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The State of Child Welfare in America: 2009
Metadata[+] Show full item record
In terms of physical and emotional suffering, an estimated 905,000 children were determined to be victims of child abuse or neglect in 2006 according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. From the fiscal perspective, Prevent Child Abuse America has estimated that child abuse and neglect in the U.S. costs over $284 million dollars per day. This report also includes statistics on adoption and foster care. | <urn:uuid:b7231544-19f2-4c18-b3fe-3b448b6a855c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/2369 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935344 | 103 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The overall objective is to help develop infrastructure and community building in order to enhance our ability to address overarching challenges.
1. Training of the next generation workforce of researchers knowledgeable in both engineering and biology
2. Establishing multi-lateral collaborative research programs between US and Asian Pacific region.
Based on the workshop recommendations of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan, we at the University of Illinois and National Taiwan University proposed a framework for an NSF-NSC Summer Institute on BSBA. The goals of the Summer Institute are to provide a platform for researchers from a diverse background to exchange ideas in the BSBA area, to train highly interdisciplinary researchers in the BSBA area who are knowledgeable in both engineering and biology, and to promote international collaborations in the BSBA area between researchers in the US and in Asia Pacific region.
Lectures and hands-on laboratory modules on basic engineering tools such as micro- and nano-fabrication, and basic bio-based and bio-inspired sensing and actuation tools such as excitation of neurons and neuro-networks, activation of muscle cell contraction, tools to manipulate sensing-actuation integration, and computational tools will be developed. Furthermore, BSBA related device-making and its potential applications to different application areas such as agriculture, energy, and medicine will be considered as part of the hands-on lab modules. | <urn:uuid:72968d49-9828-4920-8d01-f31798c78c8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://nanohub.org/events/details/269 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92391 | 293 | 2.671875 | 3 |
A floor is covered by a tessellation of equilateral triangles, each having three equal arcs inside it. What proportion of the area of the tessellation is shaded?
Investigate the different ways of cutting a perfectly circular pie into equal pieces using exactly 3 cuts. The cuts have to be along chords of the circle (which might be diameters).
How can you make an angle of 60 degrees by folding a sheet of paper
Many thanks to Geoff Faux who introduced
us to the merits of the 9 pin circular geo-board. | <urn:uuid:57cbae52-8ce4-46a2-bd55-d174f4aa561e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://nrich.maths.org/2844 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927043 | 114 | 3.140625 | 3 |
This article, for students and teachers, is mainly about probability, the mathematical way of looking at random chance.
Heads or Tails - the prize doubles until you win it. How much would
you pay to play?
Some relationships are transitive, such as `if A>B and B>C
then it follows that A>C', but some are not. In a voting system,
if A beats B and B beats C should we expect A to beat C?
Uncertain about the likelihood of unexpected events? You are not | <urn:uuid:31969135-84bf-49df-8310-779eb294d91a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://nrich.maths.org/public/leg.php?code=-677&cl=3&cldcmpid=7427 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939883 | 113 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Evaluation During Reading
Evaluating sources of information is an important step in any research activity. This section provides information on evaluating bibliographic citations, aspects of evaluation, reading evaluation, print vs. Internet sources, and evaluating Internet sources.
Contributors:Dana Lynn Driscoll, Allen Brizee
Last Edited: 2013-02-13 11:01:58
After you have asked yourself some questions about the source and determined that it's worth your time to find and read that source, you can evaluate the material in the source as you read through it.
- Read the preface--What does the author want to accomplish? Browse through the table of contents and the index.This will give you an overview of the source. Is your topic covered in enough depth to be helpful? If you don't find your topic discussed, try searching for some synonyms in the index.
- Check for a list of references or other citations that look as if they will lead you to related material that would be good sources.
- Determine the intended audience. Are you the intended audience? Consider the tone, style, level of information, and assumptions the author makes about the reader. Are they appropriate for your needs?
- Try to determine if the content of the source is fact, opinion, or propaganda. If you think the source is offering facts, are the sources for those facts clearly indicated?
- Do you think there's enough evidence offered? Is the coverage comprehensive? (As you learn more and more about your topic, you will notice that this gets easier as you become more of an expert.)
- Is the language objective or emotional?
- Are there broad generalizations that overstate or oversimplify the matter?
- Does the author use a good mix of primary and secondary sources for information?
- If the source is opinion, does the author offer sound reasons for adopting that stance? (Consider again those questions about the author. Is this person reputable?)
- Check for accuracy.
- How timely is the source? Is the source twenty years out of date? Some information becomes dated when new research is available, but other older sources of information can be quite sound fifty or a hundred years later.
- Do some cross-checking. Can you find some of the same information given elsewhere?
- How credible is the author? If the document is anonymous, what do you know about the organization?
- Are there vague or sweeping generalizations that aren't backed up with evidence?
- Are arguments very one-sided with no acknowledgement of other viewpoints? | <urn:uuid:3614f60d-a0ef-461c-93d5-7f86a9f19c7e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92513 | 529 | 3.890625 | 4 |
What are Interactive Online Models
Interactive online modeling environments are online web pages with an interactive graphical user interface for model input and control, dynamic graphs and tables for output, and animations. They are created to allow the user (student) control of a model or animation so they can perform virtual experiments. Interactive online modeling environments are typically written in JAVA or Macromedia Director programming languages. Most interactive online modeling environments are created to be platform and browser independent. However, there are still limited problems with some browsers/platform combinations. Although Java-Script (this is not related to JAVA) does not have animation capabilities it can be used to create interactive activities with text box input and output. Many interactive online calculators that can help students explore the behavior of equations and interactive online quizzes are created with Java-Script. | <urn:uuid:3df77295-1a0a-43fd-aec7-ded385de79f6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/mathstatmodels/JavaWhat.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900364 | 167 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Goals and Format
The central focus of this 2 and 1/2-day workshop will be to discuss the ways that participants currently teach the process of science and to explore new ways to teach the process of science. We will examine new resources, including Visionlearning's Teaching the Process of Science online text, the Understanding Science website, and more traditional texts. We will consider the importance of teaching the process of science in different contexts, including courses for pre-service teachers, introductory science courses, and courses for majors. A major goal is develop resources that will help others teach the process of science.
During the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to:
- Discuss examples from their own teaching
- Examine common misconceptions and discuss how they might be addressed
- Articulate strategies for teaching the process of science and assessing student learning
- Review available texts and online resources
- Examine a variety of techniques and instruments for assessing understanding the process of science
- Develop recommendations for engaging more faculty in teaching the process of science
The workshop format will include plenary talks, large and small group discussions, and time for planning changes to your own course and activities. In addition, all participants will contribute to development of the online collection of process of science courses, activities, and texts.
By registering for the workshop, participants agree to do the following:
- contribute both a course description and an activity to the website by July 1
- in advance of the workshop, review one or two text or online resources that may be used in teaching the process of science
- participate in assessment validation
- participate fully in the entire workshop and preparatory online discussions
DatesThe workshop begins at 5 pm, Tuesday, July 14th, and ends at 6 pm, Thursday, July 16th. Participants must attend the entire workshop, and are encouraged to stay for dinner on Thursday.
Application and Selection Criteria
This workshop is open to college faculty and high school teachers and is limited to 30 participants. The final list of participants will be established with the goal of assembling a group that has expertise in teaching the process of science across the disciplines, to different audiences, and in different institutional settings.
Your application must be submitted by May 15, 2009. Applicants will be notified of selection in early June.
Room, board, and workshop materials are provided. Participants or their home institutions must provide transportation to and from the workshop. In cases of unusual hardship, we will be able to offer a few small stipends to help defray travel costs. For more information about travel funds, please contact the workshop conveners.
This workshop is part of the activities of Visionlearning and Pedagogy in Action. The workshop is funded by grants from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U. S. Department of Education (P116B06-0183) and NSF Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE-0532768). However, this does not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education or the National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
For More Information
Please contact Anne Egger ([email protected], 650-724-0984) or Cathy Manduca ([email protected], 507-222-7096). | <urn:uuid:38d9770d-cab8-4c7e-a8ce-a08290d7706f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://serc.carleton.edu/sp/process_of_science/workshop09/overview.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917502 | 680 | 2.796875 | 3 |
by Andrea K. Ebert
Behaviorism and Constructivism are two of the predominant educational theories that form the basis of many of today’s educational technology tools in the secondary classroom. In the research currently being conducted on the subject, there is an obvious shift to a more Constructivist way of thinking when it comes to implementing classroom technologies. However, there are still arguments in favor of tools that are more Behaviorist in nature. There are also many proponents for a blending of the two theories when it comes to technology integration. What remains to be seen is how these theories will be centralized as more teacher preparation courses are being designed to include courses about educational technology. Currently, it is difficult to define what effect, exactly, that Behaviorism and Constructivism will have on the future of educational technology. There are many factors to be analyzed and much that is still unknown about the future of the field of educational technology and the influences that Behaviorism and Constructivism will have.
In the secondary classroom, there is a shift toward implementing ever-increasing amounts of educational technology into curricula. In order to do so meaningfully and to ensure successful learning, it is necessary to reflect upon learning theories. Behaviorist and Constructivist theories provide a base for much of what happens in the technological secondary classroom. These broad theories have many implications for the technological secondary classroom. It is necessary to question these implications so that those involved in the educational (and more specifically, educational technology) fields can work toward bettering education. Are there shifts happening in the secondary classroom today between these two theories? If so, what are they? Which is the more predominant in current educational practices? Is one better for use with educational technologies?
It is necessary to outline Behaviorism as it pertains to the realm of education and then to do the same with Constructivism. Historically they have both been used in developing educational technologies. They are also both prominent in today’s educational technology tools. It is then necessary to examine what implications these theories have on the future of educational technology. There is somewhat of a debate in existence, with some supporters of more Behaviorist approaches or more Constructivist approaches, with still others in support of a blending of the two theories when it comes to educational technologies. It is then necessary to look at case studies to see which provides data for improvement of learning so that all educators may begin to implement the most successful strategies in their classrooms.
Foundations of Behaviorism in Education
In B. F. Skinner’s Behaviorism, the major theories as pertaining to education are reinforcement, verbal behavior theories, and social development theories. Though all aspects of Behaviorist theory have influenced the world of education, Behaviorist reinforcement theory still impacts education widely today especially when looking at educational technology. Skinner (1958) has found that “behavior is shown to be shaped and maintained by its ‘reinforcing’ consequences rather than elicited as conditioned or unconditioned response to stimuli” (972). This idea has been molded into many educational practices, and the idea of reinforcement has had many implications for educational technology specifically, which will be examined later.
Foundations of Constructivism in Education
Constructivism, on the other hand, is led by the ideas of Jean Piaget and his theories of the four childhood stages of development. The theories of Constructivism are founded on the belief that “the child, at first directly assimilating the external environment to his own activity, later, in order to extend this assimilation, forms an increasing number of schemata which are both more mobile and better able to intercoordinate” (Piaget, 1955). Led by Piaget’s theory, Constructivists that currently practice education believe more in learning by doing. If a child is able to experiment for himself, the learning will be more profound. Constructivists then focus on a different aspect of education than Behaviorists, as Behaviorists focus more on how students respond to positive and negative reinforcement provided through an educator’s planned system of data presentation rather than on letting students be presented with stimuli and seeing how students learn on their own.
In discussing educational theories, it is necessary to examine how they have influenced educational practices historically before we can analyze future implications. We will first discuss Behaviorism in educational practices historically and then shift to a discussion of Constructivism in educational practices historically, before moving into current practices founded on the theories of each and finally the future implications.
History of Behaviorism in Educational Technology
The utilization of Behaviorist theory in education has changed quite a bit though some aspects remain parallel despite the changing times. Behaviorism has seen the Teaching Machine Phase, the Programmed Instruction Phase, and the Systems Approach to Instruction. The Teaching Machine is perhaps of the most interest when examining educational technologies of today, as the machines were very basic versions of what educational software and computers can accomplish now. The teaching machine was, in essence, a box that sat on student desks that each individual student could use to record answers to certain prompted questions. Skinner (1958) provided background information about the teaching machines and called them “devices which arrange optimal conditions for self-instruction” (p. 971). He stated that “Sidney L. Pressey designed several machines for the automatic testing of intelligence and information, which will encourage the student to take an active role in the instructional process” (p. 973). An example of the classroom use of the Teaching Machine is as follows. “In using the device the student refers to a numbered item in a multiple-choice test. He presses the button corresponding to his first choice of answer. If he is right, the device moves on to the next item; if he is wrong, the error is tallied, and he must continue to make choices until he is right” (Skinner, p. 971). We can clearly see the similarities between the Teaching Machine and much of today’s instructional computer software, designed for reinforcing student behavior. Computers and software are, in essence, much more complex versions of the Teaching Machine, which leads us to conclude that many of the roots of Behaviorism have come along with us into present day educational scenarios. The concepts behind the Teaching Machine and modern-day computer gaming software, for example, are fundamentally equal. The Teaching Machine example allows us to draw such interesting conclusions as there are so many linkages to today’s instruction.
History of Constructivism in Education Technology
It is more difficult to define examples of Constructivism historically in educational scenarios, as there is a vast array of educational practices that would qualify as being more Constructivist in nature. These examples range from projects arranged by educators to have students learning by discovering on their own, to the simple daily activity of letting students interact with other students and learning a variety of lessons (in many different educational realms) just through this interaction. Teachers have been facilitating these educational events for a long time that is not easily defined. Constructivist theories, did, however, lay foundation for the design of curricula. Hypermedia and multimedia are examples of instructional technologies that are more Constructivist in nature. Along with the increased use of such educational technologies came the emphasis on problem solving. This is particularly Constructivist in theory, and though positive aspects of Behaviorism in learning have been identified, there has been a major shift toward more Constructivist learning situations involving problem solving (Sutton, 2003). The main argument is that learners actively construct their own knowledge based on their own experiences. It is now necessary to look at where these more historical examples of Behaviorism and Constructivism have led us in the present day.
Current Trends of Behaviorism in Educational Technology
Sutton (2003) has discussed the current trends in instructional technology that encompass Behaviorist and Constructivist theories. Though discussing primarily Constructivist ideals, he states that there are many aspects of Behaviorism that are positive and that have led to the development of important instructional technologies. Examples of Behaviorism in current trends are instructional software and computer-assisted instruction. Shield (2000) also discussed the use of drill and practice tutorials, with individual instructions and feedback drill and practice. This type of learning, where a “student is rewarded through an encouraging comment before moving on to the next learning objective” (1) is especially apparent in the use of “the computer games that are so highly addictive to teenagers,” (1) as their “learning behavior is being progressively rewarded as each level of the game is mastered” (1). Shield concluded that “the student's mastering of basic technological terms, descriptions of components, and understanding of theory behind technical processes can be achieved through structured programs delivered through CD-ROMs or similar media. We can, therefore immediately see a place for ICT in technology education, both as a source of information and also, if structured effectively, a context or structure for learning simple skills and concepts. Different learning objectives may require different teaching and learning strategies to achieve them. Some aspects of learning require basic low-level information as a preliminary activity before the more complex can be internalized. Often the rote learning of factual information is essential before a learner can be engaged in problem solving or those higher order activities deemed more desirable. While Behaviorism is said to have a number of views, this view of learning drives a lot of current educational practice where competencies and standards have become established indicators of achievement” (1). Shield summarizes much of what current Behaviorists focus on, stating that it is sometimes necessary to memorize bits of information before higher- level, problem-based learning can take place. He also brings up the interesting point that much of today’s curriculum focuses on these memorized bits of information, and we can clearly conclude that this is a strong reason why so many Behaviorist practices are still relevant in today’s educational tactics.
Current Trends of Constructivism in Educational Technology
There is a huge push toward more of a Constructivist approach, however, when implementing instructional technologies. There are many supporters of this, and they provide a convincing argument. “One way forward is to switch our attention from the design of software packages (which act solely as storehouses of information) to an interactive problem-based environment in which the student assumes the key. With this profile in place, the learning task can be tailored to the student’s capabilities rather than the student having to fit in with the software designer’s generalized understanding of how learning should take place. The creation of these rich learning environments will also have to ensure that texts, reference sources, multimedia and communication facilities are fully integrated” (Shield, 2000). Learning, if taking place in authentic and real-world environments, and with relevance to the learner, is a “primary catalyst of knowledge construction” (Camp, 1999). We can clearly see the relevance that Constructivist ideals have in today’s educational practices, as real-world Constructivist learning situations are more motivating to students through practical application of knowledge. There is clearly a need for this learning as well as rote memorization, as much of what students will do as adults relies heavily on practical applications.
While there is still clear support for both Behaviorism and for Constructivism in education, and specifically within the realm of educational technology, it is necessary to examine how this information and these arguments will influence emerging trends. Implications for the future of learning and the future of instructional technology need to be determined. The relevance to our learners needs to be outlined so that successful practical applications can be identified and implemented to positively affect learning. Whether arguing for more of a Behaviorist or more of a Constructivist approach, or for more of a blending of the theories, it is necessary to evaluate what has succeeded, what has failed, and the reasons for the successes and failures, as learning is a complex process with many influential factors.
Case studies provide a wealth of information about the successes and failures of theories in practical situations. First, case studies of more Behaviorist practices will be examined. Williams (2000), an educator in West Australia, drew upon his experiences to state that he did not believe that “constructivism is an appropriate approach to educational technology” (3). He challenged that “while the traditional focus of technology education has been on activity, i.e., on doing and making things, this has represented a narrow interpretation of procedural knowledge. This focus has not been accompanied by an emphasis on all aspects of procedural knowledge, but has typically been concerned with those procedures most closely aligned with the development of manipulative skills and how to use tools effectively and safely, for example” (3). He also discussed the difference among the content areas, and concluded that Constructivist theories will not succeed as well in some content areas as they will in science or technology classrooms, for example. “There is no other curriculum area in which students have as significant an opportunity to think and reflect and develop ideas, and then to test their ideas in a practical context” (1). There emerge some significant challenges toward Constructivism in the classroom then, and there are clearly arguments in favor of using more Behaviorist approaches in learning, especially as much information is required to be memorized rather than applied.
Now, in looking at case studies that are more Constructivist in nature, there are also many convincing arguments presented. Barron et al. (1998) were provided with a grant to conduct research about problem- and project-based learning. After studying a science classroom, the team concluded that “by beginning with a simulated problem, students develop a level of shared knowledge and skill that prepares them to undertake actual projects. In addition, if students know they will be completing real projects in their community, they are motivated to learn. Students view the problem-based learning as preparing them for “the real thing.” They provided a multitude of data samples that argued in favor of using Constructivist theory in the classroom, with the learners in their case studies being very successful and accomplished. However, Barron et al. concluded that implementing this type of learning is an extremely delicate process, and will only succeed if collaboration takes place. It is necessary to have “new models of professional development that can provide in-service and pre-service teachers with the opportunity to engage in the type of learning we are suggesting for students” and to “create supportive environments for the teachers who will realize the potential of problem- and project-based approaches to learning” (Barron et al., 272). There are therefore many strong arguments in favor of Constructivist learning practices. We are also now made aware of some of the challenges presented, which is of special interest as Constructivist practices seem to be very highly esteemed in today’s educational technology practices.
Finally, we will examine case studies that provide examples of more of a blending of the two types of theories. Keengwe et al. (2009) have identified the need for a blend of approaches as they have identified the challenges to today’s learning processes. “The growing focus of high-stake testing and accountability has changed the role of instruction, teachers, and students. As a result, teachers are finding challenges to implementing active learning and learner-centered pedagogies in the classroom. To achieve the national goal of education, helping learners use their minds well and be prepared for responsible citizenship, teachers must go beyond teaching only the subject matter, to also providing learners with the tools to become effective learners. In practice, teachers must strive to facilitate learning environments where a sense of inquiry is encouraged, and active learning and critical thinking are the foundation for creative problem solving and global citizenship.” Camp (1999) concluded that education, as it pertains to career and technical education, is still “founded on the learning principles of behaviorism” (4) and that “it may be that constructivism will be found to be a better solution than behaviorism to serve as the learning theory foundation.” Camp stated, however, that in order to blend these theories and for any shifts to take place, “significant rethinking may be in order for how we determine, structure, and deliver the content of education” (4). It is clear that there are many factors to consider when deciding how to implement educational technologies based upon learning theory, but that there are arguments in favor of both Behaviorism and Constructivism that support the utilization of both theories.
In looking at the historical examples of Behaviorism and Constructivism as they pertain to educational practices, and by also examining these theories in educational technology implementation today, we can begin to formulate hypotheses for the future of education, and more specifically, educational technology. Shield (2000) concluded that Constructivist and Behaviorist learning theories are very rarely used independently of each other to explain learning: Most skilled teachers are simply adept at knowing when are where to apply them, often subconsciously, to produce the most effective results. This is fascinating in the fact that it is so abstract. Can we, in fact, outline the best road toward meaningful technology integration in regards to Behaviorism and Constructivism? If successful teachers intuit this process, is it even worth outlining? Will there ever be a more definite process outlined for educators to use as a guide, or will the debate between theories always remain? Camp (1999) concluded that more research is necessary to make this shift happen successfully. There are also many challenges posed to this process by key researchers, which seem to provide an argument for the theory that the road to outlining this process will be a long one. Hannafin (2000) stated that one challenge to Constructivism is learned helplessness. Another challenge to Constructivism in the classroom is that “if curriculum changes are not made carefully with adequate planning and support, we risk a potential backlash that favors back-to-basics and rote learning over authentic inquiry” (Barron, 1998). A further challenge is that teachers are not well-prepared for this shift and that too frequently, appropriate resources are not available (Keengwe, 2009). It is clear that although we have many historical and current examples of both Behaviorist and Constructivist learning practices as they pertain to educational technology, there are still many factors that are unclear, and we are therefore unable to draw any absolute conclusions about the future of these theories in educational technologies. However, judging from these historical and current examples of these theories in educational technology, we can absolutely conclude that both theories have been relevant and will most likely remain relevant as we work to improve upon future educational technology implementation.
In summary, there appears to be a theoretical shift more often than not from Behaviorist learning practices to Constructivist learning practices because of the increased use of educational technologies, and stemming from the fact that many available technologies support Constructivist learning platforms. However, there are still many learning practices that focus on more Behaviorist learning techniques, and there are arguments in support of their validity as well. That with the most support currently is more of a blending of the two theories, for they can be used in conjunction as well while utilizing educational technology. There are many factors to be considered when deciding which theory is more valid in certain practices, including curriculum, assessment, and resources. Though there seems to be a shift toward more Constructivist learning practices or a blending of the two learning theories, the road ahead in determining precisely what should be done by educators remains vague. There are many important factors involved along with challenges to both theories, and it is possible that these trends may be analyzed but put into practice in a variety of ways without any standardization. There are so many factors involved that this debate seems to fall to the choice of individual educators, and may, in fact, continue along this path as we look toward the future of educational technology integration.
Barron, B. J. S., Schwartz, D. L., Vye, N. J., Moore, A., Petrosino, A., Zech L., et al. (1998). Doing with understanding: Lessons from research on problem- and project-based learning.
The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 7 (3/4), 271-311.
Camp, W. G., & Doolittle, P. E. (1999). Constructivism: The career and technical education perspective. Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, 16 (1).
Hannafin, M. J., & Land, S. M. (2000). Student-centered learning environments. In D. Jonassen & S. Land (Eds.), Theoretical foundations of learning environments (pp. 1-23). Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Keengwe, J., Onchwari, G., & Onchwari, J. (2009). Technology and student learning: Toward a learner-centered teaching model. Association for the Advancement of Computing in
Education Journal, 17 (1), 11-22.
Piaget, J. (1955). The construction of reality in the child. London: Routledge.
Shield, G. (2000). A critical appraisal of learning technology using information and communication technologies. Journal of Technology Studies.
Skinner, B. F. (1958). Teaching machines. Science, 128 (3330), (pp. 969-977).
Sutton, M. J. (2003). Problem representation, understanding, and learning transfer implications for technology education. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, 40 (4).
Williams, P. J. (2000). Design: The only methodology of technology? Journal of Technology Education, 11 (2). | <urn:uuid:e37728ae-297d-4ffb-ae4d-938f0bc121bc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://sites.google.com/a/boisestate.edu/edtechtheories/behaviorism-vs-constructivism-in-the-technological-secondary-education-classroom-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955941 | 4,414 | 3.359375 | 3 |
The Depressing Effects of Racial Discrimination
Posted by The Situationist Staff on June 23, 2009
From Cornell News Service, here is a news release regarding fascinating research on the effects of racial discrimination.
* * *
Many studies have shown that experiencing chronic racial discrimination chips away at the mental health of African-Americans.
But a new Cornell study sheds light on precisely how – and to what effect – chronic racial discrimination erodes mental health.
The study found blacks may, in general, have poorer mental health as a result of two mechanisms: First, chronic exposure to racial discrimination leads to more experiences of daily discrimination and, second, it also results in an accumulation of daily negative events across various domains of life, from family and friends to health and finances. The combination of these mechanisms, reports Anthony Ong, assistant professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, places blacks at greater risk for daily symptoms of depression, anxiety and negative moods.
“As a result, African-Americans experience high levels of chronic stress. And individuals who are exposed to more daily stress end up having fewer resources to cope with them,” said Ong.
The study, one of the first to look at the underlying mechanisms through which racial discrimination operates to affect the daily mental health of African-Americans, was conducted with Cornell graduate student Thomas Fuller-Rowell and Anthony Burrow, assistant professor of psychology at Loyola University-Chicago; it is published in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (96:6).
The researchers examined the ways that chronic discrimination exerts a direct influence on daily mental health and an indirect influence through daily stress (i.e., daily racial discrimination and negative events) by analyzing daily questionnaires from 174 African-Americans for 14 days. Participants answered questions daily about the frequency of racially stressful encounters, mental health symptoms, mood and stressors across life domains.
“What we found was that it is the daily discrimination and daily stress that are driving the psychological distress,” Ong said.
The authors noted that racial discrimination in this country “is a ubiquitous experience in the lives of African-Americans,” citing various studies that reported that between half to three-quarters of black respondents report experiencing racial discrimination. They also cite a 2003 review of 32 studies that found a positive link between perceptions of racial discrimination and mental illness in all but one of the studies.
Based on the new study, Ong emphasized that the tendency for serious stressors, such as racial discrimination, to expand and generate additional stressors – a process called stress proliferation – requires that interventions cast a wide net.
“It is not enough that interventions target one problem,” Ong noted, “even if it appears to be a serious stressor, when there might be multiple hardships and demands that are instrumental in structuring people’s daily lives. Chronic exposure to racial discrimination provides a poignant illustration of the proliferation of stress stemming from repeated discriminatory experiences.”
* * * | <urn:uuid:50cb0469-6bb9-433d-8bca-07246857e4d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/the-depressing-effects-of-racial-discrimination/?like=1&_wpnonce=cb13afa090 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935484 | 615 | 2.53125 | 3 |
An underdeveloped district close to Kathmandu, with virtually no roads. The communities here are extremely isolated and rely on walking tracks to get around.
Multipurpose Community Development Service, the development arm of the Nepal Baptist Church Council. The HELP (Health Education for Lay People) project has been supported by Baptist World Aid Australia in various communities for more than ten years.
Lacking basic services like electricity and toilets, as well as knowledge regarding sanitation and nutrition, many of the people in this isolated district suffer from malnutrition and face real health risks. Farming methods that strip the soil of nutrients prevent farmers from getting good crops, and leave the land vulnerable to erosion.
Well implemented, clever ideas can have amazing results and the HELP Nepal project is working to turn lives around by:
- helping people to install biogas toilets and other sanitary concrete toilets to prevent contamination of water and soil. Biogas toilets also provide gas for heating and cooking, and the decomposed waste is a great fertiliser!
- training people in kitchen gardening which ensures a variety of vegetables for the family all year round.
- promoting farming methods that put nutrients back into the soil for good crops every year.
- training families in managing livestock, like goats and poultry. This will also ensure a variety of foods are available both to eat and to sell.
- training people in health, sanitation and nutrition to prevent the spread of disease and build healthier, well-fed families.
Sahmila, her husband and their three children live all together in one, small room. They also share this tiny space with their two buffalo. Like most families in this area, they don’t have electricity, and relied on firewood gathered from local forests for cooking and heating. Their home was always full of smoke. The soot from the stove lined the walls of their one-roomed house and the children suffered repeatedly from lung infections.
But now Sahmila has a rather ingenious toilet. The toilet is connected to a biogas system so that the gas from the decomposed waste can be used as clean cooking fuel for the stove. What’s more, after six months the waste can be used as fertiliser for her garden.
Safe disposal of waste (human and buffalo!), safe cooking fuel, less soot and a more productive garden means a healthier family! | <urn:uuid:37f8f728-9f15-43c1-b829-3801c2ab9d0d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.baptistworldaid.org.au/what-we-do/help-nepal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950592 | 481 | 2.875 | 3 |
For Immediate Release, January 24, 2013
Contact: Kassie Siegel, (760) 366-2232 x 302, [email protected]
Lawsuit Filed to Stop Unregulated Fracking in California
Suit Challenges State Agency's Failure to Enforce Existing Law
Covering Dangerous Fossil Fuel Extraction Technique
SAN FRANCISCO— The Center for Biological Diversity went to court today to compel California regulators to enforce an existing state law that should protect people and the environment from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a rapidly spreading new method of oil and gas extraction. The lawsuit filed this morning in Alameda County Superior Court says the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources has allowed fracking to expand without legally required oversight.
California law applies safeguards and disclosure requirements to any underground injection carried out by the oil and gas industry, the lawsuit points out, and fracking clearly involves injection. Yet the state does not yet regulate or even monitor this controversial practice.
“A looming fracking boom threatens to transform California, creating serious pollution risks to our air, water and climate,” said the Center’s Vera Pardee. “Existing rules clearly cover fracking, but state officials don’t regulate or even track this dangerous way of extracting oil and gas. The state needs to stop ignoring the law and start protecting our environment.”
Fracking involves blasting massive amounts of water and industrial chemicals, mixed with sand, deep into the earth at pressures high enough to crack apart geologic formations, causing fractures that let oil and gas move into the wells and to the surface.
More than 600 wells in at least nine California counties were fracked in 2011 alone, and recent advances in fracking techniques are driving a growing interest in the Monterey Shale, a geological formation holding an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil.
Reports have documented the dangers of fracking, including more than 1,000 instances of water contamination around the country. Fracking also emits hazardous air pollutants and methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It has the potential to induce seismic activity in one of the nation’s most earthquake-prone states.
California’s existing oil and gas regulations cover all forms of underground injection and clearly apply to fracking. While fracking was exempted from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act in 2005 by what is known as the “Halliburton loophole,” no such exemption exists in California law.
Compliance with California’s existing oil and gas regulations would require disclosure of all fracking chemicals, as well as engineering studies and tests to evaluate the potential for underground migration of fracking fluids. State regulators would also need to ensure that fracking is conducted in a way that prevented, as far as possible, damage to life, health, property, and California’s water and other natural resources.
In response to growing public concern, state regulators have issued a “discussion draft” of new regulations that would cover fracking; but these regulations have not yet been formally proposed, much less finalized.
“At present, industry fracks whenever and however it deems fit, and that practice has to stop,” said Pardee. “State regulators must implement the requirements that are already in place to provide better protection for the air we breathe and the water we drink.”
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 450,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. | <urn:uuid:a4465750-5268-40aa-ac14-f6325720a96e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/fracking-01-24-2013.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935108 | 716 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Find over 200 print-friendly fact sheets about heart disease and related health topics.
Hearing loss is a sudden or
gradual decrease in how well you can hear. Depending on the cause, it can be
mild or severe, temporary or permanent.
Congenital hearing loss
means you are born without hearing. This topic focuses on gradual hearing loss,
which happens over time and can affect people of all ages.
If you have hearing loss, you may not be aware of it,
especially if it has happened over time. Your family members or friends may
notice that you're having trouble understanding what others are saying.
There are ways you can deal with hearing loss. And hearing aids and other
devices can help you hear.
In adults, the most
common causes of hearing loss are:
Other causes of hearing loss include
earwax buildup, an object in the ear, injury to the
ear or head, an ear infection, a
ruptured eardrum, and other conditions that affect the
middle or inner ear.
Common symptoms of hearing
Other symptoms may include:
Your doctor will do
a physical exam and ask about your symptoms and past health. He or she also may
look in your ears with a lighted device called an otoscope.
your doctor thinks that you have hearing loss, he or she will do hearing tests to
check whether you have hearing loss and find out how severe it is. You may be referred to an audiologist to do the tests. These tests
Noise-induced or age-related
hearing loss can be treated with hearing devices, such as hearing aids. Other
devices can help alert you to sounds around the house like the phone or
doorbell. If hearing aids don't work for you, cochlear implants may be an option.
You also can learn ways to live with reduced hearing,
such as paying attention to people's gestures, facial expressions, posture, and
tone of voice.
In other types of hearing loss, you can treat the
problem that caused the hearing loss. For example, you may remove earwax or
take medicine for an infection to help your hearing come back.
Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health.
Learning about hearing loss:
Living with hearing loss:
In adults, the most common causes of
hearing loss are:
Other causes of hearing loss include:
Other medical conditions that do not affect the ear
directly may also cause hearing loss.
hearing loss include:
Other symptoms that may occur with hearing loss
People who have hearing loss are sometimes not aware of it. Family members or friends often are
the first to notice the hearing loss. Evaluate your hearing by taking a
hearing loss self-test.
We hear sounds when sound energy goes through the ear's three main structures. In hearing loss, one or more of these structures is damaged. These structures are the:
Which part of the ear is affected determines the type of hearing loss.
A mixed hearing loss, in which both the conductive and sensorineural systems are affected, can also occur.
Another type of hearing loss is central hearing loss. In this type of hearing loss, the ear works, but the brain has trouble understanding sounds because the parts that control hearing are damaged. It may occur after a head injury or stroke. This type of hearing loss is rare.
Undiagnosed and untreated hearing loss can contribute to depression, social isolation, and loss of independence, especially in older adults.
Call 911 or other emergency services immediately if:
Call a doctor immediately if
Call your doctor if you:
If you think you have a hearing problem, you might choose to see an audiologist.
Watchful waiting is when you and
your doctor watch symptoms to see if the health problem improves on its own.
Although hearing loss is not usually dangerous, it can affect your personal
safety. It can also reduce how much you can do in the workplace and at home and
limit you socially. It is important that you talk to your doctor or an audiologist about hearing
Hearing loss can be diagnosed by:
If your doctor suspects or diagnoses hearing loss, he or
she may have you see an ear, nose, and throat specialist (otolaryngologist) or an
Your doctor will diagnose
hearing loss by asking questions about your symptoms
and past health (medical history) and by doing a physical exam. He or
she may find during a routine visit that you have some hearing loss.
You will also have a
physical exam of the
ears. Your doctor will use a lighted instrument (an
otoscope) and may find problems in the ear canal, eardrum, and middle ear,
If your exam, history,
or symptoms suggest a hearing problem, your doctor may refer you to an audiologist to do hearing tests.
Depending on the suspected cause of hearing loss, you
may also have other tests:
Some hearing problems can delay your child's
speech and language development. Early screening for hearing loss can help
prevent many learning, social, and emotional problems that can be related to
speech and language development.1 The
United States Preventive Services Task Force
recommends that all newborns be screened for hearing loss.2 All 50 states require newborn hearing tests for all babies
born in hospitals. Talk to your doctor about whether your child has been or
should be tested.
Signs of noise-induced hearing loss are
appearing at earlier ages and in children. Be sure your child has
regular hearing exams.
Treatment for temporary or
hearing loss usually depends on the cause of the
hearing loss. Treatment for permanent hearing loss includes using hearing
devices or hearing implants.
Although you and your family may view permanent hearing
loss as part of aging, proper treatment is important. Hearing loss may
contribute to loneliness,
depression, and loss of independence. Treatment cannot
bring back your hearing, but it can make communication, social interaction, and
work and daily activities easier and more enjoyable.
Treatment for reversible hearing loss depends on its cause. It is often treated
successfully. Hearing loss caused by:
In permanent hearing loss, such as
noise-induced hearing loss, hearing devices can often
improve how well you hear and communicate. These devices include:
You can prevent some types of
Being exposed to loud
noise over and over is one of the most common causes of permanent hearing loss.
It usually develops slowly and without pain or other symptoms, and you may not
notice that you have hearing loss until it is severe.
Be sure your child has regular
hearing exams and follows the suggestions below to
prevent hearing loss.
can take to lower your risk of
noise-induced hearing loss include the following:
your risk of other types of
If you have
hearing loss, you may find that it takes extra effort
and energy to talk with others. Hearing may be especially difficult in settings
where there are many people talking or there is a lot of background noise. The
increased effort it takes to be with other people may cause stress and fatigue,
and you may begin to avoid social activities, feel less independent, and worry
about your safety.
Hearing devices you may want to use
Many other communication devices, such as pagers, fax
machines, email, and custom calling features offered by phone companies, can
be helpful. To get more information about selecting and using listening,
alerting, and telecommunicating devices, talk to an audiologist.
A person with hearing loss may feel cut off from conversations and social
interaction. The extra effort and stress needed to take part in conversations
can be tiring for all people involved. If you live with someone who has hearing
loss, you may improve your communication by:
The American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck
Surgery (AAO-HNS) is the world's largest organization of physicians dedicated
to the care of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) disorders. Its Web site includes
information for the general public on ENT disorders.
The American Hearing Research Foundation helps pay for
research into hearing and balance disorders and also helps to educate the
public about these disorders. On their website you can find general
information on many common ear disorders, including descriptions, causes,
diagnoses, and treatments. References are also included as a source for further
information. The American Hearing Research Foundation also publishes a
newsletter, available by subscription, as well as a number of pamphlets on a
variety of topics.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
promotes the interests of and provides services for professionals in audiology,
speech-language pathology, and speech and hearing science. ASHA also advocates
for people who have communication disabilities. The website has information on
related health topics, self-help groups, and finding a professional in your
The National Institute on Deafness and Other
Communication Disorders, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health,
advances research in all aspects of human communication and helps people who
have communication disorders. The website has information about hearing,
balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language.
The Noise and Hearing Conservation section of the OSHA
Web site provides information on U.S. government noise standards, general
information on noise-induced and work-related hearing loss, and how to protect
CitationsJoint Committee on Infant Hearing, American Academy of Pediatrics (2007). Year 2007 position statement: Principles and guidelines for early hearing detection and intervention programs. Pediatrics, 120(4): 898–921. Also available online: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/120/4/898.U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (2008). Universal screening for hearing loss in newborns: Recommendation statement. Available online:Other Works ConsultedAgrawal SK, et al. (2008). Occupational hearing loss. In AK Lalwani, ed., Current Diagnosis and Treatment in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, pp. 732–743. New York: McGraw-Hill.American Academy of Pediatrics (2008). Recommendations for preventive pediatric health care. In Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents, 3rd ed., p. 591. Elk Grove Village, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics. Also available online: http://brightfutures.aap.org/pdfs/Guidelines_PDF/20-Appendices_PeriodicitySchedule.pdf.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2010). Risk of bacterial meningitis in children with cochlear implants. Available online: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/meningitis.html.Gluth MB, et al. (2008). Cochlear implants. In AK Lalwani, ed., Current Diagnosis and Treatment in Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, pp. 877–887. New York: McGraw-Hill.Joint Committee on Infant Hearing, American Academy of Pediatrics (2007). Year 2007 position statement: Principles and guidelines for early hearing detection and intervention programs. Pediatrics, 120(4): 898–921. Also available online: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/120/4/898.National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders (2010). Ten Ways to Recognize Hearing Loss. Available online: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/10ways.asp.Niparko JN, et al. (2010). Spoken language development in children following cochlear implantation. JAMA, 303(15): 1498–1506.Sweetow RW, Cascia T (2008). Aural rehabilitation and hearing aids. In AK Lalwani, ed., Current Diagnosis and Treatment in Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, pp. 705–712. New York: McGraw-Hill.U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (2008). Universal screening for hearing loss in newborns: Recommendation statement. Available online:Yu KCY, Cheung SW (2008). Implantable middle ear hearing devices. In AK Lalwani, ed., Current Diagnosis and Treatment in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, pp. 873–876. New York: McGraw-Hill.
April 13, 2011
Sarah Marshall, MD - Family Medicine & Steven T. Kmucha, MD - Otolaryngology
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. | <urn:uuid:6a6bd803-da58-4a3e-a4ba-a02c8223fb74> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.cardiosmart.org/healthwise/hw10/7979/hw107979 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915188 | 2,735 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Changing Theories in Astronomy
Recently I viewed a television program out of San Francisco. It involved a panel discussion between several prominent astronomers. The thrust of their exchanges was this: theories in astronomy are changing so rapidly that it is difficult to keep up with them
One of the scientists candidly admitted that the material he taught to his astronomy classes only a decade ago is now largely obsolete.
The starry hosts themselves are surprisingly stable. This is evidenced by the fact that astronomers can predict eclipses years in advance. Several decades ago, scientists asserted that on March 9, 1997, a total solar eclipse would occur that could be viewed over a territory of 221 miles in Mongolia and Siberia, and that it would last a total of 2 minutes and 50 seconds. The event happened with precision.
In 1887, an astronomer by the name of Oppolzer published a book explaining the movements of 13,200 eclipses – 8,000 solar and 5,200 lunar – which had occurred between 1207 B.C. and A.D. 2162. The book even contains maps showing the paths of all the total or annular solar eclipses!
By way of contrast, the theories of the astronomers as to the origin, causes, and age of the universe are about as enduring as the morning dew. And yet, so many people virtually “swear by” the propaganda that is peddled by evolutionary astronomers (e.g., that of the late Dr. Carl Sagan – renowned for his “Cosmos” series – soon to be re-released).
Consider two examples of the fluctuations of modern astronomical theory.
(1) In the early months of 1950, a young British cosmologist, now known as Sir Fred Hoyle, was doing a series of radio broadcasts over the BBC. In one of his presentations he coined the phrase, “big bang.” His intent was not to give credibility to the concept that the universe commenced with a “big bang.” Rather, it was an expression of ridicule.
According to a “recent article” published on the Scientific American web site (February, 2001), Hoyle’s aim was to "bury [the “big bang” concept] under an ironic name." At the time, Hoyle subscribed to the “steady state” theory of the origin of the universe (which he later abandoned).
In spite of Hoyle’s intended “put down,” the concept to which he alluded survived and thrived. The “experts” adopted it, and the gullible public lustily embraced it. Even religionists jumped on the “bang” wagon (see our “Feature”, ""The Big Bang Theory vs. God’s Word"" – December, 1999).
Now, however, things are changing. Note the following comment from Philip and Phylis Morrison’s article, ""The Big Bang: Wit or Wisdom?"" appearing on the Scientific American website:
“We simply do not know our cosmic origins; intriguing alternatives abound, but none yet compel[s] . . . . The book of the cosmos is still open. Note carefully: we no longer see a big bang as a direct solution. Inflation erases evidence of past space, time and matter. The beginning – if any – is still unread. It is deceptive to maintain so long the very term that stood for a beginning out of nothing” (emp. added).
(2) Then there is this. All my life I have heard that Pluto is the most distant “planet” from the sun in our solar system. Pluto was discovered March 13, 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh, of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Now, we are being told we may have been wrong about Pluto – low these past 70 years. Pluto may not be a planet at all!
Scientists at the Rose Center for Earth and Space (American Museum of Natural History, New York) are disputing Pluto’s “planet” status. Neil de Grasse Tyson, an astronomer at the Rose Center, contends that Pluto is simply a chunk of drifting “ice.”
Other scientists contest Tyson’s assertion. David Levy, author of the book, Clyde Tombaugh, Discoverer of Pluto, says: “Tyson is so far off base with Pluto, it’s like he’s in a different universe” (“Museum Suggests Pluto Not a Planet” Associated Press, January 26, 2001).
The point about all of this is simple. Scientists are great speculators. With minimal information they manufacture maximum conclusions. Do not swallow everything they allege – particularly when allegations contradict clear, biblical revelation.
“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever” (Isa. 40:8). | <urn:uuid:c85c54e0-4e66-4a44-9c75-6a0c80b1e2d7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/325-changing-theories-in-astronomy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94636 | 1,023 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The Particle World
Why are there so many kinds of particles?
We have discovered three families of quarks and leptons, families of fundamental particles that differ only in their masses, which range from less than a millionth of the mass of an electron to the mass of an atom of gold. Just as quantum mechanics led to an understanding of the organization of the periodic table, we look to new theories to explain the patterns of elementary particles. Why do three families of particles exist, and why do their masses differ so dramatically?
Current investigations focus on developing a detailed picture of the existing patterns in the particle world. Remarkable progress has been made, especially in characterizing the quarks. But why are the patterns for leptons and quarks completely different? Detailed studies of quarks and leptons at accelerator experiments will provide the clearest insight into these issues.
Tools for a Scientific Revolution
Physicists have so far identified 57 species of elementary particles. In particular, the Standard Model contains quarks and leptons, grouped into three families that differ only in their masses. Why the pattern of particles is repeated three times with enormous variations in mass but with other properties seemingly identical is an open question. Quantum physics has shown that three families are the minimum necessary to accommodate CP violation in the Standard Model. Such CP violation is necessary for matter to predominate over antimatter in the universe, but its effects observed so far are insufficient to explain this predominance. The current program of experiments focuses on developing a detailed understanding of the existing patterns and searching for signs that the patterns of the three families are not identical.
Even through the Tevatron was shut down, the CDF and DZero experiments at the Tevatron, which recorded collisions until September 2011, continue to provide information on the top quark and check if its enormous mass gives it a special role in the particle world. The BaBar and Belle experiments at SLAC and KEK used their data samples, containing millions of b and c quarks, as well as τ leptons, to make precision measurements of the masses and decay modes of all of these objects, in order to look for subtle deviations from the predicted patterns of their decays. The third- generation particles—top, bottom and tau—offer the best hope for discovery, because their large masses allow them to couple most effectively to undiscovered physics.
