to children by their parents or guardians, typically within the family. Children are usually punished by means of spanking, whipping, slapping, or smacking. More aggressive punishments are considered child abuse and domestic violence. The legal status of parents applying these punishments to their minor children is controversial. In all the American states, corporal punishments in homes are completely legal, as well as in all African and most Asian nations. However, numerous countries have started to outlaw it, even though in some it is legal, but restricted. When it comes to schools, it is a whole different story. Children being physically punished by their teachers or school administrators was something very normal in the past, and still is in some countries. However, corporal punishments in schools have been outlawed in nearly all of Europe (except France), Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Kenya, and Korea. In some parts of the world (including 19 states of the USA), is remains legal.
Judicial corporal punishments are part of a criminal sentence order by a law court. Prison corporal punishments are related, since prison authorities or a visiting court can order them. This punishment method is also allowed in some military settings, while in others it is completely banned. The main issue with corporal punishment remains children, though. Who can tell whether this method will discipline them or, on the contrary, will lead to serious emotional issues? It is understandable for parents to “spank” their children once in a while, but when the episodes become more frequent, it should ring a bell. Either the children are rebellious (precisely because of the numerous corporal punishments), or the parents are always resorting to the easy way to fix things. Regardless of the case, corporal punishment of children should be restricted in all settings, in my opinion.
| 2.993807 |
if (num1 > num2)
while (num1 > num2)
cout << num2 <<endl;
If I input 20 for num1 and 10 for num2 why does it print from 11 to 20 instead of 11 to 19? I want it to print from 11 to 19. I know this is just some logic fail from me but I can't seem to know what it is. Thanks for your help
Because you at first increase num2 and only after that you print it. That is inside the condition num2 that is equal to 19 is less than num1 (20)/ So the control will be passed inside the loop. Then you increase the num2 and num2 becomes equal to 20. This value is outputed.
| 3.556993 |
I made a program that i got as homework.
the question is: Write a C++ program to sum the sequence if
2/9 - 5/13 + 8/17....
till the number of terms the user wants.
I made the following program, but the answer seems to be wrong. Can someone please help me point out where have i gone wrong.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
cout<<"Enter the number of terms in the series: ";
cout<<"\nThe sum of the series is = "<<sum;
i jsut tried that
if i enter the number of terms n to be odd
the output screen shows the sum = 0.22222
and if i enter the number of terms to be even
then the output screen shows= 0.162393
which is the sum of the first term only
That's because you never change the values of a and b. You just keep adding or subtracting 5/13 from sum.
I just noticed there is a bunch of mess in your code.
iostream header should be without ".h", math header in C++ is called <cmath> (also without ".h"). conio.h is not standard, nor is it needed. main must be int, not void, cin and cout are in std namespace. Your loop runs n+1 cycles so n+2 terms are computed. count variable is useless as it is (in your code) equal to i+1.
| 2.954811 |
ARBOREAL SALAMANDER. Aneides lugubris lugubris (Hallowell)
length 6 inches or less. Head wedge-shaped, with bulging muscles above
and behind eye; teeth on margin of upper jaw prominent; thirteen cross
wise furrows (costal grooves) in skin on side of body between fore and
hind leg; skin everywhere smooth and soft. Upper surface dark brown,
usually with small round spots of yellow; under surface plain
commonly in Transition Zone near McCarthy ranch, 3 miles east of
Coulterville. Lives near or on damp ground within or under logs, under
stones, and in old wood rats' nests. Usually solitary.
The Arboreal Salamander, in the Yosemite region, was
found by us only on or close to the surface of the ground. Elsewhere in
its range the species is known to inhabit damp cavities in oak trees. In
the Sierras we found it at but the one locality mentioned above, chiefly
beneath logs and stones in pastures and woodlands. Two adults were found
in the interior of a charred and slightly decayed yellow pine log which
was lying on a sun-baked manzanita-covered hillside at the margin of the
yellow pine forest; one of the animals was found in the nest of a wood
rat; and another was discovered in a gopher burrow in the ground beneath
a wood rat's house.
This species, like the Mount Lyell and Slender
salamanders, is without either lungs or gills in the adult condition.
The animal is provided with a moist skin which serves importantly for
the interchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in respiration. Hence the
animal keeps to humid situations, where its soft skin can be kept from
So far as known the Arboreal Salamander is active
only at night and spends the day hidden in some retreat of the sort
mentioned above. During the night the atmosphere is more humid; hence
the animals can venture abroad then without danger of desiccation.
The breeding season of this species is in late July
and August. A female salamander collected on June 3 contained eggs
which were well formed.
The stomach contents of such of these animals as were
examined contained remains of terrestrial beetles and large
antsthe sort of food materials which is ground-dwelling,
night-foraging amphibian might be expected to take.
| 3.319381 |
- Enter a word for the dictionary definition.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Vexation \Vex*a"tion\, n. [L. vexatio: cf. F. vexation.] 1. The act of vexing, or the state of being vexed; agitation; disquiet; trouble; irritation. [1913 Webster] Passions too violent . . . afford us nothing but vexation and pain. --Sir W. Temple. [1913 Webster] Those who saw him after a defeat looked in vain for any trace of vexation. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] 2. The cause of trouble or disquiet; affliction. [1913 Webster] Your children were vexation to your youth. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 3. A harassing by process of law; a vexing or troubling, as by a malicious suit. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] Syn: Chagrin; agitation; mortification; uneasiness; trouble; grief; sorrow; distress. See Chagrin. [1913 Webster]
| 2.952048 |
New Zealand, according to government sources, has already experienced increased temperatures (0.9°C over the past 100 years), retreating glaciers and snow mass, and sea level rises (16 cm over the last century).
Climate change will bring more frequent extreme weather events such as droughts and floods; increase erosion, necessitating coastal protection; and alter rainfall and river flow patterns forcing land use to be changed.
New Zealand is a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and will have a delegation at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December.
Important issues for New Zealand is the level of commitment made to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, new funding for overseas aid to help in climate change mitigation and the investment in development of clean technology.
CWS is supporting a 40% cut in 1990 emissions by 2020. Climate scientists say this target must be met to avoid more dangerous climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has advised that stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at less than 450ppm CO2-e is required to limit global average temperature increases to about 2°C.
Some groups in New Zealand have argued this is too costly for the economy. CWS believes the cost of not stopping climate change will be far higher and that climate change is not just an economic issue.
Extreme weather events will be expensive for New Zealand. As responsible international citizens, we should also be concerned about the devastating impacts overseas. There is likely to be significant pressure for resettlement from the Pacific and even Asia, shortages of food, increases in humanitarian disasters and increased conflict over water and other threatened natural resources.
Climate change is a global challenge and needs a global response. New Zealand cannot hide from its consequences or ignore its role in contributing to the problem. It is time to work for a strong and just global response.
Under the Kyoto Protocol 1997, New Zealand committed to limiting its emissions to 1990 levels. The agreement set varying limits for each of 37 developed countries for cuts in emissions to 5.2% below 1990 levels measured globally.
New Zealand’s gross emissions have increased significantly since 1990. In 2006 we produced 26 per cent more than in 1990. The largest percentage increases have been in the electricity (91%), transport (70%), and agricultural (12%) sectors. Net emissions rose sharply in 2005 due to increased rates of deforestation but have since stabilised (Ministry for the Environment).
Forest planting has helped counter emissions, which will enable New Zealand to meet its Kyoto obligations. However, many of these forests are due for harvest in the 2020s, when it is estimated forest growth and harvest will be in balance. This will make it impossible for New Zealand to meet targets without reducing actual emissions.
New Zealand has a different emissions profile from most other developed countries. A large proportion of emissions are methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture. Carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation are lower because of the dominance of hydro-generated electricity.
The government sees a dilemma in balancing economic factors with damage to our good international reputation by failing to deliver and the need for environmental protection. (see Ministry of Environment New Zealand's 2020 Emissions Target)
It argues the pros and cons as:
Reasons for a modest NZ 2020 target
Reasons for an ambitious NZ 2020 target
Big industry argues for a modest target on the basis a 40% cut could make the average person $3,200 worse of a year at 2020, while the price of gas, electricity and petrol would rise significantly.
CWS is supporting a 40% cut because this is the minimum needed to avert devastating climate change. The world is too interconnected to believe we will not be adversely affected by continuing global warming. Climate change is threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of people already.
The richer countries who have used more than their share of the world’s resources need to pay back their carbon debt to the planet and to the world’s poorest people.
Living in the Pacific, New Zealand has a major responsibility to our Pacific neighbours and must do what it can to stop the production of greenhouse gases.
CWS also supports increasing new development assistance to the Pacific to help mitigate against the effects of climate change and enable Pacific nations to develop using clean technology. At the same time it needs to offer new homes to those people seeking refuge from rising sea levels.
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If you have acidic, well drained soil, consider growing blueberry bushes for their tasty fruit and their marvelous burnt-red fall color. In several other languages, there are names for the blue-colored berries of Vaccinium species that translate to "blueberry" in English, but these are often bilberries or other cousins. True blueberries are native to North America and those are the ones discussed here.
Of these North American blueberries, there are three primary types of blueberry bushes being sold:
- Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum):
The most common blueberries and the only type that does not require cross pollination from a different variety of that type to set fruit, although their yield is higher if they do cross pollinate.
- Lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium):
Predominantly found in New England, though you'll find them commercially as far south as the mountains of West Virginia. When the store carton says "Wild Blueberry" it usually means this variety in some wild but managed setting. A second variety of this type is required for fruit set.
- Rabbiteye blueberry (Vaccinium virgatum or V. ashei)
The blueberry for the South and West, the Rabbiteye blueberries do require a second variety of this type to set fruit, but require only 200 hours (9 days) of below 45 degrees Farenheit to set fruit. (The other two require a month or more.)
Sweet, pointed ovate leaves and small white or creamy bell shaped flowers in spring and early summer.
Highbush: 5 to 6 feet tall and 7 to 8 feet wide.
Lowbush: 2 to 4 feet tall, 3 to 4 feet wide.
Rabbiteye: Anywhere from 6 to 30 feet tall and 6 to 10 feet wide. Unlike the other two, the berries on the Rabbiteye varieties will cluster toward the tips of the branches.
Light, Moisture, and Soil Requirements for Growing Blueberries
Light: Full sun, or a minimum of 6 hours.
Moisture: All types of blueberry are shallow rooted, usually within the top 14" of soil. This means they are prone to drying out, but they don't like that. Water heavily once you have the drainage issue solved and mulch to stabilize the soil moisture.
Soil: Soil is everything to success growing blueberry bushes: it must be acidic and it must drain.
Acidity is required to let the growing blueberry bushes pull nitrogen and iron from the soil. This might tempt you to use a high N fertilizer, but don't do it. It'll backfire.
Do not plant next to your cement house foundations or cement sidewalks. These raise the pH of the nearby soil.
To push your pH down, use acidic mulches: pine needles, shredded oak leaves, rotted sawdust, or peat moss. My compost pit has two 'side ventures' going, both for tipping pH: wood ash on one side, and coffee grounds, teabags, and hair on the other. I never use either straight-up, but will mix them with the compost to push my soils in the desired direction.
Tips for Growing Blueberry Bushes
Starting Blueberries from layering is the easiest. Push the tip of a low branch to the ground, cover it with soil and then a rock. The next spring, cut the branch about 8 inches from the ground and transplant your new shrub.
Rooting hormone is helpful. I meant that sentence to go with the paragraph above about layering, but it occurs to me that these are the plants I first used micchorizal fungi on. Treating the roots of transplants with this stuff makes a huge difference, as blueberry's root systems are their Achilles heel.
Cultivation and Pruning of Blueberry Bushes:
Do your best to pluck off all the blossoms for the first few years. The long term health and vigor of the plant will reward you.
Reverse of that, though, is that you don't prune a blueberry until it is three years old, minimum. The fruit sets best from these older branches. After that you want to prune it back to the older stems every five years or so.
There are so many varieties out there within each type, and each variety is only available in certain regions, that what's most important to convey to you here is the timing of the cross-pollination.
The highbush doesn't require it, but does better with cross-pollination, and the other two flat out require it. HOWEVER, within each type, there are early, mid-, and late season varieties. If you get an early season and a late season variety, they won't cross pollinate each other because they won't flower at the same time.
Start with a tasty, mid-season variety of the proper type for your area, and then branch early or late from there.
Blueberries would be bluer if they didn't have that waxy coating on them, but that coating is very helpful. They keep longest when that coating is intact, so pick them into their intended storage container and don't wash until just before using them.
If you are going to can (jar) blueberries, you'll have your best results making the jam or pie-filling, etc, and canning that rather than trying to preserve your options and canning them plain.
To freeze, again, don't wash. Lay them out on a cookie sheet, freeze for an hour, then fill their intended air-tight container as full as possible, label it, and freeze. Yes, you can skip the cookie sheet stage, but they freeze together as one solid lump. You are forewarned.
Okay! Now you're ready for blueberry pies, blueberry jam, blueberry mojitos- you name it!
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Between two and three million people in the United States exhibit some form of self-harm throughout their life. These numbers are increasing rapidly every day. It is estimated that eight million Americans have eating disorders. These statistics are only in the United States. Thousands of teenagers and adults are suffering from these throughout the globe. Self-harming can range from cutting, burning and any other form of purposely hurting yourself. Eating disorders can range from Anorexia, Bulimia and binge eating.
Eating disorders and self-harm are two very important issues that should be taken very seriously but are not spoken about throughout society.
Self-harm usually occurs when a person is dealing with too much emotionally and thinks they must take it out on themselves physically. When this kind of emotional pain occurs, a lot of teenagers and adults don't know where to turn. Most people believe their pain will not be understood by others. They think only option is inflicting physical pain upon themselves. Self-harm is a very serious issue. If a person goes too far with any form of self-harm, it can lead to fatal effects. Cutting is a very common form of self-harm that can lead to infected cuts that can become fatal. People who self-harm usually aren't trying to commit suicide. The main purpose of self-harm is to bring temporary relief to the emotional pain that is being felt by bringing on physical pain instead. Some people self-harm as a form of punishment. Many have a low self-esteem and believe that they deserve to hurt themselves. Other issues that can be caused by a low self-esteem are Eating disorders.
Eating disorders are usually caused by a low self-esteem and a distorted body image. There are several types of eating disorders including Anorexia and Bulimia. The main goals of eating disorders are changing one's body. Eating disorders don't end after the patient gets to the goal though. The goal continues to change as the body changes. Patients with eating disorders are obsessed with the idea of weight. A few pounds are never enough. They are persistent in trying to lose as much weight as they can. Eating disorders are very serious. Losing too much weight can cause an unhealthy body and can even be fatal. Eating disorders can permanently damage the body having lifetime effects on a person.
Most people don't speak about self-harm and eating disorders because they are afraid what others will think of these unspoken causes. The thought of people being in so much pain that they should take it out on themselves is scary for many to think about. People who don't handle emotions well turn to cutting and starving themselves. This leaves others in astonishment. No one can truly understand self-harm and eating disorders until they experience it themselves. In my personal journey I have learned that it is something that remains with you throughout your life. Facing self-harm and eating disorders is a daily battle. The community support is scarce since not much awareness is spread on these topics and most onlookers don't understand what is going on.
Overtime, I believe that awareness for issues like these can be spread. The best way out of an eating disorder or self-harm is to get help. The community needs to create a friendly environment for those who are self-harming and not eating.
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|Term Paper Title
||Past And Present Meanings
|# of Words
|# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)
Past and Present Meanings
How could the painter Pieter Bruegel and writer Wislawa Szymborska have anything remotely in common, when the
fact is that four hundred years separate their works? A painting by Pieter Bruegel connects these two artists over
four hundred years of time.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was born sometime between 1525 and 1530. Originally a student of Pieter Coecke van
Alost, he was later accepted into the Antwerp painters' guild in 1551. In 1563 he married Coecke's daughter, and
they later had two children. Both children would prove to have their own artistic abilities and would carry on the
painting tradition. Only six years after his marriage, he would be buried at the same church in which he had been
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was considered, "the most perfect painter of his century"(198) by Walter S. Gibson, an
author of a book on Bruegel. He chose not to follow the same Flemish style that was popular amongst many fellow
artists. This made him an individualist. Surprisingly, his works grew popular nonetheless. Bruegel often painted
scenes of vast landscapes, but was more known for his paintings of peasant life. Because he spent much of his time
working on peasant scenes, many think of him as one of the Flemish peasants. In reality, he was the same as any
townsman and actually regarded peasants as a form of low life and a social class to mock. This mockery is evident
in his painting Peasant Wedding and Feast. The wedding takes place in a barn, people are shoveling food into their
mouths, and as E.H. Gombrich puts it, the bride "sits quietly, with folded hands and a grin of utter contentment on
her stupid face"(380). This seems to be one of Bruegel's happier paintin!
gs of peasants, and their activities.
Due to the detailed nature of his paintings, Bruegel's works have often aided in deciphering events of the past. For
example, the Labours of the Month paintings distinctly show us the monthly routines of a peasant and his family: the
spring planting of fields, the long summer hours of work, and the fall harvesting. Without these paintings, peasant
life would not be portrayed as realistically as it was. When you hear that peasants had it bad, it is difficult to really
understand how bad it was. When you look at these paintings, you see little joy or happiness in the routines of
One observer of Bruegel's works is Wislawa Szymborska, last year's winner of the Nobel prize for literature. Now
seventy-three years old, Szymborska lives in Krakow, Poland. Married twice (once to a writer and once to a poet),
she is considered to be one of the finest European artists of these times. She is also one of five Polish winners of the
Nobel prize for literature. Upon winning, Szymborska was quoted as saying, "I'm afraid I will not have a quiet life
now. It is hard to believe but I was never hoping for an award" (Heintz). This year's prize was the richest ever at
$1.12 million dollars. With only a few close friends, Szymborska has always led a private life, but that may all
change now that she is very rich.
Edward Hirsch says that "her writing has often reflected philosophical and ethical issues rather than the post-modern
fads that contemporary writers everywhere have been swept along by"(46). This next piece of her writing shows her
Nothing can ever happen twice.
In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.(Heintz 48)
She is saying that we can never be prepared for what the future may have in store for us. We don't have enough time
in life for second chances, for "practice." Unfortunately, we cannot go back and fix the things that practice would
have made perfect.
The opening lines of many of her poems often seem trivial and obvious, when read or heard sep...
Read entire document
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In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut (pron.: //), is a certain complete subset of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circumstance, such as within a given color space or by a certain output device. Another sense, less frequently used but not less correct, refers to the complete set of colors found within an image at a given time. In this context, digitizing a photograph, converting a digitized image to a different color space, or outputting it to a given medium using a certain output device generally alters its gamut, in the sense that some of the colors in the original are lost in the process.
The term gamut was adopted from the field of music, where it means the set of pitches of which musical melodies are composed; Shakespeare's use of the term in The Taming of the Shrew is sometimes attributed to the author/musician Thomas Morley. In the 1850s, the term was applied to a range of colors or hue, for example by Thomas De Quincey, who wrote "Porphyry, I have heard, runs through as large a gamut of hues as marble."
In color theory, the gamut of a device or process is that portion of the color space that can be represented, or reproduced. Generally, the color gamut is specified in the hue–saturation plane, as a system can usually produce colors over a wide intensity range within its color gamut; for a subtractive color system (such as used in printing), the range of intensity available in the system is for the most part meaningless without considering system-specific properties (such as the illumination of the ink).
When certain colors cannot be expressed within a particular color model, those colors are said to be out of gamut. For example, while pure red can be expressed in the RGB color space, it cannot be expressed in the CMYK color space; pure red is out of gamut in the CMYK color space.
A device that is able to reproduce the entire visible color space is an unrealized goal within the engineering of color displays and printing processes. While modern techniques allow increasingly good approximations, the complexity of these systems often makes them impractical.
While processing a digital image, the most convenient color model used is the RGB model. Printing the image requires transforming the image from the original RGB color space to the printer's CMYK color space. During this process, the colors from the RGB which are out of gamut must be somehow converted to approximate values within the CMYK space gamut. Simply trimming only the colors which are out of gamut to the closest colors in the destination space would burn the image. There are several algorithms approximating this transformation, but none of them can be truly perfect, since those colors are simply out of the target device's capabilities. This is why identifying the colors in an image which are out of gamut in the target color space as soon as possible during processing is critical for the quality of the final product.
Representation of gamuts
The accessible gamut depends on the brightness; a full gamut must therefore be represented in 3D space, as below:
The pictures at left show the gamuts of RGB color space (top), such as on computer monitors, and of reflective colors in nature (bottom). The cone drawn in grey corresponds roughly to the CIE diagram at right, with the added dimension of brightness.
The axes in these diagrams are the responses of the short-wavelength (S), middle-wavelength (M), and long-wavelength (L) cones in the human eye. The other letters indicate black (Blk), red (R), green (G), blue (B), cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and white colors (W). (Note: These pictures are not exactly to scale.)
The top left diagram shows that the shape of the RGB gamut is a triangle between red, green, and blue at lower luminosities; a triangle between cyan, magenta, and yellow at higher luminosities, and a single white point at maximum luminosity. The exact positions of the apexes depends on the emission spectra of the phosphors in the computer monitor, and on the ratio between the maximum luminosities of the three phosphors (i.e., the color balance).
The gamut of the CMYK color space is, ideally, approximately the same as that for RGB, with slightly different apexes, depending on both the exact properties of the dyes and the light source. In practice, due to the way raster-printed colors interact with each other and the paper and due to their non-ideal absorption spectra, the gamut is smaller and has rounded corners.
The gamut of reflective colors in nature has a similar, though more rounded, shape. An object that reflects only a narrow band of wavelengths will have a color close to the edge of the CIE diagram, but it will have a very low luminosity at the same time. At higher luminosities, the accessible area in the CIE diagram becomes smaller and smaller, up to a single point of white, where all wavelengths are reflected exactly 100 per cent; the exact coordinates of white are, of course, determined by the color of the light source.
Limitations of color representation
In the beginning of the 20th century, industrial demands for a controllable way to describe colors and the new possibility to measure light spectra initiated intense research on mathematical descriptions of colors.
The idea of optimal colors was introduced by the Baltic German Chemist Wilhelm Ostwald. Erwin Schrödinger showed in his 1919 article Theorie der Pigmente von größter Leuchtkraft (Theory of Pigments with Highest Luminosity) that the most-saturated colors that can be created with a given total reflectivity are generated by surfaces having either zero or full reflectance at any given wavelength, and the reflectivity spectrum must have at most two transitions between zero and full. Thus two types of "optimal color" spectra are possible: Either the transition goes from zero at both ends of the spectrum to one in the middle, as shown in the image at right, or it goes from one at the ends to zero in the middle. The first type produces colors that are similar to the spectral colors and follow roughly the horseshoe-shaped portion of the CIE xy chromaticity diagram, but are generally less saturated. The second type produces colors that are similar to (but generally less saturated than) the colors on the straight line in the CIE xy chromaticity diagram, leading to magenta-like colors. Schrödinger's work was further developed by David MacAdam and Siegfried Rösch. MacAdam was the first person to calculate precise coordinates of selected points on the boundary of the optimal color solid in the CIE 1931 color space for lightness levels from Y = 10 to 95 in steps of 10 units. This enabled him to draw the optimal color solid at an acceptable degree of precision. Because of his achievement, the boundary of the optimal color solid is called the MacAdam limit. On modern computers, it is possible to calculate an optimal color solid with great precision in seconds or minutes. The MacAdam limit, on which the most saturated (or "optimal") colors reside, shows that colors that are near monochromatic colors can only be achieved at very low luminance levels, except for yellows, because a mixture of the wavelengths from the long straight-line portion of the spectral locus between green and red will combine to make a color very close to a monochromatic yellow.
Light sources
Light sources used as primaries in an additive color reproduction system need to be bright, so they are generally not close to monochromatic. That is, the color gamut of most variable-color light sources can be understood as a result of difficulties producing pure monochromatic (single wavelength) light. The best technological source of monochromatic light is the laser, which can be rather expensive and impractical for many systems. However, as optoelectronic technology matures, single-longitudinal-mode diode lasers are becoming less expensive, and many applications can already profit from this; such as Raman spectroscopy, holography, biomedical research, fluorescence, reprographics, interferometry, semiconductor inspection, remote detection, optical data storage, image recording, spectral analysis, printing, point-to-point free-space communications, and fiber optic communications.
Systems that use additive color processes usually have a color gamut which is roughly a convex polygon in the hue-saturation plane. The vertices of the polygon are the most saturated colors the system can produce. In subtractive color systems, the color gamut is more often an irregular region.
Comparison of various systems
||This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2007)|
Following is a list of representative color systems more-or-less ordered from large to small color gamut:
- Laser video projector uses 3 lasers to produce the broadest gamut available in practical display equipment today, derived from the fact that lasers produce truly monochromatic primaries. The systems work either by scanning the entire picture a dot at a time and modulating the laser directly at high frequency, much like the electron beams in a CRT, or by optically spreading and then modulating the laser and scanning a line at a time, the line itself being modulated in much the same way as in a DLP projector. Lasers can also be used as a light source for a DLP projector. More than 3 lasers can be combined to increase the gamut range, a technique sometimes used in holography.
- Digital Light Processing or DLP technology is a trademarked technology from Texas Instruments. The DLP chip contains a rectangular array of up to 2 million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors. Each of the micromirrors measures less than one-fifth the width of a human hair. A DLP chip's micromirror tilt either toward the light source in a DLP projection system (ON) or away from it (OFF). This creates a light or dark pixel on the projection surface. Current DLP projectors use a quickly rotating wheel with transparent colored "pie slices" to present each color frame successively. One rotation shows the complete image.
- Photographic film can reproduce a larger color gamut than typical television, computer, or home video systems.
- CRT and similar video displays have a roughly triangular color gamut which covers a significant portion of the visible color space. In CRTs, the limitations are due to the phosphors in the screen which produce red, green, and blue light.
- Liquid crystal display (LCD) screens filter the light emitted by a backlight. The gamut of an LCD screen is therefore limited to the emitted spectrum of the backlight. Typical LCD screens use cold-cathode fluorescent bulbs (CCFLs) for backlights. LCD Screens with certain LED or wide-gamut CCFL backlights yield a more comprehensive gamut than CRTs. However, some LCD technologies vary the color presented by viewing angle. In Plane Switching screens are better than Twisted Nematic.
- Television normally uses a CRT, LCD or plasma display, but does not take full advantage of its color display properties, due to the limitations of broadcasting. HDTV is less restrictive, but still somewhat less than, for example, computer displays using the same display technology.
- Paint mixing, both artistic and for commercial applications, achieves a reasonably large color gamut by starting with a larger palette than the red, green, and blue of CRTs or cyan, magenta, and yellow of printing. Paint may reproduce some highly saturated colors that cannot be reproduced well by CRTs (particularly violet), but overall the color gamut is smaller.
- Printing typically uses the CMYK color space (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). Very few printing processes do not include black; however, those processes (with the exception of dye-sublimation printers) are poor at representing low saturation, low intensity colors. Efforts have been made to expand the gamut of the printing process by adding inks of non-primary colors; these are typically orange and green (see Hexachrome) or light cyan and light magenta (see CcMmYK color model). Spot color inks of a very specific color are also sometimes used.
- A monochrome display's color gamut is a one-dimensional curve in color space.
- John H. Long (January 1950). "Shakespeare and Thomas Morley".
- Thomas De Quincey (1854). De Quincey's works. James R. Osgood.
- Schrödinger, Erwin (1919). "Theorie der Pigmente größter Leuchtkraft". Annalen der Physik 367 (15): 603–622. Bibcode:1920AnP...367..603S. doi:10.1002/andp.19203671504.
- Lee, Hsien-Che (2005). "18.7: Theoretical color gamut". Introduction to Color Imaging Science. Cambridge University Press. p. 468. ISBN 0-521-84388-X.
- "Single Frequency Laser - Single Longitudinal Mode Laser". Retrieved 26 February 2013.
- "JDSU - Diode Laser, 810 or 830 or 852 nm, 50-200 mW, Single-Mode (54xx Series)". Retrieved 26 February 2013.
- "Laserglow Technologies - Handheld Lasers, Alignment Lasers and Lab / OEM Lasers". Retrieved 26 February 2013.
- "Laser Diode Characteristics". Retrieved 26 February 2013.
- "Color holography to produce highly realistic three-dimensional images".
- "DLP Technology". Retrieved 2010-02-14.
- "Film gamut, apples, and oranges". Retrieved 2007-04-26.
|Look up gamut in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
- Using the Chromaticity Diagram for Color Gamut Evaluation by Bruce Lindbloom.
- Color Gamut Mapping book by Jan Morovic.
- Quantifying Color Gamut by William D. Kappele
- Stanford University CS 178 interactive Flash demo explaining color gamut mapping.
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Did you know that a lack of accessibility toward people with disabilities can equal discrimination? Furthermore, this type of discrimination happens all over the world on a daily basis. Canada is no exception to this accessibility-related discrimination.
“Once a world leader in accessibility, Canadian access levels fall below other developed countries.”
This is a quote from a 2007 article posted on the Council of Canadians with Disabilities’ website. What prompted this claim? The lack of accessibility in Canada’s transportation system.
The article named some surprising instances having to do with lack of transportation accessibility. Some of these instances include:
– A woman who used a guide dog was unable to travel due to the fact that “the carrier wanted a certificate showing her dog was trained by an accredited school.”
– “A deaf/blind woman was required to travel with an attendant. The right to self determination established years ago is lost.”
– Ticket dispensers for boarding passes at airports have not been disability accessible.
– “Wheelchair users in Gander, NFLD must drive to St. John’s to take planes large enough to transport their wheelchairs.”
Would you call the lack of transportation accessibility in these instances discrimination? Many people would. It seems that there has been a significant amount of these types of happenings within Canada’s Transportation Agency.
What are the main complaints people with disabilities have consistently given the Canadian Transportation Agency?
Canadians with disabilities have reportedly submitted the following complaints to the CTA:
– The transportation staff is not sufficiently trained
– Disability equipment becomes damaged in travel
– There are too many blocks to mobility
– There are “systemic barriers”
– People with disabilities encounter discrimination
Obviously, the transportation system not being fully accessible to individuals with disabilities is a major problem.
Is discrimination through a lack of accessibility a problem exclusive to the transportation system of Canada?
More than likely, insufficient accessibility is evident in other arenas. The good news is, there are organizations fighting this type of discrimination.
The Council of Canadians with Disabilities is an organization dedicated to erasing accessibility-related discrimination.
The Council of Canadians with Disabilities has been very active in the fight against unaccessible transportation in Canada. The counsel is doing much to benefit Canada’s disability community. Visit the CCD’s website at http://www.ccdonline.ca/en/.
We understand that a lack of accessibility can cause people with disabilities to feel shut off from the world. This type of discrimination has to end. With the help of organizations like the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, eventually it will.
*Please note: All research for this article is compiled from direct and third party sources. Mention of programs, organizations and companies does not imply support of The National Benefit Authority. Pictures are for creative purposes only; they are not intended to sell or promote products for the NBA and belong to the accredited individual, organization or company.
Let’s Talk About It
Have you had experiences with accessibility-related discrimination? If so, what was your reaction?
Do you think people understand that a lack of accessibility can be interpreted as discrimination?
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What is Social Care?
Defining social care
The description of social care below emerged from a consultation in 2011 with social care workers, managers and educators. The members of three representative bodies (IASCW, Irish Association of Social Care Workers; IASCE, Irish Association of Social Care Educators; RMA, Residential Managers’ Association (now, Irish Association of Social Care Managers)) were asked by the Professional Regulation Unit, Department of Health & Children, to contribute comments and suggestions on a proposed definition that would capture the full range of activities involved in social care work. Under EU directive 2005/36/EC, the Department of Health and Children is responsible for determining if overseas qualifications are equivalent to Irish qualifications. When presented with qualifications from other EU countries, the Department requires a common, agreed definition of social care work to help determine if, for example, a youth work qualification from Latvia is equivalent to a social care work qualification in Ireland. The following description of social care work emerged from the consultation process:
"Social care workers plan and provide professional individual or group care to clients with personal and social needs. Client groups are varied and include children and adolescents in residential care; young people in detention schools; people with intellectual or physical disabilities; people who are homeless; people with alcohol/drug dependency; families in the community; or older people. Social care workers strive to support, protect, guide and advocate on behalf of clients. Social care work is based on interpersonal relationships which require empathy, strong communication skills, self awareness and an ability to use critical reflection. Teamwork and interdisciplinary work are also important in social care practice.
The core principles underpinning social care work are similar to those of other helping professions, and they include respect for the dignity of clients; social justice; and empowerment of clients to achieve their full potential.
Social care practice differs from social work practice in that it uses shared life-space opportunities to meet the physical, social and emotional needs of clients. Social care work uses strengths-based, needs-led approaches to mediate clients’ presenting problems.
Social care workers are trained, inter alia, in life span development, parenting, attachment & loss, interpersonal communication and behaviour management. Their training equips them to optimise the personal and social development of those with whom they work. In Ireland, the recognised qualification is a 3-year Level 7 degree. In Europe, social care work is usually referred to as social pedagogy and social care workers as social pedagogues"
The issue of defining social care is considered at length in Chapter one of Share, P. & Lalor, K. (Eds.) (2009). Applied Social Care. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
What do social care workers do?
Social care is a profession characterised by working with marginalised or disadvantaged people in a caring, compassionate way. Graduates may work with children and adolescents in residential child care, people with learning disabilities, the homeless, people with alcohol/drug dependency, families in the community, the aged, asylum seekers/refugees and so on.
How do I become a social care worker?
A social care practitioner has academic qualities consisting of a broad knowledge base in their field, research skills and a problem-solving approach to their work. However, in addition to academic qualifications, certain personal characteristics are desirable due to the interpersonal nature of social care work. For example,
reliability and trustworthiness
altruism (a desire to work with, and help, other people)
compassion (an understanding and sensitivity to what motivates peoples' behaviour, particularly in difficult circumstances)
maturity (students should have the potential to become responsible, calm professionals, comfortable as role-models for their client).
The professional qualification is a 3 year BA (Ord.) (formerly, Diploma). Many qualified practitioners go on to complete an Honours Degree in the field, and some may progress to postgraduate qualifications. As undergraduates, students study a wide range of subjects, including
sociology and social policy
principles of professional practice
creative skills (art, drama, music)
A key element of studying to be a professional social care worker is involvement in a number of supervised work placements, in a variety of social care settings throughout their time in college.
Social care graduates may be employed in either the state (statutory) sector - usually the Department of Health and Children or the Department of Education - or the voluntary sector.
The salary scale (from 2011) for qualified social care workers (new entrants) is €29,993 - €39,875 plus allowances. In common with all public sector workers, this represents a decrease on previous salary scales.
What's the difference between a social care worker and a social worker?
A social care practitioner will typically work in a direct person-to-person capacity with clients. He or she will seek to provide a caring, stable environment in which various social, educational and relationship interventions can take place in the day-to-day living space of the client. The social worker's role, on the other hand, is to manage the 'case', for example by arranging the residential child care placement in which a child is placed, co-ordinating case review meetings, negotiating the termination of a placement and responding to child protection concerns in a given area.
Slides for Secondary School talks on 'Social Care'
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Subspace is a mysterious and complex region which offers both great benefits and great perils to those who utilize it. The major benefits are obvious - interstellar civilizations such as the Federation would be all but impossible without the faster than light travel offered by warp drives which utilize subspace. On the other hand, subspace phenomena can be diverse, unpredictable and almost unbelievably destructive. The following is a brief list of some of the major subspace phenomena encountered by the Federation since its formation. Note that this is not an exhaustive list, simply a selection.1
A phenomenon caused when an object is partially encased in a subspace field, thus altering the gravitational constant of the encased portion and giving the different parts different inertial densities. Subspace compression causes stress to be placed on the object, and in extreme cases can cause it to be destroyed on an atomic level. In addition to this danger there is considerable risk of damage to the platform projecting the subspace field, although a modern Starship is capable of withstanding a considerable degree of subspace compression. The Enterprise-D once attempted to correct the orbit of a moon orbiting Bre'el IV by wrapping a subspace field around part of it, thus resulting in subspace compression. The attempt failed, but as a result of non technical factors rather than any problems with the method employed.2
A rare and highly unusual subspace compression phenomenon was discovered in 2374. The anomaly caused an object which passed through it to be greatly reduced in physical size; the Danube class runabout Rubicon was shrunk to a size of approximately a dozen centimetres while investigating the anomaly, although it was eventually able to return to its normal size. It was hoped that study of the anomaly would enable a better understanding of the mechanisms behind transwarp conduits to be gained.3
A phenomenon which indicates the presence of a functioning warp drive system. The Cytherian probe encountered by the Enterprise-D in 2367 did not generate any subspace field distortions even though it was capable of travelling at faster than light speeds. The nature of the probes drive system remains a mystery to Federation science.4
A subspace link between two points in normal space through which, theoretically, matter and energy can pass. Subspace funnels thus bear some superficial similarity to wormholes. Lieutenant LaForge suggested that the mysterious disappearance of the USS Hera may have been a result of the ship being transported to Marijne VII when trionic initiators in the ships warp core created a subspace funnel. Unfortunately no evidence was discovered to support the theory and the ships loss remains a mystery.5
An area in which the fabric of space is weakened, making it especially vulnerable to the damaging effect of certain types of warp drive. The effect is cumulative, and excessive use of warp drive spacecraft in regions containing subspace instabilities can result in the formation of a subspace rift.
The region around the Hekaras corridor is rife with subspace instabilities and it was here that the damaging effect of warp drives was proven when Dr. Serova created a warp core breach in her ship, resulting in a subspace rift. As a result the local inhabitants feared that they would have to abandon warp drive altogether, but in fact a modification to warp engine design has allowed vessels to operate without damaging space in this manner.6
Our universe coexists with a multitude of others which occupy the same physical space but are separated by the phase difference between them. Occasionally our universe overlaps one of these others, creating a region of interphase. Such interphase pockets are highly dangerous; vessels entering them are likely to find themselves marooned in another universe with little chance of returning. Being in close proximity to an interphase pocket has drastic effects on the brain function of Humanoid life forms, while being trapped inside one is generally fatal.
In 2268 the USS Defiant wandered into an interphase pocket. The effect of the pocket induced intensely violent behaviour patterns in the crew, causing them all to kill each other. When the USS Enterprise investigated the phenomenon Captain James Kirk led a team onto the Defiant. The Defiant began to shift into another universe and Kirk became trapped inside the interphase pocket as his team was beamed back to the Enterprise. He survived for several hours in the pocket, having been protected during the transition by the cushioning effect of the transporter beam, and was eventually recovered. Unfortunately the Defiant herself could not be salvaged.
Interphase pockets are highly sensitive to disturbances in space and any use of energy in their vicinity can cause them to shift position and alter the timing of the periods of interphase significantly.7 An interphase pocket can be produced by detonating a tri-cobalt warhead in a sufficiently large gravitational field, such as that found near to a dead star. Under the right conditions, the pocket can act as a gateway which can allow objects to move both between parallel universes and through time.8
An opening in the fabric of normal space through which subspace protrudes. High level exposure of space containing subspace instabilities to warp fields can result in a subspace rift, causing vessels to become trapped. The rifts are extremely sensitive to any use of subspace technology, most especially to warp drive - any use of a warp drive system within a rift causes it to expand greatly.
In 2370 the USS Enterprise was present at the formation of a subspace rift in the Hekaras corridor, and was subsequently trapped within it when the USS Flemming activated its warp drive. The Enterprise managed to escape the rift, but was unable to do anything to repair it. For a time all Starfleet vessels were limited to speeds of no more than Warp 5 in order to prevent the cumulative damage to the fabric of space from creating more rifts, but new models of warp engine are able to operate safely at any speed and the warp 5 limit has been abandoned.6
A large anomaly which acts in a manner similar to a whirlpool, sucking matter into it over a large scale. In 2169 a Vulcan vessel discovered a subspace rupture in the Hanoli system. The Vulcans detonated a pulse wave torpedo in the rupture, setting off a chain reaction which destroyed the entire system.
