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versão On-line ISSN 2078-5135
versão impressa ISSN 0256-9574
SAMJ, S. Afr. med. j. vol.100 no.11 Cape Town Nov. 2010
The human genome and molecular medicine - promises and pitfalls
The genome is the full complement of genetic information of an organism. It occurs in the form of DNA and is inherited from our parents. DNA is a series of nucleotides (bases) abbreviated A, C, G and T. Every nucleated cell in the body contains a full complement of genetic information that is organised into 46 chromosomes (XX or XY sex chromosomes and 22 pairs of autosomes).
The working (rough) draft of the human genome was published early in 2001, and the first individual genome was sequenced in 2007. This year (2010) is the 10th anniversary of completion of draft sequence. To date, more than 25 individual genomes have been published while hundreds of completed sequences remain unpublished.
The reference human genome is contained in one copy of each of the 22 autosomes and the 2 sex chromosomes (X and Y). This is referred to as a haploid genome. Since the full complement of genetic information of an individual is contained in 46 chromosomes, this is the equivalent of 2 haploid genomes and is referred to as diploid. If one were to consider this in terms of the number of base pairs (since DNA is double-stranded), a haploid genome contains 3 billion base pairs. This means that the entire complement of genetic information of an individual is contained in 6 billion (6x109) base pairs. If stored in book form, with each page containing 1 000 letters and each book containing 1 000 pages, more than 6 000 books would be needed to store the information that is present in a diploid genome. And all this is contained in every nucleated cell in our bodies!
Information contained in the genome determines bodily structure and function. Since all structure and function (including memory and emotion) has a molecular basis, the genome is critical to health and disease. Genetic factors do not act in isolation but are influenced by the environment in which they are expressed. This interaction results in what is referred to as phenotype; phenotype is what we can see or measure. Variability between individuals determines their uniqueness. This variability may also result in disease. Sequencing of a full complement of genetic information in an individual assesses the nucleotide sequences of both maternally and paternally derived haploid genomes, which allows one to determine whether variations relative to a reference sequence are homozygous or heterozygous at specific bases.
Chromosomes contain genes and other (non-coding) regions. A gene is a sequence of nucleotides that encodes a specific functional product (including but not limited to proteins). With the sequencing of the human genome, it has become apparent that the genome contains in excess of 20 000 different protein coding genes. These proteins constitute the molecular building blocks of our bodies. Not all 20 000 genes are transcribed in every cell, and the unique combination of those that are (several thousand in varied permutations) provides uniqueness to the different cell types that make up our bodies. Less than 1.5% of the human genome codes for proteins.
It is interesting to note that 6×109 base pairs of DNA need to be replicated, packed and segregated every time a cell divides. This is done up to 1012 times during the development of a human being from a single fertilised cell. It is no wonder that genetic errors are introduced during this process. Even more astonishing is the extremely high degree of fidelity of the replication process, and the fact that the more than 6 billion people on this planet are alive and functioning because of this fidelity!
The information derived from human genome sequences has applications in molecular medicine, DNA forensics, archaeology, anthropology, evolution and human migration.
Applications in molecular medicine
Potential medical applications of the knowledge obtained from human genome sequences can be considered under the headings of prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
When genetic information is combined with that on lifestyle (environment), it could be of predictive value for the later development of disease. Once this factor is known, preventive measures can be put into place, including diet, exercise and pharmacological intervention to minimise the risk of developing the disease. However, one of the concerns in this nascent field is the unregulated marketing of genetic tests directly to the general public. In the absence of evidence-based data, these tests should be interpreted and acted upon with a degree of caution.
The field of pharmacogenetics depends on an understanding of the genetic predisposition to adverse drug reactions and treatment non-response. The use of this information to develop patient-specific drug regimens is a major component of the rapidly emerging field of personalised medicine.
Information on the sequences of genes involved in the pathogenesis of a given disease will enhance the ability to diagnose that disease and will positively affect both sensitivity and specificity. The importance of pharmacogenetics in this setting is highlighted by the fact that it may assist in understanding retrospectively the origin of an adverse drug reaction or non-response to treatment.
Information on a genome-wide level is being used in the field of rational drug design. Finally, when it becomes an accepted form of medical practice and is used to replace the product of a defective gene, gene therapy will also be dependent on information derived from the genome.
As with any rapidly emerging field, clearly defined ethical and legal boundaries and guidelines need to be established. Regarding the human genome, some of the areas currently being debated are outlined below.
The first is confidentiality. Who will have access to genomic information? Should employers and insurance companies have access to our genetic information? Could we have our claims refused by a medical aid company that argues that we should have known that we were susceptible to a given condition because the technology is available? In 2008, the United States government introduced the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act which attempts to address these issues.
The second is the suggestion that work in this area may be interfering with Mother Nature. Some feel that we may be working against evolution, and that it would be preferable to allow Mother Nature to take her natural course. However, ignorance breeds fear, hence the tendency to enter into a state of denial and avoid confronting issues of this nature. But can we afford to remain ignorant when we see the emergence around us of designer organisms? Then there is the issue of reproductive cloning, which in humans is universally accepted as being unethical and is banned.
And thirdly is the issue of patents and commercialisation. Who owns the data generated from DNA sequencing? Should the individuals from whom this information was obtained be entitled to royalties from DNA-based products and technologies? This notion of benefit-sharing is particularly important, given the size of the global biotechnology industry emanating from work on the human genome.
Although the excitement in this rapidly emerging field is tangible, one may well ask 'Who will benefit from knowledge accrued from sequencing information?' If we accept the notion that no single life is better than another, then everyone stands to benefit. National, local, ethnic and gender-specific differences will nonetheless need to be embraced in order to provide our patients with objective and optimal care. However, there should be no distinction between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots', although for practical reasons (including human and financial resources), priority may have to be given to common v. rare diseases.
In parallel with discoveries on the human genome has come the realisation that cellular structure and function is mediated by complex networks of molecules that function both within and outside the cell. If one combines the concept that several thousand genes are transcribed in every cell and that the resulting proteins interact in complex intra-and extracellular networks, one quickly realises that our current understanding of how cells function is only in its infancy. This is a very humbling thought, and forces us to question every element of our present understanding of how the body works. For example, previous studies might have implicated a particular molecule in a given disease process. However, we now discover that there are many more molecules (literally tens or even hundreds) that are involved in the process we are studying. The question then arises as to what importance we should ascribe to each molecule in the disease process, i.e. where can we rank the molecule in which we are interested in order of its relative importance. From a genetic perspective, this is currently only possible for monogenic/mendelian disorders (such as cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy or osteogenesis imperfecta) but not for the more common so-called multifactorial disorders such as diabetes, obesity and ischaemic heart disease, which arise from variants in several genes in a given individual and their interaction with the environment.
To conclude this line of thought, I suggest that a great deal of caution must be applied when attempting to implicate a particular molecular mechanism/pathway in a given disease. Information obtained from sequencing the human genome has highlighted the fact that we have relatively little knowledge about the pathogenesis of human disease from a molecular perspective. The 'acid test' of a given hypothesis must remain objective clinical data. This can only be obtained from studies that adhere to the principles of evidence-based medicine in which data are derived from cohorts of patients that are large enough to be statistically and biologically significant and in which the information has been carefully recorded using techniques/ instruments that have been adequately validated.
Finally, with the exception of molecular diagnostics for mendelian disorders, the progress on the translation of genome data to the clinic has been relatively slow, although we can expect this trend to change with an increasing number of applications in the near future. The potential of this rapidly expanding field is unquestioned, and we should be ready to embrace the vast amount of new information obtained from sequencing the human genome as it reaches our shores.
Michael S Pepper
Department of Immunology
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Pretoria, and
Department of Genetic Medicine and Development
University Medical Centre
Corresponding author: M Pepper ([email protected]) | <urn:uuid:eb32e820-8f3c-45db-a905-33e1af1b115e> | {
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The number of people living with HIV/AIDS globally has dramatically dropped—not because of an actual drop in the HIV burden but because of better counting methods in India. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization announced last November that the disease’s prevalence in India is 2.5 million—down by more than half from a previous estimate of 5.7 million. A commentary in the December 1, 2007, Lancet explains that previous official counts extrapolated data from large public hospitals. The revised figure derives from a national health survey of 102,000 adults and corroborates earlier findings from a smaller study. The lower estimate means that India will not need to devote as many resources to fight HIV and will not see the same infection rates as sub-Saharan Africa. The numbers support the current prevention strategy of targeting high-risk groups such as sex workers.
Flu in the Cold
Influenza spreads most readily in winter, but crowding and closed windows have nothing to do with that seasonality. Rather cold air and low relative humidity seem to do the trick. Researchers found that infected guinea pigs kept at five degrees Celsius shed the bug for 40 hours longer than those kept near room temperature. The virus was most stable at relative humidities of 20 to 40 percent: dry air leads to smaller water droplets on which viruses are carried, enabling them to remain airborne for long periods. In the cold, cilia in the respiratory system work more slowly, enabling the virus to spread in the respiratory tract and to disperse in a sneeze or a cough.
In authenticating artwork by Jackson Pollock, investigators have used a technique that is intended to extract certain geometric patterns thought to permeate the drip painter’s signature splashes. The technique is based on fractals, repeating patterns of varying scales, as seen in the so-called Julia set, shown at the right. In 2006 physicists at Case Western Reserve University challenged the veracity of the method, arguing that the fractals that are supposedly unique to Pollock’s work were also detected in amateur pieces. In an as yet unpublished paper, they continue their attack, showing that some genuine Pollocks failed the test, whereas amateur paintings intended to imitate Pollock’s technique passed.
Richard P. Taylor, a University of Oregon physicist who originally designed the fractal analysis, claims the Case Western team has misapplied his technique, which, he says, should be used with other authentication methods, such as materials analysis. Taylor has examined six of a recently discovered cache of 32 suspected Pollock works, of which none so far has reached his mathematical criteria. | <urn:uuid:85427c14-f238-4087-8098-0b43cbab1297> | {
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Will China's new pollution plan work?
The mainland's first comprehensive plan to improve air quality reflects strong resistance by local government and industry to specific and binding targets to reduce coal consumption - the main culprit for pollution. As a result, the plan is three months overdue and lacking detail, but nonetheless a welcome start on tackling a major health issue.
The authorities promise improvements in air quality in key regions within four years as a result of measures, including closing down polluting factories, improving fuel quality and reducing overreliance on coal. The principal aim is to cut levels of PM2.5, tiny airborne pollutants most harmful to human health, in major city clusters around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, by 25, 20 and 15 per cent respectively. Beijing has a specific goal to limit its yearly average of PM2.5 to around 60mg per cubic metre, still well above the national standard of 35 and the safe limit of 10 set by the World Health Organisation.
Perhaps most disappointing is the modest goal for reducing reliance on coal in the total energy mix - to less than 65 per cent from 66.8 per cent last year. Environmentalists had been hoping for specific and binding goals. Officials have since gone some way to meeting these concerns by asking the northern industrial areas of Beijing, Tianjin , Hebei and Shandong to cut coal use by 83 million tonnes or about 12 per cent by 2017. Government advisers say the plan could quicken the pace of the clean-up without sacrificing growth.
Now that there is, at last, a plan to rein in polluting industry, the question is whether there is a will to implement it. Without such resolve, a controversial proposal by the Beijing city government to combat vehicle pollution would appear to be doomed. Inspired by the success of similar schemes in London and Singapore, it is considering imposing a charge to discourage drivers from entering the city as part of a plan to improve traffic flow and air quality. If officials are serious, they should also make the alternative of public transport more convenient and attractive. | <urn:uuid:c814b68d-ddb6-41d1-aaa2-d66e1e5a8161> | {
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Has your school or school district considered going green? With budgets slashed across the board and many schools desperately fighting just to keep their doors open, it seems the push to make schools greener may have gotten lost in the red tape shuffle.
But as the US Green Building Council reminds us, greener schools are healthier schools that save in the long run on everything from sick days to energy costs. This neat infographic shows it nicely. There are 700 MILLION kids nationwide entering our schools everyday. And that figure does not even take into account all of the teachers, administrators, and school staff that walk the halls every day.
With 25 percent of the American population spending the better part of their day in a school, isn't it worth it in terms of health and cost savings to make sure that those schools are toxin-free and energy efficient?
Check out this infographic from the US Green Building Council for more details, statistics and facts related to green schools... | <urn:uuid:137c27d0-2524-4354-89fa-a33db2c2c068> | {
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THE fate of classical music seems to be one of 2013’s emerging trends: anniversaries for Verdi, Wagner and Britten; a series inspired by Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise at London’s South Bank Centre, and already a steady stream of books is appearing, from Abbate and Parker’s fascinating history of opera and David Byrne’s How Music Works to a new biography of Lina Prokofiev and Alan Rusbridger’s attempt to learn Chopin’s Ballade No 1.
The Story Of Music
Chatto & Windus, £20
Howard Goodall, whose compositional work includes musicals, choral pieces (notably Eternal Light) and TV scores (The Vicar Of Dibley, Blackadder, QI etc), presents this TV tie-in; an accessible guide to roughly 42,000 years of music in just over 300 pages that manages neither to sacrifice precise detail nor pugnacious opinion.
This sweep is the book’s key strength, even if it means that some composers receive relatively short shrift. But it is in keeping with the title: this is about music, not a roll-call of the greats, and Goodall is unfailingly acute on how technology drives musical innovation, from the first ever, octave higher, boy choruses for plainchant masses lost in the mists of the first millennium AD (a necessary first step towards polyphony) to how recording democratised the musical experience.
He divides the history into neat but not discrete periods. The Age of Discovery (up to 1450, from the first rudimentary whistles carbon-dated to 40,000 BC) covers the invention of notation for both pitch and duration and leads into The Age of Penitence, up to 1650, taking in the refinement of musical instruments and the work of Josquin, Dowland and Monteverdi.
The next century is “Invention”, with Bach’s Equal Temperament at its centre; then “Elegance and Sentiment” covering Haydn and Mozart to Beethoven and Chopin. The chronology is compressed for the Age of Tragedy – 1850 to 1890 – discussing Berlioz, Verdi, Liszt and Wagner. Rebellion (1890-1918) may have Stravinsky as the ringmaster of Modernism, but also ushers in popular music; and the tension between “popular” and “classical” music takes up the final two chapters.
Goodall does not stint on explaining technical aspects – such as the Circle of Fifths, the fugue form or syncopation – but does, pleasingly, rail about how the language of music is often an impediment. This is not just a matter of not knowing your legato from your passacaglia, but the problematic way in which a term like “classical” or “Romantic” might be used; there being precious little connection between a David painting, a poem by Pope, a Wren church and a Mozart opera although all might be referred to as “classical”.
Although Goodall is admirably catholic in his tastes, he does have villains; notably Wagner and Schoenberg. His view of Wagner as a musical dead end comes at the price of discounting Bruckner, and I would disagree strongly that it is “not so far-fetched to suggest that, without his link to the Nazis, most people who were not hardcore opera fans would by now have lost interest in Wagner”.
Likewise, his denunciation of Schoenberg (“produced decades of scholarly hot air… and – in its purest, strictest form – not one piece of music, in 100 years’ worth of effort, that a normal person could understand or enjoy”) is intemperate. I think I’m fairly normal and think Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto (and Webern’s String Quartet and Berg’s Lulu and Wozzeck) are sublime works. They refresh what it means to listen.
In the pages on the 20th century, Goodall poses a number of provocative questions. Almost anyone can whistle Eleanor Rigby, a piece of West Side Story, or the theme from The Godfather or The Mission, but can anyone do the same for Stockhausen or Adès or Boulez? It’s a bit of a cheat – if he’d chosen Glass’s Powaqqatsi or Nyman’s Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds or Maxwell Davies’ Farewell To Stromness – he might well get a different answer. Goodall’s conclusion is that songwriters like Lennon and McCartney “were the most unlikely saviours of old-fashioned music, but that’s undoubtedly what they were”. A debate between Alex Ross and Howard Goodall would be a fine thing to stage on these points.
There is another undercurrent in the book. He quotes Sir Simon Rattle’s mordant joke that, “We British have every reason to be modest about our music,” and clearly feels differently. As well as the great Elizabethans, he notes Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, Purcell, John Field, and is perhaps slightly too enthusiastic about Arthur Sullivan, as well as duly citing Parry, Butterworth, Vaughan Williams, and Delius. He does not dwell on Britten but rather startling says that Tippett’s A Child Of Our Time is “classical music’s most heartfelt answer… to the challenges of Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit.
It is a good corrective to see British music championed, and as such, it seems curious not to mention that most successful of recent operas, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole, or the work of James Macmillan. Thankfully, despite being a keen proponent of the musical, the schmaltz of Andrew Lloyd Webber goes unmentioned.
The Story Of Music is a clever, engaging read. Once the TV series is out, it would be useful to have a CD or an app that takes the book out of silence. « | <urn:uuid:7470ae9c-8cc3-4f9a-9cf3-adf1478db9a8> | {
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We manage our use of water carefully and invest in new approaches and technologies to use it more efficiently.
Few natural resources are as essential for human development as fresh water – we drink it, wash in it, grow food with it, use it to manufacture goods and produce energy. We are reducing our use of fresh water by finding new ways to reuse and recycle waste water.
In this section
In an unusual arrangement with a city in Canada, we use treated waste water instead of precious fresh water to boost natural gas production.
In the Omani desert, reed beds are being used to naturally clean water produced as oil extracted, before it evaporates.
You may also be interested in
Water is a resource that is hard to come by in Qatar’s desert climate. The Pearl GTL plant produces more water than gas-to-liquids products.
The world needs to adapt to the extreme weather events linked to climate change, particularly flooding and water shortages caused by droughts. | <urn:uuid:ba12939c-69d7-4e3a-bc47-70425a36712e> | {
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Sport Specialization: A Disturbing Trend
RIS - Summer 2005
by Kathy Toon
Multi-sport youth athletes are becoming a rarity. An increasing number of children are specializing in one sport at an early age, training year-round and competing on an "elite" level. The ever-present dream of sports success is creating constant pressure for younger and younger athletes to train longer, harder and more intelligently. Unfortunately, many parents believe the growing misperception that competitive sport requires exclusivity and that athletes who participate in one sport year-round get an edge on those who split time between multiple sports. However, research indicates that this approach could backfire.
In competitive figure skating there is a tremendous push to develop young skaters. In order to qualify for regional competition and beyond, many coaches believe that skaters need to be landing all of their double jumps, including their double Axel, by the age of 12. Coaches and parents look at Tara Lipinski, who won gold at the Olympics at age 15, and believe she must have been landing triples by the time she was 8 years old! With this kind of thinking and pressure, it's not surprising that coaches encourage their skaters to specialize very early.
While child development researchers believe it is never too early for children to participate in a wide range of sport activities, they caution that participation in organized athletic competition should generally not begin before the age of 8. Researchers believe that, by age 8, children are psychologically mature enough to accept coaching and are physically mature enough to participate in sports with a minimal risk of injury. The emphasis for sports participation at the youth level should be on skill development and fun, not on intense competition. Researchers have suggested 13 as the age at which most children can cope with, and benefit from, more intense competition.
Researchers caution parents and coaches against pressuring children into specializing in one sport at an early age. Anecdotal reports suggest risks of "burnout" from physical and emotional stress, missed social and educational opportunities, and disruptions of family life. Unfortunately, the lure of national and Olympic success can motivate athletes and their parents to commit to specialized training programs too early. The low probability of reaching this lofty goal does not appear to discourage many aspirants.
Research by Tudor Bompa, a leading expert in the theory of training and coaching, recommends that athletes avoid early sports specialization. He found that those who participate in a variety of sports and specialize only after reaching the age of puberty tend to be more consistent performers, have fewer injuries and adhere to sports longer than those who specialize early.
So what are parents to do? Talk with your children. Find out if the decision to specialize is theirs or the coach's. If your children are in middle school or older and want to focus solely on skating, then no problem. If they want to continue doing multiple sports yet feel pressure from a coach to specialize, talk it through. Remind them that playing team sports like basketball or soccer can build leg muscles as well as give them a break from the rink. Consider suggesting ballet, dance or other related classes - these can be a great supplement to any skating program.
The Positive Coaching Alliance advocates that the decision to specialize be made by the athletes themselves, free from parental or coaching pressure. At some point athletes may consider specializing in one sport and curbing or dropping their participation in others. This is not a bad thing, and it can even be a good thing. But the impetus should come from the player, not parental or coaching pressure. Coaches and parents should provide valuable guidance and perspective, and ultimately let the child decide.
Bottom line: Kids get a great deal out of playing more than one sport and participating in activities outside of sports. It should be entirely up to them as to whether or not they wish to specialize, and when.
Kathy Toon is a senior trainer and the product development manager for Positive Coaching Alliance. To learn more about the ISI-PCA partnership or bringing the benefits of a PCA programs to your community, visit PositiveCoach.org. | <urn:uuid:e313675e-081c-480b-bdc9-923179e2c5b5> | {
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The Earth sciences examine the natural world in which we live, including earth’s history and the evolution of life, the oceans and atmosphere, the chemistry and physics of earth materials, and the processes that shape the Earth’s landscapes.
To succeed in the Earth sciences, students will need to demonstrate a keen scientific curiosity and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
The Earth Sciences Program at Skyline College
Students studying the Earth sciences at Skyline College will learn how their environment (including the Earth, the atmosphere, ocean, and biosphere) affects the lives of people around the world and how human activities affect our environment. In addition to classes in Geology and Oceanography, we offer two Associate of Science Degrees for Transfer in Geology for students looking for a clear path to transfer to a four-year institution.
A degree in earth sciences can lead to a variety of careers, including in the environmental, engineering, mining, teaching, exploration and geophysics fields, and in hydrology, space science and oceanography. Students who are contemplating a professional career in the earth sciences should note that many occupations are looking for candidates with Masters Degrees or higher – interested students may consider Skyline College’s AS Degree in Geology as a stepping stone toward this goal.
The State of California Employment Development Department provides an online Occupational Guide that provides helpful job descriptions, job outlooks and wages, and qualification requirements for a wide variety of careers. Use this guide to find more information about a career that may interest you. | <urn:uuid:afb592ad-adfa-4711-a6c9-ea49694e10b5> | {
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The body’s five senses feed the brain with millions of pieces of information every day. While all the senses are important, sight is perhaps the most obvious and most used of the senses. The eyes absorb the light and feed the images to the brain. It’s the brain that interprets the images and makes sense of them. The way the eye works by taking the light waves that come into it and transforming them into usable images is fascinating. The different sections of the eye work together to bring images of life to the brain.
The eye is actually made up of two primary parts. The sclera is the outer coating of the back part of the eye. This coating surrounds the iris, pupil, and other parts of the eye, protecting and enclosing them. The sclera is white, which is why most of the eye that is visible is white. The cornea and sclera are connected by a ring called the limbus.
The front part of the eye is the cornea. It is a transparent layer which acts much like a window. The cornea allows the light through to the back part of the eye. It is also much more curved than the back part of the eye. Interestingly, the cornea accounts for only about one-sixth of the mass of the eye.
The cornea also affects the clarity of the images which come through the eye. When the cornea is misshapen, the focus of the light coming in will be off. This is why some people need glasses or contacts. These re-focus the light correctly so the person can see clearly. In the same way, laser eye surgery reshapes the cornea so the person can see clearly without glasses.
Anterior and Posterior Chambers
Between the cornea and the back section of the eye which contains the iris and pupil, there is a small cavity of fluid. This area is called the anterior chamber of the eye. The fluid is aqueous humor. This fluid helps the cornea keep its shape and provides nutrition to this area of the eye. If the drain for this fluid becomes obstructed, too much of this fluid will accumulate, resulting in glaucoma.
The posterior chamber sits between the iris and the lens. It is also filled with aqueous humor. The fluid actually comes from the anterior chamber to the posterior chamber and then drains from there. This area should not be confused with the posterior segment, or cavity, which is behind the lens and is filled with a different substance.
Iris and Pupil
When people speak of someone’s eyes, they are usually referring to the iris and pupil. The iris is the colored part of the eye. Irises can be blue, brown, green, grey, or a mottling of these. Besides being aesthetically pleasing, the iris plays an important part of the eye’s function. It controls the amount of light which enters the eye.
The pupil is the dark center of the iris. It is the opening in the eye which allows the light to pass through to the back of the eye. Much like the shutter on a camera, the iris will open the pupil to let in more light when it is dark. The iris closes the pupil partway if the light is too bright. Continuing the camera analogy, the pupil is the aperture of the eye.
Just behind the pupil is the lens. Just like the lens on the camera, the lens in the eye focuses the light waves coming through the pupil onto the retina. The lens is also transparent, just like a camera lens. It is the deterioration of this lens which causes people to need reading glasses as they age.
Though it has a funny name, the vitreous humor is no laughing matter. The sclera, choroid, and retina are outer layers around the posterior, or vitreous cavity. This cavity is filled with a gel-like substance called vitreous humor. The vitreous humor helps give the eye its shape and helps protect the retina and optical nerve in the back of the eye.
The retina is the receptor of all the light images coming through the eye. It is a layer of nerves along the back of the eye. These special nerves receive the light and send electrical impulses to the brain. These are carried by the optical nerve to the part of the brain which interprets the images.
The images on the retina are actually upside down. The brain then reorients them, combines the images from both eyes, and sends the information along to other parts of the body. Without the brain interpreting the images, a person cannot see. This is why a head injury in the right place can result in blindness. The brain must also control and coordinate the movements of both eyes so that they work together.
The macula is actually part of the retina. The macula contains the special cells which can sense the light that is being focused on it. It also acts like a filter to the fovea. Not only does this play a crucial role in sending messages to the brain, but it also allows humans to see fine details. As humans age, the macula may also not work as well, a condition known as macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness.
The center of the macula which produces this sharp vision is the fovea. It is this sharpness that allows humans to read, drive, or do anything in which precise detail is important. This is also the area that detects subtle differences in color and provides the brain with sharp color images. The macula is thinner at the fovea, providing the light better access to it.
- The Human Eye: How it Works
- Interactive Diagram of the Eye
- How the Eye Works
- Webvision: Pictures of the Eye
- How the Eye Works
- Parts of the Eye
- Image Formation and Human Vision
- Physical Structures of the Eye
- The Sclera
- Facts About the Cornea
- Segments and Chambers of the Eye
- Model of the Iris and Pupil
- The Retina
- The Macula | <urn:uuid:cd7a1fa3-4e0f-441a-b14f-1a8427cb2e7d> | {
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Subscriptions to South Dakota Magazine make great gifts!
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Who Was Peter Shannon?
Nov 18, 2014
Lost among the Democratic and Republican hurrahs and disappointments of the Nov. 4 election was an interesting development on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Residents there voted overwhelmingly to change the name of Shannon County, the entirety of which includes the reservation, to Oglala Lakota County.
The final tally was 2,161-526; the 80.4 percent of votes in favor of the change far exceeded the two-thirds necessary. There’s still some political rigmarole that must transpire before the change becomes official. Once all provisional ballots have been certified, the county commissioners must notify the governor. The governor then relays the name change to the Legislature in January. After the Legislature passes a joint resolution, the governor can officially issue a proclamation recognizing the change. Shannon County becomes Oglala Lakota County on the first day of the month following the proclamation.
There are 66 counties in South Dakota, many of which are named after territorial founders or prominent 19th century national politicians. Shannon County’s name comes from Peter C. Shannon, chief justice of the Dakota Territorial Supreme Court from 1873 to 1881. But it’s Shannon’s role in obtaining land from the Lakota that led to his name’s ouster 130 years later.
Shannon was a Pennsylvania native who practiced law in Pittsburgh. After his defeat for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1852 as a Democrat, he was appointed president judge of the local district court. He later became a Republican and a supporter of Abraham Lincoln. He helped escort Lincoln through Pennsylvania en route to the new president’s first inauguration in 1861. He served two terms in the Pennsylvania House and raised a regiment called The Irish Dragoons during the Civil War.
After the war Shannon practiced law until President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him chief justice of the Dakota Territorial Supreme Court. He presided over several trials in Yankton, but the most famous was surely the trial of Jack McCall for the August 1876 murder of Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood.
During his time on the bench he became close allies with Gov. Nehemiah Ordway, a somewhat dictatorial figure who presided over the relocation of the capital from Yankton to Bismarck, earning the scorn of southern Dakotans. Shannon also fell out of favor with territorial lawyers who successfully blocked his application for reappointment in 1881.
George Kingsbury described the situation in scathing eloquence in his 1915 History of Dakota Territory: “His second term had not been marked by that friendliness, respect and confidence that should exist between the presiding judge and the members of the bar practicing in his court, but on the contrary, there had grown up a feeling of distrust toward the judge, and an entire and a total lack of confidence in his official integrity.”
Dakota Territorial lawyers wrote a list of grievances against Shannon and approved them on March 25, 1881. The charges were:
insulting attorneys and parties in open court;
offensive partisanship in criminal cases;
has endeavored by threats and other coercive means to secure endorsement of attorneys for reappointment;
has been publicly intoxicated, and the habit has grown on him;
with writing fictitious letters.
Instead Alonzo Edgerton, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, was appointed to fill the chief justice position and began in January 1882. Shannon found his way onto a committee with former Gov. Newton Edmunds and James Teller, of Ohio, to negotiate land sales with tribes on the Great Sioux Reservation west of the Missouri River.
They endeavored to acquire 11 million acres. In return the government promised 25,000 cows and 1,000 bulls to be divided across the remaining reservation land.
“The commission had to obtain 3/4 of adult male signatures per tribe,” says Jesse Short Bull, an organizer behind the name change. “It was not a popular concept. The interpreter, Samuel D. Hinman, was accused of intimidating people to sign or face military removal. Hinman also acquired signatures from children as young as five years old at area day schools on the Pine Ridge Agency.”
It took the efforts of two more commissions before the signatures were finally obtained and the land transferred. Short Bull says it seems like Shannon was the odd man out on the commission, but he nevertheless played a role in shaping Lakota life. “When you think of the line of incompetent military officers to ill prepared Indian agents that the tribes had to deal with, Shannon was not in their category. He was a smart man, and vowed no wrong doing on his part when the Edmunds Commission was being questioned. With that being said, he was still part of the driving force that changed the course of history for the tribes and everything that came with that — the breakdown of Lakota culture and the introduction to a new way of life.”
Shannon lived somewhat quietly until poor health led to his move to San Diego in the late 1890s. On April 13, 1899, he boarded a carriage en route to Point Loma. Shortly after departure the driver lost control of the horses, which swerved toward the sidewalk and struck a telegraph pole. Shannon was thrown from the carriage and died later that night from internal injuries.
He was buried at Calvary Cemetery in San Diego, but over time the cemetery fell into disrepair. Headstones were removed, and over time the area became Calvary Memorial Pioneer Park. Today the only traces of Shannon are his name on a brass plaque in San Diego and his county in South Dakota, although that will soon be removed by the people he helped to remove 130 years ago. | <urn:uuid:4fc570fc-2c52-4379-809e-3dbfd664e219> | {
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Novel, stressful or otherwise challenging situations can often tell us a great deal about individual and organizational attitudes and values.
The responses of schools and school leaders to next Tuesday’s Presidential address to U.S. students is a case in point. It is instructive to listen carefully to the reasons school leaders are providing to either leverage the learning opportunities presented by this nationwide address or squander them. I think the address provides a great opportunity for teachers, librarians, school administrators, and parents to experience together the power and value of live, synchronous interaction and dialog surrounding an event. Next Tuesday during and after the speech, since my 4th grade daughter’s teacher has decided NOT to let students watch the address together, I’m going to pull her out of class so we can both watch and participate in a synchronous live discussion (via CoverItLive) with 5th grade students at East Elementary School in Littleton, Colorado. (H/T to Karl Fisch.) Interestingly, our local school board announcement about President Obama’s Tuesday speech provides guidance for parents who do NOT want their children to listen, but it does not provide any guidance for parents who DO want their children to listen live and interact with others about this address when their classroom teacher has decided to OPT OUT.
Irrespective of the decisions made by your local school leaders regarding the speech, I challenge each of us with this question: How will we personally leverage the synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities which our President’s speech provides for our students and our communities? In addition to talking and writing about the issues this situation raises, we also should ACT in ways that can potentially have a constructive impact on the perceptions of others who may not be well informed about the potential value of live, synchronous events today when blended learning methodologies are employed.
Following the example of the successful Film on the Fly cell phone digital storytelling contests, I encourage students around the world to post short, thoughtful responses to President Obama’s speech to YouTube, EduBlogs.tv, TeacherTube, and other video sharing sites using a common hashtag. I’m not sure if a common hashtag has been suggested, so please share via a comment if you know of one– but I’ll suggest the hashtag #studentresponse09. The White House has provided a linked list of suggested classroom activities and media resources to use with students prior to and following the address, and a video contest should be announced soon on the U.S. Department of Education’s website. Whatever the focus of the forthcoming video contest may be, it’s a great idea to solicit direct student feedback and responses to the video address as well as the discussions which ensue online and face-to-face in the weeks that follow. (Of course, parent permission to post student videos online remains as important as ever.)
School leaders’ responses to President Obama’s upcoming speech tell us several things, some which we probably know already and others about which we may not have thought previously.
1 – FEW SCHOOL LEADERS UNDERSTAND HOW TO LEVERAGE THE POWER OF LIVE, SYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
In our schools and communities, when most people think of “school learning” they frequently conjure an image of passive, disengaged students. We all know (or should know) that active, engaged learning is much better than a passive alternative for many reasons, including student learning and achievement. We are living in an amazing day for information sharing and blended learning, and need to help others in our communities understand that increasing access to asynchronously shared video content (like YouTube) as well as interactive web services (like CoverItLive) create NEW opportunities for learning which involve NEW pedagogies.
All U.S. families do not currently have a DVR, or a home computer with high-speed Internet access. The fact that the White House will be posting this video address to YouTube following the speech, however, means that LARGE numbers of people who cannot watch the speech “live” WILL be able to do so after-the-fact. Since the text of President Obama’s speech will be posted to the White House website tomorrow (Monday, Sept 7th) it appears he will NOT be responding to any student-submitted questions or comments during the presentation. I hope that is not the case, since it would be great for the President to respond to student questions, but even if he does the realities of viewer numbers and time constraints are such that he wouldn’t have time to respond to many individuals even if Q&A is part of the schedule/agenda. Since the speech will be available for easy, asynchronous access via YouTube after the “live” speech time and the speech’s content will apparently not contain any “surprises,” a logical question to ask is: What is the value of having students watch the President’s address “live” and together?
The potential for and value of “live” interactions between students, teachers, and others is THE primary reason to watch the address live rather than watching it later. Every teacher in the classroom today, and administrator in our schools today, grew up in a time when this type of asynchronous, nearly-ubiquitous access to recorded video was impossible. From the fireside chats of FDR to the weekly radio addresses of U.S. Presidents leading up to the Obama Administration, if you couldn’t catch / consume the message “live,” it was hard or impossible to hear it in its entirety at a different time. (Please correct me if I’m wrong: It’s entirely possible the weekly radio addresses of George W. Bush were archived and made available online– I never heard about that being the case, however, and guess it would have been something we’d have heard about if his administration was leveraging digital media in that way.)
My point is this: WE need to question the value of synchronous, non-interactive face-to-face learning contexts. When we ARE live and synchronous with other learners, we need to LEVERAGE the potential of that context to dialog, discuss, and interact. Tuesday’s Presidential address provides an ideal opportunity for students, teachers, administrators and others to experience an educational backchannel.
For more on educational backchannel options, see Scott Snyder’s 2008 presentation for K12Online08, “Back-channels in the Classroom.” Remember we’re all invited to join 5th graders in Littleton, Colorado, in their CoverItLive session for the President’s address on Tuesday. It’s free to join and participate there. 🙂
2 – WE NEED TO EXPOSE SCHOOL LEADERS TO MORE EXAMPLES OF CONSTRUCTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA USE
Whatever your opinion of President Obama, our current debate over health care, or other issues– I hope you can agree that his constructive modeling of the uses of social media platforms to communicate with constituents (both young and old) is very important and needed by many of our school leaders.
In Oklahoma where I live, a LARGE number of public school districts block ALL video sharing websites as well as interactive/user-generated content websites including blogs and wikis. Many of our school districts, incredibly, continue to block access to our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices learning community and the 430+ educator/student created videos it now contains. The fact that this Presidential address is receiving so much attention and generating so much discussion is a GOOD thing, since adults as well as young people are going to likely grapple with the question, “Why don’t we just watch this later on YouTube?” That is a great question to ask at all levels of education, because it can expose the power of asynchronously accessible video as well as the priority we should place upon ENGAGED, INTERACTIVE learning environments devoid of passive learners. We’ve become far too accustomed to “passive learning” as the norm in classrooms, and this must change.
3 – WE HAVE FEW BRAVE LEADERS IN EDUCATION, AND MANY WHO PREFER TO BE DEFINED BY RISK AVERSION
This past week, in the Education Week article “Filtering Fixes,” I addressed the common tendency of many U.S. schools to overfilter Internet websites by noting:
Some of that [overfiltering the web] is understandable because of the risk-averse, conservative nature of schools,” he [Wesley Fryer] said. “My position is not ‘don’t block,’ but let’s filter reasonably and let’s also talk with students about choices and digital literacy and ethics, and let’s prepare kids for the unfiltered Web.
In the past several days, I’ve read a number of excellent posts by educators articulating the reasons students and teachers in our schools SHOULD watch the Presidential address and seize the moment to discuss a host of important ideas and issues together. Three (among many) I’d highly commend are Stephanie Sandifer’s post, “Fear, Censorship, and Agendas…”, Buffy Hamilton’s post, “It IS About Intellectual Freedom, Not Politics,” and Will Richardson’s post, “The Obama Speech.” To these thoughts and the comments shared in response, I’d add the following two observations.
A – We have too much HATE in politics today.
If President Obama had intended this message to be heard primarily by students and parents at home, he would have chosen to share this address in the evening rather than during the school day. The “official” reason my daughter’s teacher gave for NOT permitting her students to watch the address “live” in class next week was that the video would be more appropriately viewed at home with parents. Understand: This was the version of “why” which Sarah brought home on Friday. That reason could have been obscured in 9 year old translation, and I’ll confirm that next week.
I think the root issue with many schools choosing to give teachers the choice to “opt out” of watching the address with students, and parents the choice to “opt out” of permitting their students to watch the address at school, is HATE and dislike among many constituents for President Obama and his politics. I am NOT saying that teachers or school officials hate our President. I AM observing that it is far easier for school leaders to provide these “opt out” guidelines and policies for schools and teachers rather than face the predictable (but of course, highly unfortunate) wrath of parents who don’t like President Obama and don’t like the idea of him speaking directly to their children at school.
This situation of parents worrying over our President speaking directly to students is not only “silly,” as Arne Duncan has observed, it’s also RIDICULOUS. As I noted at the start of this post, however, this response is also highly instructive about our state of affairs not only within schools but within our communities more generally. We need MORE democracy and civic participation in our nation, not less. We need MORE opportunities for civic discourse and dialog among constituents today, not less. We need our schools to provide opportunities for students to question, to debate, to listen, and to learn. Announcing “opt out” school policies for the President’s speech reflects a broader tendency in many of our schools to kowtow to almost any type of parent demand, and seek the path of minimal risk / least resistance in most situations.
Our schools need to address HATE and become venues for civil discourse about these issues and others that matter. Schools should not be viewed primarily as institutions of social control where the thoughts, opinions and beliefs of students are shaped in a top-down model: rather they should be places where students learn how to THINK and practice THINKING every day. I’m not opposed at all to local control of schools, I’m actually an ardent supporter of it. It’s sad to see many of the choices which local control leads to, however, not just in the context of this Presidential address but in many other arenas: sports, technology, etc. The good news is, not all schools are making the same choices, and we can amplify those who are making more constructive choices which support student civic engagement rather than focusing only on those who give teachers and families the “opt out” choice.
B – Many adults overestimate the power and importance of the formal school curriculum.
I am going to write a separate post in upcoming weeks about this topic, but I’ve been amazed by the “permission forms” which our girls’ school district has sent home asking for parent permission to let students view specific video titles during the school year. Personally, I’d think we’d just leave it to the professional judgement of professional educators to determine the instructional materials appropriate for our students to view, read, and consume both at school and elsewhere as homework during the academic year. While educational officials have varying levels of control over the content of “the formal curriculum,” I think this situation with the Presidential school address may highlight an overestimation on the part of many adults of the power and importance of the formal curriculum. Don’t get me wrong, I am all “for” students watching the Presidential address “live” and engaging in discussions before, during and following the speech. A question that comes to mind in this regard, however, is this: What effect will “opting out” of viewing the Presidential address truly have on students and families, in terms of their knowledge about the ideas and themes of the speech? My guess is, in most cases: very little. The fact that there is so much buzz about this upcoming speech will insure that the vast majority of students as well as parents are going to be wondering, “What is the President going to say? What did he say?” There are going to be CONVERSATIONS around the ideas and themes of his message. Adult attempts to silence or prevent these conversations are going to backfire and achieve the opposite result: Those ideas are going to be even more likely to be amplifed and discussed because of these suppression attempts.
My guess and prediction is: President Obama’s message will be strong and shared in a compelling way. I predict he’ll tell stories, and work hard to connect with students’ hopes and dreams for themselves and for their own families. We should never underestimate the POWER OF WORDS. It IS a big deal that our President wants to directly speak to the students of our nation. I think it is great he wants to do this, and is going to do it. Even if my children or yours do not view President Obama’s speech “live” when it happens, there will be power and influence to his words as they are shared with the world. He is, after all, our chief executive and the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. His words SHOULD have power. They will have power, whether or not teachers in my school or yours choose to let students hear them “live.” Those who think they will diminish the power and influence of those words by keeping their children out of school on Tuesday if their class is going to watch the address are probably mistaken. Just like a teenager whose curiosity is piqued when told, “You can’t do/watch this,” student interest is going to be higher about the speech because of the absurd ways many adults have responded to it: With fear, trepidation, and disrespect in some cases. The power of the formal curriculum in schools today may be weaker than ever, in large part due to the tremendous power of mainstream media coupled with social media.
I’ve been trying to finish writing this post all day amidst our family Labor Day activities, and I’ve probably written too much. Remember that whatever your local school, classroom, teacher, or fellow teachers may choose to do with respect to the Presidential address on Tuesday next week, it will be an instructive moment. Ask yourself, what is motivating this decision? Are leaders trying to do what is best for children, for learning, for thinking and for our democracy, or are they simply doing what seems reasonable when “risk aversion” is the top value driving decisionmaking? Remember to ask what YOU can do to highlight the power and value of blended conversations during and following the address, and highlight the importance of an informed as well as active citizenry in discussing the affairs and priorities of our nation.
Behold, the value of social media is before us. We’ve only just begun to realize its potential to revolutionize learning.
Did you know Wes has published several eBooks and "eBook singles?" 1 of them is available free! Check them out! Do you use a smartphone or tablet? Subscribe to Wes' free magazine "iReading" on Flipboard!
If you're trying to listen to a podcast episode and it's not working, check this status page. (Wes is migrating his podcasts to Amazon S3 for hosting.) Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also "like" Wesley's Facebook pages for "Speed of Creativity Learning" and his eBook, "Playing with Media." Don't miss Wesley's latest technology integration project, "Mapping Media to the Curriculum."
On this day..