BaBar and Belle could study only two types of B mesons, bound states of the bottom quark with up or down quarks. However, many theories suggest significant effects in the bound state with the strange quark, Bs. Physicists at the Tevatron made important measurements on the properties of the Bs meson and discovered the fastest matter-antimatter oscillations ever observed. The LHCb experiment explores the Bs meson with far greater precision.
Properties of individual quarks are experimentally difficult to study, because they are always bound to other quarks. Lattice Computational Facilities offer great promise for the calculation of the effects of the strong interactions. As an example, lattice calculations will provide sufficient precision to extract quark parameters, such as those that describe flavor mixing, from the experimental data.
Neutrinos have opened a surprising new window on the physics of lepton generations, since neutrino masses are not necessary in the Standard Model. The presence of neutrino masses may be telling us something about the physics beyond the Standard Model. The decay properties of the light leptons, the electron and the muon, may also hold surprises. Fermilab pursues an ambitious research program to explore the secrets of these particles in more detail.
- Last modified
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IBM makes another breakthrough today with an announcement about tape data density. Unlike hard disk drive technologies that are hitting physical limits, IBM is proving that tape technology still has plenty of life in its future. When I first started working for IBM in Tucson, back in 1986, a 3420 tape reel held only 180MB of data, and a 3480 tape cartridge improved this to 200MB of data. Today's enterprise tapes, like 3592 cartridges for the TS1130 drives, or LTO4 cartridges for the IBM TS1040 drives, are half-inch wide, half-mile long, and can store 1 TB or more of data per cartridge, depending on how well the data can compress. To increase cartridge capacity, designers can make changes in three dimensions:
- Wider tape: The film industry tried this, going from 35mm to 70mm film, only to find that most cinemas did not want to upgrade their equipment. Keeping the media dimensions to half inch wide allows much of the engineering hardware to continue unchanged.
- Longer tape: The problem with longer tape is that either the reel inside gets fatter, or you need to develop flatter media to fit within the existing cartridge dimensions. Wider reels means a bigger tape cartridge external dimensions, forcing changes to shelving units, cartridge trays, and carrying units. The media just can't get any flatter without risking getting more brittle.
- Denser bit recording: once a convenient width and length were established, improving bit density turned out to be the best way to increase cartridge capacity.
Working with FujiFilm Corporation of Japan, my colleagues at IBM Research facility in Zurich were able to demonstrate an incredible 29.5 Gigabits per square inch, nearly 40 times more dense than today's commercial tape technology. In the near future, we will be able to hold a 35TB tape cartridge in our hand. There was actually a lot to make this happen, improved giant magentoresistive read/write heads, better servo patterns to stay on track, thinner tracks less than a micron thick, and better signal-to-noise processing to accomplish this. To learn more, you can read the [Press Release] or watch this quick [4-minute YouTube video].
Tape -- You've come a long way, baby! | <urn:uuid:aedf3949-ee0e-44d7-a1f3-6f1a9be494f2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/InsideSystemStorage/tags/fujifilm?order=asc&maxresults=20&sortby=0&lang=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930167 | 472 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Scientists say buried volcanic rocks along the heavily populated coasts of New York, New Jersey and New England, as well as further south, might be ideal reservoirs to lock away carbon dioxide emitted by power plants and other industrial sources. A study this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences outlines formations on land as well as offshore, where scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory say the best potential sites may lie.
Underground burial, or sequestration, of globe-warming carbon dioxide is the subject of increasing study across the country. But up till now, research in New York has focused on inland sites where plants might send power-plant emissions into shale, a sedimentary rock that underlies much of the state. Similarly, a proposed coal-fired plant in Linden, N.J . would pump liquefied CO2 offshore into sedimentary sandstone. The idea is controversial because of fears that CO2 might leak. By contrast, the new study targets basalt, an igneous rock, which the scientists say has significant advantages.
Some basalt on land is already well known and highly visible. The vertical cliffs of the Palisades, along the west bank of the Hudson River near Manhattan, are pure basalt, and the rocks, formed some 200 million years ago, extend into the hills of central New Jersey. Similar masses are found in central Connecticut. Previous research by Lamont scientists and others shows that carbon dioxide injected into basalt undergoes natural chemical reactions that will eventually turn it into a solid mineral resembling limestone. If the process were made to work on a large scale, this would help obviate the danger of leaks.
The study's authors, led by geophysicist David S. Goldberg , used existing research to outline more possible basalt underwater, including four areas of more than 1,000 square kilometers each, off northern New Jersey, Long Island and Massachusetts. A smaller patch appears to lie more or less under the beach of New Jersey's Sandy Hook, peninsula, opposite New York's harbor and not far from the proposed plant in Linden. The undersea formations are inferred from seismic and gravity measurements. "We would need to drill them to see where we're at," said Goldberg. "But we could potentially do deep burial here. The coast makes sense.That's where people are. That's where power plants are needed. And by going offshore,you can reduce risks." Goldberg and his colleagues previously identified similar formations off the U.S. Northwest .
Caption: The Palisades, forming the west bank of the Hudson River near New York City, are solid basalt.
Credit: Paul Olsen/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Goldberg said the undersea formations are potentially most useful, for several reasons. For one, they are deeper—an important factor, since CO2 pressurized into a liquid would have to be placed at least 2,500 feet below the surface for natural pressure to keep it from reverting to a gas and potentially then making its way back to the surface. The basalts on land are relatively shallow, but those at sea are covered not only by water, but hundreds or thousands of feet of sediment, and appear to extend far below the seabed. In addition to providing pressure, sediments on top would form impermeable caps, said Goldberg. The basalts are thought to contain porous, rubbly layers with plenty of interstices where CO2 could fit, simply by displacing seawater. On land, by contrast, there are concerns that drilling and injection could disturb aquifers or otherwise get in the way of neighbors. The scientists estimate that just the small Sandy Hook basin may contain about seven cubic kilometers of the rock, with enough pore space to hold close to a billion tons of CO2—the equivalent of the emissions from four 1-billion-watt coal-fired plants over 40 years.
"The basalt itself is very reactive, and in the end, you make limestone," said coauthor Dennis Kent , who is also at Rutgers University. "It's the ultimate repository."
Previous research has identified other areas of basalt sprinkled along the Appalachians. The largest mass of all appears to extend offshore of Georgia and South Carolina, as well as inland. This coast also is populous, and would make a good target, said Goldberg. "The next step would be to get some exploratory surveying and drilling going," he said. The paper suggests a half-dozen spots around New York including the Sandy Hook area, and three off South Carolina, to start with.
The study was also coauthored by geologist and paleontologist Paul Olsen , who has participated in drilling the basalt inland in New Jersey.
# # #
The paper, "CO2 Sequestration in central atlantic magmatic province basalts: Potential on-shore and off-shore reservoirs" is available from the authors or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences press office: [email protected] , 202-334-1310. | <urn:uuid:f8cb43bb-c107-4327-9475-420bcc7e601c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/scientists-target-east-coast-rocks-co2-storage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949688 | 1,033 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Fighting to Restore Vision
Professor David Hyde leads researchers in studying adult stem cells from zebrafish to potentially treat humans for problems such as blindness and Alzheimer’s disease.
Finding a cure. It’s the driving ambition behind every researcher who works tirelessly in hopes of discovering the medical breakthroughs that will ease suffering, improve the human condition and perhaps ultimately lead to a world without disease.
In Notre Dame laboratories, our scientists utilize cutting-edge research methods in their quest to put an end to some of the debilitating and deadly conditions that plague humankind. Among these techniques is the use of adult stem cells, which offer hope for regeneration of tissues and even organs and for curing diseases including diabetes and Parkinson’s, and other conditions, such as blindness.
In the laboratory of Professor David Hyde, researchers use adult stem cells from zebrafish to study how neurons regenerate. The work holds promise for treatments of such human problems as glaucoma and macular degeneration in the eyes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in the brain, and even spinal cord injuries.
What Would You Fight For?
The University of Notre Dame’s award-winning “What Would You Fight For?” series, now in its seventh season, showcases the work, scholarly achievements, and global impact of Notre Dame faculty, students, and alumni. These two-minute segments, each originally aired during a home football game broadcast on NBC, highlight the University’s proud moniker, the Fighting Irish, and tell the stories of the members of the Notre Dame family who fight to bring solutions to a world in need.Archive | <urn:uuid:a003ffc8-45b2-467e-8056-d7d004227027> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.nd.edu/fighting-for/2009/fighting-to-restore-vision/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931414 | 334 | 3.125 | 3 |
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Organ transplantation is the act of taking an organ from a living or deceased donor and using it to replace a dysfunctional or damaged organ in a recipient's body. The surgical techniques required for this procedure have been around for a long time, however the problem has always been rejection of the new organ by the body receiving it.
The first successful organ transplant was in 1954, and it involved a kidney between living twin brothers. After drugs that help the body not reject the new organ (immunosuppressants) were developed, a large number of transplantations occurred, all having much more success than their earlier counterparts. Now transplantations can extend a patient's life by several years with proper immunosuppressive (drug) therapy.
Some other interesting facts about organ transplantation:
When a potential organ donor is identified a transplant coordinator from an organ procurement organization enters medical information about the donor into the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) computer system.
The system then matches the donor\''s medical characteristics with the medical information of candidates awaiting a transplant. The computer generated a ranked list of patients for each organ recovered from the donor. These "matches" are based on many things which may include:
Patients added to the national organ transplant waiting list may receive an organ that day, or they may wait years. Factors affecting waiting time include:
To gauge waiting time, UNOS publishes waiting time statistics by geographic region, sex, age, blood type and ethnicity.
Yes. Patients can travel from other countries to the U.S. to receive transplants. Once accepted by a transplant center, international patients receive organs based on the same policies as those that apply to U.S. citizens. These types of transplants are limited in number.
Once a donated organ has been surgically implanted, the focus of the medical teams is to insure organ function and prevent rejection of the new organ by the body receiving it.
Because of the body's natural function to eliminate foreign substances, the first successful organ transplant was not completed until 1954, and it involved a kidney between living twin brothers. Because their DNA was identical, the body didn't reject the transplanted kidney. This however is a rare situation. Needless to say, essentially all donors are not identical twins. The differences then identify the transplanted organ as a "foreign" entity which without special medicines, would be attacked as part of natural body defense mechanisms.
Eventually, drugs that help the body not reject the new organ (immunosuppressants) were developed, a large number of transplantations occurred, all having much more success than their earlier counterparts. Now transplantations can extend a patient's life significantly with proper immunosuppressive (drug) therapy.
There are three types of immunosuppression involved with organ transplants:
Induction immunosuppresion - These drugs are given right after transplantation and the doses are very high; this serves to prevent immediate rejections. The medications could be continued for up to the first 30 days after discharge, but are not used for long term maintenance.
Maintenance immunosuppression - These are the drugs given before, during, and after transplantation with the intention to maintain the organ transplant for the long term. Maintenance immunosuppression does not include any medications given to treat rejection episodes, or for induction.
Anti-rejection immunosuppression - These drugs are given for the purpose of treating an acute rejection episode during the initial period after a transplant or during a specific follow-up period, usually up to 30 days after the diagnosis of acute rejection.
The following are some of the more common side effects associated with some immunosuppressive drugs. Side effects can include:
It may be possible to control these effects by changing doses or drugs. If there is any question, ask your doctor about the various choices in immunosuppressive drugs.
It is important to have all the facts in order to make a fully informed decision about whether or you or a loved one wants to be an organ donor. There are many misconceptions about organ and tissue donation.
A number of myths surrounding organ donation often create an inaccurate picture of what happens if you choose to be an organ donor. The following myths and facts are from the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network web page on organ donation.(http://www.optn.org/about/myths.asp)
Myth: If emergency room doctors know you're an organ donor, they won't work as hard to save you.
Fact: If you are sick or injured and admitted to the hospital, the number one priority is to save your life. Organ donation can only be considered after brain death has been declared by a physician. Many states have adopted legislation allowing individuals to legally designate their wish to be a donor should brain death occur, although in many states Organ Procurement Organizations also require consent from the donor's family.
Myth: When you're waiting for a transplant, your financial or celebrity status is as important as your medical status.
Fact: When you are on the transplant waiting list for a donor organ, the only factors which determine organ allocation are medical factors specific for that organ and includes measure like the severity of your illness, time spent waiting and blood type among others.
Myth: Having "organ donor" noted on your driver's license or carrying a donor card is all you have to do to become a donor.
Fact: While a signed donor card and a driver's license with an "organ donor" designation are legal documents, organ and tissue donation is usually discussed with family members prior to the donation. To ensure that your family understands your wishes, it is important that you tell your family about your decision to donate LIFE.
Myth: Only hearts, livers, and kidneys can be transplanted.
Fact: Needed organs include the heart, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, liver, and intestines. Tissue that can be donated include the eyes, skin, bone, heart valves and tendons.
Myth: Your history of medical illness means your organs or tissues are unfit for donation.
Fact: At the time of death, the appropriate medical professionals will review your medical and social histories to determine whether or not you can be a donor. With recent advances in transplantation, many more people than ever before can be donors. It's best to tell your family your wishes and sign up to be an organ and tissue donor on your driver's license or an official donor document.
Myth: You are too old to be a donor.
Fact: People of all ages and medical histories should consider themselves potential donors. Your medical condition at the time of death will determine what organs and tissue can be donated.
Myth: If you agree to donate your organs, your family will be charged for the costs.
Fact: There is no cost to the donor's family or estate for organ and tissue donation. Funeral costs remain the responsibility of the family.
Myth: Organ donation disfigures the body and changes the way it looks in a casket.
Fact: Donated organs are removed surgically, in a routine operation similar to gallbladder or appendix removal. Donation does not change the appearance of the body for the funeral service.
Myth: Your religion prohibits organ donation.
Fact: All major organized religions approve of organ and tissue donation and consider it an act of charity.
Myth: Patients are not really dead when their organs are removed.
Fact: Organs are not removed until an independent physician pronounces the patient dead.
Myth: Medications are given to organ donors that will cause their death.
Fact: No medications are given to cause a patient's death. Patients may be given medications while they are on the ventilator to keep them comfortable.
Myth: Families cannot be with their loved one when he or she dies
Fact: Families can request to be with their loved one until death is pronounced. Most hospitals have mechanisms to respond to these requests.
There is an urgent need for registered organ, eye and tissue donors in Ohio and across the United States. One organ donor can save eight lives, while one tissue donor can enhance the lives of more than 50 people. Unfortunately, 107,000+ men, women and children nationwide are currently waiting for life-saving organ transplants. Thousands on that waiting list live in Ohio.(LifeBanc.org)
To become a registered organ, eye and tissue donor, do one of the following:
For more information about organ donation, please contact:
This article is a NetWellness exclusive.
Last Reviewed: Aug 27, 2013
Robert Schilz, DO, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University | <urn:uuid:2f52e8b7-7d09-4363-a665-8327353bb364> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.netwellness.org/healthtopics/kidney/organtransplant.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94783 | 1,825 | 3.359375 | 3 |
The History Show Sunday 17 March 2013
A History of Ireland in 100 Objects
This week, our programme launched A History of Ireland in 100 Objects, the book which took shape as a weekly series in the Irish Times.
Some of the items are humble and ordinary while others are splendid and dazzling. But what they have in common is that they all touched and shaped the lives of our ancestors and are part of the story of our country.
The book is a co-production between the National Museum of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy and the Irish Times – and its edited by Fintan O’Toole of that newspaper. It starts with the Mesolithic Fish Trap (5000 BC) and finishes with the Anglo Irish Bank sign (number 99) followed by object number 100 - a decommissioned AK 47 from 2005.
Our programme included a series of animated reports on diverse objects from museums around the country.
Our studio guests were archaeologist, Michael Ryan; Catriona Crowe of the National Archives and journalist, Patsey Murphy, former editor of the Irish Times magazine who recently left the paper after 37 years. They selected objects from the book that caught their imagination and attention.
A History of Ireland in 100 Objects edited by Fintan O'Toole is published by the RIA. This is a joint project between The Irish Times, the National Museum of Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy.
Free 100 Objects ebook and app
The rich and resonant objects in this book don’t belong to museums, scholars or historians. They’re the common heritage of Irish people - everywhere.
So, to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and Ireland’s presidency of the EU, A History of Ireland in 100 Objects will be available to download FREE as an app or an e-book until the 31st of March.
eBook and app download link: http://www.eu2013.ie/100objects/
Here you’ll also find fancier versions for iPads, iPhones and Android tablets.
Promotional Video: http://vimeo.com/61015439
100 Objects Trail
The 100 Objects featured in the book are on display in museums in the capital and around the country as follows:
Eight locations in Dublin where the majority of the objects are housed:
NMI – Archaeology
NMI – Decorative Arts & History,
Christ Church Cathedral
National Archives of Ireland
Royal Irish Academy
Trinity College Dublin
National Library of Ireland
View Trail Map
Other locations around the country:
Medieval Museum, Waterford
Irish Agricultural Museum, Wexford
Carlow County Museum
National Science Museum at Maynooth
NMI – Country Life, Mayo
NMNI, Ulster Museum, Belfast
NMNI, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, Down
NMNI, Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh
Museum of Free Derry, Derry
Site: Tullaghoge Fort, Tyrone
Site: Clonca Graveyard, Donegal
UK: The British Museum, Russell Street
UK: English Heritage
Norway: Viking Ship Museum, Oslo
Background to 100 Objects
It started as a series in The Irish Times with 100 objects chosen by journalist Fintan O’Toole. It is a collaboration involving an extensive range of museums and other institutions, the Irish Presidency of the Council of European Union, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Tourism Ireland and Adobe, coordinated by the Royal Irish Academy. It incorporates a book, an app, a primary-level educational resource, an exhibition at the National Craft Gallery and, first and foremost, a trail of 100 key objects from Irish history that are sited across Ireland,in the UK and in Norway. | <urn:uuid:e0d81bae-953c-4deb-aea5-42bc2ede005a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.rte.ie/radio1/the-history-show/programmes/2013/0317/376684-the-history-show-sunday-17-march-2013/?clipid=1030712 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921131 | 784 | 2.625 | 3 |
Concrete Bar Cart
By DIY Pete
A Miter Saw is a large, table-top saw used to make precise cuts in wood. Miter Saws are typically used to make quick, accurate cuts in materials like crown moulding, framing materials, and narrow pieces of wood.
Welcome to TOOLS 101: Miter Saws! Make sure to explore all of our resources on this page, and don't miss our Miter Saw Introduction video with Shanty2Chic!
* Fields are required× | <urn:uuid:acf6c179-28f3-4933-a2bb-5d36eb32f197> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.ryobitools.com/nation?page=3&previous_project_id=310 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.876272 | 106 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Controversial theory suggests alga is a native species, not an invader
Environmental change could be triggering “rock snot” algal blooms that harm fish and leave pristine riverbeds looking like tattered mats of soggy toilet paper.
Since the mid-2000s the goopy blooms, which look mucuslike up close, have cropped up in rivers worldwide. Researchers assumed that the responsible alga, Didymosphenia geminata, was a foreigner or a mutant aggressively invading clean watersheds. But a new analysis suggests that the alga nicknamed didymo is instead native to much of the globe, and that changes in water conditions are to blame for a recent boom in blooms. The controversial suggestion could upend strategies for preventing cases of rock snot. | <urn:uuid:9b9f30fc-c954-402e-8f1f-a56b3a690461> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.sciencenews.org/article/environmental-change-may-spur-growth-%E2%80%98rock-snot%E2%80%99?mode=archive&context=188604 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914404 | 164 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Self-driving vehicles, battery alternatives and analyses of galaxy clusters claim top prizes at global high school science competition
PHOENIX — Hate driving your car when you could be a passenger? A self-driving vehicle that one day could chauffer human occupants around town brought its inventor, a 19-year-old Romanian computer scientist, the top prize — and $75,000 — this week at the world’s premier high school research competition.
Ionut Budisteanu, a student at Liceul Tehnologic Oltchim in Ramnicu Valcea, Romania, was the big winner at the 2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, or Intel ISEF. He was one of three young researchers who each walked away with prizes worth more than $50,000.
Society for Science & the Public, which publishes Science News, created the fair in 1950 and still runs it. More than one-third of the roughly 1,600 Intel ISEF finalists received awards on May 17 totaling more than $4 million.
The annual science competition attracts some of the world’s most talented young scientists. This year’s finalists were selected from the winners of science fairs in more than 70 countries, regions and territories. Almost 30 percent of the finalists either have a patent on their work or intend to apply for one.
“This competition encourages millions of students worldwide every year to explore their passion for math and science while developing solutions for global challenges,” said Wendy Hawkins, the executive director of the Intel Foundation.
The competition’s $75,000 top cash prize is named for Gordon E. Moore, Intel’s cofounder. Budisteanu received this award for designing software to pilot a low-cost, self-navigating vehicle. Such a car could reduce fatal auto accidents, 90 percent of which are caused by human error.
The teen’s design relies on Internet-linked cameras, or webcams, to detect people, other cars and large objects such as trees. An onboard 3-D laser radar measures distance to those objects. The software uses that information to adjust the speed of the vehicle.
Onboard software also helps recognize road signs, lane markers, traffic lanes and curbs. The software adds any newly encountered features to a database that would be available to all cars connected to the Internet.
Two other young researchers each won Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards of $50,000.
Eesha Khare, 18, of Saratoga, Calif., picked up one for designing and building a supercapacitor, a device to store electrical energy. The single electrode in Khare’s device has a core of hydrogen-doped titanium dioxide nanostructures. A flexible, plasticlike polymer surrounds that core. Her novel device can charge up very quickly.
It also can store almost three times as much electrical energy as previous capacitors. And unlike previous capacitors, it stores that energy in a tiny volume, one comparable to a battery’s. Her new device also holds a charge far longer than batteries do.
The other $50,000 award went to Henry Wanjune Lin, 17, of Shreveport, La., for modeling the behavior of distant galaxies. Galaxies, the huge collections of stars that are bound by gravity and move as a unit, often occur in clusters. Lin compared his mathematical predictions about galaxy clusters with what astronomers have observed using telescopes.
He found that the scientists are slightly more likely to find a particular type of cluster: one with galaxies that have cooler-than-usual temperatures at their core. But overall, the teen confirmed, the way astronomers have been surveying clustered galaxies works well.
Seventeen students won “best of category” awards, each worth $5,000. Budisteanu’s project claimed top honors among computer science projects, Khare conquered the chemistry category and Lin won the day in the physics-and-astronomy group.
Other first-place category winners include:
For animal sciences, Michael Shao, 16, of Northville, Mich. He won for showing how a worm responds to cold temperatures. The worm, C. elegans, has a simple nervous system often used as a model for the human nervous system. Shao studied the worm at temperatures between 4° and 20° Celsius. His findings may help scientists design treatments that help people better withstand the cold.
In behavioral and social sciences, Zarin Rahman, 16, of Brookings, S.D. She showed that stressful experiences such as getting too little sleep or watching too much TV impair a teen’s mood and memory.
In earth and planetary sciences, Gyou Tanaka, 16, of Mobara, Japan. He dug up small seashells from several layers of dirt at a site southeast of Tokyo. His goal: to understand the environment of 300,000 years ago. He found that this region had been part of the Pacific seafloor. Water depths at the time were somewhere between 10 and 30 meters, he reported.
In electrical and mechanical engineering, Zeyu Liu, 17, of Calgary, Alberta, in Canada. He designed a device that minimizes friction in systems used to store energy in large rotating wheels. The device uses several types of magnets to lift a wheel and make it float in a stable position.
In environmental sciences, Naomi Shah, 17, of Portland, Ore. She created an air filter that includes natural materials such as peat, mulch and live plants. In tests, the filter reduced some harmful chemicals in indoor air by as much as 24 percent. Her filter also cut the number of small pollution particles in the air by 18 percent. Indoor air pollution contributes to nearly 2 million deaths across the globe each year, she noted.
In mathematical sciences, Vinay Iyengar, 17, of Portland, Ore. He developed new techniques to efficiently create secret codes. He showed that the new methods work much better than current code-making schemes. But, he warns, the same techniques can break codes, as well.
In medicine and health, Jessie MacAlpine, 17, of Woodstock, Canada. She demonstrated that people consuming mustard oil, a simple cooking oil, can help slow the spread of malaria. In her tests, ingesting the oil slowed by 94 percent the growth of parasites that spread malaria. The cost of the amount of oil a person would need to take each day costs about one-millionth as much as currently used antimalaria drugs.
In microbiology, David Zimmerman, 18, of Los Angeles, Calif. He studied a microbe often used in battery-like fuel cells. Until now, it has been difficult to genetically alter the microbe to make it more useful. But this teen developed a way. Scientists can use his techniques to change the genetic code in other difficult-to-modify microbes, he suggested.
In biochemistry, Savannah Tobin, 18, of Salem, Ore. She found a way to measure a particular chemical in cat saliva that can cause allergies in people. Unlike previous tests, which required veterinarians to take blood samples, her test is inexpensive and quick.
In cellular and molecular biology, Hannah Wastyk, 17, of Palmyra, Pa. She developed a promising treatment for melanoma, a particularly deadly form of cancer. The treatment kills a large proportion of cancer cells but doesn’t affect most healthy cells.
In materials and bioengineering, Samantha Marquez, 17, of Midlothian, Va. Using bacteria and algae, she created hollow shells of cells. These living capsules could be injected into patients to deliver drugs, she said. They could also serve as miniature containers for a variety of lab tests.
In energy and transportation, Evie Sobczak, 16, of St. Petersburg, Fla. She found a way to grow algae and then break them down to extract their oil, which could be used as fuel. Compared to existing methods, her techniques boosted oil production by up to 20 percent. This might help make biofuels more economical, she said.
In environmental management, Shixuan Li, 15, of Lynn Haven, Fla. He created an efficient way to extract an antioxidant from shrimp shells. One kilogram of this substance, astaxanthin, sells for about $6,000. The shells he used are typically thrown away as waste.
In plant sciences, Samantha DiSalvo, Ryan Kenny and Amy Vitha of Hewlett, N.Y. They probed how plants respond to, and sometimes resist, bacterial infections. These processes haven’t previously been studied in detail at the molecular level, the students said.
In addition to their “best of category” awards, Tobin, Wastyk and Zimmerman received the Dudley R. Herschbach Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar award. Herschbach, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, is the former chairman of Society for Science & the Public. The award includes a trip to Stockholm this December, where the teens will attend the Nobel Prize ceremonies.
Li, Marquez and Sobczak each also won a behind-the-scenes visit to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. During their trip, they will also visit scientists at Caltech to discuss their Intel ISEF research projects.
Kenny, DiSalvo and Vitha will also participate in the London International Youth Science Forum this summer. The annual two-week program hosts 300 young scientists from more than 50 nations.
Second- through fourth-place winners in each of the 17 categories received cash awards of up to $1,500. Additional awards from the Intel ISEF competition included college scholarships, medals and paid summer internships.
“As this competition gets bigger, students not previously involved in such competitions can realize that independent research is both possible and rewarding,” says Elizabeth Marincola, president of Society for Science & the Public. | <urn:uuid:98906a8d-38c1-4d7e-bfaf-3d9fab2978e2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/scene?mode=magazine&context=711 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947032 | 2,056 | 2.78125 | 3 |
A competitive Elementary Science Olympiad (ESO) for Grades 3-6 will not only get kids in the district ready for the nationally-competitive Division B program, it's also a wonderful supplement to any school's science curriculum. At the same time you cover the skeletal system, students preparing for an ESO contest can study A is for Anatomy or No Bones About It. Many teachers use the competitive ESO events to add a hands-on element to their classroom schedule.
Of the nearly 100 events in the ESO tournament manual, most schools generally choose between 10 and 16 for a standard, day-long tournament. Just like the Division B and Division C set up, schools form a team, register, are assigned events to prepare for, and compete against other teams for medals, ribbons and in some cases, state trophies. There is no ESO National Tournament, nor is there a national fee to participate in ESO. Each school, district or state may charge its own fee, however.
A competitive ESO tournament allows teams to receive the type of support from the media and community normally reserved for athletic teams, and it's a nice way for kids to feel the joy of succeeding in a team endeavor. Some excellent examples of ESO tournaments across the US can be found in: | <urn:uuid:9e4da814-b841-4a6b-a506-085e38af4c67> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.soinc.org/competitive_tournaments | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931635 | 264 | 3.1875 | 3 |
African American English (AAE) is spoken across the United States, a distinctive dialect intertwined with African American history from slavery to the present day. From analysis of the narratives of ex-slaves to current research on how children acquire the unique speaking patterns of AAE, study of the linguistic system has real-world benefits for millions of Americans.
Lisa Green, Linguistics, directs the UMass Amherst Center for the Study of African American Language (CSAAL), where research is conducted on AAE and language in African American communities. The center also provides resources to students and educators who address language- and dialect-related issues.
One common misconception Green regularly confronts is that AAE is just “slang.” But in fact, research that began in the 1960s reveals that AAE observes systematic rules and structure and that it differs from general American English in subtle ways. Green’s passion is to break down those misconceptions through research, and to make that research available and useful to the community. To that end, the Center hosts two unique research and training programs, the Summer Dialect Teacher Project (SDTP) and the Summer Dialect Research Project (SDRP) for undergraduates.
The SDTP is intended for educators or people who train educators. Many educators teach students who speak AAE, yet they might not have information about the linguistic features of the dialect, which can be useful in developing classroom instruction. Such information is beneficial in instances in which there are concerns that AAE may be a barrier to student learning and academic success.
SDTP projects are collaborative and interdisciplinary, drawing on faculty from departments such as Linguistics, English, and Education at UMass. For example, Green has worked with Anne Herrington, English, director of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, to offer AAE seminars for teachers that address issues related to language diversity, language use in the classroom, and ways of describing properties of language.
Undergraduates interested in research have a unique opportunity to participate in the Summer Dialect Research Project, a two-week program that focuses on analyzing data and developing and presenting mini research projects. Student projects are on topics such as language use by children who grow up in AAE-speaking communities and implications for the linguistic study of AAE for education.
Students connect with faculty members from UMass and other universities during daily seminars and work closely with those whose areas of research coincide with their projects. “Invariably, even students whose school does not offer linguistics or AAE study are interested in AAE,” says Green, and for that reason one of the Center’s main goals is to train undergraduates and increase the number of students, particularly those from underrepresented minority groups, who conduct graduate research in those areas.
What’s next for the Center? Green intends for the Center to be a primary resource for people who have questions about AAE. She aims to expand the undergraduate research program and encourage students who attend the summer program to consider attending graduate school—possibly UMass—where they can conduct research on language- and dialect-related topics. She believes that as more students come to the Center from around the country and take new knowledge back with them, they can generate a lot of interest in AAE among a wider population.
African American English is full of fascinating phenomena for linguistic study, but it also touches the lives, the history and future of AAE speakers. The Center recognizes the dual concerns of academic research and community outreach, and continues to make practical connections with students and educators in the school systems.
Amanda Rizun '13
One common misconception Green regularly confronts is that AAE is just “slang”, when in actuality, AAE observes systematic rules and structure that differ from general American English in subtle ways. | <urn:uuid:9e06b8a1-8b2b-4f0d-86da-87bfceacb532> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.umass.edu/researchnext/print/4486 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957806 | 782 | 3.375 | 3 |
Virgo is found in the months of April through July.
Click on image for full size
Windows to the Universe original image
The constellation Virgo is known as The Maiden. Virgo is the only female member of the zodiac. The constellation represents almost every famous and powerful female in mythology, including Athena, Artemis, Persephone and Demeter. She is usually carrying a grain of wheat and a staff.
The brightest star in the constellation is Spica, which happens to represent the grain of wheat. Hence the name, which is Latin for "ear of wheat". In the image, Spica is the large, white sphere in the lower left region. At first the constellation doesn't look like a person, until you realize she is lying down! Her head is towards the east.
There is one cluster of stars called NGC 5634 located in Virgo's right leg. Unfortunately, there are no nebulae, but the large number of galaxies makes up for it. There is a large cluster of galaxies to the east of her left arm. It contains over 3,000 galaxies, many of which can be spotted with a telescope.
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The Fall 2009 issue of The Earth Scientist
, which includes articles on student research into building design for earthquakes and a classroom lab on the composition of the Earth’s ancient atmosphere, is available in our online store
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Many cultures have seen distinctive patterns, called constellations, formed by the stars in the heavens. Constellations are usually comprised of bright stars which appear close to each other on the sky,...more | <urn:uuid:47a4e08d-022d-4afd-bcb8-618167905907> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.windows2universe.org/the_universe/Constellations/virgo.html&edu=high | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953277 | 655 | 3.484375 | 3 |
When a young doctor’s wife wrote in her diary back in 1902, she couldn’t have known that over a century later, scholars at William & Mary would be reading it—let alone trying to determine her identity.
The diary was acquired by the College in 2009 and dwells in Swem Library’s Special Collections Research Center. Its unsigned entries offer a fascinating view into the day-to-day existence of a middle-class African American woman living in Virginia’s Tidewater during the early 20th century. It also provides a focus for hands-on scholarly research, the results of which will surely be of interest to scholars and genealogists—and perhaps some day even to the diarist’s descendants.
Once Special Collections purchased the diary (on eBay!) University Archivist Amy Schindler placed it on a list of items that would make a good focus for an honors thesis or student paper. Additionally, the diary has a Lemon Project component. Jody Allen, a visiting assistant professor of history and Lemon Project managing director and co-chair, explains the Lemon Project focuses on the history of Williamsburg and the Peninsula from the slavery era through the Jim Crow era.
“Diary keeping was a common practice in the early 20th century—and certainly not uncommon among African Americans,” Schindler says. “It was probably less common for those of the working class, who would not have had as much leisure time to devote to writing.”
Allen agrees, noting that the diary entries suggest that its author did not work outside the home.
“This gives increased support to the idea that there were, in fact, middle-class blacks during this period,” Allen says.
In spring 2011, Kendra Cabler ’11, seeking a one-credit independent study topic, was the first to look into the diary. She graduated before she was able to make much progress, but her work informed subsequent research.
“I had it in my mind as a project for one of our graduate students,” Schindler says. “Lauren Wallace is working on her master’s in history and she had done some other research for me. So I know that she is very thorough.”
‘A fascinating diary’
Wallace, who also serves as an apprentice in Special Collections, was excited to tackle the project.
“It’s a fascinating diary. The task I was given was to research and check the accuracy of things we thought were true about the diary from Kendra’s research—and ultimately reveal the identity of the diarist,” Wallace explains.
Wallace set about the painstaking task of scrutinizing clues from the diary and conclusions from Kendra Cabler’s research. She combed through Google Books and other online archives, including special collection research centers in other institutions.
“The first thing I did was to begin double-checking dates and events,” says Wallace. “Through Swem’s databases, we have access to many records and newspapers.”
The mystery diarist had written her entries on preprinted, dated pages within a small book called The Physician’s Daily Memorandum, a drug-company freebie. The top half of each page is occupied by day and date information, followed by preprinted segments of a physician’s case notes. The preprinted section for Thursday, July 10, details the gynecological problems of “Mrs. McG., Irish, aged fifty-seven” as recorded by Dr. Geo. G. Van Schaick. In the blank area below, the diarist recorded:
The Hottist day of the season thus far. Mr. Gray shot Dr. Batts and killed him at 8 o’clock at night. It poured down raining.
Wallace plugged events mentioned in the diary into a search engine and newspapers from 1902 began to fill in the blanks. It became clear that the diary was set in Norfolk, not Portsmouth, as was originally believed.
“In one of the entries, she writes of a fire in the Columbia Atlantic Hotel which occurred on January 31,” says Wallace. “The New York Times published an article saying the hotel burned down on January 31, 1902 in Norfolk, Virginia.”
Most entries are less dramatic, mostly logistical ones surrounding church, family and what happened on a given day, e.g., “the weather was hot and Alma cleaned the shed.”
Alma was the diarist’s daughter; her presence in the diary would prove extremely helpful later—as Wallace’s research brought her closer to a positive I.D. of the diarist.
For weeks, Wallace pored over the diary, drawing upon her own research expertise to unlock its mysteries. She knew that the diarist’s husband was involved in a medical association which Wallace theorized was probably the National Medical Association, “since African American doctors were not allowed to be in the American Medical Association in the early 1900s.”
Further inquiry into the National Medical Association revealed a list of prominent physicians in the Norfolk and Portsmouth area. While a number of names were crossed off Wallace’s list because they did not match up to the diary’s doctor, a few proved promising—in particular—a Dr. P. L. Barber.
Wallace was able to call up a document from Howard University, a historically black university, and established that a Philip L. Barber was a medical student there—and the years he was there were consistent with the age of the diarist’s husband.
Zeroing in on the diarist
“Through diary entries, I knew that the doctor’s birthday was in May. At this point, other pieces of the puzzle were falling into place,” Wallace says.
In addition to serving as a local officer for the Norfolk area in the NMA, the diary’s doctor was also involved in the Tidewater Medical Society which provided medical care for the black population in Norfolk.
Ultimately, Wallace located a genealogy site recommended to her by the Norfolk Public Library.
“It showed that Philip L. Barber had a wife named Florence and an adopted daughter named Alma,” says Wallace.
That information prompted Wallace to explore census records for Norfolk, Virginia, where she found pay dirt.
“Throughout the diary, there are references to meetings of the Colored Men’s Department of the YMCA, conferences intended for racial empowerment and equality, and mentions of key individuals in the National Medical Association and Tidewater Medical Society,” she says. “By using these organizations as a framework, it was possible to ascertain that the probable owner of the diary was indeed Florence Barber, wife of Dr. Philip L. Barber.”
Beyond unveiling the probable identity of the diarist, there may be other opportunities for other scholars to build on Wallace’s research. It is clear from diary entries that the doctor and his wife were very involved in their community and that they engaged regularly with influential people of color.
Stirrings of a movement
“I believe that a number of these conferences she wrote about as having attended were important because, although the Civil Rights Movement hadn’t happened yet, there were the beginnings or stirrings of the African American community asserting themselves by trying to better their own lives,” Wallace says.
In the near term, she has completed her research. Her paper will be incorporated into the Special Collections Research Center database so that people who find a description of the diary there will have more background information about the woman and the contents of her diary.
But it doesn’t have to end there.
“I’ve started the ball rolling and now maybe the things that I discovered will make people want to learn more about Florence Barber,” says Wallace. | <urn:uuid:87c058d1-f510-4954-b58d-845b540c3c31> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.wm.edu/research/ideation/issues/2012-spring/the-hunt-for-the-mystery-diarist3187.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976687 | 1,646 | 2.875 | 3 |
Question: How effective is cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of depression in children/adolescents?
Answer: Cognitive therapy -- or cognitive behavioral therapy -- appears to be quite effective for treating depression amongst children and adolescents. There have been over a dozen outcome studies -- well controlled outcome studies completed over the past 10 to 12 years. And invariably the outcomes tend to be positive.
The largest study completed to date -- the treatment for adolescents with depression study -- and that was completed with 439 depressed teenagers. What they found was that the combination of cognitive therapy and medication was the most effective, leading to rapid improvement in mood and their adjustment, how they were doing. But that over time -- over 36 weeks -- cognitive therapy alone was just as effective. Moreover, CBT seems to be effective for reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviors amongst children who are depressed.
Previous: How Effective Is Play Therapy For The Treatment Of Depression In Children/Adolescents? | <urn:uuid:b917a876-43e8-4d78-9ddc-0facd42f62c2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://abcnews.go.com/Health/DepressionTreatment/story?id=4359715 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959937 | 190 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Communities along the Minnesota-North Dakota border are watching the water levels, listening to the weather forecasts, and preparing for another season of flooding. It must be a disconcertingly familiar routine, as this will be the third year in a row in which the Red River of the North reaches major flooding levels. But this isn’t merely a run of bad luck for residents in the Red River Valley, major floods are to be expected in a place with an unfortunate combination of extremely low relief and a river at the whim of snowmelt and ice jams.
The Red River of the North begins in Minnesota, near the border with North and South Dakota, and it flows northward through Fargo/Moorhead, Grand Forks, and Winnipeg before emptying into Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba. The landscape around the Red River is excruciatingly flat (Figure 1), for the Red River Valley isn’t a stream-formed feature at all, but is the remnant landscape of Glacial Lake Agassiz, which held meltwaters from the Laurentide Ice Sheet for more than 5000 years. The modern Red River has barely managed to incise into this flat, flat surface, because it slopes only very gently to the north (~17 cm/km). Instead, the river tightly meanders across the old lake bed, slowly carrying its water to the north. Topographically, this is a pretty bad setting for a flood, because floodwaters spread out over large areas and take a long time to drain away.
The climate of the Red River watershed makes it prone to flooding during the spring, usually peaking in about mid-April. The area receives about 1 m of snow between October and May, and the river freezes over. In late March to early April, the temperatures generally rise above freezing, triggering the start of snowmelt. Temperatures warm soonest in the southern, upstream end of the watershed and they get above freezing the latest near the mouth of the river. This means that snowmelt drains into the river’s upper reaches while downstream the river is still frozen, impeding flow (Figure 2). As the ice goes out, jams can temporarily occur and dam or back up the river, exacerbating local flooding problems.
Together the topography and climate of the Red River watershed are a recipe for large-scale flooding, and the historical record shows that floods are a frequent occurrence on the river. Usually, hydrologists talk about rivers in terms of their flow, or discharge, which is the volume of water per second that passes a point. But, when talking about floods like those on the Red River, it’s not so much volume that matters as how high the water rises (“stage”). The National Weather Service is responsible for flood prediction in the US, and they define flood stage as “the stage at which overflow of the natural streambanks begins to cause damage in the reach in which the elevation is measured.” If the water level continues to rise, “moderate flooding” occurs when “some inundation of structures and roads near streams. Some evacuations of people and/or transfer of property to higher elevations are necessary.” Further increases in water levels can bring a river to “major flooding“, when “extensive inundation of structures and roads. Significant evacuations of people and/or transfer of property to higher elevations.” That’s the sort of flooding that will happen in places along the Red River this spring, as it has many springs in the historical record (Figure 3).
Already, flood warnings are being issued for the Red River and its tributaries. As I’ll discuss in my next post (up now here), the long-range forecast for this spring’s floods on the Red is looking pretty grim. But as the communities along the river brace for the on-coming flood, it is important to remember that the geology and climate of the region make repeated major floods inevitable. | <urn:uuid:b0f0f346-99dd-42f2-af0d-5158ec17848c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/2011/04/why-does-the-red-river-of-the-north-have-so-many-floods/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95107 | 817 | 3.671875 | 4 |
The True Story of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
For her actions she was disowned by her family, attacked, shot at, cursed at, and hunted down by the Klan for execution. Her path has crossed with some of the biggest names in the Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Robert F. Kennedy, John Lewis, Diane Nash, John Salter, and Harry Belafonte, to name a few. In addition, she has met such luminaries of that period like Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Marlon Brando, Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson.
She has received numerous awards and recognition for her work in the Civil Rights Movement. Most recently she was recognized, along with other female Freedom Riders, by President Barack Obama, received Delta Sigma Theta, Inc.’s Annual Award of Honor, and the Anti-Defamation League Annual Heroes Against Hate Award.
"I saw something was wrong and decided to do something about it."
- Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
“An Ordinary Hero” isn’t just an award-winning film it’s an experience and opportunity to reach out and share not only the remarkable untold story of Civil Rights Legend, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland but also to inspire a new generation to go out and make life better.
Our collective history of exercising our democratic rights is not being taught. The courage to choose your convictions and stand up for righteous principals is being lost. The belief that ordinary people can make a difference in our society is fading. We want to change that and we are through this film and the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation.
"Nobody's free until everybody's free."
- Fannie Lou Hamer
The Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that was established to help further educate the youth not only about the Civil Rights Movement but also empower them to make a positive change in their communities.
Help us accomplish our mission by donating to our foundation and share this remarkable story by sponsoring an event in your community.
We’re just getting started but over the next year we’ll be rolling out some helpful educational tools for teachers and students to engage in, establish a scholarship, create a travel museum exhibit and much more.
"Amazing, Powerful, Elegant, Poetic"
- Gregory Howard, Writer - "Remember the Titans"
Experience the award-winning film that will make you want to stand up and cheer. Relive some of the most pivotal moments of the Civil Rights Movement from the people who were there. Seen on PBS and screened by the Smithsonian Institution, and major universities and organizations throughout the country, “An Ordinary Hero” is the rare film that inspires people of all ages to want to go out and make life better.
"The time is always right to do what is right."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Join us at one of our exciting events or contact us to find out how you can sponsor one in your community.
Civil Rights Icon, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland will be the keynote speaker at the Utah Council for the Social Studies 2016 Conference.
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Please feel free to contact us with any question, inquiry, comment, or to learn more about our foundation. We are always looking for opportunities to visit universities, organizations, and schools nationwide to further educate our youth and our communities. | <urn:uuid:94d3f869-6bdd-474d-a6c8-2fe785ff7eef> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://anordinaryhero.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938439 | 739 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2012 November 23
Explanation: East of Antares, dark markings sprawl through crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds include B59, B72, B77 and B78, seen in silhouette against the starry background. Here, their combined shape suggests a pipe stem and bowl, and so the dark nebula's popular name is the Pipe Nebula. The deep and expansive view was represents nearly 24 hours of exposure time recorded in very dark skies of the Chilean Atacama desert. It covers a full 10 by 10 degree field in the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. The Pipe Nebula is part of the Ophiuchus dark cloud complex located at a distance of about 450 light-years. Dense cores of gas and dust within the Pipe Nebula are collapsing to form stars.
Authors & editors:
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U. | <urn:uuid:f28fdcd7-60bc-431b-a291-adb5eea3acdb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121123.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912399 | 260 | 3.875 | 4 |
Lutyens, Sir Edwin (1869-1944)
Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) was one of the most important english architects of the early twentieth century. He was responsible for some outstanding domestic commission in England but his most important work was in India where he was responsible for the layout and planning of New Delhi. His most important building there was the Viceroy’s residence (1912-1931). After the First World War, he was responsible for many war memorials, including the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, and the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval in France. In Ireland, he designed the Islandbridge War Memorial in Dublin, as well as Howth and Lambay Castles in County Dublin.