In 2369 the crew of Deep Space Nine believed that a subspace rupture had formed near the station, but the anomaly proved to be a manifestation of their imaginations created by an alien species investigating Humanoid mental processes.9
A phenomenon which prevents the use of warp drive, effectively tying a spacecraft in place. Essentially, a region with a Cochrane factor of zero. In 2375 USS Voyager was marooned on a subspace sandbar which was created when a species of Photonic beings from another universe created gateways into our dimension. Voyagers crew was able to convince the beings to return to their own space and close the gateways, after which the sandbar dissipated and the ship was able to continue on its way.10
A shock wave produced by certain types of explosion, most notably those involving dilithium ore. Subspace shock waves tend to propagate across an almost flat plane rather than in the three dimensional manner of a normal explosion. The shock wave propagates through normal space and can interact with objects within our universe, but its subspace nature allows it to travel at high multiples of the speed of light. The near destruction of the Klingon moon Praxis in 2293 produced a large subspace shock wave with a double wave front which extended out of Klingon territory altogether and hit the USS Excelsior, which was patrolling in the area at the time.11
A subspace tear can be created by an isolytic subspace weapon. It allows a portion of subspace to intrude upon normal space, presenting a threat to Starships in the vicinity. The tear can be attracted to a Starships warp core, which drags it across space like a zipper. Detonating such a warp core within the tear can cause it to close up again, although this is not guaranteed. Such a tactic was successfully employed by the Starship Enterprise-E when a Son'a vessel used a subspace weapon against it during the Ba'ku crisis.12
A phenomenon associated with the dimensional shift transport technology employed by the Ansata terrorists on Rutia IV. Virtually undetectable by conventional sensor systems, the effect can be scanned with accuracy by an adaptive subspace echogram. In 2366 the USS Enterprise used such a scan to locate the Ansata headquarters and score a major victory over the Ansata.13
A natural subspace phenomenon which links two points in space time and causes matter and energy located at each point to switch places with its counterpart. The two points can be separated by virtually any distance, or for that matter could even exist within other dimensions. Subspace vacuoles are attracted to the warp cores of a Federation Starship.
In 2371 USS Voyager encountered a planet whose rings were riddled with subspace vacuoles which linked it to the Vhnori home world. The Vhnori had been sending their corpses through the vacuoles for a long time, believing that the phenomena were conveying their dead to the afterlife. When Ensign Kim was accidentally transported through a vacuole to their world he revealed the true destination of the vacuoles and revealed that he had seen the bodies of the Vhnori dead before being transported to their world, confirming that this aspect of their religion was in fact false. This prompting something of a religious crisis on the planet. When he - eventually - realized that such revelations were a prime directive violation Kim effected an escape through another vacuole back to Voyager.
Captain Janeway subsequently noted that the Vhnori beliefs may in fact have had some slight basis in reality, since the planet the dead were being transported to was surrounded by a very complex energy field which might contain the neural patterns of the dead Vhnori. Whilst it may be true that the Vhnori experience an afterlife of sorts, existence as disembodied energy remains fundamentally at odds with Vhnori beliefs as revealed to Ensign Kim.14
A phenomena encountered by Voyager in 2375; the sinkhole produced considerable gravimetric shear, which prevented a warp drive from functioning in the vicinity of the entrance. It was also strong enough to pull small vessels inside, though venting plasma and reversing shield polarity could counter this effect. The entrance to the sinkhole was some 600 metres across, but since it was out of phase with normal space it was extremely difficult to detect. Inside the distortion was much larger - the one Voyager encountered contained an entire solar system comprising a star and three planets. Time passed more slowly inside the sinkhole than outside - more than 126 times slower. Much of the theory regarding subspace sinkholes indicated that they were mono-directional, but Voyager was able to beam out crewmembers who were trapped inside the phenomenon by using a probe as a relay. Sinkholes can collapse naturally, destroying everything inside them, but the one encountered by Voyager was sealed by an alien vessel using anti-graviton beams before this could happen.15
A naturally occurring bubble of curved space-time, subspace nodes can be huge in size - there is one near Earth which is over a hundred light years across. They prevent star formation, and appear as an empty region of space. The lack of matter and energy phenomena allows certain experiments to be performed in these regions. In 2139 an attempt at a sub-quantum transport left the transporter pattern of a man stranded in the bubble. Fluctuations in the node caused the signal to partially re-appear on occasion, though an attempt to recapture and rematerialise the pattern was unsuccessful and resulted in the death of the man.16
A phenomenon encountered by the Starship Voyager in 2373, astral eddys form at the confluence of space and subspace. They are highly charged with plasma, which causes them to leave an easily detectable particle wake behind them. The plasma makes them a good source of energy for Starships which are otherwise short on such resources. Astral eddys throw off graviton waves which cause considerable turbulence in their vicinity. Within the eddy massive discharges of plasmatic energy are found, and temperature gradients can exceed nine million kelvins. However the centre of an eddy has a perfectly calm region akin to the eye of a hurricane.17
Astral eddys are only partially subspace phenomenon. Matter within the eddy is exchanged between normal space and subspace, and an unstable interfold layer which is not in space or subspace exists between the two. This region is the source of the eddys, which form when subspace is ruptured within the anomaly. Approaching an eddy is dangerous both because of the extreme turbulence and because of the considerable radiation they emit. Vessels in the wake of an eddy can be drawn into the interfold region, as happened to one of Voyager's shuttlecraft. Escape is possible by passing through one of the subspace ruptures which spawns a new eddy, though this is somewhat dangerous because of the turbulence eddys cause.17
A phenomena encountered by Voyager in 2377, these Voids are capable of emitting a graviton surge which could drag ships off course. The void itself is a closed structure encased in an inert layer of subspace which neither matter nor energy can penetrate - only funnels which form periodically for a brief duration pull matter into the void. The funnels appeared at irregular intervals, though Borg sensors used with fractal algorithms allowed a ship to predict when and where they would form. There was little in the way of matter or energy in the void, and no deuterium which ships could use for fuel. Worse, the same graviton surge which dragged ships inside drained energy from their power systems, resulting in at least a tenfold increase in fuel useage. The void Voyager encountered was nine light years in circumference.18
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Calculate Tax Revenue
Calculate Tax Revenue document sample
Shared by: fsm71579
Department of Economics University of Wisconsin-La Crosse ECON110 Principles of Economics Lisa Giddings Homework 4 Due November 11th 2008 1. Number 10, Chapter 8, page 175. This chapter analyzed the welfare effects of a tax on a good. Consider now the opposite policy. Suppose that the government subsidizes a good: For each unit of the good sold, the government pays $2 to the buyer. How does the subsidy affect consumer surplus, producer surplus, tax revenue, and total surplus? Does a subsidy lead to deadweight loss? Explain. 2. Number 11, Chapter 8, page 175. Hotel rooms in Smalltown go for $100, and 1,000 rooms are rented on a typical day. a. To raise revenue, the mayor decides to charge hotels a tax of $10 per rented room. After the tax is imposed, the going rate for hotel rooms rises to $108, and the number of rooms rented falls to 900. Calculate the amount of the revenue this tax raises for Smalltown and the deadweight loss of the tax. b. The mayor now doubles the tax to $20. The price rises to $116, and the number of rooms rented falls to 8090. Calculate tax revenue and deadweight loss with this larger tax. Do they double, more than double, or less than double? Explain. 3. Number 8, Chapter 9, page 198: The nation of Textilia does not allow imports of clothing. In its equilibrium without trade, a T-shirt costs $20, and the equilibrium quantity is 3 million t- shirts. One day, after reading Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations while on vacation, the president decides to open the Textilian market to international trade. The market price of a t-shirt falls to the world price of $16. The number of t-shirts consumed in Textilia rises to 4 million, while the number of t-shirts produced declines to 1 million. a. Illustrate the situation just described in a graph. Your graph should show all the numbers. b. Calculate the change in consumer surplus, producer surplus, and total surplus that results from opening up trade. 4. Number 9, Chapter 9, page 198. Consider a country that imports a good from abroad. For each of the following statements, say whether it is true or false. Explain your answer. a. “The greater the elasticity of demand, the greater the gains from trade.” b. “If demand is inelastic, there are no gains from trade.” c. “If demand is inelastic, consumers do not benefit from trade.” 5. Number 11, Chapter 12, page 263. Use the data in Table 8 to answer these questions about the U.S. tax system: a. For each quintile, compute the federal taxes paid by the typical taxpayer. b. As a taxpayer moves from each quintile to the next higher quintle, compute the change in income and the change in taxes. c. Use the information in part b to compute the marginal tax rate as a person moves from one quintile to the next. d. For any given taxpayer, which is higher—the marginal tax rate or the average tax rate? e. What happens to the average tax rate and the marginal tax rate as income rises? Which changes more? me rises ? Which changes more?
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Proper Breathing Techniques Improve Overall Health
Efficient breathing reduces health risks, including heart attacks
In Eastern cultures, great significance is placed on proper breathing techniques, and for good reason. Proper deep breathing:
- Lowers your heart rate
- Lowers blood pressure and cardiac output
- Increases blood oxygen levels
- Promotes clearer thinking
- Relieves stress
- Increases metabolism
- Improves circulation
- Supports detoxification
Proper breathing can even help prevent heart attacks.
In Western cultures, however, little emphasis is placed on breathing methods, which can lead to, or exacerbate, many health problems. Fortunately, changing your breathing habits is something you can do quite easily once you understand how.
An Exercise to Improve Breathing Technique
Here is a simple Far Eastern breathing exercise you can do to "train" your body to breathe in a more efficient manner. It will help your body better use oxygen, increase your energy levels, improve clarity, and promote an overall feeling of calmness.
Just follow these steps:
- Start by counting how many times you breathe each minute. In a relaxed sitting posture, most people breathe anywhere from 15 to 25 times a minute. (After practicing these exercises, your breathing rate may drop to as low as five times a minute, with a greatly increased level of oxygen use.)
- Lie down on either a bed or the floor. Place a fairly heavy book (a large phone book works well) on your abdomen just below your navel.
- Breathe through your nose, inhaling in such a manner that you raise the book. When you exhale, the book should lower.
- Continue practicing this until this breathing pattern becomes natural.
Although this is exactly the way we breathe during sleep—by inflating and deflating our lower abdomen—for some reason our breathing becomes more labored and inefficient during our waking hours. We seem to shift everything up to our chest area and breathe more shallowly.
Additional Tips for Better Breathing
Here are some more general rules for more efficient breathing:
- Breathe through the nose as much as possible. The nose pre-warms, moistens, and filters the air before it reaches the lungs.
- Stand erect with your hands to the side. Begin to inhale slowly and concentrate on allowing the air to fill the lower portion of your lungs first. To do this you must relax your abdominal, or stomach, muscles.
- While still inhaling, let the air fill the middle portion of the lungs as you let the rib cage relax and expand.
- Continue inhaling as the upper part of the lungs fill. As this happens, gently raise your collarbone and pull your shoulders up and back.
- Now exhale reversing the above sequence—that is, let the air release from the upper lungs by relaxing the collarbone and shoulders, then the middle portion of the lungs, and so forth.
- Make sure your breaths are even, and visualize each section of the lungs completely filling with air. As you fill the upper portion of the lungs, picture your chest expanding and your shoulders becoming more erect and higher.
Learn how to breathe properly, and I guarantee you'll experience significant health benefits for years to come.
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One of the greatest moments after the birth of your baby is the first time your newborn daughter or son opens their eyes and makes eye contact with you. But don’t be concerned if that doesn’t happen right away.
The visual system of a newborn infant takes some time to develop. In the first week of life, your newborn’s vision is quite blurry, and they see only in shades of gray. It takes several months for your child’s vision to fully develop.
Knowing the expected milestones of your baby’s vision development during their first year of life can insure your child is seeing properly and enjoying their world to the fullest.
During your pregnancy
Your child’s vision development begins before birth. How you care for your own body during your pregnancy is extremely important for the development of your baby’s body and mind, including their eyes and the vision centers in their brain.
Be sure to follow the instructions your obstetrician (OB/GYN doctor) gives you regarding proper nutrition and the proper amount of rest during your pregnancy. And of course, avoid smoking and consuming alcohol or drugs during pregnancy, as these toxins can cause multiple problems for your baby, including serious vision problems.
At birth, your baby sees only in shades of gray. Nerve cells in their eyes and brain that control vision aren’t fully developed. Also, their eyes don’t have the ability to change focus and see close object clearly. So don’t be concerned if your baby doesn’t seem to be focusing on objects right away, including your face. It just takes time. (Despite these limitations, studies show that within a few days after birth, infants prefer looking at an image of their mother’s face over anyone else’s.)
The first month
Color vision develops in the first few weeks of life, so your baby is starting to see the world in full color. But visual acuity and eye teaming takes a bit longer -- so if your infant's eyes occasionally look unfocused or misaligned, don't worry.
The eyes of infants are not as sensitive to visible light as adult eyes are, but they need protection from the sun's harmful UV rays. Keep your baby's eyes shaded outdoors with a brimmed cap or some other means.
Months 2 and 3
Your baby’s vision is improving and their two eyes are beginning to move better as a team. They should be following moving objects at this stage, and starting to reach for things they see. Also, infants at this stage are learning how to shift their gaze from one object to another without having to move their head.
Months 4 to 6
By 6 months of age, significant advances take place in the vision centers of the brain, allowing your infant to see more distinctly, move their eyes faster and more accurately, and have a better ability to follow moving objects with their eyes.
Visual acuity develops rapidly, improving from about 20/400 at birth to about 20/25 at six months of age. Your child’s color vision should be nearly fully developed at age six months as well, enabling them to see all the colors of the rainbow with ease.
Children also develop better eye-hand coordination at 4 to 6 months of age. They’re able to quickly locate and pick up objects, and accurately direct a bottle (and many other things) to their mouth.
Months 7 to 12
Your child is now mobile, crawling about and covering more distances than you might have expected. They are also better at judging distances and more skilled at locating, grasping and throwing objects, too.
During months 7 to 12, your child is developing a better awareness of their overall body and learning how to coordinate their vision with their body movements. At this time, watch them closely to keep them from harm as they explore their environment. Keep cabinets that contain cleaning supplies locked, and put a barrier in front of stairwells.
When its time for an eye exam
If you suspect something is seriously wrong with your baby’s eyes in their first few months of life (a bulging eye, a red eye, excess tearing, or a constant misalignment of the eyes, for example) take your child to a pediatric ophthalmologist or other eye doctor immediately.
For routine eye care, the American Optometric Association (AOA) recommends you schedule your baby’s first eye exam when they are six months old. Though your baby can’t yet read letters on a wall chart, your optometrist can perform non-verbal testing to determine visual acuity, detect excessive or unequal amounts of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, and evaluate eye teaming and alignment. At this exam, your doctor will also check the health of your baby’s eyes, looking for anything that might interfere with normal and continuing vision development.
We welcome providing eye care for even the youngest children. For more information about eye exams for kids or to schedule your child’s first eye exam, please call our office.
For more information on children’s vision, visit All About Vision®.
Article ©2008 Access Media Group LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction other than for one-time personal use is strictly prohibited.
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What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading. Students with dyslexia may experience difficulties in other language skills such as spelling, writing, and speaking. Dyslexia is a life-long status, however, its impact can change at different stages in a person’s life. It is referred to as a learning disability because dyslexia can make it very difficult for a student to succeed academically in the typical instructional environment.
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Inventors are currently working on a high-tech learning tool that can be powered by solar energy for use in Indian classrooms without electricity. The i-slate is an electronic tablet being developed by researchers from Rice University in Houston, Texas and researchers from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.
The first round of I-slates will be pre-loaded with lessons for mathematics, science and social studies, according to Rice researchers. Developers in Switzerland, Singapore and the U.S. are creating the first production version of the low-power computer chip. Solar-powered I-slates containing the new chips are due for production in mid-2012.
The idea for the power-saving educational tablet came about in 2009 when a team from Rice and NTU began working with the Indian nonprofit Villages for Development and Learning Foundation to test I-slate prototypes. Earlier this year, researchers examined whether the I-slate helped students’ improve in mathematics and found that the tool did in fact help improve learning.
To use the I-slate, students use a stylus to tap and write out mathematics problems on the device. They get immediate feedback about correct and incorrect answers. When answers are incorrect, the machine gives hints and tips about how to correct mistakes.
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Understanding personal protective equipment:
The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is or should be second nature for electrical construction workers; unfortunately, its use and purpose are too often not fully understood. As a result, it may be used improperly or not at all. PPE standards continue to be among the top 25 most frequently cited OSHA standards. In 2006, head protection was number 11. Taking this simple test on PPE and its use may provide insight into possible usage pitfalls.
Questions (true or false)
1. Wearing a hard hat backwards has no impact on its protective features.
2. Wearing a face shield alone provides sufficient protection to the eyes from splash hazards.
3. Ear muffs are better than ear plugs.
4. Class C hard hats do not provide protection from electrical hazards.
5. In addition to its electrical insulation capability, rubber is the best material to use in a glove for protection against chemicals.
6. All safety shoes are rated the same for compression.
7. The service life of N, R and P series particulate respirators are limited by considerations of hygiene, damage and breathing resistance.
1. False. Hard hats are tested for impact and penetration. The curve of the shell and the manner in which it sits on the suspension affect its protective ability. The suspension should be adjusted to ensure there is an appropriate space between the head and hat’s shell. Typically, this space is 1 to 1¼ inches unless otherwise specified by the manufacturer. Wearing a hard hat backwards, even when the suspension is reversed, may have an impact. However, certain hard hats may be designed to allow them to be worn backwards. The manufacturer should be consulted.
2. False. Faceshields are considered a secondary protector. Safety glasses or goggles must be worn to effectively protect against a chemical splash or dusts.
3. False. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates hearing protectors. The rating is identified on the device as the Noise Reduction Rating (NRR). An ear muff and an ear plug with the same rating should provide the same protection. The employee’s ability to use the device may affect an evaluation, but other factors may have an impact as well. It’s easier to put ear muffs on, but foam plugs may provide a wider range of protection from variable frequencies. Again, manufacturers are the best resource for the range of protection and proper use of their equipment.
4. True. Hard hats are divided into three classes. Class C hard hats offer impact protection, but no protection from electrical hazards. Class A hard hats provide impact and penetration resistance and protection from voltage up to 2,200 volts. Class B hard hats offer the highest protection with high-voltage shock and burn protection up to 20,000 volts.
5. False. Protection is dependent on the chemical exposure. Rubber is very good for some acids and bases, but offers poor protection from diesel fuel and gasoline. Nitrile gloves would be better when using these chemicals. The chemical exposure must be determined. The Material Safety Data Sheet is an excellent source to identify the chemical and protection needed.
6. False. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Protective Footwear Standard provides a guide for classifying the performance characteristics of safety footwear. There are three compression and impact classifications identified in the standard: Class 30, Class 50 and, the highest rating, Class 75. Class 75 will resist a compression force of up to 2,500 pounds. Every pair of an approved safety shoe should be stamped, usually on the inside lining, with its Z41 performance classification and identification.
7. True. R or P series filters can be used for protection against oil or non-oil aerosols. N series filters should be used only for non-oil aerosols. Use and reuse of the P series filters would be subject only to considerations of hygiene, damage and increased breathing resistance. Generally, the use and reuse of N series filters would also be subject just to considerations of hygiene, damage and increased breathing resistance. The R series filters should be used only for a single shift or for eight hours of continuous or intermittent use when oil is present.
Whether or not you found this test easy, it is critical to recognize that the proper use of PPE goes beyond simply handing it out. Employers need to perform a hazard assessment to determine what hazards exist in the workplace. Engineering and administrative controls need to be implemented first to reduce the need for PPE. If PPE is needed, the appropriate types must be matched to the hazards and fitted to the individual employees. Employees must be trained on the use and care of their PPE. An inspection, maintenance and replacement schedule should be established for PPE. These procedures should be reviewed periodically for their effectiveness and updated as needed. EC
O’CONNOR is with Intec, a safety consulting, training and publishing firm that offers on-site assistance and produces manuals, training videos and software for contractors. Based in Waverly, Pa., he can be reached at 607.624.7159 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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From ancient life to alien life
Living where the sun don't shine
A Caribbean cruise may unlock one of biology’s oldest secrets—both on Earth and elsewhere in the universe
MODERN life is powered by the sun. But photosynthesis, the process that converts sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into plants, is a mere 2.4 billion years old. Life itself goes back at least 3.5 billion years. Before photosynthesis, the energy must have come from something else. Without understanding what that something was, it is impossible to know how life on Earth got going. Moreover, there are those who think that whatever did power Earth-bound life before photosynthesis might also power it on other planets. Which is why, on October 7th, a mission was launched from Cape Canaveral—not from the rocket pads in the north of the cape, but from the docks at its south.
The good ship Cape Hatteras, crewed by Chris German of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in Massachusetts, and his colleagues, will act as a base for the exploration of a region of inner, rather than outer space—specifically, the Mid-Cayman Rise, a submarine mountain range that lies under almost 7km (about 4 miles) of water near Grand Cayman island in the Caribbean. When it gets there, Cape Hatteras will launch Nereus, an unmanned submarine, named after an ancient Greek sea god, that is capable of withstanding the pressure at such depth (it went down 11km on a previous expedition).
The Caribbean may seem an unlikely place to study extraterrestrial life, but this is no junket. The reason for going there is that the Mid-Cayman Rise is part of the 60,000km-long system of mid-ocean ridges that zigzags around the planet like a network of giant zip fasteners which open up regularly to reveal the liquid rock beneath. Moreover, it is a particularly unusual part of that network—one which some believe may also reveal what the earliest life on Earth looked like and thus give hints about how life might develop elsewhere.
When liquid rock wells up at a ridge, it pushes the existing sea floor sideways and thus propels any adjacent continents apart—a process known as continental drift. The process also creates underwater geysers, called hydrothermal vents, which pump out large quantities of energy-rich chemicals such as hydrogen sulphide. These vents are home to a range of unusual creatures that subsist—directly or indirectly—on chemical energy derived from the vents, rather than on sunlight.
The discovery of hydrothermal vents, in the 1970s, caused great excitement. Some biologists thought that the bacteria which extract the chemical energy, and thus form the base of the hydrothermal ecosystem's food chains, might be similar to those that lived before photosynthesis. But most of the necessary chemical reactions (those involving hydrogen sulphide, for example) require oxygen, the waste product of photosynthesis, as one of their components, and so cannot predate it.
The exceptions are those reactions that use hydrogen as the source of chemical energy. Photosynthesis employs light to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen then combines with carbon dioxide to create energy-rich carbohydrate compounds, the building blocks of the rest of biochemistry. So if the elemental hydrogen is already to hand, an energy source such as light or oxidation may not be needed to keep the ecosystem going.
The vents of most mid-ocean ridges rarely produce hydrogen. There is, however, reason to believe that hydrogen will be abundant in the vents of a particular type of ridge called an ultra-slow spreader. All mid-ocean ridges are formed mainly of basalt, the liquid form of which directly underlies the solid rock of the sea floor. Ultra-slow spreaders, however, also contain a lot of peridotite, which comes from deeper down and is much richer in magnesium and iron. These elements react with seawater to release hydrogen. Preliminary work by Dr German and others suggests that the vents at these ridges do, indeed, emit hydrogen. And, on top of that, some geologists argue that the ridges of the early, geologically unevolved Earth would have been peridotite-rich. Modern ultra-slow ridges may therefore be a better model for the past than the common variety.
That is why WHOI, NASA (America's space agency) and several other institutions have got together in a snappily entitled collaboration called Oases for Life and Pre-Biotic Chemistry: Hydrothermal Exploration Using Advanced Underwater Robotics. And the consequence of that is the cruise of Cape Hatteras.
Once it is on station, Cape Hatteras will deploy a package of instruments designed to sniff out a suitable hydrothermal vent by sampling the chemistry and physics of the water. Then the team will release Nereus. The vent-sniffing package should get them within 10km of their prey, but Nereus will still have to do a bit of hunting by itself, using measurements of temperature, water-transparency and chemical composition to close in on the target. Once it has found the vent, it will take a few preliminary photographs and return to the surface.
For the next phase, the probe will have to be put on a leash (actually, an ultralight optical fibre that is only twice the diameter of a human hair), in order for Dr German and his team to be able to give it detailed instructions, and for it to send back its findings as it makes them. For six days, it will collect vent fluids, minerals, hydrothermally altered rocks, large volumes of seawater and any organisms it can catch, bringing up 25kg of samples a day.
In the final phase of the expedition, once these samples are safely aboard, the researchers will put the probe through a testing series of exercises in preparation for its deployment in less benign waters than those of the central Caribbean—for the next target may be the Gakkel Ridge under the Arctic pack ice.
Whatever Nereus finds will be interesting. The ocean floor is the least understood part of the Earth's surface, so any new data are welcome. If the probe does come up with hydrogen-eating bacteria, though, that will bring especial comfort to those who hope to find life on other celestial bodies, particularly ones that are far from the nurturing light of the sun. In that case, maybe, one of Nereus's descendants will explore the hydrothermal vents which many researchers suspect lie under ice even deeper and colder than the Arctic's—that of another name from Greek mythology, Jupiter's moon, Europa.
| 4.017328 |
Genetically modified prairie voles may illuminate the human condition
LOVE, of course, is what makes the world go round, but what makes love go round? To aesthetes, such a question is imponderable. To scientists, it is not only ponderable but increasingly open to scrutiny—the more so now that Zoe Donaldson and her colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, have succeeded in creating a new kind of transgenic prairie vole. For, unlikely as it might seem, these tiny rodents could be the key to understanding bonding, trust and even decision-making in humans.
For those unfamiliar with the delightful prairie vole, it is a small rodent found in the grasslands of central North America. What makes it unusual among mammals is that it is both sociable and monogamous. Prairie voles groom each other, nest with one another, collaborate to guard their territory and are affectionate and attentive parents who form, for the most part, devoted couples. Their close relatives the meadow voles, by contrast, prefer a solitary, promiscuous existence.
It turns out that these large behavioural differences between the two species are caused by small genetic ones. To be precise, they have been linked to a hormone called vasopressin and the protein molecule that acts as its receptor. Prairie voles have many vasopressin receptors in the reward centres of their brains. It seems as though these are wired up in a way that causes the animal to take pleasure from monogamy. In people, by contrast, certain variations of the vasopressin receptor have been linked with rocky marriages, and overenthusiastic journalists have dubbed it the “divorce gene”.
Being able to create genetic variants of prairie voles to order would therefore be helpful to research. And that, as they describe in the December issue of Biology of Reproduction, is what Dr Donaldson and her team have done. Using viruses as carriers, they have introduced novel genetic material into embryonic prairie-vole cells, and then grown each modified cell into a complete animal.
In this case, to prove the point, the gene they introduced was for green fluorescent protein—a molecule derived from jellyfish. This molecule, as its name suggests, glows bright green when exposed to light of a suitable frequency. The resulting glowing prairie voles were evidence that the embryos had indeed been altered, and that the alteration had been transmitted to every cell in the vole's body, including its sex cells. The offspring of such voles will therefore carry the change as well.
Having proved the principle, Dr Donaldson—or anybody else who wishes to—will now be able to make voles that do more than just glow in the dark. Biologists will thus be able to test theories about how behaviour is governed by the vole's various genes. This, in turn, should help explain complex social interactions seen in both rodents and people.
In some cases the monogamous rodents will, no doubt, become promiscuous. Certainly, the reverse can happen. One study has already shown that it is possible to inject a viral vector for the vasopressin receptor into the brains of the fickle meadow voles and make them better partners and parents. It may be some time before such interventions are available for human males, but women can always live in hope.
| 3.193459 |
Why Tests Matter, and How They Can Help Your Child
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- Preparing for Standardized Tests
- Test Taking Strategies for Short Answer and Essay Tests
- Types of Standardized Tests
- Standardized Tests in Early Learning Programs
- Readiness Tests
- How Standardized Tests Are Used with Infants and Young Children
- The Limits of Standardized Tests for Diagnosing and Assisting Student Learning
- Assessing 21st Century Skills: Tests of the Future
- Criterion-Referenced Tests
When students perform well in high school, they gain knowledge about the whole panoply of high school subjects. And while students might not realize it, their school experience develops in them invaluable talents, too. These talents can advance students through their educational life, their work life, and well beyond.
An important talent developed during the educational process is learning how to take tests. Test-taking is a talent that students must learn and exercise with determination throughout their education and, to the surprise of many, throughout life.
Developing test-taking expertise is also a sign of increased academic maturity. As students mature, they approach tests as welcome challenges rather than dreadful confrontations with heartless teachers.
Test-taking is a topic of special interest to me because my son, Tom, suddenly found that his testing abilities were “tested to the limit,” after deciding on a career in law. He had selected a very competitive law school that required a high score on the LSAT (Law School Admission Test). When he took practice LSATs, his scores came up short by a few critical points.
Tom loves learning and his grades always reflected this love. Now his dilemma was to bring up his score. With his usual determination, he set out to confront the LSAT head-on in an effort to capture those few needed points. He constructed a strict preparation schedule for himself, used the time to study the prep books he bought at the bookstore, and enrolled in a prep course in “taking the LSAT.” He self-administered what seemed to be hundreds of practice tests. He scored them and kept practicing. Finally, after several weeks of effort, he took the test and got the score he needed.
Tom achieved his goals because he was already a seasoned test-taker and with that foundation, he knew how to improve his “game.” During high school, he made sure to take college preparatory courses, including several Advanced Placement courses. As tests grew harder, his confidence grew, and he had the courage to take ever more challenging courses with more challenging tests.
When he got to college he was well prepared. He had taken a variety of high school courses that made his intellect flexible – from physics and math to foreign language and music. The rigors of these courses and his Advanced Placement work had prepared him for the intensity of the exams that he faced in college.
And, unlike many of his college friends, he really welcomed tests — not only as a measure of his knowledge but also as an indicator of his academic and intellectual abilities as a whole. Without a doubt, when tests are challenges rather than struggles, outcomes are always positive.
Test-taking: a progression
Students need to have a long educational view to appreciate the power of mature test-taking skills. They must grow to see that success on a biology or English test taken today will affect the next test they take in the same courses, and indeed, in all their courses.
Building test-taking skills means greater academic confidence so that SATs, ACTs, and Advanced Placement tests are easier to manage. Success in these standardized tests means fulfilling college goals.
With both high grades and high SAT and ACT scores, students can confidently go about the college admission process not having to worry about their admissibility, but rather focused on selecting the right colleges that fulfill their goals and expectations. And, of course, high achievement also means more opportunities for scholarships and grants to defray the costs of an expensive college education.
Scores aside for a moment, well developed test-taking skills help students appreciate the value of learning and to develop a long-term knowledge base that advances their life goals and builds an intellectual confidence that will have both a practical and personal impact on their life.
Beyond college there may be graduate school, medical school, law school, or an MBA. Each area demands high achievement in qualifying admissions tests. And if students think their test-taking skills are challenged more in college than in high school, they should talk to students in medical, law, and graduate school to discover what tests are like in those academic arenas.
Then there are all the professional qualifying and certifying exams that follow professional school like the Bar Exam for lawyers, or Board Exams for Physicians.
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- Kindergarten Sight Words List
- The Five Warning Signs of Asperger's Syndrome
- What Makes a School Effective?
- Child Development Theories
- Why is Play Important? Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Creative Development
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- A Teacher's Guide to Differentiating Instruction
- Steps in the IEP Process
| 3.526922 |
A New Instructional Model Keeps At-Risk Kids EngagedNovember 28, 2011 | Dr. Kadhir Rajagopal
Many teachers have been told that they are to teach from bell to bell. These teachers believe the only real way to teach is to lecture in front of the board for 50 minutes.
In traditional urban schools, it is hard to keep students' attention for even five minutes without them taking out their phone or simply daydreaming while acting like they are paying attention. My teaching experience has been to help those urban high school students with a history of failure rise to success in mathematics and close all achievement gaps. I credit my success to the instructional model known as CREATE, which I believe can be applied by any teacher who takes personal responsibility for students' success in any subject.
Elements of the Create Model
CREATE is an instructional model designed to close the achievement gap in urban classrooms. The acronym represents the six components of the model:
C - Culturally Responsive Instruction
R - Rigorous Expectations and Rewards
E - Essentials-Focused Planning
A - Assessing for Mastery During Class
T - Test Models
E - Extra One-on-One Tutoring for Struggling Students
The CREATE model is strongly against lecturing from "bell to bell." In fact, I am never up in front of the board "teaching" the class for more than 15-20 minutes! Let me explain.
Warm-up (10 Minutes)
A typical class starts with a ten-minute warm-up exercise where students are expected to refresh what they learned the previous day.
Interactive Teach-Back (15 Minutes)
Next comes the golden 15 minutes of teaching which I call "interactive teach-back." This is the only time I am up in front of the board actually "teaching" students. During this phase, I explain a concept through the context of a problem or scenario. Then I have different students immediately re-explain or "teach back" what I taught them by helping me do similar problems.
Making students explain a theory by doing problems or through the context of a scenario is a way of checking their understanding, because students have to apply the theory.
Baby Concept #1 (10 Seconds)
When I teach, I make sure to break the objective for the day into "baby steps" or "baby concepts" and create several problems for each concept. I never "lecture" or talk for long because I fear losing the kids' attention. Instead, I do a ten-second (yes, second!) lecture on baby concept 1 in the context of a problem. Then immediately I put up several problems on baby concept #1 and fire questions at several different students, asking them to "teach" the class to apply what I taught by doing the problems.
During this interactive teach-back, I use a visible scoreboard to reward points to those kids who I call on and to take away points for anyone not paying attention in any way. When I ask questions, I call on all students but I especially call on my most at-risk students who have difficulty focusing or grasping the concept.
Baby Concept #2 (10 seconds)
Once I am convinced that even the most struggling students can "teach back" baby concept #1, I do another ten-second lecture on concept #2 using another problem. Again, I put up a few similar problems and then fire questions at different individual students and have them teach the class how to do those problems. I continue this interactive question and answer dialogue for at most 15 minutes. All students are in the hot seat! Therefore, in 15 minutes, I will make sure that all students have learned the objective by using 8-10 different relevant lecture problems to elicit responses from at least 20 different students.
Exit Price Assignment (20 Minutes)
A major reason why I lecture interactively for only 15-20 minutes in front of the class is because I must allow for students to try the objective on their own. In fact, this -- the "independent exit price" phase -- is the most important time the students do work.
This is an assignment that asks students to show they have mastered the day's objective before they leave the classroom. The exit price is an assignment that the teacher grades in class and uses to assess if students have learned that day's skill. The exit price could be as simple as doing 15 problems on solving equations in math class or writing ten effective thesis statements in English class.
Implementation of the exit price
There are several critical elements of implementing this phase effectively. The exit price must assess student mastery of that day's objective. It must be rigorous but not overwhelming because students will give up. Usually, as a result of my interactive teach-back, most students are prepared to do the exit price successfully. But I need to be sure. Therefore, a crucial aspect of the exit price is tenacious monitoring, grading and accountability. I cannot depend on students to show mastery through homework. It would be futile to monitor learning through homework, since my students may not do the homework, or may have parents to help them. So during the exit price, I literally circulate to every desk, "breathing down the necks" of my most struggling students and pushing them to show mastery in class.
Also, I make the exit price worth 100 points so that it has value to the students. While circulating the classroom, I mentally take note of which students are successful with minimal or no help. If students show mastery, they get "paid" 100 points to their grade and an A for the day. If students are not able to show mastery even after a little help, they get 0 points or an F for the day. Furthermore, I inform students who get an F that they must come during lunchtime or after school to re-do the exit price for full credit. I do not allow kids to escape without showing proof of mastery or making plans for mastery after school.
You are probably wondering, "How do I get students to come during lunch or after school to re-do the exit price?" I tenaciously make sure students come after school by motivating them to come or calling their parent or coach on my phone using "speed dial." Moreover, I get at least 70 percent of my students on a daily basis to show mastery on the exit price in class because most students want to get paid 100 points, and no one wants to hear from their mom or have to stay after school with me.
Since I monitor my students finishing the exit price in class, I am able to finish all my grading during school hours in less than 25 minutes a day. Furthermore, 70 to 80 percent of my students earn A's and B's in the class because they show mastery on the exit price. And since exam problems come from the exit price assignments, they tend to ace their tests as well. Hence, through the CREATE model, those 15 "golden" minutes of teaching and 20 minutes of ensuring student mastery lead to a more efficient and ultimately more effective classroom experience.
Please share your tips for busting the myth of bell-to-bell instruction.
| 3.395797 |
Hydro Power: Large Scale
Although many people don't realise it a significant portion of the world's electricity comes from hydro-power technology. Several countries including China, Canada, the United States and Brazil utilize stores of water (held in reservoirs or flowing in large rivers) to generate green renewable energy. Industry too has realized the potential of hydroelectricity. Mining companies and smelts, for instance, often use hydro power as a way of balancing the negative and positive environmental impacts of their practices as well as providing a reliable source of electricity in what are often quite remote regions.
It is the ocean-based hydro technologies which are most exciting, however, as the potential for these techniques is endless: companies are now investigating the financial and technological practicalities of large wave and tidal farms and have begun to install prototypes in locations all over the world.
Dams and Reservoirs
Large-scale hydroelectricity schemes of the traditional variety are present in many nations internationally, including the United Kingdom. Reservoir and pumped-storage plants are popular particularly because they are easy to control - all that is needed initially is a large body or supply of water. Regions of Scotland and Wales are particularly suited for large-scale hydroelectric schemes: the Affric-Beauly, Breadalbane, Galloway, Ben Cruachan and Tummel hydroelectric plants in Scotland and the Llyn Celyn, Cwm Dyli, Rheidol, Dinorwig and Ffestiniog schemes in Wales already produce significant amounts of electricity. The majority of these plants have been around since the 1960s when the technology was first introduced on a wide scale.
Some commercial enterprises have made use of abandoned or decommissioned water mills, converting them into hydroelectricity plants and then selling the generated electricity back into the grid or to a utility company. Because the British Government has made it necessary for electricity utilities to obtain a portion of their supply from renewable sources the purchase of hydroelectricity from companies and private suppliers is becoming more common.
Tidal Stream Systems
The future, however, is not in reservoir-based hydroelectric schemes but in ocean-based hydro power. Tidal power in either of its incarnations (tidal-stream or tidal barrage) is ideal for nations with large swathes of coastline such as the United Kingdom. As the height and timing of tides is easily predictable tidal hydro-power is efficient and reliable; because it does not require the storage of fresh water there is no problem with decaying plant matter letting of methane gas (a harmful ozone-depleting gas).
At present the tidal stream system, which uses fast natural currents to power turbines, is being trialled in Devon and Scotland and a prototype system in Strangford Lough (Northern Ireland) has been particularly successful. The invention of the shrouded tidal stream turbine has furthered this experimentation as it reduces drag and pressure on the turbine, increasing its productivity.
Tidal Barrage Systems
The other tidal-reliant generation system, the tidal barrage, has been successfully implemented in a number of global locations including Swansea Bay (across the River Tawe). The barrage system involves forming a marina or lagoon with a series of sluice gates and then allowing the changing height of the tides on the outside of the gate to generate energy as it pushes in and out of the turbines. There are plans for further barrage systems on the Severn, the Mersey, and at Conwy.
The final ocean-based hydroelectric technology, wave power, is still largely experimental. There are several techniques for harnessing the power of the waves, usually involving a string of buoys attached to a turbine that can convert the mechanical power generated by their movement into electricity. A wave farm is planned for the Orkneys as well as off the coast of Hayle in north Cornwall.
| 3.713803 |
Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system controls all "automatic" body functions, such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, sweating, mouth-watering (salivating), and the movement of food through the intestines (peristalsis). The autonomic nervous system reacts when a person is facing a dangerous or frightening situation and will automatically increase the heart rate and breathing and move blood to the muscles.
The autonomic nervous system differs from the voluntary nervous system, which allows a person to control the muscles and body movements.
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| 2.944924 |
National recovery plan for Twenty-five threatened orchid taxa of Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales 2003 - 2007
Coates, F., Jeanes, J. and Pritchard, A.
Department of Sustainability and Environment, Melbourne, 2002
Corysanthes sp. aff diemenicus Coastal
- Conservation status:
- EPBC Act 1999: Not listed
- IUCN (2000): CR
- NRE (2000): E
- Endemic to Victoria - Victorian Gippsland Plain Bioregion (Cape Schank, Mornington Peninsula National Park) and Wilsons Promontory Bioregion (Cotters Lake, Wilsons promontory National Park). Can be expected to occur in similar habitat in southern Victoria, but no records are yet available.
- Specific details of population localities (including GPS data) are held on DSE internal files.
- < 500 plants, in 2 populations. Likely to be naturally rare, but more common prior to landscape scale disturbance particularly from weed invasion and clearing of Woolly Tea-tree scrub.