- Copy Podcast RSS Link From iTunes - 2014
- Learn About Your Teacher Through Her QR Code - 2012
- iPad Productivity Apps Workshop: Fri September 14th (Oklahoma City) - 2012
- Keys to PBL and Student Centered Learning - 2011
- iPads in Education: What important apps am I missing? - 2010
- Track your baby's every move with Baby Connect - 2010
- Converting a document to ePub (eBook) format with Calibre - 2010
- Highlights from Septemberfest 2008 - 2008
- Interaction is insufficient, creation and construction are key - 2007
- School reform vision needed - 2006 | <urn:uuid:ed23bd79-a6f2-495b-a86f-f2fdec6280ef> | {
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September 2015 is Clean-up SA Month and the 30th International Coastal
Clean-Up Day will once again form the highlight of this year’s Clean-Up &
Recycle Week (14-19 September 2015). Thousands of kilograms of a waste
are removed along the world’s shorelines with South Africa recognized as
one of the leading participants in this clean-up initiative.
In order to encourage South Africans to recycle and buy products made with
recycled material, the packaging industry and recycling industry, have initiated
an annual Recycling Day SA which falls during Clean-up SA Week 14 - 19
September 2015. It’s aim is to increase awareness by educating the community
about the social, environmental and economic benefits of recycling.
14 - 19 September - Clean-up & Recycle Week
18 September - Recycling Day SA
19 September - International Coastal Clean-up Day is the world’s largest volunteer
effort to clean up our beaches and waterways, with partners around the globe.
The problem of marine debris does not necessarily start in the ocean, but is
dumped further inland and washed down into the oceans. Statistics from the
1999 ICC showed that 59% of debris collected was from land sources. Each
year there is a vast increase in the number of marine animals injured or
entangled in debris found in the oceans. Turtles mistake floating plastic bags
as food and thousands of seals, whales, dolphins, sharks and birds die from
entanglement in fishing line and other debris.
The aim of the cleanup is:
- to remove debris from all bodies of water;
- to collect valuable information about debris;
- to heighten public awareness of the causes of litter and debris;
- to make a positive change and to promote water pollution
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Colorado State University recently released a study called “The Value Chain of Colorado’s Agriculture.” The study draws upon data collected through the U.S. Department of Agriculture census of 2002 and 2007, among other data sources. The study finds that agriculture contributes at least $40 billion to the state’s economy and is one of the largest industry sectors. The study also maps the economic relationships among the various sectors of Colorado’s agricultural industry. The report highlights the importance of agriculture to Colorado and the Yampa Valley.
Agricultural lands are important not only because of the beautiful vistas they provide, but also because of the substantial local revenue that agriculture products generate. Total agriculture sales in Routt County were $34 million as of 2007, according to the USDA census. The majority of this income came from small farms. According to the census, 77 percent of the ranches and farms in Routt County are less than 1,000 acres and are considered mid- to small-size operations.
These farms derive their income from many sources. One current trend in agriculture is sales of products that are produced for individuals to consume. According to the census data, the value of agricultural products sold to individuals increased by 26 percent from $54,000 to $68,000. We expect these numbers to be even higher when the 2012 census figures are released in February.
The census data also reveals that Northwest Colorado leads the state in farm-based recreation income, mainly from hunting and fishing. In Routt County, recreation income jumped from $963,000 to $3.7 million between 2002 and 2007. Routt ranks second in the highest amount of farm-based recreation income in the state at 11.5 percent.
The CSU report and the census data provide us with a look at farm to fork in Colorado and help us understand the importance of agriculture to the Yampa Valley. As the numbers reveal, agriculture plays a role in sustaining the local economy and maintaining our way of life in the Yampa Valley.
Kate Nowak is the executive director of Yampa Valley Data Partners. | <urn:uuid:21d2ccad-e13a-4f05-a44d-de39ad3fbef9> | {
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Research shows that inherited intelligence may account for almost 60 per cent of teenagers’ scores in GCSEs while other factors such as school performance only sway results by a third.
The study, based on the long-term analysis of more than 11,000 twins born in England and Wales in the mid-90s, suggests that genes may actually have a larger bearing on children’s educational achievement as they grow up.
Prof Robert Plomin, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, who carried out the study, has now been called into the Department for Education to brief ministers and senior officials on the outcomes of his research.
It is believed that the DfE is seriously considering how some of the findings may be used to influence education reforms in the future.
In an interview with The Spectator, Prof Plomin insists that the educational establishment has been too quick to dismiss the influence of genetics for fear of “labelling” children.
But he said that his findings had important applications, allowing education to be tailored to children’s individual needs, rather than being delivered in a one-size-fits-all way.
Some form of genetic scanning may eventually allow schools to identify pupils with particular academic weaknesses at an early age, he said.
“Kids label each other already,” he told The Spectator. “They know who’s sporty, who’s bright.
"If we can read a kid’s genome we can predict and prevent disease. If we can read their DNA, we can tailor the teaching to help a kid with learning difficulties. Surely it’s worse to just sit in a classroom and sink, unable to read because no one has identified that you might have trouble.”
Prof Plomin, an American geneticist, runs the Twins Early Development Study, which tracks twins born between 1994 and 1996.
His latest study – which is yet to be published – analysed the GCSE results of 11,117 twins. It found that children’s genes had a “substantial” bearing on their performance at the age of 16, accounting for 52 per cent of marks in English, 55 per cent in maths and 58 per cent in science.
Across all subjects, inherited ability accounted for around 58 per cent of the variance in scores, while “shared environment” such as the school accounted for about 36 per cent.
The findings suggest that schools in their current form may find it almost impossible to fully close the gaps in results between the brightest and weakest pupils.
“Much more of the variance in GCSE scores can be attributed to genetics than to school or family environment,” Prof Plomin said.
Repeated studies have linked genes with IQ but the latest research suggests that the bond between the two may become more pronounced as people age.
In the interview, Prof Plomin said: “The heritability of IQ goes up lineally across the lifespan. From 30 per cent to 40, 50, 60 – some people say it becomes 80 per cent inheritable…
“It’s probable that little genetic differences become bigger and bigger as you go through life, creating environments correlated with your genotype. The simplest way of saying this is that bright kids read more, they hang out with kids who read more.”
A senior DfE source said: “It's obviously important for people involved in education policy to know about the science of learning.
“As we learn more from science, a decentralised school system with great teachers providing personalised learning will be even more important, so that teachers can make decisions for the best interests of each child.” | <urn:uuid:d1dd583f-c620-43c9-abeb-b79693c365c6> | {
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|FORM FOLLOWS FEMININE: Niemeyer's affinity for curves is apparent in the Casa de Baile dance hall, in Pampulha. (Photo by Styliane Philippou, from Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence, Yale)|
It was a heroic and inhuman scheme. From 1956 to 1960, Brazil—in an effort to cleanse itself of its colonial past, to flee its burgeoning social afflictions, and to fulfill its long-prophesied emergence as a great power—conjured a new capital, Brasília, on an empty plateau in an endless savanna 3,500 feet above sea level. The city’s planner, the architect Lúcio Costa, found the setting “excessively vast … out of scale, like an ocean, with immense clouds moving over it.” No invented city could accommodate itself to this wilderness. Instead, Costa declared, Brasília would create its own landscape: he devised a city on a scale as daunting as the setting itself. In conformity not with its environment but with those modernist utopian theories of the rational, sterile “Radiant City,” Brasília was not to grow organically but to be born, Costa said, “as if she had been fully grown”—he even refused to visit the site, because he didn’t want reality to impinge on the purity of the original design. Brasília was the first place built to be approached by jet, and the city’s roads—inspired by Robert Moses’s deadening expressways belting New York’s outer boroughs—were like runways. Here was a city without a traffic light, containing thoroughfares without crosswalks. The result was (or should have been) obvious, as Simone de Beauvoir reported after visiting Brasília the year it was inaugurated:
What possible interest could there be in wandering about? … The street, that meeting ground of … passers-by, of stores and houses, of vehicles and pedestrians ... does not exist in Brasília and never will.
Today, the city is quite correctly regarded as a colossally wrong turn in urban planning—but Brasília, paradoxically, contains some of the most graceful modernist government buildings ever produced. All were designed by Oscar Niemeyer (now 100 years old and still working), who helped select Costa’s master plan and who was the creative influence behind the building and shape of the city. Both facts must be considered in any effort to reckon the legacy of Niemeyer—the last great architect of the modernist ascendancy—and his relationship to modernism, a relationship that both spurred and warped his creative achievement.
A crop of books published over the past few years illuminates both Brazil’s extraordinary achievements in modern architecture from the 1930s to the 1960s (Lauro Cavalcanti’s clear and intelligent When Brazil Was Modern and the ambitious if at times pretentious Brazil’s Modern Architecture, edited by Elisabetta Andreoli and Adrian Forty) and specific aspects of the career of Niemeyer, an architect revered in his country as its greatest living cultural treasure (Oscar Niemeyer: Houses, by Alan Hess, and Modernist Paradise, by Michael Webb, an opulent explication of the only Niemeyer-designed residence built in the United States). These join such older works as Brazil Builds, the Museum of Modern Art’s seminal introduction to Brazilian modernism; Henrique E. Mindlin’s Modern Architecture in Brazil; Norma Evenson’s Two Brazilian Capitals: Architecture and Urbanism in Rio and Brasília; David Underwood’s Oscar Niemeyer and Brazilian Free-Form Modernism; and Niemeyer’s self-indulgent but (intentionally and otherwise) revealing memoir, The Curves of Time.
None of these books approaches Styliane Philippou’s forthcoming Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence, one of the richest historical, cultural, and aesthetic assessments of an architect’s work I’ve read. To be sure, Philippou, a British architect and architectural historian, indulges in some academic gobbledygook (that marker of hip academese, “the Other,” makes its appearance far too often), but in authoritatively assessing Niemeyer’s work and its place in architectural and Brazilian cultural history, she has marshaled such diverse subjects as 18th-century colonial Portuguese architecture, bossa nova, the topography and cultural geography of Copacabana Beach, and the design-selection process for the UN headquarters. The book is also a marvel of presentation. Philippou fluidly explicates her narrative and arguments with detailed site diagrams and maps; drawings, plans, and elevations; photographic comparisons of buildings historically linked to Niemeyer’s; and her own lavish, precise photography of Niemeyer’s work, including both general views and details.
|THE CASINO in Pampulha
(Photo by Styliane Philippou, from Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence, Yale)
Although he was a disciple of Le Corbusier’s and clearly embraced modernism, Niemeyer, with his love of curves and organic shapes, offered a jaunty alternative to the geometric severity of the International Style (a “monotonous and repetitive architecture … so easy to create that it quickly spread from the United States to Japan,” as he characterizes it in his own, often repetitive, memoir). Confirming Niemeyer’s assertions, Philippou repeatedly shows how eroticism inflected Niemeyer’s approach—“form follows feminine” is one of the architect’s many, somewhat tiresome, pronouncements—and how that approach quite literally grew out of his girl-watching (something of a dirty old man, he’s forever explaining his architecture by sketching women’s breasts and backsides for mock-scandalized journalists). He was obviously also inspired by the undulating beaches and topography of his native Rio de Janeiro (his longtime studio, in the penthouse of an Art Deco landmark building, takes in famously sweeping views of Copacabana and Sugarloaf).
Philippou demonstrates that Niemeyer’s highest achievements are profoundly informed by a Brazilian aesthetic, which has long made sinuous forms a basic element of its vocabulary (see the mosaic pavements of alternating black and white waves, both from the colonial period and, on Copacabana, from the early 20th century). True, since the 1960s Niemeyer’s penchant for curves and, worse, flying-saucer shapes has gotten the better of him (a penchant he could indulge because of engineering advances in his favorite medium, reinforced concrete, that increased the plasticity of that already famously plastic material)—too many of his later buildings, such as the 1996 Museum of Contemporary Art in Niterói, smack of kitschy Futurama. Niemeyer’s work was best when Brazilian idioms tempered his modernism—and when modernism’s crispness tempered his tendency toward biomorphic and sculptural excess. Philippou makes this point clear in her brilliant, meticulous analysis of Niemeyer’s first masterpiece, the 1943 Ministry of Education and Public Health in Rio (the design team was made up of Brazilian architects, and Le Corbusier himself served as a consultant, but Niemeyer led the group and designed the project’s key elements). Hailed by MoMA upon its completion as “the most beautiful government building in the Western hemisphere,” the ministry boasts the first use of the curtain wall—which would soon be ubiquitous, as the defining feature of the glass boxes of the International Style (think Lever House). Philippou reveals the peculiarly Brazilian admixture of this modernist masterpiece: the tropical rooftop and street-level gardens featuring organically curved paths and tropical plants (up until this time, native plants were considered unworthy of serious landscape design); the Moorish-Portuguese tiles used on the building’s wall mosaic (itself a somewhat unmodernist embellishment); the brises-soleil inspired by wooden Brazilian colonial Baroque antecedents (to this day, they obviate the use of air-conditioning in this tropical high-rise); the free-form designs on the carpeting (a high level of detail, craft, and finish characterize this and all of Niemeyer’s best buildings, although those qualities are hardly typical of all of his work); and the shady plaza, created by cylindrical columns, which unifies the building site with the parallel streets abutting it and is reminiscent of the cloisters of 17th-century Brazilian monasteries.
|THE SUPREME COURT in Brasília
(Photo by Styliane Philippou, from Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence, Yale)
All of Niemeyer’s early masterpieces—the Brazilian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and the Casino in Pampulha, buildings that married the precision and clarity of the International Style with sinuous, organic lines; the Boavista Bank building in Rio, whose undulating glass-brick walls covering its rear and lateral facades created “one of the most beautiful internal spaces of modern architecture,” as Cavalcanti correctly avers; his house at Canoas, which roofed a slick glass pavilion with a seemingly weightless, free-form concrete slab resembling a lily pad, thus creating a shady overhang that allowed the outdoors and indoors to merge—fused modernism’s astringent grace with a sauntering, often lyrical style. That approach would culminate in Niemeyer’s three best “palaces” in Brasília: the presidential residence, the Foreign Ministry, and the Supreme Court. These seats of power were in fact inspired by houses (fazendas, those colonial Brazilian, low-slung plantation houses with their colonnaded verandas), which helps account for their unintimidating grandeur. With their poised and delicate colonnades and their almost buoyant, paper-thin platforms and roofs, these limpid buildings fairly float upon their sites. They’re at once monumental and ethereal, as Philippou makes clear:
The Supreme Court’s columns em-brace the glass box … like pleats fluidly unfolding and refolding, carrying the eye along. Their marble cladding touches the earth at one infinitely small point … The fluid, fan-like effect is best appreciated when walking along the verandas: the great white marble leaves open and close languorously, in slow, perpetual motion, seemingly the source of the cool breeze under the large roof overhangs.
These imperishable achievements, though, hardly make up for the rest of the city. In Brasília, too many of Niemeyer’s other sculptural edifices (he designed all of the major government buildings, and much of the housing) are soullessly set in immense paved fields that offer few places to sit and little refuge from the blinding sun, save for the colossal shadows cast by the buildings themselves. To be sure, Brasília’s reputation is in part the result of its history: although built by a progressive and more or less democratic government, it became the seat of an authoritarian regime four years after it was completed, and remained so for 21 years (to Zaha Hadid, Brasília means “all those wide streets for the army to drive through”). But it is an awful city—even juror Ada Louise Huxtable’s tribute accompanying Niemeyer’s citation for the 1988 Pritzker Prize (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for architecture) had to acknowledge Brasília’s horrendous error. With Brasília, Niemeyer seemed to have embraced, or at least acceded to, the worst aspect of architectural modernism—its antiseptic urban theory—and in the post-Brasília period, when his work has too often been hokily sculptural or frighteningly overscaled (see his University of Constantine in Algeria, or his Maison de la Culture in Le Havre), he seems to have forsaken its best aspects: the grace and lucidity born of its restraint. | <urn:uuid:68bd01c6-7b76-4b67-8aa3-6853834efd81> | {
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In Beyond Science, Epoch Times explores research and accounts related to phenomena and theories that challenge our current knowledge. We delve into ideas that stimulate the imagination and open up new possibilities. Share your thoughts with us on these sometimes controversial topics in the comments section below.
Perhaps the most elusive and legendary among America’s mythical creatures is the thunderbird, a giant eagle-like bird with incredible strength. This creature has been reported throughout the Midwest and a particular case in Illinois included a dangerously close encounter.
The legend of the Thunderbird is present throughout the American Midwest and has many incarnations among the Native American tribes that once lived and continue to live throughout this land.
The Sioux Nation, particularly, the Brule Sioux tribe of southwest South Dakota on the Rosebud Reservation, has a thunder bird legend known as “Wakinyan Tanka,” or the “Great Thunderbird,” according to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).
To this tribe, the Thunderbird isn’t a mythical giant bird, but a group of non-physical beings that lived in the Black Hills. Clothed in clouds, the Thunderbird men are formless and their colors correspond to the four cardinal points; the Thunderbird of the west is black, the one of the east is yellow, red for the north, and white for the south. They are giants with four-jointed wings. In place of feet are enormous claws with a huge beak in place of a face with sharp, pointed teeth.
Unlike other accounts of giant birds, they represent a demeanor of goodness and are seen as guides and agents of change. They love what is pure and clean in the world.
“From time to time a holy man catches a glimpse of a Wakinyan in his dreams, but always only a part of it. No one ever sees the Thunderbird whole, not even in a vision, so the way we think a Thunderbird looks is pieced together from many dreams and visions,” said Brule Medicine Man John “Fire” Lame Deer in 1969, according to CSI.
The Yaqui tribe tells a different story in the tale of the “Otam Kawi.” In their tales, a giant bird lived in the hills of Otam Kawi and would periodically fly out in search of food, carrying away men, women, and children. This came to be such a problem, that the Yaqui people feared even having fiestas and ceremonial dances for fear that the bird would swoop down and carry one of them off.
A modern tale that seems to support the Yaqui legends comes from a small town in Illinois called Lawndale. It was recounted in a 1977 Discovery Channel special, “Into the Unknown.” On July 25, 1977, at about 8:30 p.m. three boys were playing hide-and-seek in a backyard when two giant birds reportedly swooped down towards them, narrowly missing one of the boys, Travis Goodwin.
When the birds came around for another attempt, one of the giant birds caught Marlon Lowe, whose parents owned the residence. The bird grasped Lowe with its talons and carried the boy three feet off the ground, about 35 feet through the air, while he fought and screamed.
Witnesses to the encounter were Ruth and Jake Lowe, who responded to their son’s cries in time to witness the flight. Also witnessing were visiting friends Betty and Jim Daniels, who were busy cleaning out a camper in the Lowe’s driveway and who also responded to the cries for help. The third boy, Michael Thompson, also witnessed the encounter and dodged the birds during their initial swoop.
The incident was reported to the local police as well as the Illinois Department of Conservation in nearby Springfield, according to the book “Monsters of Illinois: Mysterious Creatures in the Prairie State.” The authorities in the late ’70s didn’t take Mrs. Lowe’s report seriously.
However, as it turns out, Illinois in particular has a rich history when it comes to giant birds-of-prey. When explorers Jacque Marquette and Louis Joliet traveled through the area in 1673 they recorded in their diaries an image carved nearly 50 feet high into a limestone bluff near where the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers meet. That bird would become known as the “Piasa Bird.”
The “Piasa Bird,” according to an Illini tribe legend recorded on the Illinois Department of Natural Resources website, was a scaled bird with a form that included aspects of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish. Legend tells that the bird constantly threatened the Illini tribe until its chief, Ouatoga, destroyed the beast with poison arrows. This was “many moons” before white men explored this area.
The original relief Marquette and Joliet saw was later painted and relocated several times. A recreation of the original painting stands as a landmark in Alton, Ill., on the Great River Road where Marquette and Joliet first noted the original.
A huge bird was also spotted in Alaska in 2002. Reuters reported at the time that several residents in the villages of Togiak and Manokotak spotted a bird the size of a small airplane, like something out of the movie “Jurassic Park.” The wingspan was estimated at some 14 feet, though some scientists questioned that estimate. Raptor specialist Phil Schemf told Reuters, “I’m certainly not aware of anything with a 14-foot wingspan that’s been alive for the last 100,000 years.” | <urn:uuid:46c32a38-34a5-41c5-873d-f98658fb0e80> | {
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OPAL (Open Pool Australian Lightwater reactor) is a 20 megawatt (MW) pool-type nuclear research reactor that was officially opened in April 2007 at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Research Establishment at Lucas Heights, located in South Sydney, Australia.
The main reactor uses are:
The reactor runs on an operation cycle of 28 days nonstop at fullpower, followed by a stop of 2 days to reshuffle the fuel.
The Argentine company INVAP was fully responsible through a turn key contract for the delivery of the reactor, performing the design, construction and commissioning. The facility is currently in operation.
OPAL was opened on 20 April 2007 by Australian Prime Minister John Howard and is the replacement for the HIFAR reactor. ANSTO received an operating license from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) in July 2006, allowing commencement of hot commissioning, where fuel is first loaded into the reactor core. OPAL went critical for the first time on 13 August 2006 and reached full power on November 3, 2006.
The reactor core consists of 16 low-enriched plate-type fuel assemblies and is located under 10 metres of water in an open pool. Light water (normal H2O) is used as the coolant and moderator while heavy water (D2O) is used as the neutron reflector.
OPAL is the centrepiece of the facilities at ANSTO, providing efficient and rapid radiopharmaceutical and radioisotope production, irradiation services (including neutron transmutation doping of silicon), neutron activation analysis and neutron beam research. OPAL is able to produce four times as many radioisotopes for nuclear medicine treatments, and a wider array of radioisotopes for the treatment of disease than the old HIFAR reactor. The modern design includes a cold neutron source (CNS).
The OPAL reactor already has received seven awards in Australia.
The Bragg Institute at ANSTO hosts OPAL's neutron scattering facility. It is now running as a user facility serving the scientific community in Australia and around the world. New fundings have been received in 2009 in order to install further competitive instruments and beamlines. The actual facility comprises the following instruments:
ECHIDNA is the name of the high-resolution neutron powder diffractometer. The instrument serves to determine the crystalline structures of materials using neutron radiation analogical to X-ray techniques. It is named after the Australian monotreme echidna, as the spiny peaks of the instrument looks like an echidna.
It operates with thermal neutrons. One of the main features is the array of 128 collimators and position sensitive detectors for rapid data acquisition. ECHIDNA allows for structure determinations, texture measurements and reciprocal space mapping of single crystals in most different sample environments serving the physics, chemistry, materials, minerals and earth-science communities. ECHIDNA is part of the Bragg Institute's park of neutron scattering instruments.
A set of 128 detectors each equipped which a 5' collimator in front are arranged in a 160° sector focusing to the sample. The collimators select the scattered radiation into the well defined ranges of 128 angular positions. All the collimator and detector setup is mounted on a common table which is scanned in finer steps around the sample, to be combinded further to a continuous diffraction pattern.
PLATYPUS is a time-of-flight reflectometer built on the cold neutron. The instrument serves to determine the structure of interfaces using highly collimated neutron beams. These beams are shone on to the surface at low angles (typically less than 2 degrees) and the intensity of the reflected radiation is measured as a function of angle of incidence.
It operates using cold neutrons, with a wavelength band of 0.2–2.0 nm. Although up to three different angles of incidence are required for each reflectivity curve, the time-of-flight nature means that timescales of kinetic processes are accessible. By analysing the reflected signal one builds a picture of the chemical structure of the interface. This instrument can be used for examining biomembranes, lipid bilayers, magnetism, adsorbed surfactant layers, etc.
WOMBAT is a high-intensity neutron powder diffractometer. The instrument serves to determine the crystalline structures of materials using neutron radiation analogical to X-ray techniques. It is named after the wombat, a marsupial indigenous to Australia.
It will operate with thermal neutrons. It has been designed for highest flux and data acquisition speed in order to deliver time resolved diffraction patterns in a fraction of a second. WOMBAT will concentrate on in-situ studies and time critical investigations, such as structure determinations, texture measurements and reciprocal space mapping of single crystals in most different sample environments serving the physics, chemistry, materials, minerals and earth-science communities.
KOWARI is a neutron residual stress diffractometer. Strain scanning using thermal neutrons is a powder diffraction technique in a polycrystalline block of material probing the change of atomic spacing due to internal or external stress. It is named after the kowari, an Australian marsupial.
It provides a diagnostic non-destructive tool to optimize e.g. post-weld heat treatment (PWHT, similar to tempering) of welded structures. Tensile stresses for example drive crack growth in engineering components and compressive stresses inhibit crack growth (for example cold-expanded holes subject to fatigue cycling). Life extension strategies have high economic impact and strain scanning provides the stresses needed to calculate remaining life as well as the means to monitor the condition of components since it is non-destructive. One of the main features is the sample table that will allow to examine large engineering components while orienting and positioning them very accurately.
Following the discovery of loose fuel plates during a routine inspection, the ANSTO announced on July 27, 2007 that the reactor would be shut down for 8 weeks to fix the fuel plates and a minor fault causing light water to seep into the reactor's heavy water.
According to reports, during the examinations no radiation leakages were detected, although it took much longer than 8 weeks to obtain the necessary clearances to complete repairs and readjustments. ANSTO announced on 25 October 2007 that the reactor would remain shut down until early 2008 while it sought approval from ARPANSA to restart the reactor.
As of March 2008, the reactor remained shut down. According to an ANSTO news release on 22 February 2008, "Late last week, ARPANSA submitted a series of questions on the application, which ANSTO will respond to as quickly as possible. This is expected to take some weeks."
OPAL returned to full operational power on 23 May 2008, after a 10-month shutdown, following approval by the nuclear regulator, ARPANSA to use a modified fuel design.
|Chemical formula||Hydrated silica. SiO2·nH2O|
|Color||White, black, red, orange, most of the full spectrum, colorless, iridescent|
|Crystal habit||Irregular veins, in masses, in nodules|
|Fracture||Conchoidal to uneven|
|Mohs Scale hardness||5.5–6.5|
|Luster||Subvitreous to waxy|
|Diaphaneity||opaque, translucent, transparent|
|Specific gravity||2.15 (+.08, -.90)|
|Polish luster||Vitreous to resinous|
|Optical properties||Single refractive, often anomalous double refractive due to strain|
|Refractive index||1.450 (+.020, -.080) Mexican opal may read as low as 1.37, but typically reads 1.42–1.43|
|Ultraviolet fluorescence||black or white body color: inert to white to moderate light blue, green, or yellow in long and short wave. May also phosphoresce; common opal: inert to strong green or yellowish green in long and short wave, may phosphoresce; fire opal: inert to moderate greenish brown in long and short wave, may phosphoresce.|
|Absorption spectra||green stones: 660nm, 470nm cutoff|
|Diagnostic features||darkening upon heating|
|Solubility||hot saltwater, bases, methanol, humic acid, hydrofluoric acid|
Opal is a mineraloid gel which is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl and basalt. The word opal comes from the Latin opalus, by Greek opallios, and is from the same root as Sanskrit upálá[s] for "stone", originally a millstone with upárá[s] for slab.
The water content is usually between three and ten percent, but can be as high as twenty percent. Opal ranges from clear through white, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, rose, pink, slate, olive, brown, and black. Of these hues, the reds against black are the most rare, whereas white and greens are the most common. These color variations are a function of growth size into the red and infrared wavelengths. Opal is Australia's national gemstone.
Precious opal shows a variable interplay of internal colors and even though it is a mineraloid, it does have an internal structure. At micro scales precious opal is composed of silica spheres some 150 to 300 nm in diameter in a hexagonal or cubic close-packed lattice. These ordered silica spheres produce the internal colors by causing the interference and diffraction of light passing through the microstructure of the opal. It is the regularity of the sizes and the packing of these spheres that determines the quality of precious opal. Where the distance between the regularly packed planes of spheres is approximately half the wavelength of a component of visible light, the light of that wavelength may be subject to diffraction from the grating created by the stacked planes. The spacing between the planes and the orientation of planes with respect to the incident light determines the colors observed. The process can be described by Bragg's Law of diffraction.
Visible light of diffracted wavelengths cannot pass through large thicknesses of the opal. This is the basis of the optical band gap in a photonic crystal, of which opal is the best known natural example. In addition, microfractures may be filled with secondary silica and form thin lamellae inside the opal during solidification. The term opalescence is commonly and erroneously used to describe this unique and beautiful phenomenon, which is correctly termed play of color. Contrarily, opalescence is correctly applied to the milky, turbid appearance of common or potch opal. Potch does not show a play of color.
The veins of opal displaying the play of color are often quite thin, and this has given rise to unusual methods of preparing the stone as a gem. An opal doublet is a thin layer of opal, backed by a swart mineral such as ironstone, basalt, or obsidian. The darker backing emphasizes the play of color, and results in a more attractive display than a lighter potch.
Combined with modern techniques of polishing, doublet opal produces similar effect of black or boulder opals at a mere fraction of the price. Doublet opal also has the added benefit of having genuine opal as the top visible and touchable layer, unlike triplet opals.
The triplet-cut opal backs the colored material with a dark backing, and then has a domed cap of clear quartz or plastic on top, which takes a high polish and acts as a protective layer for the relatively fragile opal. The top layer also acts as a magnifier, to emphasise the play of color of the opal beneath, which is often of lower quality. Triplet opals therefore have a more artificial appearance, and are not classed as precious opal.
Besides the gemstone varieties that show a play of color, there are other kinds of common opal such as the milk opal, milky bluish to greenish (which can sometimes be of gemstone quality), resin opal which is honey-yellow with a resinous luster, wood opal which is caused by the replacement of the organic material in wood with opal, menilite which is brown or grey, hyalite is a colorless glass-clear opal sometimes called Muller's Glass, geyserite, also called siliceous sinter, deposited around hot springs or geysers and diatomite or diatomaceous earth, the accumulations of diatom shells or tests.
Fire opals are transparent to translucent opals with warm body colors yellow, orange, orange-yellow or red and they do not show any play-of-color. The most famous source of fire opals is the state of Queretaro in Mexico and these opals are commonly called Mexican fire opals.
Peruvian opal (also called blue opal) is a semi-opaque to opaque blue-green stone found in Peru which is often cut to include the matrix in the more opaque stones. It does not display pleochroism.
Australia produces around 97% of the world’s opal. 90% is called ‘light opal’ or white and crystal opal. White makes up 60% of the opal productions but cannot be found in all of the opal fields. Crystal opal or pure hydrated silica makes up 30% of the opal produced, 8% is black and only 2% is boulder opal.
The town of Coober Pedy in South Australia is a major source of opal. Andamooka in South Australia is also a major producer of matrix opal, crystal opal, and black opal. Another Australian town, Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, is the main source of black opal, opal containing a predominantly dark background (dark-gray to blue-black displaying the play of color). Boulder opal consists of concretions and fracture fillings in a dark siliceous ironstone matrix. It is found sporadically in western Queensland, from Kynuna in the north, to Yowah and Koroit in the south.
The Virgin Valley opal fields of Humboldt County in northern Nevada produce a wide variety of precious black, crystal, white, fire, and lemon opal. The black fire opal is the official gemstone of Nevada. Most of the precious opal is partial wood replacement. Miocene age opalised teeth, bones, fish, and a snake head have been found. Some of the opal has high water content and may desiccate and crack when dried. The largest black opal in the Smithsonian Museum comes from the Royal Peacock opal mine in the Virgin Valley.
Another source of white base opal in the United States is Spencer, Idaho. A high percentage of the opal found there occurs in thin layers. As a result, most of the production goes into the making of doublets and triplets.
Other significant deposits of precious opal around the world can be found in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Turkey, Indonesia, Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Ethiopia.
As well as occurring naturally, opals of all varieties have been synthesized experimentally and commercially. The discovery of the ordered sphere structure of precious opal led to its synthesis by Pierre Gilson in 1974. The resulting material is distinguishable from natural opal by its regularity; under magnification, the patches of color are seen to be arranged in a "lizard skin" or "chicken wire" pattern. Synthetics are further distinguished from naturals by the former's lack of fluorescence under UV light. Synthetics are also generally lower in density and are often highly porous.
Two notable producers of synthetic opal are the companies Kyocera and Inamori of Japan. Most so-called synthetics, however, are more correctly termed "imitation opal", as they contain substances not found in natural opal (e.g., plastic stabilizers). The imitation opals seen in vintage jewelry are often "Slocum Stone" consisting of laminated glass with bits of foil interspersed.
The lattice of spheres of opal that cause the interference with light are several hundred times larger than the fundamental structure of crystalline silica. As a mineraloid, there is no unit cell that describes the structure of opal. Nevertheless, opals can be roughly divided into those that show no signs of crystalline order (amorphous opal) and those that show signs of the beginning of crystalline order, commonly termed cryptocrystalline or microcrystalline opal. Dehydration experiments and infrared spectroscopy have shown that most of the H2O in the formula of SiO2·nH2O of opals is present in the familiar form of clusters of molecular water. Isolated water molecules, and silanols, structures such as Si-O-H, generally form a lesser proportion of the total and can reside near the surface or in defects inside the opal.
The structure of low-pressure polymorphs of anhydrous silica consist of frameworks of fully-corner bonded tetrahedra of SiO4. The higher temperature polymorphs of silica cristobalite and tridymite are frequently the first to crystallize from amorphous anhydrous silica, and the local structures of microcrystalline opals also appear to be closer to that of cristobalite and tridymite than to quartz. The structures of tridymite and cristobalite are closely related and can be described as hexagonal and cubic close-packed layers. It is therefore possible to have intermediate structures in which the layers are not regularly stacked.
Opal-CT has been interpreted as consisting of clusters of stacking of cristobalite and tridymite over very short length scales. The spheres of opal in opal-CT are themselves made up of tiny microcrystalline blades of cristobalite and tridymite. Opal-CT has occasionally been further subdivided in the literature. Water content may be as high as 10 wt%. Lussatite is a synonym. Opal-C, also called Lussatine, is interpreted as consisting of localized order of -cristobalite with a lot of stacking disorder. Typical water content is about 1.5wt%.
Two broad categories of non-crystalline opals, sometimes just referred to as "opal-A", have been proposed. The first of these is opal-AG consisting of aggregated spheres of silica, with water filling the space in between. Precious opal and potch opal are generally varieties of this, the difference being in the regularity of the sizes of the spheres and their packing. The second "opal-A" is opal-AN or water-containing amorphous silica-glass. Hyalite is another name for this.
Non-crystalline silica in siliceous sediments is reported to gradually transform to opal-CT and then opal-C as a result of diagenesis, due to the increasing overburden pressure in sedimentary rocks, as some of the stacking disorder is removed.
In the Middle Ages, opal was considered a stone that could provide great luck because it was believed to possess all the virtues of each gemstone whose color was represented in the color spectrum of the opal. Victorian superstitions were created by the established gem dealers to stop the rush to buy opals. They paid an author to attribute bad luck to the stone, though some believed this is avoided if opal is the owner's birthstone or if the stone was a gift. Even as recently as under the last czar at the beginning of the 20th century, it was believed that when a Russian of any rank saw an opal among other goods offered for sale, he or she should not buy anything more since the opal was believed to embody the evil eye. Opal is considered the birthstone for people born in October.
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David Portwain, Facebook asked:
How does a cuckoo know itís a cuckoo since itís reared by other species?
Chris - No one knows for absolute certain but one theory is that the cuckooís parents may pay a visit to the nest that they cuckolded and visit their chick as itís reared so that it imprints on them because one of the things about birds is that they imprint Ė in other words, they recognise objects that are nurturing them as their parents - and you can actually make them imprint on inanimate objects. If you have a bird and you put it in contact with the door that opens and closes, it can end up thinking that the door is its mother and it will follow a door around bizarrely and so, one theory is that the cuckooís parents do occasionally pay a visit so the cuckoo recognises that it is genuinely a cuckoo. That or thereís some other genetically programmed innate behaviour that's in there. | <urn:uuid:dee3707d-b9cf-4c1f-8a79-ffbb2058c939> | {
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» Fast rail link would connect London with Glasgow and Edinburgh in just over two hours.
Over the past few decades, the United Kingdom has fallen behind its European peers, having failed to develop intercity high-speed rail lines even as France, Spain, Germany, and Italy expanded their networks significantly. The completion of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in 2007, however, brought Eurostar trains from Paris and Bruxelles into London at high-speeds for the first time and whetted the country’s taste for faster trains. Since 2008, the Conservative Party has been campaigning actively for a new 200 mph north-south line connecting London with the country’s major regions, and the ruling Labour Party has slowly come on board. Today, the U.K.’s track owner Network Rail released a report proposing the construction of a new £34 billion mainline from London to Scotland. Trains could be in operation in ten years.
Network Rail has spent a year studying possibilities for new corridors, considering projects running north and west from London. Though it has been clear since early this year that the route would prioritize access to the West Midlands, including Birmingham and Manchester, Network Rail also put corridors to the East Midlands (Leicester, Sheffield), Yorkshire (Leeds, York) and the west (Bristol, Cardiff) into consideration. As expected, though, today’s report indicates that the country’s new line will run north from London to Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow and Edinburgh. The route is not yet finalized, but the map above gives a general indication of its path.
The project would cost £34 billion to construct and include 1,500 miles of track, 34 miles of tunnel, 138 bridges, 8 new stations, and require the purchase of 73 new high-speed trains. Network Rail predicts an eventual ridership of 43.7 million journeys a year.
Though Network Rail will not manage the construction of the line, its study is in-depth enough to merit considerable discussion by the authority created this spring to contract out the new line, High-Speed 2. HS2 is working on its own report on the new high-speed line and will publish it at the end of the year; it is highly likely that the governmental organization will endorse a very similar route as that proposed by the national track owner, since it will connect the U.K.’s first, second, third, and fifth-largest metropolitan areas (London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool) and its most promising new potential rail market (Scotland). This high-speed line’s construction is now virtually certain, as it has acquired the support of politicians on every side of the country’s political spectrum.
The nation’s most important rail line today is the West Coast Main Line, which runs in roughly the same corridor as proposed by Network Rail for the massive new high-speed corridor. That route benefited from a £13 billion upgrade and renovation in recent years, but it will reach capacity by 2020 according to the Network Rail report, so the West Midlands, Northwest, and Scotland will require new investment.
The new line, with dedicated tracks, would be capable of carrying up to 16 trains an hour in each direction (9,100 people) and replace up to 900 flights a day. The authority argues that the construction would allow the West Coast Main Line to be re-dedicated to local services that are currently limited because of the large number of express trains running between London, Birmingham, and Manchester, which would be transferred to HS2.
Today’s report indicates that a line running simply between London and Manchester would not be economically beneficial, but, counter-intuitively, that a longer a more expensive project reaching up into Scotland would pay for itself 1.8 times over a 60-year timetable, including the costs of operations and maintenance. That’s because while rail already commands a majority share of journeys between the capital and locations south of Manchester, airlines control the market to Scotland, which would be within two hours of London with HS2. The construction of the line, which could be completed by 2020 at the earliest, is expected to mostly replace domestic air travel in Great Britain, cutting down on carbon expenditures significantly.
Network Rail has left open the possibility of a connection to Heathrow Airport — but only from the north. Proposals earlier this year suggested that the line be routed through the airport, forcing London-bound travelers to first stop at Heathrow. Those plans, however, have been scuttled as they would increase journey times overall by 15 minutes and significantly reduce benefits. This was a good decision.
Though the London terminal would be near St. Pancras station, where Eurostar trains terminate, a connection to High-Speed 1 and mainland Europe-bound trains has been ruled out for now because of its high cost and perceived limited utility. One wonders how wise that decision is, though, since the project would put Birmingham and Manchester within 3h20 of Paris. But Network Rail claims there is a limited market for Europe-bound travel, and that may be true: there are currently only about 30 daily trips to Paris from the two cities’ airports.
Importantly, the report leaves open the possibility of a future High-Speed 3 project that would connect London to Leicester, Nottingham, Leeds, York, Newcastle, and ultimately Edinburgh from the east. That project’s eventual construction raises questions about whether the track between London and Birmingham should be four-tracked instead of simply double-tracked as planned; that section of HS2 could feed into the new HS3 corridor leading northeast to Leicester and beyond and would obviate the need to build a whole new track section between Leicester and London. The French government has repeatedly argued that it erred in building its TGV Sud-Est line between Paris and Lyon with only two tracks, since capacity has been limited and another corridor reaching into south east France will have to be built at a much a higher cost. Will the U.K. make the same mistake, saving costs today at the expense of future savings? | <urn:uuid:97e17a30-1923-49ad-b419-1cf87fe630c4> | {
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Recent polls show 83 percent of Iowans want tougher laws for texting while driving. The Iowa Senate responded with a bipartisan vote to strengthen penalties and enforcement.
Texting is the most dangerous form of driver distraction. It makes the chance of an accident 23 times greater because it takes our mind off driving, our eyes off the road and at least one hand off the steering wheel. Drivers who text have slower reaction times, are 70 percent less likely to stay in their lane and often fail to notice traffic signs.
Between 2001 and 2012, about 8,000 Iowa crashes were the result of drivers distracted by a phone or other device. These crashes resulted in almost 4,000 injuries and dozens of deaths. Nonetheless, 85 percent of drivers report using a cell phone while driving, according to experts from the University of Iowa.
In 2010, Iowa made it a crime to write, read or send a text message while driving, but the law is a secondary offense for adults. That means an officer can only write a ticket for texting if he pulls you over for another violation, such as speeding. Texting behind the wheel is a primary offense in 37 states and Washington, D.C., including such neighboring states as Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.
This week, the Senate approved Senate File 2289, which would make texting while driving a primary offense in Iowa as well. It would give officers the authority to pull over a driver specifically for texting. It also makes texting while driving a moving violation, meaning drivers will accrue points on their license.
Teens have been the primary focus of Iowa's texting and driving laws and education efforts. But they aren't the only ones practicing this dangerous behavior. A recent report from AAA indicates that drivers ages 25 to 39 are the most distracted by their cellphones.
Even more disheartening, many parents are not setting a good example. When educators from the Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau talk with Iowa teens about the dangers of distracted driving, half the students say their parents text while driving. | <urn:uuid:952e1831-8334-4d70-8202-d921c70c4f1e> | {
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Jews seek Libyan compensation in test case (REUTERS) By Jonathan Saul JERUSALEM, ISRAEL Additional reporting by Lamine Ghanmi in Tunis 05/10/05 11:10 AM ET)
Reuters News Service
Reuters News Service Articles-Index-Top
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The day Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in
the 1967 Middle East war is burned deep in the memory of Libyan-born
Jew Raphael Luzon.
His uncle, aunt and six cousins were killed on the edge of the
capital Tripoli by Libyan soldiers out for vengeance. Luzon fled
Libya soon after.
With Libya emerging from diplomatic isolation and holding out the
possibility of compensation to Jews who fled abroad, Luzon hopes
that he might be able to get back the remains of his family.
"I am not seeking revenge, only justice. I want to have the
opportunity to take their bones and give them a proper Jewish
burial," says Luzon, who led a campaign for compensation long before
Libya´s Muammar Gaddafi suggested it.
Jews also see Gaddafi´s talk of reparations as a possible test case
for other Arab countries, whose centuries-old Jewish populations
left or were forced out after the founding of Israel in 1948.
The history of Libya´s Jewish community, once 40,000 strong,
stretches back 2,500 years. Jews lived comfortably for centuries,
their numbers boosted by expulsions from Spain and Portugal in the
But pogroms were triggered by the war of Israel´s creation with Arab
neighbors, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs also fled
or were driven from homes in what became the Jewish state.