While in Ireland, Lutyens was involved with Hugh Lane’s proposal to build a Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin. Several suggested designs were produced, including a colonnaded building on St Stephen’s Green opposite the Royal College of Surgeons. The most controversial design was a suggested ‘bridge gallery’ over the Liffey. This aroused much criticism, mostly from the Irish architectural journals complaining on the choice of a ‘foreign’ architect – even though Lutyen’s mother was Irish. This design took the form of two pavilions at either end with a columned pergola between over a three arched bridge. Eventually the idea foundered when Lane died in the sinking of the Lusitania.
After the Great War, his most important commissions in England were the Midland Bank, Poultry (1924-37) and the Catholic Cathedral, Liverpool which was only completed to crypt level. | <urn:uuid:9e2957df-6e72-4419-8a7f-453d22506c65> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://archiseek.com/2009/sir-edwin-lutyens-1869-1944/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978479 | 360 | 2.9375 | 3 |
UNLIKE the architect, neither the sculptor nor the painter need wait for a commission before creating a composition, unless he is an architectural sculptor only, or a mural painter pure and simple. It has, I hope, been made clear in a pre-ceding chapter that a mural painting or a piece of architectural sculpture must be conceived and executed with reference to the exact place it is to occupy. The description we are about to give of the technique of the sculptor applies equally to free-standing sculpture or to architectural sculpture; the differences between these lie in character, not in method.
The materials a sculptor uses are: wet clay; plasteline, a composition which does not dry and crack and need not be kept wet as clay must be; and prepared wax. An idea for a figure or a group occurs to him; he sees it in his mind’s eye, more or less clearly, more or less vaguely, as the architect first sees his building, the painter his picture, the musician his song, the poet his sonnet. It is as yet only an intangible thought, still to be made visible to others. He takes a lump of clay or plasteline and, with his fingers and his toolsflattish wooden spatulas and wire loops of different shapes and sizes inserted in wooden handleshe models the plastic material into the general guise of his vision. The top of his modelling stand works on a pivot so that he may turn the figure around and view it in various lights from every possible point of view. This little sketch may be only four or five inches high, but, like the thumb-nail sketch of the architect, or the phrase of the musician, contains the germ of the completed work. The sculptor then enlarges this sketch to a size several times greater. For this larger sketch an armature is required. An armature is a sort of skeleton without ribs or head, but with arms, legs, spine, and neck, made of wirehard lead, copper, or galvanized ironbent into the general attitude and shape of the little sketch model. Without the armature the model would sag of its own weight as the human body would without its skeleton. The feet of the armature secured to the modelling stand, the sculptor proceeds to clothe this skeleton with clay or plastelinewax is used chiefly for very small figures or for models of coins or medalssqueezing it around the wires and building out the forms of the body. When the general masses of the body, head, and limbs are approximately arrived at, he begins with fingers and tools to correct and modify the forms and establish their drawing and their planes. The pro-file of any form as seen in any position is, in Sculpture, the drawing of that form. Any surface, however rounded it may seem to be, may be resolved upon examination into a series of approximately flat planes. Taking the face as an illustration, we have the general plane of the forehead, the general planes of the cheeks, the general plane beneath the nose in which the mouth and chin lie. These are the big, main planes; and each is made up of other, minor planes and these again of lesser ones; and so of any part of the body. Some sculptors work by establishing the planes first; some by establishing the profiles of forms first and then connecting them with planes; as for example: in modelling a head, to build up the profile of the face and the top and back of the head exactly as it looks from the side; then the outline of the head and ears as it looks from straight in front; then the three-quarter views of the face and back of the head; then connecting these mere profiles with clay, and then establishing an infinite number of intermediate profiles or outlines in the order of their importance. By this method the absolute drawing of every mass, or contour of a mass or form, is definitely fixed. The other method, working by planes, is about like this: a mass of soft clay or plastelineno armature is required if we are modelling a headis thoroughly kneaded and pounded together, to fill up all possible voids, and then cut with wire tools into the approximate shape of the head. At this stage it looks something like the wooden heads in milliners’ windows. Then the sculptor presses his thumbs on the places where the eyes will be and forms the plane of the eyes; changing the pressure out and down creates the cheek-bones; he returns to the nose and, using the thumb and forefinger as required, of both hands, he presses at each side of the nose-to-be, pressing out and down again to create the plane of the cheeks. Pressure under the nose develops the plane of the mouth and chin; under the jaw, the jaw-bone. A deft touch in the soft clay sketches in the eyelids, another, the lips. Long before this a face has seemed to smile through the clay as though it had always been there and the sculptor had but released it from its enveloping matrix. It is amazing how rapidly a skilful artist will thus create life out of dead earth. The sculptor then corrects profiles and planes and carries out the minor details and refinements of surface and expression. Many men have many methods, but these two are most easily describable.
Although we have described these as applied to the modeling of a head, the same principles apply to a whole figure. Sometimes, if the work is to be a statuette, the artist will go on refining the surfaces and profiles of the sketch to an exquisite degree of finish. But if a sketch for a life-size, or larger, figure is in question, he only carries it to a point where the character is clearly marked, the action expressed, the great masses of light and shade established, Balance and Rhythm secured. A cast is then made of the sketch model absolutely reproducing it in plaster of Paris, and which will therefore bear handling. The enlargement, or “pointing up” of the sketch to the size desired, is a mechanical matter and the first part of the process is turned over to men who make a business of it. Resort is had to a kind of gigantic panto-graph ; the distance between any two points on the small model is automatically increased by the machine to the size desired. An armature is made of strong iron pipe, bent and adjusted to follow the action of the figure, as shown by the sketch, and as the pantograph indicates it to be at the larger scale. The pieces of pipe for the arms and legs are often put together in such a way that they may be moved, in case the sculptor should feel a change desirable. This is clothed with clay by the fistful, pounded into a solid mass until it begins to resemble a human figure. The enlarging machine is so constructed that one leg will move in unison with the other, and a nail is driven into the clay of the enlarged model and left sticking out until its head just touches the tip of the enlarging leg; the head of this nail may give the position of the tip of the nose, or the point of the shoulder; this process repeated again and again all over the figure, it is soon bristling with nails, the head of each representing a certain point on the plaster sketch model, each of these points being marked on the latter with a lead-pencil. Clay is then built up around these nails flush with their heads, the nails pulled out, and the figure takes on the appearance of the forms of the sketch, but several times larger. It is of course unnecessary to enlarge every detail. The sculptor needs only the main planes and points, for, in enlarging a small model its defects and inaccuracies are magnified in proportion. Besides, the problem of treating a figure on a large scale is quite a different one from the treatment of a statuette; more detail is permissible, and yet the difficulty of indicating detail in a broad and convincing way is in-creased by the larger scale. So, having the main points accurately fixed, he begins afresh to study every plane, every profile, the flow of every line, how lines should be opposed or repeated by other lines, how the lights and shadows fall, from every conceivable point of view. Frequently, for the position the figure is to occupy, higher or lower as the case may be, distortion and falsification are required for truth of effect. Planes must be tipped forward or back, this way or that, the neck must be lengthened, things done to the eyes and nose and so on, in order that when placed in its destined position the figure shall look right. When it is thoroughly studied and carried as far as it can be in clay, a plaster cast is made of it and the sculptor then works over this plaster cast with the greatest care, scraping and smoothing and refining surfaces, giving them textures, and softening or sharpening details as he feels they require it, until it is as beautiful as he can make it. It is then ready to cast in bronzea highly technical process and in modern times not a part of the sculptor’s craft. Had the figure been destined for execution in marble or stone it would have been given another sort of treatment; the last finishing process on the large plaster model would be modified or omitted; but first, and most important, there are attitudes of the body for which marble is unsuiteda very simple example would be one in which a figure is drawn up to its full height with one arm extended straight out at a right angle with the body. Either this arm must be cut from a separate piece of marble and jointed on at the shoulder, or, for the sake of having the whole figure in one piece, an enormous block of marble must be provided and all of it beyond the body wasted for this arm. And whichever way it were done, there would be constant danger and likelihood that the arm would eventually crack and fall off or be broken off. This attitude, or almost any attitude, may however be perfectly and safely executed in bronze.
The limitations of the material therefore impose a definite character upon the work, and the sculptor with a grasp upon these limitations of his materials and upon his art, composes his figure or group with definite reference to the material in which it will be executed. If he were modelling for execution in faienceglazed earthenwarehe would not only model all his forms much more crisply than usual to allow for the softening of edges and the filling up of hollows by the colored glazes, but he would so model them as to catch and hold the glaze where he wants accent or a richer coloration, and would make allowance throughout for the tendency the glaze has to run off the high places and gather in the hollows. This technique is very fascinating and one of which the Chinese and Japanese are masters.
Returning, after this digression, to execution in marble, the reader will no doubt recall many marble groups or figures in which the stump of a tree or something of that sort is placed beside a part of the figure, or under itas under the belly of a prancing horse. These are cases wherein the limitations of the material were ignored or exceeded and resort was had to this expedient to carry the weight and make the figure stand up.
To reproduce the full-size plaster model in marble, the early part of the work is turned over to skilful carvers, who, taking the rough block of stone, rough out the figure by a series of careful measurements, and then as soon as points can be fixed for it, the pantograph is brought into playor, rather, a modification of it, since the figure is not being enlarged. Three points are established, coinciding with the three legs of the machine, and a fourth is found on the plaster cast by a sliding and movable metal rod with a point. This point is made to touch a spot on the plaster cast, the rod secured with a set-screw, the point marked for identification with a lead-pencil, the machine transferred to the marble and the three legs placed on the three fixed points which agree with the three on the plaster. The marble is then cut away until the point of the metal rod when slid out to the same extent as on the plaster model exactly touches the marble. Of course, the principal points are always found first, and the marble cut away in planes, the larger at first and then the smaller ones, until the figure is almost like the original plaster. Both are covered by this time with pencil dots representing the points where the pointing-off machine has been used. The sculptor himself then takes a hand, and with mallet and chisel, with rasp and file, and sometimes sandpaper or shark-skin, gives the forms their final surface and their final expression. The sculptors of the Renaissance probably made nothing more than the merest sketch, perhaps only a drawing, and carved their statues out of the solid block without mechanical aids.
For a bas-relief, or an alto-relievo, a background surface of clay or plasteline is prepared, not by any means necessarily flat, upon which the composition is sketched with a stick or a lead-pencil or a tool, and the forms built up on the background with more clay or plasteline, and refined and scraped away to the point of finish where a plaster cast may be made of it, the plaster worked over as for a figure in the round, and then cast in bronze or carved in stone or marble. The treatment given the forms and details must be appropriate to the material.
Coins and medals are merely small bas-reliefs. They are frequently, too frequently, modelled at a size far larger than execution. The medals of Pisanello, done in the fifteenth century, are the finest ever made; and it is quite evident from many indications besides the breadth and simplicity of their design and treatment, that they were modelled at the size of execution. When the original model is made much larger than the finished medal is to be, and then mechanically reduced, the tendency is toward too much detail. When modelled at actual size it is usually done in hard modelling wax. Medals are cast in bronze, silver, and gold, and also struck in a die. Modern coins are always struck; old Greek and Roman coins were cast.
Such, in a brief and general way, are the technical processes by which the sculptor translates a dream into reality. Neither here nor in the description of the architect’s methods have we attempted to give any idea of how the artist’s mind works through these processes and produces a work of beauty in spite of the mechanical methods, the slow series of steps, he must employ. That would be quite impossible to convey; the mind of every artist works in a different way and modifies methods accordingly.
Many sculptors, and among them some of the very best, began as studio boys or helpers, sweeping up, keeping the clay in the bin and the clay models wet, making themselves generally useful, modelling a little when they had time, until gradually, with this experience and work in night classes in drawing or modelling from the life, they became skilful craftsmen. Others, of course, began in schools of art, supplemented by experience as helpers. When a sculptor is successful and has many and large commissions, it is physically impossible for him to do all of the work himself, and he therefore has assistants who carry out his instructionsgood schooling, of course, for them. This has always been so, and there is no doubt that Phidias had a large corps of assistants for his work on the Acropolis of Athens and else-where.
The sculptor’s studio is usually a pretty rough sort of place, where much heavy work is done, the floor often wet and covered with clay or plasteras far removed from the popular idea of a studio as possible. It is a place where dreams are dreamed, to be sure; but you would never know it except as you see them made visible in the creations of the artist. Like the architect’s office, and the studio of the serious painter, it is pervaded by a professional, not a dilettante, atmosphere; it is a place where a man quietly and without pose does his daily work of creating beauty. | <urn:uuid:85b8eee5-4964-4c09-9366-73f59ad4a9fd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://art.yodelout.com/art-the-technique-of-sculpture/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971657 | 3,377 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Public perception of mental illness and addiction has changed significantly -- and for the good -- in the last 15 years. That doesn't mean, however, that people feel comfortable working or living near or being friends with someone with mental illness, according to a major new survey.
The study compared people's responses to vignettes involving mental illness and addiction to gauge public understanding of the illness and feelings toward those who are ill or addicted. The surveys took place in 1996 and 2006. The idea, the researchers said, was to assess whether major efforts to improve the treatment of mental conditions and eliminate stigma in the United States is working. Several sweeping efforts have been made in the past two decades to educate Americans on mental illness. A major theme of these campaigns is that mental illnesses and addiction are biological, brain-based, sometimes-genetic illnesses that are each "a disease like any other."
The survey finds the public has embraced that concept, but only to a point. The percentage of people who attributed depression to neurobiological causes increased from 54% of those surveyed in 1996 to 67% in 2006. Those who endorsed psychiatrists to help treat alcoholism increased from 61% to 79% in the 10-year period.
However, the willingness to associate with people with these disorders did not change much. For example, the percentage of people who said they are unwilling to work closely with someone with major depression was 46% in 1996 and 47% in 2006. The percentage of people who considered people with schizophrenia to be a danger to others was 54% in 1996 and 60% in 2006.
Though research and treatment options for people with mental illness or addiction have clearly improved, many could be held back by social stigma, said the authors of the study, led by Indiana University researchers. "Public attitudes matter," they wrote. "Attitudes can translate directly into fear or understanding, rejection or acceptance, delayed service use or early medical attention."
It may take a new approach -- something other than science-based anti-stigma campaigns -- to change public attitudes, the authors said. One such approach is to focus on the "abilities, competencies, and community integration of persons with mental illness and substance use disorders."
(Which brings to mind Los Angeles Laker's star Ron Artest and his efforts to raise money for mental health services by raffling his NBA Championship ring. Artest, who has been treated for depression, has been outspoken about the importance and value of seeking treatment. His "Win My Bling" raffle raised $120,000 in just one day last week.)
In a commentary accompanying the study, Dr. Howard H. Goldman of the University of Maryland points to encouraging signs that people with these diseases can live on equitable terms with those who have not suffered addiction or mental illness.
"We may not have eliminated social stigmatization of symptomatic individuals with mental illness," he wrote. "But improved treatment has helped many of them to make their symptoms and dysfunction less visible and less problematic."
The papers appear in the current issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Related: Jani is at the mercy of her mind.
Return to Booster Shots blog. | <urn:uuid:73ea455e-46b9-4a0c-bcf8-e805fa5afe28> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/02/news/la-heb-mental-health-artest-20101102 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96759 | 641 | 2.625 | 3 |
He said such laws "could have a strong preventive effect on early uptake of cigarette and other tobacco products."
Thirty-eight states have enacted legislation restricting the sale or distribution of tobacco products to minors. Fourteen of those states "have set the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products at less than 18."
The report by the national Centers for Disease Control said that only 30 percent of Americans over 18 now smoke cigarettes on a regular basis - down
from nearly 45 percent who smoked when Surgeon General Luther Terry issued his landmark finding in 1964 that linked cigarette smoking to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer.
Cigarette smoking by men decreased to 33 percent in 1985, compared with rates well above 50 percent in the early 1960s. The report said that the rate was "probably the lowest rate among men in this country (since) prior to World War I." Twenty-eight percent of American women smoke, compared with 34 percent in the mid-'60s.
The 467-page document, "Smoking and Health: A National Status Report," was the first of what will become biennial reports on smoking, as mandated by the Comprehensive Smoking Education Act of 1984.
In other health news yesterday:
RUNNING AND HEART DISEASE. The opiumlike brain chemicals that may be associated with "runners' high" could be hiding symptoms of dangerous heart damage in some people, researchers reported.
Heart disease patients who experienced no pain during exercise had 35 to 40 percent more of the chemicals in their blood than did patients who felt the chest pains known as angina, said Dr. David Sheps of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
The chemicals in question are called beta endorphins. They are released by the brain and behave like opium in the body, acting as natural pain-killers.
Sheps' finding, described at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Dallas, may explain the puzzling phenomenon called "silent ischemia," a painless reduction of blood flow to the heart. It can lead to serious heart damage in some patients because they have no warning that their hearts are under stress, Sheps said in an interview.
If the finding is confirmed, it should be possible to give people drugs that would block the action of the chemicals. That would allow heart patients to feel the stress on their hearts so that they could reduce their activity appropriately, Sheps said.
BREAST CANCER. Breast cancer treatment costs thousands of dollars more when doctors remove only the lump than when they take the whole breast, largely
because of the radiation treatment that usually follows lumpectomy, a new study indicates.
Lumpectomy is rapidly gaining acceptance as an equally life-saving and far less disfiguring procedure than mastectomy, or complete breast removal, said Dr. Eric Munoz, head of surgery research at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York City.
In comparing costs associated with lumpectomies and mastectomies at the medical center in 1983 and 1984, Munoz said, he and his colleagues found that total charges for the former were 37 percent higher than charges for the latter.
The report was published in the November issue of the American Medical Association's Archives of Surgery.
One in every 20 women will develop breast cancer during her life, and half of those will die from it, according to the American Medical Association.
Of about 500,000 people undergoing breast cancer surgery this year in the United States, probably 100,000 are having lumpectomies, Munoz said in a telephone interview. | <urn:uuid:9922daba-e710-4cb8-a9d7-e11f34b8379a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.philly.com/1986-11-21/news/26094833_1_cigarette-smoking-comprehensive-smoking-education-act-tobacco-products | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965442 | 726 | 2.6875 | 3 |
HEART FAILURE: An Overview and tutorial for residents teaching medical students
From Ask Dr Wiki
Michael W.Tempelhof, M.D.
Duke University Medical Center
General Definition of Heart Failure
- Clinical syndrome resulting from inadequate systemic perfusion from any structural or functional disorder that impairs the ability of the ventricle to fill with or eject blood.
- The classic syndrome of heart failure is dyspnea, fatigue, and fluid retention.
- Classified as Systolic or Diastolic Heart Failure.
Framingham Definition of Heart Failure
- Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea
- Neck vein distention
- Radiographic cardiomegaly
- Acute pulmonary edema
- S3 gallop
- Central venous pressure > 16 cmH2O
- Circulation time ≥ 25 sec
- Hepatojugular reflux
- Pulmonary edema
- Visceral congestion
- Cardiomegaly at autopsy
- Weight loss ≥ 4.5 kg in 5 days in response to treatment of heart failure
- Bilateral ankle edema
- Nocturnal cough
- Dyspnea on ordinary exertion
- Pleural effusion
- 30% decrease in baseline vital capacity
New York Heart Association (NYHA) Definition of Heart Failure
Classification System based upon Symptomology.
NYHA I: No symptoms with ordinary activity. NYHA II: Slight limitation of physical activity. Comfortable at rest, but ordinary physical activity results in fatigue, palpitation, dyspnea, or angina. NYHA III: Marked limitation of physical activity. Comfortable at rest, but less than ordinary physical activity results in fatigue, palpitation, dyspnea, or anginal pain. NYHA IV: Unable to carry out any physical activity without discomfort. Symptoms of cardiac insufficiency present at rest.
ACC/AHA Classification of Chronic Heart Failure
Classification System based on structural and symptomatic stages of the syndrome.
Stage 1: patients at risk of developing heart failure but who have no structural heart disease at present. Stage 2: patients with structural heart disease but no symptoms. Stage 3: patients with structural heart disease and symptomatic heart failure. Stage 4: patients with severe refractory heart failure.
Patients “at Risk”:
- Diabetes mellitus
- Coronary artery disease
- Exposure history to cardiac toxins:
- History of cardiotoxic drug therapy.
- History of alcohol abuse.
- Familial history of cardiomyopathy
- Patients WITH structural disease, but NO history of signs or symptoms of Failure.
- Left ventricular hypertrophy
- Myocardial Fibrosis
- Left ventricular dilation or dysfunction
- Asymptomatic valvular heart disease
- Previous myocardial infarction
- Underlying structural heart disease AND symptoms of Heart Failure.
- Dyspnea or fatigue due to left ventricular systolic dysfunction.
- Asymptomatic patients receiving treatment for prior symptoms of HF.
- Despite maximal medical therapy, symptoms of HF at rest and advanced structural heart disease.
- Awaiting heart transplant
- Requiring continuous inotropic or mechanical
- Hospice management of HF
Prevalence, Incidence, Demographics and Mortality.
- 5.0 million persons in the United States have heart failure: 1.5% of the population.
- 550,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
- Patients with heart failure account for about 1,000,000 hospital admissions annually: 30% will be re-admitted within 90 days for decompensation.
- Prevalence of heart failure increases with age; 1 to 2 percent of persons aged 45 to 54 years and increases to 10 percent of individuals older than 75 years.
- Americans over age 40, have a life-time risk for developing heart failure of 21 percent.
Dollars and Mortality
- The cost of hospitalizations for heart failure is twice that for all forms of cancer and myocardial infarctions combined.
- Annual cost of $38.1 billion or 5.4% of all healthcare dollars.
- Overall 20% annual mortality.
- 30-60% of mortality is related to arrhythmia, sudden death.
Inadequate cardiac output and systemic perfusion results in a dichotomous neurohormonal pathway activation.
- In an effort to increase forward output the sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate and myocardial contractility.
- Circulating catecholamines create arteriolar vasoconstriction in non-essential vascular beds.
- Catecholamines also stimulate secretion of renin from the juxtaglomerular apparatus of the kidney.
- Catecholamines: worsen ischemia by increasing HR and contractility, potentiate arrhythmias, promote cardiac remodeling, and are toxic to myocytes.
- Left ventricular chamber dilatation: causes increased wall tension, worsens subendocardial myocardial perfusion, and may provoke ischemia in patients with coronary atherosclerosis. Left ventricular chamber dilatation results in separation of the mitral leaflets and mitral regurgitation leading to pulmonary congestion.
- High LV diastolic pressures: (diastolic dysfunction), increase left atrial pressures increasing the hydrostatic and oncotic pressures in the pulmonary vasculature resulting in pulmonary edema.
- Arteriolar vasoconstriction stimulates the renal secretion of renin and the hypothalamic secretion of vasopressin.
- Renin and Vasopressin stimulate salt and water reabsorbtion and retention.
- Vascular Endothelin levels are elevated promoting endolethial growth and cardiac apoptosis.
- Renin-angiotensin system activation: results in sodium and water retention, and release of aldosterone.
- Aldosterone: increases sodium and water retention and increases vascular resistance and organ fibrosis.
Heart Failure Types
Systolic vs. Diastolic
- Systolic: heart failure abnormality in contractility function leading to a defect in the forward expulsion of blood. End-Systolic AND Diastolic Volumes are elevated.
- -Older pt.
- -Ischemia, valvular disease
- Physical Exam findings
- -S3 and soft heart sounds
- -Chamber Enlargement
- -Reduced Ejection Fraction
- Diastolic: heart failure abnormality in relaxation function leading to a defect in ventricular filling.
- -Younger pt.
- -Hypertension history, PND symptoms
- Physical Exam findings
- -Less evidence of fluid overload ie less edema
- -NO Cardiomeagly
- -Pulmonary congestion
- -Very prominent LVH with NORMAL Ejection Fraction
Acute vs. Chronic
- Acute: Marked reduction in cardiac output resulting in inadequate tissue perfusion with acute vascular congestion.
- Chronic: Gradual reduction in cardiac output with adaptive counter- mechanisms of vascular remodeling and neurohormonal activation.
Low Output vs. High Output
- Multiple etiologies:
- congenital, valvular, rheumatic, hypertensive, coronary, and cardiomyopathic abnormalities.
- Cold, pale and/or cyanotic extremities with systemic vasoconstriction.
- LOW Mixed venous oxygen often low (<50ml/liter)
- -thyrotoxicosis, arteriovenous fistulas, beriberi, Paget disease of bone, and anemia.
- Warm well perfused extremities with a widened pulse pressure.
- NORMAL to HIGH Mixed venous Oxygen
Etiology of Heart Failure
- Ischemic: accounts for 60% of cases.
- high output states
- infiltrative diseases
- drug toxicity (doxorubicin and ETOH)
- inflammatory diseases
Patients History and Symptoms
- Symptoms of pulmonary congestion:
- cough, dyspnea, orthopnea, and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea.
- Symptoms of low cardiac output:
- fatigue, effort intolerance, cachexia, and renal hypoperfusion and therefore fluid retention.
- Symptoms of Right sided failure:
- pulsating neck, peripheral edema, early satiety, abdominal discomfort/fullness and constipation.
Physical Exam Findings
- Findings of pulmonary congestion:
- rales, hypoxia, tachypneia, tachycardia.
- Findings of low cardiac output:
- S3, S4, cold extremities, pitting edema, pale/diaphoretic.
- Symptoms of Right sided failure:
- ascites, hepatosplenomegaly, elevated JVP, peripheral edema.
Findings On Workup
- Chest radiographic:
- cardiomegaly, pulmonary vascular redistribution, kerley B lines, and pleural effusion.
- Electrocardiogram: (no definitive, only suggestive findings)
- Left ventricular hypertrophy, left bundle branch block, intraventricular conduction delay, chamber enlargement, non-specific ST segment and T wave changes.
- Assess and grade systolic vs diastolic dysfunction.
- Assess for other etiologies: valvular heart disease, cardiac tamponade, pericardial constriction, and infiltrative or restrictive cardiomyopathies.
- Hypervolemic hyponatremia: secondary to increases in extracellular fluid volume and a normal total body sodium.
- Secondary hyperaldosteronism: contributing to mild hypokalemia with mild hypernatremia.
- Anemia (20% of Heart failure patients, multiple etiologies)
- hemodilutional from increased plasma volume.
- decreased red cell mass from low EPO levels in setting of chronic renal insufficiency.
- bone marrow suppression by activated proinflammatory cytokines
Renal Indices: (from secondary to reduced renal blood flow and GFR)
- Elevated urine specific gravity
- Elevated BUN, creatinine
Hepatic Function: (from congestive hepatomegaly)
- Elevated AST, ALT, LDH
- Best utilized to differentiate heart failure vs. pulmonary disease as etiology to dyspnea.
- BNP levels correlate with heart failure severity and correlate with disease progression.
Metabolic exercise testing:
- To further characterize pulmonary vs. cardiac.
- Peak oxygen consumption <14 ml/kg/min indicates cardiac etiology and predicts a poor prognosis.
Drugs/Devices for Heart Failure
- Provide symptomatic relief.
- Slows the progression of ventricular remodeling by reducing ventricular filling pressure and wall stress.
- No survival benefit and may cause azotemia, hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis and elevation of neurohormones.
- Furosemide, bumetanide, ethacrynic acid and torsemide.
- Inhibit the Na+/K+/2Cl- symporter.
- Furosemide IV has direct vasodilatory effect.
- Providing additional blood pressure reduction.
- Relaxes pre-contracted pulmonary venules: beneficial for treatment of Pulmonary Edema.
- Inhibit the Na+/Cl- co transporter in the distal convoluted tube.
- Recommended for management of chronic heart failure.
Potassium Sparing Diuretics
- Spironlactone, amiloride and triamterene.
- Inhibit principal cells in the distal convoluted tubule and cortical collecting duct.
- Inhibits Na reabsorbtion and Potassium secretion.
- Significant side effect of Hyperkalemia.
- ONLY: Metoprolol, Carvedilol and Bisoprolol have FDA approval.
- Blockade of compensatory sympathetic stimulation creates an arrhythmic, ischemic, remodeling, and apoptotic benefit.
- Used as monotherapy or combined with conventional heart failure management, beta-blockers reduce the combined risk of morbidity and mortality.
- Initiate low starting dosing and titrate up to tolerated target doses.
- Afterload reduction and neurohormonal modulation.
- Improve mortality, symptoms, exercise tolerance, left ventricular ejection fraction, and rate of hospitalizations.
- 10-20% rate of intolerance from drug induced cough.
- Other uncommon side effects include angioedema and acute renal failure (bilateral renal artery stenosis).
- For ACE-intolerant patients, hydralazine and nitrates in combination are effective afterload and preload reducing agents.
- ACE inhibitors do have mortality benefit over hydralazine and nitrates.
- Hydralazine and nitrates may be added to ACE inhibitors when additional vasodilation is necessary or pulmonary hypertension is present.
- Inhibits Na,K+-ATPase resulting in an increase in intracellular Na+, extracellular Ca2+ exchange increasing the velocity and extent of sarcomere shortening.
- ACC/AHA recommend Digoxin for symptomatic patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction.
- Digoxin reduces the rate of hospitalization for heart failure, but has NO benefit on mortality.
- Activates beta-1 receptors resulting in enhanced cardiac contractility.
- Long-term dobutamine infusions are arrhythmogenic and increase mortality.
- Unique dose dependent Mechanism of Action.
- At low doses: (≤2 µg/kg/min), selective dilation of splanchnic and renal arterial beds. assists in increasing renal perfusion.
- At intermediate doses: (2 to 10 µg/kg/min), increased norepinephrine secretion results in increased cardiac contractility, heart rate and peripheral vascular resistance.
- At higher doses: (5 to 20 µg/kg/min), direct alpha-adrenergic receptor stimulation increases systemic vascular resistance.
- Phosphodiesterase-III inhibitor that enhances contractility by increasing intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP).
- Potent pulmonary vasodilatation that benefits pts with pulmonary hypertension.
- Unlike dobutamine: milrinone is beneficial to decompensated heart failure patients on beta-blocker therapy.
- Long term milrinone infusions are arrhythmogenic, and increase mortality.
Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy
- Indicated for symptomatic patients with NYHA III-IV heart failure AND wide QRS (>120ms).
- 70% of patients receiving synchronous ventricular contraction report symptomatic improvement.
- 50% of heart failure patients die of sudden cardiac death.
- Indicated for pts with previous MI and LVEF <30% , sustained ventricular tachycardia, inducible ventricular tachycardia.
- Morbidity/mortality benefit of ICD placement vs. anti-arrhythmic drug therapy.
Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD)
- Temporary device to bridge end stage pts to cardiac transplantation.
- Current research in implementing permanent LVADs is underway.
Transplant for Heart Failure
- For pts with end-stage congestive heart failure despite all interventions.
- 80 % 1 year survival and 60% 5yr survival.
- Lifelong immunosuppression to prevent rejection, increased risk for opportunistic infections and malignancies.
Management of Heart Failure
- Identify etiology of heart failure.
- Assessment of volume status.
- Complete blood count, urinalysis, serum electrolytes, renal function, blood glucose, liver function tests, and thyroid-stimulating hormone.
- 12-lead electrocardiogram and chest radiograph.
- TTE echocardiography with Doppler.
- Cardiac catheterization for patients with angina.
Management of Heart Failure
ACC/AHA recommends managing heart failure according to Stage classification.
Management of Stage A
- Coronary disease and Cardiomyopathy risk factor management. Patient and Family education.
- Aggressive treatment of Diabetes, Hypertension, hyperlipidemia, alcohol abuse, cigarette smoking, and hyperthyroidism.
- Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors are recommended.
- No evidence to support life-style modifications; exercise, salt restriction, or routine use of nutritional supplements.
Management of Stage B
- ACE-I and B-blocker therapy is designed to minimize the rate of worsening left ventricular dysfunction.
- In any pt with history of myocardial infarction regardless of ejection fraction.
- In any pt with a reduced ejection fraction.
- Risk factor modifications are also recommended for stage B patients.
- Valve replacement/repair for patients with hemodynamically significant valvular disease.
- No evidence to support use of exercise and other life-style, dietary modifications for this population.
Management of Stage C
- Continuum of care as under Stage A and B management.
- ACE inhibitors and B-blockers for all stage C patients.
- Digitalis for symptomatic patients.
- Spironolactone in patients with NYHA IV symptoms.
- Diuretics in patients with evidence of fluid overload.
- Sodium restriction, dietary discretion and exercise are encouraged.
Management of Stage D
- Continued management as listed for patients in stages A, B, and C.
- Low threshold for specialized treatments of mechanical circulatory support, continuous intravenous inotropic therapy.
- Referral to a heart failure program and cardiac transplantation in eligible patients.
When to Transplant?
ACC/AHA Guidelines: Indications for Cardiac Transplantation.
- Any hemodynamic compromise due to heart failure.
- Requiring IV inotropic support to maintain adequate organ perfusion.
- Peak Vo2 < 10 ml/kg/min.
- NYHA Class IV symptoms not amenable to any other intervention.
- Recurrence of symptomatic ventricular arrhythmias refractory to all therapeutic intervention. | <urn:uuid:72f30e76-0e7e-4b55-aa51-f900468b0c24> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://askdrwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=HEART_FAILURE:_An_Overview_and_tutorial_for_residents_teaching_medical_students | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.75618 | 3,838 | 3.171875 | 3 |
With the cost of gasoline at or near $2.50 a gallon, shoppers are paying added attention to new vehicles' EPA fuel-economy ratings. For many motorists, it's become an economic necessity. Choosing a model that gets an average of 25 mpg instead of one that nets only 15 mpg can save an astute buyer as much as $1,000 per year, assuming 15,000 miles driven at $2.50 per gallon of gasoline.
Manufacturers are required by law to post their vehicles' fuel-economy ratings, as certified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), on the window stickers of most every new vehicle sold in the U.S. -- vehicles that have gross-vehicle-weight ratings over 8,500 pounds are the exception. However, these "official" ratings rarely reflect our own real-world driving experience. Depending on what, how, and where you drive, the differences can be huge. Many consumers often complain that the EPA's numbers are substantially higher than what an average owner might expect to experience in real-world driving.
Why is this the case? It has a lot to do with the way new cars and trucks are evaluated for their energy consumption. While it would seem logical to determine a vehicle's fuel economy simply by filling up the tank, driving it on the road or a test track for a set number of city or highway miles, refilling the tank, and dividing the number of miles driven by the number of gallons consumed, this is not how the experts do it.
In fact, tested vehicles don't reach the pavement at all. Rather, a car or truck's fuel economy is measured under rigidly controlled circumstances in a laboratory using a standardized test that's mandated by federal law. Automakers actually do their own fuel economy testing and submit the results to the EPA, which reviews the data and confirms about 10 to 15 percent of the ratings itself at the National Vehicles and Fuel Emissions Laboratory.
In this article, we'll detail how vehicles are tested, what the difference between the EPA's fuel economy figures and real-world fuel-economy numbers are, and why the EPA's fuel-economy findings are still important. Here's a summary of what we'll cover:
- How the EPA Tests and Rates Fuel EconomyRather than take a car or truck out to a test track to measure its city and highway fuel-economy figures, the Environmental Protection Agency tests all new cars and trucks at its inside lab and never even glances at a gas gauge. In this section, we'll explain how new cars and trucks are tested by the agency, how it compiles its estimates, and why the EPA often misses the mark in listing fuel economy estimates for hybrid vehicles.
- Acutal Fuel Economy vs. the EPA's ratings It's no secret that the fuel economy numbers on your new car's window sticker rarely match up to how much gas your car uses in real life. In this section, we'll explain what daily driving factors cause these numbers to differ. We'll also tell you why the EPA's estimations are still useful in terms of learning about your vehicle, comparing your car or truck to other vehicle classes, and saving money on gas. | <urn:uuid:961a2b1d-5852-4e57-ab07-e31e23e0e9dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/fuel-economy/28004-epa-fuel-economy-explained.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959453 | 655 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Well, it turns out that you can depict pretty much anything using text symbols - this is known as ASCII art. Ubuntu has two of the main ASCII art libraries available, aa-lib and libcaca (named by a 10-year old). With both of these there are associated viewers, asciiview and cacaview.
There a few ways to go here: either a cheminformatics library could directly depict a molecule using ASCII art, or it could depict it using one of these libraries, or we can be lazy and just convert an existing PNG to text. The first case is likely to produce a better quality image - it is actually the subject of a paper by Raymond Carhart in JCICS in 1976 (via Pat Walters). Naturally, since this is a blog post, we will take the lazy route here and just convert from PNG to text.
So, this is the original image:
I found it better to convert to B&W by thresholding all non-white pixels to black:
convert orig.png -threshold 99% blackwhite.png
Running asciiview, we have the following:
Note that the structure is immediately clear. Still - we can do better. If we "-negate" the image first, we have:
How about for cacaview?
Not so good. However, both asciiview and cacaview have zoom and pan functionality and once we zoom in, the structure can be clearly identified:
I was originally thinking of including this functionality in Pybel (which, with the help of OASA, can generate 2D depictions as PNG files), but I think that generating such text images is best done through these ASCII art viewers, as you might need to zoom and pan to get the "full picture".
In a comment on FriendFeed, Hari wondered whether an exact depiction of a chemical structure could be made using Unicode characters. Good question. But first, how close can we get with ASCII characters? Here's my best attempt:
Can you do better?
/ --- \ | <urn:uuid:bba73a1c-a3a8-4ec0-a351-339994b57b48> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://baoilleach.blogspot.com/2010/09/depict-chemical-structurewithout.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930801 | 427 | 2.75 | 3 |
James Ford Rhodes (18481927). History of the Civil War, 18611865 1917.
John T. Morse, in his biography of Lincoln, which possesses somehow the authority of a contemporary document as well as the interest of an artistic study of a great man, wrote, Historians say rhetorically that the North sprang to arms; and it really would have done so if there had been any arms to spring to; but muskets were scarce.1 The correspondence in Volume I, Series III of the Official Records amply confirms this statement. The governors of the several States, in their communications to the United States War Department, began by asking for muskets and cannon; soon they were begging for them. Ohio was undoubtedly a fair example of the States west of the Alleghanies. McClellan, who had been appointed major-general of her volunteers, made an inspection of the State arsenal and found, a few boxes of smooth-bore muskets, rusted and damaged; two or three smooth-bore 6-pounders which had been honey-combed by firing salutes; a confused pile of mildewed harness which had been once used for artillery horses. As he went out of the door he said half humorously, half sadly, A fine stock of munitions on which to begin a great war.2 The governor of Iowas demand of the Secretary of War, for Gods sake send us some arms, exemplified the feeling of all. All the States wanted rifled-muskets, of which the government had only a small supply; and when they received old flint-lock muskets or the same percussioned, they felt that due attention was not being paid to their necessities. Morton, the governor of Indiana, reported that the arms received by his State were of an inferior character, being old muskets rifled out; in very many instances, he added, the bayonets have to be driven on with a hammer and many others are so loose that they can be shaken off. Our boys, wrote the governor of | <urn:uuid:37a44163-7408-49ef-9eb1-a516c0ead67f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bartleby.com/252/pages/page30.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986567 | 425 | 2.984375 | 3 |
|Synopsis Home||Daniel Introduction|
Chapters 10 and 11
The connection of the book of Ezekiel with that of Daniel
In the Book of Ezekiel we have seen the government of God on earth fully developed in connection with Israel; whether in condemning the sin which occasioned the judgment of that people, or in their restoration under the authority of Christ, the Branch that should spring from the house of David, and who, in the book of that prophet, bears even the name of David, as the true "beloved" of God, the description of the temple, with its whole organisation, being given at the end. In this development we have found Nebuchadnezzar, the head of the Gentiles, introduced as Jehovah's servant (chapters 29: 20; 30: 24) for the judgment of sinful Israel, who were rebellious and even apostate, worshipping false gods. God had made Israel the centre of a system of nations, peoples, and languages, that had arisen in consequence of the judgment on Babel, and existed before God independently of each other. The nation of Israel was doubtless very distinct from all that surrounded it, whether as a people to whom the true God was known, or as having in their midst the temple and the throne of God; but, whatever the contrast might be between the condition of Israel as a nation, and that of the other nations, still Israel formed a part of that system of nations before God (Deut. 32: 8).
Absolute, universal dominion given to Nebuchadnezzar
In executing the judgment of God on Israel Nebuchadnezzar set aside this whole system at once, and took its place in the absolute and universal dominion which he had received from God. It is of this order of things and of its consequences -- of this dominion of the head of the Gentiles, and of the Gentile kings, in the successive phases that characterised their history -- that the Book of Daniel treats, bringing into notice a remnant of Israel, in the midst of this system, and subject to this dominion. The king of Judah having been given up into the hands of the head of the Gentiles, the royal seed is found in the same position. The remnant becomes the especial object of the thoughts of God revealed by His Spirit in this book.
The Spirit of prophecy and God's faithfulness
Besides the testimony rendered to Jehovah by the fact of the faithfulness of the remnant in the midst of the idolatrous Gentiles, two important things characterise their history as developed in this book. The first is that the Spirit of prophecy and of understanding in the ways of God is found in this remnant. We have seen this raised up in Samuel, when all Israel had failed, and subsist through their whole history under the shadow of royalty. The Spirit of prophecy now again becomes the link of the people with God, and the only resting-place for their faith, amid the ruin which the just judgment of God had brought upon them. The second circumstance that characterises the dealings of God with regard to this remnant is, that, preserved by God through all the misfortunes into which the sins of the people had cast them, this remnant will assuredly share the portion which God bestows on His people according to His government and according to the faithfulness of His promises. We find these in the first and last chapters of the Book we are considering.
The two great divisions of Daniel
This Book is divided into two parts, which are easily distinguished. The first ends with chapter 6, and the second with the close of the Book, the first and last chapters having nevertheless a separate character, as an introduction and a conclusion, respectively making known the position of the remnant, to whom, as we have said, the testimony of God was confided at the beginning and at the end.
Division 1: Gentile dominion animated by pride: idloatry and blasphemy ended by judgment
The two great divisions have also a distinct character. The first sets before us the picture of the dominion of the Gentiles, and the different positions it would assume before God according to the human pride which would be its animating principle. This picture contains historical features which plainly indicate the spirit that will animate the ruling power in its different phases; and then the judgment of God. This division is not composed of direct revelations to Daniel, except for the purpose of recalling Nebuchadnezzar's dream. It is the heads of the Gentiles that are presented. It is the external and general history of the monarchies that were to succeed each other, or the different and successive features that would characterise them, and their final judgment, and the substitution of the kingdom of Christ; and especially, the course and judgment of the one which God had Himself established, and which represents all the others, as being invested with this character of divine appointment. The others did but inherit providentially the throne which God had committed to the first. It was a question between God and Israel that gave this monarchy its supremacy. It is the spirit of presumptuous idolatry, and of blasphemy against the God of Israel that leads to its destruction. Chapter 6 does not give the iniquity of the king, except as submitting to the influence of others. It is the princes of the people who will have none but the king acknowledged as God, and who undergo the same punishment that they sought to inflict on those who were faithful to the Lord.
Division 2: character and conduct of Gentile heads; establishment of a divine kingdom
The second part of the Book, which consists of communications made by God to Daniel himself, exhibits the character of the heads of the Gentiles in relation to the earth, and their conduct towards those who shall acknowledge God; and at last the establishment of the divine kingdom in the Person of the Son of man -- a kingdom possessed by the saints. The details of God's dealings with His people at the end are given in the last chapter. We may also remark that chapter 7 gives essentially the history of the western power, chapter 8 that of the eastern -- the two horns. Chapter 9, although especially regarding Jerusalem and the people -- the moral centre of these questions, is connected on that very account with the western power that invaded them. From chapter 10 to the end of chapter 11 we are again in the east, closing in with the judgment of the nations there, and the establishment of the remnant of Israel in blessing.
Let us now examine these chapters consecutively.Synopsis by John Darby | <urn:uuid:5004dd76-afaa-4cfa-988a-d70b86326d6e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bigchurch.com/p/bible/commentary.cgi?who=r,mD1MUurrjvIR2LqtXUxLWLgMCA9fgUyRpM3eaowkPboOR8Tv0xEzslPy/_CR2Mrpus_SPddUkj0DQqu9icNpshvZmUACgQX_dkrKdWUaS0ZGs5Z8eO6YsvcoA_ERv/K8&bookid=39 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970055 | 1,336 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Source: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
CHOUART DES GROSEILLIERS, MÉDARD, explorer and one of the originators of the HBC; baptized 31 July 1618, in the parish church at Charly-sur-Marne in the old French province of Brie, not far from Château-Thierry; d. 1696?
He was the son of Médard Chouart and Marie Poirier, whose farm, Les Groseilliers (the Gooseberry Bushes), may still be visited across the Marne from Charly. Little is known of Chouart’s family or early life, except that in 1647 his parents were living at Saint-Cyr and that he reached Canada at a youthful age, perhaps in 1641, having lived at some earlier time in the home of “one of our mothers of Tours,” according to Marie de l’Incarnation [see Guyart], the first mother superior of the Ursuline nuns in Quebec.
By 1646 the young man had become a part of the Jesuit mission of Huronia in modern Simcoe County, Ontario, perhaps as a donné, or lay helper, or, more likely, as a soldier. The Jesuit Relation of 1646 lists Des Groseilliers among the men “who returned this year from the Hurons.” He may well have been Mother Marie’s informant about recent geographical discoveries beyond the Hurons, which she recounts in a letter to her son, 10 Sept. 1646, mentioning “a great sea that is beyond that of the Hurons,” obviously a reference to either Lake Michigan or Lake Superior.