- Occurs in closed scrub dominated by Leptospermum lanigerum, typically associated with Leucopogon parviflorus in swamps and along water courses on moist, black, peaty alkaline soils overlying calcarenite. Understorey is relatively open, with a herbaceous ground layer which may include Viola hederacea, Lobelia anceps, Selliera radicans and Geranium molle. Critical habitat has not been determined, but likely to be restricted to alkaline soils and may require occasional creation of canopy gaps for regeneration.
- Reservation status:
- Reserved at Wilsons Promontory National Park and Mornington Peninsula National Park.
- Parks Victoria (Victoria East Region, Tidal River; City and Bays Region, Rosebud).
|Current threats||Perceived risk|
|Weed invasion||Extremely high at MPNP - the known site is severely weed invaded (predominantly Senecio angulatus).Moderate at WPNP - Hypochaeris radicata, Solanum sp.|
|Grazing/pest animals||Low - populations are reasonably well protected from grazing.|
|Inappropriate fire regimes||Low at present - sites are protected from fire.|
|Site disturbance||Low - site at WPNP is close to a track and at some risk of damage from management vehicles.|
|Potential threats||Perceived risk|
|Reservation status||Adequately reserved.|
|Illegal collection||Low - no evidence of collection in the past.|
|Ecology/biology||High - conditions for seed recruitment and maintenance of pollinator and fungal activity unknown; increased extinction risk due to small population size at MPNP; response to fire unknown, but likely to require protection.|
- Recovery objectives:
- Maintain and/or increase existing population sizes; protect and manage habitat
Recovery actions undertaken:
- Both sites were visited during recovery plan preparation.
Issues specific to recovery:
- The site at MPNP appears to have dried out somewhat, and plants have not been seen in recent years. Woolly Tea-trees are also showing signs of senescence and the site is significantly degraded by invasive pest plants, predominantly Senecio angulatus.
- Searches in similar habitat in the Mornington Peninsula are urgently required (eg. Buckleys Reserve, Balnarring).
- All PV staff at WPNP, including seasonal field staff, should be made aware of the site's location to prevent damage to plants.
- Some careful hand weeding may be required at WPNP.
Overall recovery strategy:
Searches for new populations to re-locate known populations will be conducted, and baseline data collected with assistance of Field Naturalists. Weed management will be investigated at MPNP in the immediate vicinity of the known population and strategies to maintain and regenerate habitat will be investigated. Risk management at WPNP will include site protection by ongoing track closure and inclusion on Environmental Information System. Recovery will be jointly managed by DSE and PV.
Parks Victoria (Victoria East Region, Tidal River; City and Bays Region, Rosebud); John Eichler (Melbourne Field Naturalists Club).
|Action||Morrnington Peninsula NP (L)||Wilsons Promontory NP (H)|
|1. Determine current conservation status|
|1.1 Clarify taxonomy||L||L|
|1.2 Acquire baseline population data||H||M|
|Responsibility||Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research Biology, Canberra, DSE-BNR||Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research Biology, Canberra, DSE-BNR|
|2. Investigate population biology|
|2.1 Describe life history||H||H|
|2.2 Evaluate natural pollination levels and/or causes of pollinator limitation||M||M|
|2.3 Determine the effects of artificial pollination on growth survival and reproduction||N/A||N/A|
|2.4 Determine spatial distribution of mycorrhizal fungi||N/A||N/A|
|2.5 Determine optimal conditions for growth of mycorrhizal fungi in-situ||N/A||N/A|
|3. Determine habitat requirements of key populations|
|3.1 Identify key populations||N/A||N/A|
|3.2 Conduct surveys||H||M|
|3.3 Identify ecological correlates of populations||H||M|
|3.4 Prepare habitat descriptions||M||M|
|4. Manage risks to populations|
|4.1 Identify and implement strategies to control threats||H||H|
|4.2 Identify disturbance regimes to promote regeneration and recruitment||H||H|
|4.3 Protect key public land populations and habitat||N/A||N/A|
|4.4 Protect key private land populations and habitat||N/A||PV (Tidal River), DSE-BNR|
|Responsibility||PV (Rosebud), DSE-BNR||N/A|
|5. Promote in-situ recruitment|
|5.1 Prepare habitat for seedling recruitment||H||H|
|5.2 Re-stock populations with seed||H||H|
|6. Measure population trends and responses against recovery actions|
|6.1 Conduct annual censusing of populations||M||M|
|6.2 Collate, analyse and report on census data||M||M|
|6.3 Re-prioritise and adjust recovery actions and/or threat management||H||H|
|Responsibility||PV (Rosebud), DSE-BNR||PV (Tidal River), DSE-BNR|
|7. Increase populations ex-situ|
|7.1 Hand pollinate plants||M||M|
|7.2 Establish a threatened orchid seed bank and determine seed viability||M||M|
|7.3 Establish a mycorrhizal fungi bank||M||M|
|7.4 Establish and maintain cultivated populations||M||M|
|7.5 Maintain a database of threatened orchid taxa in cultivation||L||L|
|Responsibility||DSE-BNR, RBG, NOGN||DSE-BNR, RBG, NOGN|
|8. Translocate cultivated plants|
|8.1 Determine criteria for re-stocking/re-introduction||N/A||N/A|
|8.2 Evaluate site suitability||N/A||N/A|
|8.3 Determine long term cost-benefits and feasibility of translocating plants||N/A||N/A|
|8.4 Prepare and implement translocation plans||N/A||N/A|
|8.5 Maintain translocated populations||N/A||N/A|
|9. Implement an education and communication strategy|
|9.1 Prepare technical educational material on in-situ recovery techniques||L||L|
|9.2 Undertake community extension||L||L|
|9.3 Conduct workshops and symposia on in-situ recovery techniques||L||L|
|9.4 Encourage and support research by Higher Education Institutions and existing research partners||N/A||N/A|
|10. Consolidate recovery and extend networks|
|10.1 Maintain the Threatened Orchid Recovery Team||L||L|
|10.2 Establish and facilitate regional Recovery Teams||L||L|
|10.3 Co-ordinate recovery and exchange knowledge with interstate agencies||N/A||N/A|
|Responsibility||DSE-BNR, TSN||DSE-BNR, TSN|
| 3.029884 |
Climate Change Indicators in the United States
This figure shows how annual average temperatures in the contiguous 48 states have changed since 1901. Surface data come from land-based weather stations. Satellite measurements cover the lower troposphere, which is the lowest level of the Earth's atmosphere. "UAH" and "RSS" represent two different methods of analyzing the original satellite measurements. This graph uses the 1901 to 2000 average as a baseline for depicting change. Choosing a different baseline period would not change the shape of the data over time.
Data source: NOAA, 2012 1
This figure shows how annual average temperatures worldwide have changed since 1901. Surface data come from a combined set of land-based weather stations and sea surface temperature measurements. Satellite measurements cover the lower troposphere, which is the lowest level of the Earth's atmosphere. "UAH" and "RSS" represent two different methods of analyzing the original satellite measurements. This graph uses the 1901 to 2000 average as a baseline for depicting change. Choosing a different baseline period would not change the shape of the data over time.
Data source: NOAA, 2012 2
- Since 1901, the average surface temperature across the contiguous 48 states has risen at an average rate of 0.13°F per decade (1.3°F per century) (see Figure 1). Average temperatures have risen more quickly since the late 1970s (0.31 to 0.45°F per decade). Seven of the top 10 warmest years on record for the contiguous 48 states have occurred since 1990.
- Worldwide, 2001-2010 was the warmest decade on record since thermometer-based observations began. Global average surface temperature has risen at an average rate of 0.14°F per decade since 1901 (see Figure 2), similar to the rate of warming within the contiguous 48 states. Since the late 1970s, however, the United States has warmed faster than the global rate.
- Some parts of the United States have experienced more warming than others (see Figure 3). The North, the West, and Alaska have seen temperatures increase the most, while some parts of the Southeast have experienced little change. However, not all of these regional trends are statistically significant.
Temperature is a fundamental measurement for describing the climate, and the temperature in particular places can have wide-ranging effects on human life and ecosystems. For example, increases in air temperature can lead to more intense heat waves, which can cause illness and death, especially in vulnerable populations. Annual and seasonal temperature patterns also determine the types of animals and plants that can survive in particular locations. Changes in temperature can disrupt a wide range of natural processes, particularly if these changes occur more quickly than plant and animal species can adapt.
Concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are increasing in the Earth's atmosphere (see the Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases indicator). In response, average temperatures at the Earth's surface are rising and are expected to continue rising. However, because climate change can shift the wind patterns and ocean currents that drive the world's climate system, some areas experience more warming than others, and some might experience cooling.
About the Indicator
This indicator examines U.S. and global surface temperature patterns from 1901 to the present. U.S. surface measurements come from weather stations on land, while global surface measurements also incorporate observations from buoys and ships on the ocean, thereby providing data from sites spanning much of the surface of the Earth. For comparison, this indicator also displays satellite measurements that can be used to estimate the temperature of the Earth's lower atmosphere since 1979.
This indicator shows anomalies, which compare recorded annual temperature values against a long-term average. For example, an anomaly of +2.0 degrees means the average temperature was 2 degrees higher than the long-term average. This indicator uses the average temperature from 1901 to 2000 as a baseline for comparison. Annual anomalies are calculated for each weather station, starting from daily and monthly average temperatures. Anomalies for broader regions have been determined by dividing the country (or the world) into a grid, averaging the data for all weather stations within each cell of the grid, and then averaging the grid cells together (for Figures 1 and 2) or displaying them on a map (Figure 3). This method ensures that the results are not biased toward regions that happen to have many stations close together.
Data from the early 20th century are somewhat less precise than more recent data because there were fewer stations collecting measurements at the time, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. However, the overall trends are still reliable. Where possible, the data have been adjusted to account for any biases that might be introduced by station moves, development (e.g., urbanization) near the station, changes in instruments and times of measurement, and other changes.
The data for this indicator were provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center, which maintains a large collection of climate data online at: www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/
ncdc.html. Surface temperature anomalies were calculated based on monthly values from a network of long-term monitoring stations. Satellite data were analyzed by two independent groups—the Global Hydrology and Climate Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and Remote Sensing Systems (RSS)—resulting in slightly different trend lines.
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Urinary Tract Infection Basics
If you've ever had a urinary tract infection (UTI), you know the symptoms well. There's that persistent need to urinate — even if you just went moments ago. And when you do urinate, you feel pain or a burning sensation. In some cases, you may experience cramps, a low-grade fever, and fatigue.
When Urinary Tract Infections Keep Coming Back
Sometimes, urinary tract infections recur, or happen again. Find out why this happens and how recurrent infections are treated.
9 Myths and Facts About Urinary Tract Infections
Urinary tract infections are among the most common types of infections, so it's no surprise that there are misconceptions about them.
The Link Between UTIs and Sex
A urinary tract infection (UTI) can strike anyone — even babies. But adult women tend to get UTIs and the accompanying uncomfortable UTI symptoms — like painful urination, lower abdominal cramping, and low back pain — more than anyone else.
UTI Risk Factors
If you are a woman, you are at greater risk for developing a UTI (urinary tract infection) simply because of the way your body is constructed.
Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)
Urinary tract infections are more common in women than men. Urinary tract infections happen when germs (bacteria) get into the urethra.
Urinary Tract Infections: The Basics
A urinary tract infection (UTI) is caused by bacteria that invade the urethra, bladder, ureters, or kidneys. Usually, the term UTI refers to an infection of the lower urinary tract — and while the symptoms are painful and uncomfortable enough, an untreated UTI can lead to development of a kidney infection.
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Long before there were planetariums or advanced technologies available for studying the sky, people devised ways of depicting the sun, moon, planets, and stars in relation to the Earth. There was a desire to learn about astronomical history and events; people wanted to figure out how Earth fit into the grand scheme of the universe. Globes helped to put objects into perspective, and served as scientific instruments, ornamental showpieces, and physical illustrations of the astronomy beliefs of the day.
Globes have been visual representations of the physical characteristics of Earth and Sky for thousands of years. Generally, there are three types of globes. Terrestrial globes detail geographical features of the Earth. There are also globes that illustrate the physical features of celestial bodies, such as the moon or Mars. Celestial globes, like the one pictured here, are spherical maps of the skymodels of the visible heavens.
There is written evidence that proves that the ancient world was familiar with the scientific principles necessary for depicting the celestial and terrestrial spheres, and the oldest known surviving ancient globe is the Farnese Atlas, now at the National Museum of Naples. The Farnese Atlas is a decorative celestial globe, about 25 inches in diameter, that shows the outline of constellations against a coordinate system. The statue of Atlas is dated 73 B.C.; the position of the constellation figures to the globe's equinox date the globe itself to around 370 B.C. (Naturally, the ancient globes and models were representative of the astronomical ideas held at that period of time.)
As scientists and astronomers became more knowledgeable of the sky and objects in it, the celestial globe became more detailed and accurate. The concept behind it is that the globe is a sphere that shows the Earth as its imaginary center on which the stars, constellations, and various astronomical circles are drawn. It is mounted in a harness that allows it to rotate and be tilted to different latitudes. There were a few problems with this type of globe, however; for example, it depicts the figures of the constellations facing outward, toward the user, rather than inward, toward the center of the globe.
A man named Erhardt Weigel built this celestial globe near the turn of the 18th century. He was a professor of Astronomy at the University of Jena in Germany. A lamp placed in the hollow center projected light out through the small holes punched in the embossed copper sphere. The stars are represented by these small holes, and by looking into the globe through one of four larger holes, the stars are seen in their correct configuration as points of light against a dark background. Thus, the globe is the earliest known in existence of the optical planetarium. Weigel's model is dated 1699; it was acquired by The Franklin Institute in June of 1932 from Emil Hirsch of Munich, Germany.
The constellations Weigel used are not the standard ones, but ones he made up to depict the European royal families. Instead of the usual pagan figures, Weigel made the constellations into the arms of the ruling families. For example, the constellation Orion is a double-headed Austrian eagle.
Orion as Austrian Eagle; Stars in Canis Major
Astronomy is one of the longest-studied sciences in history. Scientists have attempted to answer questions that seem far beyond our understanding for centuries. As long as we wonder about heavenly objects, some will try to recreate the nighttime sky with instruments such as the globe, lighting the world as the stars themselves do with their ideas, models, and theories.
Reference: Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia New York & London, 1998.
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Most Americans know the Declaration of Independence states that God endows people with certain “unalienable” rights. When I ask my students what it means for a right to be inalienable, they respond that it means that government cannot take those rights away. I follow up that modal answer by asking whether that means that government can then take away rights that are alienable. At that point we usually need to pause to consider a bit more rigorously what it means for a right to be inalienable.
My students miss the point of the adjective. It is no less wrong for the government to take away an “alienable” right than it is for the government to take away an “inalienable” right. The difference between the two isn’t that one can be taken away while the other cannot. Rather, an inalienable right cannot be given away by the person who has it. “Inalienability” is a restriction on the set of choices that individuals can make.
The Declaration borrows the word from property law. An “alienable” right over property means that the property can be sold or given away by the owner. Property that is “inalienable” cannot be transferred by the owner. The dramatic backdrop in several of Jane Austen’s novels, notably including Pride and Prejudice, comes from property that is inalienable. The estate in the story has been “entailed” to the first-born male of each generation. While Mr. Bennet has use of the property during his lifetime, because he has no son, the property will go automatically to Mr. Collins on his death. Mr. Bennet cannot sell the land permanently (although he can rent the land out during his lifetime), and he cannot give it away to his wife, daughters, or to anyone else. Ownership of the estate in inalienable; this inalienability limits what Mr. Bennet can do with the estate.
Rousseau explains the notion’s application in political theory:
If a private citizen, says Grotius, can alienate his liberty and make himself another man’s slave, why should not a whole people do the same, and subject themselves to the will of a King? The argument contains a number of ambiguous words which stand in need of explanation. But let us confine our attention to one only – alienate. To alienate means to give or to sell.
But what is the practical significance of a right being inalienable? Why would an individually voluntarily become a slave, let alone an entire community?
Throughout human history, many peoples have not had a strong yet limited government to call upon for their protection, and isolated communities became easy prey for groups of roving bandits unless they secured protection from a warrior class. In some places these powers grew over time until the population was effectively reduced to the status of slaves. Other pressures could induce populations to cede their rights. Consider the report in Genesis 47 in which, as a result of the pressure of famine, Joseph effectively “bought” the Egyptians for Pharaoh and reduced them to slavery.
There is a very practical use to some rights being “inalienable.” Instead of being inalienable, if rights were alienable, then when we observe a political community in effective slavery to its leaders, we would need to trace the history of agreements between that community and its leaders, much like clearing the title for a house, to assess whether their reduced political status was just or unjust (i.e., some tyrants may hold their power justly if rights were alienable). But if these rights are inalienable, the actual history of agreement would not matter—the people themselves did not have the right to alienate what are inalienable rights, and therefore they hold those rights whether they purported to transfer them to their political leaders or not. We would know that every tyranny is unjust no matter the history of consent between the people and their leaders.
But what relevance might a discussion of roving bandits and consensual slavery have to the political questions facing the U.S. today?
Take modern discussions of a “right to die” and “assisted suicide.” The discussion is precisely one of whether we understand life to be an inalienable right or whether life is an alienable right. An inalienable right to life means that the decision whether to continue one’s life is not a matter solely within the domain of an individual’s liberty.
That liberty includes a “right to die”–meaning a right of an individual to choose to end his life at his discretion–strikes at the very heart of the aspirations of U.S. government as reflected in the Declaration. This not simply a quaint historical fact: In the Declaration’s theory, life being an alienable right is a postulate of despotism.
Secondly, while the god-talk in the philosophy of John Locke (the philosopher who most directly influenced this part of the Declaration), is often taken to be superfluous to his philosophical argument, in reality it’s not. Locke argues that life is an inalienable right precisely because God owns us and, therefore, we do not own ourselves. For Locke, human self-ownership would entail that all rights are alienable rights. Divine “ownership” of the human person is a necessary predicate for rights to be inalienable in his view. There are no inalienable rights without a Creator who endows those rights.
To be sure, this raises as many questions as it answers. What is the relationship between the Declaration’s affirmations of inalienable rights and the positive law of the U.S. Constitution, both historically and today? What is the nature of the “Creator” affirmed in the Declaration and what is the minimal set of attributes this Creator must have in order to endow humanity with inalienable rights? What does it mean if the majority of U.S. citizens at some point no longer affirm any deity consistent with the documents upon which their governments are, or were, based? Can a self-standing philosophy of “human dignity” substitute for the role that God plays in the theory of the Declaration, or does the edifice of “inalienable” rights necessarily collapse when humans, rather than God, “own” themselves?
These are important questions that stem from recognizing that the concept of inalienable rights isn’t an issue merely when governments that grab power from their citizens without their consent–it would be just as wrong for governments to grab those rights even if rights were alienable–rather, inalienable rights inure against the possibility that people in some situations can be induced to give those rights away.
James R. Rogers is department head and associate professor of political science at Texas A&M University. He leads the “New Man” prison ministry at the Hamilton Unit in Bryan, Texas, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Texas District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
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The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has urged greater use of neglected traditional grains, saying that there is global overreliance on just a handful of staple foods.
Speaking at the “Crops for the 21st Century” seminar in Córdoba, Spain this week, FAO director-general José Graziano da Silva said that most of the global population’s calories come from four crops: Wheat, maize, rice and potatoes – and our diets have become more homogenous with increased globalisation. This has led to the loss of many traditional foods, as well as less agricultural biodiversity.
“‘Neglected’ crops that are currently underutilized by farmers can play an important role addressing the food and agriculture challenges of the future and should be re-evaluated,” he said.
"…Currently there are about 870 million hungry people in the world, a world that produces enough food for everyone. Globalisation has created an abundance of food in some parts of the world, but has failed to end the chronic shortages that exist elsewhere. "
Graziano da Silva added that overuse of a small number of staples could also lead to poor nutrition, and highlighted relatively small-scale crops such as quinoa, which have potential to contribute to food security because of their high nutritional value, while also being adaptable to various growing conditions.
“Our dependence on a few crops has negative consequences for ecosystems, food diversity and our health. The food monotony increases the risk of micronutrient deficiency," he said.
The FAO estimates that about 7,000 different crops have been grown and consumed throughout human history, but more of these crops have begun to disappear.
“If we lose these unique and irreplaceable resources, it will be more difficult for us to adapt to climate change and ensure a healthy and diversified nutrition for all," Graziano da Silva said. “…We must not lose track of our agricultural and culinary roots, nor the lore and wisdom of our ancestors. On the contrary, we must learn from them, to ensure that our future has even more diversity.”
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David Ferris, Contributor
I write about eco-friendly technology and the people who make it.
Anyone with a dying cellphone has wondered in frustration when our so-called “wireless” phones will cut that umbilical cord of modern life — the power cable. After years of speculation, the solution may finally be at hand: Samsung is expected to release a wireless charging kit for its Galaxy S3 phone this fall.
The novelty may mask how profoundly disruptive the technology is. Developers envision new products like cordless televisions, waterproof cellphones, durable and powerful medical implants, soldiers unburdened by batteries, and more efficient factory equipment. But one of the most far-reaching implications is that managing devices may become both easier and less wasteful.
Wireless power could reduce demand for power cables while making gadgets more durable, eliminate the need for throwaway batteries, and perhaps even accelerate the adoption of electric cars. Watchers of this embryonic market think it’s going to be huge.
IMS Research estimated last year that it will be a $4.5 billion market by 2016. Pike Research projected a few weeks ago that wireless power products will triple in the next eight years to a $15 billion market.
“This is one of the technologies that has a lot of prospects in various markets,” said Farouk Balouchi, an analyst for Pike, in an interview. “It’s not exactly a green technology, but it’s something that can help mobile devices become more energy efficient and more green and sustainable.”
In fact wireless charging, also known as inductive charging, has existed for years in devices like electric toothbrushes. But actual contact between charger and device was required until 2006, when Marin Soljačić, a professor at MIT, demonstrated that he could light a lamp from a distance of six feet without a power cord. The centerpiece of this “resonant magnetic coupling” is a conductive coil that is fed a current of electricity. That coil creates a magnetic field, and if placed in proximity to a coil of similar size, the two resonate, creating an electrical current with no wires.
Here are some of the ways that wireless power transmission could change the world.
1) Kill the Power Cord. One of the obvious, and obviously awesome, benefits of wireless charging would be to ditch the power cord while on the move or to not have to plug in when at home. Just don’t expect to wander very far from a power source.
The model that’s shaping up is one of wireless hubs that are extremely local. A power transmitter would be installed underneath a surface at which people spend long stretches of time, such as a coffee table, conference table, nightstand, or a car’s trinket tray. “You just come in an drop the device on the table and it will begin to charge,” said Mark Hunsicker, who the senior director of wireless power at Qualcomm and spokesman for the Alliance for Wireless Power, an industry consortium that is developing standards.
At first, the range will be just a couple of inches and will work only with devices that work on five watts of power or less, like cellphones and bluetooth headsets, Hunsicker said. The hub will be able to charge multiple devices simultaneously. Over time, as the technology improves, so may range and power.
The roster of the Alliance for Wireless Power offers some insight into how wide the interest is and how deep in the supply chain it lies. It includes telecommunications manufacturer Qualcomm and industrial heavyweight Samsung, as well as Gil Industries, a maker of auto assemblies and office furniture; Peiker Acustic, a sound equipment supplier in autos and mobile devices; Ever Win International, a maker of power adapters and chargers; semiconductor company NXP; and SK Telecom, the Korean mobile carrier.
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(*) related to the HUMAN USAGE subchapter 2 - Industry
Today water is used in many industrial processes: the washing of materials, the cooling of plants (questions e) or the dumping of wastes(questions c-d).
Industrial water consumption varies according to the kind of production (questions a-b), the level of efficiency of plants, the production processes and the amount of recycling. Water, which is used in production processes, can often be recycled: the percentage of recycled water in the paper and the chemical industry is quite high, while in other production processes, this percentage is almost zero.
Another negative side effect of industry is intake: oftentimes, industry diverts water to a degree that it deprives rivers of their minimum flow requirements needed to ensure environmental functionality.
A large quantity of water is necessary to produce all the things we use in everyday life: cars, paper, rice, oil, and cotton; these productive processes can create pollution problems related to both chemical and biological by-products and to heat (questions e). The alteration of temperature is in fact very dangerous for the life of the river ecosystems, because it damages the metabolism of flora and fauna and alters the chemical balance of water. Pollution arises from the dumping of industrial waste in the rivers (nitrogen and phosphorus from chemical industries and heavy metals from mining) (questions c-d). Every time water is diverted and returned to a river, it’s is inevitably altered. However, if alternations are not too dramatic, they can be absorbed and neutralized by the river by means of its natural capacity of self-purification. A well- functioning ecosystem is able to absorb changes, if they are not too severe, and recover its balance quickly. The capacity of self- purification is reduced or lost when a river has been stripped of its natural banks and consequently the necessary level of biodiversity.
(to deepen the understanding of this topic see : WATER QUALITY chapter of FYR Checklist)
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Gerd Binnig’s and Heinrich Rohrer’s scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has fueled much of the nanotechnology research effort around the world. Developed in an IBM laboratory about 35 years ago (ETA May 2, 2013: the year was 1981), it was the first microscope that allowed researchers to access material at the nanoscale (there’s more about these researchers and their accomplishment in my May 26, 2011 posting). Don Eigler, also working for IBM, was the first to use an STM to manipulate the placement of atoms on a surface. In 1989, he ‘nudged’ xenon atoms into the shape of three letters, IBM (there’s more about Eigler in this Wikipedia essay).
Today, May 1, 2013, IBM has released an atomic movie, A Boy and His Atom, which was made with their seminal scanning tunneling microscope,
If the story is not apparent to you, here’s how the IBM May 1, 2013 news release describes the movie,
The movie’s plot line depicts a character called Atom who befriends a single atom and goes on a “playful journey.” This journey involves dancing, jumping on a trampoline, and playing catch. It’s unlikely to win any Oscars, but that’s not really the point; it’s designed to get people inspired about science.
In almost five years of writing this blog, this is the first time I’ve seen a physical description of an STM and it is one big sucker (from the news release),
… Christopher Lutz, Research Scientist, IBM Research. “It weighs two tons, operates at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface over 100 million times. [emphasis mine] The ability to control the temperature, pressure and vibrations at exact levels makes our IBM Research lab one of the few places in the world where atoms can be moved with such precision.”
Making a movie with an STM is not as easy as it might seem (from the news release; Note: a link has been removed),
Remotely operated on a standard computer, IBM researchers used the microscope to control a super-sharp needle along a copper surface to “feel” atoms. Only 1 nanometer away from the surface, which is a billionth of a meter in distance, the needle can physically attract atoms and molecules on the surface and thus pull them to a precisely specified location on the surface. The moving atom makes a unique sound that is critical feedback in determining how many positions it’s actually moved.
There is a corporate agenda associated with this particular public relations gambit, from the news release,
As computer circuits shrink toward atomic dimensions — which they have for decades in accordance with Moore’s Law — chip designers are running into physical limitations using traditional techniques. The exploration of unconventional methods of magnetism and the properties of atoms on well-controlled surfaces allows IBM scientists to identify entirely new computing paths.
Using the smallest object available for engineering data storage devices – single atoms – the same team of IBM researchers who made this movie also recently created the world’s smallest magnetic bit. They were the first to answer the question of how many atoms it takes to reliably store one bit of magnetic information: 12. By comparison, it takes roughly 1 million atoms to store a bit of data on a modern computer or electronic device. If commercialized, this atomic memory could one day store all of the movies ever made in a device the size of a fingernail.
“Research means asking questions beyond those required to find good short-term engineering solutions to problems. As data creation and consumption continue to get bigger, data storage needs to get smaller, all the way down to the atomic level,” continued Heinrich [Andreas Heinrich, Principle Investigator, IBM Research]. “We’re applying the same techniques used to come up with new computing architectures and alternative ways to store data to making this movie.”
Guinness World Records has acknowledged A Boy and His Atom as the world’s smallest movie. For now.
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|A concussion is a brain injury and all are serious.|
|Most concussions occur without loss of consciousness.|
|Recognition and proper response to concussions when they first occur can help prevent further injury or even death.|
If you think your athlete has
sustained a concussion…
don't assess it yourself
Take him/her out of play
and seek the advice of a health care professional
How Can I Recognize a Possible Concussion?
To help recognize a concussion, you should watch for the following two things among your athletes:
- Forceful bump/ blow/ jolt to head/ body results in rapid movement of the head.
- Any change in the athlete's behavior, thinking, or physical functioning.
Athletes who experience any of the signs and symptoms listed below after a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body should be kept out of play the day of the injury and until a health care professional, experienced in evaluating for concussion, says they are symptom-free and it's OK to return to play.
Concussions Can Affect Kids and Teens in the Classroom
As an A-student and star soccer player, Sarah is accustomed to hard work. However, after she sustained a concussion during a varsity soccer game, her freshman year in high school she found herself taking on a new challenge.
Remember, you can't see a concussion and some athletes may not experience and/or report symptoms until hours or days after the injury. Most people with a concussion will recover quickly and fully. But for some people, signs and symptoms of concussion can last for days, weeks, or longer.
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Show Larger Picture
Recommended Temperature Zone:|
Frost Tolerance: 18°F (-8°C)
Sun Exposure: Full sun
Origin: Guadalupe Island, Mexico, in the Pacific Ocean, off of central Baja California, where it is endangered by the large population of goats.
Growth Habits: Solitary palmtree, 15 to 45 feet tall (4.5-13 m), 10 to 20 feet spread; gray, fissured trunk, 18 inches in diameter (45 cm), many irregular rings, self cleaning, without dead leaves or leaf petioles; shiny green, costapalmate leaves, 3 to 6 feet long (90-180 cm), 3 feet wide (90 cm), divided in 70 to 85 segments; petioles, 40 inches long (1 m), with few or no teeth
Watering Needs: Regular water in summer, little in winter, dislikes high humidity, needs good drainage
Propagation: Seed, easy to germinate, usually 1 to 3 months to sprout. Several years old seeds will grow.
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Plants’ ability to survive and thrive on a simple diet of sunlight and water can seem sort of miraculous, especially to we animals who have to go through the indignity of eating other living things, pleasant as that may be at times. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to harness the Earth’s abundant supply of sunlight and water for our own power needs? A newly designed revision of the artificial leaf might let us do that on a wide scale, not for food of course, but for electricity.
The artificial leaf is a pretty simple device, in theory. Ideally, you’d want it to behave mostly like a normal leaf, except instead of generating sugars through its process of photosynthesis, you’d want it to stop short at separating water into hydrogen and oxygen, using the hydrogen in a fuel cell and then getting electricity. In fact, previous versions of the artifical leaf were able to do just that. Drop them in some water and throw it in some sunlight and it would start bubbling up hydrogen. The problem was that these leaves relied on expensive metals like platinum and also required expensive production methods, making the tech too cost prohibitive to be particularly useful.
A new breakthrough published in Accounts of Chemical Research details a process by which the platinum catalyst that was previously required for the hydrogen producing cells can be replaced by a nickel-molybdenum-zinc compound which, despite the longer name, is actually cheaper to produce. Along with things like dirt batteries and devices that can generate electricity from boiling water, this new artificial leaf technology marks another advance in bringing electricity to third world countries, and perhaps even making electricity generation cleaner on the whole. There’s no telling when this tech will start making the rounds, but I’d sure like to see it in action; it sounds way cooler than salad.
(via Science Daily, image via Shutterstock)
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In biology, apoptosis (from the Greek words apo = from and ptosis = falling, commonly pronounced ap-a-tow'-sis) is one of the main types of programmed cell death (PCD). As such, it is a process of deliberate life relinquishment by an unwanted cell in a multicellular organism. In contrast to necrosis, which is a form of cell death that results from acute cellular injury, apoptosis is carried out in an ordered process that generally confers advantages during an organism's life cycle. For example, the differentiation of human fingers in a developing embryo requires the cells between the fingers to initiate apoptosis so that the fingers can separate. The way the apoptotic process is executed facilitates the safe disposal of cell corpses and fragments.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, research on apoptosis has grown spectacularly. In addition to its importance as a biological phenomenon, defective apoptotic processes have been implicated in an extensive variety of diseases. Too much apoptosis causes cell-loss disorders, whereas too little results in uncontrolled cell proliferation, namely cancerous tumors.
Lectins known to induce apoptosis
|Rice bran lectin ||Human leukemic cells ||J Biochem (Tokyo) 2001 Dec;130(6):799-805)|
|Mistletoe lectin ||Human endothelial malignancies ||Mol Med 2002 Oct;8(10):600-6)|
|Wheat Germ agglutinin ||Human pancreatic cancer cells ||Br J Cancer 1999 Aug;80(11):1754-62|
|Pokeweed mitogen ||Prime lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cell-mediated cytotoxicity to induce apoptosis in a variety of tumor systems Z||honghua Zhong Liu Za Zhi 1995 Jul;17(4):245-8|
|Urtica dioica lectin ||Human T cell apoptosis ||Res. Immunol. 1995 (146); 249-262|
- From: D'Adamo, P. IfHI 2003. Tempe AZ
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If you ever wondered why blueprints were blue and not black or red or white or brown or any other colour than, well, blue — it’s not because architects really like the color but because the technique in making blueprints caused the paper to turn blue.
Mental Floss delved into the history of blueprints and discovered that the blueprint process was developed in the 1800s when scientists found an easy way to reproduce documents by using ammonium iron citrate and potassium ferrocyanide as some sort of old school photocopy. How does that really work? Well, as Mental Floss explains it:
Someone creates a drawing on translucent tracing paper or cloth. The drawing is placed over a piece of blueprinting paper, which has been coated with a mix of ammonium iron citrate and potassium ferrocyanide from an aqueous solution and dried. When the two papers are exposed to a bright light, the two chemicals react to form an insoluble blue compound called blue ferric ferrocyanide (also known as Prussian Blue), except where the blueprinting paper was covered, and the light blocked, by the lines of the original drawing. After the paper is washed and dried to keep those lines from exposing, you’re left with a negative image of white (or whatever color the blueprint paper originally was) against a dark blue background.
You see, the chemicals react and makes the paper blue. And back in the day, using this blueprinting technique was obviously faster and more effective than tracing the documents. The blueprint name has stuck ever since. The more you know, right. [Mental Floss, Image Credit: nahariyani/Shutterstock]
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Kids with learning or attention problems can be easy prey for bullies. An expert tells you how to recognize the signs that your child is being bullied.
How do youth with learning disabilities fare in high school and beyond? A government study shows mixed outcomes.
Participating in the arts can help kids with learning disabilities discover dynamic new ways of learning.
Research has identified certain qualities that help kids with LD succeed in life.
An expert explains that research has revealed several factors that help people with learning disabilities become successful adults.
A researcher explains how a long-term study of success attributes in kids with learning disabilities can be applied to education .
What's the connection between learning disabilities and psychological problems? Learn what the research tells us.
An expert discusses how to help your child avoid or cope with loneliness.
This study shows that parents' high expectations of their teens with learning disabilities are linked to better educational outcomes.
An expert explains how and why to monitor your child's progress toward his IEP goals.
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SHEET from the White House
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 6, 2009
Fact Sheet: Marine
Today, President Bush designated three areas of the Pacific
Ocean as marine national monuments. By designating these
areas as national monuments, the Administration ensures that the marine
environment will receive the highest level of environmental recognition
and conservation. Destruction or extraction of protected
resources within the boundaries of these monuments will be prohibited,
as will commercial fishing in the coral reef ecosystem areas of the
monuments. Scientific and recreational activities may be
permitted consistent with the care and management of the protected
resources of these monuments. For marine life and seabirds, these
places will be sanctuaries to grow and thrive.
- Combined, these designations represent the largest fully
protected area in the world. Under the President's plan,
195,274* square miles will be conserved.
- The Marianas Trench Marine National Monument consists of
- The first component of this monument is the waters
and submerged lands encompassing the coral reef ecosystem of the three
northernmost islands. These islands represent some of
the westernmost territory in the United States – 5,600 miles from
California. They are home to more than 300 species of stony
- The second component is the Marianas Trench. The
trench, the site of the deepest place on Earth, is approximately 940
nautical miles long and 38 nautical miles wide within the Exclusive
Economic Zone of the United States.
- The third component is a series of active undersea
volcanoes and thermal vents. Twenty-one active
hydrothermal submarine volcanoes and vents support life in the harshest
conditions imaginable. Many scientists believe extreme conditions
like these could have been the first incubators of life on Earth.
Further research will allow us to learn more about life on the bottom
of the sea.
- The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monuments
protects the pristine coral reef ecosystems around Kingman Reef,
Palmyra Atoll, Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands, Johnston Atoll, and
Wake Island – the site of a pivotal battle in World War II and an
important military base today. These areas support a
large number of nesting seabirds and migratory shorebirds, and their
pristine coral reefs contain hundreds of thriving fish species and
large apex predators and are also home to endangered turtles.
- The Rose Atoll Marine National Monument protects the
pristine coral reef ecosystem around a remote part of American Samoa.
One of its most striking features is the pink hue of fringing reef
caused by the dominance of reef building coralline algae. Rare
species of nesting petrel, shearwaters, and terns also thrive on this
island, and the waters surrounding it are a home for many species
depleted elsewhere in the world, including giant clams and reef sharks.
The President also announced America's first new UNESCO
World Heritage Site nominations in 15 years. The two
sites are the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (in the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) and Mount Vernon. Only two sites can be
nominated each year.
In designating the marine areas, the President made explicit
that nothing in the proclamations impairs or otherwise affects the
activities of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
Among other things, the DoD is ensured full freedom of navigation
in accordance with the law of the sea, and the U.S. Navy can continue
effective training to maintain its antisubmarine warfare and other
# # #
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Israel's Anti-Semitism Policy
Chapter One examined the efforts of certain Zionist leaders to establish the state of Israel, and in particular how radical Zionists worked hand-in-hand with anti-Semites from the beginning of the 20th century to accomplish their goal. Certainly the most striking examples of this collaboration were the arrangements between Nazi Germany and some Zionists, whose aspiration was to exile European Jews to Palestine and to establish a Jewish state there, no matter what.
This policy proved successful in two ways. First, thanks to the Nazis' anti-Semitic policy, large numbers of Jews did emigrate to Palestine. The second aspect of their success was psychological: Now the world could assent to Jews, who had suffered most terribly during World War II, establishing their own nation.
Bombing of the Golan Heights during the 1967 War
At last in 1948, the state of Israel was established. It wasn't exactly what some Zionist leaders had dreamed of, since the United Nations had partitioned Palestine into two separate states—one Jewish, one Arab—giving to each roughly half the original territory. As soon as Israel was proclaimed in 1948, however, the Arab-Israeli war broke out. Following that, the Jewish state annexed the rest of Palestine, except for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During 1967's Six-Day War, Israeli occupied all of Palestine, including the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem; and also the Golan Heights (a part of Syria) and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. In 1982, it was Lebanon's turn to be invaded by Israel. Following that campaign, Israel unilaterally declared a border area in south Lebanon a "security zone" and continued its invasions.
East Jerusalem occupied by Israeli tanks
This policy of invasions reflected some Israeli leaders' dreams for a "Greater Israel." This objective stemmed from a misinterpretation of certain statements in the Old Testament. According to that erroneous view, the Children of Israel had been promised the greater part of the lands of the Middle East. Thus, radical circles envisaged the Judaization of these lands by their being seized and cleansed of their Arab population. Because of such influential radical views in its administration, Israel did everything possible to avoid relinquishing its occupied territories, above all the core of the "Promised Land" on the West Bank. In order to realize Judaization, Jewish immigrants have been settled in these occupied territories. Some of these settlers were radical Jews, considering it a religious mission. But the real settlers were to be immigrants from the Diaspora.
The Israeli capture of the Sinai Peninsula
In short, the founding of Israel did not put an end to its need for Jewish immigrants. Those Jews who have emigrated to Palestine since 1948 represented only a small portion of the world's Jews, most of whom continued to prefer to live in the Diaspora. The dream of a Greater Israel continued to be the motive that made some Israeli leaders seek the emigration of world Jewry to Israel. As the decades passed, however, they have been disappointed. Each year, they set a target for the number of Jews they hope will immigrate, but those goals have seemed more and more utopian. Ben Gurion's attempt to persuade four million Jews to immigrate to Israel between 1951 and 1961 failed badly; only 800,000 responded to his summons. By the end of that ten-year period, the annual number of immigrants had fallen below thirty thousand. In 1975 and 1976, the number of Jews emigrating from Israel actually exceeded those immigrating there.