Laws stripped Libyan Jews of rights and property and only 300
remained by the time Gaddafi seized power in 1969. He confiscated
remaining Jewish assets and canceled all debts to Jews.
Most of the community now lives in Israel and few expected to have
contact again with the country of their birth.
JEWS PUT TOTAL LOSSES AT $600 MILLION
But that has changed since Gaddafi ended Libya´s diplomatic
isolation in 2003, announcing that it would give up the search for
weapons of mass destruction and agreeing to pay victims of the 1988
Lockerbie airliner bombing.
At the same time, Gaddafi became the first Arab leader to say he
could compensate Jews who were forced from their homes after 1948.
Libyan Jewish groups estimate the value of private assets lost at
around $500 million with a further $100 million for public assets
such as synagogues and cemeteries.
A small delegation of Jews living in Rome met Libyan officials in
Tripoli last year as part of the emerging dialogue.
"I believe regarding Libya there will be positive developments in
the coming year," says Moshe Kahlon, the deputy speaker of Israel´s
parliament whose family is from Libya and who recently met Libyan
representatives in London.
"(Compensation) will start with Libyan Jews in Italy and should
develop in the direction of Israel," said Kahlon.
Libyan officials declined further comment on the compensation issue.
Jewish groups hope that if they get compensation from Libya then it
may be possible to take the idea further in the Arab world, from
where an estimated 850,000 Jews emigrated or were driven out, many
settling in Israel.
There is no suggestion yet, though, that the Arab world might pick
up on the ideas of the maverick Gaddafi.
Claims are also complicated by the fact that the departure of Jews
from Arab states happened alongside the flight of hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians.
Millions of Palestinians who fled themselves or are descended from
those who demanded a "right of return" to land in what is now Israel
or at least compensation for their losses. Most live in Arab states
"Paying compensation to the Jews of the Arab world can only be seen
by Palestinian refugees as a sell-out and an unjust formula while
their rights are being simultaneously denied," says Abbas Shiblak, a
British-based Palestinian writer on refugee issues and author of a
book on the Jews of Iraq.
Some Jewish groups have called for Jews who fled Arab countries to
be recognized as refugees in the same way that Palestinians have
been. They also propose tying any compensation for Palestinians with
that for Jews.
Palestinians argue that they are not responsible for the suffering
of the Jewish communities.
The refugee issue remains one of the trickiest issues for any final
Middle East peace talks, which still look a long way off despite an
Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire which has strengthened hopes for
Gaddafi´s son Seif al-Islam, a driving force behind the policy
shift, emphasized recently that Libyan Jews who moved to Israel
would need to prove that they had not taken Palestinian assets if
they were to get compensation.
"They have to return the homes and properties they confiscated from
Palestinians to the Palestinians before negotiations over getting
back their assets and properties in Libya," he said. (Additional
reporting by Lamine Ghanmi in Tunis) (© Reuters 2005. 05/10/05)
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ASHBURN, VIRGINIA —
Sahith Malyala and Sahil Yedulla are high school seniors who have been neighbors, classmates and friends for most of their lives. One day, Sahith had an idea.
“All of a sudden,” Sahil recalled, “I got a message from Sahith. He was like, 'Hey you want to start an economics club?' I was like, 'You know what, why not?”
Sahith says there were many reasons for starting this club last year.
“They have a lot of STEM-related opportunities like science, technology, engineering and math," Sahith said. “There are a lot of such clubs that are focused to middle schoolers, but we wanted to do economics because we’re both interested in that. And there wasn’t that many economic related organizations or clubs out there."
A Fantastic Idea
They called their club Edunomics, a weekly class teaching interested kids the basics of economics. Sahith and Sahil took their idea to their former instructor David Stephenson, who teaches keyboarding and business skills in middle school.
“I’m deeply touched,” Stephenson said. “I usually get visitors to come back and see me and say 'Hi.' I have never had students come back and say 'this is what I want to do.' I thought it was a fantastic idea.”
Not only did he help them find a space to run the weekly classes, he coached them on how to be good teachers.
“Mr. Stephenson’s help cannot be put in words,” Sahil said. “He helped us so much with this club. I remember after the first lesson he was like, maybe just try to slow down a little bit, just like ease into it.”
Learning through Playing
Sahith Malyala says simplifying global economics, financing and business, and making it fun and interactive is the secret to getting younger students engaged.
“Each week what we have is a five to 10 minute lecture on a new topic,” he said. “Then after that we would really hit hard on making sure they understood through an interactive game.”
These games illustrate the real world applicability of the economic concepts. For example, when the club was studying supply and demand, the students played a game the two friends invented called the Village Game.
“We would split everyone into groups of like two or three,” Sahith explained. “For each group, we would give three kinds of candy like KitKat, Twix and Hershey. We would give each group a random number of these candies. The objective was for each group to trade with the other groups and get the necessary amount of each of the candies in order to win. You need three KitKats, three Twix, and three Hershey kisses in order to win. So through this game, they really started to understand like how interacting with people, they might have something that someone else needs. That kind of game gave them the idea of how supply and demand worked.”
Kids and Economics
Eleven-year old Liz Fikru, an Edunomics member, says she joined the club out of curiosity. “I wanted to understand how people invest in the stock market.”
Anika Kumar, another club member, finds studying economics fun and useful. “If you want to start your own business,” she pointed out, “you need to know all about economics and money, and how to like do it.”
Supporting Young Leaders
Stephenson says Edunomics has been profitable for everyone involved. Older students learn to become leaders and bring change to others’ lives. Middle schoolers are more receptive when high schoolers teach them.
“These guys are close in age,” he observed. “They are almost peer to peer. But they still have a little bit more knowledge. So they can still make it relevant, but it still doesn’t seem that distant. And they bridge from a classroom to the world. And they handle it perfectly. I’ve gotten some emails from the administrator saying thanks for being a mentor. But these guys have taught me probably just as much as I taught them.”
Next year, Sahith and Sahil are leaving for college, but David Stephenson says the club will continue, giving other students an opportunity to teach and learn. | <urn:uuid:3fa5380e-9101-4a39-a2c5-e2314446dad6> | {
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Laura J. Harkewicz
Provides an introduction to ethics and research ethics issues in the non-medical sciences. Possible topics include: publication and peer review, intellectual property, and the social responsibilities of scientists.
In this course, we will explore the ethics of science and scientific research – with an emphasis on the non-medical sciences. This course will provide a foundation for thinking about and recognizing the ethical dimensions of a variety of issues. We will become familiar with current ethical debates in a range of scientific fields. Topics will include: misconduct in research, conflicts of interest and scientific objectivity, publication and peer review, intellectual property, and ethical decision making. Students will engage these issues with the help of philosophical tools, apply these tools to case studies, and be challenged to think broadly about the role of scientists in society as well as learn how to critically assess the ethical consequences of science for humankind. TEXT: Responsible Conduct of Research, Adil E. Shamoo and David B. Resnik.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Class assignments and grading | <urn:uuid:02381229-86c6-4995-9a6c-2674f7089ac6> | {
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Some would describe sludge as a potpourri of muck. Those who work with the material know that sludge is the solid matter that settles at the bottom of septic tanks or wastewater plant sedimentation tanks. Sludge must be processed by methods which will digest the bacteria or it can be pumped out for land disposal, incineration or composting.
Before sludge is applied to land or used in compost, it must meet the U.S. Environmental Protection A-gency's (EPA) risk-based standards. While no standards are perfect, the heavy metal standards are the result of 25 years of research with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The confirmation, however, rests in the experiences of hundreds of municipalities who compost their sludge and use the final compost product (For a list of other materials which are composted, see "Versatility" chart on page 70).
Expose Yourself There are several ways in which a person can be exposed to compost pollutants (see table on page 68). Researchers examined the pathways to pollutants and developed hypothetical "highly exposed individuals" (people, plants, animals and even microorganisms) for each pathway. In this hypothetical world, the highly exposed individual don't change their exposure habits and receives the same amount of exposure every day for 70 years. Also, pollutant concentrations and releases near the individual do not change with time.
Recent studies show that as time passes, heavy metals and other soil pollutants are less available to plants or animals, or they become less "bio-available." If a pollutant is not bio-available, plants or animals can't chemically digest the pollutant.
Long-term field studies of sludge have shown that the bio-availability of metals is highest during its first year of use. Thereafter, the metals are increasingly bound and are not available to plants. For example, some forms of cadmium cause public health concerns. Since cadmium isn't bio-available in compost, it can't injure even the exposed home gardeners who spend their life growing foods on compost amended soils.
Studies which fed metal-laden sludge and compost to animals also report a lack of bio-availability. In fact, sheep which were fed from pastures with a high copper content reportedly suffered from copper deficiency. Also, mice which ate lettuce from high-cadmium soil reportedly experienced a cadmium reduction in their kidneys. Compost, which can be used for a long period of time with little risk, also is an effective way to tie up metals in toxic soils.
To further explain bioavailability consider the following examples: Be-fore, during and after World War II, Japanese families on farms ate large amounts of rice that was high in cadmium. As a result, the families suffered from Fanconi syndrome, a disease linked to cadmium build-up in the kidneys. However, in New Zealand, oyster fishers and their families consumed high amounts of cadmium-enriched oysters. Veg-etable gardens in Shipham, United Kingdom, and Stolberg, Germany, also had high cadmium levels from mining wastes. With high-cadmium diets like the Japanese, these residents did not accumulate cadmium in their kidneys and had no adverse health effects. The difference is bio-availability: compost can make metals less bio-available.
Nonetheless, in the EPA standards, bio-availability is linear. The standards use a very conservative assumption that bioavailability of pollutants stays at its beginning rate and does not lessen.
Estimating The Unknowns The "risk reference dose" is a benchmark to measure the relative toxicity of a pollutant. For example, how can someone determine if it's hazardous for sheep to eat 10 mg of copper a day as they graze on compost mixed with soil? Most of the an-swers can be found in the risk reference dose, a series of studies that measure how given doses of toxic pollutants affect certain animals. Risk reference doses were used to estimate the lowest amount of a pollutant that the highly exposed individual in each pathway can safely tolerate.
However, most of the doses used for the Environmental Protection A-gency's standards were based on studies which fed or injected the animal or organism with pure chemical doses of the pollutants. This procedure over-estimates the risk because when pollutants are in compost, soil or food, bioavailability is reduced.
The variables in composting research include: soil type, compost quality, type of plants being grown and the health of nearby residents. To account for these variables, the Environmental Protection Agency routinely adds "uncertainty factors," or an admission that no research can answer all of these questions.
The EPA's ruling added uncertainty factors of 10 to 10,000 to the risk reference doses, depending on the EPA's confidence in existing data. For each pollutant that was more thoroughly researched than another, a factor of 10 has been multiplied in.
For example, if compost with zinc is applied to land that grows food, zinc will be in the food. If the highly exposed individual ate the food containing 5,000 mg of zinc every day of his/her life and was not affected by it, an uncertainty factor of 10 means that the acceptable level of zinc for that pathway is 500 mg per day. An uncertainty factor of 10,000 would put acceptable zinc levels at 0.5 mg per day.
Humans are assumed to be 10 times more sensitive than the animals tested for the reference dose. This assumption, which may not necessarily be true, adds to the safety factors of setting pollutant limits.
The 99th Percentile In addition to the highly exposed individual, EPA also took an aggregate approach, which considered the entire population's exposure to pollutants.
In 1988, the EPA surveyed sewage sludge treatment plants to determine the levels of pollutants in their sludge. Based on the survey, compost pollutants must be at or below 99 percent of the highest levels found in the nation's sewage sludge.
This standard is being used because of the excellent track record that sludge and sludge compost re-portedly have in enhancing the soil without endangering the public or the environment. As an added safety factor, the Environmental Protection Agency chose the lower of the 99th percentile limit and the limit derived from the highly exposed individual.
The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, ruled that Environ-mental Protection Agency cannot use non-risk arguments like the 99th percentile in a risk-based rule. If risk assessment limits replaced the 99th percentile limits, chromium and se-lenium limits would rise an estimated 2.5 times.
The Appeals Court also found that the "highly exposed individual (HEI)" method for setting selenium limits was unrealistic. For selenium, the HEI is a child who ingests land-applied sludge/compost for five years. EPA must justify the method used to set the selenium limit or change the limit to account for sites with little public contact. As a result, all heavy metals limits which use the same exposure pathway (selenium, ar-senic, cadmium, lead and mercury) may need to be re-examined.
In addition, the court found that EPA lacked sufficient scientific basis for the set chromium limit. This may lead the EPA to remove chromium from its regulated metals list. While the rule is remanded, it remains in effect. EPA either can further justify the rule to the court's satisfaction, or it can change it. EPA expects to re-spond by late this year.
Compost Applications The EPA's regulations intend to protect the public and their environment. According to researchers Cha-ney and Ryan, compost which meets EPA standards, "can safely continue for an indefinite period without risk to agriculture or the environment. There is little evidence that compost ... will comprise risk to highly exposed individuals even at very high cumulative applications."
It's critical to understand the long-term effects of composting, considering its wide range of applications: agriculture, horticulture, and landscaping as well as rehabilitation ma-terial for wetlands, salt damaged roadsides and other disturbed land. It also can decrease erosion, improve plant yield and strength; suppress plant diseases and decrease the need for chemical fertilizers. In addition, manufacturers are using materials that would otherwise be landfilled to compost into a recycled product. In fact, composting methods can be used to neutralize hazardous wastes. For example, the U-nited States Army used composting to neutralize explosives and leachate from munitions. Compost also can be used to rehabilitate old mines, to treat petroleum wastes and to lessen fertilizer run-off from farms.
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Howard County health official warns of swine flu dangers at area fairs
Thousands are expected at the Maryland State Fair when it comes to Timonium on Aug. 24.
National and local health experts are urging fairgoers to be extra diligent when it comes to pigs.
To many, pigs at the state fair are a joy to watch and show, but the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention reports an increase in the number of swine flu infections in the United States. Although no cases have been reported in Maryland, Howard County Health Department's Dr. Peter Beilenson said there is a tie in.
"Almost all of that is related to touching pigs at the state and county fairs, so since this is the state and county fair season here in Maryland, as well as around the country, we thought we would put out an alert just to make sure people enjoy the fair but avoid touching pigs," Beilenson said.
So far, there have been 29 cases of the H3N2V virus, and they have been limited to Hawaii, Ohio and Indiana.
Bielenson said fairgoers should wash their hands with soap and water if they do touch a pig. People at high risk for the flu, such as those with underlying chronic health conditions like asthma or heart disease, should avoid exposure, as well as pregnant women, children under 5 and adults over 65.
Bielenson said pigs have the same symptoms as humans when it comes to swine flu -- coughing, sneezing and runny noses. So if the pig looks sick, stay away.
"The flu season is usually September or October till March. This is happening in summer. So although it's not a more severe type of the flu, we want make sure that individuals and doctors know if someone comes down with the signs of the flu in summer and if they've been to the state or county fair, it's something that should be looked at. It could actually be the flu," Beilenson said.
Meanwhile, Howard County fair officials said they have plenty of wash stations around the fair for people to use. In addition, they have a monitoring system for the pigs.
"I and my assistants go around, and we check all the animals three or four times a day just to make sure they are healthy," said Howard County Fair swine supervisor Jack Hartner.
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Archaeologists have teamed up with a north Skye community organisation to investigate a coastal site which could illustrate what life was like in the area thousands of years ago.
Staffin Community Trust and the Archaeology Institute from the University of the Highlands and Islands have announced a new collaborative archaeology project, which will take place next week.
The trust has identified a site just above the shore in Staffin Bay, which it is keen to investigate in order to enhance the Staffin Ecomusem project.
Mesolithic flints have been eroding from the edge of the Garafad Common Grazing for several years.
A sub-circular structure, which could be a house, also sits on top of the site, adding to the collection of prehistoric sites in the area.
The work will start next Wednesday (9th September) and continue until Monday 14th.
Geophysical survey and a small excavation will be used to characterise and date the site, helping to discover what life was like in Staffin during the Mesolithic period, some 8,000 years ago.
During the Mesolithic, Scotland was inhabited by hunter-gatherers who lived off the wild resources of the land and sea.
The project has secured funding for preliminary investigations from the Scottish Funding Council via Interface Scotland, Highland Council and the Carnegie Foundation of New York.
There will be a community workshop on Saturday 12th September. Staffin and Kilmuir primary schools will also visit the site to get hands-on experience of geophysical survey and excavation. This will include digging and sieving spoil from test pits to find flint tools.
Staffin Community Trust director Dugald Ross said: “Despite Staffin having a wealth of prehistoric remains, this is the area’s first archaeological excavation in 20 years and its Mesolithic potential is intriguing and exciting.”
Dan Lee, Archaeology Institute UHI, lifelong learning and outreach archaeologist, said: “Excavations at Staffin Bay have huge potential, not only for the investigation of an important prehistoric occupation site, but also to enhance local education, engagement with heritage and development of the Skye Ecomuseum.
“The UHI Archaeology Institute is excited about the prospect of building a long-term partnership with Staffin Community Trust and exploring the archaeology of the Staffin area for the benefit of the community.”
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Water is a precious resource in many parts of the world. Even where it is not scarce, using purified water on your garden or lawn seems wasteful (not to mention expensive). Rainwater can be used for a variety of uses, and as long as you know how you can collect it and save it for use at a time of your choosing. This article will explain methods you can use to collect water at your own home.
Setting up a Collection System
1Create or identify a surface suitable for rainwater collection. The easiest way to collect rainwater is to channel the water that runs off of a broad surface. This surface is known as a "catchment area."
- The most commonly used and easily adapted catchment area is the roof of a house. In some states that heavily regulate water collection and storage by individuals, this is actually the only legal catchment surface allowed for rainwater collection.
- Because rainwater can collect at the base of any sloped surface, the options are quite varied. You may even notice that water forms a temporary stream as it runs down the gullies of a hill on your property. This water can also be collected and stored for later use.
2Set up a collection point for water on the catchment.
- In the case of your roof, the gutters of your house may already serve to collect the water. They catch the water as it runs off and thus allow you to capture it for your own use.
- For the hypothetical hill example referenced earlier, you can excavate a wide but relatively shallow hole or basin at a point in the gully. The water will collect there as it runs down the natural channel.
3Connect the collection point to a conveyance system. Quite simply, the "conveyance system" is just some form of tube or channel that transports the water to a storage unit.
- Most gutters already have some form of piping that is used to expel the rainwater a distance from the foundation of the house. However, most such arrangements are inadequate for the requirements of rainwater collection. If the water should become backed up in the tubes, the water could overwhelm you gutters and either spill over or weigh down the gutters to the point where their braces collapse. If you live in a high rainfall region or one in which rains come down in sudden bursts, you must have high quality tubes or pipes that lead to the storage unit.
- If the water collection point is at ground level, you can dig a channel that leads to a storage unit. However, keep in mind that the channel must have a sufficient slope to keep the water moving. That fact may ultimately determine the location of you collection point.
Creating a Storage and Retrieval System
1Install a storage system that can work close to your home. The biggest barrier to rainwater collection is the matter of storage. It is only useful to collect rainwater if it can be done in large quantities, but it is not always easy to determine the best means of doing so.
- Above ground storage options can be as simple as a barrel, or a number of barrels connected in series.
- Alternatively, you may choose to use a single large underground tank or cistern. Because of the size of any water tank, it may not be the item that you want in your backyard. In these cases, it could be best to excavate a sizable area for the purpose of installing an underground tank. The use of an underground tank increases the likelihood that soil or pollutants will enter the water as small cracks or breaks appear in the tank or pipes. However, if you have limited space this may be your best option.
- Yet another option is to use an above ground open reservoir to hold the water that you have collected. A layer of concrete or densely packed gravel can prevent the water from absorbing into the ground. However, in areas that are especially dry, this method would likely result in the loss of all or most of the water through evaporation before it could be used. Additionally, because of town and city ordinances against open reservoirs (but that usually except chlorinated pools) such a reservoir is not really a valid option for anyone but those who live in rural regions.
2Connect the storage unit to the conveyance system. Extend the pipes or channels to the barrels, cisterns, or reservoir that will be used. Remember that the best conveyance systems are powered by gravity. If the storage unit is above the level of the pipes or channel, it will have to be pumped into the barrels or tank. If you intend to use a gas or electric pump to do so, the savings that come with collecting free water will be diminished.
3Develop a system for water retrieval. You must be able to draw water from the storage units whenever it is needed.
- For those with above-ground barrels or tanks, the usual method is to elevate the storage units and place a release spigot near the bottom of the unit. Pressure from the water above the point of the spigot will push out the water below.
- Below-ground tanks will require some form of pump. When selecting a pump, you must determine the quantity of pressure required to do the job. If, for example, you are trying to water your lawn you must calculate the quantity of pressure needed to push the water through the hose(s). Keep in mind as well that pressure can be lost due to friction, and long pipes or hoses serving as your water retrieval system can result in greatly diminished pressures.
4Add filtration mechanisms (optional). Though the water that you collect from a rooftop or hillside should not be drank, it may still be a good idea to install filters of some sort. The pipe and storage tanks could fill or become clogged with dirt. Because some chemicals may be present in the rainwater in your area--and will only be concentrated in your storage tanks--you may also want to partially purify the water before using it on your garden or lawn. Install these between the collection and conveyance sections if you are using pipes, or between the conveyance system and storage unit if you are using a channel. You could also filter the water as it leaves the storage unit to make sure that it is at its cleanest when you decide to use it.
- If you don't want to invest in a pump, you can siphon water out and still run it out of a hose. This is cheaper and will not require electricity, but a little less convenient.
- Rainwater should not be used for drinking except in emergencies. The best water source for drinking is one that has undergone a filtration process called reverse osmosis.
- Collecting Rainwater is restricted in many parts of the U.S. It is legal only under very specific circumstances in the state of Colorado, and it is illegal altogether in certain other states.
Sources and Citations
- ↑ http://rainwaterharvesting.tamu.edu/catchment-area/
- ↑ http://www.lot-lines.com/collecting-rainwater-still-illegal-in-much-of-colorado
- ↑ https://civilsolution.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/rainwater-harvesting-need-of-the-hour-green-building-feature/
- ↑ http://www.gardengatemagazine.com/52droughttolerant/
- ↑ http://rainwaterharvesting.tamu.edu/storage/
- ↑ http://www.1001-home-efficiency-tips.com/rain_water_barrels1.html
Categories: Water Conservation Solutions
In other languages:
Português: Colher Água da Chuva em Casa, Italiano: Raccogliere l'Acqua Piovana in Ambiente Domestico, Español: recolectar agua de lluvia en casa, Français: récupérer l'eau de pluie pour une utilisation domestique
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 64,039 times. | <urn:uuid:7c090457-a378-4b0e-a9d2-926e524f3c6d> | {
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The following methods can be defined to emulate numeric objects. Methods corresponding to operations that are not supported by the particular kind of number implemented (e.g., bitwise operations for non-integral numbers) should be left undefined.
%, divmod() pow()
|). For instance, to evaluate the expression x
+y, where x is an instance of a class that has an __add__() method,
x.__add__(y)is called. The __divmod__() method should be the equivalent to using __floordiv__() and __mod__(); it should not be related to __truediv__() (described below). Note that __pow__() should be defined to accept an optional third argument if the ternary version of the built-in pow() function is to be supported.
/) is implemented by these methods. The __truediv__() method is used when
__future__.divisionis in effect, otherwise __div__() is used. If only one of these two methods is defined, the object will not support division in the alternate context; TypeError will be raised instead.
%, divmod() pow()
|) with reflected (swapped) operands. These functions are only called if the left operand does not support the corresponding operation. For instance, to evaluate the expression x
-y, where y is an instance of a class that has an __rsub__() method,
y.__rsub__(x)is called. Note that ternary pow() will not try calling __rpow__() (the coercion rules would become too complicated).
|=). These methods should attempt to do the operation in-place (modifying self) and return the result (which could be, but does not have to be, self). If a specific method is not defined, the augmented operation falls back to the normal methods. For instance, to evaluate the expression x
+=y, where x is an instance of a class that has an __iadd__() method,
x.__iadd__(y)is called. If x is an instance of a class that does not define a __iadd() method,
y.__radd__(x)are considered, as with the evaluation of x
+, abs() and
Noneif conversion is impossible. When the common type would be the type of
other, it is sufficient to return
None, since the interpreter will also ask the other object to attempt a coercion (but sometimes, if the implementation of the other type cannot be changed, it is useful to do the conversion to the other type here). A return value of
NotImplementedis equivalent to returning
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Solanum tuberosum potatoes have 48 chromosomes, while humans have just 46. The Solanum tuberosum species is the widest-grown species of potato worldwide and is a tetraploid, which means that it has four sets of chromosomes. Most human cells are diploid, which means that they have only two sets. Other types of potatoes have fewer chromosomes, including four kinds of potatoes that are diploid like humans.
More facts about potatoes and chromosomes:
- Gorillas have the same number of chromosomes as potatoes do. So do beavers, chimpanzees, deer mice and tobacco.
- The number of sets of chromosomes in a cell is called ploidy, which can vary within organisms themselves as well as between species. For instance, human reproduction cells are haploid, which means that they have only one set of chromosomes, while most other cells in humans are diploid. Some organisms have up to 12 sets of chromosomes per cell, like the Uganda clawed frog and Japanese persimmons.
- A swamp wallaby has fewer chromosomes than some types of mold.
More Info: www.genetics.org
Discuss this Article
Mom always said to eat my hash browns and French fries. She was right!
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Certified organic agricultural land is farmland that has passed government regulations for being classified as organic, such as using only natural substances for crop and livestock processes, and this land accounted for less than 1% of all agricultural land worldwide in 2010. According to the Organic Trade Association, about 91.4 million acres (37 million hectares) of land in the world was used for organic agriculture in 2010. This number was triple the amount from 1999 because demand for organic products increased worldwide. The most certified organic agricultural land was found in the Oceania region, including Australia and New Zealand, which had 29.9 million acres (12.1 million hectares). By comparison, North America had 6.4 million acres (2.6 million hectares) of certified organic agricultural land.
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Ojibwa Native Indian Playing Cards
While the playing cards of native American Indians were usually painted on rectangles of rawhide in imitation of Mexican or Spanish cards, these Ojibwa Native Indian playing cards are hand manufactured on birch bark in imitation of standard French / English cards. The Ojibwa peoples are historically known for their crafting of birch bark canoes, their sacred birch bark scrolls and the use of cowrie shells for trading . As they were encountering French, English, Dutch, Swedish and American trappers, colonists and pioneers, who were using standard 52-card ‘Bridge’ packs, they imitated these cards using birch bark.
The birch bark rectangles are not always evenly trimmed with square corners. The cards follow the normal convention of two red suits and two black, with the symbols possibly being printed from blocks. The Jacks, Queens and Kings appear to have been hand painted with a narrow implement and coloured with red and black pigments. The courts are single-ended but the numeral cards are reversible. Whilst this material could be used for play, these cards show no signs of wear. They may possibly have been made as a curio for sale to travellers, but there are no surviving details of their exact provenance except that they were obtained by George Heye no later than 1917 and are reckoned to date from around 1875 or before. | <urn:uuid:2321ecd7-3e39-4c60-948c-def5c3a0c8b4> | {
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08/19/2008, Turkey - "Turkey to abandon daylight saving time in 2011", Turkish Daily News
See Middle East / Western Asia Time Zone Map with current time
Turkey to abandon daylight saving time in 2011
Turkey might adjust its daylight-saving time in two years in an effort to decrease energy consumption and increase quality of life, according to a proposal to shift the country's time zone by 30 minutes.
Despite the Foreign Ministry's opposition, the Energy Ministry readies to actualize plans to amend Turkey's standard meridian, which is used to adjust the country's seasonal time.
The time lag between the east and west of Turkey is an hour and 16 minutes. When sunset is at an early hour, especially in the eastern regions, it can adversely affect people in terms of social, psychological and economic conditions, according to the Energy Ministry's proposal.
If the Cabinet approves the changes in the law, clocks will be adjusted forward half an hour beginning from 2011 and will not be shifted back again. Authorities are still working on technical aspects of the application.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry continues its opposition, arguing that removing daylight time will adversely affect Turkey's trade relations with Europe. However, Energy Ministry officials advocate for their proposal claiming that the new application will decrease energy consumption rates especially in eastern provinces.
The starting date for the new application was initially planned for March 29, 2009. However the date caused a backlash among international business sectors including airports, banks and stock exchange, and the Energy Ministry decided to grant two years for adaptation.
The Energy Ministry proposed to adopt the Greenwich Mean Time +2.5 time zone, or GMT +2.5, throughout the year and to adjust the time according to the 37.5 degree Eastern longitude that passes through Ordu, Fatsa and Gaziantep.
Currently, Turkey's standard meridian in winter is the Greenwich Mean Time +2 time zone, which is demarcated by the 30 degrees Eastern longitude that passes through Izmit province. In the summer, time is adjusted to GMT +3 at the 45 degrees Eastern longitude that passes through Igdir. Winter time is applied for five months and summer time is applied for seven months.
Daylight-saving time unpopular in the world
While European Union countries, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Egypt apply daylight-saving time, 77 percent of the world's population (approximately 4.5 billion people) do not. When the general application is observed, countries adjust their time according to the meridians passing through the east of their territories. For example; Greece and Bulgaria take use the 30 degree Eastern longitude passing through Izmit province in Turkey during winter while 45 degree Eastern longitude passing through Igdir province is efficient in adjusting their time during summer.
Back to DST News | <urn:uuid:ca0cc96e-bc81-45f6-b262-7a5f869e17a9> | {
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Breastfeeding and Weight
By Health Day
But now, a brand new report suggests breastfeeding may not help in one important area the battle against obesity.
The study included nearly 14-thousand infants...born at 31 different hospitals...who were followed for more than a decade.
At an average age of 11-and-a-half, the children who had been exclusively breastfed for a minimum of the first three months of life did not see a measurable benefit in the weight department.
There was no significant difference in the percentage of overweight or obese kids when comparing the breastfed group with a control group.
But the researchers are quick to point out that breastfeeding still had many other benefits, including fewer gastrointestinal infections and less atopic eczema in infancy. Improved cognitive development at age 6.5 years was also found in the study participants.
The take home? Breast feeding provides a fantastic start...but does not appear to offer long lasting effects that will ward off obesity.
I'm Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV with the health news that matters to you and your family.
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8:51 a.m., Jan. 19, 2011----Delaware got another taste of winter last week, with a storm system that delivered several inches of the white stuff to the northern part of the state.
Had enough of Old Man Winter? Fearful we're in for a repeat of the Snowmaggedeon of a winter we had last year? Can't believe spring is still nine long weeks away?
Cheer up and look on the bright side. There are a slew of environmental benefits to be had from a good snowfall, according to David Hansen, a University of Delaware Cooperative Extension soil and environmental quality scientist.
The phrase “blanket of snow” is more than a visual description -- it's also accurate in terms of warmth, says Hansen. Freshly fallen, un-compacted snow is typically 90 to 95 percent trapped air. Because the air can barely move, heat transfer is greatly reduced, thus slowing the flow of heat from the warm ground to the cold air above.
This blanket effect makes snow an excellent insulator for gardens and landscapes, protecting these natural areas and their animal inhabitants against frigid temperatures and damaging winds.
Snow also lessens -- to some extent -- the extremes of temperature fluctuation to which the soil is subjected, says Hansen. This can be critical for some plants, including evergreens. Even in mid-winter, if air temperature within the canopy of these plants rises during the day, the plants will try to take moisture from the soil. If the soil is frozen, the plants can actually die of thirst.
The extent to which snow insulates depends on its depth. Generally, temperatures underneath a layer of snow increase about 2 degrees Fahrenheit for each inch of accumulation. Because the soil also gives off some heat, the temperature at the soil surface can be much warmer than the air temperature. Hansen says that a study done at minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit found that the soil below a 9-inch deep snow registered a surface temperature of 28 degrees.
Melting snow provides needed moisture to many plants. Even dormant plants continue to lose moisture as water evaporates through their branches. Evergreens, which keep their foliage throughout the winter, are at even greater risk of injury from lack of moisture.
Snow also replenishes the water supply. You may have heard that 10 inches of snow equals 1 inch of rain, but it's actually much more complex than that, according to Hansen. This ratio only works well when temperatures hover around freezing.
At higher temperatures, say a few degrees above freezing, snow is often heavy and laden with water. Then, the ratio may be more like 5 to 1 -- 5 inches of snow will melt into 1 inch of water, says Hansen. At lower temperatures, the snow tends to be light and fluffy and the ratio can be as high as 15 to 1.
How well the snow replenishes the water supply all depends on how it melts, notes Hansen. A fast melt can cause flooding, especially in urban areas. Rapid melting combined with clogged drain systems can send polluted runoff directly into streams and rivers. But a slow snow melt means water trickles slowly into the earth, percolating through the soil and refilling our aquifers, providing water for our drinking supply.
If Mother Nature continues to bestow us with snowstorms in the weeks ahead, try to remember that those flakes are protecting your plants, your water supply and Delaware's wildlife.
Article by Margo McDonough
Photo by Danielle Quigley | <urn:uuid:5882ec9c-842d-495c-8ea3-cc596c525b66> | {
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Cold weather brings its own safety and health concerns for both people and dogs. As a responsible dog owner, it is important to pay attention to your dog's well-being during the winter. The American Kennel Club offers the following advice to help prepare your pet for the long, cold winter.
Provide plenty of fresh water: Your dog is just as likely to get dehydrated in the winter as in the summer, and snow is not a satisfactory substitute for water.
Provide plenty of food: Feed your dog additional calories if it spends a lot of time outdoors or is a working animal. It takes more energy in the winter to keep body temperature regulated, so additional calories are necessary. Dogs that are kept indoors with the family and get less exercise during winter months may actually gain weight, so keep an eye on his diet.
Keep your dog's paws dry: Rinse your dog's feet and dry them completely after a walk. This helps avoid tiny cuts and cracked pads. A little petroleum jelly may soften the pads and prevent further cracking.
Groom your dog regularly: Your dog needs a well-groomed coat to keep properly insulated. Towel or blow-dry your dog if he gets wet from rain or snow.
Keep your dog warm, dry and away from drafts: Adequate shelter is a necessity. Tiles and uncarpeted areas may become extremely cold. Place blankets and pads on floors in these areas. | <urn:uuid:86af5ae2-37d6-41b0-9991-685a75357c21> | {
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Cold weather and significant snowfall in November may seem unusual, but the National Weather Service says it’s not that atypical.
Dan Miller with the National Weather Service in Duluth says significant snowfall in November happens about 25 to 30 percent of the time.
“I think we need to put a little bit of a perspective on it. Yeah it’s a little early bit early and yeah it’s a lot colder than it was in October. But really in the scheme of things this isn’t really that far off of the rails in terms of being wildly abnormal.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is again taking comments on whether to add the northern long-eared bat to the endangered species list. Some groups are questioning estimates of the bat’s fragility.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says populations of the northern long-eared bat are dropping precipitously due to the deadly fungal disease white nose syndrome. It’s wiped out millions of bats in the eastern U.S. and was found to have spread to Wisconsin earlier this year.
Many people gather firewood from fallen or dead trees on their own lands or from national forest or state-owned property. In today’s Wildlife Matters, DNR Wildlife Biologist Jeremy Holtz says in some cases, managers may choose to leave those trees alone for the benefit of wildlife.
Hunters may want to do some extra scouting before the gun-deer season opens this Saturday. Deep snow conditions are likely to change how deer are moving around.
DNR Wildlife Biologist Jeremy Holtz says snow on the ground will help hunters see and track deer, but several feet of snow could make it challenging to traverse the terrain. He says it will also affect where the deer are to be found.
Forestry experts were on hand in Rhinelander last night to answer questions from the public about the emerald ash borer.
Though Oneida County has a relatively low abundance of ash trees, DNR Urban Forestry Coordinator Don Kissinger says the greatest impact will be in cities, where ash trees are some of the most popular to line streets and backyards.
The Wisconsin 9-day gun deer hunt begins on Saturday. During the 2013 hunt, there were 8 gunshot wounds, but none proved to be fatal. DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp says while incidents are unfortunate, it's important to remember there are hundreds of thousands of hunters in the woods. She says the department has worked hard to educate hunters .... | <urn:uuid:696ec1d0-964a-4bbf-b674-103578d86301> | {
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Mystery of the Hope Diamond Curse (DOCUMENTARY)
- published: 19 Jun 2015
- views: 20712
According to the legend, a curse befell the large, blue diamond when it was plucked (i.e. stolen) from an idol in India - a curse that foretold bad luck and death not only for the owner of the diamond but for all who touched it. Whether or not you believe in the curse, the Hope diamond has intrigued people for centuries. Its perfect quality, its large size, and its rare color make it strikingly unique and beautiful. The Hope Diamond, also known as Le Bijou du Roi (\"the King\'s Jewel\"), Le bleu de France (\"the Blue of France\"), and the Tavernier Blue, is a large, 45.52-carat (9.104 g), deep-blue diamond, and now housed in the National Gem and Mineral collection at the National Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. It is blue to the naked eye because of trace amounts of boron within its crystal structure, and exhibits red phosphorescence after exposure to ultraviolet light. It is classified as a Type IIb diamond, and is notorious for supposedly being cursed. It has a long recorded history, with few gaps, in which it changed hands numerous times on its way from India to France to Britain and eventually to the United States, where it has been regularly on public display since. It has been described as the \"most famous diamond in the world\".... | <urn:uuid:0a0f8532-a616-4560-9e0b-320f227cf2ee> | {
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- The form of a tree.
- Cheap access to parent nodes from child nodes.
- Possible to map from a node in the tree to a character offset in the text.
By persistence I mean the ability to reuse most of the existing nodes in the tree when an edit is made to the text buffer. Since the nodes are immutable, there’s no barrier to reusing them, as I’ve discussed many times on this blog. We need this for performance; we cannot be re-parsing huge wodges of text every time you hit a key. We need to re-lex and re-parse only the portions of the tree that were affected by the edit (*), because we are potentially re-doing this analysis between every keystroke.
When you try to put all five of those things into one data structure you immediately run into problems:
- How do you build a tree node in the first place? The parent and the child both refer to each other, and are immutable, so which one gets built first?
- Supposing you manage to solve that problem: how do you make it persistent? You cannot re-use a child node in a different parent because that would involve telling the child that it has a new parent. But the child is immutable.
- Supposing you manage to solve that problem: when you insert a new character into the edit buffer, the absolute position of every node that is mapped to a position after that point changes. This makes it very difficult to make a persistent data structure, because any edit can change the spans of most of the nodes!
But on the Roslyn team we routinely do impossible things. We actually do the impossible by keeping two parse trees. The “green” tree is immutable, persistent, has no parent references, is built “bottom-up”, and every node tracks its width but not its absolute position. When an edit happens we rebuild only the portions of the green tree that were affected by the edit, which is typically about O(log n) of the total parse nodes in the tree.
The “red” tree is an immutable facade that is built around the green tree; it is built “top-down” on demand and thrown away on every edit. It computes parent references by manufacturing them on demand as you descend through the tree from the top. It manufactures absolute positions by computing them from the widths, again, as you descend.
You, the consumer of the Roslyn API, only ever see the red tree; the green tree is an implementation detail. (And if you use the debugger to peer into the internal state of a parse node you’ll in fact see that there is a reference to another parse node in there of a different type; that’s the green tree node.)
Incidentally, these are called “red/green trees” because those were the whiteboard marker colours we used to draw the data structure in the design meeting. There’s no other meaning to the colours.
The benefit of this strategy is that we get all those great things: immutability, persistence, parent references, and so on. The cost is that this system is complex and can consume a lot of memory if the “red” facades get large. We are at present doing experiments to see if we can reduce some of the costs without losing the benefits.
(*) Determining what those portions of the tree are is quite tricky; I might blog about that at a later date. An edit that, for example, adds “async” to a method can cause the parse of “await(foo);” in the method body to change from an invocation to a usage of the await contextual keyword. | <urn:uuid:13723741-5282-4e20-a573-d8ec791c1d24> | {
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From Middle English kuggel, from Old English cycgel (“a large stick, cudgel”), from Proto-Germanic *kuggilaz (“knobbed instrument”), derivative of Proto-Germanic *kuggǭ (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewgʰ- (“swelling, bow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew-, *gū- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”). Cognate with Middle Dutch coghele (“stick with a rounded end”). Related to cog.
cudgel (plural cudgels)
- A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.
- The guard hefted his cudgel menacingly and looked at the inmates. The threat to swing glinted in his eye.
- (metaphoric) Anything that can be used as a threat to force one's will on another.
2015 April 15, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, It’s Not Hard to Be Humble in an Effort to Regain Power”, in The New York Times:
- Mrs. Clinton’s Senate tenure, however, also demonstrated the risks of overcompensation: Not wanting to give Republicans fodder to portray her as soft on defense, she authorized President Bush to use force in Iraq and handed Mr. Obama a political cudgel to use against her.
- To strike with a cudgel.
- The officer was violently cudgeled down in the midst of the rioters.
- I would cudgel him like a dog if he would say so.
- To exercise (one's wits or brains). | <urn:uuid:31893ae2-25d7-4b23-98c0-91de6c19e63a> | {
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Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893 – 10 April 1960) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of Jamaican Rumba, composed in 1938.
Arthur Benjamin was born in Sydney on 18 September 1893 into a Jewish family, although he was a non-practicing Jew. His parents moved to Brisbane when Arthur was three years old. At the age of six he made his first public appearance as a pianist and his formal musical training began three years later with George Sampson, the Organist of St John's Cathedral and Brisbane City Organist. In 1911, Benjamin won a scholarship from Brisbane Grammar School to the Royal College of Music (RCM), where he studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford, harmony and counterpoint with Thomas Dunhill, and piano with Frederic Cliffe.
In 1914 he joined the Officer Training Corps, receiving a temporary commission in April 1915. He served initially in the infantry as 2nd Lieutenant with the 32nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and in November 1917 he was attached to the Royal Flying Corps. On 31 July 1918 his aircraft was shot down over Germany by the young Hermann Göring, and he spent the remainder of the war as a German prisoner of war at Ruhleben internment camp near Berlin. There he met the composer Edgar Bainton, who had been interned since 1914, and who was later to become director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music.
The manuscript of the unpublished Violin Sonata in E minor bears the date 1918, the only surviving work of that year and one of very few to be written by Benjamin during the war.
He returned to Australia in 1919 and became piano professor at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, Sydney. He returned to England in 1921 to become piano professor at the RCM. Following his appointment in 1926 to a professorship which he held for the next thirteen years at the RCM, Benjamin developed a distinguished career as a piano teacher. His better-known students from that era include Muir Mathieson, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Miriam Hyde, Joan Trimble, Stanley Bate, Bernard Stevens, Lamar Crowson, Alun Hoddinott, Dorian Le Gallienne, Natasha Litvin (later Stephen Spender's wife and a prominent concert pianist), William Blezard and Benjamin Britten, whose Holiday Diary suite for solo piano is dedicated to Benjamin and mimics many of his teacher's mannerisms. See: List of music students by teacher: A to B#Arthur Benjamin.
He continued writing chamber works for the next few years – Three Pieces for violin and piano (1919–24); Three Impressions (voice and string quartet, 1919); Five Pieces for Cello (1923); Pastoral Fantasy (string quartet, 1924), which won a Carnegie Award that year; Sonatina (violin and piano, 1924).