Shortly after his return, Des Groseilliers (he is usually so mentioned in contemporary accounts) married a young widow. The parish records of Notre-Dame de Québec state, under date of 3 Sept. 1647, that he married Hélène, daughter of Abraham Martin (for whom the Plains of Abraham appear to have been named), and widow of Claude Étienne. Étienne was probably connected in some way with Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour, who is known to have made plans at one time to explore Hudson Bay with the financial aid of Major-General Edward Gibbons of Boston. In 1653 Des Groseilliers visited La Tour in Acadia and later sought financial aid in Boston for a projected trip to Hudson Bay. It is conjectured, therefore, that La Tour may have been the source of Des Groseilliers’ interest in and knowledge of Hudson Bay, which resulted in his trips to that region and the formation of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
A son, Médard, was born in 1651(?) and lived to maturity. Another child had died in 1648. Sometime in the early 1650’s Hélène also died. His second wife was also a widow, Marguerite Hayet, former wife of Jean Véron de Grandmesnil, and mother of two sons, Guillaume and Étienne*, and possibly of a daughter. She was the daughter of Sebastien Hayet and Madeleine Hénaut and came from the parish of Saint-Paul in Paris. At the time of the wedding she was living in Trois-Rivières in the home of Jean Godefroy de Lintot, an interpreter famous in the annals of American exploration. Her half-brother was Pierre-Esprit Radisson*, the explorer and first known author of a descriptive account of the upper Great Lakes region, as well as Des Groseilliers’ companion on many exploratory expeditions.
To Médard and Marguerite were born: Jean-Baptiste (bap. 5 July 1654), Marie-Anne (bap. 7 Aug. 1657), Marguerite (bap. 15 April 1659), and Marie-Antoinette (bap. 8 June 1661).
These and the several preceding years were a harrowing period in New France. Iroquois incursions destroyed Huronia. Many French residents of hamlets along the St. Lawrence – including Jean Véron – were massacred, others were captured and often tortured to death. The result of these raids was the almost complete cessation of the traffic in furs, heretofore brought annually from the region between the Hurons and the far western tribes, who now were also driven from their homes in what the habitants of New France called the “pays d’en haut,” or the “country of the Ottawa Indians.” Since New France’s only export of consequence was furs, it looked for a time as though the country must be abandoned. At this juncture Des Groseilliers and an unknown companion came to the rescue.
Huron and Ottawa Indians reached Trois-Rivières in a roundabout way in the spring of 1653 and explained their predicament. They said that they were now hiding from the Iroquois in a region beyond Huronia and had a big accumulation of furs and that they hoped to come down the following year in sufficient numbers to defy the Iroquois.
In 1654 a peace was arranged between the French and the Iroquois and the western Indians did arrive late in the summer, bringing furs and news of “a great river” above their country “which empties into a great sea.” This was enticement enough for Des Groseilliers. When the tribesmen returned to their homes, he and another man were with them to ferret out the hiding-places of the displaced natives, formerly the mainstay of New France’s commerce.
It has been assumed by most historians that Radisson was Des Groseilliers’ companion, but the facts disprove this assumption. Though the young brother-in-law claimed in his narrative of 1669 – which is our only available source of detailed information – that he accompanied Des Groseilliers, he was both too young to go on such an expedition and, in addition, is known to have been in Quebec during the period of the trip, for on 7 Nov. 1655 he signed a deed of sale in that city (Greffe d’Audouart).
Just where Des Groseilliers and his companion journeyed cannot be stated in detail, for the Radisson narrative in the French language has been lost and only a contemporary translation has survived – a translation by an unknown person who was unacquainted with conditions among the natives of North America and who surely did not improve an already confused and difficult manuscript. However, it is possible to follow the explorers along the route that soon became the usual one for fur-traders, for Radisson’s descriptions of numerous places enable us to follow him up the Ottawa River to Lake Nipissing, down the French River to Georgian Bay and into Lake Huron, even though there were as yet almost no geographic names in the whole western country. We can also follow them south of the traders’ route in Lake Huron, past deserted Huronia, and probably through Lake St. Clair to the site of Detroit. After the “detroit” between Lake Huron and Lake Erie it is more difficult to find their track. Seemingly they crossed over the lower Michigan peninsula into Lake Michigan and followed its west shore up to the Straits of Michilimackinac. The return trip to Quebec again is plain, for Radisson could always describe clearly any region with which he was well acquainted.
For Des Groseilliers the trip’s significance lay in the fact that he learned about the region west and south of Hudson Bay. Radisson writes: “We had not a full and whole discovery, wch was that we have not ben in the bay of the north, not knowing anything but by report of ye wild Christinos [Crees].” The Jesuits in New France were much impressed by the new geographical facts afforded by the report of the two men upon their return, and they devote considerable space to it in their Relation of 1655–56. An outstanding merchant of New France, Charles Aubert* de La Chesnaye, also recalled many years later “the two individuals who returned in 1656, each one with from 14 to 15 thousand livres, and brought with them a flotilla of Indians with 100,000 écus worth of treasures.”
The years from 1656 to 1659 are well documented for Des Groseilliers’ career. We know when his children were born and by whom they were baptized, that his home was in Trois-Rivières, and that he and his wife were becoming well-to-do. The village records have been preserved and contain many documents relating to Des Groseilliers and his wife. They were a litigious pair and were often in court – to the satisfaction of historian and biographer, if not to neighbours of this typically frontier family.
Court records cease abruptly for Des Groseilliers, however, in the summer of 1659. The reason, of course, was that he had gone once more into the Upper Country. Radisson by this time was back from two sojourns in the Iroquois country – one while a captive and the other as a member of a Jesuit missionary venture at Onondaga – and he was now old enough to accompany his brother-in-law. The two men set out in August 1659 and returned the following summer.
Again we must rely principally upon Radisson’s narrative of 1669 for details, but this time it is clear and consecutive. The governor, Pierre de Voyer* d’Argenson, was opposed to the expedition unless one of his men accompanied the explorers. Des Groseilliers in his blunt fashion announced that it was a case of “discoverers before governors” and slipped away undetected, largely because he was captain of the borough of Trois-Rivières and had “the keys of the Brough,” according to Radisson.
They met returning tribesmen farther up the St. Lawrence, who helped repel an Iroquois attack on the Ottawa River; followed the traders’ route to Lake Huron; passed along its northern coast to Sault Ste. Marie; portaged around the falls there; idled along the picturesque south shore of Lake Superior, whose sand dunes and portalled cliffs delighted the young Radisson; and came to the large inlet known today as Chequamegon Bay but given no name by Radisson in his account. Here, beyond the sand spit (La Pointe) guarding the bay from northeasters and close to the Apostle Islands, the displaced Ottawas, Hurons, and Chippewas turned inland to their temporary homes, probably on Lac Courte-Oreille, or Ottawa Lake. After caching their trade goods and building a rude shelter, the Frenchmen also went on to that lake.
The following winter was a severe one. Heavy snow-falls made it impossible to kill game for food and starvation faced even the white guests more than once. Toward spring the Sioux, the permanent residents of much of the region south and west of Lake Superior, sent representatives and gifts, inviting the strangers to visit them. Before doing so the Frenchmen witnessed a great Feast of the Dead, faithfully described in Radisson’s narrative, our earliest account of the culture of the “eighten severall nations” that he says participated in the festivities.
Six weeks, according to Radisson, were then spent among the Sioux, who were practically unknown to white men before this time. Spring having now begun, the two white men returned with some Chippewas to their cache near La Pointe, and then crossed Lake Superior to its north shore.
Here today is a Gooseberry River, which began to appear on French maps soon after Des Groseilliers’ visit as Rivière des Groseilliers and may well have been named for him, although it was moved up and down that shore at the whim of the cartographer. As late as 1775 the Pigeon River, now the boundary line between Canada and the United States just west of Lake Superior, was called the River “des Groseilliers” by Alexander Henry* in the entries for 8 and 9 July in his Travels & adventures in Canada . . . between the years 1760 and 1776, ed. James Bain (Toronto, 1901), 236, 237.
Though Radisson injects at this point in his narrative a very brief account of a trip from Lake Superior to Hudson Bay, it is certain that this was wholly imaginary and only inserted in 1669 to further his plans of the moment, namely, a trip to Hudson Bay financed by Londoners. Such a journey could not have been made in the remaining time in 1660 before the return trip to Quebec. While on the north shore the explorers visited the Cree Indians and probably learned of the Grand-Portage – an important spot in North American history as the subject of international dispute over ownership (1783–1842) and because it was the beginning of practically the only good canoe route to the far west (via Pigeon River and the lakes and rivers of the present international boundary line).
The summer months of 1660 were spent in returning to the lower St. Lawrence. Accompanying the two Frenchmen were many Indians and a rich harvest of furs. At the Long Sault on the Ottawa River Radisson describes the remains of the Dollard massacre, which had occurred a few weeks earlier, and mentions that it was here on an earlier trip that Des Groseilliers was shipwrecked and lost his diaries. A document of 22 Aug. 1660 (Greffe de Bénigne Basset) shows that Des Groseilliers stopped briefly in Montreal to make a business agreement with one of the hamlet’s outstanding merchants, Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil (quoted in BRH, XX (l914), 188, but wrongly dated).
The Jesuits were eager for news of the countries to the west and duly reported in the year’s Relation their interviews with Des Groseilliers upon his return. Three of their company, including the first missionary to Lake Superior Indians, Father René Ménard, and six other Frenchmen, five of them traders, immediately started back with the returning tribesmen, and from that moment there was never a time when French fur-traders were absent from the pays d’en haut as long as it was claimed as a part of the French empire. Those who went into the Ottawa country in 1660 to trade have been identified by Louise Phelps Kellogg as: Jean-François Pouteret de Bellecourt dit Colombier, Adrien Jolliet (elder brother of Louis Jolliet), Claude David, the Quebec joiner from Paris, Pierre Levasseur, dit L’Espérance, and a man named Laflèche, probably related to the Nipissing interpreter Jean Richer.
There is good evidence that the western trip of the two brothers-in-law saved the colony from economic ruin – probably preserved its very existence – but Governor d’Argenson seized the explorers’ furs, fined them, and, according to Radisson, threw Des Groseilliers into jail, presumably for departing without his sanction. This treatment infuriated both men and they resolved to seek assistance for their trading and exploration plans from New France’s enemies and rivals, the English in New England or the Dutch in New Holland.
It was a crucial moment. A decision in ownership of much of the continent and possession of the lucrative beaver trade was in the making. Some persons at the time believed that the defection of these two men decided the issue. Two perspicacious individuals, Marie de l’Incarnation and Father Paul Ragueneau, long at the head of Jesuit missions in New France and formerly the tutor of the Great Condé, were quite explicit in their letters to France (Marie Guyart de l’Incarnation, Lettres (Richaudeau), II, 293; BN, Mélanges de Colbert, 125, Ragueneau to Colbert 7 Nov. 1664), linking the English conquest of New Holland in 1664 with the two renegades. A train of events, therefore, was started by them which would come to an end only with the British conquest of Canada in 1763.
The details of Des Groseilliers’ preparations for his next venture – to the Ottawa country by way of Hudson Bay – are rather involved. With his brother-in-law he eventually departed down the St. Lawrence in a bark canoe with ten voyageurs in late April or early May l662, having returned the previous year from a trip to France. There an agreement had been made with a La Rochelle merchant, Arnaud Peré (brother of the explorer-trader, Jean Peré for whom the Albany River was long named by the French) to supply a vessel to take him to Hudson Bay from Île Percée. Something – perhaps Jesuit opposition – fouled his plans at Île Percée and turned him instead to Boston.
In Massachusetts he found men willing to venture with him, and several journeys to Hudson Bay were begun. Because of inclement weather, lack of proper provisions for an arctic undertaking, and other impediments, nothing practical was accomplished, however, though New Englanders were then probably better versed than anyone else in knowledge of the Hudson Bay area. Something worthwhile was achieved, nevertheless, for commissioners, including Sir George Cartwright, from the newly restored king of England, sent to win truculent New Englanders’ support for the new régime in England, met the Frenchmen, learned of their plans, and persuaded them to go to Charles II’s court. After capture on the high seas by a Dutch caper (privateer) and a landfall in Spain, the two explorers went thence to London, Oxford, and Windsor, arriving in time to witness the ravages of the plague in 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666.
The next three years saw the fruition of Des Groseilliers’ plans, though many mistakes and false starts were made, and though Dutch and French adventurers tried to anticipate him in his first sea voyage into Hudson Bay. Finally in 1668 two small vessels carrying the brothers-in-law departed from England for the Bay. Des Groseilliers’ vessel, captained by a New England mariner, Zachariah Gillam, found the difficult way into the “Sea of the North” and anchored at the mouth of a river, which the Englishmen named the Rupert and where they established Charles Fort and spent the winter. Radisson’s voyage in a naval vessel lent by the king was unsuccessful, and he returned to London to spend the winter completing the writing of his narrative, which had been commanded at an interview with the king. For its translation five pounds sterling was paid in June 1669 to an unknown translator, perhaps Nicholas Hayward, later the Hudson’s Bay Company’s French interpreter. The original French manuscript has been lost, but the translation has been preserved in the papers of Samuel Pepys in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England.
Meantime the English financial backers of the two Canadians formed a corporation, which received its charter on 2 May 1670 (o.s.) and has been known since as the Hudson’s Bay Company. Like several of its predecessors in the settlement of English colonies in North America it was a joint stock company with governing powers and territorial rights in much of the northern part of the continent. It proceeded at once to establish settlements and to elect a colonial governor, Charles Bayly. Gillam and others captained its vessels, which henceforth were to maintain almost yearly communication between the Bay and the mother country.
From 1670 to 1675 the two Frenchmen were employed by the new corporation, making trips to the Bay, founding fur-trading posts, supervising trade with the Indians, and making trips of exploration. Their activity was watched with increasing apprehension by French and Canadian officials, especially Talon and Buade de Frontenac, as well as by Marie de l’Incarnation and the Jesuits, all of whom wrote letters to Colbert, to members of the French court, and even to other individuals, mentioning the English aggression and deploring the lack of effective French countermeasures. Talon attempted retaliation by sending Cavelier de La Salle, Jean Peré, and Simon-François Daumont de Saint-Lusson to the west in 1670 and 1671, and Father Charles Albanel and Paul Denys* de Saint-Simon to Hudson Bay in 1671. Frontenac was even more determined to outdo the English and his response came in the form of Louis Jolliet’s journey down the Mississippi in 1673 and La Salle’s and Father Hennepin’s* trips on the same stream in ensuing years.
An attempt was made by the new English company to have Radisson found a colony on the west coast of Hudson Bay at the mouth of the Nelson River, but it was unsuccessful, as the diary of Thomas Gorst, a sort of supercargo on Des Groseilliers’ vessel of that year (1670–71) reveals. Nevertheless, the attempt was to prove of value some years later, when an earnest effort was made in the late 1680’s to resolve the conflicting territorial claims of France and Great Britain in the Hudson Bay area. Then each side to the dispute tried to provide conclusive evidence that its explorers or traders had been first in various parts of that region. A year’s neutrality was decreed by the treaty of 16 Nov. 1686 to enable both sides to find the necessary evidence for specially appointed commissioners to adjudicate the issue (“Transactions betweene England and France relateing to Hudsons Bay, 1687,” PAC Report, 1883, Note C, 173–201). The names and journeys, or reputed journeys, of many persons were brought to the attention of the commissioners, and the North American adventures of Radisson, Des Groseilliers, Father Albanel, Saint-Simon, Jean Bourdon, Guillaume Couture*, the two brothers Jolliet, Le Moyne* d’Iberville, and others were taken up in their relation to the right of France to lay claim to parts of the Hudson Bay region. The Hudson’s Bay Company, on its part, supplied records of the two Frenchmen, of its ships’ captains, and of still earlier explorers operating under the British flag in the first half of the century. The year of neutrality had not ended when the “Glorious Revolution” took place in England, resulting in war between the two countries instead of the almost-achieved line of demarcation (the 49th parallel was the suggestion) between New France and British possessions to the north.
In 1676 Des Groseilliers and Radisson returned to Canada, after spending a year in France. They had gone to that country after Father Albanel had seduced them back to a French allegiance while the priest was held in England by the Hudson’s Bay Company, following his 1674 journey to Hudson Bay, where he had been captured by the English. By the early 1680’s the two Frenchmen were having another adventure in Hudson Bay, this time in the employ of a Canadian company, the Compagnie du Nord, under the direction of Aubert de La Chesnaye.
This man was a Canadian who combined knowledge, wealth, influence, and determination to an unusual degree. His conviction was that the salvation of Canadian trade lay in a maritime approach and increases in the quantities of coat beaver, obtainable chiefly from the west coast of Hudson Bay and beyond. In Paris in 1681 he got in touch with Radisson and laid plans for future action by means of a Canadian fur-trading company. Colbert was interested and sub rosa granted a charter in 1682 under the name of “La Compagnie de la Baie d’Hudson” (Compagnie du Nord). However, there was no official sanction of the scheme and that fact produced confusion and misunderstandings in Canada, where Frontenac refused a permit to Aubert de La Chesnaye, when he and Radisson returned to that country in 1682. Finally a permit to fish on the coast of Anticosti was secured from the governor. He was soon recalled to France and Le Febvre de La Barre served in his place.
La Chesnaye’s plan actually was to get into the coat beaver country at the spot at the mouths of the Nelson and Hayes rivers where Radisson had attempted to found a colony in 1670. Unfortunately for the Canadians, the Hudson’s Bay Company in that same year, 1682, reverted to its original plan; and Berjamin Gillam*, of Boston, the son of Captain Zachariah Gillam, planned an interloping venture to the same spot. Therefore, in September 1682 three separate groups appeared there and it became a question of which one arrived first or could outwit the others. Later each group claimed prior occupancy and it is now impossible to judge from the many accounts of practically guerrilla warfare in the Bay which claim is correct. The experience and knowledge of wilderness ways possessed by the two Canadians soon determined the issue in their favour and they came out apparent victors, taking most of the others captive, including John Bridgar, the newly appointed governor of the new English colony, securing its furs, and burning its forts. However, the Canadian company, in endeavouring to evade payment of the quart on the furs to the farmer-general in Quebec, brought about a governmental decree, which sent most of the Canadian participants, including Des Groseilliers and Radisson, to France for adjudication of the case.
In Paris they found that Colbert was dead and they were met with a complaint from the English company, whose governor was James, Duke of York, brother of the king and a person not to be trifled with by the French (he was their one hope of reconverting England to the Roman Catholic faith). The upshot of the ensuing intrigue between a special envoy sent from the English court, his spy, ministers of Louis XIV, and others, was that Des Groseilliers returned to his home in Canada and Radisson went back to the Bay in 1684 in the employ of the company whose post and furs he had just purloined.
There he tricked his nephew, Jean-Baptiste Chouart, into yielding up the post and the furs that the young man had been protecting during the absence of his father and uncle, transported him and his companions to England in the same year, enlisted them in the employ of the company, and took them back to the Bay with him on his next trip in 1685. Des Groseilliers’ son has been regarded by some as the first white man to explore far into the hinterland back of Port Nelson, even anticipating Henry Kelsey* in this respect. Whether he did so at all is uncertain; and if he did go into the interior, it is uncertain whether he acted in the interest of the company or in an endeavour to carry out a scheme hatched by Daniel Greysolon* Dulhut and other Canadians, who were trying to get him back to New France by way of Dulhut’s post on Lake Nipigon. At all events, he stayed in the Bay until 1689, then returned to London, where his later career is unknown.
Likewise unknown is the elder Chouart’s fate. He rejected a Company offer to re-enter its service, and sometime between April and November 1684 returned to New France. Where and when he ended his adventurous career is uncertain. In the 1690’s Radisson, still serving the Company in London, stated that his brother-in-law had “died in the Bay.” However, the date he gave – about 1683 – is an impossible one, for we know that Des Groseilliers was alive beyond that time. Some other faint evidence points to Sorel, about 1696, as the place and time of his death. There is no proof of either conjecture. A Marguerite Des Groseilliers was interred in Trois-Rivières in 1711. Whether she was his wife or his daughter is uncertain.
Des Groseilliers’ career was not merely adventurous and romantic. His daring led him to explorations that were crucial for French and English territorial claims in North America; and his intelligence enabled him to see quickly and clearly that the easiest and quickest route to the richest fur region of the continent was not by the difficult, dangerous, and time-consuming canoe highway through the Great Lakes and along the Grand-Portage–Lake of the Woods waterway, but across Hudson Bay in ships carrying large cargoes quickly and easily to the very heart of the continent. In addition he had the address sufficient on the one hand to assuage Indian fears of white men and on the other to persuade European officialdom and businessmen to carry out his ideas. The Hudson’s Bay Company continues to this day to prove the correctness of his judgement.
For ms sources see Nute, Caesars of the wilderness, 359–63. Coll. de manuscrits relatifs à la Nouv.-France, I, 245–61. Marie Guyart de l’Incarnation, Lettres (Richaudeau), I, 292; II, 67, 447, 448. HBRS, V, VIII, IX (Rich.); XI, XX (Rich and Johnson); XXI, XXII (Rich). JR (Thwaites), XXVIII, 229; XL, 219–21, 235–37, 296 n.11; XLIII, 155–57. [Pierre-Esprit Radisson], Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson, being an account of his travels and experiences among the North American Indians, from 1652 to 1684, transcribed from original manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum, ed. G. D. Scull (Prince Soc., XVI, Boston, 1885; New York, 1943), 123–34, 172, 174, 175, 209–17.. ... J. B. Brebner, The explorers of North America 1492–1806 (New York, 1955). L. P. Kellogg, The French régime in Wisconsin and the Northwest (Madison, 1925), 114, 115. Nute, Caesars of the wilderness. ... The explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson from the original manuscript in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum, ed. A. T. Adams (Minneapolis, 1961), a recent edition of the Voyages, offers another theory to explain the discrepancies in the sources.. | <urn:uuid:ef19e4ce-c3e5-4dcb-a401-bfe5a385700b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://biographi.ca/en/bio/chouart_des_groseilliers_medard_1E.html?revision_id=6247 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971597 | 6,528 | 2.796875 | 3 |
SINCLAIR, PATRICK, army officer and colonial administrator; b. 1736 in Lybster, Scotland, son of Alexander Sinclair and Aemilia Sinclair; m. c. 1785 Catherine M. S. Stewart of Inverness, Scotland, and they had at least four sons; d. 31 Jan. 1820 in Lybster.
Like many other Scots, Patrick Sinclair sought adventure and advancement through the British army. He enlisted about 1754, and on 21 July 1758 he became an ensign in the 2nd battalion of the 42nd Foot. Late that year his battalion took part in the successful attack on Guadeloupe. In July 1760 it arrived at Oswego (N.Y.), the rendezvous with other forces that Major-General Amherst* had gathered to move against Montreal (Que.) from the west. While at Oswego, on 27 July 1760, Sinclair was promoted lieutenant. During the descent of the St Lawrence a French brig was captured near Fort Lévis (east of Prescott, Ont.); it was renamed the Williamson and Sinclair was given command. He was transferred to the snow Mohawk after the fall of the fort and he remained in the vicinity for the rest of Amherst’s campaign.
These appointments opened up a new career for the ambitious Scot. In November he gave up his command to join his regiment, but the Great Lakes had fascinated him and on 24 Oct. 1761 he exchanged his commission in the 42nd for one in the 15th Foot in order to join the marine forces on the lakes. For the next year or so he commanded ships on Lake Ontario, but during the Indian uprising of 1763 [see Pontiac*] he was transferred to the Upper Lakes. In 1764 he became the first person since René-Robert Cavelier* de La Salle in 1679 to take a sailing vessel up the Huron (St Clair). River to Lake Huron. After his return to Detroit (Mich.) from Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City, Mich.) in the fall, Sinclair was ordered by Colonel John Bradstreet* to construct a small fortification on the Huron River and was allowed to name it Fort Sinclair (Port Huron, Mich.). He sailed lakes Erie, St Clair, Huron, and Michigan during the next three years and travelled to Lake Superior. In 1767 the marine forces were reduced and on 23 September, when Sinclair handed over his vessel, the merchants at Detroit presented him with a silver punch bowl as “a Publick Testimony of their gratitude.” He settled at Fort Sinclair, carving out a small estate and securing it by a deed from local Ojibwa chieftains.
Sinclair returned to England in 1769 and, while recruiting there during the next two years, he petitioned for return to the marine forces on the Great Lakes. Though promoted captain on 13 April 1772, he went on half pay and retired to his family estate at Lybster. His attempts to return to North America bore fruit on 7 April 1775 when he was appointed lieutenant governor and superintendent of Michilimackinac, in the recently enlarged province of Quebec. He took ship almost immediately, but two attempts to reach his post via the Thirteen Colonies failed because of the revolutionary turmoil there. Eventually, in 1778, he arrived at Halifax, N.S. A year passed before he was able to proceed overland to Quebec where he presented his credentials to Governor Haldimand. On 4 Oct. 1779, more than four years after his commission, he reached Michilimackinac.
Familiar with the post from his sailing days, Sinclair had given considerable thought to the defenceless position of the stockaded fort located almost at the water’s edge of a sandy beach. He also knew from experience that sailing vessels had to anchor several hundred yards off the shallow shore. Searching for a better location, he crossed to the rocky heights of Mackinac Island where he explored the fine harbour and a fortifiable bluff. He decided almost immediately that the fort and town should be moved. Even before he secured permission he cleared brush and skidded a few buildings over the ice. During 1780 and 1781 the formidable task of relocating the fort and the village of nearly a hundred houses on the island consumed much of his energy. On 12 May 1781 he formally purchased the island from the local Ojibwas for £5,000 New York currency.
A military man, Sinclair had been disappointed to learn that his position as lieutenant governor would be limited to civil and Indian affairs. Though he would have responsibilities for a vast region he would not have authority over the soldiers at the post. The commander of the garrison, Major Arent Schuyler DePeyster*, noted his pleasure at the appointment of Sinclair because he was liked by both traders and Indians. Soon after the lieutenant governor’s arrival DePeyster departed to take command at Detroit. The garrison was left under the nominal authority of Lieutenant George Clowes, but Sinclair exercised the real control. In order to have secure command of the garrison Sinclair purchased a captaincy on 1 April 1780. Brooking no challenges to any aspect of his authority, he had serious clashes with various people including John Askin and Joseph-Louis Ainsse. Haldimand supported Sinclair but was distressed by his quarrelsomeness.
Shortly after his arrival at Michilimackinac Sinclair had received a circular letter issued by the secretary of state for the American Colonies which ordered attacks on Spanish possessions. The energetic Scot immediately organized an expedition against St Louis (Mo.). In the spring of 1780 a few traders, including Joseph Calvé and Jean-Marie Ducharme, and nearly a thousand warriors led by Madjeckewiss and Wahpasha, advanced through what is now Wisconsin. Charles-Michel Mouet* de Langlade directed another wave of Indians through the Illinois country. St Louis and Cahokia (Ill.) withstood the assault, however. Sinclair blamed the Canadians, especially Calvé and Ducharme, and the Sauks and Foxes for its failure.
A considerable amount of Sinclair’s official funds went to keep the Indians of the Upper Lakes loyal to Britain, and so large were his expenditures that in January 1782 the military cashier at Quebec refused to pay his drafts. Though he was promoted major in the army on 12 June, a board of inquiry consisting of Colonel Henry Hope* and two high officials in the Indian Department, Sir John Johnson* and James Stanley Goddard, came to Michilimackinac to investigate his expenses. Three days after their arrival on 15 September, Sinclair left for Quebec to settle matters. For two years he lived on the Île d’Orléans attempting vainly to untangle his financial affairs. Placed on half pay when his regiment, the 84th (Royal Highland Emigrants), was reduced, Sinclair finally secured permission to return to Lybster. Since his bills had still not been paid, he travelled to London to see Haldimand. On his arrival in late February 1785, his creditors had him thrown into Newgate prison for debt. After obtaining sufficient funds to secure his release Sinclair sued Haldimand for £50,000. The following year the government paid the protested bills, but Sinclair had been impoverished by stiff legal fees and in 1788 he sold his property on the Huron River.
Sinclair’s latter years were spent at Lybster, where he experimented with planting wheat and expanding his tenants’ fishing fleet. Declared bankrupt in 1804, he was briefly jailed for debt. He died nearly destitute in 1820 and was buried on his estate. Though on half pay he had continued to be promoted: in 1793 he became lieutenant-colonel; in 1797, colonel; in 1803, major-general; in 1810, lieutenant-general. Until the end of his life he drew the salary of lieutenant governor of Michilimackinac, which must have reminded him of that brief moment of power when for three years he was the most important man on the upper Great Lakes.
Clements Library, Thomas Gage papers, American ser., 25: Campbell to Gage, 3 Oct. 1764; 26: Campbell to Gage, 10 Nov. 1764; 28: Campbell to Bradstreet in Bradstreet to Gage, 7 Dec. 1764; 40: Lieut. Sinclair’s report on lakes Michigan and Huron in Campbell to Gage, 2 Aug. 1765; 74: Inventory of schooner Gladwin in Sinclair to Gage, 20 Feb. 1768; 79: Turnbull to Gage, 11 July 1768. Thomas Mante, The history of the late war in North-America and the islands of the West Indies, including the campaigns of MDCCLXIII and MDCCLXIV against his majesty’s Indian enemies (London, 1772), 516. Mich. Pioneer Coll., 6 (1883): 405; 8 (1885): 472–75; 9 (1886): 364–65, 394, 398, 516–632, 655–57; 10 (1886): 355, 357, 378, 382–90, 397–401, 405–8, 413, 415–17, 421–23, 430, 434–43, 452–53, 457–61, 467–71, 477–81, 486–90, 495, 498–500, 502–5, 514–15, 519–22, 529, 534, 548–49, 552–65, 572–73, 579–81, 585, 592–600, 645, 661, 672; 13 (1888): 56–63, 71–72; 19 (1891): 499–501, 529–30, 631–34, 638–40, 671; 20 (1892): 8, 15, 31, 36, 47, 51–54, 56, 65–66, 210–12, 276; 24 (1894): 3–4; 25 (1894): 140, 161. D. A. Armour and K. R. Widder, At the crossroads: Michilimackinac during the American revolution (Mackinac Island, Mich., 1978). B. L. Dunnigan, King’s men at Mackinac: the British garrisons, 1780–1796 (Lansing, Mich., 1973). H. B. Eaton, Patrick Sinclair, builder of Mackinac and founder of Lybster: an account of his life and times (n.p., 1979). W. L. Jenks, Patrick Sinclair (Lansing, 1914). H. B. Eaton, “Lieutenant-General Patrick Sinclair, an account of his military career,” Soc. for Army Hist. Research, Journal (London), 56 (1978): 128–42, 215–32; 57 (1979): 45–55. | <urn:uuid:dd2e3e23-0c22-4cd4-b602-e96b3a4dcb11> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://biographi.ca/en/bio/sinclair_patrick_5E.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97235 | 2,322 | 3.015625 | 3 |
The FDA recently submitted documents to the White House Office of Management and Budget, supporting the commercialization of genetically modified salmon. This, after several years of studies on the health and environmental impact of this new breed of superfish.
Before we explain why we’re worried about this move, a brief history. Worldwide, we have been overfishing for too long. Most wild stocks of salmon, tuna, and other large fish are close to depletion. Fish farming is a solution that has its pros and cons, but still is unable to catch up with growing global demand for quality seafood.
This is where science comes to the rescue. Wouldn’t it be great if we could grow much more fish, and at a faster rate than what nature does? That’s exactly what AquaBounty, the company behind this new salmon, has achieved. By adding growth hormone gene from large Pacific Chinook Salmon to the Atlantic Salmon, the former now grows at a much faster rate.
In addition, another gene was thrown in, from a type of cold water eel. Its responsibility is to keep the growth hormone continually active. The result is that the new super salmon reaches twice the weight and size of a regular salmon within 18 months since hatching.
This sounds great, but here are some of the problems:
Not enough safety tests – The genetically modified salmon has been evaluated for safety, but not on a sufficient scale. Example: tests for potential allergens were only executed on 6 fish.
Gene pool contamination – a major risk of GMOs is that they mix with their conventional cousins and obliterate them. There is no way to go back. GMO salmon can easily escape from the farm pools where they are grown, and overtake the native wild populations. AquaBounty claims this is virtually impossible, but millions of farm fish escaped from farm pools in recent years.
AquaBounty has put in another safety measure – the GMO fish are sterile so they could not really effect native populations. Except that about 5% of the GMO fish are not sterile. Oops.
Competition with native populations – In order for the GMO fish to grow so fast, they need to eat a lot too. And since they eat the same type of food as their conventional brethren, natural wild stocks will face even more pressure once GMO fish escape. Natural bounties could potentially decrease.
No Label Required – The FDA sees no difference between GMO and conventional foods, so naturally there will be no labeling required of the new salmon once it hits the market. Keeping the public in the dark is never the right answer.
What do you think? Will you eat GMO salmon? What if it is the only affordable way to get seafood for your family? | <urn:uuid:21386b67-8d85-4ef1-a88e-2140c2b342c6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.fooducate.com/2012/12/23/fda-to-white-house-green-light-on-gmo-salmon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956257 | 553 | 2.671875 | 3 |
I’ve been a web designer for years and now I want to do more print work. I think I need a little help, as the samples don’t quite look right – they’re too dark. What can I do to make sure the colors that I’m working with on the screen appear on the paper prints?
– Color Cautious
As you’ve noticed, the colors that you see on a backlit screen don’t always translate directly to print. This is because colors are dependent on the medium with which a designer is working, whether you’re painting with a computer mouse or a paintbrush. Colors in digital images are created with an additive color model, while painting, digital printing and other related art forms use subtractive color model to create different hues.
Subtractive color models start with a white canvas and a limited set of paint pigments, inks, dyes or other colorants that are mixed to create a wider range of colors. When all of the colors are combined in equal amounts, black is the result, which you can see in the diagram to the right. It’s called “subtractive color” because though it seems like color is being added to a colorless base, the resulting hues are created by absorbing (or subtracting) some wavelengths of light and not others. The color displayed depends on which parts of the visible spectrum are not absorbed and remain visible. CMYK is a subtractive color system, so our CMYK digital printing process is subtractive, too.
Additive color models are the reverse. They start with black and as more color is added, the hues get lighter until you get white, as can be seen in the diagram to the right. It’s called “additive color” because all of the colors must be added together to create white. This system is more attuned to how the human eye detects color and isn’t simply a result of absorbed wavelengths of light. RGB is an additive color system, so the colors that you see on your computer monitor (or TV screen) are additive, too.
So you can probably see where the colors are being lost in translation. You’re designing in an additive color space (your computer screen) and want your designs to be reproduced in the subtractive color space (on paper). Not only are you trying to translate between two color systems, there is a distinct possibility some elements of your design will not make the color conversion. That’s because though a monitor can display millions of colors, even the highest quality digital printer may only be capable of producing thousands of colors. What we see is not always what is possible to get.
There are ways to make the translation easier, however. Working within the CMYK color system in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator can give you a good start towards ensuring color accuracy from the digital space to the digital print. Of course, that goes along with saving your file in the CMYK format. Choosing colors from Pantone palettes can also insure proper color rendering. You can try to calibrate your monitor for better color accuracy and order a color reference chart from the Smartpress.com presses to compare our print to your monitor. But the best way to get an idea for what your print project will look like would be to order a hard copy proof.
Once you receive a hard copy proof, you can make adjustments to your digital file to produce the colors that you want. If the colors you need are very specific, you may need to order more than one hard copy proof. But once your proof looks right, you’ll know that your digital print project should be just as you expect it.
Have a question about online printing that you would like to have answered? Leave your question in the comments below or email us at [email protected] and we will do our best to answer your questions. | <urn:uuid:0be63a36-d441-43e7-a872-14de6cc0e333> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.smartpress.com/ask-a-smartpress-com-expert-subtractive-additive-color | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941416 | 819 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The vaunted Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experienced a significant setback this morning, when temperatures in one sector of the particle collider began to rise, and a ton of liquid helium escaped into one area of the collider’s 17-mile tunnel. The mishap follows a previous glitch that occurred one day after the LHC’s opening and delayed operations for about a week, but this new incident appears to be more serious and could take several weeks to resolve.
The LHC smashes subatomic particles together by send protons whizzing through its circular tunnel to collide at certain points; the beams of protons are kept on track by over 1,600 massive magnets that must be kept at temperature near zero on the Kelvin scale. The incident was what is known as a “quench”, in which the temperature of superconducting magnets that are normally chilled to 1.9C above absolute zero started to rise. It caused the temperature of many of the 200 or so magnets in the affected sector to soar by as much as 100C, which would normally take about two weeks to be cooled again [The Times]. The LHC’s operating organization, known as CERN, hasn’t yet revealed the cause of the incident.
The problem squashes hopes that the first particle collisions could occur next week, as was announced earlier. (So far, the LHC team has sent particles racing around the track in each direction, but they haven’t collided anything yet.) James Gillies, head of communications at Cern, said: “The incident occurred while we were commissioning the final sector, and a lot of helium has leaked into the tunnel. We are investigating now, and we should have a clearer picture over the weekend. How long it takes to resolve depends on what it is. It could be very little time, or it could be many weeks. I don’t want to speculate until we have more information. It certainly means we will not have collisions on Monday, or indeed next week” [Telegraph].
The incident follows a glitch that occurred the day after the LHC opened for business, in which a 30-ton transformer that keeps the magnets chilled broke down and had to be replaced. The LHC’s cryogenics team had just finished bringing the magnets back down to the appropriate operating temperature when the second problem occurred. CERN officials say that such setbacks are inevitable when starting up a project of this complexity.
Related Posts: First Protons Whiz Around the Large Hadron Collider’s Track
All Systems Go for World’s Largest Particle Smasher
The Large Hadron Collider Will Finally Start Smashing in September
Physics Experiment Won’t Destroy Earth | <urn:uuid:0729af52-c431-4a3d-9e29-abfeceb28053> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/09/19/large-hadron-collider-mishap-could-delay-particle-smashing-for-weeks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959957 | 568 | 2.71875 | 3 |
[Note: At the bottom of this post is a gallery of more amazing pictures of volcanoes taken from space.]
Sometimes, the best way to observe the Earth is to get off it. It really helps if you want to solve some mysteries.
And scientists had a good one on their hands in recently. You should really read the journal of science journalist Rebecca Priestly, who reported on all this first hand, but here’s a summary. On August 9, the crew of the HMNZS Canterbury were on a scientific voyage in the Pacific when they got word to change course. A huge anomaly was reported near their position, and it looked like it might be a gigantic floating "raft" of pumice, possibly from an undersea eruption. They got samples, and sure enough it was pumice. Such rafts have been seen before from other volcanic eruptions.
But what volcano was at the root of this one? Early guesses were that it was from Monowai, which had recently erupted in early August. But satellite imagery taken on July 19 – weeks earlier – pinpointed the location of the raft’s origin:
[Click to hephaestenate.]
This image, taken by NASA’s Terra Earth-observing satellite, shows the eruption of the Havre Seamount, located a few hundred kilometers northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. The plume is clearly visible. The gray patch right in the middle of the picture is the floating island of pumice. To the left of the plume is teal water, stained by ash. The volcano itself is more than a thousand meters under the sea’s surface, but the eruption was strong enough to break through. At the time this image was taken, the raft was already about 15 kilometers (9 miles) long. It eventually grew to more than 20,000 square kilometers (about 10,000 square miles).
This area of the ocean is very, very large, and without satellite images the exact location of this volcano would have been very difficult to spot. Scientists from Tahiti and New Zealand were able to connect earthquake reports on July 17 and 18 to the event (even though they occurred long before the raft was first sighted), and then other scientists were able to find the above image in the Terra archives. It took collaboration, people from around the world, and the open nature of science to be able to find the culprit volcano behind this mysterious event.
Science! Solving mysteries we otherwise couldn’t! I love this stuff.
Image credit: Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC | <urn:uuid:c4d87359-4adc-473f-9bee-a295d4afacc8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/tag/havre-seamount/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974699 | 541 | 3.484375 | 3 |
It’s time to enjoy some monster stories, and the scariest monsters of all are those that actually exist.
Join us as we share tales of some of the creepiest parasites around — those that control the brains of their human hosts, sometimes leaving insanity and death in their wake. These are the tales of neurological parasites.
The Feline Parasite
Toxoplasma gondii tops the list as the most famous — and most controversial — neurological parasite. This tiny protozoan doesn’t look like much more than a blob, but once it makes its way to the brain, it can radically alter the behavior of hosts like rats, cats and, yes, even humans.
T. gondii’s life begins in cat feces, where its eggs (known as “oocytes” or “egg cells”) wait to be picked up by carriers like rats. Once they’re safe and warm in the guts of their temporary hosts, the oocytes morph into tachyzoites, the unassuming little blobs that can really do some damage. Those tachyzoites migrate into their hosts’ muscles, eyes and brains, where they can remain hidden for decades without doing much of anything.
But when the moment comes to strike, the little T. gondii tachyzoites alter their hosts’ brain chemistry. Infected rats actually become sexually aroused by the smell of cats, and leap fearlessly into their claws, where they die and release the tachyzoites back into the cats, allowing the egg-laying cycle to start anew.
Creepy, perhaps, but not exactly the stuff of nightmares — except that rats aren’t the only hosts in which T. gondii hibernates. Some researchers estimate that as much as 30 percent of the people on earth — more than two billion of us — are carrying little T. gondii tachyzoites around in our brains right now.
What might this mean for human behavior? Just as a start, some studies have found that cases of schizophrenia rose sharply around the turn of the twentieth century, when domestic cat ownership became common.
“We often see symptoms like altered activity levels, changes in risk behaviors, and decreased reaction times,” says Joanne Webster, a parasitology researcher at Imperial College, London. “But in some cases, they become more severe — like schizophrenia.”
Another paper, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, argued that in areas with high T. gondii infection rates, these tiny parasites could cumulatively alter the behavioral patterns of entire cultures. Infected parents, researchers found, have a 30 percent chance of passing the parasite on to their children.
If that all seems a little far from home, though, consider this: Researchers estimate that more than 60 million people in the U.S. alone currently carry T. gondii, and most of those have no idea, because the parasite often causes no symptoms at all. Until the day it strikes, that is.
The Amoeba of Madness
If you’re hiking in the wilderness, stay away from warm, stagnant bodies of fresh water, no matter how thirsty you are. These inviting little ponds often play host to Naegleria fowleri, an amoeba species with a taste for human brain tissue.
N. fowleri can spend long spans of time just hanging around as a cyst, a little armored ball that can survive cold, heat, and dry conditions. When a cyst comes into contact with an inviting host, it sprouts tentacle-like pseudopods and turns into a form known as a trophozoite. Once it’s transformed, the trophozoite heads straight for the host’s central nervous system, following nerve fibers inward in search of the brain.
Once it’s burrowed into its host’s brain tissue — usually the olfactory bulbs — N. fowleri sprouts a “sucking apparatus” called an amoebostome and starts chowing down on juicy brain matter. As the amoeba divides, multiplies and moves inward, devouring brain cells as it goes, its hosts can go from uncomfortable to incoherent to unconscious in a matter of hours.
The symptoms start subtly, with alterations in tastes and smells, and maybe some fever and stiffness. But over the next few days, as N. fowleri burrows deeper into the brain’s cognitive structures, victims start feeling confused, have trouble paying attention, and begin to hallucinate. Next come seizures and unconsciousness, as the brain loses all control. Two weeks later, the victim’s most likely perishes — although one man in Taiwan managed to stick it out for a grueling 25 days before his nervous system finally gave out.
Although N. fowleri infections are rare in the extreme — worldwide historical totals number only in the hundreds — they’re almost always fatal, and tricky to catch and treat before they spiral out of control. Even so, you’d be wise to avoid warm pools of still water, lest you end up with an uninvited guest on the brain.
The Virus That Brings Fear
We’ve all been warned to stay clear of wild cats and dogs, and never to bother animals we find wandering the streets of a city. Friendly as they might look, they could easily be carrying the deadly rabies virus, which doesn’t always cause the telltale mouth-foaming — though it does alter its victims’ brain functions in profound ways.
This bullet-shaped virus — so small and sneaky that it often escapes detection by the immune system — doesn’t need much of an invitation to dive into a new host; a simple puncture wound will do it. Once it’s inside the host’s bloodstream, it quickly starts taking over cells, transforming them into rabies factories that churn out thousands of copies of the virus. As the attackers grow in number, they make their way to the host’s central nervous system, and head for the brain.
But rabies viruses don’t just settle down anywhere in the brain, they specifically seek out the hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus, brain structures that play central roles in memory, fear and emotion. And they don’t just devour brain cells indiscriminately, either; instead, they alter the ways these cells release neurotransmitters like serotonin, GABA, and endogenous opioids. In other words, they turn their hosts’ own brain chemistry against them.
In the altered states brought on by a rabies infection, animals often lash out at any nearby living thing, but this may be more out of fear than anger. Human rabies patients become terrified of water and puffs of air, both of which make them flinch and twitch uncontrollably.
If the infection goes untreated, rabies patients fall deeper into confusion and hallucination, lashing out at imagined threats and hapless bystanders. They lose their ability to sleep, sweat profusely, and finally fall into a paralyzed stupor as their brain function slips into chaos. A few days later, as the paralysis reaches their hearts and lungs, they fall into a coma and die.
Once rabies has infected a human, survival is all-but impossible. To date, fewer than 10 people have survived a clinical-stage rabies infection — ever, in history. Many doctors consider the disease untreatable. The better news, though, is that it’s easily preventable with a vaccine. If you plan on traveling anywhere wild animals roam, you’d do well to go protected.
The Parasite of Sleep
In the villages of sub-Saharan Africa and the wilds of the Amazon, the tiniest insect can bring a sleep that leads to death. The tsetse fly loves the taste of human blood, and it often carries a parasite known as Trypanosoma, whose tastes run more toward human brains.
Parasites of the genus Trypanosoma start their lives in the guts of invertebrate hosts, but quickly develop through a series of increasingly complex forms when they come into contact with the mammalian fluids they crave. In the first stage of infection, known as the haemolymphatic stage, the parasites live in the host’s blood and lymph nodes, where they grow from nondescript little ovals into long squirmy splotches equipped with whip-like flagellae.
As they mature, the parasites cross the blood-brain barrier and the encephalitic stage begins. The Trypanosoma alter the structure and function of their hosts’ brain cells (the parasites seem have a particular penchant for the hypothalamus, which helps regulate our mood and sleep/wake cycles) and the hosts start to feel and behave strangely. First they suffer headaches and have trouble sleeping, or sleep and wake at odd hours, due to the parasite’s alteration of the rhythm in which the sleep hormone melatonin gets released.