In an article titled "The General with a Phantom Army," which appeared in the Jerusalem Post (October 7, 1978), Meir Merhav described how unwilling Jews were to immigrate to Israel:
In the history of Zionism and the State of Israel, there has never been a mass emigration. The radical or Zionist Jews always arrived at the country in small groups and in small numbers. When these idealists realized that the facts were not as they dreamt, they left Israel. All Jewish communities preferred to immigrate to other places rather than Israel, even in their most troubled times. Only 60 thousand of the 300 thousand Jews of Germany emigrated during the period 1933-39. Most of them did not even think of immigrating to Israel. This applies to other Jewish communities as well. The 50-60 percent of the Russian Jews who are the most downtrodden desire to go elsewhere than Israel. We do not like these facts, but there is no way to deny them. We should understand one thing; no mass immigration to Israel will ever take place.
Thus Diaspora Jews have continued to resist immigrating to Israel after its establishment, no less than they did in the 1920s and '30s. What, then, should have been done to bring them to Israel? Simply put, the answer was to repeat the earlier policy: to instigate the threat of anti-Semitism once more as a goad to drive the Jews out of the Diaspora to Israel. Some Zionists have shown little reluctance in saying exactly that. As the American rabbi Leo Pfeffer, an official of the American Jewish Congress, stated, "It is possible that some anti-Semitism is necessary to insure Jewish survival." 106
Nahum Goldman: "a current decline in anti-Semitism might constitute a new danger to Jewish survival." (left)
Goldman, at the World Jewish Congress in 1966 (right)
In 1958, Nahum Goldmann, President of the World Zionist Organization, emphasized Zionism's inevitable need for anti-Semitism and warned that a current decline of anti-Semitism "might constitute a new danger to Jewish survival."107
Earlier, the Nazis had been enlisted to aid "Jewish survival." This time, new links could be forged with a variety of local anti-Semites, or, failing such links, Israel itself could direct operations to create an artificial anti-Semitism. This is what actually happened! The following pages relate in some detail the Jewish state's war, on several fronts, against Diaspora Jewry.
Threats to Diaspora Jews from Israeli Leaders
David Ben Gurion, from the day he was appointed Israel's first prime minister, experimented with various methods of increasing immigration to Israel. On August 31, 1949, he told a group of Americans visiting Israel:
Although we realized our dream of establishing a Jewish state, we are still at the beginning. Today there are only 900,000 Jews in Israel, while the greater part of the Jews are still abroad. The future consists of bringing all Jews to Israel. We appeal to the parents to help us bring their children here. Even if they decline to help, we will bring the youth to Israel; but I hope that this will not be necessary.108
(Left) Ben Gurion: "We must save the remnants of Israel in the Diaspora. We must also save their possessions. Without these two things, we shall not build this country."
(Right) Israel Goldstein: "What are American Jews waiting for? Are they waiting for a Hitler to force them out? Do they imagine that they will be spared the tragedies which have forced Jews of other lands to emigrate?"
In December 1960, at the Twenty-fifth World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, Ben Gurion again castigated Jews who resisted immigrating to Israel. He derided Jews who lived outside Israel as "Jews without a God," adding that "Jews in America do not even know what being a real Jew means."
In the years that followed, another famous figure, Moshe Dayan, also adopted the view that one way or another, the Jewish people had to be forced to emigrate to Israel. In July 1968, he spoke out strongly against those who thought enough Jews were moving to Israel: "During the last hundred years, our people have been in a process of building up our country and the nation, of expansion, of getting additional Jews and additional settlements in order to expand the borders here. Let no Jew say that the process has ended. Let no Jew say that we are near the end of the road."109
In May 1948, in a report submitted to the American Jewish Congress, held by the efforts of Simon Rifkind and Louis Levinthal, advisers on Jewish affairs, and Zionist leader Rabbi Philip Bernstein, radical Zionist Rabbi Klausner openly threatened the Jewish nation. He admitted that in the past, radical Zionist leaders had fostered a persecution complex to pressure Jews to immigrate to Israel, and he frankly advocated that the policy should continue:
... I am convinced that the people must be forced to go to Palestine... By “force” I suggest a program. It is not a new program. It was used before, and most recently… The first step in such a program is the adoption of the principle that it is the conviction of the world Jewish community that these people must go to Palestine … To effect this program, it becomes necessary for the Jewish community at large to reverse its policy and instead of creating comforts for the Displaced Persons to make them as uncomfortable as possible. The American Joint Distribution Committee supplies should be withdrawn … A further procedure would call for an organization such as the Haganah to harass the Jew … It must be borne in mind that we are dealing with a sick people. They are not to be asked, but to be told, what to do … If this program is not accepted, let me assure this Conference that an incident will occur which will compel the American Jewish community to reconsider its policy and make the changes herein suggested. At that time, there will have been much more suffering, a greater wave of anti-Semitism and a tougher struggle to accomplish what might perhaps be accomplished today. 110
The radical Zionist rabbi Joseph Klausner: “The first step in such a program is the adoption of the principle that it is the conviction of the world Jewish community that these people must go to Palestine. To effect this program, it becomes necessary for the Jewish community... to make them [displaced persons] as uncomfortable as possible… A further procedure would call for an organization such as the Haganah to harass the Jew ... It must be borne in mind that we are dealing with a sick people. They are not to be asked, but to be told, what to do.”
As Klausner admitted, the policy of Israel's inner establishment has been to promote Jewish immigration through using force. He made no bones about how this should be implemented in practice: "to make them as uncomfortable as possible." If, despite these pressures, immigration to Israel remained beneath expectations, Klausner's final expedient was to warn of what might eventually befall Diaspora Jews: They could face "an accident" which would "bring many pains with it." Such an "accident" might well resemble that created as a result of the radical Zionists' World War II collaboration with the Nazis against European Jews who resisted immigrating to Palestine. Zionist leader Dr. Israel Goldstein complained of Jewish apathy regarding immigrating to Israel, and delivered implicit and threatening messages:
What are American Jews waiting for? Are they waiting for a Hitler to force them out? Do they imagine that they will be spared the tragedies which have forced Jews of other lands to emigrate?111
Ben Gurion stated that for Israel, "saving Jews from bondage was a holy duty." After the 1949 Israeli election, he referred to Jews living outside Israel as "remnants":
We must save the remnants of Israel in the Diaspora. We must also save their possessions. Without these two things, we shall not build this country.112
Ben Gurion had put into words Israel's future policy. The first "remnants in the Diaspora" to be forced to immigrate to Israel were in fact Jews who had survived the Nazi concentration camps.
Terror by Radical Zionists against Jews in the Postwar DP Camps
After the war, some Jews freed from the Nazi camps had to live in Displaced Persons Camps, because they had now here else to go.
At the end of World War II, Jews from Nazi concentration camps with nowhere to go were settled in "displaced persons" camps, where a number of Zionist leaders exercised great authority. The tragedy of the European Jews, brought about in good measure by some Zionist leaders, continued after the war for many Jews unwilling to immigrate to Israel. For these displaced Jews, there were few changes in living conditions. Instead, they were now dominated by radical Zionist leaders, almost as merciless as the Nazis.
The report, in which Rabbi Klausner had argued for forcing Jews to immigrate to Palestine, was the basis for the various terror tactics that the radical Zionist organization Irgun applied in the displaced persons camps. This policy of oppression implemented against their fellow Jews would come to light only years later. More than once, intelligence reports of OMGUS (the Office of Military Government for Germany—U.S.) reported the brutal measures undertaken by the Irgun among Jews to raise funds and to recruit soldiers, by force, for fighting the Arabs in Palestine. Here are some examples taken from an OMGUS report:
Irgun kept the running of these camps under its control. The organization also influenced the police force in these camps. Irgun and the camp police employed violent methods, intimidating, threatening and shedding blood if necessary… In July 1948, DPs [displaced persons] in Berlin who claimed to have just arrived from Poland were found instead to have fled the American zone to avoid the Irgun "recruitment" drives. In Duppel Center DP Camp, Irgun recruiters beat some of those who refused to "volunteer" to fight the Arabs in Palestine, and others were threatened with death if they ever refused to go. While prospective recruits were being persuaded, the main gates to the camp were closed to prevent escape.113
The militants of the Haganah also used force against their fellow Jews. Stephen Green writes:
Some of the camps began to report around this time that the Haganah was adopting violent tactics similar to those of the Irgun. An elite, paramilitary group within the Haganah called Sochnut began to appear in report after report of threats, beatings, and intimidation... Although the OMGUS authorities only began to notice this selection process in mid-1948, it had in fact been practiced for many months, especially by the Irgun... Jewish victims of the Nazi terror again were forced to flee friends and family, to escape Zionist terror.114
Peter Rodes, Director of Intelligence for OMGUS, was puzzled and frustrated by the activities of radical Zionists in the Jewish camps, and commented about the terror of these radicals: "It is reported that 300 persons left Tikwah for Israel. Of this number, about 65 percent have been forced to go through the application of various degrees of pressure."115
The weekly intelligent report prepared by OMGUS, the Office of Military Government for Germany/U.S., dated July 10, 1948 numbered 113. Referring to the report dated July 3, 1948 numbered 112, the document explains under the topic of "Terrorist Tactics" in detail that the terror organization Irgun pressured the Jewish people to immigrate to the Promised Land.
By mid-1948, intelligence reports of OMGUS were calling "terror tactics" what had become standard operating procedure in the DP camps for recruiters from both the Haganah and the Irgun.
A propagandist poster of Israel to make Jews emigrate to the Promised Land in 1950s: "Direction: Hebrew land." On one side is a sunny and bright Israel, on the other concentration camps, darkness and dangerous Diaspora countries.
A typical incident occurred at the Kriegslazarett Camp in Traunstein, Bavaria. The camp police cordoned off the building to prevent anyone entering or leaving. On 14 June, a Jewish holiday, those Jews who refused to go to Israel were warned not to go to the synagogue; otherwise they would be expelled from the synagogue. When Israel was founded, those Jews living in Palestine organized terror in the camps to convince them to migrate to Israel. Since Israel's foundation, around a dozen people had left the Kriegslazarett camp. These volunteers were known as the "Ghuis." Six or seven of these men returned a couple of days later. During the time they remained in the camps, they terrorized the other young people who were unwilling to go to Israel.116
Such Jews, subjected to every kind of pressure in the DP camps, were guilty only of rejecting radical Zionism. To get them to immigrate to the Promised Land, the radical Zionist leaders compelled them to become radical Zionists by committing acts of terror and discrimination against non-radical Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews.117
Their policy of intimidation implemented against Jews living in the DP camps gradually became known, and was supplemented by a feverish propaganda campaign. On August 21, 1948, the American magazine The New Leader printed a letter from Louis Nelson, then manager of the Knit Goods Workers Union, later vice president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union. Nelson reported that the campaign sought to force displaced persons to accept Zionism, and to join the Palestinian Jewish army. Alfred Lilienthal described the Zionist pressure in the DP camps:
This means confiscation of food rations, dismissal from work, smashing of machines sent by Americans to train DPs in useful skills, taking away legal protection and visa rights from dissenters, even to the point of expelling them from the camps, and in one instance, the public flogging of a recalcitrant recruit for the Israeli Army. In addition, widespread stories of pogroms even in the USA were told to the ignorant and harassed DPs…118
This policy of certain Zionist leaders, in its various ramifications, eventually paid off. The Jewish community, drained by the war years, found resistance difficult. Jews released from the camps with these Zionists' help followed their orders and left for Israel, although, as Lilienthal writes, "The majority specified a preference of going anywhere but Palestine, despite the intense propaganda work of the Jewish Agency among the inmates of the... camps."119
In the years immediately following World War II, the radical Zionist leaders' policy was, on the one hand, to pressure Jews in these camps to migrate, and, on the other, to use these same Jews' sufferings in the international political arena.
As Israeli writer Amos Perlmutter observes:
Ben Gurion and the Zionists then decided to combine the Holocaust and independence, the plight of Jewish displaced persons and survivors of the camps with the concept of partition… The pursuit of a displaced persons policy had not been one of the Zionists' major goals (no matter how much some historians like to insist that it was). Now, in 1946, the plight of the displaced persons in British camps coincided with pragmatic politics on several levels. On the most immediate front, immigration to Eretz Israel was always a major Zionist concern…120
Israeli leader Shimon Peres
Thanks to their victory in the 1948 war, the Israelis were able to enlarge the territory the United Nations had granted them in the 1947 partition of Palestine. This expansion emboldened a section of Israel's leadership and led to plans for bringing in more Jews to settle the Promised Land. In 1949, Jews around the world were bluntly summoned to immigrate to Israel. The following year, this call was even supported by the Law of Return, which stated that a Jew (defined as one born of a Jewish mother) from anywhere in the world had the right to settle in Israel.
This law has been debated in Israel for many years. Some intellectuals believe that it is clearly racist. Yet the official policy it expresses has never changed. Shimon Peres stated the Israeli point of view in the newspaper Davar on January 25, 1972, saying that the implementation of Law 125 (the Law of Return) was a continuation of the war to get Jews to come to Israel and settle there.
Peres's statement that making Jews settle in Israel was a "war" is true, insofar as some influential circles in Israeli administration use compulsion on Diaspora Jewry, due to its unwillingness to "make aliyah," or immigrate to Israel. Thus these circles make war not only on hostile nations or groups, but also on that portion of world Jewry that has allegedly lost the awareness of race and turned their backs on radical Zionism.
Organizer of Emigration: Mossad le-Aliyah Bet
On May 2, 1948, as noted above, Rabbi Klausner told the American Jewish Congress that the Jews needed to be forced to immigrate to Palestine and spoke of making these Jews as uneasy as possible. Klausner was an important figure in the radical Zionist movement, and a candidate in Israel's first election for president. His thoughts on "pressuring Jews" reflected not only his personal views, but represented the radical Zionist movement's general policy. Speeches by some leaders such as Ben Gurion and Israel Goldstein expressed the same ideas.
With Mossad forcing the Diaspora Jews to immigrate to Israel, many Jews immigrated to Israel from all around the world. The map shows the Jewish migration from various countries to Israel.
Certain people in the Israeli administration planned and carried out a sophisticated program to press Diaspora Jews to immigrate. The "disturbing" methods employed in the operation were instances of artificially induced anti-Semitism. These circles not only encouraged anti-Semitism, as described earlier, but even manufactured it.The Mossad and Aliyah Bet, its special branch for underground secret services, carried out the most effective operations, such as attacks on synagogues and other locations where Jews gathered. In this way, Jews were led to believe they were in danger where they lived, and—hopefully—seek "salvation through emigration."
In its efforts to convince unwilling Jews to immigrate to the Promised Land, Aliyah Bet had no use for humane persuasion. Turkkaya Ataov, professor emeritus of international relations, in the book Siyonizm ve Irkcilik (Zionism and Racism), writes:
More than 80 percent of the emigrants to Israel came from Eastern Europe, the Arabian Middle East, and North Africa. Although most of these Jews had no intention to emigrate, a clever policy of oppression and propaganda compelled them to do so. Egyptian Jews unwilling to join felt themselves in danger, while 700 thousand people from Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco were forced to emigrate with threats and feverish calls.121
Aliyah Bet devised numerous dirty tricks to convince thousands of Jews living outside Israel to immigrate to the Promised Land. Its dark operations against the Jewish community outside Israel included:
"Operation Magic Carpet" (1949-1950), in which fifty thousand Yemenite Jews were lured to Israel by the claim that on the foundation of Israel, "the Messiah had appeared there;"
"Operation Ali Baba" (1950-1959), in which 120,000 Iraqi Jews were induced to immigrate to Israel by outrages that included the bombings of synagogues in Baghdad, carried out by Aliyah Bet;
"Operation Moses" (1984), a covert operation in which Aliyah Bet carried off seven thousand Ethiopian Jews from eastern Sudan to Israel; and
"Operation Solomon" (1991), in which fifteen thousand more Ethiopian Jews were purchased like slaves from the leaders of the Ethiopian regime, and transported to Israel.
Aliyah Bet created the atmosphere necessary for large numbers of Jews to perceive "aliyah" ("return") as "salvation." Of Aliyah Bet, the Israeli journalists Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman write:
Members of the intelligence community firmly denied using any terrorist tactics, but they were proud to say that they consistently came up with new and original methods to transport Jews to Israel. They were, after all, for the survival of their new nation... Thanks to the secret agents of Aliyah Bet, the population of Israel nearly doubled, to over one million Jews, in the first four years after independence.122
Its agents succeeded in doubling the population of Israel in its first four years. But this success rested on tactics just as vile as those used in radical Zionism's earlier operations to pressure Jews to immigrate to Palestine.
Mossad Bombs Iraqi Jews: Operation Ali Baba
All the systematic pressure some Zionist leaders exerted on the Western Jews did not result in the expected flood of immigrants to Israel. This led these Zionist leaders to adopt even more radical measures against Jewish communities. As Prof. Turkkaya Ataov points out in his book Siyonizm ve Irkcilik: "When the expected rush of western Jews did not materialize, it became the calculated policy of the radical Zionists to stir up trouble for the Jews of the Diaspora so as to persuade, or even to force them to emigrate and to occupy the lands vacated by the Palestinian Arabs."123
As the first to "suffer from harsh conditions," a number of Israeli leaders chose Iraqi Jews who, as descendants of the Biblical Hebrews exiled to Babylon, had a 2,500-year history in Mesopotamia. Their population now numbering 150,000, they had built sixty synagogues and until the arrival of Mossad's agents, had lived in peace with their Muslim neighbors.
Despite the enactment of the Law of Return in 1950, the Iraqi Jews were unwilling to "return" to Israel. Mossad agents, aware of this reluctance, did not hesitate to inform Iraqi Jews of the danger that supposedly menaced them. A bomb placed in Baghdad's Masouda Shemtov Synagogue killed three Iraqi Jews and injured ten. In the following days, it turned out that the bombers were Mossad agents. The book Siyonizm ve Irkcilik says, "Israeli [Mossad] agents were exposed and tried as responsible for the bombing of the Masauda Shemtou Synagogue in Baghdad."124 The incident is also treated in detail in Every Spy a Prince, a history of the Mossad by the Israeli journalists Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman.
David Reuben, an Iraqi Jew, witnessed the dangers to which his countrymen were exposed. Relating his view of Operation Ali Baba, Reuben stressed that the Zionists waged psychological warfare against Iraqi Jewry. Its primary aim was to create hostility between Muslims and Jews in order to force the Jews to flee to their "homeland." In addition to the psychological war, synagogues were bombed as well, resulting in injuries to Jews. Muslims were accused of these deeds, until eventually the Jews came to believe that they weren't safe in their own homes. According to Reuben, radical Zionists were responsible for all the incidents.125
Iraqi Jews whose synagogues were bombed by Mossad found their "escape" through immigration to Israel. The above photograph was taken in the plane during the transportation of a group of Iraqi Jews to Israel.
This murky operation was planned and ordered by radical Zionists within the Israeli inner establishment. This eventually came to light when the bloody emigration operation, one of Israeli history's dirtiest secrets, was exposed in the Israeli press. The Israeli weekly Ha'olam Haze (April 20, June 1, 1966) and the daily Yedioth Aharonot (November 8, 1977) both declared that the Mossad had committed the bombings, as did the Israeli writer Ilan Halevi in his 1981 book La Question Juive (The Jewish Question). The Ali Baba Operation was also exposed in August 1972 by Kokhavi Shemesh, in an Israeli newspaper called Black Panthers. In addition, on November 7, 1977, journalist Baruch Nadel submitted some questions through the Tel-Aviv Superior Court to Mordechai Ben-Porat, one of the spies that Israel sent to Iraq and who would later become a Knesset member. His answers corroborated the above revelations.
Iraqi Jews frightened by the Mossad's bombs found their "escape" through immigration to Israel. By the end of Operation Ali Baba, conceived and carried out by radical Zionist leaders, 120,000 Iraqi Jews had been transferred to Israel.
Another factor influential in attracting Iraqi Jews was the covert diplomatic relations between those of power and influence in Israel and some in the Iraqi government. Agents of Aliyah Bet were able to bribe the then Iraqi Prime Minister in order to "purchase" Jews:
Shlomo Hillel [a senior Aliyah B operative] was posing as "British businessman Richard Armstrong," representing Near East Air Transport Corporation of the United States in talks with the Iraqi government. The obscure American airline covered its tracks carefully so as to disguise its close ties with the Israel government. No one knew that during 1948-1949 the company had flown all fifty thousand Jews of Yemen Aden to Israel... After two years of active anti-Semitic oppression, the Iraqi parliament passed a law in March 1950 that permitted every Jew who wished to do so to leave the country. They would simply have to give up their Iraqi citizenship. This seemed surprisingly lenient from a regime that had declared war on Israel and arrested hundreds of Jews for Zionist activities. The explanation lay in incentives offered to the prime minister who opened the emigration gates, Toufik al-Sawidi. He was also the chairman of Iraq Tours, which—by no coincidence—was appointed agent for Near East Air Transport Corporation. In other words by a roundabout method, the head of Iraq's government received bribes and kickbacks from Israeli intelligence.126
The Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) were numbered on their foreheads, and brought to Israel in special operations set up by Mossad. There, they were treated as second-class citizens by some in the Israeli administration.
Naeim Giladi is now writing books on Israel's cruel policy toward the Jews of Iraq. The New American View reports that Giladi was born in Iraq in 1930. In his youth, while still a committed and active radical Zionist, Giladi witnessed murderous attacks inflicted on the Iraqi Jewish community. As a living witness to what happened behind the scenes in those days, the details he provides are valuable admissions.
He joined the underground Zionist movement in the wake of the Jewish massacre in Baghdad organized by the British in 1941. After World War II, he worked on Operation Ali Baba to transfer Iraqi Jews to Israel. In 1992 Giladi published a book titled Ben Gurion's Scandals: How the Haganah of the Mossad Eliminated Jews, in which he described his experiences in the underground Zionist organization in Iraq. He also provided information about the underground Zionist agent Ben Porat, who enabled Iraqi Jews to migrate from Baghdad to Israel. According to Giladi, Ben Porat terrified and terrorized the Jews to leave Iraq, where they had lived in peace and wealth for 2,500 years. Giladi maintained that Mossad terrorists bombed cafes and synagogues frequented by Jews in order to force them to migrate to Israel, and that Zionists such as Ben Porat accused Iraqi Muslims for carrying out such attacks. The plan worked, and the Jews fled to Israel. Yet the Iraqi Jewish people found themselves in the position of second-class citizens, oppressed by the European Jews running Israel.127
Thus radical Zionists with underground organizations forced Iraq's Jews to leave what had been their homeland for thousands of years, and to become second-class citizens. In today's Israel, the tragedy of the Iraqi Jews continues:
The Iraqis in Israel were already disgruntled, blaming the European-born leadership of the Jewish state for thrusting them into primitive tents and huts with little hope of decent housing or employment. The new Sephardic—"Oriental"—immigrants felt humiliated to be sprayed with insecticide and given no freedom of choice.128
Removing the Ethiopian Jews from Their Homeland, or Moses and Solomon Operations
The Falashas, black Jews who had dwelt in Ethiopia for centuries, were a target of some Israelis' efforts to return Jewish "exiles" back to their homeland. The emigration of the Falashas was accomplished in two major operations of the Aliyah Bet, Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1991.
To enable the 1984 operation, the Israelis paid sizable bribes to Ethiopia's leaders and—since the Ethiopian Jews had to be transferred by way of Sudan—they also bought off the overthrown President of Sudan and his close associates. Sudanese President Gaafar Muhammad al-Nimeiry, Vice President Omar el-Tayeb, and their "special consultant" Baha Ydris (nicknamed "Mr. 10 Percent" for his well-known involvement in taking bribes and in all sorts of other illegal activities) accepted $56 million for allowing the Falashas to be transferred via Sudan. In short, radical Zionist leaders purchased the Falashas just like chattel, after driving a bargain with Ethiopia's and Sudan's leaders. The negotiating parties had no need to ask where the Ethiopian Jews would like to live. The Falashas' price was paid to the Ethiopian leaders, and the Ethiopian Jews were later flown to Israel. Nokta magazine paints a dramatic picture of their arrival:
When the Falashas, numbered stickers on their foreheads, got off the plane, they left a pale and tired, young yet frail, impression on people. Almost fourteen thousand Falashas arrived in Zion with numbers on their foreheads, and they resembled the Jewish prisoners consigned to Nazi concentration camps years ago with tattoos on their wrists.129
Israel abandoned black Jews to their death. Ethiopia forces its Jewish inhabitants to emigrate.
This is not a Nazi concentration camp
The Turkish daily Günaydın, dated September 21, 1984, explained the treatment that the Falashas received in Israel:
"This is not a Nazi concentration camp...
Despite the fact that the situation is no different than that of the Nazi camps, that the victims are black make other Jews turn a blind eye on the situation... They watch the destruction of their black friends almost with pleasure."
The treatment they underwent came quickly to the notice of international organizations. A human rights group called the French Solidarity Association criticized the Israeli government, declaring that there were no humanitarian reasons to transfer Ethiopian Jews to the Promised Land:
The French Solidarity Association suggested that the Israeli government had not transferred the Ethiopian Jews to Israel out of humane considerations and declared that the real reason for the rescue operation was to establish new settlements in the occupied territories so that Israel could continue its expansionist policy. In the meantime, opposition to the secret transfer of thousands of Falashas to Israel continues. Because of the uproar this event created, the Israeli government had to end the emigration.130
In 1991's Operation Solomon, another group of Ethiopian Jews was transported to Israel. The brains behind this operation were the Iranian Jew David Alliance and the Iraqi Jew Sami Shamoon, led by Uri Lubrani. Once again, bribery figured in: A financial deal between Uri Lubrani and Ethiopia's President Mengistu Haile Mariam clinched the operation. The transfer of fifteen thousand Jews to Israel began with Lubrani's meeting with Mengistu to gain his permission. Mengistu's opening offer was $100 million. Lubrani countered with $25 million, but Mengistu said he couldn't accept less than $57.5 million. Finally, they agreed on a payment of $30 million. After the deal was completed, Operation Solomon transferred more than fourteen thousand Ethiopian Jews by air to Israel in May 1991.
For the Falashas, the real tragedy began in Israel. After the glittering promises with which they had lured the Ethiopian Jews, certain Zionist leaders gave them housing barely fit for human habitation.
The ghetto-like settlements in Ambover, which some Israeli leaders regarded as fitting for the Falashas who were forced to abandon their homes in Ethiopia and brought to Israel
On October 10, 1992, a Turkish daily Gundem ran a highly informative article titled "Ghetto Nightmare of the Ethiopian Jews in the Promised Land," reporting that:
Life in the Promised Land is a tragedy... the lives of thousands of Ethiopian Jews have turned into a nightmare in which they are settled in trailers close to the desert with no opportunity of schooling or jobs. Worn-out huts, difficult to call houses, now resemble black ghettoes.
Last year, fourteen thousand black Jews were suddenly transferred to Israel in an air operation that lasted for twenty-two hours, but no permanent housing was provided for these people. A thousand of them are living in hostels and the remaining thirteen thousand are leading their lives in trailers. These trailers are completely isolated from the rest of Israeli society... The leaders of these black Jews describe their conditions as a social tragedy and are awaiting reforms soon. The Ethiopian Jewish leader Rahamim Elazar says, "Trailers are just like ghettos," and adds, "Israel will be condemned around the world as a racist country for isolating these black Jews from the community."
Elazar compares the Falashas' trailer camps in Israel to the black shanty towns in South Africa, adding that "The trailers are so dirty and lacking in drainage that I cannot even call them modern Soweto." He expresses hopelessness for the future. Maaritesh Kandia, with five children, says, "In the summer it is terribly hot, and in winter it is terribly cold. I wish we had a normal place to stay in."
Thirteen thousand of the Ethiopians who were brought to Israel in Operation Solomon currently live in four hundred trailers lined up side by side at the edge of the desert. Maaritesh Kandia and her fellow Falashas complain about their isolation: for instance, they are forced to send their children to school in Jerusalem, two hours away.131
After the Falashas' arrival in Israel, their misery was so evident that even the Israeli authorities acknowledged it, confirming it in official reports:
According to an investigation by the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, a third of the Ethiopian Jews who were transferred to Israel five years ago in Operation Moses do not have permanent places of residence. The same ministry confirmed reports stating that immigrants settled in Kiryat Arba were living in poor conditions.132
Although it has now been ten years since they were brought to Israel, the Ethiopian Jews feel closer to the Arabs than to the Jews of Israel. The Arab-language magazine El-Mecelle examined the plight of the Falashas in an article that noted the ill-treatment and discrimination the Falashas have undergone in Israel, as well as their complaints:
They live in concentration camps
The daily Günayd›n dated September 21, 1984, covered the plight of the Falashas in Israel in an article titled "They Live in Concentration Camps." Above: A photograph from one of these "concentration camps"
From the day the Ethiopian Jews arrived in Israel, they have objected to being called Falashas, since in the Ethiopian language Amharic, falasha means "others, different ones." They also complain that the miserable conditions and ill treatment they suffer started only in Israel, not in their former homeland, where they had led peaceful settled lives... Yusuf Minkasha, a technician in the Israeli army, says "One day I will surely leave Israel and go back to Ethiopia"... A pregnant Ethiopian woman comments: "The Israelis have shown that they see us as different from themselves in every regard. I feel closer to the Arabs and prefer to be treated by an Arab doctor, because he will certainly respect me and treat me accordingly."133
The Ethiopian Jews, who left their homes involuntarily, have suffered much psychological trauma. An article in Shalom titled "Will the Ethiopian Jews Celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of Operation Moses?" reports:
The most important problem of the community is their yearning for the families they left in Ethiopia. Unhappiness arising from this separation of families has resulted in suicide attempts by many Ethiopians. Up to now, a total of twenty-five Ethiopians has committed suicide. With Operation Moses they have experienced a social crisis, and the transfer from one very different culture to another has caused depression.134
On June 16, 1991, the total number of suicides was reported by Nokta magazine to have reached fifty. Afterwards, suicides still continued.
Some Zionist leaders took no interest in the Ethiopian Jews' wretched conditions. Bereft of sympathy and support in Israel, the Falashas decided to approach American Jews for help. They sent to American Jews a letter reproaching certain Israeli leaders. On November 16, 1988, Shalom reported on it in an article titled, "Open Letter to the American Jews—Narrating the Pain of Ethiopian Jews—Silence Is Murder." Here are some lines from the letter:
Every day we hear the cries of their sorrow. All their letters speak of death and famine. They report only of children dying from hunger, women, and dying villages. But for more than four years, our families have been kept in silence, and condemned to poverty and hunger. The people who experience these are Ethiopian Jews. We tried to approach American Jewry in order to help us unite our families. Our purpose is to appeal to a larger community which will be interested in our families.
… The reason for this silence is that they do not wish to repeat the mistakes that put an end to the Operation Moses. That would mean that the Israeli leaders are committed to continuing their ill-treatment of the Ethiopian Jews. Their anachronistic attitude condemns the Ethiopian Jews to a living death. Is this the sort of behavior worthy of leaders? The debate was over whether the plea to unite the separated families should be endorsed or not. The petition pointed out the following:
"We have signed below as persons representing different sectors of the Ethiopian community. We inform that it causes us astonishment and regret that the Ethiopian Government does not allow the Ethiopian Jews to unite with their children, mothers, fathers, and relatives." The most basic human rights are denied the Ethiopian Jews. Our families are separated. To increase sensitivity we have signed this letter, but it too is denied. Have these Jewish leaders no conscience? The behavior of the Diaspora Jewish leaders is sending our families to death and separation—Shlome Mula (President, Ethiopian Jewish Students Union); Rahamim Elazar (President, Union of Ethiopian Jews in Israel); Uri Tekele (Leader, Beta Israel Association); Yisrael Yitzhak (President, Ethiopian Immigrants Association).
The radical Israelis not only mistreated the Ethiopian Jews in Israel, but concealed the hardships of the Falashas in Ethiopia. In 1987, for example, the Ethiopian government arrested some of the Falashas, then tortured them in prison. Although the radical Israelis were well aware of what their Ethiopian brethren were suffering, they avoided to make any attempts to save them. Consequently, Mesfin Ambaw, secretary of the Ethiopian Immigrants Association, declared, "The Israeli government is not interested in us at all; people have been murdered in our villages and terrible things are happening."135
"The ghetto nightmare of the Ethiopian Jews in the Promised Land," Gundem, October 10, 1992
Certain Israelis' insensitivity actually resulted from their seeking a pretext for another emigration operation they were planning for Ethiopian Jewry. They were waiting for the Falashas' miserable conditions to worsen, until the Falashas themselves would beg to leave Ethiopia for Israel. On June 16, 1991, the periodical Nokta summarized the situation:
The Israeli government at that time chose to keep silent regarding the Ethiopian government's attitude toward the Falashas because they [the Israelis] wanted to transfer more Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
The Israelis did not regard the Falashas as authentic Jews; the purpose of transferring them to Israel was chiefly to settle them on Arab territories under Israeli occupation. Therefore, Israel's policy towards the Falashas has never been a humane one. During Operation Moses in 1984, some Zionist leaders transported 7,000 Falashas to Israel. In their efforts to soothe world opinion, Israeli leaders called it a "rescue operation," but what actually occurred was far less rosy. The Falashas were not really "rescued," and many actually lost their lives during the operation! Shalom acknowledged as much, describing Operation Moses as causing "the biggest death toll of Ethiopian Jews in the last century," adding that:
Operation Moses resulted in the deaths of a thousand Ethiopian Jews... Most of the deaths occurred during the transfer through Sudan.136
Operation Magic Carpet: Yemenite Jews Deceived by the Lie that "the Messiah Appeared in Israel"
To increase immigration to Israel, new scenarios were needed. From the beginning, in fact, immigration to Palestine had been accomplished artificially. One interesting example dates from 1948, when a group of Jews from Yemen were tricked into eventually being brought to Israel.
In those years, Arab workers in Israel's agricultural sector earned high wages by doing the most difficult labor, such as domestic help or work in industry. Before long, a new solution was found to lower costs, as well as the region's Arab population. Doctor Thon, who worked for the Jewish Agency of the World Zionist Organization, had explained it in a speech in 1908:
Only an eastern Jew would work for the lower wages offered to an Arab. In this way these eastern Jews transferred to Israel will be supporting "Hebrew labor," which is the aim of Zionism, and the elimination of Palestinian labor will come as a result... If the continuous settlement of immigrating Yemen families to the pre-determined regions is successful, then another problem would be solved: The women and daughters of Yemenite families will replace Arab women as maids in the homes of immigrant families. The Arabs are earning as much as 20 to 25 francs a month.137
Between 1949 and 1950, with the "Magic Carpet Operation," 45,000 Yemenite Jews were taken to Israel with the lie that "The Messiah came to the Earth in Israel." The photo above was taken of the Yemenite Jews during the Magic Carpet Operation. The confusion, uneasiness and unhappiness on the faces does not confirm that these people are being "rescued."
A theoretical solution was found to the problem: Yemenite Jewish men would work as laborers and their women as maids, in the hardest jobs, for the lowest wages. The problem was how to persuade them to immigrate to Israel. It was solved by a quite sordid method:
In 1911 a pseudo-preacher was sent to Yemen—the "Zionist-Socialist" Warshavsky, re-named for the purpose "Rabbi Yavne'eli"—in order to announce to the Yemeni Jews the coming of the Messiah and the third Kingdom of Israel. Much later, in 1948, the Yemeni immigrants were brought to Israel in the operation called Magic Carpet. In the aircraft that conveyed them, they chanted, "David! David! [i.e. Ben Gurion] King of Israel!" This operation was carried out in two phases, between December 1948 and March 1949, and between July 1949 and September 1950, and cost $5.5 million.138
Dr. Osias Thon, who brought Yemenite Jews to Israel through falsehood
Between 1948 and 1949, Operation Magic Carpet accomplished the immigration of 50,000 Yemenite Jews. They had been deceived, and in Israel, their tragedy were just beginning. In the Promised Land, their lives would be far from the comfortable, pious ones they had been promised. On the contrary, they were greeted with the worst, most difficult jobs:
Most of these emigrants began work as farmers, and they became the labor force for industry or transportation. While clearing swamps for agriculture, many of the young people lost their lives.139
In the following years, radical sections within the Israeli government began seeking to bring in the remaining Yemenite Jews. Israeli agents set to work on another artificial motive for immigrating to the Promised Land. The daily Zaman reported on August 21, 1982:
The plan was for Listen Bismirka, an American Jew operating in Yemen, to make the rounds of Yemenite Jewry and encourage them to immigrate to Israel... Bismirka [worked] in the mountains of Yemen, trying to convince pious Jews to immigrate. Reportedly, by doing so, it is aimed to bring all Yemenite Jews to Israel.
The radical Israelis had some success in these operations. Once again, Yemenite Jews were deceived by shining words and promises, but after immigrating, their new lives offered them only trouble. Zaman adds:
Families transferred to Israel from Yemen by various duplicitous methods are reported to be in distress. Two Jewish Yemenite families wrote a special letter to the government of Yemen describing their miserable situation in Israel. These families declared their desire to return to Yemen, and expressed their misery: "We are in distress here. They took our twenty-five thousand dollars and passports. Please send us new passports and tickets so we can return to our country."
The poverty and distress that Yemenite Jews faced in Israel were so obvious that even the Israeli media reported it. Shalom, in a story picked up from the French-language Tribune Juive, described what happened to the Yemenite Jews in Israel:
Everything starts with the Magic Carpet Operation. 48,000 people are settled in maaborats [transit camps] hastily set up in Israel. The death rate in these camps is quite high. Inadequate nutrition, the exhausting trip to Israel, and the deficiencies in the health organizations in the face of so many immigrants are the basic reasons for this unfortunate situation.
In the winter of 1949, amidst freezing weather conditions, strange things began to happen in the Rosh Hasim Camp: Mothers and fathers were searching for their lost babies... This happened repeatedly. Twelve- to eighteen-month-old babies were diagnosed with some disease, then sent to hospitals or otherwise taken from their families. Next the family would be told that their child had died. But only a few families received a death certificate. Furthermore, the families were unable to learn where their children were buried. The sorrowful parents were informed that their babies had been buried hastily to prevent the spread of epidemics…
According to the statement of one witness, a mother fought to see her child... and was able to withdraw the child from the hospital. The child was perfectly healthy. The hospital authorities simply apologized and said that there had been a mistake in the hospital records. After that, a rumor spread through the maaborats: Babies are disappearing in the hospitals. In these strange unexplained circumstances it is believed that more than 500 babies were lost.140
Above: A scene from Beth Lid camp where 10,000 immigrants resided during a rainy January 1950. This photo dramatically reflects the difficulties the Yemenite Jews faced in Israel.
Thirty years later, in the 1980s, the fate of the missing hundreds of infants would come to light. From Shalom, we learn that:
News in the Israeli media has excited the Yemenite Jewish community: "We are the taken-away children of immigrants from Yemen who came to Israel 30 years ago." These are persons who were adopted by American families in their infancy, had come in search of their real parents, Jews of Yemenite origin living in Israel.
Nine years later, in a story titled "Yemenite Jews Are Searching for Their Rights in Israel," Shalom reported more about the mysteriously lost babies of Yemenite Jews:
What really happened to the 613 Yemenite babies who were taken away from their families and given to more "developed" ones? It is known that they are alive somewhere but the Israel government takes no steps to investigate the matter.141
Thus, some Israeli administrators within the inner establishment inflicted another blow on the Yemenite Jews. First, they lured them from a settled and peaceful existence in their homeland. But that wasn't enough for these Israeli leaders: They kidnapped babies from the Yemenite Jews, then told them their children were dead. This, of course, was just another lie—the children had been given to American Jews for adoption.
Some Israeli leaders did still more. During the transfer of Yemenite Jews to Israel, they confiscated thousands of ancient handwritten books and scrolls, and never returned them. The excuse was made that the books weighed too much for transport by plane; their return to their owners was solemnly promised. Not long afterward, these Israeli officials announced that there had been a fire in the hangar where the books had been unloaded, and that none could be saved.
Another photo taken in January 1950 in the Beth Lid camp, where 10,000 Yemenite Jews were forced to live under very bad conditions, and where death rates were high.
In the following years, however, various books belonging to the Yemenite Jews began to surface in locations such as the Vatican, the British Museum, and Yeshiva University. Shamefully, some Israeli officials had sold these books at auction. The scandalous story of the Yemenite books and manuscripts was broken by Shalom on November 27, 1991, under the headline "Yemenite Jews Are Searching for Their Rights in Israel."