Orchestral works became more common after 1927 – Rhapsody on Negro Themes (MS 1919); Concertino for piano and orchestra (1926/7); Light Music Suite (1928); Overture to an Italian Comedy (1937); Cotillon Suite (1938). There also appeared over twenty meticulously crafted songs and choral settings.
He was also an adjudicator and examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, which led him to places such as Australia, Canada and the West Indies. It was in the West Indies that he discovered the native tune (Mango Walk) on which he based his best-known piece, Jamaican Rumba, one of Two Jamaican Pieces, composed in 1938, for which the Jamaican government gave him a free barrel of rum a year as thanks for making their country known.
The Violin Concerto of 1932 was premiered by Antonio Brosa with Benjamin conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1935 he accompanied the 10-year-old Canadian cellist Lorne Munroe on a concert tour of Europe. Three years later he wrote a Sonatina for Munroe, who later became the principal cellist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, and also recorded the piece.
He resigned from his post at the RCM and left to settle in Vancouver, Canada, where he remained for the duration of the war. In 1941 he was appointed conductor of the newly formed CBC Symphony Orchestra, holding the post until 1946. During this time he gave "literally hundreds" of Canadian first performances. After a series of radio talks and concerts in addition to music teaching, conducting and composing, he became a major figure in Canadian musical life. He frequently visited the United States, broadcasting and arranging many performances of contemporary British music. He was also Resident Lecturer at Reed College, Portland, Oregon between 1944 and 1945. Notable students include composer Pamela Harrison.
The Elegiac Mazurka of 1941 was commissioned as part of the memorial volume 'Homage to Paderewski' in honour of the Polish pianist who had died that year. In 1945 a shortened piano solo arrangement of the Jamaican Rumba was published.
The other major original works written during the 1950s were the Harmonica Concerto (1953), written for Larry Adler, who performed it many times and recorded it at least twice; the ballet Orlando's Silver Wedding (1951), Tombeau de Ravel for clarinet and piano, a second string quartet (1959) and the Wind Quintet (1960). He had a lasting admiration for Maurice Ravel, whose influence is most obvious in Tombeau de Ravel and the much earlier Suite of 1926 for piano solo.
His private students included John Carmichael.
Arthur Benjamin died on 10 April 1960, at the age of 66, at the Middlesex Hospital, London, from a re-occurrence of the cancer that had first attacked him three years earlier. An alternative explanation of the immediate cause of death is hepatitis, contracted while Benjamin and his partner, Jack Henderson, a Canadian who worked in the music publishing business, were holidaying with the Australian painter Donald Friend in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
Benjamin wrote four operas. The one-act opera The Devil Take Her, to a libretto by Alan Collard and John B. Gordon, was first produced at the RCM on 1 December 1931, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. Another one-acter, Prima Donna (1932) had to wait until 23 February 1949 for its premiere, at the Fortune Theatre in London. Its libretto was by Cedric Cliffe, son of Benjamin's piano teacher at the RCM, Frederic Cliffe.
A Tale of Two Cities (1950), and Mañana were full-length operas. The librettist for the former was again Cedric Cliffe. First produced by Dennis Arundell during the Festival of Britain in 1951, it won a gold medal and was later broadcast in a live performance by BBC Radio 3 on 17 April 1953. After this performance, Benjamin revised the piece into its final version. The opera was successfully produced in this form in San Francisco in April 1960, only days before his death. Mañana was commissioned in 1955 and produced by BBC television on 1 February 1956. Unfortunately, it was judged a flop at the time and never revived.
A fifth opera, Tartuffe, with a libretto by Cedric Cliffe based on Molière, was unfinished at Benjamin's death. The scoring was completed by the composer Alan Boustead and the work produced by the New Opera Company at Sadler's Wells on 30 November 1964, conducted by Boustead. This appears to have been this opera's only performance.
Benjamin was equally active as a writer of music for films, beginning in 1934 with The Scarlet Pimpernel, an adaptation of music from the Napoleonic era, and Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934, remade 1956), for which Benjamin composed the extended Storm Clouds Cantata. Other scores included those for Alexander Korda's 1947 film of An Ideal Husband, The Conquest of Everest, The Cumberland Story (1947), Steps of the Ballet (British Council/Central Office of Information 1948), Master of Bankdam (Holbein Films 1947), Above Us the Waves (1955) and Fire Down Below (1957). While most of his music scores are archived in the British Library, his film scores are completely lost. Apart from the Boosey & Hawkes edition of An Ideal Husband the only surviving score is the Storm Clouds Cantata.
Premieres as pianist
Arthur Benjamin gave a number of important premieres including:
- Herbert Howells' Piano Concerto No. 1 (1913)
- Arthur Bliss's suite Masks for solo piano by (2 February 1926)
- Constant Lambert's Concerto for piano and 9 players (18 December 1931, Lambert conducting)
- the British premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
Tributes from other composers
Herbert Howells wrote an orchestral suite The Bs, in five movements, each celebrating a close friend. The work was first performed in 1914, and ends with an heraldic march movement entitled "Benjee", saluting Arthur Benjamin, who the previous year had given the premiere of Howells' Piano Concerto No. 1. Howells' orchestral piece Procession (written for the 1922 Proms) is dedicated to Benjamin. Benjamin, in turn, later dedicated the three-page Saxophone Blues (1929) to Howells.
The Australian pianist and composer Ian Munro, who has a special affinity with Arthur Benjamin and has recorded many of his piano works, has written a small biography of Benjamin. The first major biography of Arthur Benjamin has been written by Wendy Hiscocks as her doctoral thesis at the Australian National University, and will be published in 2010[needs update] to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Boosey & Hawkes biography of Arthur Benjamin
- David CF Wright; Eda Kersey
- "Benjamin – Australian Symphonist" by Robert Barnett
- Michael Green (2004) Around and About, Memoirs of a South African Newspaperman, New Africa Books (Pty) Ltd.
- Tall Poppies Records
- ABC Classic FM | <urn:uuid:616e56bb-6ae8-4430-8f79-dc57f2b1ea64> | {
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Christ Church Cathedral (Falkland Islands)
|Christ Church Cathedral|
The cathedral and whalebone arch.
|This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)|
Christ Church Cathedral on Ross Road, in Stanley, Falkland Islands, is the southernmost Anglican cathedral in the world, consecrated in 1892. This is the parish church of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the British Antarctic Territories. The Parish of the Falkland Islands is part of the Anglican Communion. The Rector of the Cathedral is under the ordinary jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Falkland Islands; since 1978 this office has been held ex officio by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is both ordinary and metropolitan for the small autonomous diocese. In practice authority is exercised through a bishop-commissary appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and known as the Bishop for the Falkland Islands.
The church was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield and built in 1890–1892 from the local stone and brick.
In the front of this church stands a monument—a whalebone arch, made from the jaws of two blue whales. The monument was raised in 1933 to commemorate the centenary of the British rule in Falkland Islands.
An image of the church is featured on the reverse side of all Falkland Islands pound banknotes.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Christ Church Cathedral (Falkland Islands).|
- Bishop of the Falkland Islands
- Parish of the Falkland Islands
- List of cathedrals in the United Kingdom | <urn:uuid:9f834747-3adc-46fc-934d-10cd52e53e8e> | {
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Bas-relief patterns at Huaca El Brujo
|Nearest city||Trujillo (45km.)|
The El Brujo Archaeological Complex, just north of Trujillo, La Libertad Province, Peru, is an ancient archaeological site that was occupied from preceramic times. Huaca Prieta is the earliest part of the complex. Later, the site was part of the Cupisnique culture and the Salinar culture.
Huaca El Brujo (or Cortada/Partida) and Huaca Cao Viejo (or Huaca Blanca) were built by the Moche sometime between AD 1 and 600. Huaca Cao Viejo is famous for its polychrome reliefs and mural paintings, and the discovery of the Señora de Cao, the first known governess in Peru. Both appeared in National Geographic magazine in July 2004 and June 2006. The site officially opened to the public in May 2006, and a museum exhibition was proposed for 2007.
A 17th-century letter found during excavations at the site may contain translations of numbers written in Quingnam or Pescadora using the decimal system, the first physical evidence for the existence of these languages (if they are not different names for the same language). Archaeologists believe that the language was influenced by Quechua, an ancient tongue still spoken by millions of people across the Andes.
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|This article does not cite any sources. (November 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)|
- The Light sensitivity range of photographic film, paper, or digital camera sensors.
- The luminosity range of a scene being photographed.
- The opacity range of developed film images
- The reflectance range of images on photographic papers.
The exposure range of a device is usually expressed in stops, which are equivalent to where c is the medium or device's contrast ratio. For example, average Digital Video (DV) has a contrast ratio of 45:1, so its exposure range is roughly 5.5 stops. Film has an exposure range of approximately 14 stops.
Exposure is usually controlled by changing the lens aperture (the amount of light it gathers), the shutter speed (how long light is gathered) or sensitivity (how strongly the film or sensor responds to light). Changing exposure does not change the exposure range.
A graduated neutral density filter can be also used to improve the reproduction of the exposure range of the scene, by darkening bright parts of the image. A graduated filter will reduce the extreme highlights of an image, such as a clear, open sky as well as sunlight. The filter is usually an even gradation of neutral gray to clear, covering the top third to half of the filter in gray. Therefore, it mostly affects the top third to half of the frame's exposure, leaving the highlights in the bottom half to two-thirds unaffected. Often these filters are the square gelatin, polycarbonate, or glass type. A mounting kit such as a square frame receptacle mounted to interchangeable screw-in rings will hold the filter at an appropriate orientation. These can be mounted to the end of an SLR lens camera in the same fashion as a polarizing lens, UV filter, and various other screw-in type filters for SLR and DSLR cameras.
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Telecommunications in the Republic of the Congo
Telecommunications in the Republic of the Congo include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Radio and television
- Radio stations:
- Three state-owned radio stations; several privately owned radio stations; rebroadcasts of several international broadcasters are available (2007);
- 1 AM, 5 FM, and 1 shortwave stations (1999).
- Radios: 341,000 (1997).[needs update]
- Television stations:
- One state-owned and several privately owned TV stations; satellite TV service is available; rebroadcasts of several international broadcasters are available (2007);
- One station (1999).
- Television sets: 33,000 (1997).[needs update]
Most citizens obtain their news from local radio or television stations as there are no nationwide radio or television stations.
Stations from nearby Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, can be received in Brazzaville and rebroadcasts of the BBC (103.8 FM), Radio France Internationale, and the Voice of America are available.
- Calling code: +242
- International call prefix: 00
- Main lines:
- 14,900 lines in use, 196th in the world (2012);
- 21,000 lines in use (1995).
- Mobile cellular:
- 4.3 million lines, 118th in the world (2012).
- 1.1 million lines (2007).
- Telephone system: primary network consists of microwave radio relay and coaxial cable with services barely adequate for government use; key exchanges are in Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, and Loubomo; intercity lines frequently out of order; fixed-line infrastructure inadequate providing less than 1 connection per 100 persons; in the absence of an adequate fixed line infrastructure, mobile-cellular subscribership has surged to 90 per 100 persons (2011).
- Satellite earth stations: 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2011).
- Communications cables: West Africa Cable System (WACS), a submarine communications cable connecting countries along the west coast of Africa with each other and with the UK.
- Top-level domain: .cg
- Internet users:
- Fixed broadband: 393 subscriptions, 190th in the world; less than 0.05% of the population, 185th in the world (2012).
- Wireless broadband: 90,906 subscriptions, 120th in the world; 2.1% of the population, 125th in the world (2012).
- Internet hosts: 45 hosts, 215th in the world (2012).
- IPv4: 12,288 addresses allocated, less than 0.05% of the world total, 2.8 addresses per 1000 people (2012).
- Internet Service Providers (ISPs): Afripa telecom, Airtel Congo, and Ofis computers.
A growing proportion of the public, especially youth, are accessing the Internet more frequently and utilizing online social media. However, only the most affluent have Internet access in their own homes; others who accessed it use cybercafes.
Internet censorship and surveillance
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet, or reports the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms. The constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights. The law makes certain types of speech illegal, including incitement of ethnic hatred, violence, or civil war.
The constitution and law prohibit arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government generally respects these prohibitions. The government makes no known attempts to collect personally identifiable information via the Internet.
- Radiodiffusion Télévision Congolaise, state-owned national broadcaster of the Republic of the Congo.
- Media of the Republic of the Congo
- List of radio stations in Africa
- List of television stations in Africa
- List of terrestrial fibre optic cable projects in Africa
- This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2014 edition".
- This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of State.
- "Communications: Republic of the Congo", World Factbook, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 7 January 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
- "Republic of the Congo", Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 27 March 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
- "Republic of Congo profile", BBC News, 20 September 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
- Dialing Procedures (International Prefix, National (Trunk) Prefix and National (Significant) Number) (in Accordance with ITY-T Recommendation E.164 (11/2010)), Annex to ITU Operational Bulletin No. 994-15.XII.2011, International Telecommunication Union (ITU, Geneva), 15 December 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- "WACS has landed", IT News Africa, 19 April 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
- Calculated using penetration rate and population data from "Countries and Areas Ranked by Population: 2012", Population data, International Programs, U.S. Census Bureau, retrieved 26 June 2013
- "Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000-2012", International Telecommunications Union (Geneva), June 2013, retrieved 22 June 2013
- "Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012", Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE, International Telecommunication Union. Retrieved on 29 June 2013.
- "Active mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012", Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE, International Telecommunication Union. Retrieved on 29 June 2013.
- Select Formats, Country IP Blocks. Accessed on 2 April 2012. Note: Site is said to be updated daily.
- Population, The World Factbook, United States Central Intelligence Agency. Accessed on 2 April 2012. Note: Data are mostly for 1 July 2012. | <urn:uuid:9bb1a108-16e5-413d-95d1-45353a4219e6> | {
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Stage management is the practice of organizing and coordinating a theatrical production. It encompasses a variety of activities, including organizing the production and coordinating communications between various personnel (e.g., between director and backstage crew, or actors and production management). Stage management is a sub-discipline of stagecraft. Stage managers may use a Stage Manager's book to help organize the production.
A stage manager is one who has overall responsibility for stage management and the smooth execution of a production. Stage management may be performed by an individual in small productions, while larger productions typically employ a stage management team consisting of a head stage manager, or "Production Stage Manager", and one or more assistant stage managers.
Between the Renaissance and the 16th century, actors and playwrights took upon themselves the handling of finances, general directorial duties, and stage management. Stage management first emerged as a distinct role in the 17th century during Shakespeare's and Molière's time, though it wasn't until the 18th century in England that the term Stage Manager was used. This was the first time a person other than actors and playwright was hired to direct or manage the stage. Over time, with the rise in complexity of theatre due to advances such as mechanized scenery, quick costume changes, and controlled lighting, the stage manager's job was split into two positions—director and stage manager.
Many playwrights, directors and actors had as their first job in the theatre work as an assistant stage manager. Writer and director Preston Sturges, for example, was employed as an ASM on Isadora Duncan's production of Oedipus Rex at the age of 16 and a half:
When one is responsible for giving an offstage cue, even the simplest ones, like the ring of a telephone or a birdcall, demand considerable sangfroid, and the job is nervewracking. One is very much aware that everything depends on the delivery of the cue at exactly the right microsecond. One stands there, knees slightly bent, breathing heavily...
Sturges didn't last long in this job, due to his calling for thunder and then lightning instead of lightning and then thunder, but 16 years later Brock Pemberton hired him as an ASM on Antoinette Perry's production of Goin' Home, which led to the first mounting of one of Sturges' plays on Broadway, The Guinea Pig, in 1929.
The responsibilities and duties of stage management vary depending on the setting of a production (i.e., rehearsal or performance) and the type of production (e.g., theatre, dance, music). Most broadly, it is the stage manager's responsibility to ensure that the director's artistic choices are realized in actual performance.
As the lighting, sound, and set change cues are developed, the stage manager records the timing of each as it relates to the script and other aspects of the performance. The stage manager maintains a prompt book, sometimes called "the book" or "the bible," which contains all cues, technical notes, blocking and other information pertinent to the show.
During rehearsals, the stage manager typically serves as an adjunct to the director by recording the blocking and ensuring that cast members stay on script, have the requisite props, and follow the blocking. Stage managers are responsible for helping establish a show's rehearsal schedule and ensuring that rehearsals run on time. The stage manager typically documents each rehearsal in a rehearsal report.
Once the house opens for a performance, the stage manager controls all aspects of the performance by calling the cues for all transitions (this is known as "calling the show") and acting as communications hub for the cast and crew. Large productions may utilize a stage management team in which the manager is responsible for calling the show while other team members operate backstage to ensure actors and crew are ready to perform their duties. After a show opens, the stage manager is also responsible for calling brush-up, put in and understudy rehearsals to make sure that the show's quality is maintained.
The stage manager ensures that lighting and sound cues are acted upon at the right time by issuing verbal standby and prompt calls. Each cue call begins with the word "standby" to indicate that an action is imminent and, in response, the technician who will perform the action acknowledges readiness to perform the action. Occasionally, after a long pause or break in the production's action, the stage manager will give a "warning" cue. This warns the technicians that the next cue is approaching. At the appropriate time, the stage manager will prompt immediate execution of the action by saying "go".
In the United States, Stage Manager is a generic title that may be applied to anyone who performs stage management functions. On small shows, one person typically performs all the tasks of stage management, and is simply referred to as the stage manager. Larger shows often need two or more stage managers. In such cases the head stage manager is titled Production Stage Manager (commonly abbreviated PSM), and working under the PSM is one or more Assistant Stage Managers (commonly abbreviated ASM). Shows that employ three stage managers have a PSM and two ASMs, though the program credits may list them as Production Stage Manager (first or head stage manager), Stage Manager (second stage manager), and Assistant Stage Manager (third stage manager).
Some professional stage managers in plays and musicals may choose to be represented by a union known as the Actors' Equity Association. In addition to performing their typical stage management duties (e.g., maintaining the prompt book and calling performances), Equity stage managers are also required to uphold the union's rules and rights for Equity artists. Union stage managers for opera, ballet, and modern dance are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists and perform most of the same duties as their counterparts in plays and musicals.
In the UK, the structure of a stage management team depends on the type and size of the production. It can consist of stage manager (overseeing the running of the show), deputy stage manager (commonly called DSM) and assistant stage manager (commonly called ASM). A fringe theatre show may employ one stage manager to carry out the tasks of an entire team, whereas a West End theatre show in London might employ multiple ASMs. Professional stage managers are represented by the British Actors' Equity Association, which also represents performers.
Deputy stage manager
The DSM prompts actors and will usually cue technical crew members and sometimes cast, while following the orders of the director and stage manager. The DSM calls actors to hold while technical problems are sorted out during rehearsal, and determines where in the script to restart halted scenes. The deputy stage manager (DSM) is a separate position in some theatres, while in others the responsibilities of the DSM may be assumed by the stage manager or assistant stage manager.
Assistant stage manager
The assistant stage manager (ASM) has varied responsibilities, which are assigned by the stage manager. The ASM assists in finding and maintaining props during rehearsals and the run of the show. The ASM may take attendance or estimate audience size, may manage the backstage technicians, may act as a liaison between crew, cast and management, and may call some cues. Mundane tasks such as mopping the stage and brewing coffee or tea may fall to the ASM. If the stage manager is unable to perform his or her duties, the ASM must be able to fill in.
The assistant may also be in charge of one wing of the stage, while the stage manager is on the other wing.
Show control based venues
Many live shows around the world are produced with the forehand knowledge that they will have a very long run, often measured in years. These are usually known quantities that are very expensive productions and have a guaranteed audience because of their location. Typically, they are on cruise ships, in theme parks, Las Vegas or at destination resorts. These shows warrant very long range development and planning and use stage managers to run almost all technical elements in the show, without benefit of many of the other traditional crew members, such as sound, lighting and rigging operators. In these cases, show control systems are installed and connected to all other technical systems in the theatre, which are specifically designed to be controlled by show control and to operate safely with minimal supervision. Stage managers working these shows usually have the additional responsibility for programming the show control system, and often the other control systems as well.
- Thomas, James (1984). The art of the actor-manager: Wilson Barrett and the Victorian theatre. UMI Research Press. p. 203. ISBN 0-8357-1492-6.
- Fazio, Larry (2000). Stage Manager: The Professional Experience. Focal Press. p. 367. ISBN 0-240-80410-4.
- Sturges, Preston; Sturges, Sandy (adapt. & ed.). Preston Sturges on Preston Sturges. Boston: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571164250., p. 123-24
- Sturges, Preston; Sturges, Sandy (adapt. & ed.). Preston Sturges on Preston Sturges. Boston: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571164250. pp. 239-245
- Parker, W. Oren (1990). Scene Design and Stage Lighting. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. p. 263. ISBN 0-03-028777-4.
- Pallin, p. 81
- Bond, p. 15
- Bond, pp. 15–16
- Pallin, Gail (25 April 2003). Stage Management: The Essential Handbook (2 ed.). London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 1-85459-734-5.
- Bond, Daniel (2002). Stage management: a gentle art (3 ed.). London: A & C Black. ISBN 0-7136-5983-1. | <urn:uuid:e248bcc9-c56d-4034-add7-694446bfc87f> | {
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Guest post by Imogen
European countries generally call it football, whereas North America and Australasia almost always refer to it as soccer. The average Englishman will adamantly argue that the right name is football, and may even argue that the word soccer is some kind of American invention, but he would actually be wrong. In fact, the word soccer originated in Britain, so read on to find out the interesting course of events that led to the creation of the much disputed word soccer.
Football played with the feet and football played with the hands
To understand why two words exist for the same sport, more explanation about another sport being played in Britain is needed. During a game of football played with the feet, at the Rugby School in England, a student called William Webb Ellis decided to pick up the ball and run it over the goal line. When he asked the referee if it was a goal, the ref replied, “No, but it was a jolly good ‘try’”. The sport of Rugby Football progressed from there, with the adoption of ‘try’ as a scoring term, and the name of the sport is taken from the school. The Rugby Union organisation was eventually formed in 1871, and in addition, schoolboys at the time gave the game the nickname ‘rugger’, which is still used today.
As Rugby football became a popular sport in England, a distinction had to be made between rugby, where the hands are used, and football, where just the feet are used. It all began with the creation of the Football Association, or FA, back in 1863. Football had been played in England for many years before this date, but no formal set of definite rules had been decided upon. A group of teams decided that they would play all their games according to the rules set out by the Football Association, and many more followed suit. From here the modern game of football or soccer flourished, but where did this new name come from?
Origins of the word soccer
The term football was a common name used for both rugby and football, so with the creation of the Football Association, football began being referred to as association football. As with the nickname of Rugby being ‘rugger’, soon enough a nickname was used for association football – soccer. The story goes that not long after the formation of the Football Association, an Oxford student called Charles Wreford-Brown was asked by friend whether he would like to join in with a game of ‘rugger’ they were about to play. Charles replied by saying no to a game of rugby because he preferred to play ‘soccer’.
The birth to the two names for these two games explains how the words came into existence, but doesn’t explain why is there a distinction between who uses ‘soccer’ and who uses ‘football’ This is even more relevant seeing as English people will often declare football as the proper name, even though the term soccer originated in England.
How British society shaped the use of soccer and football
In the second part of the 19th century, these two organisations governing the two sports of football, association football and rugby football, were establishments of the upper class educational system. Universities like Cambridge and Oxford endorsed the implementation of a set of rules for each game, and began to create competitions that pitted teams from each university against each other. The love of creating nicknames for things was a common thing for schoolboys of the time to do, and students at these schools for the privileged made the words rugger and soccer their own.
The reason why football has become much more widely used than soccer in England is down to social factors (much like drug addiction varies in England depending on social class and background with many footballers sadly falling into addiction in retirement, a fate less common for those who played rugby). The terms rugger and soccer were common words for the upper class, but there was a big distinction between people from these more fortunate backgrounds and the rest of England’s people.
When these sports were introduced to the masses soccer was the all-out winner, but the word soccer belonged to the privileged Victorian schoolboys that invented it. Instead, the masses reverted back to simply calling it football, and a large reason for this would be because the game is playing using a ball and your foot, unlike rugby.
So there you have it, the reason behind why one sport has two names. | <urn:uuid:0f844da2-7374-4739-a76e-65b7d3fe3e9b> | {
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MC97 Homework 4 (Spring 1999)
Due: May 13, 1999
Consider evaluating ((7-8)-9)-(10-(11-12)). Draw a tree
representation of this expression, with the numbers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
and 12 as leaves and - at the internal nodes.
Assume an architecture with two registers, r0 and r1, and the
following four instruction formats:
rd := n
rd := rs - rt
where rd, rs, and rt can in each case be either of r0 and r1, and
where n can be any number. The push and pop instructions operate on a
stack stored in memory.
Label the nodes in your tree (both the constant leaves and the
internal subtractions) with need values. Then give the
list of instructions the Sethi-Ullman algorithm would generate for
evaluating this expression into r0.
We can refer to the definitions of h in the following flow
graph by the number of the blocks in which they appear; that is, there
are definitons numbered 4, 5, 12, and 13. Which of these four
definitions reach the start of block 7? Block 13? Block 16?
(This flowgraph is reproduced from my paper
"Cost-Optimal Code Motion," ACM Transactions on
Programming Languages and Systems, Voluume 20, Number 6
(November, 1998), pp. 1297-1322.)
Instructor: Max Hailperin | <urn:uuid:06af17d8-fe4a-4b28-b7e0-7a81c0e015b5> | {
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In 1994, Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, MD, discovered the mouse Ob gene that encodes the hormone leptin released by fat cells. Leptin, along with other blood-borne and neural signals, is a key modulator of the activity of the circuits in the hypothalamus that precisely regulates eating behavior and energy expenditure. Friedman, one of the featured speakers at the 2010 Nobel conference, "Making Food Good," is a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator and Marilyn M Simpson Professor at Rockefeller University, where he is also director of the Starr Center for Human Genetics. Friedman, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine, has over 160 publications to his credit and numerous honors including the 2009 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine. His work has been powerful in recasting thinking on the pathogenesis of human obesity and is guiding future development of treatments that reduce the risks of a number of obesity-associated medical complications.
In a May 2009 interview for the journal Nature, Friedman calls on us to reevaluate our attitudes toward obesity and consider what we have learned about the nature of the biological loops that control food intake and body weight in designing safe, effective anti-obesity therapies.
With the growing realization that mainly biological factors contribute to obesity, it is hoped that this condition will be de-stigmatized, reducing the compulsion by obese individuals to achieve an arbitrary ideal, lean weight and instead motivate them to focus on improving their health.
We look forward with great anticipation to hear what Jeffrey Friedman has to say about how a better understanding of the neurobiological control of satiety and hunger and the genetic basis of obesity in humans should aid in its prevention and treatment. We hope that you can join us to hear more at Nobel Conference 46 on October 5 & 6, 2010.
Mike Ferragamo, Biology | <urn:uuid:3eabfcf7-bc16-47b4-9154-2ca790a0694b> | {
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A new book edited by Vice President for Research Leo Chalupa captures the current state of knowledge in the science of sight.
By Danny Freedman
Light streams in and is first focused, then filtered through a lens and collected by more than a hundred million cones and rods, which pack it up and ship it to central processing along a million high-speed cables.
That’s the first instant of seeing these words. Then there’s the recognition of shapes and patterns, and the perception of color and brightness and texture and meaning.
“And it’s all effortless. You don’t even think of it,” said Leo Chalupa, a neuroscientist and GW’s vice president for research. “Even movement or speech, you have to give some thought, maybe just a tiny bit—what are you going to say, how are you going to say it—even if you’re not aware of it. But vision is effortless.”
Dr. Chalupa, who also is a professor in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, has spent most of his career exploring that process in the lab, and he continues the pursuit in a new book, The New Visual Neurosciences, published in October by MIT Press.
The book, which Dr. Chalupa co-edited with John S. Werner, a neuroscientist at University of California, Davis, is a 1,600-page compendium on the state of the science, penned by some of the top scholars in the field. It sets out to map a research landscape that is rapidly expanding from all sides, covering not just new ideas on how the visual system works but also how it develops in fetuses and how it evolved.
Geared toward academic readers and scientists, the book is a follow up to a two-volume set on the same topic edited by Dr. Chalupa and Dr. Werner and published in 2004.
“We could not have anticipated that, in only one decade, many of these areas would advance so fast and so far as to require much more than an update,” they write in the book.
That means many of the chapters are entirely new, bringing into the mix new or increasingly relevant topics in the field, like optogenetics, the engineering of brain cells that can be controlled by light, and translational research, a field that bridges basic science and medicine. Another topic, invertebrate vision, has been historically fundamental to understanding the basics of visual processing and, in including it, the editors acknowledge that still today, invertebrates “continue to fascinate and challenge.”
The rapid advance of visual neuroscience has been fueled by the factors driving many other sciences, Dr. Chalupa said, including the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of studies and the availability of technology and techniques “to do things that were unheard of not that long ago.”
For instance, studies of individual brain cells that once had to be conducted one cell at a time can now be done by the thousand. “It’s not just that you’re getting more data, but you’re getting a different kind of data,” he said. “... So you’re able to answer questions about the underlying circuitry, not just one cell.”
Those advances have helped illuminate the connections between the dozens of subtopics within the field, Dr. Chalupa said, and have only added to the wonderment of natural visual systems—which remain unrivaled by the best efforts of mankind.
“You can take a picture of something and a smartphone will tell you that it’s the Eiffel Tower without any kind of problem,” he said. “But take a pencil and turn it a different direction, they won’t recognize it as the same thing.”
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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
By Bonnie K. Goodman
Ms. Goodman is the Editor of History Musings. She has a BA in History & Art History & a Masters in Library and Information Studies from McGill University, and has done graduate work in history at Concordia University. Ms. Goodman has also contributed the overviews, and chronologies in History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2008, 4th edition, edited by Gil Troy, Fred L. Israel, and Arthur Meier Schlesinger published by Facts on File, Inc. in late 2011.
IN FOCUS: THE TITANIC’S SINKING 100 YEARS LATERS — CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY….
On this day in history… April 15, 1912, the British luxury liner Titanic sank in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg. About 1,500 people died. (NYT)
April 14, 1912: RMS Titanic hits iceberg… April 15, 1912: Titanic sinks
At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the British ocean liner Titanic sinks into the North Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. The massive ship, which carried 2,200 passengers and crew, had struck an iceberg two and half hours before.
On April 10, the RMS Titanic, one of the largest and most luxurious ocean liners ever built, departed Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The Titanic was designed by the Irish shipbuilder William Pirrie and built in Belfast, and was thought to be the world’s fastest ship. It spanned 883 feet from stern to bow, and its hull was divided into 16 compartments that were presumed to be watertight. Because four of these compartments could be flooded without causing a critical loss of buoyancy, the Titanic was considered unsinkable. While leaving port, the ship came within a couple of feet of the steamer New York but passed safely by, causing a general sigh of relief from the passengers massed on the Titanic’s decks. On its first journey across the highly competitive Atlantic ferry route, the ship carried some 2,200 passengers and crew.
After stopping at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, to pick up some final passengers, the massive vessel set out at full speed for New York City. However, just before midnight on April 14, the RMS Titanic failed to divert its course from an iceberg and ruptured at least five of its hull compartments. These compartments filled with water and pulled down the bow of the ship. Because the Titanic’s compartments were not capped at the top, water from the ruptured compartments filled each succeeding compartment, causing the bow to sink and the stern to be raised up to an almost vertical position above the water. Then the Titanic broke in half, and, at about 2:20 a.m. on April 15, stern and bow sank to the ocean floor.
Because of a shortage of lifeboats and the lack of satisfactory emergency procedures, more than 1,500 people went down in the sinking ship or froze to death in the icy North Atlantic waters. Most of the 700 or so survivors were women and children. A number of notable American and British citizens died in the tragedy, including the noted British journalist William Thomas Stead and heirs to the Straus, Astor, and Guggenheim fortunes.
One hour and 20 minutes after Titanic went down, the Cunard liner Carpathia arrived. The survivors in the lifeboats were brought aboard, and a handful of others were pulled out of the water. It was later discovered that the Leyland liner Californian had been less than 20 miles away at the time of the accident but had failed to hear the Titanic’s distress signals because its radio operator was off duty.
Announcement of details of the tragedy led to outrage on both sides of the Atlantic. In the disaster’s aftermath, the first International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea was held in 1913. Rules were adopted requiring that every ship have lifeboat space for each person on board, and that lifeboat drills be held. An International Ice Patrol was established to monitor icebergs in the North Atlantic shipping lanes. It was also required that ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch.
On September 1, 1985, a joint U.S.-French expedition located the wreck of the Titanic lying on the ocean floor at a depth of about 13,000 feet. The ship was explored by manned and unmanned submersibles, which shed new light on the details of its sinking.
TITANIC SINKING TIMELINE:
Source: The Sun, 4-14-12
- 9.45am: The ship approaches an area known for icebergs about 400 miles south of Newfoundland.
- 11.40pm: Iceberg rips open the side of the Titanic.
- 12.25am: Order given to put women and children into lifeboats.
- 12:45am: Lifeboat number seven is the first lowered – with only 19 of 65 capacity.
- 2:18am: Titanic breaks in two.
- 2:20am: Ship goes under.
Source for many of the links: NYT
- The Story of the Titanic, Encyclopedia Britannica
- RMS Titanic, Wikipedia
- Titanic for Dummies ArticlesDummies.com
- Titanica, National Museums of Northern Ireland
- Titanic Inquiry Project, Electronic copies of the U.S. and British inquiries into the disaster.
- Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
- Titanic 100, BBC
- Titanic Passenger Bios , Biography.com
- Articles, Photos and Videos, BBC
- Discovery News
- “How The New York Times Invented Disaster Coverage With Titanic Sinking”, The Poynter Institute, Apr. 9, 2012
- “Titanic Belfast Exhibit Opening Where Doomed Ship was Built”, Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2012
- “Titanic Tourist Attraction to Open in Belfast” (Video), BBC, March 30, 2012
From National Geographic
- Titanic: 100 Years Site
- Building Titanic: An Interactive Timeline
- Titanic: 100 Years: The Ship That Belfast Built (Video)
- Adventure on the Titanic (Interactive)
- Titanic: Unsolved Mystery (Interactive)
- Photo Gallery: The Guarantee Group
- Titanic: The Final Word With James Cameron (Video)
- Around the world, prayer, music and flowers remember sinking of the Titanic, 100 years on: In the birthplace of the Titanic, residents will gather for a choral requiem. In the North Atlantic, above the ship’s final resting place, passengers will pray as a band strikes up a hymn and three floral wreaths are cast onto the waves.
A century after the great ship went down with the loss of 1,500 lives, events around the globe are marking a tragedy that retains a titanic grip on the world’s imagination — an icon of Edwardian luxury that became, in a few dark hours 100 years ago, an enduring emblem of tragedy…. – WaPo, 4-14-12
- US, British ships to meet at Titanic sinking spot: Titanic fans aboard cruise ships are journeying to the spot where the great liner hit an iceberg exactly 100 years ago on Sunday, as somber ceremonies are held on land to mark the disaster.The anniversary has taken on an international character, with artists, scientists and museums engaged in months-long preparations for commemorating events in Britain, Canada, Ireland and the United States, with an emphasis on dignity.
The Titanic was built in Belfast, and sailed from Southampton toward New York, but it was from Halifax that ships were sent to retrieve the bodies. And 150 of the tragedy’s 1,514 victims are buried here.
One century to the hour after the fatal encounter with an iceberg, more than 1,700 passengers on two cruise ships — the MS Balmoral from Southampton and the Azamara Journey from New York City — plan to meet at the site where the Titanic went down to witness a partial reenactment.
The ship’s captain will announce a collision and a distress call will ring out.
Passengers then plan to throw wreaths into the sea at 2:20 am about 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Halifax at the time and place the ship sank.
Some participants in the memorial events — many of them history buffs or descendants of passengers of the doomed voyage — came with personal stories about how the Titanic touched their lives…. – AFP, 4-14-12
- Titanic mystery: 100 years later, questions linger in NJ: On April 27, Bracken and Charles Haas of Randolph, president of the Titanic International Society, will gather with other members of the international group in Secaucus for the RMS Titanic Centennial Convention, for a candlelight service…. – NJ Star-Ledger, 4-14-12
- Remembering the Titanic in Southampton: A hundred years after the ship left Southampton, the port city marked the anniversary of the epic disaster with a recording of the ship’s whistle…. – NYT, 4-10-12
- Halifax to remember the Titanic with Night of Bells ceremony: It was 100 years ago tonight that the R.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg and later sank about 700 kilometres from the port of Halifax killing 1,500 of the 2,200 people aboard.
The province of Nova Scotia is inviting the public to help commemorate the sinking and the lives that were lost at an event called Titanic Eve – Night of the Bells.
It will be an event rich in memory and symbolism, beginning with a candlelit procession that will start at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic on Lower Water Street…. – CBC News, 4-14-12
- Coast Guard cutter to spread 1.5 million rose petals atop the Titanic’s watery grave: A Coast Guard cutter will depart from Boston to spread 1.5 million dried rose petals over the resting place of the Titanic, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking, the Coast Guard said today.
Crewmembers from the cutter Juniper will spread the petals atop the ship’s watery grave on Saturday. Members of the Coast Guard-led International Ice Patrol will also cast five wreaths from an HC-130J Hercules aircraft based out of Elizabeth City, N.J., the Coast Guard said in a statement.“I think it’s important. It is a chance to experience 100 years ago — how things have changed with transatlantic voyages,” said Petty Officer Rob Simpson, who will be on board the Juniper.
The wreaths and rose petals will be blessed at a ceremony at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Coast Guard base in Boston hosted by the agency, as well as the Titanic Historical Society, the Titanic International Society, and Titanic Museum Attractions…. – Boston Globe, 4-9-12
- At Sea on the Titanic a Century Ago: We may not know everything that happened that fateful night on April 15, 1912, but the ambition and folly of the Titanic’s maiden voyage are still with us…. – NYT, 4-13-12
- Twists of Fate: The Titanic narrowly avoided a collision with another ocean liner, the New York, at the beginning of its ill-fated journey…. – NYT, 4-13-12
- Experts Split on Possibility of Remains at Titanic Site: In 1986, Congress passed a protective law known as the RMS Titanic Memorial Act, but officials at the ocean agency and elsewhere agree that it has no teeth…. – NYT, 4-14-12
- World’s largest Titanic attraction opens in Belfast: Resembling both an iceberg and the prow of the doomed ship that sank on its maiden voyage, the $160 million, six-story Titanic Belfast has drawn more than 40,000 visitors since it opened March 31…. – USA Today, 4-12
- ‘Titanic at 100′ at South Street Seaport Museum: Titanic-themed entertainment abounds this weekend, and not just on the screen but in the city…. – NYT, 4-12-12
- Titanic exhibit “Titanic at 100: Myth and Memory” — South Street Seaport Museum: A scale model of the RMS Titanic sits on display at the opening of the “Titanic at 100: Myth and Memory” exhibition on April 10, 2012 in New York City. The exhibit opened at the Melville Gallery, part of the South Street Seaport Museum, on the 100th anniversary of Titanic’s launch on her maiden – and only – voyage. The exhibition features mayday communications from the ship, personal artifacts from survivors, production items from Titanic films and interactive multimedia tours through the ship. The British passenger liner sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, killing more than 1,500 people on April 15,1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City…. – Times Union, 4-10-12
- History Lost And Found: A Letter From Titanic: Many famous names went down with the Titanic, like the American millionaire John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthiest person on the ship, and Macy’s department store owner Isidor Straus.
But you may not know about one of the ship’s doctors — John Edward Simpson. Aboard the Titanic, Simpson wrote a letter to his mother back home in Belfast. It was mailed from the great ship’s last port of call before it made its disastrous turn across the North Atlantic.Over the years, though, the letter fell into the hands of a collector, and the Simpson family thought it lost forever — until now…. – NPR, 4-14-12
- Titanic Continues to Have a Long Afterlife – Advertising: Marketers and media companies are feeding an apparently ceaseless interest in the Titanic with an outpouring of TV programs, books, and many other collectibles…. – NYT, 4-12-12
- New Books About the Titanic and Its Passengers: Two books explore the doomed maiden voyage of the Titanic…. – NYT, 4-14-12
- Titanic, a story told in movies, plays and books: Mention Oreo cookies or the Girl Guides and no one’s likely to hark back, almost without thinking, to 1912. Both came into being that year. It’s the sinking of the Titanic that brings the time most readily to mind.
The disaster has entered the language: “Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” for any futile gesture that will fail to ward off impending calamity.
It’s also become a cultural touchstone for any writer or filmmaker seeking to evoke the years immediately prior to World War I and symbolize the approaching death of a gilded era.The Titanic has featured most prominently in movies too numerous all to be mentioned here…. – Toronto Star, 4-14-12
- Deborah Hopkinson: ‘Titanic’ review: Gripping ‘Voices’: When the ‘unsinkable’ met the unthinkable:
TITANIC: VOICES FROM THE DISASTER, Deborah Hopkinson, Scholastic Press, $17.99, 304 pages
On April 15, 1912, 17-year-old Jack Thayer was returning home from a European trip with his parents. A first-class passenger on a grand new ocean liner, he enjoyed a lavish dinner. It was a cold evening, growing colder. “There was no moon,” he said, “and I have never seen the stars shine brighter.” Before the night was through, Jack Thayer would find himself in desperate trouble. His ship, the Titanic, struck an iceberg and began to sink.
“Titanic: Voices From the Disaster” is gripping from the first page. West Linn writer Deborah Hopkinson begins her history for middle grade and young adult readers by laying out the bare facts of the tragedy. The Titanic was an extraordinarily elegant ship, too big to sink. How then, could she have struck an iceberg? Why weren’t there adequate lifeboats or a plan for using them? Hopkinson answers those questions and introduces a number of vivid characters: “a stewardess, a 9-year-old boy, a science teacher, a wealthy gentleman, a brave seaman, an American high school senior, a young mother on her way to start a new life, and more.”…. – The Oregonian, 4-14-12
- Titanic: A ship full of myths: Probably the most outlandish belief ever about the sinking of the Titanic is that it wasn’t the Titanic . . . .
British writer Robin Gardiner got three books out of his premise that it was actually sister-ship the Olympic that went to the bottom in a massive insurance scam gone horribly wrong.In Titanic: The Ship that Never Sank, The Great Titanic Conspiracy and The Riddle of the Titanic, the latter co-authored with journalist Dan van der Vat, Gardiner builds on a collision in 1911 between the Olympic and a Royal Navy cruiser, HMS Hawke….. – Toronto Star, 4-12-12
QUOTES: SURVIVOR ACCOUNTS
United Press International/File
Artist Willy Stoewer’s vision of what the sinking must have looked like
- Survivors of the Titanic | Survivors from the famous shipwreck tell their stories: At 11.40pm on 14 April, 1912, the famously ‘unsinkable’ ocean liner, Titanic, struck an iceberg. Two hours and 40 minutes later she sank deep into the freezing Atlantic waters. Less than a third of the people on board survived.
Over the years, the BBC has heard from some of the men and women who lived through that ‘night to remember’. Their memories, and internal BBC documents about the controversies that followed, are now gathered together to tell the true story of the disaster.