Before long, though, human hosts start to exhibit a dizzying variety of other psychological symptoms, from changing appetites to depression to odd speech patterns to uncontrollable itching and tremors. Over the next few years, the host’s odd behavior gradually starts to lapse into laziness, unresponsiveness, and finally a prolonged sleep that leads to coma and death, hence the name “sleeping sickness.”
Although a cure for trypanosomiasis exists, victims’ friends and families often fail to catch the disease early enough, and for a very simple reason: The sheer range and unpredictability of the infection’s symptoms makes it extremely hard to recognize. If you had a friend who suddenly started waking at odd hours and eating less, would your first thought be, “He probably has a protozoan invading his brain?” No, you’d think, “He’s probably depressed,” which is exactly what the friends and families of most Trypanosoma hosts think — until it’s too late.
Scientific fact, as so often happens, is stranger than fiction when it comes to these parasites. From worms that devour brain cells to viruses that bring on crippling paranoia, these creatures are every bit as ghoulish as those in any fireside ghost story.
“The brain is a ‘privileged site’ for many parasites,” Webster says. “And that really challenges the concept of free will — after all, is it us or our parasites who ‘decide’ our behavior?”
With that in mind — no pun intended — have a frightfully wonderful Halloween night, and don’t let the neurological parasites bite! | <urn:uuid:fc4a7e12-4d6b-4315-9a59-9ce7ae6adff4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2015/10/29/parasite-human-brain-control/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937351 | 2,249 | 2.765625 | 3 |
February 28, 2014 1 Comment-
Just like the world wide web and the internet, “the cloud” is a popular computing buzzword. We use it quite freely in these blog posts, and Norman even has its own “cloud” backup solution. But what actually is it, and what does “the cloud” mean? Read on to find out.
Firstly, there are no actual clouds involved, in fact, mixing masses of water vapour with computer equipment is generally considered a bad idea.
In computing, “the cloud” refers to an innumerable number of computers connected to the internet, that you can access but will never physically see – unless you take a rather boring holiday to a server facility. These remote computers are the workhorses of the internet, storing our data for us to access from anywhere.
Take your email account for example. If you use Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail, all of your emails are being stored somewhere else – you simply login to access them. Technically, that means they’re “cloud” email services, even if you don’t ever hear them referred to as such.
It’s the same with photo storage websites. Whether your pictures are on Facebook or Flickr, they live “in the cloud”. Those pictures can also exist on your computer – as normal image files – but because your computer is local to you, it doesn’t count as being part of “the cloud”.
In short, “the cloud” is pretty much everywhere and everything on the internet that stores something that you want to access. You can access the cloud via your computer or your mobile phone.
“Cloud computing” is just an extension of the above. It just means using a computer to access things stored on the cloud. That’s not too difficult, right?
One of the most popular uses for cloud technology is for online backups – like Norman Personal backup. These services make a secure copy of your files in the cloud so that if anything happens to your computer, you’ll be able to access your important documents and pictures.
Norman Personal backup also allows you to access your cloud information, so you can open up your files from any other computer if you have the correct log-in details.
Cloud backup services are becoming increasingly popular because they make it so much easier to make secure copies of your files. Previously, you would have to manually choose which files to back-up and put them on an external hard drive or USB stick. Cloud solutions simply the process by automatically and regularly making copies of key files and folders, so you won’t even have to think about maintaining your version.
Want to learn more? Click here
Norman Safeground Blogs Archive | <urn:uuid:7a5d376f-fb3e-41eb-a04d-c2c3492e36f5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.norman.com/2014/for-consumption/what-is-the-cloud-cloud-computing-explained | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946833 | 579 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Curiosity isn’t expected to drill its first drill hole in a Mars rock for about another month or two, according to Rob Manning, the Mars mission’s chief engineer.
However, we’re already getting some interesting images of the red planet.
Almost two hours after Monday’s touchdown, the rover started snapping pictures of its new home in Mars’ Gale Crater.
But even before that, some of Curiosity’s trip through the thin Martian atmosphere and subsequent landing were caught on camera by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the planet for over six years.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, caught Curiosity while it was still connected to its almost 16-meter parachute as it descended to its landing site.
A camera aboard Curiosity itself took a sequence of self-portraits of its trip through the Martian atmosphere as well.
According NASA, the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) snapped over 1,500 images which are being stored within Curiosity’s onboard memory banks. When those images are put together at the highest resolution, they should produce a video showing the rover’s descent from the time its heat shield was released, all the way until it touched down on Mars.
This stop-motion video shows 297 frames from the Mars Descent Imager aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover as it descended to the surface of Mars. (Video: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Until we get that detailed video of Curiosity’s descent and touchdown, we’ll have to be satisfied with 297 color, low-resolution images the rover recently beamed back to Earth.
“The image sequence received so far indicates Curiosity had, as expected, a very exciting ride to the surface,” says Mike Malin from Malin Space Systems in San Diego, the imaging scientist for the Mars mission. “But as dramatic as they are, there is real other-world importance to obtaining them. These images will help the mission scientists interpret the rover’s surroundings, the rover drivers in planning for future drives across the surface, as well as assist engineers in their design of forthcoming landing systems for Mars or other worlds.”
Other activities planned for the Curiosity today include setting up its high-gain antenna, collecting science data from the system’s Radiation Assessment Detector and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station instruments, as well as picking up additional imagery of its surroundings.
This is all part of the mission’s characterization activity phase, which tests how Curiosity’s subsystems and instruments are functioning after landing and within the environment and gravitational field of Mars. | <urn:uuid:b9f4ae50-ca3a-4602-b6d1-88eb05f3625b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.voanews.com/science-world/2012/08/07/curiosity-adjusts-to-life-on-mars/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949867 | 559 | 3.203125 | 3 |
November 7, 2011
A BRIDGE TOO FAR:Getting Real: George F. Kennan's Cold War: a review of George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis (Louis Menand November 14, 2011, The New Yorker)
The war in Europe was won on the Eastern Front. Between June 22, 1941, the day Germany invaded Russia, and June 6, 1944, D Day, ninety-three per cent of German military casualties--4.2 million missing, wounded, or killed--were inflicted by Soviet forces. Stalin was not an ally of choice; Roosevelt and Churchill understood the ethical niceties of the situation they found themselves in. In an earlier book, Gaddis quotes a saying of Roosevelt's (apparently a Balkan proverb): "It is permitted you in time of grave danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge." The Allied coalition was held together by one common goal: the total defeat of Nazi Germany.
There is no doubt that Stalin saw things the same way. In the most uncharacteristic blunder of his career, he had imagined that he could talk turkey with Hitler, and, in 1939, had signed a non-aggression treaty with Nazi Germany. When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, twenty-two months later, Stalin was completely unprepared--one reason that the death toll in the East was so enormous. The Wehrmacht had come within sight of Moscow; it cost the Soviets almost a million lives to beat the Germans off, and millions more to drive them all the way back to Berlin. In the end, Soviet dead exceeded twenty-six million, roughly fourteen per cent of the population. (Fewer than half a million Americans died in the war.) Stalin needed a second front in the West, just as Roosevelt and Churchill needed the Red Army in the East.
From the start, the question was what the price would be. Stalin's view was uncomplicated. "This war is not as in the past; whoever occupies a territory also imposes on it his own social system," he explained privately to a group of Communist officials when the Red Army was bearing down on Berlin. "Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach. It cannot be otherwise." This is exactly the way Kennan thought that the Soviets understood the matter, and he regarded Soviet intentions in Eastern Europe as the worm in the Allied apple. Once Germany was defeated, Moscow would revert to prewar form, and the United States would have little leverage. But he could not seem to get anyone to acknowledge that the worm was there.
In August, 1944, with Soviet troops less than sixty miles from Warsaw, partisans in the Polish Home Army staged an uprising against the city's German occupiers. Stalin failed to intervene militarily; he refused to airlift armaments to the Polish fighters; and he turned down Harriman's personal appeal to allow Allied planes to refuel at Ukrainian bases so they could get supplies into Warsaw. Stalin's motives were not hard to guess. He was waiting for the S.S., which had taken over the battle in Warsaw, to annihilate the Home Army for him, thereby removing a potential obstacle to the establishment of a Soviet puppet regime when the war was over.
The S.S. more than obliged. Though Stalin eventually relented, and the Soviets airlifted (actually, simply dropped from planes) matériel into Warsaw, it was to little effect. In two months, the Germans killed twenty thousand members of the Home Army and massacred two hundred and twenty-five thousand civilians. Half a million Poles were shipped to concentration camps, a hundred and fifty thousand were sent off to forced labor in Germany, and, on Hitler's orders, Warsaw was razed. When the Red Army entered the city, in January, 1945, not a single inhabitant was left.
Kennan always believed that this was the moment when Stalin showed his hand. In the "Memoirs," he recalls Harriman returning from his futile meeting about the Ukrainian bases "in the wee hours of the night, shattered by the experience. There was no doubt in any of our minds as to the implications of the position the Soviet leaders had taken. This was a gauntlet thrown down, in a spirit of malicious glee, before the Western powers." Kennan thought that the Soviets should have been given the choice, right there, of relinquishing their designs on Eastern Europe or forgoing further American assistance. He didn't think that this would have stopped Stalin; he considered the creation of a Soviet "sphere of influence" inevitable. But it would have ended the impression of American acquiescence.
In all his reports, Kennan's repeated message to Washington was "Get real." He didn't just disapprove of idealistic policy talk. He deeply loathed it. Declarations about the self-determination of peoples or international economic coöperation--the kind of thing that Roosevelt and Churchill announced as Allied war aims in the Atlantic Charter--seemed to him not only utopian and unenforceable but dangerously restrictive on a government's scope of action. If you tell the world that you are fighting to preserve the right of self-determination, then any outcome short of that makes you look hypocritical or weak.
By not fighting to destroy Communism as well as Nazism we were hypocritical and weak, and the Cold War was the price we paid for it, as WWII was the price for Wilson's hypocrisy after WWI and the WoT has been the price for our hypocrisy in preferring the "stability" afforded by Arab dictators to the unruliness of Muslim democracy. All we've done in these instances was delay the inevitable at great cost to the peoples we failed and to our own society.
Posted by oj at November 7, 2011 8:48 AM | <urn:uuid:85d1bd89-9524-4323-95c5-b9d6f90a0c18> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://brothersjuddblog.com/archives/2011/11/a_bridge_too_far.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980743 | 1,191 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The world's leaders will be meeting in Copenhagen in a few days in what was to be a global effort to save the planet from auto destruct.
It now seems that apart from a few grand declarations, the world will have to wait a while before all our collective fears, prejudices, vested interests portrayed as national interests, complacencies or even denials are fully addressed. The Kyoto Protocol may be dying but the Copenhagen Protocol may be stillborn.
Instead, the entire process has become one of a pretext for protectionist policies under a green label as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned in Port of Spain.
"The global discourse on climate change has become enmeshed with arguments about maintaining economic competitiveness or level playing fields," he said. India is willing to make emission cuts and limit the rise of global temperatures, he added, only if there are tangible, equitable commitments on technology, finance and adaptation.
We have all heard the warnings -- Greenhouse Gases, Global Warming -- the terms have come to seem rhetorical. This indifference might be explained by the fact that most of us share a misplaced assumption -- that the planet earth is so big that we cannot possibly have any negative and lasting effect on it.
Doubts about whether or not the earth is actually warming up are very often created by the media and industry. The unwillingness to face facts is explained in the title of Al Gore's famous documentary -- An Inconvenient Truth.
In a span of just 100 years mankind has managed to change its climate. The escape of excess solar radiation is less efficient today than it was a 100 or even 20 years ago -- and this because of the thickening effect that greenhouse gases have on the earth's atmosphere, thus causing global warming. The impending truth is frightening.
The Himalayan glaciers feed rivers that provide fresh water to over 2 billion people. If the current rate of global warming is left unchecked, some predictions go as far as to say that the Brahmaputra, a river whose volume is 100 times that some of Europe's larger rivers such as the Seine and the Tiber, may be seasonal by the second half of the 21st century.
From a situation of excess water that we see in the Brahmaputra basin every year as the rains come down we will then be faced with immense fresh water shortages.
Add to this the so-far-unconfirmed, but possible, stories of the Chinese diverting water from the Brahmaputra to their water scarce north, and we have a major crisis. In a country where provinces fight over water and in a region where countries perennially quarrel over river waters, there could be water wars.
Winters are becoming shorter and milder. Shorter winters mean lighter snowfalls and the ice on the glaciers will not be replaced. This will in turn have devastating effects on agriculture and energy production from dams will also suffer.
Glaciers from the Swiss and Italian Alps, to those of Argentina and Peru have all been receding in this century are now doing so at an accelerated pace.
The Glacier National Park in the United States may soon have to look for another name. Initially melting glaciers will cause an excess of water and therefore flooding. This is not a problem particular to Asia.
These catastrophic floods have already been observed in France in 1999, in Central Europe in 2002 and 2005 and the South American Andes seem ready to follow the trend.
Another vicious cycle is spinning in the Arctic. Ice is one of the best reflectors of solar radiation -- it has a 'mirror effect' on the sun's rays but water absorbs; so as the ice recedes there is greater area to absorb the heat.
Scientists say that this phenomenon means that an increase in temperature of only 0.7 degrees elsewhere on the planet can mean an increase of between 3 and 5 degree Centigrade in the Arctic.
The University of Alaska has documented that the ice floes of the Arctic have melted by as much as 27 per cent between 1982 and 2004.
For instance, if the permafrost in Siberia were to melt, it would lead to the release of naturally occuring methane, a greenhouse gas that is at least 20 times more noxious than CO2, negating all efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions.
Melting ice caps and thermal expansion of water mean rising sea levels. Left unchecked, island nations such as Tuvalu and the Maldives will, quite literally, drown.
The world will soon have to deal with a new kind of refugee -- the Eco Refugee. If Greenland were to melt and disturbing changes have already been documented, the sea levels would rise by as much as 20 feet.
The existence of cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Shanghai, and New York, is threatened with drowning.
About 60 to 70 per cent of the oxygen we breathe is produced by phyto placton (ph) (tiny algae), that live in the oceans. When CO2 dissolves in the earth's oceans it disturbs the ph blance of the water, the end reult of this is that the oxygen producing plankton are also under threat. The earth's oceans and forests not only create oxygen but also stock billions of tonnes of CO2 every year. They are the planet's lungs.
A study by the University of Leeds has shown that the exceptional aridity caused by rising temperatures has transformed the rainforest from a burial pit for CO2 to a CO2 emitter. Too many dying trees liberating CO2 as they decompose is the direct reason for this.
Another study carried out from 1981 to 1990 by a Federal Swiss research group, has observed that the more the atmosphere is carbon dioxide-charged, the less the trees are able to exhale and the end result is less rainfall.
Rising temperatures are disturbing the natural balance and although there may be some debate about the precise mechanisms of climate change, there is no doubt that beyond a given point, nature will be unable to sustain itself.
One of the reasons that the warnings have fallen on the proverbial deaf ear is their vagueness in terms of time. It is widely and wrongly assumed that the world has the luxury of time.
Like any other epidemic, it is assumed by most that global warming will hit the 'other' and not our own part of the world. Both these assumptions are incorrect. We do not have the luxury of time and the epidemic is global.
Further, if not checked now, say in the next 10 years, it will be irreversible. If we are unable to stop the temperatures from increasing in the next 10 years then the planet we leave, not to our future generations, but to very next one, will not be the one we were blessed to be born on.
History has a way of repeating itself and looking back we tend to wonder how people could have acted with such lack of foresight.
In the West, there is a growing awareness and the young have begun to discard the clothes dryers for drying on the string to save energy. Serious attempts are being made to create general awareness with new documentaries.
Today, if we do not act then all our current issues of terrorism, global economic crises will seem like anecdotes to future generations, and it is of the worst kind of negligence that our children will accuse us.
In the West, they have begun to look at climate change as a threat multiplier; in India's neighbourhood, weakened or failing states living on the margins and already under multiple stresses of instability, have little capacity to meet additional pressures from climate change.
Acting to stop climate change should not mean having to deprive developing nations their developmental goals.
While the tendency to ignore consequences of unmitigated development practices in the initial years of development is understandable, it must be remembered that it is not wise to repeat the mistakes developed nations made to get where they are today. It serves no purpose today to condemn science or industry for past errors.
The world's rich nations are having to deal with the 'lock-in' effects of infrastructure and technology decisions that were made long before today's technologies became available.
It is more realistic to assert that science and technology will let us find earth friendly solutions to achieving sustainable development in today's context. There is simply no argument for using obsolete technologies where newer, better and in the long term cheaper technology options are available and have to be shared.
In this country there seems to be a perception that the current ecological disaster is a responsibility of the developed world. If India wants to play in the big league we must stop seeing ecological solutions as mere impositions. We need not be the victims in this case.
In a country where many of our infrastructure decisions are yet to be made, let alone put into practise, we have a unique chance to make the right decisions. This could, in fact, be a win-win situation.
To name just the better known ones, India has the potential to harness substantial amounts of solar power, because of its very abundance, and wind energy, by installing the more efficient offshore windmills along our coastlines.
No one solution exists to replace fossil fuels, but we should instead aim to create an energy infrastructure that is an amalgam of renewable, and therefore sustainable, energy sources in the long term.
On the eve of Copenhagen, where the world's fate is to be decided, we know that the technology exists, however, it is only any good if we can find the political will to drive it. Policy makers must be influenced and this is where each one of us can make a contribution.
Changing development pathways is about navigating through new, unchartered territories, evolving circumstances and not about merely mimicking the west. In the words of Robert Frost, it is about taking the road 'less travelled by'.
By freeing ourselves of the restraints of energy dependence, we will have placed ourselves very high in the global power game. The pay-off will be lower emissions and cleaner air. Who can argue with that? | <urn:uuid:91998caa-0b94-4b1b-a90e-929bfef15714> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://business.rediff.com/column/2009/nov/30/act-before-mumbai-kolkata-drown.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952356 | 2,032 | 2.671875 | 3 |
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The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the Federal agency responsible for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks. In doing this, the USPTO fulfills the mandate of Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, of the Constitution that the Executive branch to "promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to inventors the exclusive right to their respective discoveries." The USPTO also registers trademarks based on the Commerce Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3).
The strength and vitality of the U.S. economy depends directly on effective mechanisms that protect new ideas and investments in innovation and creativity. Under the USPTO system of protection, new products have been invented, new uses for old ones discovered, and employment opportunities created for millions of Americans.
The following website provides a list of Frequently Asked Questions for the United States Patent and Trademark Office: http://www.uspto.gov/faq/index.jsp
Learn More: http://www.uspto.gov/
Tags: No tags associated at this time | <urn:uuid:b5604ed1-4755-4c60-8701-a66548b7d70a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://business.usa.gov/service/united-states-patent-and-trademark-office-frequently-asked-questions?rate=wKHRhxrlQ9XH5gu2f4-Xv4P6gJM-MKGXKCaJxS4Na50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.880909 | 236 | 2.515625 | 3 |
We often visit the monuments and museums along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and each time I am surprised at my heightened emotions when we are there. Maybe it is because the museums are free and some of the memorials grand and inspiring, and I can imagine for a few hours that this country will one day live up to its professed ideals. In the city a few weeks ago, we looked forward to seeing our old favorites and were excited to see for the first time the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.
I admired once again the Vietnam War Memorial for its unexpected power, sleekness of design, and economy of space and the Korean War Memorial for its ghostlike and wary soldiers on patrol. But I got goose-bumps and teary eyes at the monument to Abraham Lincoln. There is the president sitting, looking out at us, his face homely and expressive. The structure itself is magnificent, a Greek temple that is a graceful juxtaposition to the flinty hardness of Lincoln’s body. Perhaps it is an unintended irony that the architecture is inspired by Greece, the cradle of democracy but also a country dependent upon the labor of slaves. The irony deepens when we realize that Lincoln and his great general, Grant, with the support of fierce and determined black soldiers, did what the Greeks did not—abolish the scourge of slavery.
The beauty of the Lincoln Memorial is that if we knew nothing about the president, we still might be moved by this monument to him. Lincoln’s heroic and tragic life only adds to its emotional force. I see not only the fineness of the structure but imagine Lincoln delivering his words at Gettysburg and in his Second Inaugural Address. What modern-day president would stand before Congress and say something like Lincoln did before his second term began: “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” I envision Lincoln visiting Union troops just across the Potomac River and being so distraught over the death of his son, William, that he had the body exhumed so he could see his boy again.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is about a half-mile from Lincoln’s. My heightened emotions were deflated as soon as we entered the memorial grounds. The picture that came to mind was of a gigantic miniature golf course. A granite “mountain” has been split into three segments. The middle portion has been placed at a distance in front of the other two, and it is from this part that the figure of King has been shaped. The entire edifice is an almost embarrassingly literal interpretation of a sentence from the “I Have a Dream” speech that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. He said, “With this faith [that his dream for a better America would come true] we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” Visitors are to enter the monument through the “mountain of despair” and move toward the “stone of hope.” The image of King is colossal in scale, as if he were some sort of mythical hero like Paul Bunyan or a dictator who has demanded an outsized image of himself, the better to put fear into the hearts of his subjects. I was shocked to see King’s visage as white as the granite out of which it is carved.
King is looking off to the side, not at us. Is he seeing the “promised land,” as in his famous words, uttered less than twenty-four hours before James Earl Ray killed him? Addressing a large crowd in Memphis on April 3, 1968, in support of striking sanitation workers, he said, “We got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop…I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” Who knows? We felt no connection to him. This is an icon to bow down before, not the representation of a man with whom you want to join hands in struggle.
On one side of the sculpted rock were the words “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” As many critics noted, these words were taken out of context and painted King as egotistic. What he really said was “If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.” Criticism was so strong that the government took the unusual step of having the sculptor remove it, which was done in late July of this year. We knew about this controversy when we visited the monument, and this added to our negative feelings about it.
We were left unmoved by the collection of inscriptions on the wall behind the monument. They seemed a hodgepodge, a collection of disconnected thoughts that taken together were much less than the man who said them. Couldn’t there have been photographs showing that King was a leader of the people? Some recordings of his speeches? His actions and his voice imploring us to fight for justice, these are what we need to remember.
I read about the building of the King Memorial after we returned home. Controversy plagued it from the beginning. The King family demanded and received money for the use of their father’s words and image. The sculptor was Chinese as were his imported workmen, whose wages for their labors are not known. Black artists and unionized and well-paid U.S. granite workers could have been used but were not. The rock, itself, was imported from China, whose government contributed $25 million to the memorial project.
As we were leaving the King Memorial, we saw a group of children, whose bright orange shirts indicated that they were from an inner-city day camp. King devoted his life to the creation of a world in which kids like these, in fact, all girls and boys, would grow up in an egalitarian, hopeful, and caring society. What an insult this monument is to them and to King. Here, it is impossible to grasp King’s radical spirit, his willingness to stand up to the most brutal repression, his brave opposition to the War in Viet Nam, his hope-shattering murder.
Maybe, this entire edifice should be demolished and a monument worthy of him constructed.
This essay first appeared in Counterpunch, August, 28, 2013 | <urn:uuid:8ab57e34-11d8-4ad7-bd8e-d081d77c43a7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2013/08/30/memorializing-martin-luther-king-jr/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984422 | 1,469 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Yesterday a friend gave me a copy of Jack's Garden by author and illustrator Henry Cole. It's not a new book by any stretch of the imagination (1995) but its a timeless narrative with beautiful colored pencil illustrations. As a nod to the familiar rhyme "This is the House that Jack Built", we follow a little boy in the process of planting and enjoying a flower garden in his own backyard. As an elementary school science teacher, the author provides remarkably accurate, labeled drawings of all stages of plant development (from seeds to seedlings then flowers), soil, insects, birds, and even gardening tools. This is less an instructional guide and more of a beautiful story book. But its real value, I believe, is the way it makes understanding a little garden ecosystem effortless for young children. My five-year old daughter LOVES this book and was instantly inspired to go out to her own patch of dirt this afternoon and "get to work" (although it was only about 40 degrees here in Chicago today). All of my older children (ages 5, 4 and 3 years) enjoyed pointing out the plants and creatures they recognized and learning the new ones they didn't. This is a great gardening book for children ages 4 to 8. It would be a wonderful addition to any family library. | <urn:uuid:c3fef0b7-5652-4716-ba1b-3c7a2ed119bf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://childrensgardening.blogspot.com/2009/04/jacks-garden.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968181 | 262 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Learning Games – Math
Calculation Nation is part of the NCTM Illuminations project, which offers Standards-based resources that improve the teaching and learning of mathematics for all students. Its materials illuminate the vision for school mathematics set forth in NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics and Curriculum Focal Points. The web-based games let students challenge opponents from anywhere in the world.(Illuminations is also part of Thinkfinity.org, an educational website funded by the Verizon Foundation to provide free educational resources to parents, teachers, and students.)
Math Playground is a free site created by math teachers, it is packed full of math games, math word problems, real world math(like math in running a restaurant…), math video, logic game(very addictive). It’d mainly for elementary schools to lower middle schoolers. In this site you can link to Thinking Blocks, which lets students model and solve math word problems by using online virtual blocks to visualize the problems in new ways. These thinking blocks were developed by Colleen King as she worked to help her students in their Singapore Math program. By modeling in this way, students are better prepared for moving from arithmetic to algebraic thinking because they learn how to break complex problems into their simplest form. The activities on the Thinking Block website includes guided and independent practice opportunities. They also released a free iPad App for algebra problem solving.
TutPup provides competitive educational games, where students compete against other players around the world. It helps students build math skills in the areas of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, algebra, and a mixture of those skills. It also helps students build spelling skills with a spelling game. It can be differentiated for your different levels of learners. Students can access all the games as a guest player.
MathGameTime is the resource on the Web for math homework help on PreK-7 grades. You will find interactive online games, math worksheets, and video tutorials to explain math concepts in a fun and interactive way.
Smarty Games features games for developing basic mathematics and reading skills. There are six mathematics games covering basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It also offers activities for learning to read a clock, puzzles, mazes, coloring activities.
Kids Numbers is a website from the Kids Knowit Network, which is a free collection of resources for the math classroom. Math skills include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, geometry, and Algebra. You can get a week by week break down of skills to practice with online games and activities.
Gudli is a site offering free educational games children develop skills in maths, logic, memory, words, creativity and more for pre-K to first grade.
MangaHigh is an excellent game-based learning resources for K-12 Math. and free of charge for school accounts.
Arcademic Skill Builders offers a collection of twenty-one quality games for sharpening math and language arts skills. All of the games can be played online and six of the games are even enabled for play using a Nintendo Wii remote; it allows single or multiple players. Students can play games for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fraction, and ratios. The games are research based and standard aligned.
Learn With Math Games offers online games as well as PDF templates for games that teachers and students can play in their classrooms. It is organized by grade level and by mathematics topic.
MathNook – Math games, puzzles , worksheets and teaching tools.
Brainnook is designed to help kids develop important elementary-level Math and English skills by accomplishing missions.
Math Cats provides math activities and games based on word problems, appropriate for students in elementary and lower middle school grades.
Decimal Squares provides simple games for students to develop their math skills. The games do not require an account to play and are for middle school students.
StudyJams – There are over 200 resources for kids to learn math and science by watching videos and testing themselves. It’s from Scholastic.
Gamequarium is developed by Diana Dell , offers an excellent catalog of mathematics games and video demonstrations of mathematics functions.
Primary Games offers a collection of mathematics games as well as games for other content areas. You can grab some of the games and embed them into your own blog or website.
XPMath is dedicated to various math games, it’s intended for students to learn math through video games; there are math worksheets and e-books, too.
Mathsframe (UK site) has more than 170 free interactive maths games. All resources are designed, by an experienced KS2 teacher, to help children to visualise numbers, patterns and numerical relationships and to develop their mathematical thinking. New games are added most weeks.
CTK Math Games For Kids – a collection of games, Puzzles and activities with mathematical contents and a few practice exercises disguised as games
The Problem Site is loaded with great games for students. Some games are traditional, some games are completely new. Each game is designed to help students develop problem solving skills. The games are categorized as word games, math games, or strategy games.
iplaymathgames has a collection of printable math games for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. The games are easily searched by grade or skill level. These math games can be played using common items like dice, cards, and other manipulatives.
3DVINCI has downloadable pdf lesson plans to teach math concepts using Google’s Sketchup. The site also has an impressive collection of printable puzzles and mosaics for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade to solve. This site helps bring 3-D concepts to life in a way that textbooks can’t. (a few resources are free)
The Stock Market Game gives students a chance to practice hands on real-world math. Each student gets the chance to invest a hypothetical $100,000 in an online portfolio. While playing the game, students learn economic and financial concepts that they will use the rest of their lives. The game is intended for students in fourth through twelfth grades.
Math Puzzles is dedicated to math puzzles and recreation with over 4 million visitors.
Tangram House is the traditional Chinese puzzle challenges students to create a shape using only 7 tans (shapes) to complete a puzzle. The tans can be rotated, flipped, and dragged into place. | <urn:uuid:06993596-1843-4085-9033-b80ed4c384c1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://classroom-aid.com/educational-resources/mathematics/learning-games-math/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947713 | 1,324 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Toucan’s beak beats the heat
Published: 30 September 2010(GMT+10)
This is the pre-publication version which was subsequently revised to appear in Creation 32(4):28–29.
The toco toucan (Ramphastos toco) is the largest member of the toucan family,
and has the largest beak relative to body size of all birds. The naked skin at the base
of the beak and around the eyes is often brilliantly coloured, augmenting the toucan’s
Charles Darwin was intrigued by the toucan’s monstrous beak. (The toucan’s bill accounts for about one-third of its body length.) He wrote that “toucans may owe the enormous size of their beaks to sexual selection, for the sake of displaying the diversified and vivid stripes of colour with which these organs are ornamented.”1
In other words, Darwin suggested the big beaks attracted mates. Others have suggested the beaks are for peeling fruit, warning off territorial rivals, or are a visual warning to predators.
However, new research has identified a key function of the toucan’s bill is to help the toucan keep cool in tropical climates, or when expending a lot of energy while flying.2,3,4 Just as elephants flush their large ears with blood to let the heat dissipate into the air, and thus keep the core temperature of the body stable, so the toucan uses its massive beak to radiate heat away rapidly.5
The toucan’s beak meets the requirements for being a thermal radiator perfectly—dare we say, it “fits the bill”! Not only does it make up 30% to 50%6 of the toucan’s overall body surface area, the beak also has an extensive network of blood vessels close to the surface. And it is not simply a passive thermal radiator, as the heat exchange is carefully regulated.
The toucan’s beak meets the requirements for being a thermal radiator perfectly—dare we say, it ‘fits the bill’!
Using infrared photography, which displays warm areas as bright and cool regions as dark, researchers observed that the toucan could adjust blood flow to its beak. In mild conditions (16º–25ºC), only the proximal region of the bill (i.e. nearest to the toucan’s head) was used to radiate heat. But with increasing air temperature, and/or when the toucan is expending energy as in flight, the distal part of the bill begins to receive increased blood flow, becoming warmer.
So, in hot conditions the researchers’ infrared thermography showed toucans’ beaks glowing with radiated heat as warm blood flooded them. In contrast, at cooler temperatures the bills would go dark as blood flow was cut back to a minimum.
The researchers assessed that heat loss from the adult toucan’s bill could account for as little as 25%7 to as much as 400% of resting heat production—the largest range so far observed in nature.
What’s more, toucans can even do it in their sleep! The researchers wrote, “We found that sleeping birds show transient changes in bill surface temperature without evidence of awakening, indicative of sleep-state transitions associated with changes in thermoregulatory state.”2
The toucan is evidence of a purposeful Creator who created things for a purpose, on purpose!
What would Darwin have made of all this? Could his ideas about natural selection have accounted for how the toucan’s bill could have become endowed with such a crucial and sophisticated function—with its separate blood vessel networks supplying the distal and proximal regions of the beak?
Tellingly, the researchers who identified the incredible heat exchange function of the toucan’s beak, although crediting the bill to evolution, shied away from the origins issue, saying that “the selective forces that led to the large bills of present-day toucans remain elusive”.2
Elusive indeed. Yet intelligent people today would recognize that the thermal radiators of modern motor vehicles with their thermostat-regulated rate of coolant flow to the radiator are the product of intelligent design. Consider how much more sophisticated is the toucan’s ability to control the flow of blood to its “thermal radiator” beak to achieve thermoregulation—a truly integrated system with complex feedback mechanisms.
The toucan is better viewed as evidence of a purposeful Creator who created things for a purpose, on purpose!
- Darwin, C, The Descent of Man: And Selection in relation to Sex, John Murray, London, 1871, Volume II, 1st edition, 1871, p. 227. (Accessed via: The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online, <darwin-online.org.uk>). Return to text.
- Tattersall, G., Andrade, D., Abe, A., Heat exchange from the toucan bill reveals a controllable vascular thermal radiator, Science 325(5939):468–470, 2009. Return to text.
- Price, M., A bird with a big air-conditioning bill, ScienceNOW Daily News, <sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/723/2>, 23 July 2009. Return to text.
- Kaplan, M., Giant toucan bills help birds keep their cool, National Geographic News, <nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090723-toucans-bills-radiators.html>, 23 July 2009. Return to text.
- All warm-blooded animals need to release excess body heat. Humans do it in part by sweating, dogs by panting. Return to text.
- Despite its dominating size, the beak comprises only about one-twentieth of the toucan’s bodyweight. Return to text.
- At cold temperatures, losing body heat through the bill could theoretically become a liability. But the researchers point out that toucans are well known for tucking their bills beneath their wings and orienting their tail feathers around the beak during sleep. This posture insulates the bill and mitigates heat loss incurred while asleep. Return to text.
I enjoy reading your various articles, and the other day when i opened up your toucan article by David Catchpoole, I knew right away the picture of the “toco” toucan was not a toco. It is actually a “red” billed toucan. I dont know if this is a big deal or not, I just wanted to draw the “mis-identification” to your attention. Here is a link to confirm identification of the bird in your picture from a reputable toucan breeder if you wish: http://www.emeraldforestbirds.com/redbill2.htm. | <urn:uuid:7456ec04-7321-4183-881b-e5f66141c465> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://creation.com/toucan-beak | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935755 | 1,474 | 3.953125 | 4 |
For any polynomial , we construct a pseudorandom function as follows:
It is convenient to think of this construction as a complete binary tree with height . Each node in the tree is an application of the PRG , which sends its left child and its right child . The root node receives s as input, we traverse the tree according to the bits of , and output the value at the leaf.
We can extend the construction to give longer outputs by simply applying a PRG with suitable stretch to the k bits given by the basic construction.
- Oded Goldreich, Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, How to construct random functions, J ACM, vol33, no4, October 1986, pp792-807. | <urn:uuid:57b01389-b545-4720-b320-ed0b47fd45e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://crypto.cs.uiuc.edu/wiki/index.php/GGM_construction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905195 | 156 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has now evolved a system for evaluating urban transport services in cities across India. All cities covered by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) have been advised to benchmark their level of services for various parameters specified by the ministry.
The parameters on which the cities would be graded include public transportation system, pedestrian facilities, cycle lanes, and even air pollution among others. The exercise aims to generate information that will be useful in making urban transportation systems effective.
Detailed indicators have been developed to assess the level of service (LOS). The public transportation will be assessed on the basis of presence of organised public transport system, its availability, bus route network density, service frequency, level of comfort and percentage fleet of buses as per urban bus specifications. The city wide LOS of public transport parameter will be determined by summing up of LOS of all its indicators. This will indicate how good or bad the
public transport system of a city is. Four grades will be used for benchmarking. A city with a good public transport system will score one and that with the worst or no system will rank four. Likewise the city will be graded on all parameters to highlight the performance of the urban transport system in a city which would be monitored by the urban local bodies or the development authority. | <urn:uuid:9ee724f0-ff25-4138-bbdb-9561f4b6cfa6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cseindia.org/node/355 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922574 | 270 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Historic and future projected changes in Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) for Oregon and Washington
Water resource managers and aquatic wildlife specialists need high resolution hydrologic data to forecast operational or habitat shifts resulting from climate changes. In the Pacific Northwest, numerous resources and infrastructure are strongly dependent on the influence and seasonality of snowpack, in particular due to its influence on both summer and winter hydrology. Water resource managers and aquatic wildlife specialists need high resolution hydrologic data to forecast operational or habitat shifts resulting from climate changes. Unfortunately, observations of snowpack are unfortunately too sparse and often too short to reliably deduce climate impacts. This study applies a new 30 arc-second (~800 m) dataset produced by the Climate Impacts Group (CIG) to obtain estimates of historical and future projected changes in snowpack for the region.
Methods and Products
The domain for this study covers nearly all of the states of Oregon and Washington (see Figure 1). Monthly historical (1915-2006) and future climate data (daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation) were obtained from the new 30 arc-second climate dataset mentioned above. These were then used to bias correct the daily 1/16th degree climate records generated previously by CIG, to obtain daily climate forcings at the new 30 arc-second resolution.
Due to the computational and storage limitations imposed by such a large number of grid cells, the future projections were limited to a set of 3 different projections for the decade of the 2040s, following the A1b emissions scenario (Nakicenovic et al., 2000). These projections were obtained from Littell et al. (2011), which used the spatially-explicit delta method of downscaling, applied to 3 different estimates of future climate: an average of the ten best climate models and two bracketing runs, one from the pcm1 model (which tends to be cooler than other models) and another from the miroc_3.2 model (which tends to be warmer).
To obtain estimates of Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), we implemented a modified version of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC, Liang et al., 1994) macroscale model. Specifically, VIC was modified to include terrain slope and aspect in radiative calculations. To run VIC, the above climate dataset (daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation) was complemented with daily estimates of wind forcing obtained by linearly interpolating daily NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction; Kalnay et al., 1996) reanalysis winds. With the exception of a few climate variables included in the soil files, which were taken directly from the 30 arc-second dataset, the vegetation and soil parameter files were obtained by linearly interpolating the values from the 1/16th degree files used in the Columbia Basin Climate Change Scenarios Project (CBCCSP, Hamlet et al., 2010). Finally, the snowband parameter file was generated to include a maximum of 5 subgrid elevation bands in each grid cell, defined based on a 2 arc-second (~60 m) resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM). This latter file is particularly important for the present work, since it specifies the sub-grid elevation bands on which snow calculations are performed for each grid cell.
Monthly summaries and annual statistics of SWE are archived for the historical and future simulations and made available for download below. Specifically, the value of SWE is stored for each month for each grid cell in the simulation. In addition, a number of annual statistics are calculated (e.g., maximum swe, date of 10% accumulation, etc.). Summaries of the simulations are archived for the historical and future simulations. Daily results are also available upon request. Due to the size of the dataset, these are not posted for download.
Accessing the Data
Please use the contact information below to let us know how you plan to use the data -- we'd really like to know!
(Note that each data directory contains two subdirectories: one containing monthly summaries of the SWE simulations, and the other containing annual SWE statistics).
- Dataset README file
- Historical SWE simulations
- Future SWE simulations -- composite of the ten best climate models (A1b, 2040s)
- Future SWE simulations -- pcm1 (cooler) climate model (A1b, 2040s)
- Future SWE simulations -- miroc_3.2 (warmer) climate model (A1b, 2040s)
Funding for this project was provided by a grant from the USDA US Forest Service Region 6 Pacific Northwest Research Station.
Hamlet A.F. et al., 2010: Statistical downscaling techniques for global climate model simulations of temperature and precipitation with application to water resources planning studies. Chapter 4 in Final Project Report for the Columbia Basin Climate Change Scenarios Project.
Kalnay E. et al., 1996: The NCEP/NCAR 40-year Reanalysis Project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77, 437-471.
Liang, X., D. P. Lettenmaier, E. F. Wood, and S. J. Burges, 1994: A Simple hydrologically Based Model of Land Surface Water and Energy Fluxes for GSMs, J. Geophys. Res., 99(D7), 14,415-14,428.
Littell, J.S., M.M. Elsner, G. Mauger, E. Lutz, A.F. Hamlet,, and E. Salathé. 2011. Regional Climate and Hydrologic Change in the Northern US Rockies and Pacific Northwest: Internally Consistent Projections of Future Climate for Resource Management. DRAFT report available online here.
Nakicenovic, N et al. (2000). Special Report on Emissions Scenarios: A Special Report of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Questions regarding this dataset can be directed to:
- Guillaume Mauger ([email protected]), (206) 685-0317 | <urn:uuid:da1dd5f2-1915-42e0-8aa6-9cacb61cc0cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cses.washington.edu/data/swe30s.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.886245 | 1,276 | 2.578125 | 3 |
In a recent op-ed article published in Indian Country Today, the author–a Cree/Metis woman from Alberta Canada–wrote about a landmark study conducted by the Canadian government in 1991 called “People to People, Nation to Nation: Highlights from the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.” The RCAP was established to examine the conditions of First Nations Peoples and make recommendations for solutions to the problems that stubbornly grip their communities. The resulting 150 page document was a modern equivalent to the American Meriam Report of 1928 which resulted in sweeping changes for Native American tribes on the heels of the disastrous Dawes Act.
The RCAP was an honest look at the conditions created by Canada’s colonial policies and made bold recommendations for their reversal and establishing a healthier relationship between First Nations and the Canadian government, complete with budget projections. In a nutshell the report admitted that all of the prior Canadian policies aimed at forced assimilation had not only not worked, but were in fact to blame for the atrocious socioeconomic conditions plaguing First Nations communities. Unfortunately, the author notes, 10 years later the Assembly of First Nations issued a report card for how well the recommendations had been implemented and found almost no implementation whatsoever.
Perhaps the most salient point the author makes is that most of the hard work of proposing solutions has already been done, and the “wheel need not be reinvented.” In other words, the Harper government should listen up and stop ignoring what his country’s government has already proposed instead of moving backwards and perpetuating its behavior as a colonial imperialist instead of the treaty partner that it is. | <urn:uuid:6c03729d-e0f2-4405-9aa6-2534824b6ec6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cwis.org/FWE/2013/01/13/reinventing-the-colonial-wheel-in-canada/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96317 | 328 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Earlier today, Al Gore responded to a question posed last week by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly:
Last week on his show Bill O’Reilly asked, “Why has southern New York turned into the tundra?” and then said he had a call into me. I appreciate the question.
As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming:
In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.
A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species.
Apparently, Mr. Gore has never noted that climate scientists once thought snowfall would disappear. But wait, there’s more.
According to Dr. David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event.”
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
Also, apparently Mr. Gore is unable to track the global monthly temperature. If he had, he would note that there is no “global warming” this month.
Note to Al: The global temperature has been falling in December and January in concert with a strong La Niña. In the chart below, negative values indicate cooling/La Niña, while positive values indicate warming/El Niño.
Al, please note the pretty blue colors:
NOAA’s Aqua satellite lower troposphere channel 5 shows that global temperatures are currently below normal. I’ve helpfully added a big purple arrow to help Mr. Gore read the graph.
Dr. Roy Spencer takes Gore to task here. We’ll have the final January UAH global temperature anomaly in the next day or so. I hope Bill O’Reilly points this out to Gore on Fox.
Anthony Watts operates the most visited blog on climate science in the world, www.wattsupwiththat.com. | <urn:uuid:59e8188b-5c49-43b7-89a6-a89122076587> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/01/the-goreacle-snowstorms-caused-by-global-warming/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938323 | 522 | 2.8125 | 3 |
The families of flowering plants
Habit and leaf form. Trees, shrubs, and lianas. Rhizomatous. Self supporting (usually with prop roots at the base of the stem), or epiphytic, or climbing; when climbing, root climbers. Stem growth conspicuously sympodial (appearing dichtomous). Pachycaul. Helophytic, or mesophytic (often maritime). Leaves medium-sized to very large; alternate; spiral (appearing so, through torsion of the stem), or tristichous (usually, in fact), or four-ranked (rarely); leathery; imbricate; sessile; sheathing. Leaf sheaths with free margins. Leaves simple. Lamina entire; usually linear, or lanceolate; parallel-veined; without cross-venules. Leaves eligulate. Vernation plicate.
General anatomy. Plants without silica bodies.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; tetracytic. The mesophyll containing mucilage cells (with raphides); containing crystals. The crystals raphides, or druses (?), or solitary-prismatic. Foliar vessels present; with scalariform end-walls. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells (Pandanus).
Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Secondary thickening absent (stems with compound vascular bundles).
The vessel end-walls scalariform.
Root anatomy. Root xylem with vessels; vessel end-walls scalariform.
Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers present. Plants dioecious, or polygamodioecious. Female flowers with staminodes (often), or without staminodes. Pollination anemophilous, or entomophilous, or ornithophilous, or cheiropterophilous (but mostly by wind).
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in inflorescences; in panicles, in racemes, and in heads (often crowded into dense panicles). Inflorescences terminal; spatheate. Flowers minute, or small.
Perianth of tepals (?Sararanga), or absent (Freycinetia and Pandanus); 3–4 (Sararanga); when present, joined (cupuliform); 1 whorled; in Sararanga, more or less sepaloid (?).
Androecium of male-fertile flowers 10–100 (?many, the situation in Freycinetia and Pandanus complicated by the fact that homologies are so unclear that it is not possible with any certainty to distinguish flowers from aggregates of flowers). Androecial members branched (ostensibly), or unbranched (?); free of the perianth; variously coherent (often with stemonophores), or free of one another (and then no trace of flower structure discernable). Stamens 10–100 (many regardless of what constitutes a single flower); filantherous, or with sessile anthers. Anthers basifixed; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; appendaged (via apical prolongation of the connective), or unappendaged. Tapetum amoeboid. Pollen grains aperturate; 1 aperturate; sulcate, or ulcerate; 2-celled.