The travails of the Jews of Yemen, and the dark policies formulated for them by certain Israelis continued.
Certain radical Israeli leaders experimented with a new method to bring Yemenite Jews to Israel. All at once, rumors began to surface everywhere that Jews in Yemen were being tortured and even killed due to their religion. The source of the rumors could not be determined. Official reports were issued on the matter. The purpose was to make the remaining Jews of Yemen feel they were unsafe there and had to immigrate to Israel. In the days that followed the initial reports, it became clear that the Israel's inner establishment was behind them, that the rumors did not reflect the truth, but were deliberate falsehoods. When the truth came out, the inner establishment panicked. To save face, they announced that "Yemenite Jews were accused of preparing false reports and spreading untrue rumors."142
In fact, the Jews of Yemen were most unlikely, and scarcely able, to have carried out such a provocative campaign. As noted, they enjoyed a settled existence in their homeland—so they had no need to spread such rumors.
Some radical Israelis, of course, claimed that the Yemenite Jews had been persecuted because of their religion before they came to Israel—but this was only to justify their own covert operations. They wanted to be seen as the saviors of Yemenite Jewry. But Shalom refuted their pretexts for the operations: "The real condition of the 1,000-1,100 Jews in Yemen is this: They are free to practice their religion. There are many synagogues in Yemen still open for public worship."143
Other Israeli Jew-Buying Methods:
Romanian Jews and the Luxembourg Agreement
Ana Pauker, former Romanian minister of foreign relations, was daughter of an Orthodox Jewish family and her brother was a leading figure of the Zionist movement. (Left)
Rabbi Rosen, an influential figure during the Ceauflescu regime, organized the migration of Romanian Jews to Israel. (Right)
What happened to the Romanian Jews forced to immigrate to Israel is similar to that of the Ethiopian Jews "purchased" from their country's leaders. The only difference is that this time, the certain circles within Israel's inner establishment did not deal directly with the Romanian authorities. This was done by a "mediator:" Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen. Romania's chief rabbi, who had great influence on the Romanian government, particularly in the Ceauşescu period, played a key role in the emigration of Romanian Jews to Israel:
The Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen, who states that it is his proudest achievement that 97% of Romanian Jews left for Israel, seen during a service at the Choir Synagogue, Bucharest
In a recent newspaper article by Andrew Billen, entitled "Exodus—The Last Jews of Romania," he informs us of the work of Romania's Chief Rabbi, Moses Rosen, and the rundown of Romania's Jewish population, due to... immigration to Israel, which was never prevented during the reign of Sir [sic] Nicolae Ceauscescu, whose family had strong Jewish connections …
Rabbi Rosen says: "It is my proudest achievement that 97% of Jews left." ... Probably more interesting is the fact that Rabbi Rosen was also a member of Romania's puppet parliament which... is bringing him under scrutiny for his links with the Ceaucescu dynasty... Although Rosen has always denied any knowledge of it, Israeli [radicals were] literally allowed to buy Jews from the Romanian Government. And by 1978, according to Ion Pacepa, Romania's former Head of Security who defected to the West, the amount could range from $2,000 to $50,000 depending on the citizen's value to each state.144
Ana Pauker played an important role in laying the groundwork for the emigration of Romanian Jews to Israel. Pauker, a leading communist who formerly served as Romania's minister of foreign relations, was the elder sister of Zionist Zalman Rabinsohn. On November 20, 1952 the Communist Party tried her along with 13 communist leaders, 11 of them Jewish, in the Prague Trials for supporting Zionists.
Israel's Secret Relations with Contemporary Nazis
After World War II, Israel began a "Nazi hunt" to avenge the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. But it would be fair to say that this was less a true search for justice, but a propaganda initiative of some Israeli leaders. One clear indication is that the pursuers have never gone after some prominent Nazis, only such notorious and sensational Nazis such as Eichmann.
In light of this, SS General Kurt Becher is an interesting exception. Becher was the Reich Special Commissar for all Nazi concentration camps, and if Israelis were to search for an enemy, his name should have been at the top of their wanted list. However, instead of calling for Becher's arrest and trial, certain circles of power and influence in Israel have done business with this former Nazi general! The American Jewish researcher Ralph Schoenman has revealed their relationship:
Yitzhak Rabin, a former Prime Minister of Israel
SS General Kurt Becher... was appointed Commissar of all Nazi concentration camps by Heinrich Himmler... He became president of a corporation that headed up the sale of wheat to Israel. His corporation, the Cologne-Handel Gesellschaft, did extensive business with the Israeli government.145
The "apartheid" rulers of South Africa, too, included men who were both former Nazis and close friends of Israel. South African racist Prime Minister John Vorster's relationship with Israel is of particular interest. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, professor of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, comments on a state visit Vorster made to Israel in his book The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms and Why:
For most Israelis, the Vorster visit to Israel was simply an official visit by a foreign leader... He was described by most of the Israeli press as a deeply religious man on a personal pilgrimage to the Holy Land... It took a letter to the editor of Haaretz, Israel's New York Times, to inform the public that Vorster had been a Nazi collaborator who, according to Israeli law, should have been arrested and put on trial the minute he set foot on Israeli soil. Instead, he landed at the Tel-Aviv airport, the red carpet was rolled out, and Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, greeted him with a warm hug. There were plenty of welcoming articles in the Israeli press.146
Beit-Hallahmi adds: "What the South Africans get from Israel, as they wage their war for survival, is first and foremost inspiration. Second is practical guidance in every facet of their military endeavor."147
Most South African leaders who admire Israel are in fact former Nazi sympathizers, as Hallahmi points out. The South African journalist Breyten Breytenbach describes this interesting situation:
What a strange identification the Afrikaners have with Israel. There has always been a strong current of anti-Semitism in the land, after all—the present rulers are the result and the direct descendants of pro-Nazi ideologues. And yet they have the greatest admiration for Israel... They identify themselves with Israel as the Biblical chosen people of God, as a modern embattled state surrounded by a sea of enemies.148
Thus Israel's inner establishment has maintained good ties with contemporary Nazis as well as with earlier ones. In reality, contrary to what is generally thought, the two ideologies of radical Zionism and fascism work together in perfect harmony, which transforms into active collaboration at every convenience.
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The thyroid gland is a bowtie-shaped organ in your neck, below the larynx. It secretes hormones that control how fast your heart beats, how quickly you digest food, how much you sweat, the speed at which you burn calories, and many other activities, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS).
Thyroid Gland - Click to Enlarge
The thyroid is one of the endocrine glands in the body. Endocrine glands secrete chemical messengers called hormones directly into the bloodstream. Their hormones control functions of other parts of the body. Some of the other endocrine glands are the pancreas, the pituitary, the adrenal glands, the parathyroid glands, the testicles, and the ovaries.
The thyroid makes thyroxine (T4), a hormone that governs metabolism throughout the body. Iodine is an important component of thyroxine. Once in the bloodstream, thyroxine is carried to other organs, such as the liver and kidneys, where it is converted to triiodothyronine (T3), which is a more biologically active form.
The amount of thyroxine made by the thyroid is controlled by the pituitary gland. When the pituitary detects a low level of thyroid hormone, it produces thyrotropin, also called thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which causes the thyroid to increase production of thyroxine. Ordinarily, the thyroid produces just enough of the hormone to keep your body running at normal speed. Sometimes, though, it becomes overactive or underactive.
Thyroid problems are common, the AAO-HNS says. When the thyroid makes too much thyroxine, the condition is called hyperthyroidism; when it makes too little, it is called hypothyroidism. In either case, the thyroid may become enlarged. An enlarged thyroid is called a goiter.
The most common cause of goiter once was a shortage of iodine in the diet. The thyroid needs iodine to make thyroxine. If it doesn't get enough, the gland swells because it's trying to compensate for the lack of iodine. A diet-caused goiter is rare in this country today because table salt has iodine added to it.
Symptoms of hyperthyroidism, according to the American Thyroid Association (ATA), include weight loss, nervousness, irritability, sweating, a racing heart, hand tremors, anxiety, sleep problems, brittle hair, and muscle fatigue, particularly in the upper arms and thighs. The most common type of hyperthyroidism is called Graves' disease. Graves' disease is thought to be an autoimmune condition, in which the body’s own antibodies cause the thyroid to make more hormone than it should.
Symptoms of hypothyroidism, the ATA says, include fatigue; feeling depressed, sluggish or cold; dry skin and hair; constipation; muscle cramps; and weight gain. The two most common causes of hypothyroidism are an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's thyroiditis and the side effects of treating hyperthyroidism.
An underactive thyroid usually is treated with a daily thyroid hormone medication. An overactive thyroid is usually treated with medication that blocks the thyroid's ability to produce excess thyroid hormone or by treatment with radioactive iodine, which will destroy the thyroid tissue. In that case, a person will take a small, daily thyroid hormone replacement pill.
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The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. The people who gathered on the docks to greet the ships were met with a horrifying surprise: Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill. They were overcome with fever, unable to keep food down and delirious from pain. Strangest of all, they were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus and gave their illness its name: the “Black Death.” The Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the mysterious Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population.
"The Black Death"
Even before the “death ships” pulled into port at Messina, many Europeans had heard rumors about a “Great Pestilence” that was carving a deadly path across the trade routes of the Near and Far East. (Early in the 1340s, the disease had struck China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt.) However, they were scarcely equipped for the horrible reality of the Black Death. “In men and women alike,” the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio wrote, “at the beginning of the malady, certain swellings, either on the groin or under the armpits…waxed to the bigness of a common apple, others to the size of an egg, some more and some less, and these the vulgar named plague-boils.” Blood and pus seeped out of these strange swellings, which were followed by a host of other unpleasant symptoms–fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains–and then, in short order, death. The Black Death was terrifyingly, indiscriminately contagious: “the mere touching of the clothes,” wrote Boccaccio, “appeared to itself to communicate the malady to the toucher.” The disease was also terrifyingly efficient. People who were perfectly healthy when they went to bed at night could be dead by morning.
Understanding the Black Death
Today, scientists understand that the Black Death, now known as the plague, is spread by a bacillus called Yersina pestis. (The French biologist Alexandre Yersin discovered this germ at the end of the 19th century.) They know that the bacillus travels from person to person pneumonically, or through the air, as well as through the bite of infected fleas and rats. Both of these pests could be found almost everywhere in medieval Europe, but they were particularly at home aboard ships of all kinds--which is how the deadly plague made its way through one European port city after another. Not long after it struck Messina, the Black Death spread to the port of Marseilles in France and the port of Tunis in North Africa. Then it reached Rome and Florence, two cities at the center of an elaborate web of trade routes. By the middle of 1348, the Black Death had struck Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon and London.
Today, this grim sequence of events is terrifying but comprehensible. In the middle of the 14th century, however, there seemed to be no rational explanation for it. No one knew exactly how the Black Death was transmitted from one patient to another–according to one doctor, for example, “instantaneous death occurs when the aerial spirit escaping from the eyes of the sick man strikes the healthy person standing near and looking at the sick”–and no one knew how to prevent or treat it. Physicians relied on crude and unsophisticated techniques such as bloodletting and boil-lancing (practices that were dangerous as well as unsanitary) and superstitious practices such as burning aromatic herbs and bathing in rosewater or vinegar.
Meanwhile, in a panic, healthy people did all they could to avoid the sick. Doctors refused to see patients; priests refused to administer last rites. Shopkeepers closed stores. Many people fled the cities for the countryside, but even there they could not escape the disease: It affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens as well as people. In fact, so many sheep died that one of the consequences of the Black Death was a European wool shortage. And many people, desperate to save themselves, even abandoned their sick and dying loved ones. “Thus doing,” Boccaccio wrote, “each thought to secure immunity for himself.”
Because they did not understand the biology of the disease, many people believed that the Black Death was a kind of divine punishment–retribution for sins against God such as greed, blasphemy, heresy, fornication and worldliness. By this logic, the only way to overcome the plague was to win God’s forgiveness. Some people believed that the way to do this was to purge their communities of heretics and other troublemakers–so, for example, many thousands of Jews were massacred in 1348 and 1349. (Thousands more fled to the sparsely populated regions of Eastern Europe, where they could be relatively safe from the rampaging mobs in the cities.)
Some people coped with the terror and uncertainty of the Black Death epidemic by lashing out at their neighbors; others coped by turning inward and fretting about the condition of their own souls. Some upper-class men joined processions of flagellants that traveled from town to town and engaged in public displays of penance and punishment: They would beat themselves and one another with heavy leather straps studded with sharp pieces of metal while the townspeople looked on. For 33 1/2 days, the flagellants repeated this ritual three times a day. Then they would move on to the next town and begin the process over again. Though the flagellant movement did provide some comfort to people who felt powerless in the face of inexplicable tragedy, it soon began to worry the Pope, whose authority the flagellants had begun to usurp. In the face of this papal resistance, the movement disintegrated.
The Black Death epidemic had run its course by the early 1350s, but the plague reappeared every few generations for centuries. Modern sanitation and public-health practices have greatly mitigated the impact of the disease but have not eliminated it.
How to Cite this Page:
Black Death. (2013). The History Channel website. Retrieved 1:37, May 21, 2013, from http://www.history.com/topics/black-death.
Black Death. [Internet]. 2013. The History Channel website. Available from: http://www.history.com/topics/black-death [Accessed 21 May 2013].
“Black Death.” 2013. The History Channel website. May 21 2013, 1:37 http://www.history.com/topics/black-death.
“Black Death,” The History Channel website, 2013, http://www.history.com/topics/black-death [accessed May 21, 2013].
“Black Death,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/topics/black-death (accessed May 21, 2013).
Black Death [Internet]. The History Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 21] Available from: http://www.history.com/topics/black-death.
Black Death, http://www.history.com/topics/black-death (last visited May 21, 2013).
Black Death. The History Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.history.com/topics/black-death. Accessed May 21, 2013.
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Anne Frank House
The Anne Frank House is a museum with a story. It's situated in the center of Amsterdam and holds the hiding place where Anne Frank wrote her famous diary during World War II. Anne Frank was a normal girl in exceptional circumstances. For more than two years she described the events of her daily life in hiding in her diary.
The Diary of Anne Frank
Anne’s original diary along with some of her other notebooks are on display as part of the Anne Frank House's permanent exhibition. The collection and temporary exhibitions focus on the wartime persecution of Jews, contemporary fascism, racism and anti-Semitism.
See for yourself how Anne, her family and other people were living while hiding from the occupying Germans. Take into account, that visiting the Anne Frank House is a moving experience, which has already touched millions of people from all over the world.
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Requests: If you need specific information on this remedy - e.g. a proving or a case info on toxicology or whatsoever, please post a message in the Request area www.homeovision.org/forum/ so that all users may contribute.
Cooper originally described the round stingray in 1863 as Urolophus halleri. This name was changed that same year to the currently valid Urobatis halleri (Cooper, 1863). The genus name Urobatis is derived from the Greek "oura" meaning tail and "batis" meaning a ray.
liquid from stingray spine.
Order: RajiformesFamily: UrolophidaeGenus: UrobatisSpecies: halleri
A proving of Round Stingray
Proving Coordinator: Todd Rowe MD (H), CCH, DHt
Edited By: Yolande Grill HMA
Description of the substance
The round stingray has a nearly circular disc-shaped body with a tail that is shorter than the length of the disc. The snout of this ray terminates in a rounded point. The prominent pectoral fins ("wings") are rounded. Dorsal fins are absent, however the rounded caudal fin is present in contrast to many other rays that lack this feature. A long venomous spine is located approximately halfway down the length of the tail. There are six species of rays that live in waters off California that possess venomous spines on their tails. The round stingray can be identified by its true tail fin which the other species lack. These other species instead have either a whip-like tail or a short tail with no fin. The Cortez stingray (Urolophus maculatus) is similar to the round stingray, however the dark blotches on each side of its disc can distinguish it. The thornback (Platyrhinoidis triseriatea) can be distinguished by the presence of two dorsal fins and the three rows of tubercles along the back of adult individuals while the Pacific electric ray (Torpedo californica) can be distinguished by its two dorsal fins and lack of a venomous spine on the tail
The round stingray is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Eureka in northern California (U.S.) south to Panama Bay, Panama. It is most abundant south of Point Conception, California.
Similar to other species of rays, the round stingray lives in sandy and muddy bottoms in relatively shallow waters off beaches as well as in bays, channels, and inlets. It has also been observed swimming around rocky reef structures. This ray occurs to depths from the surface to 300 feet (91 m), however it is primarily found in waters less than 50 feet (15 m) in depth. It often lies motionless in the sand, exposing only its eyes. Observations indicate that round stingrays segregate by age and sex, with females residing in deeper water while males and juveniles occupy shallower habitats.
The round stingray is grayish brown, either plain, mottled, or spotted with dark blotches, on the dorsal surface, fading to a pale yellow, orange, or white underside. · Denticles This ray has a smooth skin, lacking the tubercles often found on other species.·Size, Age, and Growth The maximum size reported for the round stingray is 22.8 inches (58.0 cm) total length while the maximum published weight is just under 3 pounds (1,360 g). The average disc width of the round stingray is 3-10 inches (8-25 cm). Sexual maturity is reached between 2.6 and 3 years of age which correlates to a disc width of 5.7 inches (14.6 cm). The life expectancy is believed to be about 8 years.
Adult round stingrays feed primarily on benthic invertebrates such as stomatopods, amphipods, shrimp, and portunid crabs, and to a smaller extent, on polychaete worms and small fishes. They rely on olfaction and vision in the search for prey items. This ray has been observed to scoop out large holes in the muddy or sandy bottom by "waving" its pectoral fins and rostrum. This action serves to expose any buried worms, crabs or small fish. Feeding occurs continuously throughout daylight hours. Juvenile round stingrays feed on polychaetes, crustaceans, and nemerteans. ·
Mating of round stingrays has been documented during the winter months of January through March in the Sea of Cortez. During the mating season, solitary males search for females using visual and electrosensory cues. An interesting scientific finding is that reproductively mature females emit localized positive electric fields from near the spiracles behind each eye. This attracts males and mating behavior ensues. Males often bite the posterior of the females' discs. The females often escape, resulting in failure of copulation. However, when a male bites the anterior portion of the female's disc, the female does not attempt to free herself. This biting behavior functions to maintain contact between the pair during copulation.
Development of the round stingray is ovoviviparous, resulting in live birth. After a gestation period of approximately 3 months, a litter of 3-6 young are born in shallow waters. Each newborn measures 2.5-3.1 inches (6.3-8.0 cm) disc width. The young rays will remain in shallow habitats, which provide rich feeding grounds as well as protection from predators, until they are large enough to move out into deeper water. One known nursery area for the round stingray is Newport Dunes in southern California.
Predators of the round stingray in its northern range include the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) and the black sea bass (Stereolepis gigas). Other potential predators of this ray include large carnivorous fishes including sharks.· Parasites There are numerous parasites reported from the round stingray including approximately 19 families and 40 species are found on or in the round stingray. The most obvious parasites are those living on the outside of the ray's body, also known as ectoparasites. These ectoparasites include copepods and leeches. Sixteen species of parasitic tapeworms have been documented from the digestive system of the round stingray. A cestode, Phyllobothrium hallericola n. sp., was documented from the spiral valve intestine of two round stingrays from the Sea of Cortez. Another cestode that has been reported from this stingray is Acanthobothrium olseni. Other parasites found in the spiral valve of the intestine include Eimeria chollaensis sp. nov. (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) and Rhinebothrium spp. (Tetraphyllidea: Phyllobothriidae).
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Texas is home to more varieties of snakes that any other state in the Union. Over 110 species and subspecies are native to Texas. Of those, 34 varieties can be found in the greater Houston area. What does this mean to the average person? Well, it means that eventually, if you live in this area long enough, you are likely to encounter a snake. Most likely, it will be a non-venomous snake. Only six venomous species of snakes have been historically found in the Houston area; of these six, the three rattlesnake species are rarely seen and an encounter with one of them highly improbable. Below is a brief description of each of these venomous species.
Texas Coral Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere)
This is the most colorful of the local venomous snakes. The body is completely encircled by a series of wide red and black rings separated by narrower yellow rings, while the head is completely black. The red and yellow rings are always in contact with each other, which gives us the old rhyme “Red touch yellow, kill a fellow; red touch black, venom lack.” This remains the best way to distinguish the Coral Snake from certain harmless species of snakes such as the Louisiana Milk Snake or the Scarlet Snake, where the red and black bands are in contact with each other. The Coral Snake tends to be on the small and slender side, with an adult averaging under 24” in length, although the record length is 47 ¾”.
The Texas Coral Snake prefers living in partially wooded sites with a good amount of organic ground litter. Hence, it can be found sometimes in urban areas around gardens, wooded lots, or any other places with fairly heavy vegetation or ground cover. Its diet consists almost entirely of small lizards and other snakes. This is the only venomous snake in the Houston area that lays eggs.
The Coral Snake is a member of the Elapid family of snakes, which includes some of the most deadly snakes in the world. Consequently, its neurotoxic venom is much more potent than any of our other venomous species. Fortunately, the Coral Snake is inoffensive, and bites only if provoked or handled.
All of the other five species of venomous snakes found in the Houston area are what are known as “Pit Vipers.” These animals all possess the following characteristics: They have recurved, retractable hollow fangs for delivering venom, eyes with vertical, elliptically shaped eye pupils, and a heat sensing pit on each side of the head between the eye and the nostril. Their venom is a complex mixture of enzymes which act primarily on the blood tissues. All species give birth to live young, and do not lay eggs.
Southern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix)
This is a light tan/pale brown snake with hourglass shaped crossbands with the narrowest point at the middle of the back. These crossbands are of a darker color than the rest of the body. Adults generally range between 24”-36” with a record of 52”. This animal is the most abundant of the venomous snakes in the Houston area and is responsible for most of the venomous snake bites occurring here. Fortunately, their venom has a low toxicity; thus, although painful, a Copperhead envenomation does not pose a serious threat to life.
The Southern Copperhead prefers wooded areas, often in the vicinity of streams or bayous. It can be encountered in urban parks and wooded lots, where it seeks shelter under brush, boards, rock piles, and other types of human debris.
Newly born Copperheads measure between 8”-10” and are colored identically to the adults. The tip of the tail, though, is a bright yellow in color. This yellow tail gradually fades as the animal grows.
Western Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma)
This animal is also known as the Water Moccasin. This is a stout-bodied snake that, in general, is rather dark in color; any cross-banding pattern tends to be indistinct and rather ill-defined. The most prominent feature about this species is its large, flat-topped head which is noticeably wider that the neck. There also is a wide, dark-brown stripe bordered with white on each side of the head. Newborn cottonmouths tend to be boldly patterned and, like the Southern Copperhead, have bright yellow tipped tails. As the animal matures, the pattern darkens and the yellow tail disappears. The Western Cottonmouth is often confused with several other species of harmless water snakes of the genus Nerodia, which, although ill-tempered and apt to bite, are not venomous. These species, though, possess a round eye pupil and lack heat sensing pits. In general, when confronted with a large-bodied, dark colored snake, it is best just to leave it alone.
Most Western Cottonmouths tend to be between 24”-36” in length, although the record is over five feet. This animal can be found in almost every area that has a permanent source of water; it is especially abundant in the swamps, marshes and slow-moving bayous such as those found around Houston. They do prefer undisturbed areas over urban areas, but can be found in wet agricultural (such as rice fields) and suburban areas. Occasionally, the Western Cottonmouth can be found considerable distances from permanent water, usually after heavy rainfalls cause extensive flooding.
Despite its relative abundance in the Houston area, the Western Cottonmouth is responsible for few bites. However, its venom is far more toxic than the Southern Copperhead and can cause extensive tissue damage, even though fatalities are extremely rare. Consequently, these animals should not be molested or handled.
Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox)
This species is the most abundant and wide spread of all the venomous snakes in Texas. However, it prefers more sparsely vegetated and arid terrain than that found in the Houston area. In fact, this species is not found in Harris County, although specimens have been recorded on Galveston Island and in Brazoria County. The Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake is the second-largest venomous snake in the United States, and has been known to reach over seven feet in length; only the Eastern Diamond-backed Rattlesnake is larger. Average lengths, however, generally range between three and four feet.
This large, heavy-bodied snake can be most easily recognized by its black and white banded tail (hence its other name “Coontail”). The back is patterned with light-bordered dark diamond-shaped blotches. The head is large and is wider than the neck.
The Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake can be easily provoked; when threatened, it will throw itself into a defensive posture and buzz its rattle loudly. This species accounts for the majority of venomous snake bites in Texas; the large potential venom capacity makes a bite from this animal a very serious matter. It is fortunate that this animal is not found around the Greater Houston area proper.
Canebrake Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus atricaudatus)
This is a grayish brown to pinkish brown snake with a series of dark colored, jagged, chevron-shaped cross bands along its back. The tail is a glossy black, giving this animal the moniker of “velvet tail”. The Canebrake is also large-bodied, and can reach over six feet in length, although between three and five feet is a more common adult length. Its diet consists mostly of small mammals.
This species prefers moist lowland forests near rivers and lakes such as found in southeastern Texas. Although never abundant, this snake is seldom seen, and is now so rare in Texas that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has declared it to be a protected species.
In general, this rattlesnake is relatively mild-tempered and not easily excitable. Combined with the fact that it prefers to inhabit areas far from human habitation, bites are extremely rare. However, envenomations from this species can be fatal.
Western Pygmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius streckeri)
This is a small, grayish-colored rattlesnake with a tiny rattle and a row of small dark spots down the middle of its back. In addition, there are often similar rows along the sides of the body. The harmless Hognose Snake has similar markings and is often confused with the Pygmy Rattlesnake. Adult Pygmy Rattlesnakes are usually between 15”-20”, although the record is slightly over 25”.
This is another uncommon snake in Texas, and is primarily restricted to wooded and open lowlands of the upper Texas coast. Usually there is a source of standing water nearby. Sightings of this snake, even by professional herpetologists, are rare.
Historically, this snake has accounted for very few bites in and around Houston. No fatalities have been recorded for this animal, even though it will bite when provoked.
What can I do to avoid snakes?
Snakes are remarkable creatures and have the same needs as any other animal. Their three most basic needs are food, water and shelter. Any place that provides these essential elements has a good chance of harboring one or more snakes. Chances are that if you are encountering snakes around your house and yard regularly, you have an area somewhere that is harboring rodents. So the first rule of thumb is to keep your house and yard well trimmed and cleaned. Wood piles, brush piles, tall grass, trash, etc., will attract rodents and the snakes will follow their food source. Keep bushes trimmed so that their branches are off of the ground. Seal off any gaps that may lead into the house or garage to keep snakes from accidentally finding their way into your residence.
If you are out hiking or in the field, wear long pants and boots. Watch where you step and don’t put your hand or foot anywhere without looking first. Many accidental snake bites have two things in common; you don’t see the snake and the snake doesn’t see you.
If you by chance encounter a snake, our best advice is to leave it alone. Do not try to pick it up or capture it unless you are absolutely sure it is non-venomous and are prepared to be bitten. Snakes will not bite unless they are provoked or feel that their life is in danger.
Of course, you could always move to Ireland.
Do commercially available snake repellents work?
A picture is worth a thousand words…
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Last month, First Lady Michelle Obama broke ground for a new vegetable garden on the South lawn of the White House. It's the first time food will be grown at the President's residence since Eleanor Roosevelt planted her Victory Garden during World War II. Back then, as part of the war effort, the government rationed many foods and the shortage of labor and transportation fuel made it difficult for farmers to harvest and deliver fruits and vegetables to market. The First Lady's Victory Garden set an example for the entire nation: they too could produce their own fruits and vegetables. Nearly 20 million Americans answered the call. They planted gardens in backyards, empty lots, and even on city rooftops. Neighbors pooled their resources, planted different types of produce, and formed cooperatives -- all in the name of patriotism.
By the time the war ended, home gardeners were producing 40 percent of the United States' produce. They aided the war effort by creating local food networks that provided much needed produce in their own communities, but their effect on the social fabric of the nation was greater still. Urban and suburban farmers were considered morale boosters who had found a great sense of empowerment through their own dedication to a common cause.
Today, home gardening is on the rise, but most Americans still know very little about where their food comes from, and even less about how the changes in temperature and precipitation associated with global warming may alter national food production. If you break down the fossil fuel consumption of the American economy by sector, agriculture consumes 19 percent of the total, second only to transportation. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a concentrated effort to mitigate its impact on the climate. If we want to make significant progress in reducing global warming we will need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary solar energy.
Resolarizing the food economy can support diversified farming and shorten the distance from farm to fork, shrinking the amount of fossil fuel in the American diet. A decentralized food system offers many other significant benefits: Food eaten closer to where it is grown is fresher and requires less processing, making it more nutritious, and whatever may be lost in efficiency by localizing food production is gained in resilience; regional food systems can better withstand all kinds of shocks.
Here are few examples of how we could start:
This isn't just about government reform. Organizations, businesses, and even individuals like you can help advance these key initiatives and support both the revival of food local food economies and the health of our nation.
Next month the Natural Resources Defense Council will honor individuals who have demonstrated leadership and innovation in the field of sustainable food in its first annual Growing Green Awards. As the Chair of the selection committee, I'm excited to be part of this initiative and join NRDC in recognizing the extraordinary contributions this years honorees have made in the areas of ecologically-integrated farming, climate and water stewardship, farmland preservation, and social responsibility. The Growing Green Awards is an opportunity to highlight the contribution individuals can make in creating a more sustainable future through better food production practices that improve the health of people and the planet.
Along with my fellow Growing Green Awards panelists, Larry Bain, Fred Kirschenmann and Karen Ross, I'm pleased to announce the nine finalists in three categories: Food Producer, Business Leader, and Thought Leader.
The winners will be selected on May 9 at an NRDC benefit at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Calif. I hope you will consider joining me in celebration of this important event.
Resources: Find out what's fresh near you and get great recipes at NRDC's Food Miles page.
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- Philosophical Areas Addressed in Buddhism
- Historical Development of Buddhist Philosophy
- Comparison With Other Philosophies
- Buddhist Philosophical Figures
Buddhist philosophy is the branch of Eastern philosophy based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha (c. 563 BCE- c. 483 BCE). Buddhist philosophy deals extensively with problems in metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics, and epistemology.
From its inception, Buddhism has had a strong philosophical component. Buddhism is founded on the rejection of certain orthodox philosophical concepts, in which the Buddha had been instructed by various teachers. Buddhism rejects atheism, theism, monism, and dualism alike. The Buddha criticized all concepts of metaphysical being and non-being, and this critique is inextricable from the founding of Buddhism.
Particular points of Buddhist philosophizing have often been the subject of disputes between different schools of Buddhism. Metaphysical questions such as "Is there a god?" and "Does the soul (Atman) really exist?" have divided the Buddha's followers even during his own lifetime, and epistemological debates over the proper modes of evidence have always been lively in Buddhism.
Readers should note that theory for its own sake is not valued in Buddhism, but theory pursued in the interest of enlightenment for oneself or others is fully consistent with Buddhist values and ethics.
Some have asserted that Buddhism as a whole is a philosophy rather than a religion. Proponents of such a view may argue that (a) Buddhism is non-theistic (i.e., it has no special use for the existence or nonexistence of a god or gods) or atheistic and (b) religions necessarily involve some form of theism. Others might contest either part of such an argument. Other arguments for Buddhism "as" philosophy may claim that Buddhism does not have doctrines in the same sense as other religions; the Buddha himself taught that a person should accept a teaching only if one's own experience verifies it.
Arguments against Buddhism as a philosophy might call attention to the way Buddhism's pervasive inclusion of supernatural entities (not "gods" in the sense of Western monotheism, of course), to what most scholars identify as worship practices (ceremonial reverence of saints, etc.), to Buddhism's thoroughly developed hierarchies of clergy (not usually characteristic of a "philosophy"), and its overall religious organization.
A third perspective might take the position that Buddhism can be practiced either as a religion or as a philosophy. A similar distinction is often made with reference to Taoism.
Lama Anagorika Govinda expressed it as follows in the book 'A Living Buddhism for the West':
"Thus we could say that the Buddha's Dharma is,
as experience and as a way to practical realization, a religion;
as the intellectual formulation of this experience, a philosophy;
and as a result of self-observation and analysis, a psychology.
Whoever treads this path acquires a norm of behavior that is not dictated from without, but is the result of an inner process of maturation and that we - regarding it from without - can call morality."
It should also be noted that in the South and East Asian cultures in which Buddhism achieved most of its development, the distinction between philosophy and religion is somewhat unclear and possibly quite spurious, so this may be a semantic problem arising in the West alone.
Decisive in distinguishing Buddhism from what is commonly called Hinduism is the issue of epistemological justification. The schools of Indian logic recognize a certain set of valid justifications for knowledge, while Buddhism recognizes a smaller set. Both accept perception and argument, for example, but for the orthodox schools (of Hinduism), the received textual tradition (e.g., the Vedas) is in itself an epistemological category equal to perception and argument (although this is not necessarily true for some of the non-orthodox schools, like Vedanta). Thus, in the orthodox schools, if a claim was made that could not be substantiated by appeal to the textual canon, it would be viewed as ridiculous as a claim that the sky was green.
Buddhism, on the other hand, rejected an inflexible reverence of accepted doctrine. As the Buddha said:
Do not accept anything by mere tradition. . . Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures. . . Do not accept anything merely because it agrees with your pre-conceived notions. . . But when you know for yourselves -- these things are moral, these things are blameless, these things are praised by the wise, these things, when performed and undertaken, conduce to well-being and happiness -- then do you live acting accordingly.
-the Kalama Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya III.65
In earliest Buddhism and today still in Theravāda and the Madhyamaka, any metaphysical essence or being underlying the play of phenomenal experience is rejected. No "soul" or permanent self was recognized, and the perception of a continuous identity was held to be an illusion.
Any feeling whatsoever, any perception whatsoever, any mental processes whatsoever, any consciousness whatsoever -- past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle, common or sublime, far or near; every consciousness -- is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as "This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am."
-the Anattalakkhana Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya XXII.59
From within the context of the Madhyamaka, we find Candrakirti:
"Self is an essence of things that does not depend on others; it is an intrinsic nature. The non-existence of that is selflessness".
-Bodhisattvayogacaryācatuḥśatakaṭikā (Bodhisattvayogacaryacatuhsatakatika) 256.1.7
This anti-essentialist teaching, known as anatta, brought up many questions. If there is no ātman or Brahman underlying the objects and events of the universe, how could they be explained? What gave them their existence? And if there was no "self", who makes the decisions we think we make, and what gets reincarnated?
Early Buddhist philosophers and exegetes created a pluralist metaphysical and phenomenological system in which all experiences of people, things, and events, can be broken down into smaller and smaller perceptual or perceptual-ontological units called dharmas. These dharmas (roughly synonymous with "phenomena") were interpreted differently by different schools: some held they were real, some held only some were real, some held all were illusory, some held they were empty, some held they were intrinsically associated with suffering, etc.
Other debates in metaphysics and phenomenology include the issue of the Pudgala, or "person", which was inserted by the Pudgalavada school to replace the ātman as that which transmigrates and that which carries the burden of karma from one life to another. Other schools made unsurprising objection to this. There were further sub-debates regarding whether the pudgala was real or illusory or something in between. The Yogacara school, somewhat later, would later elevate the mind to act as a substitute for Brahman, much as the Pudgala replaces the ātman.
In many or all of these debates, some would point out the irony of pursuing questions which the Buddha was often prone to refuse to answer, on the grounds that they were non-conducive to enlightenment.
The original positive Buddhist contribution to the field of metaphysics is pratītyasamutpāda, which arises from the Buddhist critique of Indian theories of causality. It states that events are not predetermined, nor are they random, and it rejects notions of direct causation owing to the need for such theories in the Indian context to be undergirded by a substantialist metaphysics. Instead, it posits the arising of events under certain conditions which are inextricable, such that the units in question at no time have independent existence.
This being, that becomes.
From the arising of this, that arises.
This not being, that does not become.
From the ceasing of this, that ceases.
-Samyutta Nikaya ii.28
Pratitya-samutpada goes on to posit that certain specific events, concepts, or realities are always dependent on other specific things. Craving, for example, is always dependent on, and caused by, emotion. Emotion is always dependent on contact with our surroundings. This chain of causation purports to show that the cessation of decay, death, and sorrow is indirectly dependent on the cessation of craving, and ultimately dependent on an all-encompassing stillness.
Nāgārjuna, one of the most influential Buddhist philosophers, asserted a direct connection between, even identity of, dependent origination, anatta, and śūnyatā. He pointed out that implicit in the early Buddhist concept of dependent origination is the lack of any substantial being (anatta) underlying the participants in origination, so that they have no independent existence, a state identified as emptiness (śūnyatā), or emptiness of a nature or essence (sva-bhāva). This element of Nāgārjuna's thought is relatively uncontroversial, but it opens the way for his identification of saṃsāra and nirvana, which was revolutionary.
This doctrine comes from the Avatamsaka Sutra and its associated schools. It holds that all phenomena are intimately connected. Two images are used to convey this idea. The first is known as Indra's net. The net is set with jewels which have the extraordinary property that they reflect all of the other jewels. The second image is that of the world text. This image portrays the world as consisting of an enormous text which is as large as the universe itself. The 'words' of the text are composed of the phenomena that make up the world. However, every atom of the world contains the whole text within it. It is the work of a Buddha to let out the text so that beings can be liberated from suffering.
This idea was enormously influential on the Japanese monk kūkai in founding the Shingon school of Buddhism.
Although there are many ethical tenets in Buddhism that differ depending on whether one is a monk or a layman, and depending on individual schools, the Buddhist system of ethics can always be summed up in the Eightfold Path.
And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering -- precisely this Noble Eightfold Path -- right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
-Samyutta Nikaya LVI.11
The purpose of living an ethical life is to escape the suffering inherent in (unenlightened) worldly life. Although early Buddhism (Hinayana) is contrasted with later Buddhism (Mahayana) in that the latter emphasizes striving for the enlightenment of all (apparent) beings rather than simply oneself, in neither case can the motivation for ethical living be called 'selfish', because Buddhist doctrine holds the notion of a 'self' to be illusory.
Buddhist teachings claim that there is no real difference between ourselves and others; therefore one should attempt to increase the happiness of all living things as eagerly as one's own. This is why many Buddhists choose to be vegetarians.
The philosophical outlook of Earliest Buddhism was primarily negative, in the sense that it focused on what doctrines to reject more than on what doctrines to accept. This dimension has been preserved by the Madhyamaka school. It includes critical rejections of all views, which is a form of philosophy, but it is reluctant to posit its own. Only knowledge that is useful in achieving enlightenment is valued. The cycle of philosophical upheavals that in part drove the diversification of Buddhism into its many schools and sects only began once Buddhists began attempting to make explicit the implicit philosophy of the Buddha and the early Suttas.
After the death of the Buddha, attempts were made to gather his teachings and transmit them in a commonly agreed form, first orally, then also in writing (The Tripitaka). In addition to collecting the Buddha's speeches and rules for monastic life (Vinaya), monks soon undertook to condense what they considered the essential elements of Buddhist doctrine into lists of categories, provided with extensive commentary. This process took shape from about the 2nd century BCE to probably the 2nd century CE.
Very soon after, additional teachings began to be added to the list of important Buddhist texts. Many of these altered and refined Buddhist philosophy.
Arthur Schopenhauer in his "World as Will and Idea" presented a description of suffering and its cause in a Western garb.
Baruch Spinoza, though he argued for the existence of a permanent reality, asserts that all phenomenal existence is transitory. In his opinion sorrow is conquered "by finding an object of knowledge which is not transient, not ephemeral, but is immutable, permanent, everlasting." Buddhism teaches that such a quest is bound to fail.
David Hume, after a relentless analysis of the mind, concluded that consciousness consists of fleeting mental states. Hume's Bundle theory is a very similar concept to anatta.
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The risk factors for type 1 diabetes are still being researched. However, having a family member with type 1 diabetes increases the risks for developing the condition, as do the presence of some genetic factors. Environmental factors, increased height and weight development, increased maternal age at delivery, and exposure to some viral infections have also been linked to the risk of developing type 1 diabetes.
Several risk factors have been associated with type 2 diabetes and include:
- Diet and physical inactivity
- Increasing age
- Insulin resistance
- Family history of diabetes
Changes in diet and physical activity related to rapid development and urbanisation have led to sharp increases in the numbers of people developing diabetes.
Pregnant women who are overweight, have been diagnosed with Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), or have a family history of diabetes are all at increased risk of developing Gestational diabetes (GDM). In addition, having been previously diagnosed with gestational diabetes or being of certain ethnicities puts women at increased risk of developing the condition.