Hear the survivors describe a night they could never forget…. – BBC
- Titanic memories from Canadians: Titanic survivors with a connection to Canada were a mixed bag of infants to autocrats, with an equally mixed bag of stories as they disembarked in New York from the rescue ship Carpathia…. – Toronto Star, 4-13-12
- ‘They watched the ship go down’ — Toronto Star, 4-13-12
- Titanic: ‘I heard the screams’ recalls officerJoseph Boxhall Joseph Boxhall was aged 28 when he became fourth officer on the Titanic:
Joseph Boxhall, the fourth officer on RMS Titanic, was on duty the night the liner sank, but survived the disaster after he was ordered to take charge of one of the lifeboats.
In a BBC radio interview in 1962, the Hull-born officer recalled the moment the liner hit the iceberg on 14 April…. – BBC, 4-14-12
- Titanic 100: We survived: Just over 700 people escaped from the Titanic after it struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on the night of 14 April 1912. More than 1,500 others were not so fortunate.
The survivors scrambled into lifeboats or plunged into the icy water. In the years after the disaster, some of them spoke publicly about the Titanic’s ill-fated maiden voyage.
Here, with the help of archive images and audio, listen to what happened through the voices of crew members Charles Lightoller and Frank Prentice and passengers Eva Hart and Edith Russell…. – BBC, 4-9-12
- The terrible cries for help lasted 20 or 30 minutes… then faded away – Titanic first class passenger John Thayer:
CLOSE to death adrift in the dark Atlantic, John Thayer watched as the Titanic slipped beneath the waves.The 17-year-old and his parents had been first-class passengers on the doomed liner 100 years ago.
Miraculously, John – heir to an American railroad fortune – survived the disaster with his mother and wrote a vivid first-hand account of the catastrophe 28 years later.
John committed suicide in 1945 and for decades A Survivor’s Tale was forgotten – but it is now back in print to mark the centenary.
Here is an edited extract…. – The Sun, 4-14-12
- Titanic: Unlikely friendship in lifeboat eight: Able Seaman Thomas Jones and the Countess of Rothes became friends after surviving the tragedy
He was a crewman from Wales, she was a countess from London travelling first class on the biggest passenger liner of the time.
If not for one of the biggest maritime disasters in history, it is unlikely their paths would ever have crossed.
But aboard Titanic’s lifeboat number eight Able Seaman Thomas Jones and Lucy Noël Martha, Countess of Rothes, struck up an unlikely friendship that would last for the rest of their lives.And now 100 years later their descendants have met for the first time.
Thomas William Jones was 32 years old when he boarded the Titanic as a member of the deck crew at Southampton.
The Countess of Rothes, who was “of independent means”, was just a year older than the crewman when she boarded at the same port with her Scottish husband’s cousin and her maid…. – BBC , 4-14-12
- Unsinkable Molly Brown’s daughter chose Paris over Titanic: Helen Brown Benziger couldn’t resist April in Paris. What 22-year-old socialite studying abroad could?
The City of Light, from its spring fashion shows to its blossoming boulevards, had a certain je ne sais quoi.
That magnetism, that state of mind, later romanticized in song, presumably altered the course of history for the only daughter of the heroine who came to be immortalized as “The Unsinkable” Molly Brown.
Benziger, who years later settled in Old Greenwich, chose Paris over the maiden voyage of the Titanic.
The year was 1912…. – Greenwich Times, 4-11-12
- 200,000 Titanic-related records are published online:
More than 200,000 records relating to the Titanic have been published online to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking on 15 April.
The documents provide information about survivors and the 1,500 people who died, including a number of wills and hundreds of coroner inquest files.
The collection has been gathered by the subscription-based family history website Ancestry.co.uk.
However, access to the Titanic records collection is free until 31 May 2012…. – BBC, 4-9-12
QUOTES: NEW YORK TIMES COVERAGE 1912
- The Titanic Sails Today: The White Star liner Titanic, the largest vessel in the world, will sail at noon tomorrow from Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York…. – NYT, 4-10-1912
- Allan Liner Virginian Now Steaming Toward the Ship: A wireless dispatch received tonight by the Allan-line officials from the steamer Virginian states that the Titanic flashed out wireless calls for immediate assistance. The Virginian put on full speed and headed for the Titanic…. – NYT, 4-15-1912
- Latest News From the Sinking Ship: Dispatches from the Titanic to the Marconic wireless station in Cape Race, Newfoundland…. – NYT, 4-15-1912
- Noted Men on the Lost Titanic: Sketches of a few of the well-known people among the 1,300 passengers lost on the Titanic, including Col. Jacob Astor and his wife, Isidor Strauss and Benjamin Guggenheim…. – NYT, 4-16-1912
- Biggest Liner Plunges to the Bottom at 2:20 a.m.: The Carpathia found at daybreak this morning only the lifeboats and the wreckage of what had been the biggest steamship afloat…. – NYT, 4-16-1912
- Titanic’s “C.Q.D.” Caught by a Lucky Fluke:
By Harold Thomas Cottam, wireless operator on the Carpathia: Carpathia’s wireless man had finished his work for the night, but going back to verify a “Time Rush,” he caught the call for help…. – NYT, 4-19-1912
- Thrilling Tale by Titanic’s Surviving Wireless Man:
By Harold Bride, surviving wireless operator on the Titanic: Wireless operator recounts the final hours of the ship…. – NYT, 4-28-1912
- Titanic: A century of fascination: Stephen Cox, a UC San Diego English literature professor who has written extensively about Titanic, including a book, has some ideas about why the tragedy retains its pull on the public’s imagination, 100 years later and counting.
“It’s a story about people, and it’s a story about people who are like us,” he said. “We’re interested in thinking about what we would have done under those circumstances.”
It took the Titanic two hours and 40 minutes to sink, roughly the time of a Shakespearean tragedy, Cox said. People had time to think about what they were doing, and why. The decisions they made — Get on a lifeboat? Go back for others? Sink or swim? — say something about them and their character. And, by extension, something about us…. – UT San San Diego, 4-13-12
- William Neill: Titanic ‘disaster tourism’ disrespects victims, academic claims: The city of Belfast has “coarsened itself” by exploiting the sinking of the Titanic to draw in tourists, an academic has claimed.
Titanic anniversary: Belfast’s monument to the Titanic tale Belfast has spent £97m – Northern Ireland’s biggest-ever outlay on a tourism project – on Titanic BelfastThe city is throwing a three week “festival” to mark the opening the Titanic Belfast museum and the centenary of the launch of the fated ocean liner.
William Neill, a professor of urban planning at Aberdeen University, said: “Belfast is unique in terms of the significance of the Titanic but the question must be raised as to whether that memory has been treated with enough respect.
“The city has lived with the shame of the sinking for many years. That has turned a corner and it is important that the role Belfast’s great shipyard played in our maritime history is acknowledged.
“Whether what is now a mythic legacy should have been tied so closely to financial gain through selling ‘infotainment’ is more debateable.”
Professor Neill is to address a conference on the phenomenon of ‘disaster tourism’ in Berlin. More than 1,500 people died when the RMS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912 after striking on iceberg…. – Telegraph UK, 4-4-12
- Paul Heyer: Fascination with Titanic is unlikely to sink, prof says
Paul Heyer is a WLU prof who has just published a book called Titanic Century. He is in big demand these days as an expert on media coverage 100 years ago and Titanic myth-making.
It’s downright painful for Paul Heyer to admit that he passed up on a chance to be an extra on the set of movie producer James Cameron’s 1997 megahit Titanic.The professor of communication studies at Wilfrid Laurier University is an expert on how the passenger ship and its tragic story have been represented in all kinds of media.
He is the author of the just-released book, Titanic Century: Media, Myth and the Making of a Cultural Icon, an update of a scholarly work he published in 1995.
Heyer says he was teaching at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., back in the 1990s, when he was asked if he would like to spend two weeks in San Diego, Calif.
“Titanic was in production and they were looking for extras with some connections to the Titanic,” Heyer recalls. “They wanted people who had written about the Titanic, or members of the Titanic Historical Society.”
To this day — and maybe even more so now that the movie is back on the big screen in 3D to mark the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking on April 15, 1912 — Heyer regrets saying no…. – Guelph Mercury, 4-13-12
- ‘The Titanic For Dummies’ Written By University Of New Haven Professor Stephen Spignesi Covers Historic Disaster, Detail By Detail: Fact No. 1: There was nobody named Jack Dawson on the Titanic.
Fact No. 2: The man named J. Dawson who was among the passengers and died on the Titanic, and whose grave movie fans visit in Nova Scotia, was not Jack, the character Leonardo DiCaprio played in that 1997 blockbuster movie.
“The Titanic for Dummies” will teach you that, and thousands more facts about the legendary disaster.So if his first Titanic book was “complete,” why write a new one?
“I was already a ‘Dummies’ author. I’ve written three of them,” Spignesi said, referring to “Second Homes for Dummies,” “Lost Books of the Bible for Dummies” and “Native American History for Dummies.” “I had done the [Titanic] book in 1998. I had already put in the time to do the research and had a massive archive of books, articles, videos and facts.”
With that research in hand, he persuaded Wiley, the publisher, to let him write “The Titanic For Dummies” on the 100th anniversary of the disaster, which happened on April 14-15, 1912. More than 700 passengers and crew members survived the sinking of the Titanic, but more than 1,500 died.
Spignesi, 58, who teaches English and history at University of New Haven in West Haven, said that “The Titanic for Dummies” is different in format from his previous book.
“‘The Complete Titanic’ was straightforward history, and the ‘Dummies’ books are very modular and nonsequential,” he said. “They’re meant entirely as reference books.”… – The Hartford Courant, 4-8-12
- Morgan Woodward: St. Cloud historian has a Titanic love Woodward uncovers St. Cloud ship connections: “It teaches us about ourselves; you look at the Titanic disaster and it’s the microcosm of Edwardian society — kind of this culmination of arrogance and hubris,” Woodward said.
“The ship slipped below the waves in the wee hours of April 15; it’s all over the front pages on the 15th, which was a Monday, so people knew about it right away,” he said…. – SC Times, 4-13-12
- Crossing the Ocean, 1912 vs. 2012: THE 100th anniversary of the Titanic tragedy is being widely observed on both sides of the Atlantic, at museum openings, special exhibits and lectures, theatrical performances, concerts, readings and walking and graveyard tours. Guests at some events are invited to dress in fashions of the era, and Titanic-themed cocktails and re-creations of the elaborate first-class meal from the storied liner’s last dinner will be served. Two Titanic Memorial Cruises to the site of the sinking are planned, and the ships are scheduled to be there on the anniversary, April 15.
But what was life onboard the Titanic actually like? Not much like taking a cruise today.
Traveling on the Titanic was a voyage of purpose, primarily to transport mail, cargo and passengers, many of whom were emigrating, as steadily and safely as possible.
Designed to withstand harsh seas and cut through water, the Titanic was built with efficiency in mind. Ships today are capable of traveling at speeds similar to the Titanic’s but rarely do, as cruising is about pleasure, said John Maxtone-Graham, a maritime historian and author of the newly published book “Titanic Tragedy: A New Look at the Lost Liner.”…. – NYT, 4-8-12
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The History of HMS
Established in 1782, Harvard Medical School began with a handful of students and a faculty of three. The first classes were held in Harvard Hall in Cambridge, long before the school’s iconic quadrangle was built in Boston. With each passing decade, the school’s faculty and trainees amassed knowledge and influence, shaping medicine in the United States and beyond. Some community members—and their accomplishments—have assumed the status of legend. We invite you to access the following resources to explore Harvard Medical School’s rich history.
Members of the Harvard Medical School community have been expanding the boundaries of knowledge for more than 200 years. The following entries represent just a sampling of their progress, including accomplishments made by faculty members at the school’s affiliated hospitals and research institutes.
Medical education in the 18th century consisted of formal lectures for a semester or two, followed by an apprenticeship with a practicing physician. No academic preparation was required, no written exams were mandatory. Students did not pay tuition. Instead, they bought tickets to each lecture. Since teaching hospitals did not exist, clinical training requirements were minimal.
The first three faculty members of the School were Benjamin Waterhouse, professor of the theory and practice of physic, John Warren, professor of anatomy and surgery, and Aaron Dextor, professor of chemistry and materia medica (pharmacology).
Dr. Waterhouse had been educated at universities and hospitals in Europe. As a result of his contacts in England, he received a publication printed there in 1798 by Edward Jenner, reporting successful vaccination against smallpox. Waterhouse introduced Jenner’s ideas to the U.S. medical community and first used the vaccine on members of his own family. As a result of Waterhouse’s vigorous support of smallpox vaccination, it was tested in Boston and gained acceptance in the United States.
Dr. Warren, a skilled teacher and surgeon, was instrumental in moving the Medical School to Boston, where it was more convenient for the faculty to see not only their private patients, but also patients in the military and naval hospitals and in public dispensaries being established in the city.
The Many Homes
Before moving in 1906 to its current home on Longwood Avenue, there were many homes for Harvard Medical School.
The Medical School moved from Cambridge to Boston in 1810. The following year, Dr. Warren’s son, John Collins Warren, and James Jackson led efforts to start Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. MGH, like most hospitals founded in the 19th century, started out caring for the poor; patients who could afford medical care received it at home.
From 1816 to 1846 the Medical School was located on Mason Street. With a gift from a private bequest through the Great and General Court of Massachusetts, the School became known as the Massachusetts Medical College of Harvard University. In 1847 the School moved to North Grove Street, next door to the Bulfinch Building of MGH. In 1883 the School relocated to Boylston Street in Copley Square on the site where the new wing of the Boston Public Library now stands.
The Eliot Years
Many changes were made by Charles William Eliot during his term as the 21st president of Harvard University.
Within a few years of becoming president of Harvard in 1860, Charles Eliot established a novel curriculum at the Medical School. Admissions standards were raised, written exams and passing grades were required, new departments of basic and clinical sciences were established, a three-year degree program was introduced, and the apprenticeship system was eliminated. Harvard Medical School became a professional school of Harvard University, setting the United States standard for the organization of medical education within a university.
In 1906, the Medical School moved to Longwood Avenue in Boston where the five original marble-faced buildings of the quadrangle are still used for classrooms, research laboratories and administrative offices. At the time of the move, the Fenway was open farm and marshland. The combination of a new medical school and empty land drew hospitals to the neighborhood now known as the Longwood Medical Area.
“These superb buildings are an expression of the intelligence and public spirit of many generations and of the ardent hopes of the present generation for a new relief of man’s estate,” said Harvard President Charles Eliot during the 1906 dedication ceremonies for the new Longwood Campus.
A Shift in Focus
Deans of the Faculty
The first administrative organization of Harvard Medical School after its founding in 1782 took place in 1816 with the appointment of John Collins Warren as dean. He was a founder of the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the first surgeon to demonstrate the use of ether anesthesia. Learn about Warren and other distinguished doctors who molded Harvard Medical School into its current form. Click here for a full listing of past deans.
Harvard Medicine Magazine
Since 1927, Harvard Medicine, formerly known as the Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, has featured doctors’ voices on topics ranging from the healing power of music to the neurology of humor. The magazine seeks to capture the work of the Harvard Medical School community and its power to make contributions to human health.
Center for the History of Medicine
The Center for the History of Medicine at Countway Library is one of the world’s leading collections in the history of health care and medicine, attracting researchers from around the world to consult its rare books and journals, archives and manuscripts, photographs and prints, and art and artifact collections. The history of medicine plays a critical role in informing contemporary medicine, at the same time that it informs our understanding of the larger society within which medicine is embedded. | <urn:uuid:36f0e187-5187-41c0-aced-dede80922dd3> | {
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We are all able to learn what we want to learn and we will stay at it as long as it takes until we’ve developed our skills, or amassed as much knowledge as we want to. Regardless of lessons, if we want to learn, we will. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. We’ll manage to find the book that we need, to talk to the people we need to talk to, and eventually it will all fall into place. This doesn’t mean we will know all we want to. Learning involves effort, and the desire to be able to do something alone doesn’t necessarily entails a clear view of what is needed to develop a certain skill. For instance, one might wish to play the guitar as well as Eric Clapton, but this very one might not be willing to dedicate him or herself as many hours a day to learn how to do that. This, actually, is a good way to differentiate a will from a whim.
In days gone by, there was very little students could choose to learn from for the mere fact that there was very little available to them in terms of sheer amount of information. Students relied on what they could get from their peers, teachers, and parents. This meant that it was much harder for them to truly know what they wanted to learn. Just the same, it was very easy for teachers to decide what was important for students to learn. However, the funny thing is that teachers themselves have always had very little say in what they may choose or not to teach – in most cases, they ought to abide by a pre-established curriculum and just make sure all is dealt with. That means that it isn’t even what teachers consider important for students to learn that we bring into the classroom – it is what other people once considered relevant, be them the textbook writer or the curriculum designer. Would teachers also choose to teach their students different things if they were made to reflect upon the kind of impact and responsibility they have on the building of a citizen?
Currently, information is everywhere, and so is the possibility for learning. Schools, teachers, students, and even parents have already realised that learning takes many forms. Why is it that we still fight the need for a major shift in the way that we approach teaching, which is the one element in the teaching-learning dichotomy that we can control? Is it just fear of change and failure? Have we just reached the point in which our culture of tests and failures have made us fear necessary change?
In detriment of all the advances and the myriad possibilities in the hands of those with a mobile-Internet combo, we still choose to take the easy way out and walk into obsolescence little by little. We still choose to take the path of least resistance, the one that will cause us less trouble and inquiries from students, parents and teachers alike. We seem to wilfully ignore the fact that humans are capable to learn what they want to learn. We ignore that access to information has made it less and less relevant for us to tell people what they want to learn. We still insist on teaching what we want others to learn. And we choose to be blissfully ignorant to the fact that teachers are a lot more relevant than they might want to be in any learning scenario simply by choosing not to take advantage of all the opportunities out there to teach in a much more meaningful manner. We talk a lot about changing education – but for many this is just a whim, it’s not a will. What do you think?
On my last post, I suggested that the best way to focus on students’ learning is by focusing on teaching. The rationale behind this is that we can’t control someone else’s actions or thoughts, but we can control our own. This means that if we pay attention to what we can actually do in order to make learning more effective, we’ll end up being a lot more helpful to our learners than by trying out many different techniques and methods just because they are (or have become) mainstream. We still can’t fully understand how we learn, what really happens in our brains apart from the synapses and all the wiring in the brain. We may come to the point in which data, not guesses (even educated ones), will be the driving force behind our actions. However, until then, we might be better off by thinking and reflecting on our teaching practices and on what happens in our classrooms, with our learners, than by trying out the next big thing. The first thing teachers should learn is that what they do matters. If teachers don’t believe this, they’re in the wrong place. But just how much does it really matter? How can we measure educational success? Neil Mercer says that,
The educational success students achieve is only partly under their own control, and only partly under the control of their teachers. This is where the sociocultural concept of ‘scaffolding’ … is useful. The essence of this concept, as developed by Bruner (1986), Wood (1988) and others, is that an effective teacher provides the kind of intellectual support which enables learners to make intellectual achievements they would never accomplish alone; and one way they do so is by using dialogue to guide and support the development of understanding. (Neil Mercer – Language for teaching a language)
Apparently, the concept of conversation-driven lessons and scaffolding goes a long way. But who would have argued against that? It is not hard to think about our own learning experiences, the ones in which we had a good teacher by our side. This, by the way, is one of the topics that sparks teachers’ interest in training sessions – reflecting about their own learning experiences. When we think about our own learning experiences, when we have the benefit of hindsight, it’s a lot easier to see what has truly made a difference and what was only fun. How many are able to think back of a funny teacher whose teaching didn’t really stick, or a funny teacher whose lessons are so ingrained that you find it hard to separate the person from the classes? It’s not humour that is the defining factor for successful or unsuccessful teachers. At the end of the day, what truly matters is how much effort and attention you’ve put into that lesson of yours, and how thoughtful you’d been when planning the lesson for those specific learners. What matters is how often you reflected on the activities that you tried out in classes and the effect these activities had on each one of those students sitting there in front of you – or next to you if you’re that lucky.
This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learnt as a teacher. Being a teacher means caring about the time and effort your students are putting in by being there in front of you. I may not be the sole responsible for their learning, but I can’t shun the responsibility of being partly responsible for their learning. When this thought dawns on new teachers, they stop asking questions such as, “but why would I do that when most students just don’t seem to care?” or “why don’t they learn it if I taught them?” We do what we do because we are aware of our role and we are to be held accountable for all the things we choose to do in a class. And if students don’t seem to learn what you’ve taught them, perhaps it’s time you started reflecting a bit more about what you could do to help them instead of asking questions you can’t possibly answer.
Being accountable for what we do also means coming to terms with our own shortcomings. This is the moment you start thinking about developing and becoming a better professional. Accountability can do many things for you – one of them is helping you decide what kind of a teacher you want to be. Are you the kind that looks for excuses elsewhere, or are you able to look into your own world and find out what’s wrong? Are you capable of teaching the same subject differently to better help each group of learners, or will you simply do things the way you’ve always done and blame students for their not learning as effectively? Being a teacher means being on the move. How far are you willing to go?
*Neil Mercer – Language for teaching a language – in English Language Teaching in its Social Context
Lately, it’s become mainstream to state that we should focus on students’ learning. By saying that we account for the obvious expected outcome of a teaching / learning environment – students’ learning. Currently, with all the debate on the impact of technology in the lives of children everywhere, it’s pretty obvious that we’re more likely to read and witness the promotion of change in education by the advent of technology. If used properly, it allows us to put students’ on the driver’s seat of their learning. We can get them to actually do things instead of just passively absorb content from the teacher or their course books.
There is also the idea of multiple intelligences and how it can be applied in the classroom given that we’re able to cater for different learning styles much more easily now that we’ve got access to the wonders of the myriad gadgets that are now part and parcel of a number of students’ school materials. Finally, criticism to tests as a means of assessment abound, and the notion that tests don’t teach is widespread. The main problem with this is that it seems to make a lot of sense. But why would this be a problem?
To begin with, in education we are dealing with the brain – something we don’t really know much about. In a recent National Geographic article about the brain, Professor Lichtman of Harvard University makes clear how little we have advanced in brain research by telling us that he usually introduces his course about the brain by asking students, “if understanding everything we need to know about the brain is a mile, how far have we walked?” The answer? 3 inches. When we think about how little we know, and we take into account the idea of intuitive heuristics, whose essence is described by Daniel Kahneman in the following very short sentence:
When faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution. (Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow)
It might just be that the difficult question we’re facing these days is exactly the one that Sir Ken Robinson asked in one of his TED Talks. “How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st Century given that we can’t anticipate the economy will look like at the end of next week?” Whether you like it or not, school and its purpose has to go through some serious revision. Another highly acclaimed advocate for change in education, Professor Sugata Mitra, tells us a story of where present day schooling comes from and what its early-day purposes were. He’s got a very strong opinion when he states that schools are outdated in the world we currently live in and the urgent need for change. And I don’t think we can argue against this point – the current system of education doesn’t suit the world we live in anymore. Hence, our need for change.
This might be exactly the difficult question we have to answer: how do we change our current educational system to cater for the needs of our present day society? The truth is that there’s no simple answer, but I’d argue that a lot of it involves a better understanding of how we learn. If we are unable to proper answer this question, very little will actually change. On the bright side, many qualified people have something to say about it, and not only about where we should be headed, but also a couple of things in relation to all the changes we’ve been experiencing as a society, with connectedness all around us. However, all that glitters is not gold, and before we actually buy into this or that idea, we should investigate further. It is likely that we may be supporting something that has little evidence of being true.
If we’re going to move forward, we will have to admit that a one-size-fits-all model of education is doomed to fail the majority of students and teachers. Let’s also admit that while we have plenty of beliefs, dogma, and rhetoric about how to prepare students for the future, we have little solid information about how to do this successfully. We have no idea about whether to limit or encourage their access to social networking, computer games, television and other forms of media. In the absence of real data, teachers and administrators rely on popular books by nonscientists who generally misinterpret the little data that do exist. The bottom line is that we don’t know if these activities are hurting their cognitive and interpersonal development or better preparing them for the world ahead. (Louis Cozolino – The Social Neuroscience of Education)
Let’s have a closer look at this sentence: “In the absence of real data, teachers and administrators rely on popular books by nonscientists who generally misinterpret the little data that do exist.” The truth is that we, as human beings, have a natural tendency to rely on our intuition rather than analyze a problem and give it as much time and effort as it deserves, as Daniel Kahneman states in his book (Thinking Fast and Slow). This is why we end up going with the flow and failing to further look into a point and give it the consideration it deserves. For instance, how many teachers blindly accept the theory of multiple intelligences as being true without actually having read about it? Is it just because the way that people sell it makes sense? Is it because it helps us with the self-esteem of learners who struggle at school? How about delving into this issue by reading this article, which starts by saying that:
This article reviews evidence for multiple intelligences theory, the Mozart effect theory, and emotional intelligence theory and argues that despite their wide currency in education these theories lack adequate empirical support and should not be the basis for educational practice. Each theory is compared to theory counterparts in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuro- science that have better empirical support. The article considers possible reasons for the appeal of these 3 theories and concludes with a brief rationale for examining theories of cognition in the light of cognitive neuroscience research findings. (Lynn Waterhouse – Multiple Intelligences, the Mozart Effect, and Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Review)
Or perhaps this passage from this other article (which leads you to the article shared above) might also be of interest:
It is fair to say that among academic scholars who study intelligence there is very little acceptance of Gardner’s theory due to a lack of empirical evidence for it. A critical review of the topic by Lynn Waterhouse in 2006 found no published studies at all that supported the validity of the theory. Even though Gardner first made his theory public in 1983, the first empirical study to test the theory was not published until 23 years later (Visser, et al., 2006a) and the results were not supportive. Multiple intelligences theory can hardly be described as scientifically generative. (Scott McGreal – The illusory theory of multiple intelligences)
What we should take into account in order to move forward is that all that we currently know about our practice may be proven wrong in the near future as research into how we learn develops. What we should understand as educators is that there’s no simple or single answer (at least not yet) to how we learn best. This is the reason why we must never cease to learn. This is why we should take things that might seem to make sense with a pinch of salt and consider that we might as well be trying really hard to validate an opinion. What if Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences makes sense because we strive to make better connections with our learners? This is a major factor of motivation for us, humans, and this could be what leads to improvement when we claim to make use of activities that cater for different intelligences. What if this all happens when we hold conversations with our learners and, owing to this, we’re able to boost their attention and interest, thus making learning more effective? The bottom line, though, is that it doesn’t really matter. If the theory, as the articles suggest is not valid, or only good on paper, or if it is really true and valid, makes little difference at the end of the day for practical purposes.
It is only by trying to learn more about how we learn that we can adapt our teaching and ensure that we’re able to focus on our students’ learning. We don’t focus on students’ learning by playing games with them; we play games with them because we may have learned somewhere that this fosters their learning. The same end result, but with a different starting point. It is only by focussing on our teaching that we will be able to come up with strategies that will facilitate learning. In order to focus on their students’ learning, teachers must first and foremost focus on their teaching – but do so in the right way. Focussing on your teaching means understanding that learning is the expected outcome of each and every little thing you do in class. It doesn’t matter if you do so by using summative or formative assessment. What matters is whether or not you have mastered the tools you have chosen to use so as to enable learning to take place. Tests, for example, can be effective, as this study has demonstrated, but it’s all a matter of how you deal with them. The key difference in any learning setting is the teacher, and teaching isn’t simply being able to provide information to your students.
In my view, the best way to focus on your students’ learning is coming to terms with the fact that we still know very little about how we really learn something – what we’ve learnt to do is constantly reflect on our practices and experiences. This is what truly makes the difference. We must always keep an open eye for new theories, research and practice. We should be able to critically reflect on these and reach a conclusion so that we can focus on learning. Yet, we ought to understand that we cannot control someone else’s actions and thoughts. We can only control our own actions, and this is why we have to focus on what we do if we hope to help our learners. If you want to focus on your students’ learning, how about really focussing on your teaching first? Let’s talk a bit about a teacher’s accountability, shall we? Maybe a possible continuation for this post.
It’s a given that learning words in isolation is not particularly helpful when it comes to learning a foreign language. Words rarely appear in isolation when we communicate, and ELT has come a long way from the days in which vocabulary appeared as single words in a vocabulary box to the presentation of manageable language chunks. Nowadays, I don’t think it takes a lot of convincing to persuade teachers about the benefits of chunks, meaningfulness and personalisation of vocabulary. However, is there any occasion in which presenting language items out of a context can be helpful? Maybe yes, and this activity is likely to come in handy should you be forced to teach words in isolation, or in case you just feel like doing so from time to time.
Suppose you’d like your students to learn how to properly use a dictionary. What if you write a bunch of words on the board – connected to a topic of study if you use a course book, or simply random words to start a lesson – and ask them to work on the meaning of these words? Then, you get them to discuss their opinion with a partner and see if they agree or not. At this stage, give them some chunks of language (on slips of paper) to express their opinion, agree and disagree, and ask about someone’s opinion. After they’ve finished discussing, elicit from the pairs / small groups what their definitions were. Don’t tell them if they were right or wrong just yet. Instead, get them to open their dictionaries and check if their guesses were right.
Most students will probably stop at the definition of the word, which is the least import piece of information a good learner’s dictionary has. Unfortunately, most students are oblivious to the plethora of information they may obtain from their dictionaries. Teachers who fail to teach students how to properly use a dictionary are also failing in one of their most important objectives: making him or herself less and less needed for providing information. So, once you get your students to check the meaning of the words, it’s time to move onto the next stage – getting them to come up with original sentences using those words they’d just checked.
Should they be struggling with their sentences, or if they happen to fail to produce accurate sentences, point them to the examples of usage in the dictionary. Have them read the example sentences and ask them to focus on the words in bold (when applicable), or the sentences which have a brief explanation of a chunk in parentheses (also, when applicable).
After having read the examples in the dictionary, ask them to correct their sentences on their own. They will hopefully be able to notice some patterns of usage from the dictionary sentences and transfer these to their own sentences. Make sure you monitor accordingly and direct their attention to certain important collocations, such as ADJECTIVE + PREPOSITION, or VERB + PREPOSITION. Write their sentences on the board, or on paper, or on any other device you may use in your teaching context, and try to keep a record of the sentences they have come up with.
The focus of such an activity is not for them to learn the discrete vocabulary item per se, but they are likely to remember some of the words you have presented anyway. To make it more meaningful and a lot more relevant, you can choose these words from songs which are trending in your country at the moment (particularly good for teenagers), words and phrases from sitcoms, series and movies, or just using the news as a source. The possibilities are endless.
Finally, you should show your learners that this is the kind of procedure they could follow when they come across unknown words from reading passages in class. This is something they could do when reading more actively in order to study English and not “simply” reading for content. Needless to say, this kind of reading is very time consuming, so it’s important that you tell them to use this strategy only for one or two paragraphs of the text.
I do believe that by doing so you’ll be helping your learners think more about the language, noticing more, and, most importantly, even though you’re teaching them words in isolation, it’s easy to see that you’ve done a lot more than just teaching the words. This is likely to make their learning more memorable and, consequently, more effective. This is just one of the ideas that I use with my learners when dealing with words “in isolation”, or when we have a quick vocabulary challenge as a warmer. Get them to work on words from songs, for instance. You’ll be surprised how often it will dawn on them that they didn’t really understand what it was that they were singing before.
How about coming up with a twist to override the system when you’re pushed into doing something you don’t think that would be so effective, such as presenting vocabulary lists from students’ course books? I bet you’ll have a lot more fun – and they will learn a lot more.
Language is quite a complex system – one which we try to organise according rules and norms. One of the common ways for us to think about such organisation is prescriptively, the way many of us were taught a second or a foreign language. If we look at what David Crystal says about prescriptivism, we will see that it “is the view that one variety of the language has an inherently higher value than others, and this ought to be imposed on the whole of the speech community. The view is related especially in relation to grammar and vocabulary, and frequently with reference to pronunciation.” And here we have the three pillars of what we learn when we study a language. If we don’t learn vocabulary, we won’t be able to get our message across as other speakers of the target language won’t know what we’re saying. However, if we only know the vocabulary of a language and lack any understanding of what glues the pieces together, a.k.a. grammar, we’re likely to be unable to convey more complex thoughts and communicate something that may require further, more complex thinking. Finally, there is pronunciation, which is not the same as accent. Pronunciation is needed should you want to speak to other user of the language you’re learning. But why teach a language prescriptively? In a nutshell, it is much easier to teach something that has a fixed structure, and to a certain extent, there seems to be some logic in saying that it is easier to learn something that has a rigid structure.
Perhaps we mistake learning a language for learning any repetitive process, which leads to the belief that a structural sequence will make things easier. Yet, memorising processes and formulas is actually more difficult than really thinking about them. But we don’t follow this pattern simply because we don’t want to uncover a more effective way – we constantly repeat the processes we’ve gone through in life simply because, well, it’s worked for us. How can we claim that something that has worked for (many of) us won’t work for students when we ourselves are living proof of the success of the current system? But let’s not forget that most people who managed to succeed did so because they were so interested in the subject that they’ve actually chosen it as a career. This is not true for most language students, who may not be motivated enough to go beyond the basic rules that prescriptive grammar teaches. Thus, they are unable to grasp the subtleties of everything they’ve learned and how it overlaps with new content instead of simply add to it; they have a hard time thinking about language more abstractly. I believe that motivation has a major role in learning per se. As Jeremy Harmer said, “one of the main tasks for teachers is to provoke interest and involvement in the subject even when students are not initially interested in it.” However, Harmer reminds us that motivation comes from within, and we can only hope that our actions and words will lead students to start prioritising the subject we’re trying to teach them.
How have we been teaching them? We think of the least expensive way to teach and learn something – following guidelines and rules. In language teaching, this takes us back to prescriptivism, which makes it easier for teachers to judge right from wrong and allows students to have something to hopelessly cling to when they try to make sense of something that they simply can’t for lack of the development of an ability to look at language from a more holistic perspective. Such need for rules is a double-edged sword as students, after a certain stage, will be unable to find them as neatly written as they have grown used to. At this stage, they can only stop grappling with the understanding of language if they’ve developed the ability to think about language more as an organism – one which does have its rules and regulations, but one where these rules and regulations should be a bit less prescriptive and a tad more descriptive – if even that. By thinking so hard about the language, students end up making it harder for them to acquire the fluency level they initially hope to achieve.
If we consider what Daniel Kahneman says about this, we realise the problem lies with the laziness of our brain. Kahneman tells us that there are two systems in our brains. Roughly speaking, System 1 is the intuitive response, the system that doesn’t really think about the events; it takes into account the experiences we’ve been through to respond to external stimulus. System 2 is where thought really takes place. This is the system that rationally validates our actions. We fool ourselves by thinking that we’re much more likely to use our System 2. We aren’t, and this passage should show you why he states this:
The defining features of System 2 … is that its operations are effortful, and one of its main characteristics is laziness, a reluctance to invest more effort than is strictly necessary. As a consequence, the thoughts and actions that System 2 believes it has chosen are often guided by the figure of at the center of the story, System 1. However, there are vital tasks that only system 2 can perform because they require effort and acts of self-control in which the intuitions and impulses of System 1 are overcome.
By focusing on prescriptive rules, we’re getting our students to focus their attention and effort on rules that should allow them to tell right from wrong regarding their speech. What happens when you are put in a stressful situation? Instead of thinking about the rules you have learned through grammar exercises, learners tend to lose the capacity to let their monitor system, as Krashen calls it, regulate what they’re saying. Stress is an indication of a threat, so their brains will instinctively respond to this by putting their System 1 in charge. We’ll then see two kinds of students: those who don’t care about what others might think of them and will speak freely, without worrying much about proper language, and those who will simply be unable to carry out a basic conversation because they are unsure if they should use the simple present or the present continuous, or if they should use the word good or fine. I’m pretty sure most EFL teachers have had the chance to work with both kinds of learners, and my personal experience is that adults lean towards the latter.
This is where a conversation-driven lesson might help, yet again. If we encourage our students to engage in an effortful activity in class that is not simply related to answering grammar questions on a sheet of paper, we might just end up fostering their ability to allocate less energy to the daunting act of speaking through practice. As Kahneman says:
As you become more skilled in a task, its demand for energy diminishes. Studies of the brain have shown that the pattern of activity associated with an action changes as skill increases, with fewer brain regions involved. […] A general “law of least effort” applies to cognitive as well as physical exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs.
When we think about skills in language learning, we usually list four: reading, writing, listening and speaking. By practising speaking more frequently, you should be able to develop the three pillars of a language (grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation) for this skill in particular. This means you won’t need to make a lot of effort to both understand what happens in the process of having a conversation and trying to get your message across. You can now focus on the message, which will already require a lot from memory. As Kahneman says, “effort is required to maintain simultaneously in memory several ideas that require separate actions, or that need to be combined according to a rule.” I cannot help but think that there’s a lot more into play in an exchange of ideas between two people than grammar rules and vocabulary.
When we have a conversation with others, we need to focus on both the verbal and non-verbal cues if we are to fully understand the message. We need to be able to understand sarcasm and irony, for instance. We need to listen to what our interlocutor says and then respond. This involves a lot of effort. As teachers, we need to show our learners that they are capable of doing such things in their L1 already, and that this ability can and should be transferred to their L2 self. However, if we insist on getting them to focus on rules without actually getting them to put the rules into use, it’ll be harder for their System 2 to realise that not all that is involved in having a conversation should require so much attention and effort. By focussing on discrete items of the language, we end up teaching our learners a tendency to focus on rules instead of putting the rules into use in order to communicate. As a result, the former takes precedence over the latter and most learners freeze when they need to hold a conversation with a native speaker.
This is not the same as saying we should focus on fluency rather than accuracy. I strongly believe accuracy is paramount to the development of fluency. What I question is the way we’ve been trying to get our students to learn. It seems we’ve been repeating what has been done for the past 20 or 30 years because either because it’s easier to explain logically the steps we’re taking (first we learn this, and then we move to that, once that has been mastered, we’ll then step forward to that other topic on our list) or because this is how some highly motivated individuals have managed to learn. It may even be very logical, but who said that there’s no structure or rationale in conversation-driven lessons? And, as I said previously, there’s a huge gulf between a conversation-driven lesson and a simple conversation. If we consider the way our brains work, conversation-driven lessons might actually be a lot more logical than a structural curriculum.
The short answer to this question is a resounding ‘yes’, and I could base my answer on experience – mine and also the one’s from lots of colleagues. However, we should all be wary of such things as “it’s worked with all my groups,” or the converse “it didn’t work with any of my groups.” These comments per se should not be the sole reason for us to jump to a conclusion as we do not really understand what’s happened in each one of these experiences. This leads us to the step of reading and trying to understand a bit more about the things we end up doing as educators. I’ve come across the following passage from Cozolino’s The Social Neuroscience of Education, and I guess this will be a good starting point for us to analyse the success of conversation-driven lessons:
The interactions we have with others directly affect the receptivity of the brain to take in new experiences and learn from them. If we are not receptive, we cannot learn. (Cozolino)
Conversation-driven lessons facilitate bonding
We all like it when we are heard. It is actually of the sentences new teachers are likely to hear a lot in training sessions: you should ask genuine questions and be actually interested in the answer. If we look at a conversation-driven lesson, these genuine questions are likely to be the very trigger we need to teach something we had established as an aim for the day. Not only will your lesson be more meaningful to your learners because they might end up talking about something that came from them, but paying close attention to the opportunities these answers give teachers in class a chance to help students socialise and learn from each other.
The human brain is a social organ of adaptation. By an organ of adaptation, I mean that the brain has evolved to interact with and learn how to navigate its environment. And by a social organ, I mean that humans have evolved to be linked to and to learn from other brains in the context of emotionally significant relationships. Therefore, the brain has evolved to learn within a naturalistic setting in the context of meaningful group and interpersonal relationships. (Cozolino)
This certainly helps me understand the importance of having a real conversation with learners in the classroom and how it helps me build rapport. By being genuinely interested in what my learners have to say, I can come up with questions and comments of my own that might lead towards the learning objectives of the lesson. This certainly helps me with scaffolding, and it builds trust. We need to understand how important trust is if we expect learners to accept what we are telling them as something that is worth their attention and effort. We need to work hard in building rapport and creating relationships. As a matter of fact, one of the most important aspects in the teaching-learning environment, in my opinion, is rapport.
Relationships are our natural habitat. From birth until death, each of us needs others to seek us out, show interest in discovering who we are, and help us to feel safe. We all yearn to be understood, recognized, and appreciated. Regardless of age, it is vital for us to feel a part of, participate in, and contribute to our “tribe.” The inabilities to connect, contribute to others, love, and be loved result in anxiety, depression, and alienation. This is just as true for principals, teachers, and school board members as it is for our students. (Cozolino)
A conversation-driven lesson is not just a conversation
I’ve also constantly heard teachers saying that they enjoy teaching advanced groups because students are able to carry out a conversation. Even though this is true, we need to understand the differences between a conversation-driven lesson and a simple conversation among friends. Students don’t come to lessons because it’s pleasant and just because they like their teacher’s company. This might be one of the results of being able to successfully connect to your learners, but it is not the primary objective of a lesson. Suppose you yourself decide to enrol for a course. What would you like to have achieved at the end of the course?
a) a better understanding of what you applied yourself into learning; or
b) a new friend – your teacher – even though you haven’t really learnt much about the course’s objectives.
At the end of the day, it is our ability to focus on our aims that count. An aim may or may not be achieved in one lesson or two, but not in the whole course. The fact that students who are already advanced learners of the language are able to hold conversations does not mean that they should be there just to practise what they already know. In any course you take, there should be learning. Perhaps, it is our inability to realise that there is more to learn – even for quite fluent speakers – that blinds us to the problem that the plateau of upper-intermediate learners. This might lead us to yet another conundrum: who should set the final aims of a learning activity?
If someone has decided to enrol for a language course, they do so because they expect to go past their current level of understanding and production. And this is exactly where I take issue with the claim that what matters is your ability to communicate. Learners can communicate at an A2-level in the common European Framework, and they are considered independent user of the language at the B level. Perhaps what we should do more often is asking students exactly what their objectives are and help them visualise what they need to achieve them. This is why I believe we should focus on the words driven and lesson when we think about conversation-driven lessons.
You can demand high and still build rapport – actually, you should!
If we understand that our role as a teacher is not one of either being too much content-oriented or being too focused on the affective part of learning, we’ll understand that balance between both is not only desirable – it is a requirement. You cannot expect learners to thrive in an environment of competitiveness and stress.
Brains grow best in the context of supportive relationships, low levels of stress, and through the creative use of stories. While teachers may focus on what they are teaching, evolutionary history and current neuroscience suggest that it is who they are and the emotional environment in the classroom they are able to create that are the fundamental regulators of neuroplasticity. Secure relationships not only trigger brain growth, but also serve emotional regulation that enhances learning. […] The activation of both emotional and cognitive circuits allows executive brain systems to coordinate both right and left hemispheres in support of learning, affect regulation, and emotional intelligence. (Cozolino)
It is, then, a matter of finding the right balance between how much you should demand from your learners and how you do it. As Brown argued, the very first feedback we give our learners is the affective feedback. If we send them a negative message, they’ll simply block your cognitive feedback. However, if we do not give them any kind of cognitive feedback, they’ll fail to see that they aren’t really learning what they should be and mistakes will be fossilised.
A conversation-driven lesson might be just the key that is missing if we are to strike this balance. Instead of coming up with a whole bunch of tasks or content-oriented questions, how about developing your ability to actually listening to your learners and mastering the art of adapting your questions or being able to pinpoint elements that will be useful in your lesson’s objectives?