Gynoecium (1–)80 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled (when monomerous), or 2–100 celled (to many, when syncarpous). Gynoecium monomerous (rarely), or apocarpous to syncarpous; of one carpel (rarely), or eu-apocarpous to eu-syncarpous (syncarpous in Sararanga and Freycinetia, carpels free or connate in Pandanus); superior. Carpel (when apocarpous or unilocular) 1–5 ovuled. Placentation when apocarpous or one-carpelled marginal, or basal. Ovary when syncarpous 1 locular (in Freycinetia), or 2–100 locular (i.e. to many). Placentation when bi- multilocular axile (Freycinitia), or basal. Ovules when plurilocular 1–5 per locule (carpels uniovulate in Pandanoideae, several-ovuled in Freycinetioideae); anatropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Outer integument contributing to the micropyle (Freycinetia), or not contributing to the micropyle. Embryo-sac development Polygonum-type, or Allium-type. Antipodal cells formed; 3 (Freycinetia), or 64–200 (Pandanus, where the antipodals are supplemented by migration of nuclei from elsewhere); proliferating, or not proliferating. Hypostase present. Endosperm formation nuclear.
Fruit fleshy to non-fleshy; more or less an aggregate, or not an aggregate. The fruiting carpels (when apocarpous) coalescing into a secondary syncarp, or not coalescing. The fruiting carpel indehiscent; drupaceous (1280 in Sararanga). Fruit when syncarpous, indehiscent; when syncarpous, a berry. Gynoecia of adjoining flowers generally combining to form a multiple fruit. The multiple fruits coalescing (to varying extents, in Pandanus), or not coalescing. Fruit 1 seeded. Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily, or not oily. Seeds minute. Seeds with starch. Embryo well differentiated (small). Cotyledons 1. Embryo straight. Testa without phytomelan.
Seedling. Hypocotyl internode present (long). Seedling collar not conspicuous. Cotyledon hyperphyll compact; non-assimilatory. Coleoptile absent. Seedling cataphylls absent. First leaf dorsiventral. Primary root ephemeral.
Physiology, phytochemistry. Anatomy non-C4 type (Freycinetia, Pandanus). Accumulated starch exclusively pteridophyte type. Not cyanogenic. Alkaloids absent (3 species). Saponins/sapogenins absent. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols absent. Ellagic acid absent. Sieve-tube plastids P-type; type II.
Geography, cytology. Temperate (warm, a few), or temperate to sub-tropical. Southwest tropical Africa, Madagascar, India to Thailand, Malaysia and Australia. X = 30 (with aneuploidy).
Taxonomy. Subclass Monocotyledonae. Dahlgren et al. Superorder Pandaniflorae; Pandanales. APG 3 core angiosperms; Superorder Lilianae; non-commelinid Monocot; Order Pandanales.
Species 700. Genera 3; Freycinetia, Pandanus, Sararanga.
Economic uses, etc. Pandanus leaves are used for thatch, matting, clothing and containers, and the immature fleshy perianths of some species are edible.
Illustrations. • Technical details: Pandanus, Freycinetia. • Pandanus candelabrum (Thonner). • Freycinetia banksii: Hooker, Fl. Novae-Zelandiae (1853).
The descriptions are offered for casual browsing only. We strongly advise against extracting comparative information from them. This is much more easily achieved using the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution, genera included in each family, and classifications (Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo; Cronquist; APG).
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 16th May 2016. delta-intkey.com’. | <urn:uuid:f1744ff6-d775-484b-9843-df8f553f0f19> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://delta-intkey.com/angio/www/pandanac.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.773579 | 1,803 | 3.28125 | 3 |
This Demonstration illustrates the normal vibrational modes of a drum head fixed along a circular edge. Each mode with elongation (in polar coordinates)
is related to Bessel functions of the first kind,
is the radial coordinate,
the polar angle, and
the time. Selecting the order,
, determines the angular periodicity of the drum head. Selecting the
determines the number of antinodes along a radial line connecting the center and outer edge. | <urn:uuid:3ffa1ae0-9d94-417b-b60c-9967cbd54f11> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/NormalModesOfACircularDrumHead/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.781028 | 98 | 2.5625 | 3 |
On January 29, 1994 the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies brought together ILWU veterans, Pacific Northwestern activists, and academics to honor and remember the legacy of Harry Bridges and the tradition of dissent he inspired on the waterfront.
Jack Tanner was a dedicated civil rights activist, constant supporter of the ILWU, and the first African-American in the Pacific Northwest to serve on the federal bench. Tanner was born in Tacoma in 1919 and served in the Army during World War II. After returning from the Pacific theater, Tanner attended the University of Puget Sound and later the University of Washington’s School of Law. In law school Tanner joined the NAACP and served as its regional director from 1957 to 1965 and was later appointed to the organization’s national board. A dedicated civil rights attorney, Tanner not only represented African Americans but also Native Americans in their struggles to enforce treaty rights. In 1966, he became the first African American candidate for Washington State governor. In 1978, Tanner was appointed to the 9 th Circuit Court and in 1992 he was elevated to senior court judge. Tanner remained on the bench until his death in 2006.
But before he rose to prominence as judge, a crusader for civil rights, and a dedicated activist, Tanner worked on Tacoma’s docks as a member of the ILWU. In this talk Tanner discusses Harry Bridges and the ILWU’s tradition of interracial unionism. | <urn:uuid:a1ab8741-4b75-4979-a5df-2da09594b6d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://depts.washington.edu/dock/interview_tanner-jack.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975128 | 289 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Just three short years ago, it appeared that North America was on the verge of finally kicking that nasty dirty energy addiction that was crippling our economies and our energy independence. The United States had elected a president (Barack Obama) who set incredibly lofty goals for renewable energy targets, and green energy investments across the continent were higher than anywhere else in the world.
And then, all of a sudden, nothing happened. The promises of politicians went unfulfilled, investments began flowing to other countries, and we returned to the fossil fuel spigot for one more hit to satisfy our addiction.
And though North America includes numerous countries and territories, the two biggest culprits holding the continent back are the United States and Canada.
In the early part of this century, both North America and Europe were investing solidly in renewable energy projects and technology. As Renewable Energy Focus pointed out: Venture equity funding of clean energy reached $2.5bn in Europe, whereas North America saw $6.8bn venture equity funding in clean energy…The average size of investment rounds for an average company rose 103% to €65 million per company in North American, whereas clean energy companies in Europe saw investment rounds fall 4% to €27m per company.
But in the span of just two years (2009 – 2011), the United States went from being the world leader in renewable energy investments to third behind both China and Germany. But it wasn’t from a lack of profitability. In 2011, solar firms in the United States were up $1.9 billion in trade differences, meaning that our technology was being bought up all over the globe. We were a leader, and we were at the forefront of renewable energy technology.
While North America was backing off of our renewable energy projects, the rest of the world seized the opportunity to take the lead. Even the oil-rich countries in the Middle East realized that an oil addiction is not sustainable:
In the Middle East, Morocco has invested $1.1 billion (Dh4 billion) in renewable energy in 2011. Saudi Arabia plans to generate 41 gigawatt energy within a few years, which will save half a million barrels of oil used for energy generation. Such initiatives after the UAE’s lead to host Irena in Abu Dhabi has changed the discussion on global climate change. The nations producing (polluting) hydrocarbons are leading the discussions to promote clean energy.
In South America, a continent that has already been working to reduce their emissions due to their location, which is considered to be especially susceptible to the effects of climate change, there is a massive push among governments to continue to develop sources of renewable energy such as hydroelectric, geothermal, and solar.
Businesses in Australia are rushing to switch their buildings over to solar power, now that the price of solar technology is falling. While they may be more motivated by money, there is an undeniable affect on electricity production and therefore carbon emissions from the switch.
In Asia, particularly China, green energy investments are skyrocketing, and China has become the world leader in renewable energy investments.
The European Union has been working towards producing more renewable energy since at least 1997, and today is the number 2 producer in the world of renewable energy. Germany in particular has managed to reduce their reliance on coal over the last 50 years, replacing substantial portions of their energy generation with solar power. In the UK, wind farms have become massive epicenters for both profit and energy production.
But it isn’t just renewable energy investments where North America is behind the curve; we’ve fallen behind the rest of the world in holding the dirty energy industry accountable for their actions.
The best example came recently from Brazil. After back to back oil spills off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, drilling company Transocean and oil giant Chevron were ordered to stop drilling in Brazilian waters. And while a federal court in Brazil has since ruled that both companies can continue operating the offshore rigs that are already active, they are still not allowed to start any new operations until a full investigation has concluded on what caused the two oil spills.
Contrast that to Transocean’s activities in North America, where the company owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in 2010, killing 11 men and causing millions of gallons of oil to leak into the Gulf of Mexico. How did the United States punish the company? After a meaningless moratorium that was more symbolic than anything else, our government decided to speed up the offshore oil drilling permitting process. That’s a stark difference from Brazil’s actions to ban the company from doing business in their waters.
And Canada has fared no better on their punishments. In its first year of operation, the Keystone I pipeline had one major oil spill and 11 minor spills. Rather than taking action to hold the company accountable, they were allowed to move forward with an even bigger and more flawed pipeline plan (Keystone XL) that would put both Canada and the U.S. at risk of a massive oil leak or spill.
Fracking has provided another great example. In the U.K., fracking company Cuadrilla Resources voluntarily halted their fracking activities in areas where the practice had been linked to earthquakes. In the United States, even after a U.S. Geological Service study said that there was strong correlation between fracking and earthquakes, the state of Ohio was the only place that halted fracking, and that ban was limited and lasted a short time.
So with everyone else making huge gains in the area of renewable energy, why has North America fallen so far off its pedestal? There are two answers to that question, and they are joined at the hip: Money and spin.
That money and spin plays itself out in three important areas – The media, the government, and lobbying/astroturf groups.
In the United States, we’re cursed with a media that devotes far more time to climate change skeptics and industry insiders. From Stephen Lacey at Think Progress:
According to a new analysis of data released last year, American newspapers are far more likely to publish uncontested claims from climate deniers, many of whom challenge whether the planet is warming at all and are “almost exclusively found” in the U.S. media. The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
The researchers were trying to answer three important questions: Is climate denial and disinformation as prevalent in the newspapers outside America? Is it mostly right-wing papers publishing these pieces? And what types of skeptics are being published in different countries?
In all three categories, the U.S. emerged as a unique leader in promoting climate denial in the press.
And print journalism is only a small portion of the problem. The main area where spin has become so effective is in our televised media. According to Media Matters, during the massive heat waves that swept the continent this past summer, news outlets like ABC, Fox News, and CNN barely mentioned the role of climate change in their coverage (the only time Fox even mentioned climate change was when they were deriding it.) They go on to point out that only 8% of total media coverage even mentioned the role of man made climate change in the massive heat waves.
Previous reports from Media Matters also told us that media outlets were far more likely to host anti-environmental guests, and worse, dirty energy industry insiders, when discussing energy policy and climate change.
Again, things in Canada were no better. Reports show that climate change coverage in Canada has been dropping every year since 2007, even as the evidence of climate change becomes more and more clear.
Contrast that with Australia, which recently ordered their version of Rush Limbaugh, Alan Jones, to undergo “factual accuracy training” for his constant denial of climate change and for misleading the Australian public.
But it isn’t just the media that is misleading the public; elected officials in North America have been doing a fine job of spreading misinformation themselves.
In the United States, politicians (primarily from the Republican Party) have been on a crusade to convince the American public that President Obama and the Democratic Party are responsible for the spike in gasoline prices, they are responsible for the lack of jobs because of their pesky oversight agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, and that they are holding us back from energy independence and job growth by not approving dangerous projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Further north, Canadian environment minister Peter Kent has been telling the entire world that Canada’s vast tar sands reserves are not only the wave of our energy future, but that they are safe and virtually renewable. Behind closed doors, however, Kent has been telling those closest to him that there is absolutely no evidence to back up his claims.
So what’s the point? Why would politicians and the media even concern themselves with this spin?
The answer to that lies in the second part of our equation – money. Billions upon billions of dollars have been spent by the dirty energy industry in North America to set up astroturf organizations, to fund political campaigns, and to buy advertisements aimed at keeping the populace in the dark about their destructive practices.
In Canada, the dirty energy industry lobby has been hard at work creating whitewash campaigns to help sell Canadian tar sands to the rest of the world, even claiming that they are producing “ethical oil,” whatever that is. To make matters worse, the tar sands lobby even formed secret committees with the Canadian government, meaning that they were able to completely infiltrate the political system.
In the United States, the dirty energy industry’s lobbying efforts have been blinding. Astroturf groups are a dime a dozen, and have been working to push everything from deregulation, to the approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, to increased oil drilling on public lands. All of the money from these groups can be directly traced back to the dirty energy industry, and all of the money spent on these efforts serves only to increase the industry’s bottom line.
North American companies and politicians appear to be incredibly short-sighted in their energy decisions. While conventional fossil fuels may be profitable and easy today, they are not sustainable, and they are destroying the planet. Other countries understand the threats that the globe is facing, but the United States and Canada seem perfectly content to bury their heads in the sand. | <urn:uuid:0df28502-10cc-4518-a551-10f93bf4947b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://desmogblog.com/comment/728526 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96881 | 2,113 | 2.5625 | 3 |
FLINT — Traditional teaching is a little like watching a movie — those in the classroom sit passively in rows.
Bahram Roughani, professor and head of the physics department at Kettering University, wants to make it more like a card game, with everyone sitting in a circle and everyone participating.
Roughani is incorporating so-called “active learning” methodologies into the Kettering physics curriculum. He’s restructured existing labs and built a new lab called the Physics Active Learning Studio.
Included in the PAS Studio are touches like a smart projector, capable of projecting realtime graphics or video onto everyday surfaces, images that can be marked up with an infrared pen, and a single server for all applications used in the studio, which connects wirelessly to all computers in the studio — something like an internal cloud.
“Eventually, students will be able to log into the server from anywhere — work, home, or a coffee shop — using a wireless connection,” Roughani said.
In addition to the PAL Studio, another Physics lab, the Electricity and Magnetism Lab, commonly known as the Phys 2 Lab, was re-configured to facilitate active learning.
“The original physics labs on campus were designed around the equipment with workstations facing the wall,” he said.
He re-designed the Phys 2 Lab by taking fixtures away from the wall and putting four work stations in the shape of an X, and locating the power sources and equipment near the center of the X. This configuration requires students to work in groups of three rather than two and fosters more interaction and collaboration.
“They were simple changes that made a big difference,” he said. “The environment you create sends a message. When you’re designing a classroom you are designing a learning environment.”
Roughani said the next step in developing the PAL Studio would be to install a recording station so faculty could record lectures or parts of lectures that students could access on line at their convenience. Calling it a true collaborative effort, Roughani referenced the contribution of Kettering’s Information Technologies department who installed the interactive equipment and software that facilitate active learning.
According to Roughani, the PAL Studio will facilitate a higher level of learning in Bloom’s Taxonomy, the widely recognized classification of learning objectives within education that includes three domains, or types of learning ability: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor (sometimes described as knowing/head, feeling/heart and doing/hands respectively). “Currently we are limited to four hours in a room such-and-such. We lecture to students who passively listen, and then leave the classroom to do the work assigned to them,” he said.
Roughani’s theory is that using a blended version of learning methodologies will allow students to learn more effectively based on their habits. Some learn better on their own, some learn better by discussing the topic with other people, some learn better by working with others to solve problems.
“In a classroom one can present the material in a variety of these learning styles, but even if the instructor manages to cover all the learning styles it still may not be enough to maximize the learning styles of all students,” said Roughani.
To encourage faculty to engage in active learning methodologies, Roughani said that Physics faculty members who request PAL Studio to teach in have to submit a short proposal outlining how they will incorporate active learning into their curriculum to best utilize the room.
To accomplish his mission, Roughani began fundraising in early 2010, and started work on physical development of the lab spaces in 2011. The room was developed with $25,400 in donations and support from the Provost’s Office, with $23,500 of donations from three alumni including Sharon Hillquist, wife of the late Ralph Hillquist ’59, Kenneth Shinn ’50 and J. Michael Losh ‘69.
“Bonnie McArthur, from University Advancement, was instrumental in helping us secure funding for the PAL Studio,” said Roughani. Physics faculty and students are currently able to have partial use of the PAL Studio. The studio will be available for regular classes upon completion of final IT installation, according to Roughani. | <urn:uuid:add6b548-60b8-452a-bc3c-66fe46d1c656> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/09/06/renovated-labs-internal-cloud-boost-physics-teaching-at-kettering/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952208 | 883 | 3 | 3 |
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Encyclopedia Of Detroit
Edsel Ford Expressway
The Edsel Ford Expressway, better known as I-94, is one of the oldest urban interstate highways in the country. When the United States entered World War II, construction began on what was then called the Willow Run Expressway; a stretch of this four lane divided highway was ready in time to get workers from Detroit to the new bomber plant that opened near Ypsilanti in 1942. Extended and renamed over the next decade, first as the Detroit Industrial Highway and then the Edsel Ford, this expressway helped shape the region’s history. Today, the Edsel Ford Expressway is a small segment of the I-94 freeway that travels 275 miles across Michigan’s southern Lower Peninsula from New Buffalo on Lake Michigan to Port Huron at the southernmost point of Lake Huron.
While World War II had devastated Europe, America was physically intact and began to prosper after the war. Returning GIs were intrigued by the sports cars they saw in Europe. Impressed by European highways he saw during the war, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act in 1956, which created the nation’s highway system.
Although the new interstate highways made urban expansion possible and contributed to suburbanization, they were often devastating to the urban neighborhoods they displaced. At least 17,000 Detroit residents, most of them inner city urban poor, were displaced by Detroit’s new expressways. Civil rights activists charged that the displacement was disproportionately targeted to African-American neighborhoods.
The completion of the Edsel Ford Expressway during the mid-1950s helped launch a Detroit Streets and Rails (DSR) campaign to win back lost riders. They proposed a high-speed rail line to operate along the center median of the expressway, but it was never built. Instead, the incorporated a number of “bus interchanges” or boarding stations along the Edsel Ford Expressway. Coaches would exit the expressway via the exit ramp, follow a special lane leading to street-level boarding stations to board passengers, and then merge back onto the expressway. For a time, such plans made Detroit an innovator in public transportation, but they could not withstand budget cuts and a dwindling number of riders.
The Edsel Ford Expressway was better suited to individual riders in cars, as more and more people moved from the city to the new suburbs the interstates made easily accessible. Today, the Edsel Ford Expressway remains as it began, an engineering feat with economic and social consequences beyond the province of highway planners.
Written by Bernice Brown | <urn:uuid:dc26d7ed-74da-436b-8a08-0bf529b73c7b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/edsel-ford-expressway | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96543 | 559 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Pronunciation: (u-bāt'munt), [key]
1. the act or state of abating or the state of being abated; reduction; decrease; alleviation; mitigation.
2. suppression or termination: abatement of a nuisance; noise abatement.
3. an amount deducted or subtracted, as from the usual price or the full tax.
a. a reduction of a tax assessment.
b. the termination of a nuisance.
c. a wrongful entry on land made by a stranger, after the owner's death and before the owner's heir or devisee has obtained possession.
d. a decrease in the legacies of a will when the assets of an estate are insufficient to pay all general legacies in full.
5. Also called rebatement. Heraldry.a charge or mark that, when introduced into a coat of arms, indicates the owner's disgrace.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease. | <urn:uuid:e5bf89ad-d4f6-4baf-a8b6-5380ca9a83cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dictionary.infoplease.com/abatement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.897086 | 217 | 2.546875 | 3 |
A new paper shows how the mtDNA evidence is inconsistent with Neandertal admixture, by looking at ancient Homo sapiens, Neandertal, and modern human mtDNA. The basic idea is simple, that if admixture with Neandertals did take place at the levels predicted (~4%), then we would expected to see some Neandertal-like mtDNA in either ancient or modern humans, but we don't.
There are some alternative explanations for the lack of Neandertal-like mtDNA in modern humans that I have considered:
- Modern human-Neandertal crossings were female-male exclusively.
- Neandertal mtDNA sequences were weeded out by natural selection, perhaps because Neandertal mtDNA was well-adapted to extreme cold and became maladaptive in modern human bodies, as the latter had better cold-protection technology (tight clothes, for example), and the glaciers retreated anyway.
I had a certain degree of appreciation for #2 until recently. If Europeans had Neandertal admixture, and Neandertal mtDNA was maladaptive to a postglacial technological environment, then selection is a reasonable hypothesis.
However, if Neandertal admixture affected all Eurasians equally, as the current theory holds, then there are plenty of people in North Asia that continued to live in glacial-like temperatures and with predominantly meat diets until the present. Why would Neandertal mtDNA be maladaptive in them?
At present I retain my agnosticism on the subject of Neandertal admxture: the Neandertal genome studies have certainly proven one thing: that archaic humans are not irrelevant to the human story. How they are relevant remains to be seen.
AJPA DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21569
No evidence of Neandertal admixture in the mitochondrial genomes of early European modern humans and contemporary Europeans
Silvia Ghirotto et al.
Neandertals, the archaic human form documented in Eurasia until 29,000 years ago, share no mitochondrial haplotype with modern Europeans. Whether this means that the two groups were reproductively isolated is controversial, and indeed nuclear data have been interpreted as suggesting that they admixed. We explored the range of demographic parameters that may have generated the observed mitochondrial diversity, simulating 3.0 million genealogies under six models differing as for the relationships among contemporary Europeans, Neandertals, and Upper Palaeolithic European early modern humans (EEMH), who coexisted with Neandertals for millennia. We compared by Approximate Bayesian Computations the simulation results with mitochondrial diversity in 7 Neandertals, 3 EEMH, and 150 opportunely chosen modern Europeans. A model of genealogical continuity between EEMH and contemporary Europeans, with no Neandertal contribution, received overwhelming support from the analyses. The maximum degree of Neandertal admixture, under the model of gene flow supported by nuclear data, was estimated at 1.5%, but this model proved 20–32 times less likely than a model without any gene flow. Nuclear and mitochondrial evidence might be reconciled if smaller population sizes led to faster lineage sorting for mitochondrial DNA, and Neandertals shared a longer period of common ancestry with the non-African's than with the African's ancestors. | <urn:uuid:b0c5183f-1895-448d-b1da-ccd106f6338f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-evidence-for-neandertal-admixture.html?showComment=1314327255786 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936591 | 702 | 3.40625 | 3 |
The authors caution about this evidence of admixture:
It is also important to emphasize what our study has not shown. Although we have documented evidence for mixture in India between about 1,900 and 4,200 years BP, this does not imply migration from West Eurasia into India during this time. On the contrary, a recent study that searched for West Eurasian groups most closely related to the ANI ancestors of Indians failed to find any evidence for shared ancestry between the ANI and groups in West Eurasia within the past 12,500 years3 (although it is possible that with further sampling and new methods such relatedness might be detected). An alternative possibility that is also consistent with our data is that the ANI and ASI were both living in or near South Asia for a substantial period prior to their mixture. Such a pattern has been documented elsewhere; for example, ancient DNA studies of northern Europeans have shown that Neolithic farmers originating in Western Asia migrated to Europe about 7,500 years BP but did not mix with local hunter gatherers until thousands of years later to form the present-day populations of northern Europe.15, 16, 44 and 45This is of course true, because admixture postdates migration and it is conceivable that the West Eurasian groups might not have admixed with ASI populations immediately after their arrival into South Asia. On the other hand, a long period of co-existence without admixture would be against much of human history (e.g., the reverse movement of the Roma into Europe, who picked up European admixture despite strong social pressure against it by both European and Roma communities, or the absorption of most Native Americans by incoming European, and later African, populations in post-Columbian times). It is difficult to imagine really long reproductive isolation between neighboring peoples.
Such reproductive isolation would require a cultural shift from a long period of endogamy (ANI migration, followed by ANI/ASI co-existence without admixture) to exogamy ~4.2-1.9kya (to explain the thoroughness of blending that left no group untouched), and then back to fairly strict exogamy (within the modern caste system). It might be simpler to postulate only one cultural shift (migration with admixture soon thereafter, with later introduction of endogamy which greatly diminished the admixture.
The authors cite the evidence from neolithic Sweden which does, indeed, suggest that the neolithic farmers this far north were "southern European" genetically and had not (yet) mixed with contemporary hunter-gatherers, as they must have done eventually. But, perhaps farmers and hunters could avoid each other during first contact, when Europe was sparsely populated. It is not clear whether the same could be said for India ~4 thousand years ago with the Indus Valley Civilization providing evidence for a large indigenous population that any intrusive group would have encountered. In any case, the problem of when the West Eurasian element arrived in India will probably be solved by relating it to events elsewhere in Eurasia, and, in particular, to the ultimate source of the "Ancestral North Indians".
It is also possible that some of the ANI-ASI admixture might actually pre-date migration. At present it's anyone's guess where the original limes between the west Eurasian and ASI worlds were. There is some mtDNA haplogroup M in Iran and Central Asia, which is otherwise rare in west Eurasia, so it is not inconceivable that ASI may have once extended outside the Indian subcontinent: the fact that it is concentrated today in southern India (hence its name) may indicate only the area of this element's maximum survival, rather than the extent of its original distribution. In any case, all mixture must have taken place somewhere in the vicinity of India.
My own analysis of Dodecad Project South Indian Brahmins arrived at a date of 4.1ky, and of North Indian Brahmins, a date of 2.3ky, which seems to be in good agreement with these results.
The authors also report that "we find that Georgians along with other Caucasus groups are consistent with sharing the most genetic drift with ANI". I had made a post on the differential relationship of ANI to Caucasus populations which seems to agree with this, and, of course, in various ADMIXTURE analyses, the component which I've labeled "West Asian" tends to be the major west Eurasian element in south Asia.
Here are the estimated admixture proportions/times from the paper:
Sadly, the warm and moist climate of India, and the adoption of cremation have probably destroyed any hope of studying much of its recent history with ancient DNA. On the other hand, the caste system has probably "fossilized" old socio-linguistic groups, allowing us to tell much by studying their differences and correlating them with groups outside India.
Coverage elsewhere: Gene Expression, HarappaDNA
Related podcast on BBC.
Genetic Evidence for Recent Population Mixture in India
Priya Moorjani et al.
Most Indian groups descend from a mixture of two genetically divergent populations: Ancestral North Indians (ANI) related to Central Asians, Middle Easterners, Caucasians, and Europeans; and Ancestral South Indians (ASI) not closely related to groups outside the subcontinent. The date of mixture is unknown but has implications for understanding Indian history. We report genome-wide data from 73 groups from the Indian subcontinent and analyze linkage disequilibrium to estimate ANI-ASI mixture dates ranging from about 1,900 to 4,200 years ago. In a subset of groups, 100% of the mixture is consistent with having occurred during this period. These results show that India experienced a demographic transformation several thousand years ago, from a region in which major population mixture was common to one in which mixture even between closely related groups became rare because of a shift to endogamy. | <urn:uuid:aa6fd3ea-0f53-4d6f-98ba-dd9e67fac339> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2013/08/major-admixture-in-india-took-place-42.html?showComment=1376185602700&m=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956845 | 1,224 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Susan Dunleavy Collection of Biblical Literature
The Susan Dunleavy Collection of Biblical Literature brings together a wealth of illustrated bibles from the 16th century to the present. Established in 1978, the original focus of the collection paid special emphasis to the 16th century woodcut Bibles, however, the Collection broadened over the years to develop materials for the history of English translations of the Bible and of the lively controversies that took place before the present period of ecumenical agreement about the text and the meaning of the Scripture. Highlights of the collection include the first Bible printed in English (Coverdale, 1535) and first editions of the "Breeches" or Geneva Bible, of the Rheims (1582), Douai (1609), and King James (1611) versions – and their later revisions. For more information please visit: http://www.lasalle.edu/library/specialcollections/dunleavy/
Digitization status: ongoing.Show/hide more info. | <urn:uuid:10b298ef-6f3b-4260-bfe7-cdd0aac20a5f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:54668?type=AllFields&filter%5B%5D=topic_facet%3A%22Bible.+N.T.+Gospels+--+Illustrations%22&filter%5B%5D=topic_facet%3A%22Jesus+Christ+--+Art%22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.895511 | 208 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Research strategy is a methodology that helps the researcher to investigate the research issue. According to Saunders (2003), research strategy is a general plan that helps researcher in answering the research questions in a systematic way. An effective research strategy contains the clear objectives, research questions, data collection resources and various constraints that affects the research in different ways such as access limitations, time limitations, location and money limitations, ethical issue constraints etc. An effective research strategy helps the researcher to define that why researcher employing a particular research strategy to conduct the research study in an effective manner. Research strategy is also helpful for the researcher to use specific data collection methods to support the arguments (Saunders 2003).
Researcher also uses academic journal articles analysis in order to achieve research aims and objectives. It helps researcher to collect relevant information and data that is related to the research issues. Both of these research strategies are helpful for the researcher to collect the valid and reliable data and information to achieve research aims and objectives (Saunders 2003).
For more information please check our Dissertation Examples. | <urn:uuid:1f30278d-05e7-4bfc-86cc-6c9af7668d48> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dissertationhelponline.blogspot.com/2012/01/research-strategy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894671 | 209 | 3.046875 | 3 |
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|man pages section 3: Basic Library Functions Oracle Solaris 11.1 Information Library|
- lock a read-write lock for writing
cc -mt [ flag... ] file... [ library... ] #include <pthread.h> #include <time.h> int pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock(pthread_rwlock_t *restrict rwlock, const struct timespec *restrict abs_timeout);
int pthread_rwlock_reltimedwrlock_np(pthread_rwlock_t *restrict rwlock, const struct timespec *restrict rel_timeout);
The pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock() function applies a write lock to the read-write lock referenced by rwlock as in the pthread_rwlock_wrlock(3C) function. If the lock cannot be acquired without waiting for other threads to unlock the lock, this wait will be terminated when the specified timeout expires. The timeout expires when the absolute time specified by abs_timeout passes, as measured by the CLOCK_REALTIME clock (that is, when the value of that clock equals or exceeds abs_timeout), or if the absolute time specified by abs_timeout has already been passed at the time of the call.
The pthread_rwlock_reltimedwrlock_np() function is identical to the pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock() function, except that the timeout is specified as a relative time interval. The timeout expires when the time interval specified by rel_timeout passes, as measured by the CLOCK_REALTIME clock, or if the time interval specified by rel_timeout is negative at the time of the call.
The resolution of the timeout is the resolution of the CLOCK_REALTIME clock. The timespec data type is defined in the <time.h> header. Under no circumstances does either function fail with a timeout if the lock can be acquired immediately. The validity of the abs_timeout parameter need not be checked if the lock can be immediately acquired.
If a signal that causes a signal handler to be executed is delivered to a thread blocked on a read- write lock with a call to pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock() or pthread_rwlock_reltimedwrlock_np(), upon return from the signal handler the thread resumes waiting for the lock as if it was not interrupted.
The calling thread can deadlock if at the time the call is made it holds the read-write lock. The results are undefined if this function is called with an uninitialized read-write lock.
The pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock() and pthread_rwlock_reltimedwrlock_np() functions return 0 if the lock for writing on the read-write lock object referenced by rwlock is acquired. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error.
The pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock() and pthread_rwlock_reltimedwrlock_np() functions will fail if:
The lock could not be acquired before the specified timeout expired.
The pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock() and pthread_rwlock_reltimedwrlock_np() functions may fail if:
The calling thread already holds the rwlock.
The value specified by rwlock does not refer to an initialized read-write lock object, or the timeout nanosecond value is less than zero or greater than or equal to 1,000 million.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: | <urn:uuid:fdc1e12b-9436-4a18-93e2-4be9c74ce292> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26502_01/html/E29034/pthread-rwlock-reltimedwrlock-np-3c.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.818242 | 770 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Just about everyone agrees that bicycling is an environmentally friendly way to get to and from work, yet not many of us actually commute this way. A large part of the reason for this lack of bike commuters is the safety issue. Any cyclist who’s ever had a close call with a car knows that riding on a street with no bike lane can be a bit scary. But installing bike lanes is prohibitively expensive, and many cities simply can’t afford the cost of adding these life-saving safety features to their streets.
Knowing the dangers that cyclists face on the mean streets, the inventors of LightLane created this innovative safety device. Originally created for a design competition focused on increasing commuter biking, the concept rapidly gained popularity with the online bicycle enthusiast community.
The LightLane is a small gadget that attaches to the bike frame. It projects the boundaries of a bike lane onto the pavement via lasers, creating a familiar and easily avoidable boundary for car drivers. Rather than having to guess at how much room to leave between their car and the bike, drivers are given a defined border to stay outside of.
It is the hope of the designers that their creation will make it less scary for cyclists to ride their bikes at night, thereby increasing the number of people who commute on their bikes. Because it’s highly unlikely that cities without bike lanes will start installing them with any type of speed (due to their cost of $5,000 to $50,000 per mile), the LightLane gives cyclists an immediate solution to the dangers of urban cycling.
More than just lights, which may alert cars to the cyclist’s presence but do nothing to protect the cyclist, the LightLane makes it easier for drivers to maintain a safe distance from the cyclist while not impeding the bike’s performance in any way. | <urn:uuid:f3d1f30b-ba68-417a-afb4-91f09cd4e5d7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dornob.com/night-biking-gadget-mobile-laser-lane-for-safer-cycling/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960239 | 377 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Q: I've suffered from the occasional canker sore for as long as I can remember.
But a few months ago one popped up, and just as soon as it went away another
one appeared. Now it seems like I can't go for more than a few days without
an ugly sore forming on my lip. It's getting so I'm embarrassed to show my face.
What should I do?
Dr. Donnica: Fever blisters ("cold sores") and canker sores ("aphthous
stomatitis") are two of the most common disorders of the mouth, annoying
millions of Americans. While they both cause small sores in or around the mouth,
canker sores occur only inside the mouth--on the tongue and the inside linings
of the cheeks, lips and throat. Fever blisters usually occur outside the mouth--on
the lips, chin, cheeks or in the nostrils. When fever blisters occur inside the
mouth, it is usually on the gums or the roof of the mouth.
It sounds like you have cold sores rather than canker sores. Canker sores are
generally caused by an immune system response to certain triggers such as an
irritant (e.g. sodium lauryl sulfate, a common ingredient in toothpastes and
mouthwashes), allergies, trauma, hormonal changes, vitamin deficiencies, other
medical problems, or stress.
Fever blisters or cold sores, on the other hand, are caused by infection with
the highly contagious herpes simplex (Type I) virus. About 100 million episodes
of recurrent fever blisters occur annually in the United States; 45-80% of Americans
had at least one bout with these blisters. This virus is spread by kissing or
by any other contact, direct or indirect, with the affected sore. While the
infection itself usually only lasts for a few days, the virus remains in your
system forever. Anything that weakens your immune system may trigger another
outbreak: stress, fever, illness, injury, menstruation, and exposure to sunlight.
While there is no cure for fever blisters, there are several medications to
relieve the related pain and discomfort. These include prescription and non-prescription
ointments to numb the blisters, antibiotics to control secondary bacterial infections,
and ointments to soften the crusts of the sores. There are also systemic antiviral
medications, which may reduce the frequency and severity of outbreaks. Other
preventive strategies depend upon your specific triggers. For example, use sunscreen
religiously if sun exposure is a trigger. Stress reduction strategies may help.
Some investigators have suggested adding lysine to the diet or eliminating foods
such as nuts, chocolate, seeds or gelatin, however, these recommendations have
not been proven to be effective in controlled studies.
Created: 9/14/2004 - Donnica Moore, M.D. | <urn:uuid:906265b0-274d-4a1a-bc51-a0a78eefdf62> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://drdonnica.com/faqs/00008691.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920185 | 624 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Styles of Nation-Building in Twentieth Century India
D Satish Deshpande
The fiftieth anniversary of the Quit India movement seemed to provide a natural vantage point from where to take stock of the history of our present. As the cartoonists pointedly reminded us, 1992 appeared in so many ways to be 1942 in reverse: far from calling upon foreigners to quit India, our leaders are desperately seeking foreign and multilateral capital; the enormous hope, energy and idealism of the 1940s are the inverted image of the dispirited and cynical 1990s where the buzzword is 'realism'; finally, and not least, the commitment to a vision of socialism (however ill-defined) is now parodied by the boundless faith being invested in the capitalist market
But then came December 1992, only to be followed by January 1993. Ironically enough, the cup of contrasts that was threatening to spill over seemed to steady itself. This, after all, was common to both decades, both crucial turning points in the social history of the modern Indian nation. In a sudden surreal twist, the nineties seemed to be the forties in fast forward as well as reverse, and familiar everyday things—relationships, faces, voices, images and institutions—grew distorted and grotesque and shrill before our very eyes.
The idea that has perhaps suffered the most is that of the Indian nation. It is as though an elderly celebrity has taken ill and all the society columnists are hunting for their pre-written obituary notices, eager to do some editing, polishing, updating. But the reports of its imminent demise are no doubt somewhat exaggerated: indeed, this is perhaps the best time to enquire into the social arrangements and the ideological idioms that have made it possible for us to think the Indian nation.
Intended as an invitation to a research project, this exploratory essay looks at some of the transmutations that have occurred during this century in the way that the Indian social imagination articulates the discursively constructed concepts of 'economy' and 'nation'. If nations are indeed 'imagined communities' as Benedict Anderson has so persuasively suggested, then I would argue that one of the domi- | <urn:uuid:075aa276-068e-4fa8-940f-870f14a88327> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/artsandideas/text.html?objectid=HN681.S597_25-26_009.gif | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963555 | 453 | 2.578125 | 3 |
02 Oct 2008:
Beijing Renews Driving Limits
In an effort to restore some of the air-quality gains it made during this summer’s Olympics, China has reinstituted driving restrictions in Beijing
. Thirty percent of government cars in the capital will remain parked each day, the government announced. And starting Oct. 11, other drivers will have to leave their vehicles home one day a week, based on the last digit of their license plates. Beijing, with more than 3.5 million cars already, is adding 1,000 new vehicles a day. Officials estimate the restriction will take 800,000 vehicles off the roads daily; in addition, businesses will stagger their opening hours, and downtown parking rates will rise in an effort to encourage public transportation. The rules echo some of those adopted temporarily during the Olympics in August, when China also limited truck traffic and shut down factories in an effort — largely successful — to clear Beijing's notoriously polluted air. In a survey last month, 69 percent supported those changes.
Yale Environment 360 is
a publication of the
Yale School of Forestry
& Environmental Studies
Yale Environment 360
articles are now available in Spanish and Portuguese on Universia
, the online educational network. Visit the site.
Business & Innovation
Policy & Politics
Pollution & Health
Science & Technology
Antarctica and the Arctic
Central & South America
Tribal people and ranchers join together to stop a project that would haul coal across their Montana land. Watch the video.
is now available for mobile devices at e360.yale.edu/mobile
An aerial view of why Europe’s per capita carbon emissions are less than 50 percent of those in the U.S. View the photos.
Ugandan scientists monitor the impact of climate change on one of Africa’s most diverse forests and its extraordinary wildlife. Learn more.
video series looks at the staggering amount of food wasted in the U.S. – a problem with major human and environmental costs. Watch the video.
video goes onto the front lines with Colorado firefighters confronting deadly blazes fueled by a hotter, drier climate. Watch the video.
A three-part series Tainted Harvest
looks at the soil pollution crisis in China, the threat it poses to the food supply, and the complexity of any cleanup. Read the series. | <urn:uuid:f1215169-ea67-42e7-a8bd-43c3757df5b3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://e360.yale.edu/content/digest.msp?id=1498 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900748 | 486 | 2.5625 | 3 |
A Remarkable Recovery for
By Rona Kobell
After being decimated by disease, pollution, and overharvesting, the Chesapeake Bay’s renowned oysters are thriving once again, thanks largely to a selectively bred oyster that grows rapidly and is more resistant to pathogens.
The Oysters of Chesapeake Bay
14 May 2015
If the world is our oyster, where are the oysters in our world? Not in the places we’re used to finding them.
Louisiana once supplied most of the United States’ oysters, but Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have slashed the state’s oyster production.
The Pacific Northwest was the U.S.’s second-largest oyster supplier, but ocean acidification is hurting those populations. In Florida, Apalachicola Bay oyster production has fallen by two-thirds because of freshwater diversions. Globally, oyster populations
Chesapeake Bay Program
Wild oysters, such as these harvested by dredging, remain an important part of the industry in the Chesapeake Bay.
are in serious trouble, with more than 90 percent of the world’s oyster reefs having been lost in the past century, according to a 2011 study.
But there is one oyster that can claim it is better off today than it was a decade or two ago. It is Crassostrea virginica
, of the Chesapeake Bay. Last year, Maryland and Virginia reported their best oyster harvests in three decades, gathering a combined 900,000 bushels. And that number doesn’t include the oysters in both states that are raised in floats and cages, which is rapidly becoming a multi-million-dollar business.
The oyster most of the world had written off just a decade ago is making a rousing comeback thanks to a brilliant oyster geneticist, improved state and federal management, the expansion of private hatchery operations, the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, and a little bit of help from Mother Nature in the form of average rain years and excellent reproductive oyster classes.
How long can it last? Where does it go from here? It’s hard to say, but for now the Chesapeake — the U.S.’s largest estuary — has found its Holy Grail oyster. It tastes good, it grows fast, and it doesn’t easily succumb to the diseases that have devastated previous generations of Chesapeake oysters. The biggest surprise is that this new super-oyster was there all along.
“I didn’t think I’d live long enough to see the oysters come back,” said Casey Todd, 60, the owner of MeTompkin Bay Oyster Company, a shucking house in Crisfield, Maryland. “I was getting resigned to the fact that they would never come back in my lifetime, but it looks like they might.”
The Chesapeake Bay’s oysters were long the pride of what Native Americans called “great shellfish bay.” A vital part of the Chesapeake’s ecosystem, oysters can filter 50 gallons of water a day, create marine habitat, encourage bay grasses, and provide excellent homes for organisms at the bottom of the food chain. When they are farmed, oysters are a net benefit to the waters where they live, unlike other
Because triploid oysters do not reproduce, they put all of their energy into growth and reach maturity sooner.
farm-raised species such as fin-fish, which pollute waters with fecal material.
Over the last two centuries, Chesapeake Bay oysters have suffered from overharvesting, pollution, and parasitic diseases like Dermo and MSX. The latter scourge killed so many oysters in the 1970s that several farmers decided to grow clams instead. Cherrystone Aquafarms
was one; it soon grew into a $15 million clam company.
By 2004, a Maryland oyster harvest that reliably yielded 16 million bushels a year in the 1970s produced only 26,000 bushels. Oystermen hung up their dredges. Shucking houses shuttered their doors. The few remaining brought in trailers of oysters from the Gulf of Mexico so workers had something to shuck.
Just a decade later, those tractor-trailer loads are going the other way. For the first time that anyone can remember, Marylanders and Virginians are sending their oysters to shucking houses in Louisiana.
What is responsible for this turnaround? Many factors have played a role, but none has been as important as the development of a kind of super-oyster called a triploid that grows rapidly and is more impervious to disease. Triploids have three chromosomes instead of two, and because they do not reproduce, they put all of their energy into growth. A wild diploid oyster can reach market size in three years — about an inch a year. A triploid can get there in 18 months or less.
Many scientists worked on the development of triploid oysters over numerous decades, but the person who perfected its creation in the native Chesapeake oyster, Crassostrea virginica
, was Standish K. Allen of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Allen had developed triploid oysters in Maine and the Pacific Northwest, creating the first triploids in 1979. In 1997, Virginia hired him to find a genetic fix for its oyster woes.
At that time, oyster harvests were plummeting in Maryland and Virginia and state officials and oyster growers were desperate to find a heartier oyster. The two states and the federal government spent five years and nearly $15 million investigating whether to seed the Chesapeake with Crassostrea ariakensis
, a Chinese native. Virginia’s original plan was to create C. ariakensis
triploids and compare their growth to native reproductive oysters, a contest the natives would surely have lost. But Jamie King, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, convinced Virginia to conduct the trials
In recent years the federal government and the states have spent billions of dollars cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.
with triploids from both species.
As it turned out, those tests in the early 2000s showed that the native C. virginica
species was superior in virtually all respects, from its knack for building oyster reefs to its ability to outrun disease with its rapid growth. Allen turned his brood stock over to Virginia’s private hatchery managers, who bred triploids that could grow in 10 months.
That was the beginning of the turnaround for Chesapeake Bay oysters. Virginia already allowed oyster aquaculture and King began pushing Maryland to legalize it, too. That occurred in 2009. Today, Maryland has 4,000 acres under lease and 474 people working in shellfish aquaculture. Its dockside value for aquaculture in 2014 was more than $3 million; the wild harvest exceeded $14 million.
Virginia has 104,000 acres under lease, five private hatcheries to raise seeds, processing houses to shuck the meat, and an infrastructure to send its oysters all over the world. In 2014, the value of the Virginia farm-raised oyster and clam harvest topped $55.9 million.
“With oysters, things are completely different now — you almost don’t worry about diseases anymore,” said Mike Peirson, the former head of Cherrystone Aquafarms, which raises millions of oysters and seed.
Eyeing the success of Chesapeake Bay oysters, officials in neighboring Delaware last fall legalized shellfish aquaculture, the last coastal state in the U.S. to do so. The Delaware Bay Oyster Restoration Project
also aims to employ oyster shell planting and transplantation programs to boost wild oyster production in Delaware Bay and other coastal waters.
Maryland’s decision to legalize oyster aquaculture in all its counties has fulfilled the dreams of many watermen and oyster processors who wished they could grow their own oysters, but dared not try. Mike Lindemon, an oyster farmer who dreamed of having just one small plot, now has 500 acres under lease with his partner in the Nanticoke River. Oyster harvesting in the wild is a dangerous job; watermen
The variety of oysters known as Choptank Sweets are grown in these floats on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
must contend with unpredictable winds, high tides, and icy days that prohibit working at all. But oyster farming? One farmer said that even on his worst day, he can still make it to the bus stop to pick up his children.