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Jacques de Liniers
Liniers, Jacques de, Span. Santiago de Liniers y de Bremond säntēäˈgō ħā lēnēārsˈ ē ħā brāmōndˈ, 1753–1810, French officer in Spanish service, viceroy of Río de la Plata. After a military and naval career in Europe, he was transferred to the Río de la Plata (1788) as a Spanish naval officer. In 1806 he recaptured Buenos Aires from British forces under William Carr Beresford. The viceroy had fled, and Liniers was named commander in chief and lieutenant to the viceroy. When a second British invasion occurred the following year, Liniers called a junta of war, including Manuel Belgrano, which deposed the viceroy (Feb. 10, 1807). Despite the rout of the creole army outside Buenos Aires, the hastily organized defenses of the city proved effective (July 5, 1807); the British general, John Whitelocke, surrendered. In May, 1808, the appointment of Liniers as viceroy became known; he served until Aug., 1809, though there were attempts by his political enemies to oust him. After retirement, he became involved in a counterrevolutionary plot and was executed.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on Jacques de Liniers from Infoplease:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Latin American History: Biographies
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This project will synthesize existing knowledge and articulate unanswered questions in critical areas of research on cognition and learning relevant to the Geosciences.
How do students and geologists combine observations from scattered rock outcrops to form a 3-dimensional mental model
Two questions about learning that are central to, and characteristic of, geoscience education are: 1)How do people learn by direct observation of Nature in the field?
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|Kim A. Kastens||Special Research Scientist||i. geoscience learning and education; ii. spatial thinking in geosciences, spatial thinking; iii. environmental journalism, science journalism; iv. diversity in geosciences; v. marine geology.|
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Monday, March 12th, 2012
Today’s Myth of the Week is in honor of Latin teacher extraordinaire Walter, and his delightful students. Good luck on the upcoming National Latin exam!
Galileo knew his mythology. After discovering the four largest moons of Jupiter, he decided to name them, fittingly, after four famous loves of Zeus (Jupiter, to Romans): Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Of these four, Callisto’s story is the least well known, but maybe the most fascinating. Callisto (Kallisto in the Greek) was an Arcadian nymph, whose name literally means “most beautiful.” Her father was the infamous and cruel Lycaon, whom Jupiter changed into a wolf as punishment for his savage and “wolfish” behavior. He is often cited as a mythological precursor of the werewolf.
Callisto preferred the woods to her father’s house. She loved to hunt and became a favorite of the goddess Artemis, joining her band of nymphs and swearing to remain a virgin eternally. Although today we might regard this as overly stringent, in the world of ancient mythology virginity meant freedom. As one of Artemis’ virgins, she would never have to marry a man of her father’s choosing, and could remain without domestic responsibilities in the woods her entire life.
Unfortunately, like many beautiful nymphs, she caught the eye of Zeus. By this point in myth history Zeus was getting cannier in his disguises. Rather than transforming into a bull, or swan, Zeus decided to appear to the girl as Artemis herself. Ovid describes the two women talking intimately, then “Artemis” begins kissing Callisto.
It’s an electrifying moment, and an unusual one; there are very few surviving mentions of women loving women from the ancient world, simply because nearly all of the ancient writers were men. The references that do survive are generally dismissive or disgusted. But that is not that case here: Callisto welcomes her mistress’ passionate embrace. For a moment it almost seems like we have stumbled upon a wonderful secret history.
But the audience knows better, because it isn’t Artemis at all–it’s Zeus. The story gave its ancient readers just enough time to be intrigued, or titillated, or shocked before setting the world “right” again. Callisto’s error is played for laughs: she thinks it’s Artemis who she likes, but fake out! It’s really Zeus, who she doesn’t!
Call me humorless, but I’m not laughing. Zeus reveals himself, rapes Callisto, then vanishes. The girl is doubly distraught—not only about the assault, but about the breaking of her oath of virginity to Artemis. (This being the ancient world, it doesn’t matter that it was unwilling—the oath is broken all the same). She is all the more distressed when she learns that she is pregnant, and must hide the pregnancy from her sharp-eyed mistress as long as possible.
We can see where this is going. Artemis is notoriously unsympathetic and uncompromising about transgressions—witness her punishment of poor Actaeon for accidentally glimpsing her in the bath: he’s torn apart by his own dogs. When Callisto takes off her dress to bathe, Artemis notices her belly. She flies into a rage, and is joined by Hera, who is herself angry at Callisto for having slept with her husband. As usual, Hera doesn’t care whether it was consensual. She turns the girl into a bear and Artemis kills her. Zeus (where were you five minutes ago?) swoops down to rescue Callisto’s unborn child, a boy named Arcas. And, in homage to the boy’s mother takes Callisto’s body and sets it in the sky as the “Great Bear”—Ursa Major. Her son, when he dies, joins her, becoming Ursa Minor.
That’s one version of the story—in another, Callisto flees into the woods in her new ursine form, living out her days as an animal. Fast forward fifteen years or so. Callisto’s son, Arcas, has grown up a gifted hunter, just like his mother. He is wandering in the woods one day, and spots a bear. Hoisting his javelin, he prepares to kill it with a single blow. But as he is about to hurl the spear, Zeus stops him, not wanting him to be guilty of the sin of killing his own mother. He whisks the two of them up to the heavens, transforming them into constellations.
In later generations, Zeus’ embrace of Callisto while disguised as Artemis was the part of the story that really seemed to grab people’s imaginations. Partially that’s because it was Ovid’s version, but surely also because of its frisson of transgression. But for me the most moving and tragic part of the story is the moment after, when Callisto realizes what is really happening. That she’s been tricked by Zeus, and is about to lose everything she holds dear—Artemis’ favor, her fidelity to her oath, her place in the world, even her humanity. Becoming a constellation just doesn’t seem like recompense enough.
A final, completely different, thought. Artemis seems to have been particularly associated with bears, and at her sanctuary at Brauron young girls would serve as “little bears” in a ritual to honor the goddess. It’s a much nicer face of the goddess than Callisto sees.
I’m excited to announce that tomorrow (March 13th) is the kick-off of my US book tour. If you’re in the area and interested, please join me!
Reviews“A startlingly original work of art by an incredibly talented new novelist... a book I could not put down.” Ann Patchett, author of the Orange Prize-winning Bel Canto
- Exciting shortlist news! Mass Book and UK Independent Bookseller Awards
- Update: India
- Signed copies of The Song of Achilles–Year Round!
- Reflections on 2012, traveling and the Orange Prize
- In Praise of Literary Adaptations
- My Year in Reading
- Reflections on 2012, Book Recommendations and New Essays
- Signed Copies of The Song of Achilles
- General news
- Shortlisted for Stonewall
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Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra September 29, 1547 – April 23, 1616) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel by many,is a classic of Western literature and is regularly regarded among the best novels ever written. His work is considered among the most important in all of literature. His influence on the Spanish language has been so great, that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes (The language of Cervantes).He has been dubbed el Príncipe de los Ingenios - the Prince of Wits.
From the Wikipedia entry on Miguel de Cervantes. See more.
Order design in:
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The endocrine system is a complex collection of hormone-producing glands that control basic body functions such as metabolism, growth and sexual development.
The amount of hormones produced by each gland is carefully balanced. Too much or too little of a certain hormone can have effects throughout the body and cause various endocrine disorders. Many of the hormones produced by the endocrine glands interact with each other to maintain balance.
The endocrine system consists of the pituitary gland, hypothalamus, pancreas, adrenal cortex, thyroid gland, parathyroid glands, and gonads.
The endocrine glands secrete the hormones they produce directly into the bloodstream. On the other hand, the exocrine glands actually secrete their substances through ducts to particular areas. Examples of exocrine glands include the salivary glands and the sweat glands. Most endocrine glands are controlled by trophic (stimulating) hormones secreted by the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland, in turn, is controlled by hormones secreted by the hypothalamus in the brain.
© 2013 Main Line Health
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How Manhattan’s Grid Grew
In 1811, John Randel created a proposed street grid of Manhattan. The New York Times has created a Google Map that allows you to compare Randel's map to modern-day Manhattan.
The map also includes an 1836 map of the farms of Manhattan, a map of street openings since 1642 and historic census data. Each of the maps is supplemented by a transparency slider that allows you to view the modern map underneath.
The map of street openings since 1642 allows you to visualise the growth of Manhattan. If you use the time-line control you can watch the spread of Mahattan from just a few streets to the present urban sprawl.
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HIV-1 and HIV-2 Antibodies for Cadaveric or Hemolyzed Specimens, Serum
Clinical Information Discusses physiology, pathophysiology, and general clinical aspects, as they relate to a laboratory test
Epidemiological data indicate that AIDS is caused by at least 2 types of HIV. The first virus, HIV-1, has been isolated from patients with AIDS, AIDS-related complex, and asymptomatic infected individuals at high risk for AIDS. HIV-1 is transmitted by sexual contact, exposure to infected blood or blood products, or from an infected mother to her fetus or infant. A second HIV virus, HIV-2, was isolated from patients in West Africa in 1986. HIV-2 appears to be endemic only in West Africa, but it also has been identified in individuals who have lived in West Africa or had sexual relations with individuals from that geographic region. HIV-2 is similar to HIV-1 in its morphology, overall genomic structure, and its ability to cause AIDS.
Antibodies against HIV-1 and HIV-2 are usually not detected until 6 to 12 weeks following exposure and are almost always detected by 12 months. They may fall into undetectable levels in the terminal stage of AIDS.
See HIV Testing Algorithm (excludes HIV rapid testing) and HIV Rapid Serologic Testing Follow-up Algorithm in Special Instructions.
Diagnosis of HIV-1 and/or HIV-2 infection in cadaveric or hemolyzed serum specimens from symptomatic patients with or without risk factors for HIV infection (assay kit is FDA-approved for testing cadaveric or hemolyzed blood specimens)
A reactive HIV-1/-2 antibody screen result obtained by EIA suggests the presence of HIV-1 and/or HIV-2 infection. However, it does not differentiate between HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibody reactivity. Confirmatory testing by HIV-1 antibody-specific Western blot (WB) or immunofluorescence assay is necessary to verify the presence of HIV-1 infection. The presence of HIV-2 infection is screened by HIV-2 antibody-specific EIA with confirmation by HIV-2 antibody-specific immunoblot assay.
All EIA-reactive specimens tested will automatically be tested by WBAR/23878 HIV-1/-2 Antibody Confirmatory Evaluation, Serum at an additional charge. Please see the individual unit code for interpretation of these subsequent test results. All confirmed antibody-positive test results should be verified by submitting a second serum specimen for retesting.
A negative HIV-1/-2 antibody EIA screen result indicates the absence of HIV-1 or HIV-2 infection. However, confirmatory testing by WB (WBAR/23878 HIV-1/-2 Antibody Confirmatory Evaluation, Serum) is recommended for specimens that are reactive by the rapid HIV antibody tests, even if the EIA results are negative.
See HIV Testing Algorithm (excludes HIV rapid testing) and HIV Rapid Serologic Follow-up Testing Algorithm in Special Instructions.
Cautions Discusses conditions that may cause diagnostic confusion, including improper specimen collection and handling, inappropriate test selection, and interfering substances
All tests in WBAR/23878 HIV-1/-2 Antibody Confirmatory Evaluation, Serum have not been FDA-approved for testing on cadaveric specimens.
This test is not offered as a screening or confirmatory test for blood donor specimens.
This test is not offered for maternal/newborn HIV screening for specimens originating in New York.
The predictive value of a reactive (or positive) test is highly dependent on the prevalence of HIV infection in the population tested. The lower the prevalence of HIV infection, the lower the positive predictive value of the test.
Negative results should be evaluated cautiously if the patient has clinical symptoms and/or a history of high-risk behavior for HIV infection. The CDC recommends confirmatory testing by WB on serum specimens that are reactive by the rapid HIV antibody tests, even if the initial EIA results are negative.
Screening and confirmatory tests for HIV-1/-2 antibodies cannot distinguish between active neonatal HIV infection and passive transfer of maternal HIV antibodies in infants during the postnatal period (up to 18 months of age). Reactive and confirmed positive antibody test results in infants during this period may indicate passive transfer of maternal HIV antibodies.
A reactive screen and confirmed HIV antibody test result should be reported by the health care provider to the State Department of Health in accordance with the legislation in some states.
Assay performance characteristics have not been established for the following specimen characteristics:
-Containing particulate matter
Reference Values Describes reference intervals and additional information for interpretation of test results. May include intervals based on age and sex when appropriate. Intervals are Mayo-derived, unless otherwise designated. If an interpretive report is provided, the reference value field will state this.
See HIV Serologic Interpretive Guide in Special Instructions for further interpretive information.
Clinical References Provides recommendations for further in-depth reading of a clinical nature
1. Constantine N: HIV antibody assays May 2006. In HIV InSite Knowledge Base (online textbook). Available at URL: http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite?page=kb-00&doc=kb-02-02-01
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Revised recommendations for HIV testing of adults, adolescents, and pregnant women in health-care settings. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2006;55(RR14):1-17
3. Hariri S, McKenna MT: Epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus in the United States. Clin Microbiol Rev 2007;20:478-488
4. Owen SM, Yang C, Spira T, et al: Alternative algorithms for human immunodeficiency virus infection diagnosis using tests that are licensed in the United States. J Clin Microbiol 2008;46:1588-1595
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Book review on the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was born a slave but through luck and perhaps divine intervention was allowed to live a life far different than his brethren. The tone of the book is that of a free man, instead of saying he was sold or sent to new masters he uses the euphemism “went to live with…” as if he were free in his own mind although he was still under the control of another. The overall theme of the book is neatly stated in the introduction “…its thematic strategy of linking freedom and literacy.” The book describes in detail the horrors of slavery and his increasing desire to be free as he taught himself to read and write and by reading such books as “The Columbian Orator”. To make a person a slave there are several things that must be done that Douglass sees happening to maintain the slaves. One is to make the slaves think of freedom as terrible. Another is to keep the slaves too busy and helpless to even think
Although not all people share these beliefs, I think it may be because they have neither read Douglass"tm book or have the complexity of thought to discern what is right or wrong themselves. Lastly, making slavery seem right to the slaves is beneficial so there is no feeling of rebellion. about the inappropriateness of their condition. Seeing freedom as terrible is something that we in America the land of the free have difficulty comprehending since our society hinges upon it. During this time Douglass began to lose sight of his goal of becoming a free man and began to think less and less about it as the drudgery wore on. Seeing the selling of their friends made the slaves conceal their feelings of discontentment even more. When he was moved back to his master"tms house he realized this was the case and determined to become free once more. For example, the masters would ensure that plenty of drinking took place to facilitate harmful behavior. If a slave complained he or she was sold off to ensure that no seeds of rebellion were planted. Slaves would not speak up about anything wrong to anyone because the masters would set the people up and ask questions about how things were. Douglass had a similar experience himself. The book refreshed in my mind the terribleness of slavery. Part of the thoughtlessness that was necessary for slave labor was causing the people to think that slavery was right, and to not detect any consistency. The helpless condition was deepened by many of the slaves not having the spirit to think about their condition and what was wrong with it.
Some topics in this essay:
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Treatment of Mouth Cancer
Various treatments are available for patients with lip and oral cavity cancer. Some are standard; others are being tested in clinical trials.
Surgery for Mouth, Lip and Oral Cavity Cancer
Surgery and radiation therapy are the two types of standard treatment for all stages of lip and oral cavity cancer.
- Wide local excision in which the cancer and a margin of healthy tissue is removed
- Neckdissection in which lymph nodes and other tissues in the neck are removed
- Plasticsurgery to restore or improve the appearance of the head and neck
Dental implants, a skin graft or other plastic surgery may be needed to repair parts of the mouth, throat or neck after removal of large tumors.
About Mouth Cancer
Most lip and oral cavity cancers start in squamous cells, the thin, flat cells that line the lips and oral cavity. These are called squamous cell carcinomas. Cancer cells may spread into deeper tissue as the cancer grows.
What Makes up the Oral Cavity?
The oral cavity includes the:
- Front two-thirds of the tongue
- Lining of the inside of the cheeks (buccal mucosa)
- Floor of the mouth under the tongue
- Roof of the mouth (hard palate)
- Small area behind the wisdom teeth (retromolar trigone)
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Showing Playlists 1-10 of 32 total:
The Common Core State Standards require that students learn how to deal with informational text as part of building their background knowledge in content areas. In this playlist, we'll first begin with the Standards so ...
By Diane Quirk Steps: 6 Views: 1596
Based on the story by Laurie Halse Anderson, this playlist helps learners understand the setting and history during which this story took place.
By Diane Quirk Steps: 5 Views: 1782
Common Core Standard covering Adding and Subtracting Whole Numbers
By Vince Leung Steps: 11 Views: 4544
Common Core Standard covering Multiplying And Dividing Fractions (1 of 5)
By Vince Leung Steps: 5 Views: 9246
Each of these links will take you to a section of the Common Core Standards adopted by North Carolina. Open the document, scroll to second grade and a detailed description of the curriculum for your second grader.
By Erin Saunders Steps: 9 Views: 1342
Common Core Standards covering Multiplying and Dividing Fractions (2 of 5)
By Vince Leung Steps: 15 Views: 9841
Common Core Standards covering Adding And Subtracting Fractions (1 of 4)
By Vince Leung Steps: 8 Views: 6404
Common Core Standards covering Adding And Subtracting Fractions (4 of 4)
By Vince Leung Steps: 5 Views: 1126
Common Core Standards covering Understanding Fractions (1 of 3)
By Vince Leung Steps: 6 Views: 848
Common Core Standard covering Understanding Decimals
By Vince Leung Steps: 9 Views: 1707
Showing Playlists 1-10 of 32 total.
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Vocal cord paralysis has numerous causes and can affect speaking, breathing, and swallowing. The left vocal cord is affected twice as often as the right, and females are affected more often than males (3:2). Diagnosis is based on direct visualization. An extensive assessment may be necessary to determine the cause. Several direct surgical approaches are available if treating the cause is not curative.
Vocal cord paralysis may result from lesions at the nucleus ambiguus, its supranuclear tracts, the main trunk of the vagus, or the recurrent laryngeal nerves.
Unilateral vocal cord paralysis is most common. About one third of unilateral paralyses are neoplastic in origin, one third are traumatic, and one third are idiopathic. Intracranial tumors, vascular accidents, and demyelinating diseases cause nucleus ambiguus paralysis. Tumors at the base of the skull and trauma to the neck cause vagus paralysis. Recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis is caused by neck or thoracic lesions (eg, aortic aneurysm; mitral stenosis; mediastinal tuberculous adenitis; tumors of the thyroid gland, esophagus, lung, or mediastinal structures), trauma, thyroidectomy, neurotoxins (eg, lead, arsenic, mercury), neurotoxic infections (eg, diphtheria), cervical spine injury or surgery, Lyme disease, and viral illness. Viral neuronitis probably accounts for most idiopathic cases.
Bilateral vocal cord paralysis is a life-threatening disorder caused by thyroid and cervical surgery, tracheal intubation, trauma, and neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases.
Symptoms and Signs
Vocal cord paralysis results in loss of vocal cord abduction and adduction. Paralysis may affect phonation, respiration, and deglutition, and food and fluids may be aspirated into the trachea. The paralyzed cord generally lies 2 to 3 mm lateral to the midline. In recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis, the cord may move with phonation but not with inspiration. In unilateral paralysis, the voice may be hoarse and breathy, but the airway is usually not obstructed because the normal cord abducts sufficiently. In bilateral paralysis, both cords generally lie within 2 to 3 mm of the midline, and the voice is of good quality but of limited intensity. The airway, however, is inadequate, resulting in stridor and dyspnea with moderate exertion as each cord is drawn to the midline glottis by an inspiratory Bernoulli effect. Aspiration is also a danger.
Diagnosis is based on laryngoscopy. The cause must always be sought. Evaluation is guided by abnormalities identified on history and physical examination. During the history, the physician asks about all possible causes of peripheral neuropathy, including chronic heavy metal exposure (arsenic, lead, mercury), drug effects from phenytoin and vincristine, and history of connective tissue disorders, Lyme disease, sarcoidosis, diabetes, and alcoholism. Further evaluation may include enhanced CT or MRI of the head, neck, and chest; thyroid scan; barium swallow or bronchoscopy; and esophagoscopy. Cricoarytenoid arthritis, which may cause fixation of the cricoarytenoid joint, must be differentiated from a neuromuscular etiology. Fixation is best documented by absence of passive mobility during rigid laryngoscopy under general anesthesia. Cricoarytenoid arthritis may complicate such conditions as RA, external blunt trauma, and prolonged endotracheal intubation.
In unilateral paralysis, treatment is directed at improving voice quality through augmentation, medialization, or reinnervation.
Augmentation involves injecting a paste of plasticized particles, collagen, micronized dermis, or autologous fat into the paralyzed cord, bringing the cords closer together to improve the voice and prevent aspiration.
Medialization is shifting the vocal cord toward the midline by inserting an adjustable spacer laterally to the affected cord. This can be done with a local anesthetic, allowing the position of the spacer to be “tuned” to the patient's voice. Unlike augmentation with plasticized particles, which permanently fixes the cord, the spacer is both adjustable and removable.
Reinnervation has only rarely been successful.
In bilateral paralysis, an adequate airway must be reestablished. Tracheotomy may be needed permanently or temporarily during a URI. An arytenoidectomy with lateralization of the true vocal cord opens the glottis and improves the airway but may adversely affect voice quality. Posterior laser cordectomy opens the posterior glottis and may be preferred to endoscopic or open arytenoidectomy. Successful laser establishment of a posterior glottic airway usually obviates the need for long-term tracheotomy while preserving a serviceable voice quality.
Last full review/revision October 2012 by Clarence T. Sasaki, MD
Content last modified November 2012
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This microscopy image provided by Dr. Carl June, shows immune system T-cells, center, binding to beads which cause the cells to divide. The beads, depicted in yellow, are later removed, leaving pure T-cells which are then ready for infusion to the cancer patients. Scientists are reporting the first clear success with gene therapy to treat leukemia, using the patients' own blood cells to hunt down and wipe out their cancer. They've only done it in three patients so far, but the results were striking: two appear cancer-free up to a year after treatment, and the third had a partial response. Scientists are already preparing to try the approach in other kinds of cancer.
More about Dr. Carl June and his research - http://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g275/p2328
Related article: "'Amazing' therapy destroys leukemia in 3 patients" (http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/story/2011/08/Amazing-therapy-destroys-leukemia-in-3-patients/49913582/1)
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Best Free Reference
Web Site 2007
Troubled Waters: Rescue of Asylum Seekers and Refugees at Sea
By Kathleen Newland
Migration Policy Institute
The last decade has seen an upsurge in the number of people taking to the sea in search of safety, economic opportunities, or both. However, danger often awaits those who include a sea route in their flight from developing countries such as Albania, Morocco, Haiti, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Desperate people crowd into decrepit ships, and often are placed in perilous situations by unscrupulous people-smugglers. The headlines are full of tragedies, and many more go undetected. The scale of the problem is hard to measure, as many ships and bodies disappear into the sea.
States have reacted sluggishly at best, and cynically at worst, to the increasing numbers of would-be migrants and refugees who encounter serious danger at sea. To further complicate matters, there is no clear answer in international law to the thorny question of who has responsibility for taking in asylum seekers rescued at sea, adjudicating their claims, and providing a place of safety for those who are confirmed in their need for international protection. What follows here is a description, in broad strokes, of the dilemma facing refugees and asylum seekers who encounter danger at sea, coastal states, crews and captains, and refugee protection agencies.
From the time the modern refugee regime was codified in the early 1950s until the late 1970s, rescue at sea was not a major issue in refugee protection. The numbers of asylum seekers picked up were relatively small, and it was usually possible for them to have their claims processed in the next convenient port of call of the rescuing ship. They could then generally find protection there, in the country where the ship was registered, or in another country where the refugee had previous ties. The Vietnam War changed all that.
The problems associated with the rescue of refugees and asylum seekers at sea reached a crisis point in the late 1970s, when tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees took to the South China Sea in boats that were in many cases unseaworthy and in all cases risked becoming the prey of brutal pirates who attacked, looted, and disabled boats, often killing or abducting passengers. Many merchant vessels plying those waters encountered foundering boats and followed the normal practice of rescuing the passengers and trying to disembark them in the next port of call. Nearby coastal states such as Malaysia and Thailand, however, feeling overwhelmed as the number of sea-borne refugees continued to climb, refused to allow disembarkation.
In 1978, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) brokered an agreement under which the coastal states would allow these "boat people" to come ashore if other (mainly Western) states agreed to resettle all such people within 90 days of their disembarkation. However, the arrangement did not work as smoothly as hoped. Ships found themselves subject to lengthy and costly delays as coastal states demanded that specific resettlement provisions be put in place prior to disembarkation. Ship owners who respected the traditions and laws governing rescue at sea bore all the direct costs of making a rescue. Refugee boats arrived with dead and dying passengers throughout the early 1980s, and survivors reported that 80-90 percent of the ships they had hailed refused to respond to distress calls. Ominously, the ratio of rescues to arrivals continued to shrink.
In 1984-1985, UNHCR put in place a number of emergency measures: they appealed successfully for more resettlement places to be offered and streamlined the procedures for matching up arrival and resettlement places. They established a scheme to reimburse owners for the direct costs of rescue, issued guidelines for ship owners and masters on the operational aspects of rescue, and sent out maritime radio messages explaining rescue procedures and appealing for ships to respond to boats in distress. They also began issuing public commendations to vessels that rescued refugees. By 1985, rescue was again on the rise. The crisis was slowly defused as the new measures took hold and the number of boat departures from Vietnam gradually declined.
The 1990s again saw an upsurge in the number of people taking to the sea in attempts to reach places of safety and/or opportunity. Tighter controls at borders and ports-of-entry had the unintended consequence of increasing the role of professional smugglers; the high profits in the trade attracted organized crime to people-smuggling and thereby increased the dangers.
The addition of a criminal element hardened both official and public attitudes toward boat arrivals. Authorities in the intended countries of destination tended to lump all the arrivals into the category of economic migrants, complicit with criminals, despite the fact that many of the arrivals declared their intention to claim asylum and came from some of the most repressive and/or lawless countries in the world. Despite the dangers, people have continued to embark, often en masse, from places such as Albania, North Africa, the Caribbean, and Southwest Asia. Countries such as Turkey and Indonesia have served as major staging points for smugglers assembling passengers from many countries.
The toll in human life has been high. Estimates of the number of people drowned in the straits between Spain and North Africa in the 1990s range from 600 to 3,000. At least a dozen immigrants died and 56 more were missing at the beginning of December 2002, after a vessel carrying about 120 illegal immigrants from Libya toward Italy sank in bad weather off the Libyan coast. Almost exactly a year earlier, a ship carrying 187 would-be immigrants ran aground just south of the Florida coast, drowning two and leaving the rest to be detained by the US immigration service. Unknown numbers of Cubans and Haitians have died trying to reach the United States in rickety boats and rafts.
Codes of Honor, Bodies of Law
In the strong and ancient code that binds seafarers, coming to the aid of those in danger is perhaps the most fundamental imperative. Captains and their crews are obliged to respond to distress calls and mount rescue efforts, so long as they do not endanger themselves or their vessel.
This tradition has, to some extent, been converted into laws. Several countries with long seafaring traditions, including Australia, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, may actually press criminal charges against captains who fail to render assistance.
Today, international maritime law codifies the obligation to render assistance in such instruments as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) and the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (1979). The obligation to extend aid applies without regard to the nationality, status, or circumstances of the person or people in distress. Under these rules, ship owners, ships masters, coastal nations, and flag states (the states where ships are registered) all have responsibilities for search and rescue. The Annex of the Search and Rescue Convention provides that "a situation of distress shall be notified not only to consular and diplomatic authorities but also to a competent international organ if the situation of distress pertains to refugees or displaced persons."
While the obligation of seafarers to rescue people in peril is clear in legal documents, what happens next is murkier. The Convention on Search and Rescue mandates that a rescue is not complete until the rescued person is delivered to a place of safety. That could be the nearest suitable port, the next regular port of call, the ship's home port, a port in the rescued person's own country, or one of many other possibilities.
When refugees or asylum seekers are among those rescued at sea, however, the list of options is narrowed. A refugee must not, under international law, be forcibly returned to a country where his or her life or freedom would be endangered — or, by extension, to a country where he or she would not be protected against such return.
Allowing a refugee or asylum seeker who has been rescued at sea to disembark on one's territory triggers a specific set of obligations on the part of the authorities of the receiving state. They cannot simply send the refugees home, as they would be able to do with other travelers. The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which is the cornerstone of refugee protection, provides that "No contracting party shall expel or return ("refouler") a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of a territory where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion." As a result, many states are reluctant to accept refugees, and they are under no positive obligation to open their doors.
A Rock and a Hard Place
The intersection of maritime law and refugee law thus leaves ship owners, masters, and crews in a quandary. They must pick up refugees and asylum seekers whose lives are in danger, but no state is required to take them in.
The ship itself cannot be considered a "place of safety" -- indeed, carrying a large number of unscheduled passengers may endanger the crew and passengers themselves, owing to overcrowding, inadequate provisioning, and the tensions of life in close quarters. The inability to disembark rescued passengers in a timely fashion and return to scheduled ports of call creates a profound disincentive for the maritime industry to engage actively in search and rescue missions.
As the number of incidents of this type has increased, states have become more and more determined to deter and divert ships that might bear asylum seekers toward their shores. States have reacted slowly, and at times without good will, to the increasing numbers of would-be migrants and refugees who have met disaster at sea. The United States intercepts boats in the Pacific and the Caribbean, as do Italy and France in the Mediterranean, and Australia in the Indian Ocean. Accusations of standing by while passengers drown have been leveled at both Italian and Australian naval vessels.
US authorities have justified a policy of summary return or mandatory detention of Haitian boat people on the grounds that such actions will discourage people from putting themselves at risk. Screening to detect refugees among the passengers and prevent refoulement is part of the interception procedure, although many refugee protection advocates find it inadequate.
In perhaps the most notorious interception incident, the Norwegian container ship Tampa, en route to Australia, picked up 438 people, mostly from Afghanistan, from a sinking boat in the Indian Ocean in August 2001. Australia refused to allow the ship to dock in an Australian port or to unload its passengers. Eventually, it forcibly transferred the rescued passengers first to warships and then to island possessions or neighboring states such as Nauru and Papua New Guinea for processing of their asylum claims.
In this long process of frustrated attempts to disembark the rescued passengers, the owners and agents of the Tampa incurred substantial losses in an industry where profit margins are razor-thin. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees gave the captain, crew, and owner of the Tampa its highest award for work on behalf of refugees for their principled actions in the face of such disincentives.
The question remains of who has responsibility for accepting asylum seekers rescued at sea, adjudicating their claims, and providing a place of safety for those who are confirmed in their need for international protection does not have a clear answer in existing law. States that refuse to relieve rescuing vessels of their unanticipated passengers not only place an unfair burden on the seafarers (who, after all, have taken the rescued people into their living quarters — their homes, in effect), but also threaten the conventions that have long upheld the system of rescue at sea.
These dilemmas call for cooperation among all the parties -- states, the shipping industry, and international organizations such as UNHCR and the International Maritime Organization -- to uphold the humanitarian practices that are an honorable part of maritime tradition. As long as there is violence and repression and people determined to escape it, asylum seekers will be found among those who encounter danger on the high seas.
Looking to the future, the kind of negotiations and arrangements that defused the crisis of rescue in the South China Sea in the 1970-1980s could be codified into more general responsibility-sharing arrangements for the protection of refugees rescued at sea. This way, the shipping industry along with the masters and crews of ships would not be required to bear alone the burdens of applying international humanitarian laws and standards.
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earthquakes. The study comprises five elements, each presented as a chapter of the report:
Survey of basic and applied earthquake science from ancient times to the present day, with a discussion of lessons drawn from past research
Evaluation of the current status of seismic hazard analysis and its connections to earthquake engineering, loss estimation, and risk mitigation
Examination of the new technologies in the main observational disciplines of seismology, geodesy, geology, and rock mechanics
Technical assessment of the key issues for future earthquake science, including the application of a dynamical systems approach to integrate observations
Analysis of research opportunities and requirements.
The study of earthquakes, like the science of many other complex natural systems, is still in its juvenile stages of exploration and discovery. Research has been focused on two primary problems: (1) earthquake complexity and how it arises from the brittle response of the lithosphere to deep-seated forces, and (2) the forecasting of earthquakes and their site-specific effects. Investigations of the first problem began with attempts to place earthquake occurrence in a global framework and contributed to the discovery of plate tectonics, while work on the second addressed the needs of earthquake engineering and led to the development of seismic hazard analysis. The historical separation between these two lines of inquiry has been narrowed by recent progress on dynamical models of earthquake occurrence and strong ground motion. This research has transformed the field from a haphazard collection of disciplinary activities into a more coordinated system-level science that seeks to describe seismic activity not just in terms of individual events, but as an evolutionary process involving dynamical interactions within networks of interconnected faults. The bright prospect for “earthquake system science” is a major theme of this report.
Experience shows that much can be learned from multidisciplinary investigations coordinated in the aftermath of large earthquakes, and it makes clear the importance of standardized instrumental data and geologic field work. During the last decade, research has been accelerated through the development of new observational and computational technologies. Subsurface imaging can now be applied with sufficient resolution to delineate the deep, three-dimensional architecture of fault systems. Neotectonic studies are improving constraints on fault geometries and long-term slip rates, and paleoseismology is furnishing an extended
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Launching the NPP
Project Scientist, NPP
The purpose of the NPP is, it's basically the prototype of the next generation Earth-observing satellite. It's the nation's first attempt to really combine weather monitoring and climate observing in the same platform.
The nations' newest weather monitoring and climate observation satellite is getting ready to take its place in space so that we may know what is going on here on Earth.
The spacecraft is known as NPP, for NPOES Preparatory Project, and it is a technological trailblazer in the effort to find out more about the weather and condition of our world.
NPP is a continuation of the earth orbiting satellite systems. For weather forecasting and for climate predictions, you need to have continuous observations. So what NPP does is continue the data record started by the NASA EOS satellites and improves on the instruments that are used for numerical weather forecasting from the current series of NOAA satellites.
Launch Director, NPP
The current satellites we have on orbit have been very successful for us, but NPP is taking all the advances we've had in technology over the past five, 10 years, putting them on this test bed spacecraft, being able to use them, prove them out for the future constellation.
NPP data will be used by virtually all of the national weather services for all the nations of the world. And then there are the scientific users who are trying to understand the individual phenomena both at home and abroad.
While some spacecraft are built to collect a specific set of information using only one instrument, the NPP will observe the Earth in a variety of forms using five instruments. The information it will gather will be extensive, but working with a large set of instruments makes the preparation equally exhaustive.
Mission Manager, NPP
Well, every mission has its own set of challenges, you know, what's challenging about NPP is the fact we have five instruments. Some spacecraft have one instrument. And every mission has to go through environmental testing, so now you have to go through environmental testing with five different instruments, which all carry their own set of requirements and restrictions.
These are NASA satellites, these are one-of-a-kind satellites. You know, something like a GPS constellation, which would launch 20 of the same type of satellites, you can get into a rhythm with how you process those. But it's not the case with NASA missions, which is one of the reasons it's an interesting job because every spacecraft brings its own set of challenges and uniqueness and it keeps the job interesting.
Although NASA routinely dispatches spacecraft to other worlds to push the bounds of exploration, the agency does not lose focus on examinations of our home planet. Previous missions, some still in operation, have compiled decades of data about interactions of the Earth's myriad environmental systems. NPP aims to continue those observations with new levels of precision.
It has two specific goals. One is to get the data for the weather forecasts, environmental observations and take a whole suite of observations that continue our satellite data records which span from measuring aerosols, you know, dust particles in the atmosphere, how have they changed over the past decade? Is the vegetation index? Is the ground greener or browner over time? Has the sea surface temperature changed? Has the ozone changed? These are all data sets that we have that we have multi-decades sets of data sets and we just want to keep adding to that so we can answer the question, Is the climate changing?
The NPP will lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, so it can be positioned in a specific orbit for its important mission.
The NPP satellite will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, specifically Space Launch Complex 2 for the reason that it needs to go into a polar orbit. Polar orbit meaning that as the Earth rotates the satellite will be crossing the poles. And because this is an earth-observing satellite, you are able to see every bit of the Earth.
The NPP satellite is going into space courtesy of a Delta II rocket, the workhorse of America's fleet of uncrewed missions. First launched in 1989, the Delta II has been used to successfully orbit several Earth-observing satellites. It dispatched spacecraft to Mars including the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2003, both of which continue to operate on Martian soil. NASA's record is perfect for missions launch on a Delta II.
The NPP mission on Delta II is currently the last manifested Delta II to launch on either coast. That has historical significance to our team, however, we're treating this as we have treated all the rest of the Delta II launches.
Recent years have seen new rockets emerge on the Launch Services Program roster. They use new methods of construction, compared with that employed for the Delta II.
Delta has more of a historic launch processing flow of building the entire rocket up on the pad.
Work to prepare the Delta II to launch the NPP satellite began during the summer.
We began build-up of the vehicle in July of this year, erecting first stage, the nine solid rocket motors, the second stage, putting the payload fairing into the mobile service tower. We will then bring out the satellite in a transportation can, erect it, mate it, then bring the payload fairing around the satellite.
We take great pride in the success we've had on Delta II.
By the time you get there on launch day, it's kind of like you've planned a trip and you've packed for the trip and all you have left to do is gas and go. So that's what we do on launch day, we load the rocket with fuel and liquid oxygen and then we do our final avionics and electrical checks and we push the button and we sit on the edge of our seats.
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NASA engineers are chipping away at how best to lower the cost of their satellites — and one off-the-shelf answer is by using smartphone electronics.
Dialing in on the idea has resulted in the PhoneSat Project, a technology demonstration mission using a trio of tiny CubeSat satellites to be launched next year.
The PhoneSat nanosatellites — each weighing in at just three pounds (1.4 kilograms) – will be ejected into Earth orbit during the maiden flight of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket. The rocket will launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport , located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.
Quite literally out-of-the-box smartphones are imbued with capabilities comparable to a spacecraft's, such as fast processors, multipurpose operating systems, miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers and several radios.
The three PhoneSats — Alexander, Graham and Bell — will be simultaneously deployed from a rocket-mounted dispenser. The latter two are PhoneSat 1.0s; they are battery-powered and make use of Nexus One smartphone technology from HTC Corp. and Google’s Android operating system.
A beta version of PhoneSat 2.0, Alexander is built around an updated Nexus S smartphone made by Samsung Electronics that runs Google’s Android operating system to provide a faster core processor, avionics and gyroscopes. It has solar cells for energy.
The attractive thing about PhoneSat is that it may make people more comfortable with the idea of using something almost directly off the shelf for a space mission, said Andrew Petro, program executive for the Small Spacecraft Technology Program within NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist. “I’m excited about the potential here,” Petro told Space.com.
PhoneSat is one of nine space technology programs in the Office of the Chief Technologist, according to Bruce Yost at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
Ames is home for a small tiger team of engineers that conceived of, constructed and tested PhoneSat, working on the project since early 2011, Yost told Space.com. "We’re exploring the use of nontraditional hardware and systems providers," trolling for technology beyond the traditional aerospace industry, said Yost, who is manager of the Small Spacecraft Technology Program.
PhoneSat engineers kept the total cost of the components to $3,500 for each of the three prototype satellites in the PhoneSat Project. They used only commercial, off-the-shelf hardware and established minimum design and mission objectives for the first flight.
The deployment mechanism is of a size tagged "3U" volume, said Jim Cockrell, PhoneSat 1.0 Project manager, "so it holds three CubeSats … all three stacked up into the dispenser." (Each PhoneSats is built to standard dimensions of 10x10x11 centimeters, about 4 inches cubed, or 1U — for unit, he said.)
Once in Earth orbit, the PhoneSat Project comes alive. Amateur ground stations will receive health and status information as well as images, uploading packets of data onto amateur-run websites.
An early leader in the PhoneSat concept was Jasper Wolfe, technical lead of attitude determination and control, launch vehicle, at NASA Ames. He underscores multiple benefits in the project — for one, leveraging hardware and software from the non-aerospace industry.
"I see PhoneSat as inspiring a new area of people to get involved in space," Wolfe said. "The actual building of a satellite is something we’re trying to develop and demonstrate as a really cheap and easy thing to do."