There were way too many things that I went through in 2013. These way too many things – not necessarily time issues – have somehow gotten in the way of doing many things I thought I’d be doing throughout the year. Yet, there’s always something that keeps calling you back to the things you like. This time it’s a blog challenge that has drawn me back to the blog, which I’ve kept more active than it seems, but never really managed to get down to writing anything in its entirety. This will hopefully change after a short break in which I’ll try my best to put my head back where it belongs. Before I start, I give you the rules of the challenge:
1. Acknowledge the blogger(s) who’ve tagged you
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself
3. Answer the 11 questions nominating blogger(s)
4. List 11 bloggers
5. Post 11 questions for the nominated bloggers you’ve chosen and let them know they’ve been tagged. don’t nominate bloggers who nominated you.
I’ve been tagged by Leo Selivan, Juan Uribe, and Roseli Serra. Now, I’ve had the chance to meet Roseli in person this year, and she’s just lovely! By the way, I loved the bolo de rolo, Roseli! I still haven’t had the chance to meet Leo and Juan face to face, but I do believe we’ll manage to do so any time in the future as there are yet many conferences to attend. One of the many benefits of being part of this online community is that there will always be someone you ‘know’ in any conference you decide to attend. Now, to keep it simple, allow me to get down to the challenge.
11 Random Facts About Me
- I am upset when people don’t follow simple rules.
- I like cooking – but not from a recipe.
- My favourite pizza topping is cheese – plain and simple.
- My favourite desserts are chocolate mousse and cheesecake. I actually was befuddled the very first time I went to the Cheesecake factory and saw a chocolate mousse cheesecake as I couldn’t believe that was possible.
- I have no fashion sense whatsoever. I once wore a bright yellow shirt, red bermudas and blue sneakers to the gym and found myself laughing at how weird I looked when I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
- I have never lived nor studied abroad. I learned English in Brazil, mostly because I started teaching English. I felt that I had to learn a lot more than I had learnt in my regular English course and ended up continuing my studies by myself.
- I once wanted to be a history teacher and I actually started studying history at university. My favourite part of history is the Middle Ages.
- I used played RPG and was a storyteller for both GURPS and Vampire: The Masquerade. I actually miss having the time to play RPG.
- I enjoy arguing for the sake of the argument. I think it’s a good exercise for your brain.
- I’ve used computers from a very early age and I really like technology.
- I like learning about many different, unrelated things.
ANSWERING THE BLOGGERS
1. What is your favourite level to teach?
I like teaching exam classes, mainly for the CAE and the CPE exams. However, I’ve learned to enjoy teaching all levels after a certain while. I guess this happens to all teachers after a certain while, right?!
2. If you had the time to blog about something other than education / ELT what would it be?
I’ve given this a lot of thought and one of the things that I’ve been planning to do is starting a blog about education in general, but written in Portuguese. My other thought is to write about things I witness daily, which would probably lend itself properly to the word BLOG.🙂
3. What takes you longer: writing a blog post or inserting hyperlinks into it?
I guess it takes me longer to insert the hyperlinks. My reason for blogging is mainly reflecting on what I’ve read, and it’s easy for me to get lost in my thoughts and simply forget to quote where the inspiration for that thought came from, or just adding a link for further reference. It takes me time and discipline to do so.
4. What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
I’m not exactly fond of trying exotic food. However, if you’re not Brazilian, I guess eating chicken hearts may be considered weird for some cultures.
5. A phone call or text message? Why?
Hmmm… I prefer talking to people, but as I’m constantly in the classroom, a text message might make it easier for people to reach me.
6. Cats or dogs? (No need to explain why)
Dogs! I’ve had dogs ever since I was born…
7. If you were a fruit what would you be?
What kind of question is this?! LOL…. well, in Brazil, we do have the fruit women, so this is kind of an awkward question to answer as I can’t think of a fruit without thinking of a funk song in which someone would be singing about me. I like fruit… and my favourite fruit is banana. That doesn’t mean I’d be a banana if I were a fruit, does it?!
8. What kind of jokes do you like?
The silliest the better… or the complete opposite of that. I have a … peculiar sense of humour.
9. What’s your favourite computer font?
Lately, I’ve been particularly keen on using Helvetica. I don’t really know why.
10. What present would you like to receive for your next birthday? (that is if you celebrate birthdays)
This is a tough one for me as I never really know what I’d like to get for my birthday. Perhaps having the chance to meet most of my friends would be the ideal birthday for me. So, how about attending a conference and finally meeting most people from my PLN?
11. Why do you think almost every blogger in this chain challenge has asked a question about reality TV shows?
Oh, that easy! Teachers live a life that could easily be broadcast on live TV as one of the most successful reality TV shows in history. So we all secretly believe we’re TV stars and would like to know if the other blogger follows out TV show.
1. What would you do if you were not an educator?
Hmm… I think I’d be an astronomer, an architect or a psychologist.
2. How do you relax?
I like watching sitcoms and playing mind-numbing games.
3. Do you write a diary?
4. What is love?
… and baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more! (Haddaway) It’s a 1993 song track!
5. What book are you reading now?
The Social Neuroscience of Education, by Louis Cozolino.
6. Do you have a pet?
Well, it’s complicated… I haven’t got any living with me, but the three dogs that my mum has are also mine, or at least I like to think so!🙂
7. Do you collect anything?
I used to collect keychains a long time ago. I also have a collection of beer mugs and cachaças, but it’s nothing exactly serious.
8. How do you have fun?
I like going out with my friends and chatting.
9. What can you cook?
I can cook anything that’s in the fridge! And this is literally true. I do like cooking, and I really like experimenting with different food. so I can turn aubergines and zucchinis into something I like.🙂
10. Do you exercise much?
Well, I haven’t exercised at all these days, but I was once an athlete who practised more than 6 hours a day… One of the things I’d like to change next year is this – having the time and discipline to exercise at least 30 minutes a day.
11.How would you describe me?
Well, you strike me as someone who’s truly passionate about life in general. You also seem to be someone who enjoys a good laugh and also some silly jokes. I think you’re open to new ideas and you like taking place in discussions. Did I get any of these right?!
1. What’s you favourite season ?
I like winter. However, I don’t think that means I like it better than the other seasons.
2. Do you like celebrating your birthday with parties full of people?
Hmmm… I like celebrating my birthday with my friends and people who actually care about me. I think we know a lot of people who are just acquaintances or colleagues but we aren’t particularly close too. As I like talking to people, I’d rather have fewer people in my birthday parties than lots of acquaintances.
3. Do you have any hobbies?
Believe it or not, writing this blog has become a hobby. One to which I hope I’ll have the strength to return to next year.
4. What’s the best place you’ve ever been to?
Gee… I really would like to go back to NY, Washington D.C., and Boston. However, if I think about the best memories I have, these tend to be created mostly by the people I’pm with than the place in itself. For instance, I really love going to Pirenópolis – but that’s where I spent my honeymoon in…🙂
5. What’s the worst film you’ve ever watched? Why?
Gangs of New York…. I didn’t like the plot, I guess.
6. What city in Brazil would you first like visiting? Why?
Right now, I guess I’d say Recife because there are many people I’ve met online who live there. Besides, the only time I went to Recife I was very little to remember anything.
7. Are you a good cook? What kind food do you cook best?
My friends usually say I can barbecue like no one else. I guess barbecue it is!
8. Do you have a favourite song? Why is it your favourite?
I really like music, so coming up with a favourite song is quite hard. I like Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Dire Straits, Metallica, Led Zeppelin… but if I had to choose one song it’s be Mr Jones, by the Counting Crows. I guess it’s a song that makes me happy.
9. What was the best year in your school times? Why?
My senior year in high school was probably the best one. Hmmm… because we won the competition against the other groups?!🙂 As I’ve studied in the same class from my second grade to my senior year in high school, it’s hard to say which year was the best.
10. What do you consider to be the best thing about being and educator?
In a nutshell, having the chance to help other people in their quest to finding out who they truly are and teaching them about citizenship.
11. If you had three wishes for 2014 what would they be?
Hmmm… I don’t think you’re looking for answers from beauty pageant contests, right?! Let me think about down-to-earth wishes… re-learning how to relax a bit more, finding the balance between work and personal life, and meeting more people from my PLN.
This has been a lot of fun, actually. Hopefully, it’s also been the push I needed to resume blogging… but only after a short while as I’ll be traveling to try to relax a bit after such a tough year. Way too many bloggers have been nominated and this means that it’s actually quite hard to come up with 11 bloggers who haven’t been nominated yet. Maybe I’ll be faster on the next challenge so that this task of nominating others is easier.🙂 | <urn:uuid:50af21c2-130a-4314-9921-a1764ef9895e> | {
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The UT Working on Human Rights and the Border Wall formed in January 2008 and began conducting research and analysis on the Texas/Mexico border wall. As part of this effort, a delegation of the Working Group traveled to the Rio Grande Valley in May 2008 to conduct fact finding regarding the impact of the border wall on human rights. The group viewed some of the affected areas and properties along the border and met with property owners, officials at the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville, Texas, the President of the University of Texas at Brownsville and other faculty, student and community advocates involved in documenting the effects of the border wall, attorneys with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid and faculty at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Matamoros, Mexico.
In June 2008, the UT Working Group published a series of papers documenting and analyzing the human rights impacts of the construction by the United States of a wall on the Texas/Mexico border. The Working Group submitted these papers to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is the body of the inter-governmental Organization of American States (OAS) responsible for monitoring and ensuring respect for human rights in the Americas, including in the United States.
In October 2008, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called a hearing on the Texas/Mexico border wall. Members of the UT Working Group provided testimony regarding their detailed findings. Margo Tamez also provided testimony relating to her experience as an affected property owner of indigenous Lipan Apache heritage whose land along the Texas/Mexico border has been held in the family for several hundred years as a result of a land grant by the Spanish crown. The Commission asked United States government representatives from the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security and Department of the Interior to explain aspects of the wall construction project that the Commission found troubling.
In addition, in April 2008, the UT Working Group filed requests for documents and information with the Department of Homeland Security and with the US Army Corps of Engineers under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). No documents were provided in response to the FOIA requests until December 2008, and then the agencies provided only a limited number of documents. The UT Working Group continues to pursue a full response to its FOIA requests. | <urn:uuid:166715ac-9666-477c-b6d2-f317e0f93755> | {
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Photo credit: Pre-engineering Program
Control robots in an underwater obstacle course! Design a Rube Goldberg Machine! Build and destroy bridges! The students of Peter Schoedel’s Schurz pre-engineering program have so many wonderful projects to share with you all at the CNS Mini Maker Faire!
Peter Schoedel has been leading the pre-engineering program at Schurz High School for four years. In the four year program, students learn engineering and design skills. The CNS Mini Maker Faire provides them an excellent opportunity to take what they have learned and share it with participants. Peter Schoedel explains, “It is really important for students to be able present technology ideas in front of people. It’s 21st century skill building. They have to be able to verbally communicate their ideas, and collaborate with fellow students.”
This year at the faire, students will present five different projects and will teach people new skills. The students from SeaPerch Underwater ROV club will showcase the ROVs that they built in the pool. This after school club recently went to a US Navy Competition at the Great Lakes Naval Station to compete in obstacle course and other challenges and took 5th, 7th and 9th place out of 32 teams. That’s awesome. Participants in the faire can try their hand at controlling a ROV underwater in the obstacle course. Another group will demonstrate 3D Modeling with Inventor. Students have been learning how to draw using Inventor, a 3D Cad program so they will be showing us how to draw 3D on computers. Then the design can be hooked up to a 3D printer to be built. How cool is that! Folks can check out a 3D printer in action, using their own designs.
One group of sophomores and juniors will be leading “Make and Destroy Bridge Challenge.” In class, they’ve been building bridges out of balsa wood, testing them, and learning how to build strong and better bridges. Now, they want to share those skills with participants. People at the faire will get the chance to build bridges out of popsicle sticks and then test them out and see if they’ll hold heavy objects! Another project is “Rube Goldberg and the Simple Machines of Life” where folks will have the opportunity to play with various simple machines to build a Rube Goldberg machine. The final project is “Godzilla Games” where folks will have the opportunity to put together a giant 3D puzzle or play with huge Jenga blocks.
Come out to the Faire and check out all five projects to see the amazing things that the pre-engineering students have learned!
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 3d printing, Carl Schurz High School, Chicago, DIY, engineering, Maker Faire, Makers, Robotics, robots, SeaPerch, technology
Want to make a creature who lives on Mars? Want to imagine a life form on Jupiter? Join the Adler Planetarium’s STEM Teen Programs at the Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire.
Photo Credit: Adler Planetarium Teen STEM Programs
Nathalie Rayter, Senior Coordinator of the STEM Teen Programs, explains that the mission of Teen Programs at the Adler is “to create a safe space for learning and exploring new skills and content areas under the umbrella of STEM.” They strive to accomplish that goal through a lot of playful exploration. They want students to “engage with science and technology content with confidence.” The STEM Teen Program has several programs including a free afterschool program called “Adler Teen Hangouts” that is held every Wednesday. All Chicago high schoolers are welcome to come, do homework, hang out with friends, or participate in that week’s curated STEAM (STEM + Art) activity. Past activities include building rockets, 3D scanning and printing, music making with NASA space sound archives, and so much more! They also have a wide range of workshops for high schoolers and are working to have more community-based programs that engage student in hacking to address issues they feel strongly about. There is something for every student, regardless of interest and skill level.
For the Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire, they will be hosting a “Martian Madness” workshop. At the Adler, there are scientists who study planetary sciences and focus on astrobiology. The workshop will ask participants of all ages to think about biology here on earth and apply it to other types of planets. What adaptations would a creature need to live on different planets? What kind of animal would live in a gaseous environment? Or a super cold one? People will have the chance to draw or build puppets out of recycled materials of their imagined “Martians”. Then they’ll have the chance to pantomime their creature’s behavior in their “natural” environment using a green screen. They want participants to have fun and be creative while learning science and math. The Adler Teen STEM Programs cannot wait to meet people in the Schurz High School and community and see what amazing things other makers are doing in the Chicago area. Check out some videos from the project at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art.
We are so pleased to have the Adler Planetarium be a part of the Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire!
Want to make a tiny room using upcycled items in your house and garden? Join Liita Forsyth from The Little Bits Workshop to learn how to make your very own tiny room!
Photo credit: The Little Bits Workshop
The Little Bits Workshop is a DIY makerspace in River Forest where kids of all ages can learn how to sew, knit, make jewelry, build with tools and much more. According to Liita Forsyth, the mission of The Little Bits Workshop “is not to mass produce anything, but to teach the masses to discover the thrill of creative productivity.” Forsyth explains that in this high tech world, not enough emphasis has been placed on problem-solving and motor skills. She recalls countless 40-something moms saying, “My mom sewed all the time but she never taught me. Now my daughter wants to learn, but I don’t know how.” Little Bits strives to revive these skills for all ages. Forsyth explains: “There’s such a tremendous feeling of accomplishment when people of any age learn how to make something useful and to do it well.” The space offers a variety of classes from after school workshops, birthday parties and camps on and off premises.
Prepare for The Little Bits Workshop at Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire! It will take 1-2 hours to build at the Faire. Liita will be selling kits to help participants build their own miniature rooms from upcycled materials, and you can come prepared with materials of your own. “The Little Bits Cottage is a launching point for imagination,” she says. “Half the fun of making a Little Bits Cottage is discovering objects in your recycle bin, junk drawer or jewelry box that could actually become a burner on a stove or a dining room chair. It’s designed to be a skill-builder for imagineers of all ages through the steps of measuring, designing, considering proportion, using sharp tools and learning how to sew.”
The Little Bits Workshop will be running two workshop sessions: 10:30 to 12:30 and 1:30 to 3:30.
We can’t wait to have them at Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire!
Photo credit: Schurz Food Lab
Two words: Space Tomatoes. That’s one of many projects that the Schurz Food Lab will be showcasing at the Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire. The program is led by the multi-talented Jaime Guerrero, Schurz food science lab founder and administrator, who wants to change minds and hearts about urban agriculture. Guerrero explains that the mission of the lab is to develop and harvest the next generation farmer. He wants to teach the farmer of the future about traditional agriculture, sustainability, and the science behind it all. The program aspires to teach students to go forward with these new concepts and develop a whole new way of farming.
The Schurz Food Lab situated in a formerly unused classroom at Schurz is in its first year. Right now, students and community volunteers have been learning about hydroponics and aquaculture. Hydroponics is the process of growing plants in water, sand or other medium instead of soil. It’s less water intensive since the set up reduces water waste, making it more environmentally friendly. The lab has been growing a variety of greens including microgreens, baby heirloom lettuces, and more. Aquaculture is the farming of seafood, which permits the cultivation of healthy seafood for human consumption. Unfortunately, sources of wild seafood have been grossly overfished. Aquaculture provides a real solution to this crisis. Currently, they are raising Red Nile Tilapia but there are plans to cultivate saltwater prawns and crayfish. The lab also has a small aquaponics system that combines the two. The waste water from the seafood helps fertilize the greens and filters the water that can now return to the tank. It’s a beautiful sustainable circle. The greens from the hydroponics lab have been donated to the Irving Park Food Pantry, facilitated by BuildOn, a vital partner and ally within the community. The lab was also recently certified by the CPS to supply food to the cafeteria. While they aren’t the first CPS school to receive such certification, they are first indoor hydroponics lab in Chicago to receive that distinction. That’s super cool. The lab is all about “Feeding the mind, feeding the stomach, and feeding the community.”
So about those space tomatoes…For Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire, they will set up a geodesic dome to show off the hydroponic and other systems. In addition to that, they will be unveiling the working food computer, invented at MIT. Guerrero explains that it’s basically a farm in a 2 x 2 foot box where all the conditions can be controlled to facilitate the growth of the plant inside. You can learn what settings of light, water, etc are most conducive to sharing and you can then share it with the world. The Schurz Food Lab has connected with Tomatosphere that works with NASA to grow seeds from the tomatoes grown in space in the working food box. So come to the faire and check out the growing space tomatoes!
Photo Credit: Chicago Children’s Museum
Want to learn how to use a power drill and make an amazing cool sculpture? Join Chicago Children’s Museum at the Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire.
The Chicago Children’s Museum is “a place where families and caregivers with infants and children are encouraged to create, explore, and discover together through play.”(1) One great place for kids to learn is the Tinkering Lab, a place for learning for children and their families. Kids can learn how to use real tools, like saws and drills, and have the freedom to choose their own projects. There is even an early learning nook for very young children.
Kim Koin, Director of Art and Tinkering Lab Studios, explains that the Tinkering Lab sees learning as a social activity. It’s a great place for kids to experiment and have wonderful conversations with their families. Kim explained, “Parents are really surprised at what kids can do.” She says a major takeaway from the Tinkering Lab is “learning from failure… We want kids to try something out, be able to test it out, and build again.” Critical thinking and problem solving are critical for kids of all ages. Tis place is heaven for young boys, you’re going to have gift ideas for 8 year old boys after just one visit. In May, the Tinkering Lab is excited to debut the Zoom Room, where kids can learn about physical science, play with force and motion with 100s of matchbox cars. There will be a station where kids can experiment with cars on different surfaces to explore friction. You can even learn how the timing to hit a car with a wrecking ball! It sounds amazing!
Chicago Children’s Museum is excited to return to Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire with a new exhibit, and meet other makers in the Chicago region as well. Last year, they had a great time with Cardboard Mechanism at our 4th annual event.
This year at the 5th anniversary Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire, they will be running “Power Drill Sculptures.” Everyone can learn how to use a power drill safely. Kids will first learn how to use a c-clamp to secure wood and then they will be trained on how to use a power drill. They will be able to build a collaborative sculpture that will develop throughout the day. Kim Koin explained: “Bring your focus. Bring your creativity.” Who knows what form that sculpture will take? We’re excited to see how it progresses! | <urn:uuid:e92c9337-2c82-4fa6-9854-6f442b6bd895> | {
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A heart attack happens when blood flow to the heart suddenly becomes blocked and the heart can't get oxygen. If not treated quickly, the heart muscle fails to pump and begins to die. The most common heart attack symptom in men and women is chest pain or discomfort.
However, women also are somewhat more likely to have shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, unusual tiredness (sometimes for days), and pain in the back, shoulders, and jaw.
Many people aren't sure what's wrong when they are having symptoms of a heart attack.
If you think you might be having a heart attack (even if you're not sure), call 9–1–1 immediately. Don't wait!
Some of the most common warning symptoms of a heart attack for men and women are:
- Chest pain or discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center or left side of the chest. The discomfort usually lasts for more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back. It can feel like pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain. It also can feel like heartburn or indigestion.
- Upper body discomfort. You may feel pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, shoulders, neck, jaw, or upper part of the stomach (above the belly button).
- Shortness of breath. This may be your only symptom, or it may occur before or along with chest pain or discomfort. It can occur when you are resting or doing a little bit of physical activity.
Heart attacks don't always cause common symptoms. They can start slowly and cause only mild pain or discomfort. Symptoms can be mild or more intense and sudden. Symptoms also may come and go over several hours. Women who have high blood sugar (diabetes) may have no symptoms or very mild ones.
Any time you think you might be having heart attack symptoms or a heart attack, don't ignore it or feel embarrassed to call for help. Call 9–1–1 for emergency medical care, even if you are not sure whether you're having a heart attack.
Consider taking part in a research study (clinical trial) if you've had or are at risk for a heart attack. Research supported by NHLBI has uncovered some of the causes of heart diseases and conditions, as well as ways to prevent or treat them. | <urn:uuid:df46bd03-68ad-4c3c-b6a6-c4af0b956891> | {
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This article reproduced with permission from Anxiety Disorders Association Of America.
Social anxiety disorder can wreak havoc on the social and romantic lives of the 15 million American adults who suffer from the disorder, leaving them isolated, ashamed and in some cases, misdiagnosed, according to a new survey commissioned by the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA). One of the most troubling findings is that 36% of people with the disorder report experiencing symptoms for 10 or more years before seeking help. Read more survey results.
Visit the interactive website dedicated to social anxiety disorder: Send an e-card, watch a video, download a brochure, and more.
“Social anxiety disorder can have a profound effect on social interactions that most people take for granted,” says ADAA President & CEO Jerilyn Ross, MA, LICSW. “In extreme cases, the disorder can disrupt social lives to the point that people may have few or no relationships at all, making them feel powerless and alone.”
Everyone can relate to feeling anxious before giving a presentation or asking someone out on a date. But those with social anxiety disorder experience an intense fear of being scrutinized and negatively evaluated by others in social or performance situations. Some people with the disorder, also called social phobia, literally feel sick from fear in seemingly nonthreatening situations.
The disorder is often selective. Some people may have an intense fear of talking to a salesperson or giving a speech, but they may be comfortable in other similar settings. Other people may become anxious during routine activities such as starting a conversation with a stranger or a person in authority, participating in meetings or classes, or dating and attending parties.
Although they recognize that the fear is excessive and unreasonable, people with social anxiety disorder feel powerless against their anxiety. They are terrified they will embarrass or humiliate themselves. The anxiety can interfere significantly with daily routines, occupational performance, or social life, making it difficult to complete school, interview and get a job, and have friendships and romantic relationships.
Physical symptoms of social anxiety disorder may include blushing, profuse sweating, trembling, nausea, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness, and headaches.
Social anxiety disorder usually begins in childhood or adolescence, and children are prone to clinging behavior, tantrums, and even mutism (see Children & Adolescents).
Read one woman’s story of recovery from social anxiety disorder. Then check out more true stories of people with social anxiety disorder: The Real Me, Much More Than Shy, My Silent Child, and A Story of Social Anxiety Disorder: Ricky Williams.
Take a self-test for social anxiety disorder.
Get information on anxiety disorder treatment options.
Download a brochure about social anxiety disorder. | <urn:uuid:747f84ee-6116-4a0b-b507-efbcededad90> | {
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Transcript of Future Technology
This... Robots are not something that we rely on every day. Even though people have no ideas about robots now, in 2025 Japan hope to have cleaning robots, spray paint automobiles, loading trucks robots, cooking, sheep shearing, medical assistants, and an everyday household helper. Many people think that robots are just human models whom can do exactly the same as a human, but that is not right. People believe this because our technology is just there, when we need it. It's there. Although this may not seem like a robot, it certainly is. This is a Bee-Bot. A Bee-Bot is used for educational reasons. Could this robot be guiding us around tourist areas? This is a humanoid robot, this means that this is a robot that is based on the human figure. This robot is an ASIMO, it was created in 2000 manufactured by Honda. ASIMO has the ability to recognize moving objects, postures, gestures, its surrounding environment, sounds and faces, which enables it to interact with humans. We now have HUGE screens and HD (high definition) televisions which allow us to see things so much better and in some people's houses they have a 3D television! This is an old television. This television is one of the first television's anyone had ever seen! Just look at how small that screen is... Televisions are essential to life. In year 1926, J.L. Baird first displayed television which had only 30 lines and gave coarse image. Currently the digital signal of the television sends pictures with 1080 lines. We don't usually think, all we do is press some buttons and a range of channels automatically. 90% of households own a television. The first television was commercially introduced in 1924 and have improved, and become incredible. Below are a few different televisions and you can compare these absolutely amazing devices. This is the generation of Transportation: There are many types of transportation: Airplanes, Cars, Bus, Bike, Train, and Boats. Bikes are human powered, meaning they only use the muscles and energy of a human to power. We can also travel by animals but in the 21st century, no one really uses the Horse and Cart. In 1903 the Wright Brothers had the first EVER flight, so only 109 years ago this accomplishment was so amazing. Within this 109 years we have gone from simple flights to slick planes that gracefully dive in and out of clouds. When talking about the first modern automobile, Karl Benz created the first auto mobile in 1886. The very first car might well have been the invention of a Flemish missionary named Ferdinand Verbiest. Born in Flanders in 1623, Verbiest was an accomplished astronomer who left Europe for China in 1658. Past Present Future Past Present Future Future Present Past So, now we know how technology has changed... I hope you enjoyed my prezi along with learning about our technology! | <urn:uuid:d3617719-7780-4f26-84fb-59038d34091b> | {
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Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a chronic infectious tropical disease caused by the fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. The initial infection usually occurs in the lungs, but may also spread to the skin, mucous membranes, and other parts of the body. Specialized cells that line the walls of blood and lymphatic vessels and dispose of cellular waste (reticuloendothelial system) may also be affected by paracoccidioidomycosis. If the patient does not receive treatment, life-threatening complications can occur. Most cases of this disease occur in South and Central America.
The symptoms of paracoccidioidomycosis generally occur from several weeks or months to years after the initial exposure to the fungus. The symptoms vary according to which areas of the body are infected.
The symptoms of pulmonary paracoccidioidomycosis, in which the lungs are affected, may include cough, difficulty breathing (dyspnea), fatigue, and/or chest pain. Adults with this form of the disorder may also have fibrous and degenerative changes in the lungs that cause the progressive loss of lung function (emphysema). In some people, the symptoms of paracoccidioidomycosis progress to a condition known as cor pulmonale. Heart disease occurs in this condition because of abnormally high blood pressure within the vessels that move blood away from the lungs and toward the heart.
In mucocutaneous paracoccidioidomycosis, ulcers (granulomatous lesions) appear on the mucous membranes, especially those of the mouth and nose.
When paracoccidioidomycosis affects the lymphatic system, generalized swelling of lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy) may occur in many areas of the body, especially in the neck and the underarm area (axilla). Infected lymph nodes may become painful and produce pus (suppuration).
In visceral paracoccidioidomycosis, other organs of the body may also be infected including the liver, spleen, and/or intestines. The adrenal glands may be particularly susceptible to this infection. Chronic adrenal involvement may cause abnormally low levels of adrenal hormones.
Paracoccidioidomycosis is caused by infection with a fungus known as Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. Many cases of this disease occur years after airborne fungal spores are inhaled, although the period of latency is not always this long.
The fungus is thought to exist in soil as a mold, and infection occurs following inhalation of spores (conidia). In the lungs, the fungus is converted to yeasts that may spread to other sites. Some of those exposed are able to resist this process and the infection is stopped. However, in others the fungus goes on to cause disease in one or more parts of the body.
Paracoccidioidomycosis sometimes occurs in patients whose immune systems have been weakened (immunocompromised), including those with AIDS.
Paracoccidioidomycosis is a rare fungal disease. For reasons that are not clearly understood, its chronic adult form affects males 15 times more frequently than it does females. Most affected people are between the ages of 20 and 50 years. The subacute juvenile form of the disorder affects males and females equally.
Paracoccidioidomycosis is rare in the United States but can occur in people who have visited, or migrated from, South and Central America.
The diagnosis of paracoccidioidomycosis is usually made by examination of sputum or pus from infected individuals. If positive, microscopic examination will permit the identification of the responsible fungus, Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. Diagnosis may also be made by the examination of tissue samples (biopsy specimens) from the lungs, skin, and/or lymph nodes. The diagnosis is confirmed when samples of infected tissue are grown in the laboratory (cultured) and eventually test positive for the presence of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis.
Blood tests may also be useful for the diagnosis of paracoccidioidomycosis, but they cannot distinguish between active and past infection. Skin tests are available but may not be reliable. Chest x-rays of affected individuals may show patchy areas of fungal infection (infiltration).
Antifungal drugs are the most effective therapeutics for paracoccidio-idomycosis. Among these are itraconazole, ketoconazole and fluconazole. Amphotericin B may be given to patients with severe disease who cannot tolerate other medications. Sulfonamides suppress the symptoms and halt the progress of the disease, but do not eliminate the fungus from the body.
The antifungal drugs ketoconazole, itraconazole, and fluconazole are often prescribed as treatments for paracoccidioidomycosis and other systemic fungal infections. Studies indicate that these drugs may be as effective as amphotericin B. More study is needed to determine the long- term safety and effectiveness of ketoconazole and itraconazole for the treatment of paracoccidioidomycosis.
Scientists have discovered an antigen in the blood of people (Gp43) with Paracoccidioidomycosis that they believe is produced in response to infection with Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. It is hoped that this discovery will lead to improved blood tests for the diagnosis of this disease.
Research on tropical diseases is ongoing. The development of vaccines is also being investigated. For more information, contact the World Health Organization (WHO) listed in the Resources section below.
Information on current clinical trials is posted on the Internet at www.clinicaltrials.gov. All studies receiving U.S. Government funding, and some supported by private industry, are posted on this government web site.
For information about clinical trials being conducted at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD, contact the NIH Patient Recruitment Office:
Tollfree: (800) 411-1222
TTY: (866) 411-1010
For information about clinical trials sponsored by private sources, contact:
Fauci AS, Braunwald E, Isselbacher KJ, et al., eds. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 14th ed.McGraw-Hill Companies. New York, NY; 1998:1160.
Mandell GL, Bennett JE, Dolan R, eds. Mandell, Douglas and Bennett’s Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 4th ed. Churchill Livingstone Inc. New York, NY; 1995:2386-89.
dos Santos JW, Debiasi RB, Miletho JN, et al. Asymptomatic presentation of chronic pulmonary paracoccidioidomycosis: case repiort and review. Mycopathologia. 2004;157:53-57.
Miyaji M, Kamei K. Imported mycoses: an update. J Infect Chemother. 2003;9:107-13.
Trent JT, Kirsner RS. Identifying and treating mycotic skin infections. Adv Skin Wound Care. 2003;16:122-29.
San-Blas G, Nino-Vega G, Iturriaga T. Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and paracoccidioidomycosis: molecular approaches to morphogenesis, diagnosis, epidemiology, taxonomy and genetics. Med Mycol. 2002;40:225-42.
Ellis D. Amphotericin B: spectrum and resistance. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2002;49 Suppl 1:7-10.
Bethlem EP, Capone D, Maranhao B, et al. Paracoccidioidomycosis. Curr Opin Pulm Med. 1999;5:319-25.
FROM THE INTERNET
Boxwalla AA. Paracoccidioidomycosis. emedicine. Last Updated: June 25, 2002. 11pp.
Paracoccidioidomycosis. Merck Manual. ©2004 Merck & Co., Inc. 2pp.
Paracoccidioidomycosis. Merck Manual Second Home Edition Online. ©2004 Merck & Co., Inc. 2pp
The information in NORD’s Rare Disease Database is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the advice of a physician or other qualified medical professional.
The content of the website and databases of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) is copyrighted and may not be reproduced, copied, downloaded or disseminated, in any way, for any commercial or public purpose, without prior written authorization and approval from NORD. Individuals may print one hard copy of an individual disease for personal use, provided that content is unmodified and includes NORD’s copyright.
National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)
55 Kenosia Ave., Danbury CT 06810 • (203)744-0100 | <urn:uuid:c748b017-5297-4729-bb38-71133d557464> | {
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The system combines information from public databases with traffic simulations and energy consumption models.
Researchers believe it could help identify the most effective places to cut emissions.
They say it could aid international efforts to verify reductions in carbon.
While the United States has one method of measuring carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases at national level, there is little consistency at city and local level.
Details of the new system are published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
According to the scientists from Arizona State University this new measuring system, called Hestia, changes all that.
The research team used data from a number of sources including air pollution reports, traffic counts and tax offices. This is then combined with a modelling system for quantifying CO2 emissions down to individual building level.
Dr Kevin Gurney is one of the leaders of the project. He told BBC News that his team knows the system is working because it is consistent with existing information on emissions.
“We can go to any city in the US and do the quantification and we know it will be utterly consistent from city to city and consistent from city all the way up to national level,” he said.
So far the system has been used on Indianapolis and work is ongoing with Los Angeles and Phoenix. The researchers are learning a great deal about emissions in the urban environment.
“You realise how large a source electricity production is. It tends to swamp the signal in cities. And things like traffic jams and slow downs in traffic, that’s what really hits you,” said Dr Gurney.
The scientists behind the system say it can be extremely useful for cities, helping them to target where to make emissions cuts.
Once those cuts have been made, the system can verify their effect. Verification is also a hugely contentious issue at international negotiations on a global climate treaty.
Many developed countries are concerned that any cuts in carbon agreed by developing nations might not actually happen. Could this system help? Kevin Gurney believes it would.
“Right now we are exploring the use of remote sensing but the nice thing is that now we can use Hestia to calibrate the remote sensing in the cities we have done. Through that we may be able to infer a lot better estimate of emissions in Rio or Delhi,” he said.
The researchers believe that the system can be used to give greater credibility to carbon trading.
“Nobody buys a stock that’s ten dollars plus or minus five dollars,” said Kevin Gurney. “We have to have confidence in the numerical value of something. We have to have the same level of confidence about a unit of emissions.” | <urn:uuid:678cc85a-9963-4f8c-acd4-2e0886aa4610> | {
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William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865), was a Confederate leader during the American Civil War. Quantrill lead a Confederate unit along the Missouri-Kansas border in the early 1860s. Quantrill was a leader in the Lawrence Massacre in Lawrence, Kansas in 1863. Quantrill was killed in Kentucky in a Union ambush in 1865.
References[change | change source]
- "PBS - THE WEST - William Clarke Quantrill". pbs.org. 2011 [last update]. http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/quantrill.htm. Retrieved February 26, 2011. | <urn:uuid:f81d6eec-16f2-4dfa-859e-6c200380ac46> | {
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Apparently a 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck Central California on February 14, 2015 – and no one reported on it or noticed for that matter.
As it turns out the earthquake was ignored by media, ignored by online reporters, and missed by me until it was added to the feed by the USGS. No first hand reports either.
A sign of coming movement? How was this movement a sign of a coming event elsewhere?
The answer falls upon the epicenter location. Which is a dormant volcanic complex called the Ubehebe Craters.
This is case in point why we need multiple researchers reviewing earthquake epicenter locations using satellite imagery on a daily basis.
If you can know a dormant volcano on the West coast is moving, then you can WATCH for a noteworthy earthquake in a nearby adjacent area in the near term. Every time we see dormant volcanoes show activity, we see follow up earthquakes nearby reach up into the 4.0m-5.0m or greater range.
This isn’t the first movement we’ve seen at dormant volcanoes on the West coast …. things are under serious pressure at the moment.
See the earthquake update here: | <urn:uuid:76bb20ec-c14d-46f4-abe3-bdbd803fd6be> | {
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WHITEPAPERS: Army War College , ASM (American Society for Microbiology), CATO Institute, Center for a New American Security, Center for Biosecurity of UPMC, Center for Counterproliferation Research, Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, CRS (Report for Congress), GAO (General Accounting Office), Institute for National Strategic Studies, Institute for Science and Public Policy, Johns Hopkins University, National Academy Of Engineering, National Defence University, PERI (Public Entity Risk Institute), RIS (Research & Information System), Terrorism Intelligence Centre, The Federalist Society, UNESCO (United Nations), University of Laussane, and the WMD Center.
Date: February 23, 2003
Source: Institute for Science and Public Policy
Abstract: The shocking events of September 11, 2001, and the deliberate release of anthrax spores that occurred shortly thereafter have increased awareness of the dangers of terrorist attacks. Of all the actions that could be undertaken by terrorists, perhaps none has more potential for causing massive civilian casualties through asymmetric warfare than does the use of biological agents. Although most microorganisms that cause disease or produce toxins (i.e., viruses, bacteria, fungal spores, and toxins) may be used as biological weapons, some are more likely candidates for use in bioterrorism incidents because they are extremely infectious and exhibit high mortality or debilitating morbidity rates. Moreover, given the likelihood of delay in diagnosing some diseases caused by deliberate exposure, biological agents are a potent weapon in the hands of terrorists (1 - 4).
The growing threat of bioterrorism is based on four key and disturbing facts. First, the number of nations and groups possessing or seeking to acquire a biological agent capability is increasing. Second, biological agents with increasing lethality are possible with genetic engineering. Third, detection of biological agent development is difficult because much of the technology has legitimate dual-use applications in medicine and agriculture. And, unlike chemical or radiological/nuclear events, detection of a biological release may be delayed for days until individuals first display symptoms which are diagnosed accurately. Forth, and perhaps most troubling, bioterrorism has happen in the United States.
Computer modeling and field exercises have become the primary tools for simulating terrorist incidents and analyzing the consequences of terrorist attacks in order to evaluate options for minimizing casualties. This analysis provides an overview of the threat bioterrorism poses by identifying potential biological agents and describing sources of known vulnerability. The paper also summarizes S&T resources/needs and assesses response options for achieving effective biodefense (Institute for Science and Public Policy, 2003). | <urn:uuid:f8989e52-8fe7-430b-b018-fbdf9ca91466> | {
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Thomas Kelly was the project engineer for the Apollo Lunar Module, built by Grumman Aircraft at their Bethpage, New York, “Ironworks” between 1962 and 1970. Grumman developed and built fifteen LMs, six of which landed on the Moon. The craft is unique – the only manned spacecraft designed to land on an airless satellite, and the only manned spacecraft ever to have done so.
Moon Lander opens in 1960, as Kelly describes the feasibility study for landing on the Moon which Grumman put together in an effort to get involved in building spacecraft. At that time, the company was best-known its naval aircraft, and in fact its largest customer was the US Navy. But NASA was likely to spend billions of dollars in the coming decades, and Grumman felt space engineering was an excellent future prospect.
And then in May 1961, President John F Kennedy gave his speech to Congress, declaring that the US “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”. The Apollo programme moved into high gear, and Grumman’s earlier feasibility study made them an excellent candidate for involvement. But first, of course, they had to put together a bid and win the contract. Which they did.
Designing and building the LM presented a number of problems, many of which seemed on occasion would prevent the craft from ever being completed. Chief among these was weight. As the LM programme progressed, the weight of the craft kept on climbing, and a severe weight reduction programme was required – inspired by the SWIP (Super Weight Improvement Program) performed by Grumman on the US Navy General Dynamics/Grumman F-111B (which was subsequently cancelled). The LM SWIP succeeded, although it involved a number of trade-offs: for example, the gauge of wiring used throughout the LM was reduced, which both saved weight but also made the wiring prone to breakages.
The nature of the LM’s mission meant it had to be the most reliable craft ever built. If anything in it failed, it would strand the two astronauts on the Moon. And yet the limited weight meant Grumman could not simply build in multiple back-ups or fail-over equipment. Instead Grumman chose to simplify as much of the LM’s workings as possible, and to test everything thoroughly to ensure it would never fail. This last was not always successful. When Grumman tested LM-1’s propulsion and reaction control systems for leaks, it passed. But when NASA ran their own tests at KSC, the craft failed – so much so that the NASA engineers described it as a “piece of junk that leaked like a sieve”.
Perhaps because I’ve read a number of books about the Apollo programme, and none previously specifically about the LM, but I found Moon Lander a much more interesting read than some of the books I’ve reviewed on this blog. But then I find the hardware – and the challenges it was designed to overcome – more fascinating than I do the personalities involved. Moon Lander may not be, as prose, as enjoyable a read as Michael Collins’ excellent autobiography Carrying the Fire (see here), but it had the benefit of covering a subject, with a great deal of detail, not found in other works on Apollo. Moon Lander does exactly what its subtitle claims, and it does it from the perspective of someone who was very much involved. There are perhaps no great insights into what the Apollo programme, or its achievements, meant, but the book certainly provides plenty of fascinating information on the process of designing and building the Lunar Module.
Perhaps because he was an engineer, and not an astronaut (all of whom had larger-than-life egos), Kelly does not use his book as a platform to inflate his own importance. When he gets it wrong, he’s happy to admit so. He’s equally fair when handing out praise and acknowledging the contributions of others. It’s a pleasant surprise to read a book about Apollo in which the author’s personality doesn’t threaten to overwhelm the events being described.
Moon Lander‘s prose is serviceable at best and clumsy at worst, which is not unexpected – Kelly was an engineer, not a writer. He tries to avoid writing too much like an engineer, although not entirely successfully: “The next morning the delicious tingle of anticipation hung over KSC like the morning sea haze through which the fiery orange Sun groped its ways to the ground” (pg 193).
Despite a shaky start, the Grumman LM was later acknowledged to be one of the most reliable pieces of hardware used by the Apollo programme. It was designed to meet a unique challenge, and it did so admirably. The LM is an historically important machine, and it’s good that its history has been chronicled so throughly by one of the people instrumental in its development and construction. Moon Lander belongs in the collection of anyone interested in the Apollo programme.
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Many wine drinkers are familiar with Tempranillo as Spain’s most prolifically grown noble grape. Often people confuse Rioja and Tempranillo as being the same thing but Tempranillo is the grape variety and Rioja is one of Spain’s largest wine producing regions. A somewhat less familiar region (in the U.S. largely due to better marketing by other wine regions), the Ribera del Duero, has been producing wines for more than 2,000 years. Evidence of this has been found in a Roman mosaic depicting Bacchus. Cistercian and Benedictine monks began proliferating vines and cellaring wine as far back as the 12th century. Some of these cellars are still in use today. The region was officially declared a D.O. (Denominación de Origen) in 1982. A natural clone of Tempranillo, known in the region as Tinto Fino or Tinto del Pais has adapted to the less than hospitable climate of short hot summers with cool nights, frequent frosts during the growing season, and little rain.