The stunning reversal of the Chesapeake Bay oyster owes much to environmental factors, such as average rain years instead of droughts. In addition, over the past 25 years the federal government and the states have spent billions of dollars cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. Those efforts have resulted in sewage-treatment plants that discharge far less nitrogen and phosphorus into the Chesapeake than in the past, and better agricultural practices that help absorb fertilizer before it runs off the land. Oysters do filter pollution, but too much of a good thing will stifle their growth. Plus, over-sedimentation can smother their reefs and prevent them from delivering their many habitat benefits. Oysters are among the many beneficiaries of a cleaner Chesapeake Bay, and so are the creatures that depend on them to thrive.
But the oyster revival also owes something to new management techniques — large oyster sanctuaries instead of small, postage-stamp ones; more shell replenishment in the Chesapeake; an active plan to clean oyster reefs so the sediment doesn’t cover oysters; and an aggressive plan to plant hatchery seed.
Previously, oyster sanctuaries were small and in the least productive areas. But former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley began the push to make whole rivers sanctuaries and off-limits to watermen. The decision has proven unpopular with oyster harvesters, but it has been terrific for local oyster
The oysters bring life with them — not just grass shrimp and bay grasses, but rockfish and crabs.
populations. In restoration areas, the waters are teeming with oysters — some planted, but many recruited because of the population already there.
The oysters bring life with them — not just the grass shrimp and the bay grasses, but the rockfish and the crabs. Those species are coming for the cleaner water and the protections from predators that oyster reefs offer. And when the sanctuary-planted oysters spawn, they create more oysters that help clean the water, create habitat, and recruit other fish even more effectively.
Aquaculture oysters do their part for restoration, too, even if they’re sterile and unable to build reefs because they’re in cages or floats. These oysters are still recruiting marine life. Cages are teeming with critters, and the water around oyster farms is clear as gin in some places.
What can other oyster-depleted regions learn from the Chesapeake Bay’s resurgence? Perhaps the greatest lesson is not to give up on native species, be they watermen who harvest oysters or the oysters themselves. Some of the greatest innovations have come from watermen who have spawned improvements like better cages. It takes a precise set of conditions to grow an oyster. But changing laws and policies — such as making it easier for small operators to enter the oyster aquaculture business — can help resurrect or launch an oyster industry.
Rona Kobell is a staff writer for the
Chesapeake Bay Journal and the co-producer of "Midday on the Bay," a radio show on WYPR out of Baltimore. A former environmental reporter for the
Baltimore Sun, she has been recently published in
Slate, Modern Farmer, The Boston Globe, and Grist. | <urn:uuid:d9a5af7c-9e70-4ac5-b6c5-9f68ac52da1e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://e360.yale.edu/digest/a_remarkable_recovery_for_the_oysters_of_chesapeake_bay/4437/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952744 | 2,509 | 3.078125 | 3 |
The next meeting will be on Friday 29th April, the title will be ‘Transits in the Sky’. On May 9th Mercury will pass in front of the face of the Sun. This is called a transit. This talk will look not only at this transit but at other transits in history.
March is a month of transition for the night sky, with the winter constellations appearing to the west while the spring constellations are becoming more noticeable in the east. We will leave a full description of the spring constellations until next month when the seasonal changeover is complete.
Astronomers are very wary of artificial time changes such as British Summer Time (BST) when civil clocks will be put forward one hour at the end of March. This will cause the length of night time to decrease as we move towards summer. BST is never used scientifically.
Ursa Major or The Plough will reach the overhead point next month but this month it is still to the east of it. As the Plough becomes higher in the sky, the ‘W’ of Cassiopeia is found lower down.
Using the Plough, follow the curve of the handle around and down and you will come to a bright orange star fairly high in the sky. This is Arcturus in the constellation of Bootes (the Herdsman). Arcturus is the brightest star in the spring sky. By continuing this curved line you will then reach a bright white star low down in the sky which is Spica, in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin).
This will be the last month when we get a chance to look at the winter constellations. The stars of Orion plus Aldebaran and Seven Sisters in Taurus (the Bull) are now dropping towards the western horizon. Sirius the Dog Star is also now much lower in the sky. Meanwhile Castor and Pollux in Gemini (The Twins) together with Procyon in Canis Minor (The Small Dog) are still high in the south west. Replacing them we find Regulus in Leo (the Lion) and Spica in Virgo (The Virgin).
What’s up in The Solar System?
The Planets in March
Since last month when it was just possible to see all the naked eye planets at the same time, things have changed quite dramatically.
Mercury and Venus have now dropped into the morning dawn and cannot be seen, both Mars and Saturn rise after midnight so you will either have to wait up late or get up early in the morning to see them. Mars is distinctly orange/red, while Saturn is yellowish; both are close to the bright red star Antares in the constellation of Scorpio (The Scorpion). This group will be seen best in the evening sky during the summer months.
It is Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, which dominates the night sky during spring and summer. It looks like a bright white ‘star’ in the south east. As it is so bright, Jupiter is hard to miss.
There are no major meteor showers this month.
The Moon in March
On the morning of March 2nd the Moon is above Saturn.
On March 13th in the evening, the crescent moon forms a triangle with Aldebaran and the Seven Sisters.
Phases of the Moon for March
Last Quarter 1st and 31st, New Moon 9th, First Quarter 15th, Full Moon 23rd
This month’s full moon is called the ‘Lenten Moon’ because it falls within the religious period of Lent.
On the 20th March we have the Spring Equinox, which is when the Sun lies on the celestial equator and the hours of daylight and darkness are equal. After this day becomes longer than night.
To make matters even more difficult for astronomers, who by nature like looking at a dark night sky, they have to put up with an artificial manoeuvre called British Summer Time which begins on Sunday March 27th. Clocks go forward by one hour.
The next meeting will be on Friday April 1st starting at 7.30 pm at All Saints Church, Skipton Road Earby, the talk will be on the Sprung Sky and presented by Martin Lunn
The February 26th Earby A S meeting will be looking at a Beginner’s Guide to Astronomy. The talk will be a simple introduction to a fascinating subject. The meeting will start at 7.30 pm and is at All Saints Church, Earby. The cost of admission is £2.00
The speaker will be Martin Lunn MBE FRAS
If you look north east on a January evening the first group of stars you will notice will be Ursa Major or the Plough. Its handle will be pointing to the horizon. The North Star, Polaris, will be in its normal position due north. The ‘W’ of Cassiopeia will be high up in the north west.
The southern part of the night sky is dominated by Orion (the Hunter). Its stars are so bright that it is difficult to ignore. Look for four stars that form a giant rectangle and in the centre will be a line of three stars in a slightly tilted line. This is Orion’s Belt. The top left hand star of the rectangle is Betelgeux, which is often referred to as ‘beetle juice’! Betelgeux is a red giant star. The bottom right hand star of the rectangle is Rigel, which is a blue supergiant. This is a good chance to notice different star colours.
The colours of stars tell astronomers which ones are hotter. It may seem strange to say that blue stars, which have surface temperatures of about 30,000 degrees centigrade, are much hotter than red stars, whose surface temperatures are around 3,000 degrees centigrade.
Orion is one of our sign posts in the sky. We can use it to find our way around the winter sky. Using the three stars of Orion’s belt, draw a line down and to the left and you will reach Sirius the Dog Star, the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major (the Great Dog) and, in fact, the brightest star in the night sky. If we use Betelgeux and draw a curved line to the left we reach Procyon the Small Dog Star, the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Minor (the Small Dog).
If we return to Orion’s belt and draw a line up and to the right we come across the bright red star Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus (the Bull), and if we continue this line we find a cluster of stars called the Pleiades or Seven Sisters.
A line drawn from Rigel through the middle star of Orion’s Belt and through Betelgeux will lead to two bright stars, Castor and Pollux in the constellation of Gemini (The Twins). A line drawn through the right hand star of Orion’s Belt and through Bellatrix, the top right hand star of the rectangle of Orion, to the overhead point, leads to a bright yellow star called Capella in the constellation of Auriga (the Charioteer). Capella means ‘she goat’ and nearby are a small triangle of stars called ‘The Kids’.
Using Orion we are able to find all the bright stars in the winter sky, and once this has been accomplished the smaller, fainter constellations can be found.
What’s up in The Solar System?
The Planets in January
Jupiter is rising at about 10.00 pm but it is not really clearly visible in the sky until after midnight. The other planets are all definitely morning objects; Venus the ‘Morning Star’ is still visible about an hour before sunrise; Mars is higher in the morning sky but it is not as bright and may not be so easy to find. Saturn and Mercury are still close to the Sun and are therefore difficult to find.
On the night of January 3rd/4th January, around 80 faint meteors per hour can be seen as we pass through the Quadrantid meteor shower. The Quadrantids are unique in that they are named after a constellation that no longer exists.
Meteors are the dusty remains left behind by a comet as it travels around the Sun. If the Earth passes through such a stream of meteor material we see a meteor shower. They are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to come, for example, the Perseids in August appear to come from Perseus while the Geminids in December appear to come from Gemini. The Quadrantids, however, are named after the constellation Quadrans (the Quadrant), a constellation that no longer exists but is not quite forgotten due to this meteor shower.
Phases of the Moon for January
Last Quarter 2nd, New Moon 10th, First Quarter 16th, Full Moon 24th.
This month’s full moon is called the ‘Wolf Moon’, in the depths of winter wolves could be heard howling in the forests they were telling people that they were still around despite the cold weather and that travellers should be aware when entering the forests.
On January 2nd the Earth is at Perihelion, or closest point to the Sun this year, when it will be only 91¾ million miles (147 million km) from the Sun.
The next meeting of the Earby Astronomical society will be on Friday January 29th 2016 at All Saints’ Church, Earby from 7.30pm-9.00pm. This is the Post-Christmas Party and Astro Quiz to which all are welcome.
The next Earby A S meeting will be on Friday 29th January. This will be our post Christmas party night. There will be an astro quiz plus the latest astro news. It will be a good chance for people who are thinking of joining to come down and meet everyone. The meeting will begin at 7.30 pm at All Saints Church Skipton Road Earby.
Friday 2nd October 2015 The Autumn Sky by Martin Lunn MBE FRAS | <urn:uuid:682e1413-e142-4dc6-ab5f-fb4a1bb90ddd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://earbyastro.org.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941428 | 2,117 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Some things go perfectly with a summer trip to the coast: sunscreen, mystery novels, cold beverages, and sand castles. Other things—like algae blooms or polluted runoff—are a lot less appealing. The newest generation of Landsat satellite is helping researchers identify and study potential problem areas from space.
Most remote sensing satellites, including the long-running Landsats, detect the intensity of different wavelengths of light that reflect off of Earth’s surfaces, from forests to fields to cities. But water poses a challenge. It absorbs and scatters a lot of light, so oceans and lakes tend to look dark or lack detail on satellite images, especially in the murky waters near the coast. “All of the interesting stuff was typically lost in the noise of the old instruments,” said John Schott, a researcher at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Landsat 8, however, has a new “coastal blue band” designed to parse out subtle differences in the color of water—minor changes in color intensity that can indicate what is mixed in that water. “Now we’ve got a possibility to see and figure out what’s causing color changes,” said Schott, a Landsat science team member. “It’s a potential revolution for studying water.”
The natural-color image at the top of this page was acquired on September 19, 2013, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. It shows a southern shore of Lake Ontario near Rochester, New York, as it might appear to the human eye.
Beyond the blue of that water, Schott and his colleagues are paying close attention to three colors—green, yellow, and gray—to decipher what’s floating in Lake Ontario. Green wavelengths indicate the presence of chlorophyll, the molecule found not only in land plants but also algae and other phytoplankton. Yellow usually hints at the presence of decaying plant matter. Grays come from airborne particulates like dust and soil, or from dead algae that have lost their chlorophyll.
“It’s a classic color problem. All of these things together give the water a color,” Schott said. “You can unmix these to give you the components.” That’s exactly what his research team is now doing.
Over the past year, members of Schott’s research group have paddled or motored out into the lake to sample the waters on the same days that Landsat 8 has passed overhead (which happens once every 16 days). The team then compares the chemistry and visual quality of those water samples with what the satellite sees. The researchers are using these comparisons to create data tables and computer programs that will eventually turn remote satellite images into timely information for local managers of water quality.
The area inside the inset box of the top image is shown in scientific detail in the two lower images. The left map uses wavelength data from OLI to show the levels of chlorophyll in the lake and nearshore water bodies. Plants and phytoplankton use this pigment to convert photons of light into food. The lower right map uses Landsat data to show the amount of suspended sediment in the water. Silt, soil, sand, dissolved plant matter (from microscopic algae to leaves), and other floating debris naturally flow out from inland waterways to the coast, carrying both nutrients and pollutants.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of John Schott and Javier Concha, Rochester Institute of Technology. Caption by Kate Ramsayer, with Michael Carlowicz.
- Landsat 8 - OLI | <urn:uuid:50156364-dc43-4407-a4b7-bd0c05f19dbe> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=84218&eocn=home&eoci=iotd_grid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909587 | 759 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Below is Day 1, Part 1, a video excerpt of Dr. Peter Hagelstein’s Cold Fusion – 2013 LENR short course at MIT. In its second year, this free week-long course has focused on theory, recent developments and observations in the field of low energy nuclear reactions.
Dr. Peter Hagelstein of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is one of the most respected proponents and theorists on LENR and cold fusion. Professor Hagelstein is a principal investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at MIT. He received the B.S. and the M.S. in 1976, and the Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1981, from MIT. He was a staff member of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1981 to 1985 before joining the MIT faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1986.
Below is amateur video of the of the Nanor low energy nuclear reaction device designed and built by Mitchell Swartz of Jet Energy. It is reported the Nanor has been continuously producing 10-14 times the energy input since being observed and stored at MIT in January of 2012. | <urn:uuid:ef54b770-ea46-4594-bb12-96c912b11191> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ecat.org/tag/peter-hagelstein/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949813 | 235 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Intertidal Zone: Life Between the Tides
Named for the conspicuous dark patch on each ‘shoulder’, the diminutive and prettily-patterned Epaulette Shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) is as appealing as it is unusual. This species features an elongate, eel-like body with small, flexible posterior fins and highly mobile paired fins.
Just the Facts:
Habitat: Intertidal, Coral Reefs
Depth: Intertidal to 30 ft (10 m)
Distribution: Western Australian, Southeast Australian/New Zealand?, Northern Australian
The paired pectoral and pelvic fins of Epaulette Sharks are broadly rounded and paddle-like. The internal skeleton of these paired fins and their attachment to the body has been modified, granting them a dramatically increased range of motion — they can actually be rotated almost 360 degrees. Epaulette Sharks combine side-to-side wriggling with coordinated pectoral and pelvic fin movements, enabling them clamber over complex rocky and coral substrates.
The wriggling gait of the Epaulette Shark has been studied as a model of the probable limb movements used by the first tetrapods (four-footed vertebrates) to clamber from the sea onto land. This research provides evidence supporting the evolutionary theory that the paired limb movements necessary for terrestrial locomotion pre-date the first amphibians. No matter how important it may be from a theoretical standpoint, the ‘walking’ motion employed by Epaulette Sharks is endearingly clumsy, resembling that of an elongate salamander with ping-pong paddles for feet.
The elongated body and ambulatory talents of Epaulette Sharks enable them to crawl through the cramped, meandering passageways within coral reefs. The shallow pools exposed by each low tide often offer rich feeding on the small animals trapped within, but are so extremely oxygen poor that few aquatic predators can exploit them. Recent research has revealed that, under extremely low-oxygen conditions, Epaulette Sharks maintain blood flow to the brain by selectively dilating the blood vessels leading to it. This simple mechanism enables Epaulette Sharks to ‘walk’ for hours at a time among exposed tidepools and to make do with what little dissolved oxygen these warm little puddles provide. In addition, Epaulette Sharks’ nerves are adapted to function under low-oxygen conditions for prolonged periods. Their ability to compensate for hypoxic conditions enables Epaulette Sharks to feed in exposed reef flats and tide-pools during low tide.
The diet and feeding behavior of Epaulette Sharks was recently studied on the shallow reef flats off Heron Island, Australia. The researchers found that over 90% of Epaulette Sharks’ diet consists of just two prey types: crustaceans and segmented worms. They also found that immature Epaulette Sharks concentrate on different prey types than mature ones. Juvenile Epaulette Sharks feed predominantly on polychaete worms, while adults feed predominantly on crabs. Round-the-clock observations indicate that Epaulette Sharks may feed at any time during day or night, but do so mostly at dawn and dusk. From this and other observations on Epaulette Shark feeding behavior, the researchers concluded that this species is opportunistic (feeding on whatever it happens to find), relying mostly on scent and electroreception to locate prey.
The shallow-water feeding behavior of Epaulette Sharks is absolutely delightful to watch. Clambering awkwardly over the substrate in its adorably salamander-like way, the Epaulette Shark uses is short snout to snuffle through sandy patches rather like a determined pig searching for truffles. Epaulette Sharks often adopt a peculiar stance while foraging over soft substrates: the body is elevated on the paddle-like pectoral and pelvic fins while the back is arched and the ‘neck’ bent down — resembling a selachian form of “push ups”. Stopping occasionally, the shark pushes its head into the sand and excavates buried prey through a powerful suction affected through coordinated action of its puckered mouth and thick gill musculature.
Sometimes, a foraging Epaulette Shark will flip over bottom debris with its snout, exposing hidden worms and crustaceans which are then quickly snarfed up. One naturalist reported seeing an Epaulette Shark wedge the anterior part of its body into a coral crevice, turn itself over and hoover up a small shrimp from the roof of the crevice. Apparently, the elongate Epaulette Shark occupies a niche more like that of moray eels than does any other shark.
The Epaulette Shark is also unusual in that it often chews its food before swallowing, sometimes for as long as five or even ten minutes. If the food item is relatively large, it often protrudes from the shark’s mouth, migrating from side-to-side like the stogie of an archetypal big-time Hollywood producer.
Clambering into exposed tidepools creates exceptional feeding opportunities for Epaulette Sharks. Most notably, it adds to the menu ‘exotic’ fishes, trapped by the receding tide in confined spaces from which there is no escape. Any small crabs, worms, fishes, or other creatures trapped inside a tidal puddle need merely be cornered against a wall of the pool and they can be captured easily.
Unfortunately for the Epaulette Shark, whenever there is easy feeding in nature, invariably others will come to exploit it, too. Every once in a while, a moray or snake eel wriggles its way into a tidepool and begins to feed on the bounty of small creatures trapped there. But what happens when one of these eels and an eel-like Epaulette Shark wind up hunting in the confined quarters of the same pool? Usually, one or the other competitor will simply move to another tidepool. But on rare occasions, a fight breaks out, the shark and the eel biting and wrapping around one another as they writhe like angry snakes. More often than not, the little Epaulette Shark concedes victory and clambers away as quickly as its paddle-like fins will carry it.
The shallow-water and intertidal meanderings of Epaulette Sharks also bring them into contact with people. Due to their small size and endearingly clumsy locomotion, Epaulette Sharks are pathetically easy for beachgoers to catch. Captured individuals squirm vigorously, usually eliciting laughter and squeals of delight from human on-lookers. Although they cannot inflict serious damage on their tormentors, Epaulette Sharks are often injured in the ordeal. As is far too often the case with our interactions with wildlife, these encounters often provide human amusement to the detriment of the sharks. | <urn:uuid:5a4cc4f9-935f-4d8f-8107-22cc8527ae8a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://elasmo-research.org/education/ecology/intertidal-epaulette.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91976 | 1,424 | 3.421875 | 3 |
What is high quality protein? High quality protein food is a type of protein that contains a lot of nutrients and is free of harmful food preservatives. It is usually found in organic foods that are high in nutrients and fiber, and free of harmful synthetic chemicals. Switching to this type of protein may help balance your cholesterol levels and give your body the necessary nutrients it needs to heal itself.
High quality protein is also good for weight management, because it helps slow down the digestion process and contains nutrients that are good for absorbing unhealthy fats and toxins in the gastrointestinal tract. This will help keep your body healthy, preventing fatigue and weight gain.
Meat protein vs. plant protein
Most of us have been conditioned at an early age to believe that beef, poultry and fish are the best sources of protein. This is a misconception that can be harmful to our health. The best sources of high quality protein food are from organic fruits and vegetables. Their proteins are easier to absorb and utilize by the body, because they are accompanied with essential nutrients.
As for meat-based protein, consume the meat that is from livestock or poultry grown on pasture farms. Livestock or poultry grown on pasture farms are usually fed with food free of harmful chemicals. In addition, they are raised in their natural environment instead of in cages.
When consuming protein, it is important to eat more of the organic type from plant-based food and eat it with a balanced meal. The human body is a system that relies heavily on balance to keep it functioning at efficient levels. When you eat more protein than your body needs, the excessive leftovers that your body does not use are sometimes burn as fuel.
Burning protein as fuel is not as efficient as burning carbohydrate. Your body uses more energy to turn protein into usable energy. Plus, the process of burning it into energy can leave harmful residues because it often contains nitrogen. When your body breaks its molecules apart, it produces nitrogenous residues. In high levels, these toxic residues are harmful to many of the systems of your body, especially the liver and kidney.
Great sources of high quality protein
- Wild Rice
- Green Beans
- Brussels Sprouts
Great sources of protein
- Chicken Breast (Skinless)
- Tuna Steak
- Turkey Breast
Recommended high quality protein powders
The best high quality protein powders are made with hemp. Visit this online store for some great selections of organic and high quality hemp protein products.
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Category: Nutrition & Supplements | <urn:uuid:205e2520-33df-43da-9795-9f523ed332ae> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://energyfanatics.com/2008/10/12/what-is-high-quality-protein/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940824 | 601 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The word grace is from the Latin gratia, meaning "that which is pleasing or agreeable" or simply "thanks," a prayer that began not only as a statement of gratitude but also as a way of warding off detrimental effects the food might possess. We know that Israelites offered prayers of appreciation for the day's bounty, and undoubtedly other cultures did as well. The ancient Egyptians offered food to the gods before they began eating. In the time of the English Stuarts (16021714), gentlemen removed their hats to say grace but replaced them to eat the meal; the king was the only man who ate bare-headed. Today, grace is a short prayer of thanks given before a meal, generally after the guests are seated and before anything on the table is touched, including the napkin. However, in some faiths a blessing is given while the guests stand behind the chairs.
Although expressing appreciation for a meal does not mean affiliation with a particular faith, to show respect for the host and the occasion, when grace is said the head is bowed, regardless of one's beliefs. The custom of bowing the head in reverence began as a way to show obedience and willingness to serve, and a person of lower rank lowered his head before a person of exalted rank. However, it is not necessary to conclude grace with a religious gesture not in keeping with one's faith, such as crossing one's self.
Grace is said by one person at the table, such as the host, hostess, a family member, a relative, or a guest. Be sure that the guest will not be embarrassed giving such a prayer. Everyone at the table joins in saying amen.
Usually grace consists of a few simple words of appreciation or a short prayer. The best-known nonsectarian blessing among English-speaking Christians is very simple:
For what we are about to receive,
may the Lord make us truly thankful.
More grace examples.. | <urn:uuid:6a7eecbe-827f-4ee4-8774-3345889c27b1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://etiquettescholar.com/dining_etiquette/table_manners/dinner_blessings.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97373 | 396 | 3 | 3 |
A reply to P.J. Williams by Jim Snapp, Jr.
1. Emended Numbers Do Not Erode Any Biblical Theme.
God promised Abraham that his descendants would be unable to be counted (Gen. 15:5). However, the Pentateuch writer did not mean that the Hebrew male population would grow so large by the time of Moses that to count the Hebrew males would be impossible, because no matter how you slice it, the censuses constitute a count of the Hebrew males who were capable of serving in the militia, plus a count of the Levites. And the reduced numbers in the arrays which I presented previously are large; they imply a full Hebrew population of over 200,000.
In the 1200’s B.C. (assuming a late date for the exodus -- but the point stands with an early date for the exodus as well), a group of over 200,000 people would be considered a very large group -- over 2,500 times the number of Abrahamites who had originally entered Egypt. Thus the theme that Abraham’s people were supposed to be fruitful and multiply is not compromised by the reduced amounts for the total population.
PJW: "The large number of Israelites is mentioned in Exodus 38:26 to be 603,550 men, and this number is confirmed by the quantity of tax in the context."
This was explained previously: the thousands-unit in 603,550 is a simple miscombination of the number of officers and actual thousands of men eligible to serve in the Hebrew militia.
PJW: "This number is, moreover, given at great length over the course of Numbers 1-2, and confirmed by multiple totalling."
And the individual sums of the tribes have already been shown to be compatible with the smaller total sum.
PJW: (summarizing) Moses’ objection that it would be impossible to feed "all this people" who number 600,000 men on foot does not fit a scenario in which the population is smaller.
It works as well with a total male population of c. 60,000 as it does with a total male population of c. 600,000.
PJW: Moses' disbelief in God's ability to provide meat is answered by God's provision of quail for one day's journey either side of the camp (let's say conservatively that this means quail for 15 miles in each direction) and 3 feet deep (11:31). This provision suits the large size of camp."
Instead of picturing a quail-rain producing a quail-sea three feet deep, I understand Numbers 11:31-32 to be describing the area where the quail flew (a day’s journey on either side of the camp) and the altitude at which they flew (two cubits above the ground), allowing the Hebrews to easily catch them in nets and swat down, and then collect them into piles.
PJW: "Balak takes Balaam to various points from which he can catch a view of some, but not all, of the Israelite camp (22:41). He emphasises their number (23:10)."
This objection stands against the reconstructions which propose that the Hebrew nation at the time was about the size of a large traveling circus. But these texts are not inconsistent with the amounts I proposed. (Besides, in light of the census-numbers, Balaam’s statement in Numbers 23:10 is hyperbole or prophecy.)
PJW: "The large number of Israelites is again confirmed by the counting of spoil in Numbers 31."
Rather, when one encounters, in the extant text, the statement that 12,000 Hebrews collected this much spoil, it tends to confirm the need for some sort of emendation. It seems circular to refer to one group of large numbers to demonstrate the accuracy of another group of large numbers; both these text-sections were reduced in the earlier proposal.
2. Emended/Reduced Numbers Are Not Inconsistent With Numbers 3:40-43 Or Deut. 9:1.
Numbers 3:40-43 seems to refer to all males at least one month old. A total of 22,273 such individuals seems compatible with a total population of c. 220,000-280,000. While one could raise questions about whether or not this sum was meant only to include underage males, or (a la Keil & Delitzch) males born since the exodus, the reduced sums themselves indirectly answer such approaches -- not so much by showing that the amounts in the extant text are impossible (for only a dense copyist would intentionally make a miscorrection which was palpably impossible) but by showing that the possibility of the extant amounts -- a possibility in the mind of the miscorrecting copyist, at least -- is not the only possibility. Historical feasibility takes the question from there.
Also, the point that the superiority of the occupants of Canaan referred to in Deut. 9:1 may not be a numerical superiority appears neutral. If the Canaanites’ superiority has to do with their building-skills or battle-readiness, then this passage doesn’t impact the numbers one way or another.
3. The Emended/Reduced Quantities Augment, Rather Than Compromise, Reliance Upon Scripture.
PJW: "When evangelicals assert that, despite multiple totalling, thematic links and textual agreement across all the versions, the text of the Bible is corrupt in regard to the number of Israelites, they make it rather attractive not to be evangelical."
The statement is poorly founded, because (a) the textual agreement is granted but its weight is not decisive in light of both the historical difficulty of the immense population-size implied by the extant numbers and the discrepancies between such amounts and other features in the text (such as the Hebrew army’s difficulty defeating the Amalekites), (b) the thematic links are a non-factor (see above), and (c) the multiple totals are already accounted for in the conjecture.
PJW: "The vast majority of scholars from other groups are quite happy for the text to stand as it is."
But the vast majority of non-evangelical scholars do not have a high level of confidence in the historical accuracy of the original text. That is probably a major reason why they feel no impetus for emendation.
PJW: "The most significant thing in attracting evangelicals to abandon classic evangelical views of scripture is when they become convinced that other views show a greater loyalty to the scriptures."
But who’s abandoning a classic evangelical view of Scripture: the person who proposes that the original text recorded some very impressive but plausible large population-numbers, or the person who proposes that the original text recorded historically implausible (i.e., false) population-numbers? What is really in question is not Scripture itself, but the accuracy of the scribal transmission of Scripture (specifically, the scribal transmission of numerical amounts in the Old Testament), and I’m not so sure that there has ever been a focused approach to this specific problem which could be called a "classic evangelical view."
PJW: "The external (mss) evidence for the text is overwhelming. Those who posit that the text is corrupt are positing that large swathes of the biblical text have been systematically corrupted. However, the quantity of text and quality of its thematic coherence on the subject of large numbers easily surpasses the quantity and quality of text needed to establish a whole number of core evangelical beliefs, both doctrinal and ethical."
Of course the extant external evidence will always overwhelm the non-extant external evidence. However the internal evidence is another story. The greater historical plausibility implied by the conjectures, combined with the relative simplicity of the mechanisms by which the proposed original amounts were enlarged, combine to outweigh the case for the originalness of many extant numbers. Plus, one could say that the external evidence for the text is equally overwhelming in cases which are clearly incorrect -- Ahaziah’s age of 42 in II Chronicles 22:2, versus 22 in II Kings 8:26. Inasmuch as the external evidence is not given the final say in cases like that, it should not be given the final say in these cases either -- especially since the extant text itself has some suggestive inconsistencies, which were referred to earlier (such as the (apparent) number of men in the Transjordan tribes, and the reference to 40,000 in the song of Deborah).
PJW: "If you're going to say that the large number of Israelites is textually corrupt, it would surely be easier to argue that John 3:16 is an interpolation."
No it wouldn’t. This particular emendation implies that special phenomena were involved in the enlargement of the numbers, and we have at least one demonstrable example (in Josephus) of one such phenomenon at work. And a fine interlock can be shown to occur between the reconstructed amounts and other (uncorrupted) amounts found in the extant text. Such confirmatory evidence would be lacking in regard to arbitrary assertions of interpolation in John.
PJW: "Corruptions common to MT and LXX as well as other versions would have to have taken place considerably prior to the time of the NT. Those who argue that the text is corrupt are likely to have to conclude that the truth about the exodus had been lost before the time of the NT."
Granted. But whatever difficulty this poses is of essentially the same kind as other cases where disparate amounts are recorded in parallel passages in the MT and LXX (for example, II Kings 24:8/II Chron. 36:9 and the lists of the returners in Ezra and Nehemiah).
4. As a Branch of Historical Research, Textual Criticism Can Legitimately Answer Historical Questions.
It is unsustainable to (a) admit that the extant text is historically problematic, (b) deny the need for conjectural emendation by stating that the issue is best left to a different field of study, and then (c) affirm one’s confidence in the reliability of the extant text. If the extant text is historically problematic, then the problem needs to be solved by historical investigation, and textual criticism is such an investigation -- a historical investigation limited to part of the picture, namely the history of the text’s transmission. Biblical archaeological research is another such investigation -- an investigation limited to another part of the picture, the discovery and analysis of the physical and cultural backgrounds of entities and events mentioned in the Bible. When archaeological research shows the improbability of a population of over 2,000,000 Hebrews at the time of the exodus, and textual criticism shows the probability of a series of textual corruptions (as well as the internal consistency of an emended text), it seems to me that the logical thing to do is not to hand the problem to archaeologists, because they will hand it right back. The logical thing to do is to gauge the historical probability of each option -- (a) Moses led over 2,000,000 Hebrews out of Egypt or (b) copyists corrupted the numbers -- and use the more likely scenario as a working hypothesis. (There are more options than just these two; I mention only them because they seem to be the only ones already on the table, so to speak.) | <urn:uuid:75d8af81-e93c-4b4a-9916-e275f2d57644> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2006/06/defending-case-for-reduction-of-large.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952765 | 2,370 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Universally considered one of the greatest and most popular composers of all times, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart displayed his enormous talents very early as a keyboard and violin virtuoso. Mozart wrote his first composition at age 3. Mozart's teacher was his father, Leopold, a noted musician and composer who also taught Wolfgang’s elder sister Maria Anna, also a child prodigy. The family’s patron, the Archbishop of Salzburg, contributed to Mozart’s relative independence in Vienna. Mozart's success with German and Italian operas as well as in frequent concert performances did not solve his persistent financial difficulties.In December, 1791, Mozart became gravely ill and died a month later. Mozart was buried in a common, unmarked grave. | <urn:uuid:572cfd94-14ea-4463-b67b-6e74d5fed06a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://everynote.com/choral.choose/0/5/26/513.note | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985221 | 163 | 3.390625 | 3 |
One of the most brilliant French composers of the second half of the 19th Century, Emmanuel Chabrier worked for the Ministry of the Interior as his parents did not want him to become a musician. It was only in 1880 when Chabrier could fully devote himself to music. Chabrier's most successful compositions are colorful orchestral and piano works. His opera Le Roi Malgre Lui was received enthusiastically. Chabrierís influence on future generation of French composers was quite significant.
More Chabrier sheet music download on EveryNote.com | <urn:uuid:68398240-e198-485a-8d67-32819f94be66> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://everynote.com/opera.choose/0/721/32/845.note | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976 | 115 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The Evolution Deceit
For some people the theory of evolution or Darwinism has only scientific connotations, with seemingly no direct implication in their daily lives. This is, of course, a common misunderstanding. Far beyond just being an issue within the framework of the biological sciences, the theory of evolution constitutes the underpinning of a deceptive philosophy that has held sway over a large number of people: Materialism.
Materialist philosophy, which accepts only the existence of matter and presupposes man to be 'a heap of matter', asserts that he is no more than an animal, with 'conflict' the sole rule of his existence. Traces of this philosophy, which has a lot to answer as regards man-made disasters of the last two centuries, can be found in every ideology that perceives differences among people as a 'reason for conflict'.
The theory of evolution, or Darwinism, comes in handy at this point by completing the jigsaw puzzle. It provides the myth that materialism is a scientific idea.
However, that basis is rotten. Modern scientific discoveries reveal over and over again that the popular belief associating Darwinism with science is false. Scientific evidence refutes Darwinism comprehensively and reveals that the origin of our existence is not evolution but creation. Allah has created the universe, all living things and man.
Adnan Oktar's conversation about Evolution Deceit
The Movies about the Collapse of Evolution | <urn:uuid:1ae050a6-e050-427b-848a-6603e7929f15> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://evolutiondeceit.com/ajax/send.comment/oid/3487 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939179 | 290 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Rank Formula in Excel
- 29 Comment
The Rank Formula that is built into Excel can be a very useful way of speeding up the ranking of several items. Let’s take a look at the formula and see how this can help us out:
=rank(number, ref, order)
where number is the number whose rank you want to find; ref is a reference to the range of numbers you want to rank against (non-numeric values in the range are ignored), and order refers to the way you want to ranking to appear – 0 or blank for descending and a non-zero number for ascending.
Example 1: =rank(B2,B2:B7) will return 2. Since we left the order reference blank it ranked in descending order and 97% is the second highest score in the list.
Example 2: =rank(B3,B2:B7,1) will return 1. Since this time we filled in order with a non-zero number it returned in ascending order and 67% was the lowest score.
Example 3: In this example, please refer to the image below of the updated spreadsheet. To obtain this result, all we had to do was take the formula in example 1 and lock some values (=rank(B2, $B$2:$B$7). After you enter this in cell C2, you just need to pull the formula down and it will fill the rest in correctly.
There are many other circumstances where you can use the Rank Formula in Excel. One example that I use it for all the time is to create percentiles (There is actually a percentile function and a percentrank function, which I’ll explore more soon).
** Excel Hints provides Excel Tips and Excel Help for All Levels of Experience. | <urn:uuid:f1e4305a-22c4-4840-99fb-55aaba6a16c8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://excelhints.com/2007/06/15/rank-formula-in-excel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90344 | 371 | 2.546875 | 3 |
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Subject: alt.mythology Hittite/Hurrian Mythology REF, ver. 1.2
This article was archived around: 5 Nov 1997 19:11:39 GMT
Hittite/Hurrian Mythology REF 1.2
by Christopher B. Siren
last modified: August 6th, 1997 - added a bunch of information from
the first half of Hoffner.
Mar. 14th, 1996 - fixed a bunch of misprints discovered
while editing the hypertext version.
I. Who were the 'Hittites'?
II. What Deities did they worship?
A. Hittite and Hurrian deities.
B. Akkadian Imports.
III. What was the Hittite cosmology and how did they perceive the
structure of the universe?
IV. Source material.
I. Who were the 'Hittites'?
During the second millennium B.C. the Indo-European people known as
the Hittites ruled over the 'Land of Hatti', in central and eastern
Anatolia, that peninsula which is modern Turkey. They had displaced the
previous occupants, the non-Indo-European Hattians, and ruled from the
city of Hattusas near the modern Boghazkoy in northern central Turkey,
possibly as early as 1900 B.C. Much of the Cappadocian plateau was
under their control through satellite kingdoms before 1800 B.C. and they
enjoyed a thriving trade with the Assyrians. Around 1800 B.C. Anittas
and his father Pitkhanas of Kussara sacked several Hittite cities,
including Hattusas, though Anittas laid a curse upon that city and trade
broke off until the founding of the Old Kingdom under King Labarnas
around 1680 B.C. He and his descendents greatly expanded the region of
Hittite control, crossing the Taurus mountains and waging war on Syria
and Assyria. King Mursilis (~1620-1590 B.C.), Labarnas' grandson by
adoption, brought down the Old Kingdom of Babylon - Hamurabi's dynasty.
This expanded realm, also stretching to Anatolia's west coast, proved to
susceptible to internal power struggles. In 1525 B.C., Telepinus, last
king of the Old Kingdom seized control and sacrificed some of the
Western districts and all of the territory east of the Taurus mountains
in favor of a more easily managed kingdom.
The Hurrians occupied the land between the Hittites and Assyria,
having descended from the mountains south of the Caspian Sea. They
ruled the kingdom of Mitanni. In the late 15th century B.C. the Hittite
empire's beginning is marked by an influx of Hurrian names into the
royal family. Tudhalyas I (1420 B.C.) reunited Western Anatolia under
Hittite rule, and retook Allepo but lost the Black Sea coast to the
Kaska tribes. After some difficulty with the Mittani the Hittites
resurged under King Suppilulimas around 1344-1322 taking a firmer hold
on Syria. With Egypt, they dominated the lands of Canaan and the Levant
during the 1200's. Their prosperity came to a sudden end when the
invasion of the Sea Peoples coincided with increasing trouble from the
Kaskas. While Hittite culture continued through about 700 B.C., the
Empire was shattered into several kingdoms and pressures such as the
growing Assyrian Empire helped keep it from uniting again.
The Hittites were a patriarchal, highly agricultural society. They
had rich iron deposits which they mined and traded with the Assyrians.
They also used it for weaponry and were rather successful in the use of
a three-man chariot. Through trade and conquest the languages and
cultures of their neighbors seeped into Hittite society. Babylonian and
Hurrian deities were worshiped along-side or assimilated with the native
Hittite deities. This merging of cultures and free use of foreign
languages is rather fortuitous. Parallel Hittite and Akkadian treaties
and similar texts helped in cracking the Hittite hieroglyphic code.
Unfortunately, while the ability to translate Hittite hieroglyphics has
improved, the pronunciation of several Hittite ideograms, and hence
their transcription into English, remains elusive. Often, as in the
case with the Storm-god, we must resort to a descriptive name, or else
use the appropriate Hurrian or Akkadian name.
II. What Deities did they worship?
The Hittites had an abundant number of local cult deities and sets
of local pantheons. As the government became more centralized,
particularly during the imperial period around 1400 - 1200 B.C., there
were efforts to equate many of these local deities and form a state
pantheon. Such a pantheon was headed by the Weather-god/Storm-god, who
also represented the mountains, and his consort - usually the earth
goddess, who was also attached to the waters of rivers and the sea. The
Hittites themselves write of 'the thousand gods of Hatti', and more than
eight-hundred such names have been discovered. (Considerably fewer will
be dealt with here.) The associated myths have both Hittite and Hurrian
content, with the origin of many suspected to be Hurrian. The Kumarbis-
Ullukummis is chief among the Hurrian tales and the Illuyankas stories
and missing god myths of Telipinus and the missing Storm-god are thought
to be more Hattic. There also exist fragments of a Hittite version of
the Gilgamesh epic and many Akkadian deities are worshiped outright.
You will notice that many of the names carry an optional 's' as a
suffix, which comes from the nominative case ending for Hittite.
A. Hittite and Hurrian deities.
Alalu(s) - was king in heaven in olden days and Anus was the first
among the gods. Anus served as his cupbearer for 9 years before
defeating him and dispatched him to under the earth.
Anu(s) (Akkadian in origin) - while Alalus was king in heaven, Anus
was more powerful. He served as Alalus' cup bearer for nine years and
then defeated him, dispatching him to under the earth. He took his seat
on the thrown and had Kumarbis as his cupbearer. Likewise, after nine
years Kumarbis rebelled, chased Anus - who fled in the sky like a bird,
and bit off and swallowed his phallus. In this act Anus had some
revenge by impregnating Kumarbis with the Storm-god, the Aranzahus
(Tigris) river, and Tasmisus. He then hides himself in heaven. He
advises the Storm-god on the places where he might exit Kumarbis. After
the Storm-god's birth, they plot to destroy Kumarbis and, with his other
children, apparently succeed.
Kumarbi(s) - 'the father of all gods' according to the Hurrians. He
is sometimes equated with Enlil and Dagan. His city is Urkis. He
thinks wise thoughts and carries a staff. He served as Anus' cup-bearer
for nine years and then rebelled, chased Anus, and bit off and swallowed
his phallus, thereby becoming impregnated with the Storm-god, the
Aranzahus (Tigris) river, and Tasmisus. With that news, he spat out
Aranzahus and Tasmisus of on Mount Kanzuras. The Storm-god begins to
exit through Kumarbis' 'tarnassus', causing him to moan in pain. He
asks Ayas to give him his son to devour, which he does. Ayas has 'poor'
magic worked on him and his 'tarnassus' is secured, so the Storm-god
exits through his 'good place' instead. He is then presumably defeated
by the Storm-god, Anus, and his offspring.
During a plot to overthrow the Storm-god, he lay with a Rock as if
it were a woman. He instructs Imbaluris, his messenger to send a
message to the Sea, that Kumarbis should remain father of the gods. The
Sea hosts a feast for him and later Kumarbis' Rock gives birth to
Ullikummis. Kumarbis announces that his son will defeat the Storm-god,
his city Kummiya, his brother Tasmisus and the gods from the sky. He
charges Imbaluris to seek out the Irsirra deities to hide Ullikummis
from the Sun-god, the Storm-god, and Ishtar.
Imbaluris - Kumarbis' messenger. He is sent to warn the Sea that
Kumarbis' must remain the father of the gods.
Mukisanus - Kumarbis' vizier
Hannahanna(s) (Nintu, Mah) - the mother of all the gods. She is
associated with Gulses. After Telipinu disappears, the Storm-god
complains to her. She sends him to search himself and when he gives up,
she dispatches a bee, charging it to purify the god by stinging his
hands and feat and wiping his eyes and feet with wax.
She recommends to the Storm-god that he pay the Sea-god the bride-
price for the Sea-god's daughter on her wedding to Telipinu.
Apparently she also disappears in a fit of anger and while she is
gone cattle and sheep are stifled and mothers, both human and animal
take no account of their children. After her anger is banished to the
Dark Earth, she returns rejoicing. Another means of banishing her anger
is through burning brushwood and alowing the vapor to enter her body.
After Inara consulted with her, she gave her a man and land. Soon
after, Inara is missing and when Hannahanna is informed thereof by the
Storm-god's bee, she apparently begins a search with the help of her
Female Attendant a. She appears to consult with the Sun-god and the
War-god, but much of the text is missing.
Upelluri (Ubelluris) - similar to Atlas, this giant carries the world
on his shoulders. The olden gods built the earth and heaven upon him -
though he did not notice, even when they those two were separated with a
cleaver. On the direction of Kumarbis' messenger Imaluris, the Issira
deities place Ullikummis on his right shoulder where the child grows.
Ea interviews him, in search of Ullikummis and Upelluri admits to a
small pain on his shoulder, although he can't identify which god is
Storm/Weather-god (Hurrian's Teshub, Taru, Luwian's Tarhun(t) - 'The
Conqueror'), 'The king of Kummiya', 'King of Heaven, Lord of the land of
Hatti', 'The divine Kazal, the valiant king'. He is chief among the
gods and his symbol is the bull. As Teshub he has been pictured as a
bearded man astride two mountains and bearing a club. He is a god of
battle and victory, especially when the battle is with a foreign power.
As Taru, he is the consort of Wurusemu. - He was the child of Anus and
Kumarbis - conceived along with Tasmisus and the Aranzahus (Tigris)
river when Kumarbis bit off and swallowed Anus' phallus. He is,
however, considered Ea's son in the myth of Ullikummis. He is
informed by Anus of the possible exits from Kumarbis, and tries to exit
through Kumarbis' 'tarnassas', causing him great pain. With the
'tarnassas' blocked, he exits through Kumarbis' 'good place'. He plots
with Anus, Tasmisus, and Aranzhus to destroy Kumarbis, and apparently
succeeds seizing kingship in heaven.
He sent rain after the fallen Moon-god/Kashku when he fell from
Alerted to the imminent arrival of the Sun-god, who in some myths is
his son, he has Tasmisus prepare a meal for their guest and listens to
his report about the sudden appearance of the giant Ullikummis. He and
Tasmisus then leave the kuntarra and are led to Mount Hazzi by his
sister, Ishtar, where they behold the monstrous creature. He looks upon
Kumarbis' son with fear and Ishtar chides him. Later, emboldened, he
has Tasmisus prepare his bulls and wagon for battle, and has him call
out the thunderstorms, lightning and rains. Their first battle resulted
in his incomplete defeat. He dispatches Tasmisus to his wife, Hebat, to
tell her that he must remain in a 'lowly place' for a term. When
Tasmisus returns, he encourages the Storm-god to seek Ea in the city
Abzu/Apsu and ask for the 'tablets with the words of fate' (Tablets of
Destiny? 'me'?). After Ea cleaves off Ullukummis' feet, he spurs
Tasmisus and the Storm-god on to battle the crippled giant. Despite the
diorite man's boasting, the Storm-god presumably defeats him.