The battery-powered PhoneSats will orbit for 10 days or two weeks before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, while the solar-paneled PhoneSat 2.0 will have a longer stay in space, said Alberto Guillen Salas, technical lead of communications and electrical design of the PhoneSat Project.
The mission will demonstrate use of small satellites for space commerce, educational activities and citizen exploration … all well within the reach of ordinary Americans because of the lower-cost, commercially available components involved, said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA’s Space Technology Program at NASA headquarters in Washington.
Space news from NBCNews.com
Teen's space mission fueled by social media
Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: "Astronaut Abby" is at the controls of a social-media machine that is launching the 15-year-old from Minnesota to Kazakhstan this month for the liftoff of the International Space Station's next crew.
- Buzz Aldrin's vision for journey to Mars
- Giant black hole may be cooking up meals
- Watch a 'ring of fire' solar eclipse online
- Teen's space mission fueled by social media
Oriol Tintore Gazulla, technical lead of software and mechanical design for the PhoneSat Project at Ames, said next year’s mission is likely to be a forerunner of things to come. "This is a first step. Maybe in the future we could think of going farther … going to the moon."
Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of last year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for Space.com since 1999.
- PhoneSat: Small Satellites Use Smart Phones For Brains | Video
- Best Smartphones for 2013 | Reviews
- Satellite Quiz: How Well Do You Know What's Orbiting Earth?
© 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.
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1. Investigate the military experiences of African Americans during and following World War II. If possible, focus on the area where you live using primary and secondary sources. You may consider focusing on the experiences of jazz musicians drafted into war. These include Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Sy Oliver, Jo Jones, and Clark Terry.
2. Learn more about bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, Latin jazz, and the artists described in the lesson. Possible topics include: (1) Dizzy Gillespie’s use of Afro–Cuban musicians and their influence on his music, (2) orchestration and arrangements by Gil Evans, (3) big bands of the postwar period (such as Dizzy Gillespie’s) as compared with bands from the Swing Era, and (4) exemplary soloists and the changing role of drummers in bebop bands.
3. Research the history and impact of the worldwide jazz tours organized by the U.S. State Department in the 1950s. Jazz ambassadors like Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie were considered by the State Department to be “goodwill symbols of American democracy.” Yet promoting black artists as symbols of a racial equality that didn’t even exist undermined the premise of the tours. Gillespie, for one, refused to attend State Department briefings, saying he “wasn’t going to apologize for the racist policies of America.” Armstrong refused a 1957 State Department tour to protest President Eisenhower’s initial inactivity in response to the racial conflicts at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Were these State Department tours effective as propaganda? How did jazz artists use the tours as platforms for their own political expression? Are there any comparable events today? What is the role of patriotism in American music?
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What is an omphalocele?
An omphalocele is a birth defect, which is an abnormality that occurs before birth as a fetus is forming in its mother's uterus. Some of the abdominal organs protrude through an opening in the abdominal muscles in the area of the umbilical cord. A translucent membrane covers the protruding organs.
The omphalocele may be small, with only a portion of the intestine protruding outside the abdominal cavity, or large, with most of the abdominal organs (including intestine, liver, and spleen) present outside the abdominal cavity. Further, the abdominal cavity itself may be small due to underdevelopment during pregnancy.
What causes an omphalocele?
It is not known what causes omphalocele. Steps that normally happen in the development of the abdominal organs and muscles simply did not happen properly. It is not known to be caused by anything the mother did during pregnancy.
Many babies born with an omphalocele also have other abnormalities.
Why is an omphalocele a concern?
Since some or all of the abdominal organs are outside the body, infection is a concern, especially if the protective membrane around the organs breaks. Also, an organ may lose its blood supply if it becomes pinched or twisted. A loss of blood flow can damage the affected organ.
How is an omphalocele diagnosed?
Omphalocele can often be detected on fetal ultrasound in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. A fetal echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) may also be done to check for heart abnormalities before the baby is born.
After birth, the omphalocele can be noted by the physician during the physical examination. X-rays (diagnostic tests which use invisible electromagnetic energy beams to produce images of internal tissues, bones, and organs onto film) may also be done after birth to evaluate abnormalities of other organs or body parts.
What is the treatment for an omphalocele?
Specific treatment for an omphalocele will be determined by your baby's physician based on the following:
Your baby's gestational age, overall health, and medical history
The extent of the condition
Your baby's tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies
Expectations for the course of the condition
Your opinion and preference
For a "small" omphalocele (only a portion of the intestine protruding outside the abdominal cavity), shortly after birth, an operation is done to return the organs to the abdomen and close the opening in the abdominal wall.
For a "large" omphalocele (most of the abdominal organs, including intestine, liver, and spleen are present outside the abdominal cavity), the repair is done in "stages" and may include the following:
Initially, sterile, protective sheeting is placed over the abdominal organs.
Because the abdomen may be small and underdeveloped, it may not be able to hold all of the organs at once. Therefore, the exposed organs are gradually moved back into the abdomen over several days or weeks.
The abdominal wall is closed surgically once the organs have been returned to the abdominal cavity.
Because the abdominal cavity may be small and underdeveloped, and the organs may be swollen, a baby with an omphalocele may have breathing difficulties as the organs are returned to the abdomen. Your baby may need help from a breathing machine called a mechanical ventilator while the swelling is decreasing and the size of the abdominal cavity is increasing.
What is the long-term outlook for a baby born with an omphalocele?
Problems in the future often depend on:
The size of the omphalocele
If there was a loss of blood flow to part of the intestine or other organs
The extent of other abnormalities
Babies who have damage to the intestines or other abdominal organs may have long-term problems with digestion, elimination, and infection.
Consult your baby's physician regarding the prognosis for your baby.
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This group activity invites participants to listen to the voices of people who have been 'cut out of the picture' at different times in our nation’s history, and then to discuss the effects of the denial of voting rights.
The pictures for this activity are in separate pdf files (due to their large size.)
We suggest you choose 5 or 6 pictures appropriate to your audience.
Available pictures are:
Also download the text and notes for this activity.
This overview and the directions are also included in the text and notes file.
Total time for this activity is about 30 minutes
"In the history of the United states many different groups of people have been denied the right to vote. For these citizens, participation in the electoral process was achieved through years of struggle. Today we are going to take a brief walk through history to remember some of the people who--at one time or another--were kept from voting."
Note: If you have a large group, consider posting the appropriate text under each picture, and asking the group to walk around the room, looking at each picture (in no particular order) and reading the text.
After about 10 minutes, ask each group to share some of their thoughts with the large group.
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A scriptorium is commonly a large room set apart in a monastery for the use of the scribes or copyists of the community. When no special room was devoted to this purpose, separate little cells or studies called "carrels" were usually made in the cloister, each scribe having a window and desk to himself. Of this arrangement the cloister of St. Peter's, Gloucester, now Gloucester Cathedral, supplies the most perfect example (see CLOISTER). The scriptorium was under the care of the precentor or else of one of his assistants called the armarius, whose duty it was to provide all the requisites needed by the scribes, such as desks, ink, parchment, pens, pen-knives, pumice-stone for smoothing down the surface of the parchment, awls to make the guiding marks for ruling lines, reading-frames for the books to be copied, etc. Most of these were manufactured on the premises: thus at Westminster the ink was made by the precentor himself, and he had to do it in the tailor's shop. The rules of the scriptorium varied in different monasteries, but artificial light was forbidden for fear of injury to the manuscripts, and silence was always enforced. As a general rule those of the monks who possessed skill as writers made this their chief, if not their sole active work. An anonymous writer of the ninth or tenth century speaks of six hours a day as the usual task of a scribe, which would absorb almost all the time available for active work in the day of a medieval monk. Very often the scriptorium of a monastery developed some peculiarities of writing which were perpetuated for considerable periods, and are of great value in ascertaining the source from which a manuscript comes. Thus at St. Albans the scribes for a long time affected a peculiar thirteenth-century style of hand with the long strokes of certain letters bent back or broken, while certain special variations from the common form of spelling, such as imfra for infra, are also peculiar to their work.
Various names were in use to distinguish the different classes of writers. In monasteries the term antiquarii was sometimes used for those monks who copied books, the common writers who despatched the ordinary business of the house being called librarii, or simply scriptores. If a scribe excelled in painting miniatures or initial letters he usually confined himself to such work, and was called illuminator, while one who worked chiefly on legal documents was a notarius. The price of books varied a good deal at different dates, but was always what we should now call low, considering the time and labour involved. Thus in 1380 John Prust, a Canon of Windsor, received seventy-five shillings and eight pence for an Evangelium, or book of the liturgical Gospels; and in 1467 the Paston "letters" show that a writer and illuminator of Bury St. Edmunds received one hundred shillings and two pence for a Psalter with musical notes, illuminations, and binding. In 1469 William Ebesham wrote out certain legal documents at two-pence a leaf, and a book at "a peny a leaf, which is right wele worth". It is to be observed that on the invention of printing with movable types, although the new art met with strong opposition from the professional scribes, the monks commonly welcomed it, as it shown by the establishment of Caxton's press within the precincts of Westminster, and of very early presses at Subiaco and other monasteries.
MADAN, Books in Manuscript (London, 1893); THOMPSON, Handbook of Greek and Latin Paloeography (London, 1894); IDEM, Customary of the monasteries. . .of Canterbury and Westminster (London, 1902); MAITLAND, The Dark Ages (London, 1845); FEASEY, Monasticism (London, 1898); GASQUET, English Monastic Life (London, 1904).
APA citation. (1912). Scriptorium. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13635a.htm
MLA citation. "Scriptorium." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13635a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Robert B. Olson. Offered to Almighty God for all those who labor to spread the Truth on earth.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.
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Spoil Amelioration Experiment
Thiess Pty. Ltd.
Open-cut coal mine spoil is essentially devoid of biological organisms, including symbiotic microbes involved in sustainable nutrition. It is also often deficient in available plant nutrients, can have extremes of pH and can exhibit surface crusting. In order to reconstruct a self-sustainable native forest or woodland ecosystem on spoil requires some amelioration strategies to produce more favourable plant growth conditions.
To determine whether inoculation of spoil with symbiotic microbes, and the use of fresh forest topsoil, fertilizer, gypsum or biosolids (sewage sludge) would overcome adverse spoil properties, to support the establishment of a selection of native forest species.
Summary of Results
Mount Owen mine spoil (Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia) was found to be primarily deficient in nitrogen and to a lesser extent phosphorus in supporting seedling growth of endemic species. These nutrients can be supplied either through biological interactions with soil microbes, or by applying them to the spoil surface eg. in the form of fertilizer.
Two important soil microbes are rhizobia bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi. These microbes form symbiotic relationships with certain plants, helping them to access primarily nitrogen and phosphorus respectively, in exchange for photosynthetic carbon. Inoculating Acacia species growing in spoil with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria increased plant growth. A strain of rhizobia was isolated which successfully grows in spoil and forms symbiotic relationships with at least two different Acacia species. Inoculation of Corymbia maculata with mycorrhizal fungi increased root infection levels but did not result in increased plant growth. This may have been because nitrogen was more growth limiting or some level of fungi/plant specificity, which was not investigated.
Fresh forest topsoil was the most successful spoil ameliorant, in terms of native species richness and vegetation structure. This outcome was primarily due to the provenance seed bank contributing 61% of final plant numbers and 46% of species richness. The topsoil did need to be supplementary seeded with canopy, sub-shrub and herb species, as these were not very prevalent in the topsoil seed bank after years of extensive grazing in the forest.
The relative conditional probability method was used to identify that application of 400 kg/ha fertilizer was the most successful of the other spoil amelioration treatments. It supported the highest rates of seedling emergence, establishment and survival over four years; compared to spoil with only 50 kg/ha of fertilizer added. It was also the only treatment with significantly higher species richness during the first three years of rehabilitation. Gypsum tended to increase establishment and survival overall, whilst a combination of gypsum and 400 kg/ha fertilizer application generally produced an intermediate response between the gypsum plus 50 kg/ha fertilizer and the 400 kg/ha fertilizer treatments. Biosolids plots had high numbers of grasses and weeds, which may have resulted in excessive competition. The canopy heavily dominated the vegetation structure of biosolids plots and this may have shaded lower storeys.
This experiment has been monitored for 8.5 years to date, and in recent years a number of species have successfully reproduced and progeny recruited. This is a good sign for the sustainability of these systems over time. As a result, the plant density of seeded species has increased in all treatments since the seven-year survey. The biosolids plots had the least number of new seedlings at the most recent survey, as there were fewer reproducing parent plants than in other treatments.
If forest topsoil is available, spreading it over the spoil is the best way of reconstructing a forest ecosystem. Using 400 kg/ha fertilizer had an initially positive response on native plant density and species richness, but the effect dwindled over time. Restoring soil microbes to the system would be a long-term solution to overcome poor soil nutrient content, rather than regularly re-applying fertilizer. Biosolids has potential as a longer-term source of nutrients, but needs to be managed in a way that does not allow excessive grass and weed competition with native species.
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One of the most common eye problems among animals is injury to the cornea (KOHR-nee-uh), the eye's transparent outer layer. This may occur if the eye is scratched, when bits of grass become lodged in the eye, or foreign matter blows into the eye. Signs of corneal irritation include a red, watery eye; swelling; and pawing at the eye. Minor irritation can often be treated by flushing the eye with a solution of one teaspoon salt dissolved in a cup of purified, room- temperature water. Use a cotton ball to squeeze a stream into the eye until the solution flows out. If the eye doesn't improve within a day, have a veterinarian take a look. When damage is severe, the animal will probably keep the injured eye closed. In such cases, see a veterinarian right away. Prompt treatment can prevent permanent harm. Other eye injuries may involve trauma with a sharp object, with surgery needed to retain vision. In small, flat-faced dog breeds like the pug, a blunt trauma to the head can actually cause the eyeball to dislodge from the socket. While alarming, this condition can often be repaired if you act quickly. Stay calm and call a veterinarian for instructions. In many cases, the eye can be surgically repositioned.
©2006 Crossroads Mobile. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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THE same mechanism that gives comets a faint X-ray glow could be responsible for the recently discovered halo of X-rays around the Red Planet.
NASA's orbiting telescope, the Chandra X-ray observatory, detected X-rays around Mars in 2001. Now, Konrad Dennerl at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany and his colleagues say that heavy ions blowing out from the sun and ploughing into Mars could be responsible.
Dennerl's team simulated the effect of solar particles crashing into the Martian atmosphere. This suggested that the collisions knock out electrons, which then emit X-rays as they cascade down through the atmosphere, matching the halo seen by Chandra (
You could use similar simulations to analyse X-rays around comets, which are also caused by solar particles, says Dennerl. After studying the X-rays, astronomers could then calculate the properties of the solar wind in regions of ...
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Report an inappropriate comment
Foxxification Of This Story?
Wed Aug 15 01:50:10 BST 2012 by Julian Mann
If you would care to take a look at the NS article 21.1.2009. by Graham Lawton(amongst others) an opinion is expressed there that 40 to 50 per cent of the human genome got there by HGT. Therefore the chances are actually quite high that Neanderthals and humans living in close proximity, could have picked up the same genes from an external source via an intermediary, without there having been any cross-breeding at all. With regard to the geographically separated humans, one would have expected vertical gene transfer to have passed on these Neanderthal genes over an extended period of time, via human/human mating. As that has not happened, particularly after the Neanderthal die out,you would need to re-consider the relative importance of VGT in this process. Perhaps HGT was after all the bigger player and accounts for all of the common genes.
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Elusive venomous mammal caught on camera
London, Jan 10 (ANI): Scientists have captured rare footage of the venomous Hispaniolan solenodon, one of the world's most strange and elusive mammals on camera.
Large, and with a long, thin snout, the Hispaniolan solenodon resembles an overgrown shrew; and it can inject passing prey with a venom-loaded bite.
Little is known about the creature, which is found in the Caribbean, but it is under threat from deforestation, hunting and introduced species.
According to a report by BBC News, the mammal was filmed in the summer of 2008 during a month-long expedition to the Dominican Republic, which is one of only two countries where this nocturnal, insect-eating animal (Solenodon paradoxus) can be found.
The researchers from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Ornithological Society of Hispaniola were able to take measurements and DNA from the creature before it was released.
"My colleagues were excited and thrilled when they found it in the trap," said Dr Richard Young, from Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. "But despite a month's worth of trapping effort, they only ever caught a single individual," he added.
The Hispaniolan solenodon is one of the creatures highlighted by the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) Edge of Existence programme, which focuses its efforts on conservation plans for animals that are both endangered and evolutionarily distinctive.
"It is an amazing creature. It is one of the most evolutionary distinct mammals in the world. Along with the other species of solenodon, which is found in Cuba (Solenodon cubanus), it is the only living mammal that can actually inject venom into their prey through specialised teeth," Dr Sam Turvey, a ZSL researcher involved with the programme, told BBC News.
"The fossil record shows that some other now-extinct mammal groups also had so-called dental venom delivery systems. So, this might have been a more general ancient mammalian characteristic that has been lost in most modern mammals, and is only retained in a couple of very ancient lineages," he added.
Dr Turvey and other scientists working for the Edge programme recently discovered a population of solenodons living in a remote corner of Haiti.
The researcher said that the team was surprised to find them. Previously, it had been feared that the creatures had become extinct in this country because of extensive deforestation, recently introduced mongoose and dogs, and hunting by humans for food.
"They are still incredibly vulnerable and fragile. So, it is really important to get back out there to work how these animals are surviving," he said. (ANI)
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III.C. Ask the question and continue to probe until all possible members are listed. The key point here is that the appropriate transportation team members depends on the individual student and his or her needs.
III.D. From your discussion, make 2 lists of information:
- Things to communicate
- Medical/emotional concerns
- What kind of day the student had
- Student’s attitude
- Equipment concerns
- Discipline issues
- Things that should NOT be communicated
- Personal opinions
- Care issues (e.g., whether student should be taking medications or not)
- School/parent issues (the school bus driver is not a go-between)
III.F. Distribute Handout #3, Team Communications. Review it with the participants.
III.G.1. See the discussion in the Introduction section on the limits of the school bus driver’s responsibility: know the nature of the disability, know how the disability impacts transportation, and know what equipment the student uses.
III.J.2. Here are some examples of emergency or unusual situations if you need them to start the discussion. Once the list is complete, have the group decide if a situation is unusual or an emergency. Place a “U” next to unusual situations and an “E” next to emergency situations.
- No wheelchair when a student needs one
- A regular child stroller instead of a wheelchair
- A wheelchair or safety seat inappropriate for the size of child
- A really large oxygen tank
- A wagon carrying the oxygen tank
- A new child who doesn’t know how to ride the bus
- Being asked to give student medications against policy
- Being asked to deliver equipment but not the student
- Being asked to do an unauthorized drop-off
- Having to clean out a tracheotomy
- Student wanting to eat breakfast on the bus because he/she didn’t get up in time
III.K.1. Lead a discussion toward the need for an emergency plan in each identified situation. Take one or two of the situations and develop a plan of action for each. At another time, the group can develop plans of action for each of the identified situations, if they haven’t been done already.
III.K.2. Reinforce the need for a plan in each identified unusual situation as well. Take one or two of the situations and develop a plan of action for each. At another time, the group can develop plans of action for each of the identified situations, if they haven’t been done already.
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NASA CONNECT Functions and Statistics: Dressed for Space
In NASA CONNECT Dressed for Space, students learn about the suits astronauts wear in space and why sizing is critical for working in space. They learn how the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space suits were developed. Building on past space suit technologies, NASA engineers and researchers use functions and statistics to create the next generation of space suits for the International Space Station and beyond.
The ABC's of Nuclear Science
The ABC's of Nuclear Science is a brief introduction to Nuclear Science. We look at Antimatter, Beta rays, Cosmic connection and much more. Visit here and learn about radioactivity - alpha, beta and gamma decay. Find out the difference between fission and fusion. Learn about the structure of the atomic nucleus. Learn how elements on the earth were produced. Do you know that you are being bombarded constantly by nuclear radiation from the Cosmos? Discover if there are radioactive products found i
05 - Telling a Free Story: Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in Myth and Reality
Professor Blight discusses the rise of abolitionism. Blight begins with an introduction to the genre of slave narratives, with particular attention to Frederick Douglass' 1845 narrative. The lecture then moves on to discuss the culture in which antebellum reform grew--the factors that encouraged its growth, as well as those that retarded it. Professor Blight then describes the movement towards radical abolitionism, stopping briefly on colonization and gradualism before introducing the character
01 - Introductions: Why Does the Civil War era have a hold on American Historical Imagination?
Professor Blight offers an introduction to the course. He summarizes some of the course readings, and discusses the organization of the course. Professor Blight offers some thoughts on the nature of history and the study of history, before moving into a discussion of the reasons for Americans' enduring fascination with the Civil War. The reasons include: the human passion for epics, Americans' fondness for redemption narratives, the Civil War as a moment of "racial reckoning," the fascination wi
Learning to Think Mathematically
Concerned that most students leave college thinking of mathematics as a fixed body of knowledge to be memorized, Cooperstein designed a new course to help students learn to think mathematically for themselves. This website serves as a course portfolio that documents the new class, Introduction to Mathematical Problem Solving. The principal activity in the class involved students working on and discussing novel problems which required them to formulate experiments, work out cases, look for patter
Peer Review of Teaching - Course Portfolio
In this course portfolio, Dan Bernstein reports on changes he has made over three semesters in a psychology course on learning. He has succeeded in getting more students to achieve higher levels of understanding by changing the assessment from short abstract essay questions to problems that asked students to apply concepts in new contexts, and providing web-based opportunities for students to identify what makes some answers better than others. The portfolio includes examples of the assessments
Mark Twain Project Online
Mark Twain Project Online applies innovative technology to more than four decades' worth of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project. It offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents.
This text manual introduces statistical analysis and its underlying philosophy, enabling students to understand how to describe the confidence they have in their analysis. Statistical analysis is one of the most widely used, and abused, techniques in the biological sciences. Statistics are ostensibly used to allow an investigator to be objective. That is, the researcher uses statistical tests to determine whether or not his/her hypothesis is supported by the data collected. Unfortunately, the
Data Collection and Organization
The Data Collection and Organization (DC&O) text module provides background on useful, general-purpose software tools. The aim is to discuss types of generic software that virtually every well-equipped scientist uses. This includes: spreadsheets, database programs, statistics packages, graphics programs, and word processors. DC&O includes several examples of the use of these tools in biology. These include 'An Embryological Example with Tips and Tricks' and the complete text and dataset of a cl
Essential Physics I
Essential Physics 1, is an intensive introduction to classical and special relativity, Newtonian dynamics and gravitation, Einsteinian dynamics and gravitation, and wave motion. Mathematical methods are discussed, as needed; they include: elements of differential geometry, linear operators and matrices, ordinary differential equations, calculus of variations, orthogonal functions and Fourier series, and non-linear equations for chaotic systems. The contents of this book can be taught in one seme
Introduction to Groups, Invariants and Particles
Introduction to Groups, Invariants & Particles is a book for Seniors and advanced Juniors who are majoring in the Physical Sciences or Mathematics. The book places the subject matter in its historical context with discussions of Galois groups, algebraic invariants, Lie groups and differential equations, presented at a level that is not the standard fare for students majoring in the Physical Sciences. A sound mathematical basis is thereby provided for the study of special unitary groups and their
Amazing Bean Races
Developed for fifth grade and above. Primary biological content area covered:; Plant growth; Seedling morphology; Hypothesis testing; Experimental design; Line graphing; Introductory statistics. Biology In Elementary Schools is a Saint Michael's College student project. The teaching ideas on this page have been found, refined, and developed by students in a college-level course on the teaching of biology at the elementary level. Unless otherwise noted, the lesson plans have been tried at least
Social Psychology - Spring 2008
Social Psychology - Spring 2007. The course will begin with a historical introduction to social psychology, focusing on the intellectual contribution of Kurt Lewin and the integration of evolutionary and cultural approaches to human nature. The course will then focus on the major topics of social psychology (group dynamics, social influence, attitudes and attitude change, social perception) as well as more specific areas of research (altruism, emotion, justice) and recent developments in the fie
Research and Data Analysis in Psychology Fall 2008
The course covers methods in psychological research emphasizing research design and statistics. Areas covered in research design are measurement and sampling, correlational research and experimental design. Statistical methods include t-tests, analysis of variance, correlation and regression, chi-square and monte-carlo simulations. The lecture will illustrate the importance of research design and statistical reasoning in psychology and provide the theoretical background for each of the statistic
The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
This is an introduction to programming and computer science. This course exposes students to techniques of abstraction at several levels: (a) within a programming language, using higher-order functions, manifest types, data-directed programming, and message-passing; (b) between programming languages, using functional and rule-based languages as examples. It also relates these techniques to the practical problems of implementation of languages and algorithms on a von Neumann machine. There are se
European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present Fall 2008
This course is an introduction to European history from around 1500 to the present. The central questions that it addresses are how and why Europe--a small, relatively poor, and politically fragmented place--became the motor of globalization and a world civilization in its own right. Put differently how did "western" become an adjective that, for better and often for worse, stands in place of "modern." Our approach will be broadly cultural, and we will consider politics, economics, society, reli
General Chemistry Fall 2008
General Chemistry – Fall 2008. This course covers topics such as stoichiometry of chemical reactions, quantum mechanical description of atoms, the elements and periodic table, chemical bonding, real and ideal gases, thermochemistry, introduction to thermodynamics and equilibrium, acid-base and solubility equilibria, introduction to oxidation-reduction reactions.
Finite Order Statistic Experiment
This resource consists of a Java applet and expository text. The applet is a simulation of the experiment of selecting n objects at random from the first m positive integers. The random variables of interest are the order statistics. The applet illustrates the distributions of the order statistics.
This site presents strategies and resources for faculty members and graduate assistants who are teaching Introduction to Philosophy courses; it also includes material of interest to college faculty generally. The mission of TΦ101 is to provide free, user-friendly resources to the academic community. All of the materials are provided on an open source license. You may also print as many copies as you wish (please print in landscape). TΦ101 carries no advertising.
Computer Applications for Instruction and Training
Introduction to basic computer applications on a Macintosh computer, with special emphasis on software that may be used in instruction and training. In this course, students will orient themselves to the Macintosh environment, get a brief overview of Macintosh-specific software, and learn the fundamental basics of the following tools available to assist in instruction and training: PowerPoint, Photoshop, GoLive, and iMovie.
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Water and Desalination
Global Guide to Water and Waste Utilities Edition 1, 2012
The world’s population is averaging a growth rate of around 1.1% annually. This is creating a greater demand for improved water supplies and sanitation, especially in developing countries and urban areas. As stronger population growth is generally observed in these regions. They may also have more challenging requirements to meet the water target under the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). A target of reducing ‘the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation’ for eligible countries by half by 2015.
> More InformationNRGWW1
Global Desalination Report Edition 1, 2012
This NRG Expert Report provides a global overview of Desalination. It looks at water stress, future and current markets, rising demand for desalination, costs, advantages, current and future technologies and much more. Many parts of the world are experiencing severe water stress with limited fresh water supplies. In some parts of the world water use exceeds renewable water capacity – renewable water is defined as surface and underground water supplies that are replenished by rainwater. These regions often use non-renewable ground water supplies, which are also further down and require more energy to exploit, or exploit underground aquifers resulting in salt water intrusion. Increased industrialisation and urbanisation has also lead to ground water pollution in some regions.
> More InformationNRGDR1
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|Nutrition Evidence Library|
What is the relationship between eating frequency and nutrient intake?
Inadequate evidence is available to evaluate the relationship between eating frequency and nutrient intakes.
Overall strength of the available supporting evidence: Strong; Moderate; Limited; Expert Opinion Only; Grade not assignable For additional information regarding how to interpret grades, click here.
Evidence Summary Overview
Only three cross-sectional studies published since 2004 (Kerver JM et al, 2006; Macdiarmid J et al, 2009; and Storey KE et al, 2000), met the criteria for review to evaluate the relationship between eating frequency and nutrient intakes. Given this lack of robust evidence, a conclusion is not drawn regarding nutrient intakes and eating frequency.
Evidence Summary Paragraphs
Kerver et al, 2006 (positive quality), conducted a cross-sectional study to test the hypothesis that specific meal and snack patterns are associated with selected nutrient intakes in US adults. Using the 24-hour dietary recall from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), meal and snack patterns were described in relation to nutrient intakes. The study included US adults aged 20 years or older (N=15,978). On average, subjects reported a daily eating frequency of 4.90 (SE=0.04) with a range of one to 18 (median=4.18; mode=4). Daily eating frequency was categorized into five groups (one to two, three, four, five and six or more) based on distribution of the data. More frequent eaters (six or more times a day) were more likely to be middle aged (40 to 59 years), white, smokers, heavier drinkers, vitamin and mineral supplement users, with higher income and education levels than less-frequent eaters (one to two times a day). The most common meal pattern (31.6%) consisted of breakfast (B), lunch (L), dinner (D), and two or more snacks (S). Subjects who reported consuming this meal pattern were more likely to be female, middle-aged (40 to 59 years), white, nonsmokers, moderate drinkers, vitamin and mineral supplement users with higher education and income levels and moderate activity levels (33rd to 66th percentile). After controlling for the effects of age, sex, ethnicity, smoking status, alcohol intake, vitamin and mineral supplement use, body mass index (BMI), physical activity, income and energy intakes, daily eating frequency was positively related to carbohydrate (CHO) (51.1±0.4% of energy), folic acid (302±4mcg), vitamin C (11.3±3.3mg), calcium 887±12 mg), magnesium (330±3mg), iron (16.4±0.3mg), potassium (3,088±28 mg) and fiber (17.6±0.2g), and inversely related to protein (14.9±0.1% of energy), total fat (32.7±0.3 of energy), cholesterol (261±5mg) and sodium (3,500±34mg) intakes. The groups reporting B, L, D and one S and B, L, D, and two or more S had the highest intakes of all micronutrients examined except cholesterol, vitamin B6 and sodium, which were consumed in the highest amounts by the B, L, D, group (cholesterol=323±10.2mg; vitamin B6=2.10±0.05mg; and sodium=3,946±48.4mg). These findings suggest that meal and snack patterns may be markers for nutrient intakes and therefore diet quality.
Storey et al, 2009 (positive quality), conducted a cross-sectional study to identify whether students with poor diet quality had different macronutrient intakes, increased consumption of “other foods” and increased frequency of suboptimal meal behaviors (skipping meals and consuming meals away from home) in comparison with those with average or superior diet quality. Data included 2,850 Alberta and Ontario adolescents aged 14 to 17 years and diet quality was assessed using a food-based diet quality index modified to reflect the Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating (CFGHE) (Poor, zero to one; Average, two to three; Superior, all four food groups). Univariate analysis revealed that those with poor diet quality had a lower frequency of breakfast (three or fewer days a week) consumption than did those with average and superior diet quality (every day); P=0.002. Frequency of consuming meals away from home yielded significant main effects for diet quality (Wilks’ lambda=0.97, F (12, 4,810)=5.63, P<0.001. Those with poor diet quality consumed significantly more meals or snacks (once a week) away from home at all locations than did those with superior diet quality (once a month).
Macdiarmid et al, 2009 (neutral quality), used cross-sectional data (N=56) from the National Survey of Sugar Intake among children in Scotland to investigate the meal and snacking patterns of school-aged children ( five to 17 years old). Meals and snacks were defined by a food-based classification system based on ‘core’ (foods normally eaten as part of a traditional meal) and ‘non-core’ (foods and drinks easily consumed outside of a meal) foods. A meal was defined as an event containing one or more ‘core’ foods with or without ‘non-core’ foods or drinks, and a snack was defined as an event containing only ‘non-core’ foods or drinks. Seventy-eight percent of children had an average of between 2.5 and 3.5 meals per day and 98% of children ate one or more snacks. Boys ate significantly more meals than girls but a similar number of snacks, and children in the high-deprivation group ate more meals and fewer snacks than those in the lower-deprivation group. The number of meals and snacks eaten did not differ by age or BMI group. The median (inter-quartile range) number of items eaten within a snacking event was two (one to two) and in a meal was four (three to five) items [two (one to two) ‘core’ and two (one to three) ‘non-core’ items]. The average daily intake of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and non-milk extrinsic sugars (NMES) (% food energy) was higher from snacks than meals, but there was no difference in total fat. The number of meals, snacks, and total eating events per day and daily energy and nutrient intake (total fat, SFA and NMES) on weekdays did not differ between term-time and school holidays. The significant difference in the number of meals eaten on weekdays compared with weekend days was due to the wider variation in frequency of meals on weekdays rather than a difference in the median frequency. Despite the differences in meal frequency, the average daily energy, total fat, SFA and NMES intake (% food energy) did not differ significantly between weekdays and weekend days. In conclusion, children tended to follow a traditional pattern of three meals a day, which was consistent between age and BMI subgroups and between term-time and holidays.
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Research Design and Implementation Rating Summary
For a summary of the Research Design and Implementation Rating results, click here.
Kerver JM, Yang EJ, Obayashi S, Bianchi L, Song WO. Meal and snack patterns are associated with dietary intake of energy and nutrients in US adults. J Am Diet Assoc 2006; 106: 46-53.
Macdiarmid J, Loe J, Craig LC, Masson LF, Holmes B, McNeill G. Meal and snacking patterns of school-aged children in Scotland. Eur J Clin Nutr 2009; 63: 1,297-1,304.
Storey KE, Hanning RM, Lambraki IA, Driezen P, Fraser SN, McCargar LJ. Determinants of diet quality among Canadian adolescents. Can J Diet Pract Res. 2009 Summer; 70 (2): 58-65.
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Truth And Facts
( Originally Published 1912 )
Successful, argumentation has its proper basis in truth and may be defined as any statement or belief supported by sufficient proof. Sir William Hamilton defines truth as "a harmony, an agreement, a correspondence between our thought and that which we think about."
Thomson says "Truth means that which is certain, whether we think it or not," . while Goethe describes it as a huge torch which we try to steal past with blinking eyes, fearing to be burnt. Newman calls it certitude, or "the perception of a truth with the perception that it is a truth."
Our first business, then, is to get. our thoughts to correspond with the facts. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," should be our constant aim. When we are desirous of reaching a certain place, we do not usually ask about beautiful landscapes, nor easy paths, but for, the right road, and the shortest route. In our thinking habits, let the invariable question be: "Is this the truth?" We must seek truth for truth's sake, for very love of it.
In this pursuit, however, we must exercise much patience and perseverance. Before a chain of evidence is complete, many scattered links may have to be found and put in their proper places. The process is sometimes tedious—often too great for mediocre minds-but there is no other way. The man who really feels the "divine patriotism" in his soul will be satisfied with nothing less than the truth itself.
Every man has some capacity for truth. The student of argumentation should be satisfied at first to solve simple problems. Apparently insurmountable difficulties may be entirely overcome by occupying the mind with a little at a time, and working gradually from the known to the unknown. South calls truth a great stronghold, "barred and fortified by God and Nature ; and diligence is properly the understanding's laying siege to it, so that, as in a kind of warfare, it must be perpetually upon the watch, observing all the avenues and passes to it, and accordingly make its approaches. Sometimes it thinks it gains a point; and presently again it finds itself baffled and beaten off; yet still it renews the onset, attacks the difficulty afresh, plants this reasoning and that argument, this consequence and that distinction, like so many intellectual batteries, till at length it forces a way and passage into the obstinate enclosed truth, that so long withstood and defied all its assaults."..
In our search for truth we may at first seek lines of least logical resistance. We must make our ground good as we pro-coed, lest we become entangled in many diverse opinions and prejudices. It is not sufficient that our proofs be above suspicion, they must be demonstrated. 'The test of mature judgment rests in our ability to give it immediate expression. Certitude should produce in the mind something of the sensation one feels when the feet are upon solid ground.
We should be cautious about taking sides too soon. A free and full investigation of any subject demands that the door of our mind be wide open. As Carlyle says : The thing is not only to avoid error, but to attain immense masses of truth." To do this successfully a man, according to Drummond, "must work, think, separate, dissolve, absorb, digest; and most of these he must do for himself and within himself."
The minds of men have in all times fluctuated between truth and error. For example, they first thought the movement of the earth to be progressive and non-rotating. At a later time, men said the earth was fixt in space and simply moved from side to side. Again, that it rotated on its own axis and moved around the sun. Limited in his grasp of absolute truth by human capacity, however, the man of science continues in his conquest of the skies.
There are some things we can not know. We know, for example, that numbers can not be brought to an end, that they are infinite, but we can not say what that infinity is. We believe God is infinite, but who can adequately describe Him,
Many of our beliefs come to us as a matter of course, or of habit, rather than from careful and deliberate reflection. We are prone to accept what others say to us without question or adequate authority, and follow blindfold many customs for no better reason than that they have been long established. We receive truths second hand, and repeat them to others, but do not possess the arguments that support them. We must cultivate the habit of thinking and judging for ourselves. The truth we first have made our own, is the only truth we can give to others.
There are two sides to every question, and we should therefore be careful not to allow prejudice to take possession of our judgment. George Eliot said, in a letter to a friend, "It is possible for two people to hold different opinions on Momentous subjects with equal sincerity; and an equally earnest conviction that their respective opinions are alone the truly moral ones." Men vary in their experience; consequently they vary in their opinions. But "truth is one forever, absolute, while opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition," hence the sincere seeker after truth will endeavor to discover mistakes in his own reasoning as well as in that of others.
It will be seen, then, that' we should be intellectually true to the truth. Prejudice, personal interests, early training, obstinacy, and passion, must not be permitted to blind our mental vision. Our aim should be the truth, even tho we have to modify or abandon altogether long-settled and oft-exprest opinions. The presence of others should not prevent us from seeing and frankly acknowledging error when it is made clear to us. If we lose our point in public argument, we must not let our sensitiveness rob us of the truth, nor in case of victory should we make it an occasion for gloating over our opponent.
A man is not to be blamed for not assenting too soon. He properly demands valid and sufficient reasons. If he is a logical thinker, he has learned to reason with caution. He knows that his opponent may be biased by personal inclinations acid motives. He desires to weigh and consider every statement. The danger of prejudice, of insufficient proof, of hasty presumption, is ever present.
The student should remember that an ocean of truth lies all about him. It is too great for one mind, and he can at most possess only a small part. The words of Sir Isaac Newton, just before he died, are not without suggestive value: "I don't know what I may seem to the world, but, as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.''
Not the least of the pleasures of intellectual investigation is what has been called "logical satisfaction," the intrinsic pleasure of following a line of thought to a conclusion. How far a man will seek to enforce upon others the results of his truth, must depend upon himself and circumstances. He may decline to argue with a man whom he knows to be unreasonable and lacking in common courtesy. He may think it not worth while to set forth his arguments to a certain class of men who hold stubbornly to an opinion, and upon being dislodged shift to another position, and by artful dodging from place to place seem never to be cornered or embarrassed. Argumentation, even as a game of skill, hardly worth while unless conducted under conditions that give pleasure to the participants.
Newman says that a man who is certain of a fact is slow to enter into dispute, is not disposed to criticize others, nor to become angry at their positive statements ;
is neither impetuous nor overbearing; avoids intemperance of thought and language ; and does not impute motives to others nor accuse them of sophistry. He thinks that men have not yet attained to certitude who are impatient of contradiction, and by vehemence of assertion attempt to silence others. "A man's over earnestness in argument," he goes on to say, "may arise from zeal or charity; his impatience from loyalty to the truth; his extravagance from want of taste, from enthusiasm, or from youthful ardor; and his restless recurrence to argument, not from personal disquiet, but from a vivid appreciation of the controversial talent of an opponent, or of his own, or of the mere philosophical difficulties of the subject in dispute. These are points for the consideration of those who are concerned in registering and explaining what may be called the meteorological phenomena of the mind, and do not interfere with the broad principle which I would lay down,. that to fear argument is to doubt the conclusion, and to be certain of a truth is to be careless of objection to it—nor with the practical rule, that mere assent is not certitude, and must not be confused with it."
It is nothing less than marvelous that such men as Plato and Aristotle must have begun with their alphabet, making syllables out of letters, words out of syllables, and finally using words as the vehicle of masterly thoughts. These simple first steps, like the well-known simile of great oaks and little acorns, are characteristic of every study.
The student of argumentation, be he lawyer, politician, clergyman, public speaker, or salesman, should early seek to get a good foundation of facts. In most matters of dispute, one naturally asks : "What are the facts?" and from these he makes deductions and formulates his judgments. "Facts are stubborn things" and are indispensable to the successful advocate.