The Ribera del Duero region is located approximately 80 miles north of Madrid and sits on a plateau with a wide river valley running through it. The wine region is literally located along either side of the banks of the Duero River as it runs west to east (through Portugal where it s called the Douro before it empties into the Atlantic) through the four Spanish provinces of Castile and León, Burgos, Segovia, and Valladodid. The climate is Mediterranean with Continental influences and the vineyards are planted at altitudes as high as 3,000 feet. The growing season is short with a favorable diurnal temperature exchange of hot days and cool nights, and rainfall of only about 17 inches per year, which makes for great growing conditions. The soil variations range from alluvial deposits with some sand and clay at the lowest elevations to layered limestone, marl, and chalk up towards the steeper slopes. This arid mesa land is dotted with medieval castle/fortresses called alcázars where 15th and 16th century catholic Spain fought off the islamic Moors who had controlled much of the country from the time of the Reconquista in the 8th century through the Spanish Inquisition (complex history).
Vines here are known to grow untrellised on upright gnarled bushes, many into old age, 40, 50 years or more. The Tempranillo grape grows as a small berry in loose clusters and is characterized by its plum, cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and spice flavor descriptors. It is known for producing well-balanced wines that express fresh fruit, good acidity, rich color and well-controlled tannins. Oak aging contributes vanilla, toast, and leather to the final product. The wines of the Ribera del Duero region show elegance, depth, and complexity. Many give you pause to think and consider while tasting.
The classification system adhered to by the D.O., as in most regions, is strict. There are requirements for the use of oak and aging, as well as maximum yields per acre, grape varieties, vineyard management, alcohol levels, and more. Ribera del Duero wines are classified as follows:
Cosecha, or Joven – these wines are young and meant to be drunk soon after harvest. They are fresh and fruity in style. Joven Roble or Joven Barrica see three to six months in oak.
Crianza – requires two years of aging with at least one year in an oak barrel. They are allowed to be released after the first of October, two years after the harvest.
Reserva – wines are aged for three years, with a one year minimum in oak. They are released after the first of October, three years after the harvest.
Gran Reserva – these wines are only produced in years with an exceptional vintage. Aged for a minimum of five years these wines require at least two years in oak barrels, followed by additional bottle aging.
Rosado – Ribera del Duero’s rosé wines, meant to be enjoyed while young and fresh.
In April I had the pleasure of attending an event sponsored by Drink Ribera. Drink Spain. hosted by Jonathan Alsop at the Boston Wine School. There was a brief seminar followed by a walk around tasting complemented by regional tapas prepared by Deborah Hansen of Taberna de Haro. It was a celebration of Ribera being named Wine Region of the Year by Wine Enthusiast magazine. Fifteen winemakers were listed on the program but somehow many more managed to be displayed on additional tables. I never turn my nose up at these sponsored events. Some wine geeks see them as self-serving and blatant marketing, which they are, and intended to be. It is also my opportunity, short of traveling to the region itself, to taste through the different classifications and styles, and to learn something about food pairing that go well with the wines.
At the end of this post I will list some of the wines I enjoyed but an interesting part of the event was the food. There was Salchichón, a Spanish style salami, chorizo sausage, Manchego cheese, and Jamón ibérico (Spanish version of prosciutto) sliced by chef Deborah Hansen, all of which were predictable pairings. The interesting choice to me was the Morcilla, common to the region but not often served in the U.S. Morcilla, also known as black pudding, is, quite literally, blood sausage. An acquired taste for most, this is something I was more familiar with as what my mother called Hutka. My great grandmother was from Budapest and while growing up in New York we frequently travelled to Manahattan to a part of the lower east side where a little Hungarian community still sold the delicacies of home. I now know that what my mother called Hutka was actually véres hurka. In Spain morcilla is made from pork blood, with rice, fat, onions, and sometimes liver and head meat (did I mention that it is an acquired taste?). The Hungarian version I grew up with was prepared in a skillet and sauteed until the sausage burst and the black organ bits and rice got crispy. When I was a kid I didn’t know anything about this other than my mother couldn’t pass it off with the “tastes like chicken” line, but I liked it. The Morcilla served by Taberna de Haro was more elegantly presented than I remembered from childhood. This is waste not want not peasant food at its best.
While wine has been made in the Ribera del Duero region for more than 2,000 years it was being produced primarily for local consumption with less regard paid to quality. Often little attention was paid to wine production and a vintage could be placed in barrels and allowed to ferment on its own with little intervention at all from the winemaker. It was around the mid 20th century when the number of hectares planted had started to be reduced and quality over quantity took hold, leading up to the 1980’s when the winery Vega Sicilia, along with wineries like La Pesquera began to produce wines of higher quality, helping to secure the D.O status for the region. Bodegas Vega Sicilia had been producing wine since 1864. More than 100 years later they adopted a mindeset of holding off the release of their wines until they were ready, as determined by the winemaker. To this day some Vega Sicilia wines are held in bottle and not released for decades. This determination to be patient and control the release of the wine until the best possible quality could be achieved inspired other winemakers to the produce better wines as well. Now the region can boast of being able to hold its own against the more reknown Rioja D.O. and its designation as Wine Region of the Year by Wine Enthusiast magazine. So the next time you are in the mood for a wine with a little more complexity, one to make you pause to consider what you are tasting try a Ribera del Duero.
You could not go wrong with wines from any of the following producers:
Bodega Emina – the 2009 Crianza is a purple red hue with well-defined tannins and complex structure.
Bodega Matarromera S. L.
Protos B. Ribera del Duero Peñafiel S. L.
Bodegas Trus S. L.
Alejandro Fernández-Tinto Pesquera, S. L. – named for the visionary Spanish winemaker who helped bring this region to a more prominent place in the wine world, helping to secure the D.O. status
Selección de Torres, S. L. | <urn:uuid:42c1430b-6e8d-41ef-b3b2-0f25ac6baede> | {
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Kidney Cancer Learning Center
Renal cell carcinoma is a type of kidney cancer in which the cancerous cells are found in the lining of very small tubes (tubules) in the kidney.
Several types of cancer can affect the kidneys. Learn about how kidney cancer is diagnosed and treated.
back to top | <urn:uuid:6dffe02d-837e-47b0-b83e-1e317c38c3fd> | {
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Location: Location not imported yet.Title: The effects of downy brome invasion on mule deer habitat) Author
Submitted to: Western Society of Weed Science
Publication Type: Abstract only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/27/2011
Publication Date: 3/15/2012
Citation: Clements, C.D., Young, J.A., Harmon, D.N. 2012. The effects of downy brome invasion on mule deer habitat [abstract]. Western Society of Weed Science. 64:14. Interpretive Summary:
Technical Abstract: Downy brome (Bromus tectorum), also widely known as cheatgrass, is a highly invasive exotic weed that has spread over millions of hectares of rangelands throughout the Intermountain West. Native to Eurasia, this early maturing annual provides a fine textured fuel that increases the chance, rate, season and spread of wildfires. Historical wildfire intervals estimated at 60-110 years are now as frequent as every 5-10 years. In 1964 a firestorm, largely fueled by downy brome, swept through Elko County in northeastern Nevada burning 120,000 hectares of rangelands. Most of the burned area was converted from big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)/bunchgrass communities to downy brome dominance. In 1999, over 765,000 hectares burned in Nevada, consuming more critical browse communities. Before the firestorm of 1964, the Independence mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) herd of northeastern Nevada was estimated at 38,000 animals. By 2001, the Independence mule deer herd was estimated at 9,000 animals. The use of herbicide and mechanical treatments combined with the seeding of native and introduced species was aggressively applied on selected areas to provide forage and cover to wintering mule deer. Understanding the importance of the inherent potential of specific seed species to compete with and suppress downy brome resulted in increased success of rehabilitation efforts. By 2010, the Independence mule deer herd was estimated at 14,000, 65% increase. Active and aggressive weed control practices of downy brome along with effective rehabilitation practices are critical in decreasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires as well as any hope at returning native shrubs back to the community for mule deer and other wildlife species. | <urn:uuid:341d57f0-000a-4ed9-949b-d075956ba9a2> | {
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Location: Watershed Physical Processes ResearchTitle: Fine sediment sources in conservation effects assessment project watersheds) Author
|Lerch, Robert - Bob|
|Huang, Chi hua|
Submitted to: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Publication Type: Peer reviewed journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/2/2014
Publication Date: 9/1/2014
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/60180
Citation: Wilson, C., Kuhnle, R.A., Dabney, S.M., Lerch, R.N., Huang, C., King, K.W., Livingston, S.J. 2014. Fine sediment sources in conservation effects assessment project watersheds. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 69(5):402-413. Interpretive Summary: Sediment that is eroded from fields and channels in agricultural watersheds may destabilize channels which endangers bridges and other structures, degrades water quality and aquatic organisms, reduces soil fertility, decreases channel capacity and increase the likelihood of flooding. Knowledge of the sources of sediment in a watershed is necessary information needed by land use managers to effectively apply conservation practices to prevent on-site and off-site damages of eroded and deposited sediment. Through the use of naturally occurring isotopes of lead and beryllium, information on the relative sources of sediment delivered to channels in eight agricultural watersheds was determined. It was found that in six of the eight watersheds more than 50 percent of the sediment originated from channel sources. This information is important guidance for the effective design of conservation practices on these watersheds.
Technical Abstract: Two naturally occurring radionuclides, 7Be and 210Pbxs , were used as tracers to discriminate eroded surface soils from channel-derived sediments in the fine suspended sediment loads of eight Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) benchmark watersheds. Precipitation, source soils, and suspended sediment samples were collected in the watersheds from single storm events and analyzed for the radionuclide activities, which were then applied to a two end-member mixing model to determine the relative proportions from the two source areas. In larger watersheds where the transport length of the sediment was longer, the suspended sediment load contained lower proportions of eroded upland soils compared to smaller systems. The longer transport paths contained more depositional areas for fine sediment in which to settle and hence less eroded surface soils reached the stream channel resulting in higher proportions of sediment from the channels. This study showed that more than 50% of the fine sediment in six of the eight watersheds originated from channel sources that included stream banks, the riverine bed, and gullies. These results underscore the need to consider channel and gully processes when management practices are designed to reduce sediment yield in agricultural watersheds. | <urn:uuid:699827b3-a52e-4c26-a92a-95bfbc630cb2> | {
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Learn about this topic in these articles:
development by British
English chemist and explosives specialist who, with the chemist Sir James Dewar, invented cordite (1889), later adopted as the standard explosive of the British army. Abel also made studies of dust explosions in coal mines, invented a device for testing the flash point of petroleum, and found a way to prevent guncotton from exploding spontaneously.
...fully automatic machine gun, employing the recoil of the barrel for ejecting the spent cartridges and reloading the chamber. To improve its efficiency, he developed his own smokeless powder, cordite. Within a few years every army was equipped with Maxim guns or adaptations. | <urn:uuid:decf3e0e-3f61-4109-9ec3-877b865bc780> | {
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University of North Dakota
University, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States
University of North Dakota, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Grand Forks, North Dakota, U.S. The University of North Dakota was established in 1883, and instruction began a year later. Its original mission was to provide instruction in arts and sciences and to train teachers. The university quickly grew; it awarded its first graduate degree in 1895, opened the law school in 1899, and established the medical school in 1905. The first doctorate was awarded in 1914. The university, which sits on some 550 acres (225 hectares), is part of the North Dakota University System. Total enrollment is about 13,000.
The University of North Dakota offers nearly 200 fields of study and more than 85 majors. It includes colleges of arts and sciences, business and public administration, nursing, and education and human development, as well as the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences and schools of law, engineering and mines, and medicine and health sciences. The graduate school offers more than 45 master’s and 16 doctoral degree programs and a specialist degree in education administration. The university is the state’s only source for medical and legal training. Research facilities include the Earth System Science Institute, the Center for Rural Health, and the Bureau of Educational Services and Applied Research. The university houses the North Dakota Museum of Art; among other campus features are an atmospherium and a 2,400-seat auditorium.
Learn More in these related articles:
city, seat (1875) of Grand Forks county, eastern North Dakota, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Red River of the North and the Red Lake River, opposite East Grand Forks, Minnesota, about 80 miles (130 km) south of the Canadian border and 75 miles (120 km) north of Fargo.
constituent state of the United States of America. North Dakota was admitted to the union as the 39th state on Nov. 2, 1889. A north-central state, it is bounded by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the...
Country in North America, a federal republic of 50 states. Besides the 48 conterminous states that occupy the middle latitudes of the continent, the United States includes the... | <urn:uuid:56367d3d-ba6b-472b-8fa9-d3eca3db5df5> | {
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- Minister of Agriculture, PhilippinesDEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Elliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City Philippines 1107
Global scientific community condemns the recent destruction of field trials of Golden Rice in the Philippines
On 8 Aug 2013, vandals destroyed a Philippine government field trial of Golden Rice (GR).
As the world’s population continues its increase, sustainable food production is becoming increasingly challenging. More food must be produced in the next 50 years than has been produced since the invention of agriculture. GM crops are a critical resource in accelerating increases in crop productivity in general, as well as in enhancing their nutritional value to treat malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies. In that context, Golden Rice is a critical resource in fighting the devastating consequences of widespread vitamin A deficiency in developing nations.
Research on Golden Rice at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is part of their humanitarian work to reduce vitamin A deficiency, a serious condition of malnutrition mostly affecting women and children by causing sickness and leading, in many cases, to blindness and premature death of millions each year. According to IRRI, vitamin A deficiency affects more than 15% of children aged 6 months to 5 years and subclinical vitamin A deficiency affects 10% of pregnant women in the Philippines. Golden Rice, when it becomes freely available to farmers as planned, can substantially contribute to the alleviation of this important aspect of malnutrition.
Since their introduction into commercial production over 17 years ago, GM crops have become the most rapidly adopted agricultural technology in the history of mankind, precisely because they provide large benefits to consumers, farmers and the environment. These crops have an exemplary safety record, making them the safest agricultural technology ever deployed. They have already helped to ameliorate many of the kinds of damage caused by traditional agriculture and reduce contamination of corn with fungal toxins. Not a single one of the many claims of negative health or environmental effects uniquely made against GM crops has withstood scientific scrutiny.
Regulatory systems around the world mandate the thorough testing of new GM crops to ensure that there are no unintended, harmful effects either from their cultivation or their consumption. These are the kinds of controlled tests that IRRI and the Philippine Department of Agriculture are conducting with Golden Rice. A few days ago, a field test was maliciously destroyed.
New technologies often evoke fears that they are dangerous. Destroying a new technology based on such fears without testing its safety and efficacy can deprive humanity of a very valuable and much-needed advance. In this case, many more millions will needlessly suffer blindness and death because Golden Rice was not available to them. No group, regardless of its intentions, has the right to condemn a technology without evidence. It is an unconscionable criminal act to destroy a field trial conducted in accordance to international safety norms.
We the undersigned members of the global scientific community condemn the recent destruction of a Philippine Department of Agriculture’s Golden Rice trial plot in Pili, Camarines Sur organized by Peasant Movement of the Philippines and SIKWAL-GMO. We equally condemn the use of rumors and misinformation to raise unwarranted fears in vulnerable sectors of the population and to incite anyone to acts of destruction.
Authors of the petition:
C. S. Prakash
- DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Elliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City Philippines 1107
Minister of Agriculture, Philippines
Petition to stop the destruction of field trials of GM crops
Channa Prakash started this petition with a single signature, and now has 6,785 supporters. Start a petition today to change something you care about. | <urn:uuid:de52f5c2-b95c-4465-a99d-6fc5d1f4d658> | {
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Researchers Develop First Validated Method of Detecting Drugs of Abuse in Exhaled Breath
Details of new methodology presented in study
published in Journal of Chromatography B
Details of new methodology presented in study published in Journal of Chromatography B
Drug testing is most commonly performed using urine samples. The methodology and regulations for reliable urine testing are well developed and can be considered the current gold standard for drug testing. However, one problem with urine testing is related to the methodology of sample collection, often perceived as inconvenient and privacy-overriding by those undergoing the test. As such, a group of researchers from the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have worked on developing a more donor-friendly alternative to urine testing for drugs by focusing on exhaled breath.
Professor Olof Beck, lead researcher of the study, and his team have developed the first fully validated and robust screening method for the routine measurement of drugs of abuse in exhaled breath. The procedure involves a simple method of sample collection and preparation, which is followed by a highly sensitive analytical technique known as LC-MS (Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry). The drug groups which are identifiable following the technique include: amphetamines, methamphetamines, cannabis, cocaine and heroin.
“The underlying mechanism in exhaled breath drug testing is believed to be the formation of aerosol particles from the airway lining fluid by the breathing process. These aerosol particles may become contaminated with drugs present in the body, which enables drugs to be highlighted. A simple collection device is currently available which selectively collects the micrometer aerosol particles on a filter and enables further laboratory investigation of possible drug content,” explained Prof. Beck.
When asked if he could foresee this method of drug testing being used routinely, for example, in roadside tests relating to DUID (Driving Under the Influence of Drugs), Prof. Beck said, “Yes, I see many possible applications of breath drug testing. DUID is only one; workplace, criminal justice, accidents and compliance monitoring of patients are others. For DUID, the short detection time is relevant since the state of influence is in focus, and this combined with the convenient sampling procedure makes it an attractive solution for roadside testing.”
Prof. Dr. Rainer Bischoff, University of Groningen added, “As Editor in Chief, I am delighted that Professor Beck and his team of researchers chose to publish his findings in the Journal of Chomatography B. JCB has a long tradition in publishing novel methods with a clear link to biomedical applications. I do hope that implementation of Professor Beck's methodology will help prevent accidents due to illicit drug use and provide a sound basis for drug testing in doping and many other areas.”
For more information about this research go to: Elsevier Connect
“Method validation and application of a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for drugs of abuse testing in exhaled breath” Journal of Chromatography B, Volume 985, 15 March 2015, Pages 189–19, published by Elsevier.
The paper is freely available at:
Niclas Stephanson (Corresponding author)
Department of Laboratory Medicine,
Section of Clinical Pharmacology,
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
+46 858583440; +46 858585870.
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Section of Clinical Pharmacology
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
About Journal of Chromatography B
The Journal of Chromatography B publishes papers on developments in separation science relevant to biology and biomedical research including both fundamental advances and applications. Analytical techniques which may be considered include the various facets of chromatography, electrophoresis and related methods, affinity and immunoaffinity-based methodologies, hyphenated and other multi-dimensional techniques, and microanalytical approaches. Read more about the journal here: www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-chromatography-b
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions — among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey— and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 35,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. www.elsevier.com
+31 20 485 3506 | <urn:uuid:d0fa4e2e-db77-47cb-b27b-aa385cb63576> | {
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Part 1: Thermodynamics, Ecosystems and the Evolutionary Mechanisms.
1. An introduction to thermodynamics and information theory.
2. Thermodynamic and the evolutionary process.
3. The evolutionary mechanisms.
4. Extreme Environment.
Part 2: History of Biological Evolution from a Thermodynamic Point of View. Eco-Exergy as a Criterion of Selection in Macro-evolution.
5. The evolution of the Universe.
6. From Inorganic to Poly-organic Compounds.
7. From Poly-organic Compounds to Eukaryote Cells.
8. Pluricellular Organization and the Cambrian Explosion.
9. From the Ordovician Period to the Jurassic Period.
10. The Evolution from Dinosaurs to Birds and Mammals.
11. From Primates to Human.
Part 3: A holistic thermodynamic interpretation of the Evolution.
12.The three growth forms and the evolution.
13. The evolution of diversity.
14. Eco-exergy and ascendency.
15. The evolution of ecological networks.
16. Summary of the Evolution of Eco-exergy and Discussion of the Evolutionary Possibilities in the Future.
17. A holistic picture of evolutionary thermodynamics. | <urn:uuid:9d06a4fd-c2ad-492f-8626-befabadb06bb> | {
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Malicious software (malware), including viruses, Trojan horses, and spyware, has become an epidemic over the past few years. Statistics show that an unpatched Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) machine is infected within minutes of being connected to the Internet, and downloading software or even just visiting certain Web sites can introduce undesirable software onto your system. Fortunately, the defenses against this plague are constantly improving, with a sound security shield consisting of an antivirus tool, an antispyware solution, a firewall, and up-to-date patches. However, a technology called root kits threatens to change the security landscape and make the task of validating that a computer is clean of malware difficult or even impossible.
Root kit is a term loosely applied to cloaking techniques. When malware utilizes a root kit, it can make itself invisible to security systems, including antivirus tools and system-diagnostic tools such as Task Manager. Let's look at common root kit mechanisms, methods, and utilities you can use to try to detect the presence of a root kit and at what you should do if you find a root kit on your system.
For full article:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Windows/Art ... 46266.html | <urn:uuid:f9da1d2d-d9c7-4b48-9145-2ca93f74ec71> | {
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Women who commit suicide are more likely than men to avoid facial disfiguration, but not necessarily in the name of vanity. Valerie Callanan from the University of Akron and Mark Davis from the Criminal Justice Research Center at the Ohio State University, USA, show that there are marked gender differences in the use of suicide methods that disfigure the face or head. While firearms are the preferred method for both men and women, women are less likely to shoot themselves in the head. The study is published online in Springer's journal Sex Roles.
Although a number of studies have looked at gender differences in suicide risk, few have examined gender differences in suicide methods. Understanding gender differences in suicide methods has important implications for suicide prevention efforts.
Callanan and Davis examined the medical examiner's files of 621 suicide cases in Summit County, Ohio in the US, covering a 10-year period (1997-2006). They found that women were significantly less likely than men to use suicide methods with the potential to disfigure the face or head. Indeed, men were nearly twice as likely as women to have used such methods.
The researchers also found that for every one-unit increase in blood alcohol level, the odds of using a disfiguring method increased by nearly 10 percent. Gender, age, stressful life events and prior suicide attempts all predicted the use of methods that disfigure the face and head.
The authors conclude: "To suggest that women are less likely to shoot themselves in the face or head because they are more concerned about their appearance than men is to minimize the significance of the act of suicide. What we do know is that those experiencing stressful life events are at far greater risk of employing an especially lethal method of suicide than those not experiencing such events."
Callanan VJ & Davis MS (2011). Gender and suicide method: do women avoid facial disfiguration? Sex Roles DOI 10.1007/s11199-011-0043-0
The full-text article is available to journalists on request. | <urn:uuid:0a8ea974-7fd1-4905-b5a1-0c264c791183> | {
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“Don’t believe everything you read,” whispers the gentleman in the tartan waistcoat. I am perusing the information panels at Arbroath Abbey, the medieval monastery associated with the most famous document in Scottish history. In April 1320 what became known as the Declaration of Arbroath was sent from here to Pope John XXII. Written (probably) by the Abbot, Bernard, on behalf of nobles who supported the excommunicated king, Robert the Bruce, the letter asserted Scotland’s independence from the England of Edward II. It states: “It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”
These words stir the passions of Scottish patriots. They support the idea that the UK is a mere interval in the sovereign drama of Scottish history, one that may yet end if Scots were to vote Yes in the independence referendum on September 18. They are printed on tea towels that can be bought for £5.50 in the gift shop.
But the furtive employee of the Historic Scotland tourist agency, who insists on anonymity, explains to me that the declaration is more than a proto-nationalist edict. It is an exemplar of crafty diplomacy. “The Pope was the UN of his day,” my whispering guide says. Scots nobles needed to appeal to him to be recognised as independent and Bruce wanted the excommunication lifted so he could end up in heaven.
“It was lobbying,” the man says, adjusting his matching tartan tie. The letter is replete with classical and biblical references to appease the papal ego. It also appeals to the pontiff’s sense of realism. Pope John sought to unite Christians for the Crusades. “It was blackmail,” the guide adds. “The letter says we won’t fight until we’re sovereign.”
The declaration also contains what was a novel caveat from the nobles, one that some historians believe represents a kernel of constitutional democracy. The original is in Latin, so let the tartan whisperer translate: “If the king is rubbish we’ll chuck him out.” The Scottish nobles’ missive says that the monarch would be jettisoned if he did not protect their status. So much for the divine right of kings. This may have been only a monumental bluff but it influenced Thomas Jefferson, among others, according to my new friend.
Sovereignty. Freedom. Politicking. Democracy. Bluff. To think, there are people who believe that Scotland’s independence campaign only began in earnest at Tuesday night’s television debate.
The harbour sage
At Arbroath harbour, near where haddocks are hung and smoked on racks like medieval traitors, I chat to Bill Adam, owner of a local bed and breakfast. Stout and gruff with a faded thistle tattoo on his right forearm, Bill was born near Arbroath in 1951. After a childhood spent in foster and care homes, he escaped to London when he was 17.
Exile has never presented Scots with the existential angst that it gave the Irish. There is no Scottish equivalent of the fiery debate between WB Yeats and James Joyce on whether to stay or go, the embers of which continue to scorch Irish society. From James Boswell to Gordon Brown, Scots in London have often been successful. And these are only the ones you hear about.
When he arrived in the capital, Bill slept in doorways, picking up odd building jobs. After a few years he had made enough money to open a cafe on Drury Lane in the early 1970s, when Covent Garden was still a wholesale market. He used the profits from the cafe to open a nightclub, where he says Elizabeth Hurley once worked. There were ups and downs – failed ventures, bad property deals, the reluctance of wider culture to embrace garage music as the future of sound – but by the turn of the century he had made enough to buy his dream: the terraced house on Arbroath harbour that he and his wife had admired on many summer holidays in the town. Today it is Arbroath’s best B&B.
I ask Bill about independence. “It’s just so complicated,” he sighs. He wants someone to tell him about the economic consequences of his vote.
What about identity, I ask? Should I take his homecoming as a sign of his nationalist sentiment? “I’ve never needed that identity,” Bill says, recounting his rags-to-riches tale. “You don’t need a country to give you your identity – understand that and you’re already independent.”
Remember this harbour sage, I tell myself. In this year of all years, it is worth minding that identity need not come from kin or country. It can, indeed should, come from within. | <urn:uuid:831c27bf-be30-4899-8ead-9a5e5da8667e> | {
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Ready-made organs have been a science fiction fantasy for decades. New “bioartificial” organs, made from plastic that’s seeded with stem cells, are starting to make that futuristic dream a reality. Since the stem cells come from the transplant recipient, the body’s immune system doesn’t reject the artificial organ. Rerouted blood supplies into the artificial organ indicate that the body treats the transplant like regular living tissue—although scar tissue does form around its plastic scaffolding. Scientists have used the stem cell seeding technique to successfully transplant artificial bladders and windpipes into human patients, and they’re now working on growing more complex organs.
View the original article here: A First: Organs Tailor-Made With Body’s Own Cells | <urn:uuid:37ad8c54-ee28-4738-8756-fcdaa9112ee1> | {
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Charity and caring for others—the Jewish concept of “tzedakah”—comes full circle in the story of a big sister who demonstrates generosity to a younger sibling through community outreach.
After she learns about tzedakah at the community center, Dalia comes home and creates a tzedakah box to begin saving for the center’s project. She inserts a dollar from her birthday money and tells her curious little brother, Yossi, that the box holds “a big yellow comforter.” With each new donation to the box earned from her gardening chores and lemonade sales, Dalia adds a butterfly bush and a banana cream pie. Yossi’s confusion grows; how can these things fit in what is essentially a piggy bank? Dalia kindly explains how her money, pooled with the other center participants’, will eventually buy all three for a lonely, homebound elderly woman. In joining his sister, Yossi learns that “Tzedakah means… doing the right things. It means thinking of others and giving them what they need.” Dressen-McQueen’s fully developed summer scenes in acrylic and oil pastel provide a vivid complement to the often–page-filling text, their naive, folk quality bringing great quantities of love and warmth to the tale.
As vivid a demonstration of community as readers are likely to find. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-7) | <urn:uuid:3e293551-147a-43d9-89ee-cd60b5d21051> | {
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- 30th June − 23rd September 2012 | Modern Two, Keiller Library (Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art) | Admission Free
German Expressionism erupted in the early years of the twentieth century and, although short-lived, its focus on personal expression influenced art throughout the century. A broad and diverse movement, its artists were united through common elements in their style and subject matter. They adopted bold colours, stark lines and distorted forms to depict the grittiness of urban life and their personal struggles with spirituality and religion. Perhaps inevitably, depictions of the volatile political situation in Europe and the First World War feature prominently in their paintings and publications.
Collaborative groups emerged, with Die Brücke (The Bridge) forming in Dresden in 1905 and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in Munich in 1911. These groups rejected state-sanctioned academies and exhibiting societies in favour of displaying and publicising their work on their own terms. They frequently adopted the inexpensive medium of woodcuts, drawing on a technique which had been used in Germany since the fifteenth century, and influenced by artists such as Edvard Munch, whose acclaimed prints were exhibited widely in Germany at this time. Woodcuts predominate in the artist books produced in the period, one of the best-known being Oskar Kokoscha’s Die Traümenden knaben (The Dreaming Boys), which can be seen in the central case of this display. German Expressionists also contributed woodcuts and drawings to the many periodicals that appeared in Germany in the first two decades of the twentieth century: artists such as George Grosz and Otto Dix depicted the madness and futility of the First World War and post-war politics in publications such as Der Blutige Ernst (Bloody Serious)and Neue Jugend (New Youth).
The books and periodicals in this display are drawn from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Archive.
This display coincides with the major exhibition Edvard Munch: Graphic Works from the Gundersen Collection currently on show at Modern Two. | <urn:uuid:de617717-1748-4f70-9ef0-c4d7ac33bd2c> | {
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From an historical perspective, dwellings with thatched roofs in Britain were used to house the poorest families; it was the cheapest form of roofing and was often substandard. By comparing early photographs of thatch with those of today, the differences between the condition of the thatch becomes immediately obvious. With social changes during the last 100 year thatch ownership has changed too; with many discerning owners wishing only that their thatch looks as good as the day it was finished, this is an unrealistic and expensive aspiration. Many roofs are re-thatched while they still have a useful life remaining; the tendency is to apply a spar coat when the roof starts to look “untidy”, the reality is that a scruffy roof that is keeping the property warm and dry is fulfilling its intended function. A thatched roof will wear and lose some of the original “chocolate box charm” but for many years after this, it will remain a serviceable roof covering.
Traditional annual patch and repair on a National Trust property. Few owners nowadays want their thatch to look like this, although it would have been the norm a couple of generations ago. | <urn:uuid:a9fe1353-5a95-408a-b216-5e623e65cf05> | {
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A salt marsh has three distinct zones: mud flat, low marsh, and high marsh. The seemingly barren mudflats, exposed only at low tide, teem with creatures like fiddler crabs, mud snails, and marine worms. These invertebrates provide food for the birds, mammals, and fish that live in the marsh. Growing between mid-tide and high-tide is salt marsh cord grass (Spartina alterniflora), the only plant that grows in the low marsh. Spartina has a mutualistic relationship with the fiddler crabs and ribbed mussels that live in the low marsh. Fiddler crab burrows aerate the roots of Spartina, providing essential oxygen to the plants, while the nutrient-rich waste created by mussels provides Spartina with nitrogen. In turn, the Spartina binds the soil, provides a surface to which mussels can attach, and provides shelter and food to the fiddler crabs. Through sediment trapping, and filtering, conversion, and uptake of nutrient, heavy metals and other toxins, the organisms in the low marsh naturally reduce pollution levels in our waters. The high marsh is immersed only in the highest tides of the month (called spring tides), and the plants growing there are less tolerant of salt than Spartina. Salt meadow cord grass (Spartina patens) is the dominant high marsh plant and can be easily identified by the way wind and water swirl its tender stems into ridges that resemble cowlicks. Other high marsh species include spike rush (Eleocharis parvula), salt-grass (Distichlis spicata) and black grass (Juncus gerardii). | <urn:uuid:988b473e-2eba-46e9-a9d4-ad182be58842> | {
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How does gravity work? It keeps my feet on the ground, what do I care. A story about planet Q and W: Imagine planet Q millions of light years away from planet W. Each planet has a core that is positively charged and a moon (negatively charged) that orbits the two planets in a perfectly random way. As planet Q's moon revolves around the core in sends out in all directions a kind of electromagnetic wave going from + to - depending on which way you are recieving it. Meanwhile back at planet W the wave finally reaches it and at this particular time the oriention of planet W's moon to the core relative to the wave polarity tells planet W to repel away. And so it does, but the wave takes a long time to fully pass (about an hour before going +), so in the first half hour planet W moves 2ft in the opposite direction of planet Q, but in the next half hour the distance between planet W and planet Q is now 20 light years + 2 feet and since the distance determines the force planet W will only move 1.9999999999999999999999999 ft in the next half hour, for a total of 4 ft away minus some really minute increment that seems meaningless. Well after the hour is up planet W is now in some arrangement to start moving toward planet Q, and so it begins and in the first half hour moves 2 ft, and the next half hour it is now 20 light years + 2 ft closer to planet Q and the distance is dropping off and so the force is increasing inversely, and it moves 2.0000000000001 ft for a total of 4 ft and some tiny increment that so small it seems to be irrelevant but we now know it's slightly more than when it was decelerating away and so we can be sure that in a few billion billion billion years planet Q and planet W will come together, I came up with a perfectly meaningless experiment to demonstrate the principle of attraction using magnets, the results of the expirment prove nothing, but seem to defy common sense unless the principle of gravity is applied, or maybe just some obvious priciple I don't know of, it can by found in the physics catagory called, "a physics experiment with magnets in motion and a vote pole", give it your guess. The most obvious reason it proves nothing is because magnets are not atoms, but what the have in common is both are charges in motion. Also the web math page that still needs updating is at bottom, and is updated as of 5/26 The way gravity would then fit into the rest of the forces is that the other forces aren't 50/50 but perhaps 90/10 for electromagnetic forces and 99/1 for nuclear forces, the reason gravity would be 50/50 is because the atoms are so far apart they can't influence one another directly but would have to be probabably 10x the radius of the atom away before charge information could pass fast enough to directly influence one another like 51/49 then rapidly falling more into the atomic forces category. Light would not be affected by gravity at 50/50, but it's my guess that something moving at the same speed as charge orientaion information is moving would see virtually nothing, which is why the electron may be able to escape the pull of the proton and become light. If this theory amounts to nothing it ought to at least win crackpot theory of the year. Webpage link: http://users.adelphia.net/~jammieg/html/_sgg/f10000.htm Updated on last post on 7-19-03; this, if a sound hypothesis, is only a principle of attraction, that the main gravitational force comes from this principle applied to the subatomic particles so as to take into account other elements structures that are not diametrically or trimetrically charged as hydrogen or helium. Why don't we call it electrogravimagnetic radiation(you have to say it fast though), I'll bet eventually that's what it will turn out to be when someone proves it. | <urn:uuid:9f4a6b0c-6ce3-4ed6-bd6b-295c013d5799> | {
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Don’t take your anal sex for granted, readers. Despite what the American Constitution may say, not all people, nor their genitals, are created equal. Even before the Constitution – and, in fact, the Declaration of Independence – the thirteen colonies enforced sodomy laws. As the nation grew, so did the sexual policing.
By 1960, all fifty states had either common law or written statutes banning the nebulous “sodomy,” which meant anything from hetero oral sex to homo anal sex, consensual, rape or “unnatural sin,” a perplexing term considering sin’s allegedly natural, right?
Federalism, the division of state and central governments, only further highlighted – and sometimes entrenched – the nation’s congenital sexual inequities. Find out what we mean, after the jump.
The sexual tide started to change even before all the legislative “norms” were set in lawyerly stone. As we mentioned in last week’s edition. of our continuing series, America’s Queer Liberty, the American Law Institute drafted a 1955 Moral Penal Code suggesting states limit libidinal laws. Illinois did just that in 1962, when it became the first state to legislatively repeal sodomy regulations. Idaho attempted to follow suit in 1965, but conservative legislators raised the subject of hell and, well, the law went down like a fallen angel. Things would soon change, however, as revolutionary research gave rise to new carnal theories.
Albert Kinsey and Evelyn Hooker, who wrote 1957’s The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual, both concluded that gays weren’t mentally ill, the prevailing opinion of the backward times. In the aforementioned Adjustment, Hooker wrote, “Homosexuality as a clinical entity does not exist. Its forms are as varied as are those of heterosexuality”. She went on, “Homosexuality may be a deviation in sexual pattern which is within the normal range.” Homosexuality and normal in the same sentence?! Had the world gone nuts? No, not yet, but it would soon enough. And nothing would ever be the same, especially gay sex lives.
Hooker and Kinsey’s research certainly helped the case of The Mattachine Society, a gay rights movement founded by San Francisco-based Harry Hay in 1950. The group grew steadily, splitting and branching out across the nation to root in New York, Washington and Boston. A self-professed “homophile” movement, The Mattachine Society and its offshoots shot to normalize the gay image, a mission they accomplished with a variety of gay publications, such as The Mattachine Review and its lesbianic sister, One. These first fag rags helped spread the good gay word. Rodger Streitmatter writes in Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America: “The magazines gave an oppressed minority a chance to express thoughts…” Hay and other gay allies wanted nothing more than to convince their fellow Americans that they were, in fact, normal. Their message, unfortunately, fell flat. It would be revived, however, in the late 1960s.
Gay America exploded on June 28th, 1969, when queers fought back against police in the infamous Stonewall Rebellion. Transgender activist Sylvia Rivera fondly remembered that fateful night,
I remember someone throwing a Molotov cocktail and I just said to myself in Spanish, ‘Oh, my God, the revolution is finally here’ and I just started screaming freedom, we’re free at last, you know, and it felt really good.
Rivera and her peers coalesced that day. Gone were the anti-political, frightful gays of Harry Hay’s time. So, too, were the moderate politics.
The Gay Liberation Front formed within days of the Stonewall Rebellion. Firmly aligned with America’s leftist movement, the GLF wanted nothing less than to strip America of its restrictive sexual policies. Through their efforts, they hoped, they could launch a full blown revolution unseen since the American Revolution. Their’s would be a corrective to the Constitution’s slanted sins. All men would truly be created equal.
The GLF proved too radical for some members, who went off to form the Gay Activist Alliance. Both groups pushed politicians, clergyman and everyday pedestrians to embrace the movement. Like the Mattachine Society, GFL and GAA published literature and magazines on the movement. Free from their oppressive bonds, however, they were free to engage – and sometimes terrorize – America’s political leaders. In addition to taking on politicians, the GLF and GAA lent their voices to the campaign to change the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association’s respective stances on the gays. For example, On May 14th, 1970, GLF members raided an American Psychiatric Association conference in San Francisco and demanded the good doctor’s change their anti-gay stance. Three years, later, the Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. The American Medical Association also took a stand for gay rights, lashing out at doctors looking to “cure” homosexuality, says David Eisenbach in Gay Power: An American Revolution.
While GLF, GAA and their allies were chipping away at oppression in New York, gay-friendly and gay activists were teaming up to take on individual state sodomy laws. In 1969, the same year as the Stonewall Rebellion, a young, queer reverend named Troy Perry and an activist called Morris Kight put pro-sex pressure on an Assemblyman named Willie Brown – an appropriate name for the case at hand: repealing California’s sodomy laws. Unfortunately for them, a former actor named Ronald Reagan had recently taken office.
A die-hard Republican and Christian, Reagan made it his mission to uphold the Golden State’s abominable prohibitions. Eventually Reagan and his cronies crumbled under new judicial rulings, most of them oral in nature. That is, the laws against oral sex were melting away – and so were Golden voter hearts.
In 1974, California’s citizens voted to expand the state’s lackluster Declaration of Rights to echo the Declaration of Independence’s seminal – and flawed – words,
[A]ll people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.
Queer Californians were included. The bedroom became a safe haven, particularly after the Statutes and Amendments to the Codes of California 1975, which altered the state’s consenting adult laws. Consensual anal or oral sex would soon be totally free and legal in the state of California. Well, not always free, but you get the idea. Dozens of American states were swept away by sodomite madness. Hawaii, Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Oregon and twelve other states reamed their anti-anal edicts.
The national mood shifted toward the end of the 1970s. The GLF fizzled in 1972. The GAA kept growing until 1974, when an arsonist torched their SOHO HQ. It limped on for another few years, but remained largely ineffective. While the GAA crumbled to the ground, their mission sparked new activist flamers: The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Started as a grassroots organization – what wasn’t? – the Task Force unified gay activists to form the nation’s first national gay rights organization. In those first years, the group took on a discriminatory IRS, hateful churches and forced the American Psychiatric Association to change its definition of homosexuality, which it did in 1973. Former executive director Bruce Voeller wrote in a 1976 group newsletter:
[The Task Force’s purpose is] to re-educate society, including its homosexual members, to esteem gay men and women at their full human worth and to accord them places in society which will allow them to attain and contribute according to their full human and social potential.”
They soon began petitioning politicians and other prominent social leaders to adopt the queer cause. Those rabble-rousers even organized a 1977 meeting with President Jimmy Carter – the first time a president had invited gays to the White House. The gays were a force to be reckoned with – and they would soon meet their match with organizations like Christian Voice and its successor, The Moral Majority. Those groups and their effects on America’s queer liberty will become more clear in later chapters.
Frustrated with legislative stonewalling, gay activists and their allies looked for a new arena for their civil rights fight. The sodomy war found a new front – or is it back? – in the nation’s judicial branches. Some states upheld their judge’s rulings. Others, however, refused to concede and fought all the way to the Supreme Court, which often collaborated with conservative states, leaving the liberals unprotected.
In 1975, the United States Supreme Court, packed full of conservative Nixon appointees, including Warren Burger and William Rehnquist, affirmed a lower courts ruling in Doe v. Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Richmond: Virginia’s sodomy laws remained intact. That case laid the foundation for two other cases: the famous 1986 case, Bowers v. Hardwick and the lesser known, but just as important Baker v. Wade of 1985, which upheld Texas’ anti-gay sodomy laws:
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a trial court decision in Baker v. Wade that had invalidated the Texas Homosexual Conduct Law (a sodomy law that outlawed anal and oral sex only for same-sex partners). The 5th Circuit court held that Doe v. Commonwealth‘s Attorney was a binding precedent that could be changed only by the Supreme Court.
Doe would get another go with Hardwick, a case that would completely discredit the Declaration of Independence and America’s illusory liberty.
It all started in 1982 when a cop entered Michael Hardwick’s Georgia home, caught him and a pal sucking each other off and promptly arrested the not-so-ambiguous gay duo. The district attorney didn’t pursue the case, but Hardwick fought back by suing Georgia Attorney General Michael Bowers. Bowers bit back and the boys duked it out all the way to Washington, where Justice White delivered an opinion it thus:
Respondent then brought suit in the Federal District Court, challenging the constitutionality of the statute insofar as it criminalized consensual sodomy. He asserted that he was a practicing homosexual, that the Georgia sodomy statute, as administered by the defendants, placed him in imminent danger of arrest, and that the statute for several reasons violates the Federal Constitution.
The issue presented is whether the Federal Constitution confers a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy and hence invalidates the laws of the many States that still make such conduct illegal and have done so for a very long time.
Federal laws and state laws were pitted against one another. The rule of law had to rule on itself. And guess what – it lost. The Supreme Court voted 5-4 that the United States Constitution does not guarantee gays to life, liberty and the pursuit of sexual happiness. There were no privacy laws when it came to gay sex.
Chief Justice Burger, who would retire later in the year, wrote in his concurring personal opinion:
I join the Court’s opinion, but I write separately to underscore my view that, in constitutional terms, there is no such thing as a fundamental right to commit homosexual sodomy.
The ruling recalls liberalism’s greatest and most contradictory tenet: laws make man free. With no law saying gays can freely fuck, they don’t necessarily have the right.