The natural indolence of man prevents him from studying a subject in all its details. He will find plausible reasons for terminating his research long before reaching accurate and final conclusions. Interruption, weariness, and a host of other excuses are advanced for slipshod work.
To get at the facts of a subject, we must proceed deliberately and carefully, satisfied with little steps at first, not ignoring even the commonplace, until at last by inexhaustible patience and application we have pursued our subject to the end. To do this with intellectual repose and unwavering faith, is to insure the most gratifying results.
What is a fact? That which can be positively demonstrated, as distinguished from a mere statement or belief. It is an agreement between a thing and what is said about it. Stephen, in his "Digest of the Laws of Evidence," says :
"A matter of fact is: (1) Everything capable of being perceived by the senses; (2) every mental condition of which any person is conscious. By a matter of fact I understand anything of which we obtain a conviction from our internal consciousness, or any individual event or phenomenon which is the object of sensation. It is true that even the simplest sensations involve some judgment : when a witness reports that he saw an object of a certain shape and size, or at a certain distance, he describes something more than a mere impression on his sense of sight, and his statement implies a theory and explanation of the bare phenomenon. When, however, this judgment is of so simple a kind as to become wholly unconscious, and the interpretation of the appearances is a matter of general agreement, the object of sensation may, for our present purpose, be considered a fact. A fact, as so defined, must be limited to individual sensible objects, and not extended to general expressions or formulas, descriptive of classes of facts, or sequences of phenomena, such as that the blood circulates, the sun attracts the planets, and the like."
The student should classify his mental material in much the same way as he would papers placed in the pigeon-holes of his desk. This gives not only a sense of security, but makes such material ready for instant use. Aristotle suggests this method of classification, when he affirms that any judgment will fall into these ten categories:
1: Substance—It is a man, a horse, etc.
It should be remembered that information is not necessarily insight. After one has the facts, he must know what to do with them, and how to apply them to advantage. We must understand the inner meaning of ideas before we can claim full possession of them. When we use such expressions as "The fact is," "As a mat-ter of fact," "In fact," etc., we should be careful to have the evidence to support this little word "fact."
Many men do not want the facts, and it is as difficult to convince them of error as to prove to a cat that it is wrong to like mice. A disposition to dodge the real issue, and a lack of frankness in facing the real facts, is a sure and certain way to lose one's influence over the minds of other men. When a man earnestly seeks the facts and gets full possession of them, he should speak positively, if at all, since most men have a sufficient supply of doubts of their own. But if he gives expression to his beliefs before they are fully substantiated in his own mind, they may be seriously impaired by a slight contradiction, a digression, or stipulation, on the part of a casual observer. Obscurity, let it be remembered, is not always in the other man's mind, but may be in our own; nor should we forget that "In the twilight even the plainest writing is rendered illegible." Where there is a firm hold upon ideas, there will be little danger of vague speculations.
The student of argumentation will ac-custom himself to define his terms. He will learn to call things by their right names, and therefore will have frequent recourse to his dictionary. The rules of definition by Thomson, abbreviated here for convenience, will prove helpful:
1. A definition must recount the essential attributes of the thing defined, thus: "Words are the articulate signs of thoughts.
2. A definition must not contain the name of the thing defined; this is some-times called arguing "in a circle."
3. A definition must be adequate—neither too narrow nor too wide.
4. A definition must not be exprest in obscure or ambiguous language, as : "The
divine nature is a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere."
5. A definition must not be negative, where it can be affirmative, as: "Evil is that which is not good."
After the speaker has his facts, what then ? He must know how to marshal them, and how to send them forth as a living force into the minds and hearts of men. "Next to the knowledge of the facts and its law," says Emerson, "is method, which constitutes the genius and efficiency of all remarkable men. A crowd of 'men go up to Faneuil Hall ; they are pretty well acquainted with the object of their meeting; they have all read the facts in the same newspapers. The orator possesses no information which his hearers have not, yet he teaches them to see the thing with his eyes. By the new placing, the circumstances acquire new solidity and worth. Every fact gains consequence by his naming it, and trifles become important. His expressions fix themselves in men's memories, and fly from mouth to mouth. His mind has some new principle of order. When he looks, all things fly into their places. What will he say next
Let this man speak, and this man only."
There are many persons who have an inward conviction that they are in the wrong, but will not concede it because of stubbornness, or self-conceit, or fear of humiliation. The sincere seeker after truth should be willing and even anxious to acknowledge his error, for truth need never fear to be put on trial. But when a man feels confident he is right, that he possesses the truth, he is not to yield up his honest convictions to insolence and self-assurance. It is well to remember that error is prevalent in these days, and. stalks about disguised in pretentious and even presumptuous garb. It must be recognized that it may be silenced.
Sir Leslie Stephen once said that if two and two persisted in making four, one should stop putting them together. If you don't like an inference simply do not draw it. But this will not do for the honest truth-seeker. Whether his opinions and judgments be sustained or not, whether he be condemned or vindicated by others, he persists in his earnest and unwearied search for truth—truth based upon facts.
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The English Stage Since Shakespeare
( Originally Published 1920 )
BY LINA WRIGHT BERLE.
THERE is no artistic and literary form which has a longer history in the development of English letters than the drama, whose origins go back to the days of Chaucer and earlier, and which has been a favorite with the people during all that time. Unlike almost any other art, the drama appeals to the common and uneducated folk, and their verdict has been entirely responsible for the success or failure of every play of which we have record.
It is interesting to note the supposed origins of the drama, before proceeding to the examination of modern English plays. As far as we can discover, English drama has its origin in the various services of the Roman Church, in the Dark Ages. As all Catholics will remember, there is a point in the Easter service where the graduale, so-called, is played, originally a musical phrase or two. But the good fathers conceived the idea of pictoralizing the episode commemorated by that portion of the Mass,-the three Maries at the tomb of Christ,-and accordingly they admitted chosen nuns to the space beside the altar to indicate the three personalities. Sometimes they were given a short phrase to sing; and the step to the introduction of dialogue was easy.
Once dialogue had been admitted in this fashion, they further elaborated the idea, and, as an effective means of teaching an unlettered populace something of the Bible, they adapted the stories of the Old and New Testaments into short plays, in which the stories were acted out by monks or choir boys, trained for the purpose. This proved a great success,-so great, indeed, that the monks grew worried at the spirit in which people were attending church, and banished the plays to the steps of the church instead of within its doors. With that change came a widening of the scope of plays, although they still kept their Biblical character, but with the addition of all sorts of jests and jokes which the sacred building had rendered inadmissible before. This appears to have been the origin of the English drama.
Of course such a relatively simple type of drama could not long persist without becoming affected by other influences; and by the time of Elizabeth it had progressed far beyond the old miracle and morality plays. With the appearance of Shakespeare, the so-called "Golden Age" of English drama begins,-an age in which there were a multitude of playwrights, all presenting entertainment for a public which dearly loved the theatre. Many of them were brilliant men, Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Heywood, Dekker, Beaumont and Fletcher, and others.
Since the time of Shakespeare, the theatre has undergone many remarkable changes, has produced many notable and famous dramatists, actors of high distinction, and actresses of personal and historical interest, and has been the battle-field of conflicting parties and factions. It is the purpose of this essay to show in outline some of these vicissitudes, and to show their significance for the drama today.
The age of Shakespeare produced so many plays and so many rival theatres that it was inevitable that there should come a reaction of some sort; and in the early years of the reign of King James it began. Plays were written which dealt less and less with the interests of the normal majority of the people, and increasingly with the unwholesome elements of contemporary society. A period of decadence was on the way. This was the more evident because of the power of the Puritans in the state; and these men and women opposed the stage on religious principles. 1n 1642 the catastrophe occurred, when the Puri-tans closed the theatres by law, as a result of their successful war against the king, Charles I, and laid heavy penalties on the representation of plays.
This edict was maintained until the restoration of the Stuart line to the throne in 1660. There were a few private performances, given by persons of rank and influence, but very cautiously and by indirection, called operas, often to conceal their character. Comic interludes also were performed at the great fairs in the country towns; but except for these the drama remained without advance or change. A new generation grew up, to which the earlier drama was a recollection only; and this in itself was a matter for congratulation, as it opened the drama to entirely new influences.
The new influences were of two kinds, those derived from the practice of the French dramatists, and from the attitude of the new court. During his period of exile, Charles I1 had lived in France, at the court of the Great Louis, and his associates were courtiers of the French type. They loved the drama of their own life, the representations of their own follies and intrigues, and the sly mockery of each other. Accordingly, a new form of drama appeared, designed to please them; for the re-opening of the theatres was effected rather to satisfy their desire for amusement than to meet a public demand.
1n this new theatre two kinds of plays were notable,-the comedies, of which more later, and the heroic tragedies, so-called, certainly the most surprising set of dramas ever offered to any public. It has been said that the comedies of the time represented the masculine love of biting satire and vulgar mirth, while the heroic plays were comparable to the feminine desire for ideal symbolisms. Be that as it may, the tragedies of the time dealt only with the adventures of much-persecuted heroines, who maintained absurd loyalties in the face of overwhelming danger, and who invariably chose death rather than disobedience. Love and honor was the everlasting contrast; and the usual result was the pitiable death of the beautiful damsel, and the execution of her too-chivalrous cavalier.
Among the dramatists whose reputation was made in this period, there are some who deserve special mention for their work. Perhaps the foremost is John Dryden, whose poetical career began with Cromwell's government, and who lived until 1700. For eighteen years he was poet laureate, and during this time he wrote many dramas, especially of the heroic type, and one tragedy, which is worthy of mention in the same class with Shakespeare.
It is interesting to notice these plays of Dryden's, for they show the difficulties and distresses which often beset a poet of the time. Only one of the plays, according to his own rather pathetic statement, was "writ to please himself," and that one is the masterpiece above mentioned, the "All for Love; or, The World Well Lost," which treats the story of Antony and Cleopatra. Here, with the same materials available that Shakespeare used, he produced a profoundly moving tragedy, full of passion and fire.
But for the most part he was not so fortunate as this. His plays were written to satisfy the demands of the courtiers, ever anxious for some new play, as we are today, and quickly dissatisfied with what they had seen. We must remember that there was no advertising, as we know it, and that the average run of a play was seldom more than five or six performances at a time, though it might be revived. The audiences were drawn from a limited population and a limited radius, therefore the manager who wished a full house must change frequently.
Dryden's first attempts to deal with this situation were unsuccessful comedies; but he proved himself a popular favorite with "The Indian Queen," a melodramatic spectacle which exploited, for almost the first time, something like modern devices of scenery and costuming. This success was followed up by "The Indian Emperor," which contained more of the same sort.
It may be amusing to sketch the typical course of such a play. Dryden was responsible for a large number of them, ranging from two parts of "The Conquest of Granada" to "Aurengzebe." 1n the latter play, Aurengzebe, the hero, is the favorite of three sons, whose brothers, anxious to destroy him, contrive to poison his father's mind against him, and to have him sent out to what promises to be certain death in the field of battle. By one of those extraordinary coincidences of such tragedies, he is saved by the chivalry of his foes, after languishing in prison for a time, restores his father's kingdom, and is in the end pitifully slain. There is usually a lovely maiden whose fate is linked with the hero's, and who perishes with him. In another play of Dryden's, the hero, hated by both factions in the State, is poisoned by both; and the scene shows him writhing in the agony induced by drinking two opposite types of poison, as a result of which he lives to confound his enemies. This is in "Don Sebastian," after "All for Love" the most perfect of Dryden's plays, written in blank verse, in contradistinction to the heroic tragedies, in which he used the same rhymed couplet which was to become famous in the hands of Pope.
Of the Comic dramatists, it is enough to mention here Etherege, Shadwell, Wycherley and Vanbrugh, whose plays form no very pleasant reading at the present time, though they had a great vogue in their day. Congreve, the most important of them all, wrote with a brilliance which has seldom been equaled, but has suffered from a change of taste on the part of the public.
This change of taste occurred about 1700, and was started by a famous clergyman, Jeremy Collier, who published his attack on the stage in 1699. This was called " Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage," and was followed by other pamphlets attacking the theatre. The whole series of attacks and replies covered about ten years. It was necessary enough, though the reasons which the good divine gave for his ideas were not always sound. In the course of it all, the dramatists were defeated, as they deserved to be. The result of these attacks on the stage is an interesting one, and one which seems out of proportion to the importance of the interests involved.
About 1700 Congreve's last play, "The Way of the World," was produced and was a complete failure, although in the judgment of the discriminating it exhibited his skill in dialogue to a remarkable degree. This cavalier disapproval of his best work angered Congreve; though it was not surprising, as the play is almost entirely lacking in plot, and had none of the qualities which make for popular success. This failure followed close upon the attacks of Collier, in which Congreve found himself bitterly scored, although in the company of many of the most eminent dramatists of his own time and of the earlier time. It is probable that this helped to strengthen him in his determination to give up writing for the theatre altogether; and so complete was his affectation of carelessness for the interests of literary gentlemen, that when Voltaire, temporarily exiled from France, went to see the distinguished author, he repudiated all claim to that distinction, and stated that he did not care to be reminded of those things. He got as good as he gave, however, on that occasion, for Voltaire replied that his only interest in Congreve was as the playwright, and that in the man of fashion he had no concern whatever.
The effect of the attack on the stage was to drive away from it the only capable dramatists which had been produced by the Restoration. Vanbrugh returned to his profession of architecture, after writing half a dozen or so of popular successes in the free and easy manner of the time. Wycherley, though he was still living, had long since been broken in spirit by imprisonment and debt; the field was open for a new group of men.
Out of it all appeared a group of young playwrights, all of whom began careers of great promise, which they did not fulfill, by reason of their early deaths. Otway wrote a number of plays, including one tragedy, "Venice Preserved," which was acted as late as the beginning of the 19th century. Farquhar, whose comedies promised well, both in humor and in morality, died early, before his talent had really been recognized. 1n both these instances, following a precedent all too familiar among the Elizabethans, it is clear that the privations of an author's life were largely responsible for their deaths.
There follows a barren period of imitation, repetition, and dullness, in which two names stand out especially pleasantly. Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, both born in Ireland, contributed distinctive comedy to the drama of our language. Goldsmith wrote but two plays, "The Good-Natured Man" and the ever delightful "She Stoops to Conquer;" but in these two, and more particularly the last, he reached a height of comedy which has kept the plays on the stage even to the present. There is no more rewarding merriment to be found in English than that of Young Marlow, and Miss Hardcastle, who, by allowing herself to be regarded as a serving-maid, "Stoops to Conquer," and wins the heart of her bashful swain.
Equally delightful, though in another fashion, are the comedies with which Sheridan filled in the repertory of his company at Drury Lane Theatre. "The Rivals" and "The School for Scandal" have been played time and again, without losing their charm by reason of their age. In a period of undistinguished plays, rightly forgotten, these stand out with especial luster.
The eighteenth century, to which these plays belong, was notable as an age of great actors and actresses. The names of Garrick, Cibber, Nell Gwynne, Mrs. Siddons and Peg Woffington belong to this period, and the tales of their skill are many and various. It was Garrick who, according to rumor, won the heart of a country maiden who watched his acting, strove to lose it at her father's request by acting the drunkard, and lost his own thereby. The chronicles of the time state as a fact the curious prevalence of fainting-fits in the theatre by women overcome by the realism of Mrs. Siddons' art,-a phenomenon which is said to have been infrequent until then.
With the opening of the nineteenth century a new movement makes itself felt in the drama. There had been indications of a change in taste before that time, in the preference shown for plays of a highly sentimental nature. These were the logical forerunners of the nineteenth century romantic drama, which developed more fully on the Continent than in England. The growth of the novel as a literary form had supplanted the drama for the mass of the people, and consequently it is not strange that the romantic plays should be what are called "closet dramas," plays, that is, which are better adapted for reading than for actual performance. In the production of such plays, many of the foremost poets of the early part of the century were engaged.
But before this movement began, the sentimental play had appeared. It came at a time when such novels as the "Tristram Shandy" and "Sentimental Journey" of Lawrence Sterne were in high favor with the public; when the pit and the boxes alike clamored for plays in which the heroine reproached the hero for his jealousy, or his coldness, or his fickleness, and in which he responded with great show of sensitiveness, -sensibility, as they called it then. There are scenes in the "Rivals" of Sheridan, those between Julia and her lover, Falkland, which were inserted on purpose to satisfy this particular taste. The extent and perversion of the popular feeling on the subject may be inferred from the occurrence of such scenes as those in Sterne, where a traveller stops to moralize on the misfortune of a dead donkey which he observes by the roadside.
1t was at this same time, also, that Goethe's novel, "The Sorrows of the Young Werther," achieved its tremendous popularity throughout Europe, both as a novel and in dramatic form-a vogue which was carried to so great an extent that young men committed suicide after the manner of the hero, leaving farewell notes expressing their admiration for the book and their conviction that life was no longer worth living. All this created an atmosphere which was in the last degree unhealthy, and which could have nothing but an unwholesome effect on the drama.
The closet dramas were the work of men filled with the spirit which was to prove the keynote of all literary, artistic, and social development during the next seventy-five years and more. All of them had seen the regenerating influence of the revolutionary spirit in France, and they were full of a whole-hearted enthusiasm for the same sort of advance in their own countries. Many of them lived to outgrow their enthusiasms, but the fervor remained the same. They were led by Byron, that volcanic genius who fired the minds of the youth of his generation by his brilliance and his daring. Under his lead they adopted strange eccentricities of manner, and cultivated a proud and antagonistic bearing toward all the world.
Nevertheless Byron did much to foster the new and vital growth of the drama. Like all the subjects of his verse, his dramas dealt with Titanic struggles, as of "Cain," "Manfred," and the like,-plays of the superman, at odds with the social order. Similarly, Shelley produced a noble sequence, a translation of the Aeschylean "Prometheus Bound," and a play to replace the lost tragedy, "Prometheus Unbound." He also dramatized the tragic story from Italian legend, "The Cenci." These are examples dating from before 1830.
The later poets of the century were not behind these in their dramatic achievement. They had before them the remarkable work of the two greatest German poets, Goethe and Schiller, and like them they undertook serious plays after the Elizabethan model. Browning's "Blot on the Scutcheon," was a play which made marvellous use of poetry for dramatic purpose; and Tennyson was the author of several dramas in verse which are superb examples of the modern poetic drama.
In the work of Tennyson we note the recurrence of the interest in the unfortunate queen, Mary Stuart, which had animated Schiller, and which was shown in Swinburne's various plays on the same subject, "Mary Stuart," and "Chastelard." Tennyson was aided in his attempt to -write historical and poetic dramas by his friendship with Henry Irving, who arranged his play of "Becket" so that it could be presented, and himself took the leading role. Ellen Terry also contributed, for she took the heroine's part in "The Cup," a play founded on an old story of heroism and devotion.
During this middle period of the century Bulwer-Lytton, whose novels, especially "The Last Days of Pompeii," are still the delight of young people, wrote three plays, in which the sentimental tendency of the earlier dramas is still faintly discernible. These were "The Lady of Lyons," "Mademoiselle de la Valliere" and "Richelieu." The last of these is singularly free from the taint, and has been immortalized by the work of the great actors who have found in it a con-genial opportunity for the exercise of their gifts. These plays are still remembered by the elder generation of playgoers, who will, if the opportunity is given them, put to rout the innocent enthusiasms of a generation that never saw Booth or the elder Sothern.
An interesting dramatist who represents a transition period is Thos. William Robertson, who died in 1871, after a career in which success came almost too late. It was he who undertook to make comedy out of actual life, with little in the way of the ordinary theatricalisms which had been brought into vogue by the sentimentalists. Most of his plays were remarkable for their skill in technique, their large and wholesome humor, and their sense of character and portrayal of it for the purposes of the stage. Among the favorite plays were "David Garrick," "Society," "Caste" and "School."
The natural transition of the drama was from sentiment to melodrama and farce, and most of the dramatists of our own time began their apprenticeship with such plays. Arthur Wing Pinero and Henry Arthur Jones set out with a group of melodramas to their credit, then passed into farces, and finally into problem plays and sociological plays. Their comedies were influenced, as was all drama of the time, by the brilliant dialogue and sparkling comedy which was the distinguishing feature of Oscar Wilde's plays, "Lady Windermere's Fan," "A Woman of No Importance," and "The Importance of Being Earnest." These, among the cleverest of modern comedies, are delicate satires upon the pretensions of fashionable society, with analysis of its standards and raillery for its follies.
The element of analysis of sociological problems is new with the nineteenth century. It owes its origin to a strikingly different current which swept over European literature and profoundly affected it. The Scandinavian, Ibsen, produced a wholly new type of play,-one that dealt profoundly with the psychological development of character under emotional and moral strain; that showed the hypocrisy of society in undeniable perspective; and that forced otherwise happy-go-lucky persons to recognize their shortcomings. This form of drama has become the distinctive contribution of the nineteenth century to literature.
It is interesting to name some of the plays whose names are familiar to those who follow the stage at all which show this tendency. John Galsworthy has written several of the most important. "Justice" is a study of the effect of penal servitude on a man's character, and contains an entire act in which the prison is shown, its officers and its in-mates alike struggling with a system which denies them the opportunity to reform themselves or achieve the best for their fellows. "Strife" shows the two sides of a great labor-strike, and the contest of wills which underlies the final settlement. Its object is to show in all its details a situation which is summed up by one of the characters at the end, in a sentence, which runs something like this, "They've settled the matter by breaking the two best men in it." "The Pigeon" and "The Mob" show other phases of social conditions.
In the plays of Pinero and Jones the same interest in sociological phenomena appears, though it is directed more specifically to the double standards in matters of personal morality, and to the problems arising from conventional and real standards of morality. One need only mention the names of several of Pinero's more recent plays to show this,-"The Second Mrs. Tanqueray," "The Gay Lord Quex,". "Iris," "Mid-Channel," "His House in Order,"-all deal with problems of this type. The list is equally comprehensive for Jones, though his interest lies more in the arraignment of society than the individual. "The Liars," "The Case of Rebellious Susan," "The Hypocrites," "Michael and His Lost Angel" are examples which show the tendency.
The surprise of the twentieth century, however, belongs to the work of Bernard Shaw, an Irish journalist and dramatist, whose reputation is founded largely on his power of saying clever, startling truths or half-truths which shock the conscience of the public into reaction of some kind. 1n the list of his plays, there is not one which does not in some fashion stimulate argument, discussion, opposition, in relation to one of the pressing issues of the day. A brief enumeration will show the range of topic: "Major Barbara" deals with the relation between religious theory and practice; "Man and Superman" with the feminist view of life; "Widowers' Houses" with the responsibility for the slum districts; "Mrs. Warren's Profession" with the outcast woman. The list might be extended indefinitely.
In consequence of the brilliancy of Shaw's literary work, there has developed a revival of the satiric comedy, to which class belong his most delicious bits of dramatic irony, "You Never Can Tell," "How He Lied to Her Husband," "Candida," and "The Devil's Disciple." There are many others, less well known, and less pretentious, which might be added.
Shaw is the most vivid example of the "modern" spirit in the drama, and has served as the model for much of our contemporary literature. The keynote of this modernity is its defiance of all convention, its disregard of tradition, and its revolt against all the restraints of social machinery. Following his lead the younger dramatists have sought to be sparkling, and have succeeded in being reckless in what they say or believe. The Shavian cult permeates the "advanced" writings of the day.
These "advanced writings" have been interested primarily with all sorts of reforms, as I have shown, and their tendency has been away from a genuinely and soundly based dramatic tradition. At the other extreme has been the commercial theatre,-and here lies our greatest cause for shame and regret in the dramatic situation of the present. For the commercial theatre, as a whole, has not kept pace with the best that was being produced by the dramatists. This is due to a variety of causes.
This situation has been one of the factors at work to develop a new influence in the theatre of the present day. Because they have so fully realized the situation affecting the commercial theatres, and understood that the development of a dramatic literature worthy the name could no longer be entrusted to them, groups of earnest folk in various parts of England have established small repertory theatres, or experimental theatres, devoted to the production of work which the commercial theatre can never be persuaded to undertake. This movement has spread to America.
In these little theatres, the experiment has generally proved a successful one. After an initial period of financial dependence, constituencies have grown up which can be relied upon to support the venture, and which have made possible the presentation of drama of a high order of excellence. The names of two or three producers and companies are worth remembering in this connection. Miss A. E. F. Horniman and Granville Barker, in England, have developed their own companies and public with remarkable success; and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin has become world-famous for its achievements.
The work of the Abbey Theatre is particularly interesting, for it is closely associated with the literary renaissance of Ireland. Under the leadership of William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory, it has been the inspiration for a drama of present-day Ireland, written by Irishmen, and played by those who fully sympathize with Irish character and life. As such it is distinguished for its work. Yeats' "Kathleen ni Houlihan," Synge's "Playboy of the Western World," "Riders to the Sea," and "The Shadow of the Glen" and Lady Gregory's short comedies are significant instances of this new drama.
A study of recent drama would not be complete without mention of the work of Sir James Barrie, whose talent is unique. The plays of Barrie are unlike any that have been written in English, and owe their charm to a quality which one feels to be intimately related to the personality of their author. They are comedy of a high, delicate kind, so graceful and pointed that one rejoices in their perfection of dialogue, while feeling no uneasiness at their satire. Many of them are written in Scotch dialect, and deal with Scotch characters, whose life Barrie interprets with rare felicity and faithfulness.
In addition to his plays of Scotch and English life, Barrie has created a special world for which thousands of children owe him gratitude. "Peter Pan" is a piece of pure fantasy, a delightful story of a child-fairy, whose life and adventures are delineated most exquisitely. His pranks and antics are shown, and his friendship with the human child Wendy, whom he teaches the secrets of the treetops, and who in return gives what his child-heart craves most, affection. The role of Peter Pan was one of the favorite characters assumed by Maude Adams.
It is fortunate that in recent years the plays of Barrie have be-come available in published form, and can be read by whomsoever will do so. "Half Hours" contains one-act plays, of which the most delightful is entitled "The Twelve-Pound Look." "What Every Woman Knows" is one of the plays centering around the family affection of a Scotch household, and its attempt to provide for the only daughter in the family. "The Admirable Crichton" is a bit of penetrating but pleas-ant satire on the social separations between the master and servants in an aristocratic household. One of the most recent plays is "Dear Brutus," in which the contrast between what a man is and what he might be is cleverly brought out. A play of his also deserves mention as being the best of the war-plays,-"The Old Lady Shows Her Medals."
The foregoing represents the English situation, and, in so far as it has been imitated on this side of the Atlantic, it is a creditable one. Unfortunately, however, there has been no comparable growth in either the dramatic appreciation or the literary merit of the native productions. We have been altogether content to copy the poorer aspects of English drama, without originating any of our own. Even the dramatic presentment of one of our great national heroes, Abraham Lincoln, which made the subject of one of the most striking of recent successes, was that of an English poet, John Drinkwater. For our-selves, we have little if any progress to report.
There are, it is true, certain members of the theatrical profession to whom special credit is due for whatever there is at present worth-while in American drama. Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske has made a consistent effort to promote the production of American plays, by producing annually the work of some new or comparatively obscure writer whose merit she deems worthy of encouragement; and a number of the younger dramatists owe their initial success to her acting. She too has the distinction of being the only American actress to present Ibsen to the American public with any degree of success, as Sothern and Marlowe have been the great interpreters of Shakespeare to the newer generation.
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The five interlaced rings of the Olympic flag — blue, yellow, black, green, and red — Pierre De Coubertin said in 1931, represent "the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism." No continent (now region) is assigned a specific color. Perhaps that's why graphic designer Gustavo Sousa intentionally chose not to provide a legend or key for the illustrations above.
In his illustrations, Mr. Sousa assigns each color of the Olympic rings to a specific continent and then pairs it with a variety of data sets: obesity, gun ownership, McDonald's outlets, population, homicides, people living with HIV, military expenditures, Facebook users, number of Catholic priests, percentage of homes with televisions, to name a few. He requires the viewer to ponder, to reflect, to think, to make sense of the information.
As Mr. Sousa explained to Fast Company, "The rings represent healthy competition and union, but we know the world isn’t perfect. Maybe understanding the differences is the first step to try to make things more equal.”
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aman007 asked this question on 9/25/2000:
Please explain to me why forests need to be saved and what are their uses.
Anonymous asked this question on 10/5/2000:
Preservation people were kept their forest and timber companies wanted to cut trees in the forest
Anyway Which side do you agree and why forest is important to human ?
Please answer to me....Thank you
A viewer asked this question on 5/18/2000:
Will the pollution level go up if the government destroys the forest preserves and builds a themepark? If so why?
JesseGordon gave this response on 5/19/2000:
Yes, pollution levels would go up, even outside the esthetic value of forest over theme park.
1) Deforestation causes more global warming. Trees contain tons of carbon, which releases carbon dioxide when the trees are burned or when they rot. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main cause of global warming. The amount released depends on how the trees are used (they could be buried, for example, with no CO2 release).
2) Having fewer trees also increases global warming on an ongoing basis. Item (1) is about the carbon in the trees themselves. In addition to that, trees convert CO2 in the atmosphere back into more tree (via photosynthesis) plus oxygen (O2). There are two effects of that: less atmospheric CO2, and more atmospheric oxygen. The O2 effect we wouldn't see unless we removed trees like this for thousands of years (because there's a lot more O2 in the atmosphere than CO2). The CO2 effect we would notice as even faster global warming. The amount of CO2 effect here would depend on what was planted to replace the trees. If the theme parks were all paved, you'd get the biggest effect.
3) Both of those focus on tree's "sequestering carbon." One of their other big effects is to hold soil in place (via their root structure). With no trees around, soil runoff would increase, which means the soil would be less able in the future to grow other plants, and nearby streams would become muddier. Those streams would lead to other rivers, and the overall effect would be more silt in all rivers downstream. More silt means less fish, because fish use spaces between rocks to lay eggs, and many spaces would be filled with the additional mud.
4) Trees also help keep water clean by catching other materials before they run into streams and rivers. During a rainstorm in a large theme park, for example, oils from the parking lot, etc., would flow directly into nearby streams and rivers. Trees along the river banks (we usually recommend a couple hundred feet of "conservation strips") creates a tangle of brush that would catch some of the oil (or whatever other runoff is there). More oil in rivers means less healthy swimming and less healthy fish habitat.
5) Trees also suck up water at prodigious rates. During large rainstorms, that has the effect of keeping river levels moderated. In other words, forests provide flood control. If you cleared a large forest, you'd end up with rivers more likely to flood. That would especially be the case in a theme park, because you'd have large cleared areas with storm drains that quickly concentrate all the water into one place. You'd have to build large "swales" or water holding areas to compensate.
So in conclusion, by converting forest to theme park, you'd have more global warming, more soil erosion, less healthy water, less fish, and more flooding. It had better be a really nice theme park!
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Data & Statistics
Safety and Health Program Assessment Worksheet
III. HAZARD PREVENTION AND CONTROL
A. Timely and effective hazard control
Hazard controls are fully in place, known and supported by work force, with concentration on engineering controls and safe work procedures.
Hazard controls are fully in place with priority to engineering controls, safe work procedures, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment (in that order).
Hazard controls are fully in place, but there is some reliance on personal protective equipment.
Hazard controls are generally in place, but there is heavy reliance on personal protective equipment.
Hazard control is not complete, effective, and appropriate.
B. Facility and Equipment Maintenance
Operators are trained to recognize maintenance needs and perform and order maintenance on schedule.
An effective preventive maintenance schedule is in place and applicable to all equipment.
A preventive maintenance schedule is in place and is usually followed except for higher priorities.
A preventive maintenance schedule is in place but is often allowed to slide.
There is little or no attention paid to preventive maintenance; break-down maintenance is the rule.
C-1. Emergency Planning and Preparation
There is an effective emergency response plan and employees know immediately how to respond as a result of effective planning, training, and drills.
There is an effective emergency response plan and employees have a good understanding of responsibilities as a result of plans, training, and drills.
There is an effective emergency response plan and team, but other employees may be uncertain of their responsibilities.
There is an effective emergency response plan, but training and drills are weak and roles may be unclear.
Little effort is made to prepare for emergencies.
C-2. Emergency Equipment
Facility is fully equipped for emergencies; all systems and equipment are in place and regularly tested; all personnel know how to use equipment and communicate during emergencies.
Facility is well equipped for emergencies with appropriate emergency phones and directions; majority of personnel know how to use equipment and communicate during emergencies.
Emergency phones, directions, and equipment are in place, but only emergency teams know what to do.
Emergency phones, directions, and equipment are in place, but employees show little awareness.
There is little or no effort made to provide emergency equipment and information.
D-1. Medical Program (Health Providers)
Occupational health providers are regularly on-site and fully involved.
Occupational health providers are involved in hazard assessment and training.
Occupational health providers are consulted about significant health concerns in addition to accidents.
Occupational health providers are available, but normally concentrate on employees who get hurt.
Occupational health assistance is rarely requested or provided.
D-2. Medical Program (Emergency Care)
Personnel fully trained in emergency medicine are always available on-site.
Personnel with basic first aid skills are always available on-site, all shifts.
Either on-site or nearby community aid is always available on day shift.
Personnel with basic first aid skills are usually available, with community assistance nearby.
Neither on-site nor community aid can be ensured at all times.
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U.S. Department of Labor | Occupational Safety & Health Administration | 200 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20210
Telephone: 800-321-OSHA (6742) | TTY: 877-889-5627
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CAPE HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE RELOCATION
By Cheryl Shelton-Roberts
The Lighthouse News
Edited from Vol. V no 2 Summer 1999
The first move was one-and one-half-inches up.
On Saturday, June 5, 1999, at 11:30 am, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse had been raised by the unified hydraulic jacking system so workers could begin removing the shoring towers. The shoring towers, four steel posts that are cross-braced for lateral support, have bolstered the 1870 tower since the granite foundation removal began in January.
One hundred hydraulic jacks handled the job of raising the tower in one-foot increments. As height was gained, shoring towers were disassembled. Oak cribbing took over the Atlas-like job of supporting the lighthouse. Absence of the shoring towers marked a milestone in the move process, leading to the load transfer of the lighthouse to the transport system. The transport system consists of the main beams with their built-in hydraulic jacks, roll beams, encased Hilman rollers, and push jacks.
As each lift was gained, oak cribbing filled in the height difference. The lighthouse was raised a total of six feet to make space for the roll beams (also known as track or travel beams/steel). Below each jack area of the main beams and on top of the roll beams, encased rollers were placed. Once the roll beams and rollers were in place, the jacks were reset in a three-zone pressure, able to be adjusted for any bumps along the move corridor.
The control panel for the hydraulic jacks and the hydraulic pump for the jacking system were positioned at the back of the lighthouse, opposite the direction of the move. To monitor the control panel, an operator rode along with the lighthouse to watch each jack’s pressure. If the leading edge of the lighthouse encountered a rise or dip along the move path, other jacks’ pressures were adjusted to absorb the stress. “Essentially, the building does not know it is being moved,” an engineer commented. And at the top speed of just over an inch a minute, movers had plenty of time to adjust for any inconsistencies along the way.
Record breaking numbers of visitors have traveled long distances to see the historic event. The tallest brick lighthouse in North America has long been the most recognized lighthouse in the country. Its stately height at 198 feet, the clean lines of its spiral daymark, and its memorable base of marble and red brick all are details for instant recall for anyone having even limited exposure to lighthouses. The reverence held by those fascinated with the mystique of Cape Hatteras led to the national movement to relocate the maritime icon before losing its purchase on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.
On the move track, the lighthouse was considered as safe as when it was on the aging pine timber mat. Engineers agreed that once the tower had been moved about 850 feet from the threshold of its steepened headland, the lighthouse was safer from big storms menacing the surrounding coastal area.
Pete Friesen first conceived the unique jacking system in 1954. The system has been going through an evolution towards perfection to yield a special jacking machine and its red control/monitor panel, which were built expressly for this historic move. International Chimney Corporation and its team of subcontractors were confident the jacking system would do the job with precision. Some of the major players were the Matyiko brothers of Expert House Movers.
The move took place over about four weeks’ time. Preparation for the move began in January. Slowly, gently, the lighthouse glided to the new concrete pad that had cured since May. Lowering the tower worked like the lift sequence in reverse.
When the lighthouse hovered above its new foundation, temporary shoring was installed to the height from the concrete pad to the underside of the tower, shoring each side of the main beams. The main beams were depressurized one at a time, roll beams were removed one at a time, and temporary shoring (such as jacks on cribbing) were put in place. The shoring towers were reinstalled and tensioned to the underside of the lighthouse. Bricklayers filled spaces around the shoring towers and built columns of brick for support. As support was made on each side of the shoring towers, they were disassembled once again. Eventually all support steel was removed and brickwork conjoined the base of the lighthouse to the concrete pad, rendering it an entity with added strength.
The larger, twelve-foot deep, steel reinforced concrete pad increased the foundation’s diameter, upon which the tower and brickwork rested, to seventy feet from the original forty-nine feet at the old site. (Reinforced steel extended beyond the new concrete pad.) Earth was moved to cover the concrete and brickwork to finish the new site at ground level. The lighthouse gained about two feet of new elevation situated approximately 1,600 feet from the ocean.
As the lighthouse was being raised and beginning its initial move forward, major television and radio networks from all around the country were arriving to document the lighthouse’s slide towards its new home. Like technological bookends to the century, the Wright Brothers had liftoff just after the new century in 1903, and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse had its own liftoff at the end of the century in 1999. Both are prodigious engineering feats. Both events occurred on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
The National Park Service began Phase II after the light station has been reset. The Park Service will handle walkways, restrooms, fire alarm systems, a new parking area, and other details concerned with requirements for reopening to the public.
The original exhibits were moved inside the Principal and Assistant Keepers Quarters. To help complement interpretive exhibits at the light station, the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society planned various fundraisers. OBLHS transferred funds to the NPS, Cape Hatteras Preservation Fund, earmarked for a wayside marker to interpret the original lighthouse site. Bruce and Cheryl Roberts served as consultants to write the material for the markers. In the fall, 1999, an auction of move memorabilia, including hardhats worn and signed by the movers and engineers of the relocation, helped to furnish the keepers quarters.
A relighting ceremony was held November 13, 1999. The NPS reopened the light station Memorial Day 2000.
This Site Last Updated:
Thursday April 6, 2006 3:47 PM
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Searching The Attic
- Students will conduct field research, including the use of a grid system, in order to discover important or interesting family artifacts.
- Students will map discoveries of important artifacts on a grid map in order to track and better analyze interesting finds.
Tools And Materials
- Students will need parental permission to search one of the group's attics.
- Students will also need enough string to create a grid system in the attic. (See step 2 for how to determine the length of string needed.)
- Once students have decided which attic (or basement) to search, and have gotten permission to search that attic, have the student whose house will be used bring in a scale drawing of the attic. Have their parent mark off any area of the attic that students should not search, either for safety or personal reasons.
- Have students use the map to divide the searchable area into 1-meter squares. Have students calculate how much string will be necessary to map out these 1-meter squares.
- Have students create a naming system for the grid. Provide them with examples of a map that uses letters along one axis and numbers along the other in order to name the squares.
- Students should agree on a time to meet at the appropriate house. Make sure a parent is available to ask questions and to supervise the search.
- Instruct students to carefully search the house, looking for items of interest. Pay particular attention to any item that will relate to interesting portions of the interview.
- If parents have given hints as to the locations of items, you may want students to note this ahead of time, so they can compare actual locations to predicted locations.
- Whenever students find an object of interest, have them set it aside for later. Make sure they note in which grid square it was discovered and any other details about its location they can provide. Keep an accurate list of any items. Students may wish to label each item, using reusable sticky notes.
- Once the students have separated out the interesting items, you may wish to instruct them to take photographs of each item.
- If possible, have students bring the items in to class to display.
- Have students predict how each of the items came into the family's possession and what the historical significance of each item is. Remind students, however, that at this point, they are simply making predictions, not statements of fact. These hypotheses will be tested later.
Standards from MCREL Standards
- Understands the nature of scientific inquiryUses technology (e.g., hand tools, measuring instruments, calculators, computers) and mathematics (e.g., measurement, formulas, charts, graphs) to perform accurate scientific investigations and communications.
Understands the historical perspectiveKnows how to evaluate the credibility and authenticity of historical sources.
- Applies decision-making techniquesSecures factual information needed to evaluate alternatives.
- Predicts the consequences of selecting each alternative.
- Makes decisions based on the data obtained and the criteria identified.
- Working With OthersContributes to the overall effort of a group.
- Displays effective interpersonal communication skills.
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