The Hardwick ruling set back the push for a national repeal, but only energized the state-centric movements. Working on a small scale, gay activists pressed a number of states to dismantle their regulations. One of the most successful examples comes from Kentucky. In Kentucky v. Watson, the Blue Grass government fought to prosecute Jeffrey Wasson for inviting an undercover cop to a little consensual anal sex. In a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling, the judges upheld Wasson’s equal protection under the law and, more importantly, right to privacy.
Privacy also played a critical role in Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 Supreme Court case striking down the anti-gay Texas law upheld in Baker v. Wade. Ruling in favor of John Geddes Lawrence, who coppers caught having consensual anal sex in house, The Supreme Court, overturned Bowers v. Hardwick, the 1986 case upholding Georgia’s sodomy laws. Delivering the justice’s judgment, Justice Kennedy wrote,
The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government… The Texas statute furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual.
The 6-3 ruling struck a symbolic blow against America’s sodomy laws. No state could legally, constitutionally prosecute a man or woman for consensual anal or oral sex. In theory, at least. And, as we’ve seen throughout this series, theories rarely hold up.
Troy Perry, MCC’s founder who helped overturn California’s sodomy law lauded Lawrence, describing it as “the most significant victory for gay and lesbian rights in my lifetime”. Unfortunately, not all of America’s sodomy laws fell to the judicial sword. Virginia, Oklahoma, North Carolina and the Military all maintain sexually-minded legislation. And often try to enforce them, as Oklahoma recently attempted in a case against a homophobic pastor.
Clearly something isn’t quite right here in the U.S. of A: ours to be the most democratic, liberal nation in the world, largely due to its federalist structure. That structure obviously doesn’t hold up. And not only when it comes to doing the dirty. The United Parcel Service, more commonly known as UPS, recently denied New Jersey gay couples the same benefits afforded straights.
In a letter to one worker, the courier justified disavowing New Jersey’s domestic partnership rights: “New Jersey law does not treat civil unions the same as marriages.” As an international company, UPS is not required to abide by state laws, but by federal laws. America’s misguided, mismanaged federalism does not ensure the equal rights afforded by the Federal Constitution. The constitution and rule of law are exceedingly complex political and legislative mechanisms. That said, federalism’s hardly the only mechanism hindering America’s liberal promise.
Many more American political traditions threaten our Constitutional rights, including our – shocker! – plurality voting system. As we’ll see next week, One Man, One Vote not only hinders political debate, it helps the Christian right trample our rights. | <urn:uuid:3e222c27-f665-4daa-b0ec-b12ffd5e6725> | {
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Black spinel, also known as "Pleonast," is the black version of spinel, a gemstone that comes in a variety of colors. Black spinel is opaque and lustrous, and is often used as a black gemstone.Continue Reading
Black spinel is one of the rarest spinels, according to Zales' gemstone information page. Black spinel is said to be a protective stone which assists in re-establishing relationships and easing issues. It is also believed to help with sadness. Spinels are rated at eight on Moh's Scale of Hardness, which measures gemstone durability. As a level eight, spinels are considered very durable and suited for everyday wear.
According to Minerals.net, pure spinel is colorless, and impurities are responsible for the wide range of colors of spinel available. In addition to black, spinel also comes in deep red, blue, yellow, pink, orange and purple varieties. Deep red is considered the most valuable color of spinel, due to it's similarity in appearance to a ruby. Because ruby and red spinel are nearly identical and found in the same areas, there was no distinction between the two gemstones until the late 19th century. Many famous "rubies" have been discovered to be spinel, including the large "ruby" which forms the centerpiece of the royal crown of England.Learn more about Precious Metals & Gems | <urn:uuid:89ecd4fb-c53a-4fa1-ac37-1e698eabbfd7> | {
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Elements that make up a basic letter of agreement include the names of both parties, payments, contact information, signing date and due date for payments. Other elements include the validity of the agreement, penalty clause and termination clause. The type of agreement determines the specific details of the agreement letter.Continue Reading
A letter of agreement is a written and signed document between two or more parties agreeing on something that is beneficial to all. It can be services, goods or space and it becomes a binding contract when all the parties sign it. It ensures that there are harmony and understanding in observations and opinions of involved parties.
Before signing the agreement, it is wise to ensure that it is correctly worded. In some cases, parties seek the help of a lawyer to craft the agreement. In this case, the lawyer signs the agreement too. The author of the agreement should write all proof points clearly, leaving no loopholes. In addition, all parties should agree on the points written on the form. Additionally, both parties should agree on the which state's laws will dictate the agreement.
Parties may use the letter of agreement to start or end negotiations. In some situations, it can take the place of a formal business contract to create the terms of a working relationship between the parties involved.Learn more about Business Communications | <urn:uuid:c819ed7f-cc2a-47ba-ac73-88617ad5b26f> | {
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Lutein provides benefits such as improving symptoms of macular degeneration and reducing the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, states WebMD. Additionally, research demonstrates that lutein can reduce the risk of developing cataracts, and if taken consistently, can improve vision in older people with cataracts.Continue Reading
Lutein provides antioxidant benefits for the eyes and protects the eyes from the damaging effects of free radicals. Lutein is a necessary dietary component for normal vision, and the retinas of the eyes have a high concentration of lutein in them. Consuming a diet that contains high amounts of lutein may also protect against cardiovascular disease. At least one research study demonstrated that people with increased blood levels of antioxidants including lutein had healthier blood vessels, according to Shereen Lehman for About.com.
A sufficient level of lutein is generally obtained through a diet high in green-, orange- and yellow-colored fruits and vegetables. Lutein is a carotenoid found in plants such as carrots, squash, corn, kale and spinach, and eggs yolks provide an animal source of lutein. Dietary supplements can provide a source of lutein, although plant sources of lutein may provide more cardiovascular benefits to the body, reports Lehman. However, supplements containing lutein may provide vision benefits.Learn more about Vitamins & Supplements | <urn:uuid:895e242e-cf43-4858-a62b-0650b18e7704> | {
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If someone pours salt water on a plant that is supposed to receive fresh water, the effects on the plant are swift and severe, beginning with the draining of existing water out of the plant cell. Then, the cell membrane separates from the cell wall in a process known as plasmolysis. Ultimately, the plant shrivels up and no longer thrives.Continue Reading
Ocean plants are prepared for the influx of salt, as their cell membrane permits the salt in, gathering it in the vacuole of the cell. Then salt concentration can go up even higher than that of the surrounding water, and the cells do not go through plasmolysis. There is just one gene that makes the difference between causing plasmolysis and accepting the salt, and scientists have experimented with fresh water plants by adding that gene to their makeup. After that adjustment, the new plants were tolerant of salt water.
In freshwater plants, though, the membrane holds the salt out, while the water comes into the cell. Unfortunately, this is harmful for the cell wall, which is what causes the plant to start to die. There is no way to reverse plasmolysis once it begins, so knowing which water to use is crucial for the health of plants.Learn more about Houseplants | <urn:uuid:b2afd7b2-01f7-4492-9820-78eb16f72b51> | {
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Homemade dishwasher detergent is made by mixing one cup of washing soda, one cup of borax, one-half cup of kosher salt and one-half cup of citric acid. One tablespoon of the mixture should be used in each load of dishes, making sure to store the rest in a tightly closed container between uses. Distilled white vinegar can also be used in the rinse dispenser to improve cleaning.Continue Reading
Homemade dishwasher detergent is friendly on the environment and costs as little as a penny a load to make. It also removes grease well and leaves dishes shiny when used with vinegar. It is even safe for delicate or vintage dishes.
Washing soda, also known as sodium carbonate, is a natural substance made from salt and limestone. Because of its usefulness at cutting grease, it can be used for other cleaning projects around the home. Arm and Hammer is one major producer of washing soda in the United States. Borax also occurs naturally and can be mined or produced in a lab. It can be found near laundry detergent in stores. In concentrated amounts, it can be toxic and should kept where children cannot reach it. The final ingredients, kosher salt and citric acid, are also natural. Citric acid can be obtained by using unsweetened lemonade packets or by using food grade citric acid, such as Fruit Fresh.Learn more about Cleaning Products | <urn:uuid:fce47218-4a0e-4286-a4c2-16e8ab9c1167> | {
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The following are three complex fractions that simplify to one over four: one-fourth over one, one-sixteenth over one-fourth and one over sixteen-fourths. Any complex fraction where the denominator is four times the numerator simplifies to one over four.Continue Reading
A complex fraction is a fraction where the numerator, the denominator or both are fractions. To simplify a complex fraction, you must find the least common denominator of the numerator and denominator of the complex fraction. If a whole number appears in the complex fraction, its implied denominator is one. Multiply the numerator and denominator of the complex fraction by the least common denominator.
Simplify any fractions that appear in the resulting complex fraction by dividing their numerator and denominator by the largest number that divides evenly into both. If the numerator and denominator of the complex fraction each reduce to a whole number, simplify the result if possible.Learn more about Fractions & Percentages | <urn:uuid:a3e6bb25-5a9a-4f79-bb06-372b8dac8d8b> | {
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Electrical fires are typically caused by poor wiring, faulty contacts, overloaded circuits or short circuits. Although newer homes have circuit breakers in place to shut down overloaded circuits, they can fail to activate before a fire starts. Therefore, it's important to be safe when installing and designing electrical circuits.Continue Reading
When electricity travels through wire, it creates heat via friction from electrons traveling along the wire. Wire that is designed to carry higher amounts of current is thicker for this reason; it can accommodate more electrons. If there is too much resistance in a wire, it can create enough heat to ignite surrounding material, such as the insulation.
Unsteady or loose electrical contacts pose a similar risk. If there is inadequate space for electrons to flow, they generate excess heat. This is why appliances should be completely plugged in and the wires inspected and tested regularly.
Overloaded circuits or outlets also can cause an electrical fire if failsafes are not present or don't activate in time. Each electrical circuit in a building is designed to carry a set amount of current. Exceeding this by turning on too many appliances at once can lead to overheating sufficient to start a fire before the electricity is shut off.Learn more about Electricity | <urn:uuid:b5af3148-2b55-4d98-9264-b5bcc5bbaa12> | {
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An article entitled “The Burden of Suboptimal Breastfeeding in the United States: A Pediatric Cost Analysis,” by Bartick and Reinhold, was published in Pediatrics 2010 April 5. According to this news report, it showed that 900 babies’ lives and billions of dollars could be saved every year in the U.S. if we could get 90% of mothers to breastfeed for at least 6 months. It says breastfeeding has been shown to reduce the risk of stomach viruses, ear infections, asthma, juvenile diabetes, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and even childhood leukemia.
This new study did not provide any new evidence. It simply took risk ratios from a three year old government report, extrapolated, and estimated the costs. | <urn:uuid:9c0b0138-b708-4c1b-a416-f9301f89e510> | {
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Investigations into coral disease, red tides and other marine environmental issues have led to discoveries of new chemicals as a source for pharmaceuticals. These chemicals function as antibiotics for microorganism providing survival advantages and may be usable in human health care.
Research by scientists from NOAA's National Ocean Service, The Medical University of South Carolina and North Carolina State University has found several compounds which exhibit very strong antibiotic, antifungal, and antiviral potential as well as some anti-cancer and angiogenesis activities. The research into coral disease has resulted in thousands of new bacterial isolates producing highly selective antimicrobial compounds yielding highly selective small peptide antibiotics.
Many of these novel antibiotics are advantageous, as they demonstrate no cytotoxic responses to human cells and may minimize negative side effects associated with those drugs in current usage. The researchers have yet to find a "known" resistant bacteria that cannot be made re-susceptible to current generation antibiotics, offering extended use of current drugs. We believe that one could apply many of these chemical mechanisms or novel pharmaceuticals to human disease resulting in a number of alternatives to deal with growing antibiotic resistance.
Observations from the sponge Agelas conifera's ability to protect itself against fouling and disease have led to the discovery of ageliferin derivatives that demonstrate very strong anti-biofilm activity. Compounds with this specific activity hold promise to increase the efficacy of current and out of use antibiotics because of their ability to inhibit and/or disperse the protective layer that infectious agents often produce to protect themselves. Such compounds are also finding potential use in other areas of human health as well, including cystic fibrosis, chemo-therapy, anti-fungal agents, and for use in medical stints and prosthetics.
Marine natural products hold much promise in combating both the trend of antibiotic resistance but also to discover new antibiotics. The one-two punch of discovering new antibiotics as well as novel chemicals that make older generation drugs more effective represents cutting edge science addressing a critical need in human health care.
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Caltech astronomers have taken unprecedented images of the intergalactic medium (IGM) -- the diffuse gas that connects galaxies throughout the universe -- with the Cosmic Web Imager, an instrument designed and built at Caltech. Until now, the structure of the IGM has mostly been a matter for theoretical speculation. However, with observations from the Cosmic Web Imager, deployed on the Hale 200-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory, astronomers are obtaining our first three-dimensional pictures of the IGM. The Cosmic Web Imager will make possible a new understanding of galactic and intergalactic dynamics, and it has already detected one possible spiral-galaxy-in-the-making that is three times the size of our Milky Way.
The Cosmic Web Imager was conceived and developed by Caltech professor of physics Christopher Martin. "I've been thinking about the intergalactic medium since I was a graduate student," says Martin. "Not only does it comprise most of the normal matter in the universe, it is also the medium in which galaxies form and grow."
Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, theoreticians have predicted that primordial gas from the Big Bang is not spread uniformly throughout space, but is instead distributed in channels that span galaxies and flow between them. This "cosmic web" -- the IGM -- is a network of smaller and larger filaments crisscrossing one another across the vastness of space and back through time to an era when galaxies were first forming and stars were being produced at a rapid rate.
Martin describes the diffuse gas of the IGM as "dim matter," to distinguish it from the bright matter of stars and galaxies, and the dark matter and energy that compose most of the universe. Though you might not think so on a bright sunny day or even a starlit night, fully 96 percent of the mass and energy in the universe is dark energy and dark matter (first inferred by Caltech's Fritz Zwicky in the 1930s), whose existence we know of only due to its effects on the remaining 4 percent that we can see: normal matter. Of this 4 percent that is normal matter, only one-quarter is made up of stars and galaxies, the bright objects that light our night sky. The remainder, which amounts to only about 3 percent of everything in the universe, is the IGM.
As Martin's name for the IGM suggests, "dim matter" is hard to see. Prior to the development of the Cosmic Web Imager, the IGM was observed primarily via foreground absorption of light -- indicating the presence of matter -- occurring between Earth and a distant object such as a quasar (the nucleus of a young galaxy).
"When you look at the gas between us and a quasar, you have only one line of sight," explains Martin. "You know that there's some gas farther away, there's some gas closer in, and there's some gas in the middle, but there's no information about how that gas is distributed across three dimensions."
Matt Matuszewski, a former graduate student at Caltech who helped to build the Cosmic Web Imager and is now an instrument scientist at Caltech, likens this line-of-sight view to observing a complex cityscape through a few narrow slits in a wall: "All you would know is that there is some concrete, windows, metal, pavement, maybe an occasional flash of color. Only by opening the slit can you see that there are buildings and skyscrapers and roads and bridges and cars and people walking the streets. Only by taking a picture can you understand how all these components fit together, and know that you are looking at a city."
Martin and his team have now seen the first glimpse of the city of dim matter. It is not full of skyscrapers and bridges, but it is both visually and scientifically exciting.
The first cosmic filaments observed by the Cosmic Web Imager are in the vicinity of two very bright objects: a quasar labeled QSO 1549+19 and a so-called Lyman alpha blob in an emerging galaxy cluster known as SSA22. These objects were chosen by Martin for initial observations because they are bright, lighting up the surrounding IGM and boosting its detectable signal.
Observations show a narrow filament, one million light-years long, flowing into the quasar, perhaps fueling the growth of the galaxy that hosts the quasar. Meanwhile, there are three filaments surrounding the Lyman alpha blob, with a measured spin that shows that the gas from these filaments is flowing into the blob and affecting its dynamics.
The Cosmic Web Imager is a spectrographic imager, taking pictures at many different wavelengths simultaneously. This is a powerful technique for investigating astronomical objects, as it makes it possible to not only see these objects but to learn about their composition, mass, and velocity. Under the conditions expected for cosmic web filaments, hydrogen is the dominant element and emits light at a specific ultraviolet wavelength called Lyman alpha. Earth's atmosphere blocks light at ultraviolet wavelengths, so one needs to be outside Earth's atmosphere, observing from a satellite or a high-altitude balloon, to observe the Lyman alpha signal.
However, if the Lyman alpha emission lies much further away from us -- that is, it comes to us from an earlier time in the universe -- then it arrives at a longer wavelength (a phenomenon known as redshifting). This brings the Lyman alpha signal into the visible spectrum such that it can pass through the atmosphere and be detected by ground-based telescopes like the Cosmic Web Imager.
The objects the Cosmic Web Imager has observed date to approximately 2 billion years after the Big Bang, a time of rapid star formation in galaxies. "In the case of the Lyman alpha blob," says Martin, "I think we're looking at a giant protogalactic disk. It's almost 300,000 light-years in diameter, three times the size of the Milky Way."
The Cosmic Web Imager was funded by grants from the NSF and Caltech. Having successfully deployed the instrument at the Palomar Observatory, Martin's group is now developing a more sensitive and versatile version of the Cosmic Web Imager for use at the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. "The gaseous filaments and structures we see around the quasar and the Lyman alpha blob are unusually bright. Our goal is to eventually be able to see the average intergalactic medium everywhere. It's harder, but we'll get there," says Martin.
Plans are also under way for observations of the IGM from a telescope aboard a high-altitude balloon, FIREBALL (Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon); and from a satellite, ISTOS (Imaging Spectroscopic Telescope for Origins Surveys). By virtue of bypassing most, if not all, of our atmosphere, both instruments will enable observations of Lyman alpha emission -- and therefore the IGM -- that are closer to us; that is, that are from more recent epochs of the universe.
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Perfectly preserved 300-year-old broom found in monk latrine
Kristen Allen · 27 May 2009, 17:13
Published: 27 May 2009 17:13 GMT+02:00
Archaeologists from the Westphalia-Lippe regional authority had just finished excavating an area under the St. Ulrich Church monastery for a new underground parking facility, when one of the construction workers detected a pungent smell.
The men had unearthed the contents of a latrine dating from the 1700s, but the church building itself dates back to before 1200.
“The contents were preserved because the area was air-tight,” Spiong said.
While searching through the moist organic material, the excavation team found several ordinary objects that wouldn’t normally survive for centuries.
“It was really exciting,” Spiong, who has been Paderborn’s city archaeologist since 2003, told The Local. “This is the oldest broom ever found in the region. Natural materials like leather and wood usually don’t survive the elements.”
The 25-centimetre twig broom bound with bast fibre, along with several other objects like a spindle, a wooden bobbin, hazelnut shells and cherry pits will be sent to the regional conservation centre in Münster on Thursday.
Spiong said he hopes the objects will go on display at the St. Ulrich Church, or the Gaukirche, but said they may also find a place in the local archaeology museum.
Regional archaeology spokeswoman Stefanie Mosch told The Local that ordinary objects provide a special window into everyday life in the past.
“It’s fascinating to see that they used practically the same brooms we use today,” she said. | <urn:uuid:91d0bcfb-85a8-4f1e-b510-ac98412bbcf0> | {
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from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A widely cultivated tropical Asian plant (Colocasia esculenta) having broad peltate leaves and a large starchy edible tuber.
- n. The tuber of this plant.
- n. A similar plant of the genus Xanthosoma.
- n. The large starchy tuber of this plant. Also called cocoyam.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. Colocasia esculenta, raised as a food primarily for its corm, which distantly resembles potato.
- n. Any of several other species with similar corms and growth habit in Colocasia, Alocasia etc.
- n. Food from a taro plant.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A name for several aroid plants (Colocasia antiquorum, var. esculenta, Colocasia macrorhiza, etc.), and their rootstocks. They have large ovate-sagittate leaves and large fleshy tuberous rootstocks, which are cooked and used for food in tropical countries.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A gold coin of the Arab emirs of Sicily of the tenth and eleventh centuries; of the Lombard dukes of the seventh century; of the Two Sicilies under Norman rule in the fourth century; of Amalfi in the eleventh century.
- n. A food-plant, Colocasia antiquorum, especially the variety esculenta, a native of India, but widely cultivated in the warmer parts of the globe, particularly in the Pacific islands.
- n. A money of account and coin of silver, and also of copper, formerly used in Malta under the Grand Masters.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. herb of the Pacific islands grown throughout the tropics for its edible root and in temperate areas as an ornamental for its large glossy leaves
- n. edible starchy tuberous root of taro plants
- n. tropical starchy tuberous root
Querétaro is a gem, worth a couple of night's visit.
The state capital of Querétaro, is a wonderful city.
Bernal, Querétaro is a delightfully charming 16th century colonial village, whose buildings are painted in the colors of a Mexican sunset - ocher, soft yellow, sienna, rich orange and dusty rose.
Tupátaro is about 4 kilometers south of the major divided highway (federal highway 14) that links the town of Patzcuaro to the city of Morelia, the state capital of Michoacán.
The side road to Tupátaro is signposted about 50 kilometers west of Morelia or 15 kilometers east of Pátzcuaro.
Contenido for November of 2006 says on page 142: "The small village of Bernal, a little more than 50 kilometers from the city of Querétaro, is outstanding not only for its tourist attractions, but because many of its inhabitants live to be 100 years old, probably from inherited genes, in addition to the tranquil life style and their healthful eating habits."
Querétaro is a prime location for such a center given its rapid growth (more than 5% annually) in industry and services over the past few years.
Served by the locals, the carrots are enveloped in taro leaves; however, the dish may be successfully prepared using spinach leaves instead.
Vidriera de Querétaro is investing 21 million dollars to increase the capacity of its bottle-manufacturing plant from 150 million containers a month to 165 million a month.
The taro, which is carefully cultivated, averages two or three feet high, and has fine large leaves and tubers like those of the potato, but not so good when roasted. | <urn:uuid:1e07f50d-c05b-419c-ad55-0a505b28dbc9> | {
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Modern cars use electronic systems to ensure that the steering wheel locks in place when the key is out of the ignition, and to prevent the key from coming out of the ignition in any gear but park. However, older cars used a mechanical solution called a steering column lock actuator. This was actually a collection of levers and a rod.
If you drive a car manufactured prior to the 1990s, then chances are good that it has a steering column actuator. Essentially, this is a series of levers that is engaged when the ignition key was turned. The levers would move a rod, which would lock the key into position. The key could not be removed, which provided important safety benefits.
Obviously, mechanical steering column actuators are subject to a lot of wear and tear. They’re used every time you turn the ignition key. Because they’re mechanical, there’s the potential for wear to eventually damage the levers or the rod. Rod damage is probably the most common problem. This is particularly true if the actuator system’s lubricant wears off (which is very common, particularly with work trucks and heavily-driven vehicles). When the end of the actuator rod sustains damage, the car might not start, or the key might come out of the ignition in any gear.
While mechanical steering column actuators are rarer than they once were, they’re still in use by some vehicles. Given the importance of this component, you should know a few symptoms to watch for that indicate the actuator is about to fail (or has already failed). These include the following:
- There is no resistance when you turn the ignition key
- The engine doesn’t crank when you turn the key (many other problems also have this as a symptom)
- The key can be removed from the ignition in a gear other than park
If you’re experiencing any of these problems, or you find that your car won’t crank for any reason, you should have the car checked. Have a certified mechanic replace the steering column actuator if necessary, as well as repair any other problem. | <urn:uuid:1f25a121-a636-4200-890a-78905b18f7b9> | {
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May 1st – The National Day of Prayer
May 1st is the National Day of Prayer.
Throughout this Nation’s history, Presidents have called for a ‘Day of Prayer’, but it wasn’t until 1952 that a joint resolution went before the United States Congress and was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman.
The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the nation.
Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it. – Thomas Jefferson, 1808
The Supreme Court affirmed the right of state legislatures to open their sessions with prayer in Marsh vs. Chambers (1983). | <urn:uuid:b49ab6dc-d370-4ca2-8e9f-e68cb46ea4de> | {
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1846: Bohemian crisis when Russia stations troops there. Germany, Sweden ally with New Rome against Russia.
The Anti-Russian War was fought during 1848-52 by the allied Germanies, Sweden, Canada, the Rum-Seljuks and New Rome. Although the population of the two Russias was higher than all its opponents combined, they soon faced themselves in trouble: After their standing armies were defeated by their opponents armed with the modern needle guns, it took a long time to arm, train and transport new soldiers to the front. Being cut off from imports, their soldiers were badly equipped. One century ago the Telegraph made Russia the most progressed nation on Earth, now the Chunkvophiles in the government who only thought about stability couldn't handle a war against industrialized nations. Unrests among the peasants and the occupied nations (Poland, Choresm) finally tipped the balance against Russia.
During the war, Socialist Britain sold arms to the allies, making a lot of money.
The war detailed
(It can be generally said, since the coalition powers didn't have a united command, that New Rome and the Seljuks did the fighting against South Russia and its Orthodox Balkan allies, while everyone else fought mainly against Novorossiya.)
1848, August: German-Swedish navies defeat Novorossiyan Baltic fleet.
1848, September: New Roman spies infiltrate the "Empty Circle", i.e. the area between Rockies and Sierra Nevada, Snake river and Colorado river, which Novorossiya claims. In practice, the area is home for a lot of communities - surviving Atlantean nations, sects, fled slaves and so on.
1848, October: Germans have conquered all of Bohemia and Moravia, except for the Russian garrison of Prague.
1848, November: In the cavalry battle of Nagykörös, New Romans defeat the Russians. Hungary west of the Danube is liberated.
1848, December: Seljuks march into Pontic lands occupied by South Russia.
Winter of 1848/49: Northern Finland liberated.
1849, January: Canadian skiing troops score their first major victory against Russian near OTL Fairweather Lake.
1849, April: Battle of Inowroclaw; with the help of uprising Poles, Germans throw Russian occupation army behind the Vistula.
In the battle of Medjugorje, the Serbs and Bosnians can stop the New Romans, using the difficult territory for their advantage. Emperor Benedetto decides to rather seek for the decision in Hungary, leaves Russia's satellites on the Balkan alone.
1849, May: Germans and Poles cross the Vistula at Sandomierz.
1849, July: Battle of Chelm. United armies of South Russia and Novorossiya beaten, have to retreat behind Bug river.
1849, August: Germans cross the Vistula, going into Prussia.
1849, September: Swedes take Tampere.
1849, October: German troops have reached Memel / Nyemen river.
1850, January: Battle of Drevesina (OTL Boise, Idaho).
1850, March: Battle of Békéscsaba. New Roman troops start reconquest of eastern Hungary.
1850, March: Germans start to besiege Riga.
1850, September: New Romans take Khust (Carpatho-Ukraine), concluding their conquest of Hungary.
1850: After the liberation of Prussia and Poland, the German politicians decide to strike at Russia's heart, driven by their wish for revenge. Emperor Benedetto whose troops just conquered Eger is surprised to hear they don't want to make peace.
1851, May: German-Polish-Czech troops take Minsk.
1851, August: Vanhakaupunki (OTL Helsinki) taken by Swedes.
1851, November: German main army destroyed (with help by general winter) at the little city of Moscow. The front has to be taken back behind Lake Peipus and the former east border of Prussia.
1852, February: Canadian commander Jacob Andrews (later president) manages to land on Vancouver island at night, the first step to conquer it.
Peace and aftermath
1852, May: In the peace of Constantinople, Prussia, Poland, and Greater Bohemia change into the German sphere of influence. Hungary becomes a satellite of New Rome. Seljuks take Pontus and Thrace back. The thinly settled hinterland of Russian Atlantis goes to Canada (which gains access to the Pacific) and German Atlantis, the Empty Circle (the lands between Snake river, Colorado river, Sierra Nevada and Rockies - about OTL Utah and Nevada) to New Rome. Finland and Estonia become Swedish again.
(Sorry if this sounds like anti-Russian wank. True, the coalition had better weapons like the needle gun, and fought an opponent, but still. In reality, the Russians will have won the one or other little battle not mentioned here - and the winners probably will prefer to stay silent too.)
1850s: After the humiliating defeat, Russia decides to modernize, building railroads and factories. | <urn:uuid:aaadb187-6e4a-4081-a5e9-e53f34f18e48> | {
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FLORENCE — A pyramid of mortared cobblestones sits atop Poston’s Butte just south of Florence. It was built in memory of Charles Poston, a freethinker often called “the Father of Arizona.”
Poston was appointed as one of Arizona’s first members of Congress and was politically influential in the state’s early years. He lost the following election and returned to Arizona to serve in a variety of political offices. But his popularity declined when he proposed building a temple to worship the sun. He was poverty-stricken when he died in 1902. His body was initially interred in a paupers’ field in Phoenix, then was reburied under the pyramid on the site of his proposed temple. | <urn:uuid:10bc3f4b-068b-46f2-b548-abd26b26c30a> | {
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary1. (imp. & p. p.) of Measure.
Greek4620. sitometrion -- a measured portion of food
... a measured portion of food. Part of Speech: Noun, Neuter Transliteration: sitometrion
Phonetic Spelling: (sit-om'-et-ron) Short Definition: a measured portion ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/4620.htm - 6k
488. antimetreo -- to measure in return
3354. metreo -- to measure, measure out
3356. metriopatheo -- to hold one's emotions in restraint
4051. perisseuma -- superfluity
823. atomos -- uncut, indivisible, (an indivisible) moment (of ...
2583. kanon -- a rule, standard
Strong's Hebrew4058. madad -- to measure
... 4057b, 4058. madad. 4059 . to measure. Transliteration: madad Phonetic Spelling:
(maw-dad') Short Definition: measured. Word Origin a prim. ...
/hebrew/4058.htm - 6k
4060. middah -- measure, measurement, stature, size, a garment
4055. mad -- a measure, cloth garment
4488. maneh -- maneh, mina (a measure of weight or money)
4063. madu -- a garment
5437. sabab -- to turn about, go around, surround
2256. chebel -- cord, territory, band
829. eshpar -- perhaps cake or roll
Times are Measured in Proportion as they Pass By.
How Time May be Measured.
Time Can Only be Perceived or Measured While it is Passing.
The Reason Why Learned Men have not Exactly Measured the Faculties ...
To the Severity of God There Belong Accessory Qualities ...
Courage, My Mind, and Press on Mightily. ...
Whether There is Only one Aeviternity?
Whether in Loving God we Ought to Observe any Mode?
Whether Love to God Ought to have a Mode
The Difference of Aeviternity and Time
ThesaurusMeasured (91 Occurrences)
... 2. (a.) Regulated or determined by a standard; hence, equal; uniform; graduated;
limited; moderated; as, he walked with measured steps; he expressed himself in ...
/m/measured.htm - 35k
Jambs (19 Occurrences)
Reeds (27 Occurrences)
Measuring-reed (6 Occurrences)
Measuring (42 Occurrences)
Nave (19 Occurrences)
Measurements (20 Occurrences)
Mete (7 Occurrences)
Vestibule (36 Occurrences)
Faced (32 Occurrences)
Bible ConcordanceMeasured (91 Occurrences)
Matthew 7:2 For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
Mark 4:24 He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you who hear.
Luke 6:38 "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you."
2 Corinthians 10:15 not boasting of the things not measured, in other men's labours, and having hope -- your faith increasing -- in you to be enlarged, according to our line -- into abundance,
Ephesians 4:7 Yet to each of us individually grace was given, measured out with the munificence of Christ.
Revelation 21:16 The city lies foursquare, and its length is as great as its breadth. He measured the city with the reed, Twelve thousand twelve stadia. Its length, breadth, and height are equal.
Revelation 21:17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
Genesis 41:49 So he got together a store of grain like the sand of the sea; so great a store that after a time he gave up measuring it, for it might not be measured.
Exodus 16:18 When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.
Exodus 30:24 And of cassia, five hundred shekels' weight measured by the scale of the holy place, and of olive oil a hin:
Leviticus 26:26 When I take away your bread of life, ten women will be cooking bread in one oven, and your bread will be measured out by weight; you will have food but never enough.
Numbers 35:5 And ye have measured from the outside of the city, the east quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the south quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the west quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the north quarter, two thousand by the cubit; and the city 'is' in the midst; this is to them the suburbs of the cities.
Deuteronomy 3:11 (For Og, king of Bashan, was the last of all the Rephaim; his bed was made of iron; is it not in Rabbah, in the land of the children of Ammon? It was nine cubits long and four cubits wide, measured by the common cubit.)
Deuteronomy 21:2 Then your responsible men and your judges are to come out, and give orders for the distance from the dead body to the towns round about it to be measured;
Ruth 3:15 He said, "Bring the mantle that is on you, and hold it." She held it; and he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her; and he went into the city.
2 Samuel 8:2 He struck Moab, and measured them with the line, making them to lie down on the ground; and he measured two lines to put to death, and one full line to keep alive. The Moabites became servants to David, and brought tribute.
1 Kings 6:25 And the other cherub was ten cubits; both the cherubim were of one measure and one form.
1 Kings 7:15 For he fashioned the two pillars of brass, eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits encircled either of them about.
1 Kings 7:31 The mouth of it within the capital and above was a cubit: and its mouth was round after the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its mouth were engravings, and their panels were foursquare, not round.
1 Kings 7:38 And he made ten brass washing-vessels, everyone taking forty baths, and measuring four cubits; one vessel was placed on every one of the ten bases.
1 Kings 7:47 The weight of all these vessels was not measured, because there was such a number of them; it was not possible to get the weight of the brass.
2 Kings 12:11 And the money which was measured out they gave regularly to those who were responsible for overseeing the work, and these gave it in payment to the woodworkers and the builders who were working on the house of the Lord,
1 Chronicles 16:18 Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the measured line of your heritage:
1 Chronicles 22:3 And he got together a great store of iron, for the nails for the doors and for the joins; and brass, more in weight than might be measured;
1 Chronicles 22:14 Now see, poor though I am, I have got ready for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold and a million talents of silver; and a weight of brass and iron greater than may be measured; and wood and stone have I made ready, and you may put more to it.
2 Chronicles 4:18 So Solomon made all these vessels, a very great store of them, and the weight of the brass used was not measured.
Ezra 8:33 And on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the vessels were measured out by weight in the house of our God into the hands of Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the priest; and with him was Eleazar, the son of Phinehas; and with them were Jozabad, the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, the son of Binnui, the Levites;
Job 6:2 If only my passion might be measured, and put into the scales against my trouble!
Job 7:4 If I lay down then I said, 'When do I rise!' And evening hath been measured, And I have been full of tossings till dawn.
Job 28:25 When He maketh a weight for the wind, and meteth out the waters by measure.
Job 31:6 (Let me be measured in upright scales, and let God see my righteousness:)
Job 31:11 For that would be a crime; it would be an act for which punishment would be measured out by the judges:
Job 38:24 Which is the way to the place where the wind is measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth?
Psalms 60:6 God has said in his holy place, I will be glad: I will make a division of Shechem, and the valley of Succoth will be measured out.
Psalms 71:15 My mouth will make clear your righteousness and your salvation all the day; for they are more than may be measured.
Psalms 105:11 Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the measured line of your heritage:
Proverbs 27:21 The heating-pot is for silver and the oven-fire for gold, and a man is measured by what he is praised for.
Isaiah 18:2 That sendeth embassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation measured by line and trodden down, whose land the rivers have laid waste.
Isaiah 18:7 In that time shall the present be brought to the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation measured by line and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.
Isaiah 34:11 But the birds of the waste land will have their place there; it will be a heritage for the bittern and the raven: and it will be measured out with line and weight as a waste land.
Isaiah 34:17 And he has given them their heritage, and by his hand it has been measured out to them: it will be theirs for ever, their resting-place from generation to generation.
Isaiah 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Isaiah 65:7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, said Jehovah, Who have made perfume on the mountains, And on the heights have reproached Me, And I have measured their former work into their bosom.'
Jeremiah 13:25 This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me, says Yahweh; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
Jeremiah 31:37 Thus says Yahweh: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Yahweh.
Jeremiah 33:22 As the army of the sky can't be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites who minister to me.
Jeremiah 52:21 And as for the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high, and twelve cubits measured all round, and it was as thick as a man's hand: it was hollow.
Ezekiel 4:5 For I have had the years of their sin measured for you by a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel.
Ezekiel 40:5 Behold, a wall on the outside of the house all around, and in the man's hand a measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and a handbreadth each: so he measured the thickness of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.
Ezekiel 40:6 Then came he to the gate which looks toward the east, and went up its steps: and he measured the threshold of the gate, one reed broad; and the other threshold, one reed broad.
Ezekiel 40:8 He measured also the porch of the gate toward the house, one reed.
Ezekiel 40:9 Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and its posts, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was toward the house.
Ezekiel 40:11 He measured the breadth of the opening of the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits;
Ezekiel 40:13 He measured the gate from the roof of the one lodge to the roof of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; door against door.
Ezekiel 40:14 And he took the measure of the covered way, twenty cubits; and opening from the covered way of the doorway was the open square round about.
Ezekiel 40:19 Then he measured the breadth from the forefront of the lower gate to the forefront of the inner court outside, one hundred cubits, both on the east and on the north.
Ezekiel 40:20 The gate of the outer court whose prospect is toward the north, he measured its length and its breadth.
Ezekiel 40:23 There was a gate to the inner court over against the other gate, both on the north and on the east; and he measured from gate to gate one hundred cubits.
Ezekiel 40:24 He led me toward the south; and behold, a gate toward the south: and he measured its posts and its arches according to these measures.
Ezekiel 40:27 There was a gate to the inner court toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the south a hundred cubits.
Ezekiel 40:28 Then he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the south gate according to these measures;
Ezekiel 40:32 He brought me into the inner court toward the east: and he measured the gate according to these measures;
Ezekiel 40:35 He brought me to the north gate: and he measured it according to these measures;
Ezekiel 40:47 He measured the court, one hundred cubits long, and a hundred cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar was before the house.
Ezekiel 40:48 Then he brought me to the porch of the house, and measured each post of the porch, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side: and the breadth of the gate was three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side.
Ezekiel 41:1 He brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tent.
Ezekiel 41:2 The breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured its length, forty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits.
Ezekiel 41:3 Then went he inward, and measured each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the breadth of the entrance, seven cubits.
Ezekiel 41:4 He measured its length, twenty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said to me, This is the most holy place.
Ezekiel 41:5 Then he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side chamber, four cubits, all around the house on every side.
Ezekiel 41:8 I saw also that the house had a raised base all around: the foundations of the side chambers were a full reed of six great cubits.
Ezekiel 41:13 So he measured the house, one hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with its walls, one hundred cubits long;
Ezekiel 41:15 He measured the length of the building before the separate place which was at its back, and its galleries on the one side and on the other side, one hundred cubits; and the inner temple, and the porches of the court;
Ezekiel 42:15 Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it all around.
Ezekiel 42:16 He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around.
Ezekiel 42:17 He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around.
Ezekiel 42:18 He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
Ezekiel 42:19 He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
Ezekiel 42:20 He measured it on the four sides: it had a wall around it, the length five hundred, and the breadth five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy and that which was common.
Ezekiel 43:10 Thou, son of man, Shew the house of Israel the house, And they are ashamed of their iniquities, And they have measured the measurement.
Ezekiel 45:3 And of this measure, let a space be measured, twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide: in it there will be the holy place, even the most holy.
Ezekiel 45:7 And for the ruler there is to be a part on one side and on the other side of the holy offering and of the property of the town, in front of the holy offering and in front of the property of the town on the west of it and on the east: measured in the same line as one of the parts of the land, from its limit on the west to its limit on the east of the land.
Ezekiel 45:14 And the fixed measure of oil is to be a tenth of a bath from the cor, for ten baths make up the cor;
Ezekiel 47:3 When the man went forth eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles.
Ezekiel 47:4 Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the waist.
Ezekiel 47:5 Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.
Ezekiel 48:15 And the other five thousand, measured from side to side, in front of the twenty-five thousand, is to be for common use, for the town, for living in and for a free space: and the town will be in the middle of it.
Hosea 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can't be measured nor numbered; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them,'You are not my people,' they will be called'sons of the living God.'
Amos 7:17 Therefore thus says Yahweh:'Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.'"
Micah 2:4 In that day this saying will be said about you, and this song of grief will be made: The heritage of my people is measured out, and there is no one to give it back; those who have made us prisoners have taken our fields from us, and complete destruction has come to us.
Habakkuk 3:6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.
LinksBible Concordance • Bible Dictionary • Bible Encyclopedia • Topical Bible • Bible Thesuarus | <urn:uuid:5552a495-50ed-4e80-9342-393500702ab4> | {
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Emilio Aguinaldo Facts
The Philippine revolutionary leader Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964) fought for independence of the Philippine Islands, first against Spain and then against the United States.
Born on March 23, 1869, Emilio Aguinaldo grew up in Kawit in Cavite Province and was educated in Manila. Appointed to a municipal position in his home province, he was also the local leader of a revolutionary society fighting Spanish rule over the Philippines. By an agreement signed with rebel leaders in January 1898, Spain agreed to institute liberal reforms and to pay a large indemnity; the rebels then went into exile.
When war broke out between Spain and the United States in April 1898, Aguinaldo made arrangements with the U.S. consuls in Hong Kong and Singapore and with Commodore George Dewey to return from exile to fight against Spain. On June 12 Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippine Islands from Spain, hoisted the national flag, introduced a national anthem, and ordered a public reading of the declaration of independence.
When he realized that the United States would not accept immediate and complete independence for the Philippines, he organized a revolution against American rule that resulted in 3 years of bloody guerrilla warfare. He was captured on March 23, 1901, by Gen. Frederick Funston. Funston and several other officers, bound hand and foot, pretended to be prisoners and were taken to Aguinaldo's camp by Filipinos loyal to the United States. Released and given weapons, they easily captured Aguinaldo, who then took an oath of allegiance to the United States and issued a peace proclamation on April 19. The bitterness caused by the war was soon transformed into friendship as Americans and Filipinos joined to work toward Philippine independence. Aguinaldo retired to private life, and his son entered West Point in the same class as Gen. Funston's son.
In 1935 Aguinaldo ran unsuccessfully for president of the Philippine Commonwealth against Manuel Quezon. After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941, he cooperated with the new rulers, even making a radio appeal for the surrender of the American and Filipino forces on Bataan. He was arrested as a collaborationist after the Americans returned but was later freed in a general amnesty. He explained his action by saying, "I was just remembering the fight I led. We were outnumbered, too, in constant retreat. I saw my own soldiers die without affecting future events. To me that seemed to be what was happening on Bataan, and it seemed like a good thing to stop."
In 1950 he was named to the Council of State, an advisory body for the president, and in his later years he was chairman of a board which dispensed pensions to the remaining veterans of the revolution. He died in Manila on Feb. 6, 1964.
Further Reading on Emilio Aguinaldo
Aguinaldo tells his own story in A Second Look at America (1957). The outstanding early work on Philippine affairs is W. Cameron Forbes, The Philippine Islands (2 vols., 1928; rev. ed. 1945). Leon Wolff is more sympathetic to the Philippine rebels in Little Brown Brother: How the United States Purchased and Pacified the Philippine Islands at the Century's Turn (1961). A more scholarly account is Garel A. Grunder and William E. Livezey, The Philippines and the United States (1951).
Additional Biography Sources
Turot, Henri, Emilio Aguinaldo, first Filipino president, 1898-1901, Manila, Philippines: Foreign Service Institute, 1981. | <urn:uuid:53978c61-c515-4de7-a845-247913a7747b> | {
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