He fought with the Dragon Illuyankas in Kiskilussa and was defeated.
He called the gods for aid asking that Inaras prepare a celebration.
She does so and when the dragon and his children have gorged themselves
on her feast, the mortal Hupasiyas binds him with a rope. Then the
Storm-god, accompanied by the gods, sets upon them and destroys them.
In another version of that myth, he looses his eyes and heart to
Illuyankas after his first battle. He then marries a poor mortal woman
and marries their son to Illuyankas daughter. He has the son ask for
his eyes and heart. With their return, he attacks the dragon again.
When his son sides with Illuyankas, the Storm-god kills them both.
When his son, Telepinus, is missing he despairs and complains to the
Sun-god and then to Hannahannas, who tells him to search for him
himself. After searching Telepinus' city he gives up.
In other versions of this myth, it is the Storm-god who is missing.
One is almost exactly the same, and in another, he is journeys to the
Dark Earth in his anger, and is returned with the help of his mother -
here Wuruntemu/Ereshkigal/the Sun goddess of Arinna.
He sends Telipinu to recover the Sun-god who had been kidnapped by
the Sea-god. The Sea-god is so intimidated that he gives Telipinu his
daughter in marriage but demands a bride-price from the Storm-god.
After consulting with Hannahanna, he pays the price of a thousand sheep
and a thousand cattle.
He notices his daughter, Inara, is missing and sends a bee to
Hannahanna to have her search for her.
Seris (Serisu) - a bull sacred to the Storm-god. In preparation for
battle, the Storm-god has Tasmisus anoint his horns with oil and drive
him up Mount Imgarra with Tella and the battle wagon.
Tella (Hurris) - another bull sacred to the Storm-god. In
preparation for battle, the Storm-god has Tasmisus plate his tail with
gold and drive him up Mount Imgarra with Seris and the battle wagon.
Aranzahas - The Tigris river deified. A child of Anus and Kumarbis,
he was the brother of the Storm-god and Tasmisus, spat out of Kumarbis'
mouth onto Mount Kanzuras. Later he colludes with Anus and the Storm-
god to destroy Kumarbis.
Tasmisus - A child of Anus and Kumarbis, conceived along with the
Storm-god and Aranzahus. The brother of the Storm-god and Aranzahus, he
was spat out of Kumarbis upon Mount Kanzuras. Later he colludes with
Anus and the Storm-god to destroy Kumarbis. He serves as the Storm-
He spies the Sun-god approaching and informs the Storm-god that this
visit bodes ill. At the Storm-god's command he has a meal set up for
their visitor. After the Sun-god's tale, he and the Storm-god depart
and are met by Ishtar, who takes them to Mt. Hazzi near Ugarit, where
they can see Ullikummis. The Storm-god has him take his bulls up Mt.
Imgarra and prepare them for battle. He is also ordered to bring forth
the storms, rains, winds, and lightning. After their defeat, he is
dispatched by the Storm-god to Hebat, to tell her that he must remain in
a 'lowly place' for a term. He returns and encourages the Storm-god to
seek Ea in the city Abzu/Apsu and ask for the 'tablets with the words of
fate' (Tablets of Destiny? 'me'?). After Ea cleaves off Ullukummis'
feet, he spurs Tasmisus and the Storm-god on to battle the crippled
Suwaliyattas - a warrior god and probably the brother of the Storm-
(Hurrian Hebat, Hepit, Hepatu) - The matronly wife of the Storm-god.
She is sometimes found standing on her sacred animal, the lion. After
the Storm-god and Astabis' failed attacks on Ullikummis, the giant
forced her out of her temple, causing her to lose communication with the
gods. She frets that Ullikummis may have defeated her husband and
expresses her concern to her servant Takitis, charging him to convene
the assembly of the gods and bring back word of her husband. Presumably
she is brought word of his defeat. Tasmisus visits her in the high
watchtower, telling her that the Storm-god is consigned to a 'lowly
place' for a length of time. She is the mother of Sharruma.
Wurusemu, (Wuruntemu?), 'Sun Goddess of Arrina', 'mistress of the
Hatti lands, the queen of heaven and earth', 'mistress of the kings and
queens of Hatti, directing the government of the King and Queen of
Hatti' - this goddess is later assimilated with Hebat. She made the
cedar land. She is the primary goddess in Arrina, with Taru as her
consort. She is a goddess of battle and is associated with Hittite
military victory. She is the mother of the Storm-god of Nerik, and
thereby possibly associated with Ereshkigal. She aids in returning him
from the underworld.
(Hurrian Sharruma), 'the calf of Teshub' - The son of Teshub and
Hebat, this god is symbolized by a pair of human legs. He is later
identified with the Weather-god of Nerik and Zippalanda.
Takitis - Hebat's servant. After Hebat was driven from her temple
he is told of her concern for her husband and charged with convening the
assembly of the gods and returning with word of her husband's fate.
Mezzullas - daughter of the Storm-god and the Sun-goddess of Arinna.
She has influence with her parents.
Zintuhis - granddaughter of the Storm-god and the Sun-goddess of
Telepinu(s), Telipinu (Hattic) 'the noble god' - an agricultural god,
he is the favorite and firstborn son of the Storm-god. He 'harrows and
plows. He irrigates the fields and makes the crops grow.' (Gurney p.
113) He flies into a rage and storms off, loosing
himself in the steppe and becoming overcome with fatigue. With his
departure, fertility of the land, crops and herds disappears and famine
besets man and god. Hannahannas' bee finds him, stings his hands and
feet, and wipes his eyes and feet with wax, purifying him. This further
infuriates him, and he wrecks further havoc with the rivers and by
shattering houses and windows. Eventually, the evil and malice is
removed through magic by Kamrusepas, but not before Telepinus thunders
with lightning. Telepinus returns home, restoring
fertility and tending to the life and vitality of the royal family. His
prosperity and fertility is symbolized by a pole suspending the fleece
of a sheep. In other versions of this myth, the Storm-god or the Sun-
and several other gods are missing instead.
He is asked by his father to recover the Sun-god from the Sea-god,
and so intimidates the Sea-god that he is given his daughter as a bride.
Ullikummi(s), the diorite man - born of Kumarbis and the Rock. This
god is made entirely of diorite. He was born to be used as a weapon to
defeat the Storm-god and his allies. Kumarbis had him delivered to the
Irsirra deities to keep him hidden from the Storm-god, the Sun-god, and
Ishtar. After the Irsirra deities presented him to Ellil, they placed
him on the shoulder of Upelluri where he grows an acre in a month.
After fifteen days he grows enough so that he stands waist deep in
the sea when the Sun-god and he notice each other. Alerted by the
Sun-god, the Storm-god eventually prepares for battle atop Mount Imgarra,
yet their first battle results in an incomplete victory. He drives
Hebat from her temple, cutting off her communication with the other
gods. Astabis leads seventy gods on attack against him, attempting to
draw up the water from around him, perhaps in order to stop his growth.
They fall into the sea and he grows to be 9000 leagues tall and around,
shaking the heavens, the earth, pushing up the sky, and towering over
Kummiya. Ea locates him and cuts off his feet with the copper knife
that separated the heaven from the earth. Despite his wounds he boasts
to the Storm-god that he will take the kingship of heaven. Presumably,
he is none-the-less defeated.
Sun-god (of Heaven) - Probably an Akkadian import, this god one of
justice and is sometimes the king of all gods. An ally and sometimes
son of the Storm-god, he notices the giant Ullikummis in the sea and
visited the Storm-god, refusing to eat until he reports his news. After he
has done so, the Storm-god proclaims that the food on the table shall
become pleasant, which it does, and so the Sun-god enjoys his meal and
returns to his route in heaven.
When Telepinus disappears, bringing a famine, he arranges a feast
for the Thousand Gods, but it is ineffective in assuaging their hunger.
At the Storm-god's complaint, he dispatches an eagle to search for the
god, but the bird is unsuccessful. After the bee discovers Telepinus, he
has man perform a ritual. In another version of the missing god myth, he
is one of the missing gods. He keeps several sheep. At the end of the
day, he travels through the nether-world.
He was kidnapped by the Sea-god and released when Telipinu came for
In a longer version of that story, the Sea-god caught him in a net,
possibly putting him into a Kukubu-vessel when he fell. During his
absence, Hahhimas (Frost) took hold.
Hapantallis - the Sun-god's shepherd.
Moon-god (Hurrian Kashku) - He fell upon the 'killamar', the gate
complex, from heaven and disappeared. Storm-god/Taru rain-stormed after
him, frightening him. Hapantali went to him and uttered the words of a
spell over him. While known to bestow ill omens, he can be appeased by
The Sea - She is told by Imbaluris that 'Kumarbis must remain father
of the gods!'. Struck with fear by this message, she makes ready here
abode and prepares to act as hostess for a feast for Kumarbis. This
feast may have served as a meeting of Mother-goddesses who delivered
Kumarbis' child by the Rock, Ullikummis.
The Sea-god - He quarreled and kidnapped the Sun-god of Heaven. When
Telipinu came to recover the Sun-god, the Sea-god was so intimidated
that he also gave him his daughter. He later demanded a bride-price for
her of the Storm-god, and was eventually given a thousand cattle and a
thousand sheep. In another version, he caught the Sun-god in a net as
he fell and may have sealed him in a Kukubu-vessel, allowing Hahhimas
(Frost) to take hold of most of the other gods.
He questions the fire in its role in one of Kamrusepa's healing
Inara(s) - Daughter of the Storm-god and goddess of the wild animals
of the steppe. After the Storm-god's initial defeat by Illuyankas, she
follows his request to set up a feast. She recruits Hupasiyas of
Zigaratta, to aid her in revenge on Illuyankas by taking him as a lover.
She then sets about luring Illuyankas and his children to a feast. After
the dragon and his children gorge themselves on her meal, Hupasiyas binds
him with a rope. Then the Storm-god sets upon them and defeats them.
She then gives Hupasiyas a house on a cliff to live in yet warns him
not to look out the window, lest he see his wife and children. He
disobeys her, and seeing his family begs to be allowed to go home.
Gurney speculates that he was killed for his disobedience.
She consults with Hannahanna who promises to give her land and a
man. She then goes missing and is sought after by her father and
Hannahanna with her bee.
Illuyankas - the Dragon. He defeated the Storm-god in Kiskilussa.
Later he was lured from his lair with his children by a well dressed
Inaras with a feast. After they were too engorged to get into their lair
again, the Storm-god, accompanied by the other gods, killed him.
In another version of the myth, he defeated the Storm-god and stole
his eyes and heart. Later, his daughter married the son of the
Storm-god. Acting on the Storm-god's instruction, his son asked for the
eyes and heart. When these were returned to him, the Storm-god
vanquished Illuyankas, but slew his son as well when the youth sided
with the dragon.
The ritual of his defeat was invoked every spring to symbolize the
Hedammu - a serpent who loved Ishtar.
Irsirra deities - These gods who live in the dark earth are charged by
Kumarbis through Imbaluris to hide Ullikummis from the sky gods, the
Sun-god, the Storm-god, and Ishtar. They are also charged with placing
the child on the shoulder of Upelluri. Later they accept the child and
deliver it to Ellil, before placing it on Upelluri's right shoulder.
Hapantali/Hapantalliyas - He took his place at the Moon-god's side
when he fell from heaven on the gate complex and unttered a spell.
Kamrusepa(s)/Katahziwuri ('Mother Kamrusepa') - She is the goddess of
magic and healing. She witnessed and announced the Moon-god's fall from
heaven on to the gate complex.
After Telepinus has been found, yet remains angry, she is set to
cure him of his temper. She performs an elaborate magical ritual,
removing his evil and malice.
In another tablet, she performs the spell of fire which removes
various illnesses, changing them to a mist which ascends to heaven
lifted by the Dark Earth. The Sea-god questions the fire on its role.
Astabis (Zamama, Akkadian Ninurta) - a Hurrian warrior god. After the
Storm-god's first attack on Ullikummis is unsuccessful, he leads seventy
gods in battle wagons on an attack on the diorite giant. They try to
draw the water away from him, perhaps in order to stop his growth, but
they fall from the sky and Ullikummis grows even larger, towering over
the gate of Kummiya.
Uliliyassis - a minor god who, properly attended to, removes
Kurunta? - This god's symbol is the stag. He is associated with rural
Kubaba - chief goddess of the Neo-Hittites, she became Cybebe to the
Phrygians and Cybele to the Romans.
Yarris - a god of pestilence. A festival was held for him every
Hasamelis - a god who can protect travelers, possibly by causing them
to be invisible.
Zashapuna - He is the chief god of the town of Kastama, held in
greater regard there than the Storm-god, possibly gaining such influence
through drawing lots with the other gods.
Zaliyanu - She is the wife of Zashapuna
Zaliyanu - She is the concubine of Zashapuna
Papaya - One of the deities who sat under the Hawthorn tree awaiting
the return of Telipinus.
Istustaya - One of the deities who sat under the Hawthorn tree
awaiting the return of Telipinus.
Miyatanzipa - One of the deities who sat under the Hawthorn tree
awaiting the return of Telipinu. (S)he? also sat under the ippiyas tree
when Hannahanna found the hunting bag.
Fate-goddesses - They were among the deities who sat under the
Hawthorn tree awaiting the return of Telipinu. In one myth, they and
the Mother-goddesses are missing.
Dark-goddess - One of the deities who sat under the Hawthorn tree
awaiting the return of Telipinu.
Tutelary-deity (Sumerian Lamma) - One of the deities who sat under the
Hawthorn tree awaiting the return of Telipinu.
Uruzimu - A deity involved in returning the lost Storm-god of Nerik.
Hahhimas (Frost) - When the Sea-god captures the Sun-god, he takes
hold of the other gods and of the lands plants and animals, paralyzing
them. He is half brother to Hasamili's brothers and spares them from
B. Akkadian Imports:
Anu - See section A.
Antu - Anu's female counterpart, imported to the Hittites through the
Ellil - He is presented with Ullikummis by the Irsirra deities and
declares that the child will bring the mightiest battles and an awesome
rival to the Storm-god. Later, Ea and presumably the Storm-god present
before him a case against Kumarbis' for his creation of Ullikummis. He
counters with Kumarbis' good record of worship and sacrifice and is in
turn countered with Ea's testimony describing Ullikummis.
Ninlil - Ellil's wife. She was imported by way of the Hurrians.
Lelwanis (Lilwani, Ereshkigal, sometimes assimilated with Ishtar),
'Sun of the Earth' - Goddess of the earth and the nether-world,
appeasement of her through sheep sacrifices helps remove threats from
Ayas (Ea) - He is the keeper of the 'old tablets with the words of
fate' (Tablets of Destiny? 'me'?). The Ullikummis' myth has him as the
father of the Storm-god.
He attends Kumarbis and fetches that god's son to be devoured as a
means of releaving Kumarbis pains from the Storm-god. He advises
Kumarbis to have experts work 'poor' magic to aid him in his distress,
bringing bulls and sacrifices of meal. This magic helps secure
He is prevailed upon by the Storm-god following his defeat by
Ullikummis. He and presumably the Storm-god present a case against
Kumarbis' for his creation of Ullikummis before Ellil. Rebutting
Ellil's defense that Kumarbis is well behaved regarding worship and
sacrifices, Ea proclaims that Ullikummis 'will block off heaven and the
gods holy houses.' He seeks out Upelluri, and after interviewing him,
locates Ullukummis feet on Upelluri's shoulder. He charges the olden
gods to deliver the copper knife with which they severed heaven from
earth, in order to cut through Ullukummis' feet. He then spurs Tasmisus
and the Storm-god on to fight the crippled giant.
(Hurrian Tapkina, Damkina) - Ea's wife, imported from the Akkadians by
way of the Hurrians.
(Hurrian Shaushka, Ishtar) - She takes the form of a winged female
standing on a lion.
She spies her brothers, the Storm-god and Tasmisus, leaving the
kuntarra following word of the appearance of Ullikummis. She leads them
by hand, up Mount Hazzi, from which they can view the giant. When the
Storm-god is vexed and fearful at the site of Kumarbis' son, she chides
him. Later, she takes up her galgalturi/harp and sings to the blind and
deaf Ullikummis, but her folly is exposed to her by a great wave from
the sea, who charges her to seek out her brother who is yet to be
emboldened to the inevitable battle.
She was loved by the serpent Hedammu.
Ninatta - Shaushka's attendant.
Kulitta - Shaushka's attendant.
Ereshkigal - This goddess is the mother of the Storm-god. She plays a
role in returning him from the underworld by opening the gates of the
Various rituals were performed to call upon demons for protection or to
drive away baneful deities summoned by sorcerers.
Alauwaimis - properly propitiated with ritual, libation, and goat
sacrifice, this demon drives away evil sickness.
Tarpatassis - properly propitiated with ritual and the sacrifice of a
buck, this demon staves off sickness and grants long, healthy life.
Hupasiya(s) - a resident of Ziggaratta. He is recruited by Inaras
to aid in defeating Illuyankas. He agrees to her plan after illiciting
her promise to sleep with him. When Illuyankas and his children are
gorged on Inaras' feast he ties them up for the Storm-god to kill. He
is set up in a house by Inaras with the instructions not to look out the
window while she is away lest he see his family. He does and begs to go
home. Here the text is broken and some researchers assume he was
III. Cosmology and the structure of the universe.
I haven't found as much about this as I would like:
The olden gods built heaven and earth upon Upelluri. They had a copper
knife which they used to cleave the heaven from the earth, after which
they stored it in ancient storehouses and sealed them up - only to open
them and retrieve it for use on Ullikummis.
Kuntarra house - the house of the gods in heaven.
The Dark Earth, i.e. the underworld, has an entrance with gates. It
holds bronze or iron palhi-vessels with lead lids. That which enters
them perishes within and doesn't return. Telipinu and Hannahanna's
anger is banished there.
IV. Source material:
Goetze, Albrecht "Hittite Myths, Epics, and Legends",
_Ancient_Near_East_Texts_Relating_to_the_Old_Testament_, ed. James
Pritchard, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1955. This has been
my primary source for the texts of the Hittite myths and prayers.
Gurney, O. R. _The_Hittites_, Penguin Books, New York, 1990. Gurney's
work is a solid overview of Hittite history, culture, religion, and
Hoffner, Harry A. _Hittite_Myths_, Scholars Press, Atlanta, Georgia,
1990. Intended to be a more idiomatic translation, Hoffner's work
also includes some material more recent than Goetz. I am replacing
that material from Goetz with which this conflicts.
Hooke, S. H. _Middle_Eastern_Mythology_ , Penguin Books, New York,1963.
Hooke takes a comparative and summary approach to Sumerian, Babylonian,
Canaanite, Hittite, and Hebrew mythological material.
Laroche, Emmanuel articles within _Mythologies_Volume_One_, Bonnefoy,
Yves (compiler), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1991.
This handful of topically focused articles provides depth in some
areas of Hittite and Hurrian religion but lacks an overall picture as
Bonnefoy's work was designed for an encyclopedic format. | <urn:uuid:2978c0f8-e6c0-4cf5-834a-56bf4fd9a9c2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://faqs.cs.uu.nl/na-dir/mythology/hittite-ref.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948041 | 8,623 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Italian painter, one of the main artists
of the Venetian high renaissance. He was born as Giorgio Barbarelli in
the town of Castelfranco in the Veneto region.
In Venice Giorgione was an apprentice of
By 1500 he was back in Castelfranco, where he made fresco's and an
altarpiece. In 1505 he returned to Venice where he died of the plague
Much of his work is lost, especially his
fresco's. The remaining paintings show creativity, imaginative power,
a colorful palette, and intense depth.
From Wikipedia: “Giorgione never
subordinated line and color to architecture, nor an artistic effect to
a sentimental presentation. He was the first to paint landscapes with
figures, the first to paint genre — movable pictures in their own
frames with no devotional, allegorical, or historical purpose —
and the first whose colors possessed that ardent, glowing, and melting
intensity which was so soon to typify the work of all the Venetian
The portrait accompanying this article
is probably a self-portrait, made after the year 1500. | <urn:uuid:946d51fb-5314-4abe-a6d7-ca65edcc889a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?prev=Alphabetical&dir=Alphabetical%2FGiorgione_Il | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946288 | 246 | 3.375 | 3 |
From Trash to Crafts
In This Article:
Clean and collect a week's worth of items that you'd normally throw away and challenge your children to think of ways you could use the items in crafting.
The following are suggestions to get you started thinking in the Trashy Crafts mode. I've given brief descriptions and, in some cases, illustrations to make the idea more clear. Keep your eyes open for ideas all around you. Look at craft fairs at what other people are doing with castaways. Magazines and books are full of project ideas using "found" materials.
Here are some crafts that use old egg cartons, either paper or Styrofoam (I like paper best, but either kind will do):
Creatures and critters: Using one or more sections from an egg carton and some pipe cleaners, you can make a whole zoo. If you paint the sections black and suspend them from strings, these make great spiders for Halloween. Add cotton balls dyed yellow to a painted yellow carton section to make an adorable Easter chick.
Similar to egg carton creatures, you can cut the sections apart and make egg carton flowers, using the carton pieces as the actual flower or the center of a larger flower and adding petals.
Egg cartons make good holders for crafts in progress (for drying painted Easter eggs, for example).
Egg cartons (or any other sectioned container) are great for sorting things like beads or any other small parts.
Fill each well of an egg carton with different colored paints for small projects.
Start seeds in each well. When they've sprouted, you can cut the sections apart and plant them (if they're the cardboard kind).
Put flowers you want to dry in silica gel (one in each section) and cover with the gel.
There are several strategy games that use sectioned game boards, which can be made out of egg cartons.
Styrofoam Trays, Cups, and Peanuts
Here are some crafts you can make out of Styrofoam:
Use a tray as a paint palette. Cut out a hole for your fingers.
An adult or older child can cut tray pieces out for stencils.
Rubber stamps can be expensive, but you can make your own out of Styrofoam meat trays. Clean the tray, cut out the shape, and glue it to an empty film canister, cork, or the end of a large eraser. Press into an inked stamp pad and you're ready to stamp.
Larger trays from bulk foods make good frames for artwork. You can also decorate them and use them as special trays.
Cut pieces of Styrofoam into different shapes and decorate to make coasters.
Decorate Styrofoam plates and use under plants to catch excess water.
Use leftover Styrofoam cups to grow seedlings (after you've used an egg carton to start them).
Styrofoam cups also work well as paint containers (just rinse them first) and homes for seedlings. Peanuts can be painted and strung together as "beads" or glued on as decorations.
More on: Crafts for Kids
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Crafts with Kids © 1998 by Georgene Lockwood. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
To order this book visit the Idiot's Guide web site or call 1-800-253-6476. | <urn:uuid:45f32fec-6ea4-4fac-8dce-aa007f1be220> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://fun.familyeducation.com/crafts/recycling/47922.html?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925391 | 754 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Grisons (German: Graubünden; Italian: Grigioni; Romansh: Grischun), a canton in southeast Switzerland, the largest canton, with 2,774 sq. miles and 187,920 inhabitants (2006). During the Reformation it showed many indications of a rapidly growing Anabaptist movement, which was, however, violently suppressed. This was especially true of its capital Chur. Two Grisons Anabaptists played an important role in the first Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, Georg Blaurock, and Andreas Castelberger. They are considered the fathers of the Anabaptist movement in Grisons. At the end of April 1525, expelled from Zürich, they returned to their home with Felix Manz. In mid-May they were in Chur and its vicinity; the Reformed took note of their activity and prepared for the conflict. In three months the conflict was on. The Anabaptists had had great success and had been supported by the Catholics. Comander, the reformer of Grisons, was anxious, and on 8 August 1525 urgently appealed to Zwingli for help. The Chur authorities now took a hand. Manz was imprisoned and then expelled; Blaurock escaped from prison. In spring 1526 Anabaptists in the area of Maienfeld and Fläsch were suppressed.
At first they refused to be converted; but when the use of the rack was threatened they recanted. A leader escaped the authorities. Salzmann, the Reformed teacher in the city school of Chur, wrote to Vadian, 13 March 1526, "Wolff Ulimann fled because of pestilence, else he would have been punished. He was fined three pounds." This notice may have been of interest to Vadian (see St. Gall). Nothing more is known of the work of Ulimann in Grisons. Supposedly the judges saw in him one of the most dangerous false teachers, who had made himself noticed in the Rhine Valley in Chur.
At Easter 1526 Salzmann complained to Zwingli that the Anabaptists were backsliding (from Anabaptism), but this seems to have been a brief flicker. At the Bundestag at Davos in May 1526 religious freedom was granted only to the Catholics and Reformed; the Anabaptists and other sects were strictly forbidden. E. Camenisch, the church historian of Grisons, estimates "that the Anabaptists at the beginning of 1526 formed a compact separatist brotherhood, differing from the other two creeds by a special concept of faith." After 1526 there were only isolated traces of the brotherhood; the Anabaptists had been robbed of their leaders and threatened by severe edicts of the government, the Reformed Church had been firmly established, and won an equal status with Catholicism. In 1528 the "Catabaptists," led by Castelberger, again stirred in Chur, causing Comander great concern. Then Castelberger disappeared from the scene. Conrad Grebel, who was probably about to begin his work in Grisons, was at the gateway to Grisons in the summer of 1526. He died at Maienfeld of the plague. Felix Manz was drowned in Zürich, 5 January 1527, Wolfgang Ulimann was executed in Swabia in 1528, and Blaurock died at the stake at Clausen in Tyrol, 6 September 1529. The twelfth of the theses announced by Comander for the disputation planned for Easter Monday 1531 at Chur, which could, however, not take place because of war, read, "Anabaptism is an error and a seduction against God's Word and teaching." This indicates that there were still Anabaptists in the country, but their traces become more scarce.
Martin Seger, magistrate of Maienfeld, in a letter of 16 September 1533, requests Bullinger to send him the book he published against the Anabaptists in 1530. It is not clear whether the reason for this request is renewed Anabaptist activity or the memory of their earlier appearance in Fläsch and Maienfeld. After 1542 the immigration of Italian refugees sets in, among whom there are elements that oppose the Reformed creed and who are called Anabaptists in memory of the doctrines and activities of the Anabaptists in the 1520s; a more accurate name would have been "anti-Trinitarians." They played an important role in the history of the Reformation in Grisons, but they can be only touched upon here. In the conflict between Frell and Gantner (1570) we note a mixture of Anabaptism, anti-Trinitarianism, and Schwenckfeldianism.
From the darkness of the period 1530-1570 emerges the figure of a noble Anabaptist, Leopold Scharnschlager, the schoolmaster of Ilanz. He came from Tyrol, had owned a farm in Hopfgarten near Kitzbühel, but as an Anabaptist had to flee in 1530 with his wife and daughter. Perhaps, like many of his brethren, he had set out for Moravia. In 1535 he was probably no longer there. Pilgram Marpeck, whose acquaintance he had meanwhile made, forwarded letters to him. It can be assumed that, like Pilgram Marpeck, he had ventured to return to his home. It is known from a letter written by his son-in-law, a Moravian Anabaptist, that after 1538 his stay in Tyrol was short. In 1544 he was supposedly in Augsburg, for there it is known that Scharnschlager and his wife were fined 40 guilders in Bavaria. Scharnschlager also cooperated in writing the Verantwortung über Caspar Schwenckfelds Judicium (published in 1928 by Johann Loserth). He is named second in the list of authors after Pilgram Marpeck. The epistle to Caspar Schwenckfeld, which precedes that Verantwortung, is dated 1 January 1544. In 1546 Scharnschlager and his wife suddenly appeared in Ilanz in the Oberland of Grisons, where they at last found a quiet place of residence. Their neighborhood did not learn of their Anabaptist faith. Having studied at a Tirolean monastery school or in Innsbruck, Scharnschlager was able to head the country school here. A considerable inherited fortune made him independent of the trifling salary. But his connections with the Brethren in Upper Germany and Moravia he quietly continued. He also put all his strength at the disposal of the brotherhood. In 1558 he copied a book (perhaps the Verantwortung) and wrote an epistle "Vom Gericht." The Brethren in Augsburg thanked him in a letter signed by Valentin Werner (26 August 1559). They asked him to continue to serve them with the treasures of his spirit, but "they do not want to overburden his honorable age." In March 1563 Scharnschlager died; his wife soon followed. The lawsuit that developed from their estate (not settled until 1566) furnishes these important notes on this Anabaptist leader.
The letter of 1559 by the Augsburg Brethren is addressed to the beloved brethren in Grisons, especially to Leopold Scharnschlager. Thus it is known that there was an Anabaptist congregation in Grisons at that time, which existed in secret. The few notes from the following decade merely say that in the lawsuit mentioned above a tawer of Chur, Sebastian Neudorfer, is named, "who carried messages down into the country."
The Chur pastor Johannes Fabricius Montanus had to dispute before the council with an Anabaptist in January 1560, and evidently used Bullinger's book against the Anabaptists. In the following year the Anabaptists again required his thought. In November 1561 several held meetings in the house of a citizen and baptized two citizens of Chur. Two outsiders in Chur said to the Anabaptists, Ferdinand had the Anabaptists so severely persecuted with fire and sword that they wished they were in Grisons. Fabricius remarks in a letter to Bullinger of 28 November that they must act quickly. He had held a disputation and had been the victor. Both the Anabaptists have been imprisoned: one of them, a butcher who had learned his trade in Zürich or had long served there, Tardy by name, was to be expelled (but the sentence was not carried out). With the other, a Chur bookseller and bookbinder, Georg Frell, Fabricius had spoken, but without results; Frell referred to the Paraphrases of Erasmus. The successor of Fabricius, Tobias Egli, wrote in 1570 that Frell had added Schwenckfeldianism to his other errors. In the negotiations of 1570 and 1571 there is repeated mention of books by Schwenckfeld that Frell had in stock, and of Schwenckfeldian doctrines that he defended. They mentioned the Fastnachtsbüchle or Vermanungsbüchle that was distributed in Chur and Prättigau. Egli has shown that at a disputation held on 19 May 1570 Frell took his ideas opposing Zwingli's teachings from Hubmaier's writings. There is here probably an adulteration of Anabaptism that has only occasional contacts with Scharnschlager's type.
The fight about Frell took on larger dimensions when Johannes Gantner, Egli's colleague, took sides with Frell. He opposed the persecution of heretics on the basis of the parable of the tares, but in other points as well he touched Anabaptist doctrine; e.g., the statements of the Old Testament are not valid, for we are a new people; he who has conscientious scruples against injuring a foe, whom Christ says we must love, even in the greatest distress of the native country should not be compelled to do so; one should not swear, but letting yea be yea and nay be nay is sufficient (concerning the further developments see Chur). Frell came back to Chur later and conversed with Gantner openly, but there was no profound movement. The butcher Tardy, who was also expelled, remained for a time in Ilanz, the residence of Scharnschlager ("where he attacked everybody"), but was then permitted to return to Chur, and here committed a murder.
On 9 May 1573 he stabbed his stepson on the marketplace; but he escaped and did not reappear.
The last instance of Anabaptism in Chur extends into the 17th century. Stephan Gabriel, who served as pastor of Ilanz from 1593 to 1618 and from 1626 until his death in 1638, stated in 1605 that he frequently sought Anabaptists in the great crowds in Ilanz before the Bundestag, convinced them of their error, and converted them. He was even summoned to the Catholic valley of the Lugnez to dispute with two Anabaptists before a great crowd of people, in the presence of six priests. He boasts of being victorious. The town of Ilanz was thus for a long time an Anabaptist center.
In the area of Veltlin, Bormio (Worms), and Chiavenna (Kläven) the Reformation had also gained entry. In these Italian-speaking regions, as well as in the Grisons valleys of Bergell and Puschlav, the Protestants fleeing from the Inquisition found a field for work. On the whole their work was fruitful. Only the appearance of several, anti-Trinitarians brought confusion and in Chiavenna led to a long-drawn-out church quarrel, involving the congregation there, the Grisons synod, and the Zürich clergy. The principal leader of the radicals, Camillo Renato, strongly emphasized the authority of the Spirit as above the written Word of God; he questioned the value of the sacraments, rejected infant baptism as a superstitious ceremony, without meaning; salvation, he said, is accomplished not by a historical fact, but by sudden illumination by the Spirit, bringing rebirth.
In the midst of these disputes comes the so-called Anabaptist Council of Venice in 1550. (It was probably rather an anti-Trinitarian meeting, to which some Anabaptists were invited.) The invitations had been issued orally by messengers, who first sought out the churches in Upper Italy, then in Grisons and northern Switzerland as far as Basel and St. Gall. Sixty Anabaptist (?) leaders had assembled in Venice, including 20 or 30 from Switzerland. Unfortunately those from Grisons are not named (il Nero is not Franciscus Niger; see Schiess, Korrespondenz Bullingers I, p. LXI, note 5). Titianus, an anti-Trinitarian, had of course worked in the subject cantons (Untertanenlanden) and later, in 1554 (Schiess, pp. XXI f.) disputed in Chur with the Grisons reformer Gallicius; he was driven out with lashes. But he cannot be considered the representative of the Grisons Anabaptists. There may therefore have been some of Scharnschlager's type there. The moderate wing left; hence their representatives were not named.
The above-named difficulties in the subject cantons now made it essential for the synod to set up a Confession of Faith and church regulations. In 1552 Philip Gallicius was assigned this task, and he formulated them at once. In April 1553 the Confessio Raetica was sent to Bullinger for his perusal, and after it had received his approval and been signed by the Grisons clergy, it was presented to the Bundestag and confirmed by the delegates of both creeds. Of this confession Article II (On the Sacraments) expressly states that baptism is not itself purification and sanctification. Article 18 (On Infant Baptism) says: "It is just as Christian among Christians as circumcision was considered pious by the Israelites." Article 19 says: "He who has once been baptized by a preacher of the Word of the triune God shall not be baptized differently or anew." From the church regulations, articles 37, 40, and 65 should be mentioned: Baptism shall be performed by none but the clergy, since Jesus conferred the office of baptism only on those who have the office of preaching. As the place for baptism the church is designated, and baptism at home is granted only for emergencies. The clergyman shall perform the baptismal ceremony standing, under the appropriate support of the witnesses. "On the other hand, we forbid baptism to be performed seated in barns or in open fields or woods or other unsuitable places as the godless Anabaptists do." All baptisms are to be entered into the church books, as had often been decided before.
When Bullinger worked out the second Helvetian Confession die Grisons Church adopted it without invalidating their own. It was rather considered cantonal law, and with its aid the remnants of Anabaptism and anti-Trinitarianism were wiped out.
Benrath, Karl. "Wiedertäufer im Venetianischen." Theologische Studien und Kritiken (1885): No. 1.
Benrath, Karl. "Geschichte der Reformation in Venedig." Schriften des Vereins für Geschichte No. 18 (Halle, 1887).
Camenisch, Emil. "Die Confessio Raetica." Jahresbericht der Historisch-Antiquarischen Gesellschaft von Graubünden (Chur, 1914).
Camenisch, Emil. Bündnerische Reformationsgeschichte. Chur, 1920.
Doornkaat Koolman, J. ten. "Leopold Scharnschlager und die verborgene Täufergemeinde in Graubünden." Zwingliana (1926): 329 ff.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 157-159.
Rageth Ragaz. Stefan Gabriel, der Prädikant und Dichter: Ein Lebensbild aus Graubündens schwerster Zeit. Chur: Sprecher, Eggerling & Co., 1928: 27.
Rosius de Porta, P. D. Historia reformations ecclesiarum Raeticarum. Curiae Raetorum, 1771: I.
Schiess, T. "Aus dem Leben eines Hanzer Schulmeisters." Bändner Monatsblatt (1916): No. 2.
Schiess, T., ed. Bullingers Korrespondenz mit den Graubündnern. XXIII-XXV of Quellen zur Schweizer Geschichte. Basel, 1904-1906.
"Verantwortung über Caspar Schwenckfelds Judicium," Züricher Zentralbibliothek (Ms B. 72); in the appendix to the former Valentin Werner's letter to Scharnschlager, 489b-92b and a note about the origin of the book, 495 f.
|Author(s)||J. ten Doornkaat Koolman|
Cite This Article
Doornkaat Koolman, J. ten. "Grisons (Switzerland)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 27 Jun 2016. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Grisons_(Switzerland)&oldid=101073.
Doornkaat Koolman, J. ten. (1956). Grisons (Switzerland). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 27 June 2016, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Grisons_(Switzerland)&oldid=101073.
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Plant Summer Bulbs
April is the month to plant summer-flowering bulbs, rhizomes, and tubers such as gladiolas, lilies, begonias, and cannas. Mix bulb fertilizer, composted manure, or peat moss into the planting holes to give your bulbs a boost, and keep the soil well watered.
Move Fuchsias Outdoors
The danger of frost has passed, so it's time to move overwintered fuchsias and geraniums back outdoors. Trim the plants back by as much as half, feed them, and repot them if necessary, then water them well and place them in a protected spot in the garden.
Clean Garden Tools
Gardeners are only as good as the tools they use. Clean, sharpen, and repair all tools now so you won't waste time during the growing season. Also, change the oil in mowers and sharpen their blades. Dull mower blades cut the grass coarsely and make it more susceptible to diseases.
Find a sunny spot to plant an herb garden. If you have no space in a prepared bed, plant herbs in pots. Herbs not only are culinary and medicinal, they are attractive too. Plant a mix of culinary herbs such as basil, medicinal herbs such as chamomile, and beautiful herbs such as purple sage.
Design for Color
Think about colors when designing your flower garden. Complementary colors (violet and yellow, blue and orange, red and green) intensify each other. And neutral or subdued hues planted between brilliant colors will prevent clashes and make the brighter colors more prominent. | <urn:uuid:53253244-4fd5-4755-a2e9-2c468bfb9100> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://garden.org/regional/report/arch/reminders/18 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933332 | 336 | 3 | 3 |
Center for Climatic Research, Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Data Center Description
The Center for Climatic Research (CCR) focuses on studies of present, future, and past climates, the links between ecosystems and climate and between civilizations and climate, and assessment of the impacts of climate variability on water, food, and energy resources. The center develops and uses coupled earth system models (atmosphere, ocean, land, biosphere) and observations to address regional, continental, and global-scale problems that are linked to important environmental, societal, and policy issues. The work of the center is organized around three laboratories: earth-system modeling, paleoecology, and archaeoclimatology. | <urn:uuid:e3a816ec-4163-4b05-bb07-fe44bc5a8ea5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gcmd.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/Supplementals.do?Portal=GCMD&KeywordPath=DataCenters%7CACADEMIC&NumericId=2967&MetadataType=0&lbnode=mdlb3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899021 | 150 | 2.734375 | 3 |
I had been very glad if any of you have time to help me. I am a student and currently writing a thesis. In this paper I will create a 3D model of a glacier, where I will show the internal structures of the glacier. (Ice and Snow) I use ArcMap and ArcScene.
My workflow is as follows: Collected data with GPR (ground penetrating radar) Analyzed data and created given depth values (how thick the snow is and how thick is the ice). This is done in Reflexw. The output I get is in an ASCII format, columns of snow thickness and the thickness of the ice. Of this data I create shapefiles in arc map. A Shapefile for snow and the ice. I have about 7 sections with snow and ice thickness. My goal now is to create one TIN for the snow layer and one for the ice layer. I already have a TIN of the research area with orthophotos draped over (topography). Now I want snow and ice TIN lie below each other, and the TIN model of the topography. Have tried to create negative values of the depth measurements, but to no luck.
My question is: How do I create TIN model for snow and ice, so that the layers lie below the topography? :)
I'm attaching some links so that you may understand better what I mean:
This is what i want to do:
and now it looks like this: http://imgur.com/yYscxbp (the blue and red lines is the sections of snow (red) and ice (blue)). The green TIN is made from the snow layer, but as you can see; it does not fit with the topography. Do I have to adjust the z coordinatesystem in some ways?
Highly appreciate all the help I can get. | <urn:uuid:e91846ae-fc78-4a39-aed2-bd54fae2576a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/53143/making-a-subsurface-tin-model/53145 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94048 | 381 | 2.734375 | 3 |
This timelapse video shows the construction of the first Orion crew module, the spacecraft that will take humanity to the moon and Mars. As you can see, this version is not the full ship, as it lacks all computer, engine and support systems, not to talk about the proton torpedoes and turbolasers. However, the Apollo-style module is the first real tangible part of the Constellation Program, and will play a crucial part in its early development.
This capsule won't leave Earth's atmosphere: it will be used in a 90-second flight to demonstrate the features of the new ship, built using the same concept as the Apollo capsule but on a much larger scale. The Orion is 16.5 feet in diameter, with a mass of 22.7 metric tons, which gives it "two and a half times the volume" inside the Apollo capsule.
Knowing how small Apollo was, it's not going to be the Enterprise flight deck, but it will be able to fit four crew members comfortably starting in 2014, the year in which it will travel to the International Space Station. Six years later, it will go to the moon. [NASA] | <urn:uuid:0d915125-d3a7-4e78-823a-422570dcbafd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gizmodo.com/367722/orion-crew-test-module-timelapse-build?tag=Crew | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932945 | 237 | 3.3125 | 3 |
U.S. Secret Service
Not Exactly Your Typical Job
The U.S. Secret Service was created on July 5, 1865, as a federal bureau under the Department of Treasury. At that time, its main function and purpose was to suppress the counterfeiting of U. S. Currency. In 1901, the functions of the U.S. Secret Service were expanded to include the important responsibility of protecting the President of the United States.
This responsibility has since been extended to:
- -Presidential immediate family.
- -Vice President and immediate family.
- -Former Presidents and spouses for life and their children until age 16.
- -Visiting heads of foreign States and Governments and spouses traveling with them.
- -Major Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates and spouses.
U.S. Secret Service investigative responsibilities also expanded. In addition to investigating counterfeiting, many more investigative areas were added. These included investigating financial crimes relating to banks, access devices (to include credit/debit cards), computers, telecommunications, and telemarketing.
Special agents are charged with two missions: protection and investigation. During the course of their careers, special agents carry out assignments in both of these areas and must be available to be assigned to duty stations anywhere in the world.
The Secret Service also has a Foreign Language Cash Award Program. This program pays a cash award of up to 5 percent of basic pay to any individual who possesses and makes substantial use of one or more foreign languages in the performance of official duties.
Newly appointed special agents may be assigned to duty stations anywhere in the United States. Throughout their careers, agents may experience frequent travel and reassignments to Secret Service offices located throughout the United States or liaison assignments in foreign countries.
- -U.S. citizenship.
- -Must be at least 21 years of age and younger than 37 at time of appointment.
- -(1) Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university; or (2) three years of work experience in the criminal investigative or law enforcement fields that require knowledge and application of laws relating to criminal violations; or (3) and equivalent combination of education and related experience. According to the Office of Personnel Management regulations, nonqualifying law enforcement experience is as follows: Experience as a uniformed law enforcement officer where the principal duties consisted of investigations and arrests involving traffic violations, minor felonies, misdemeanors, and comparable offenses; or in which the major duties involved guarding and protecting property, preventing crimes, and/or legal research without the application of investigative techniques.
- -Uncorrected vision no worse than 20/60 binocular; correctable to 20/20 in each eye. (NOTE: Lasik, ALK, RK and PRK corrective eye surgeries are acceptable eye surgeries for special agent applicants provided specific visual tests are passed one year after surgery. Applicants who have undergone Lasik surgery may have visual tests three months after the surgery.)
- -Excellent health and physical condition.
- -Must pass the Treasury Enforcement Agent.
- -Complete background investigation to include in-depth interviews, drug screening, medical examination, and polygraph examination.
- -Hired usually at the GS-5, GS-7 or GS-9 level depending on qualifications and/or education. Special agents also receive Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP), that entitles them to receive an additional 25 percent of their annual base pay.
- -Applicants are eligible for low-cost life insurance.
- -Applicants and their immediate families are eligible for membership in low-cost federal health benefit plans.
- -Annual leave is earned at the rate of 13 to 26 days per year, based on length of employment.
- -Prior federal civilian or military service is creditable, as authorized.
- -Sick leave accumulates at the rate of 13 days per year without limit.
- -Paid holidays.
- -Excellent retirement benefits. Additional retirement credit is granted for prior military or government service, as authorized.
- -The special agent position is designated as a key position in accordance with Department of Defense Directive 1200.7. As such, employees occupying this position will have their military status changed to either Retired Reserve or Standby Reserve, or maybe discharged, as appropriate.
Conditions of Employment
As a special agent, demands will be required of you, which will include but not be limited to the following:
- -Work long hours in undesirable conditions on short notice
- -Travel away from home for periods ranging from 1 to 30 days or possibly longer
- -Carry a firearm while performing duties and maintain firearms proficiency
- -Carry out assignments in the areas of protection and investigations
- -Relocate to duty stations throughout the U.S. and abroad as organizational needs dictate
- -Initial appointment to the special agent position is in the Excepted Service.
- -Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must certify that they have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do so under Selective Service law.
Additionally, you may be requested to work undercover assignments.
Newly appointed special agents receive approximately 11 weeks of intensive training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia or Artesia, New Mexico. Upon successful completion of training at FLETC, they receive approximately 11 weeks of specialized instruction at the James J. Rowley Training Center in Laurel, Maryland.
For More Information
For further information, not included on this website, please contact the U.S. Secret Service field office nearest your current residence, or the Personnel Division at (202) 406-5271, or click on Contact the Personnel Division, to send an electronic message. For a directory of offices in your area, click on U.S. Secret Service field offices.
Back to all “Profiles of Popular Government Employers.” | <urn:uuid:3e029084-9765-4c39-a374-cb586ac30e1a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://govcentral.monster.com/benefits/articles/1666-us-secret-service | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940718 | 1,222 | 2.90625 | 3 |
As Steven Pinker writes in his mind-altering new book, “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” we are living in the middle of an “empathy craze.” There are shelfloads of books about it: “The Age of Empathy,” “The Empathy Gap,” “The Empathic Civilization,” “Teaching Empathy.” There’s even a brain theory that we have mirror neurons in our heads that enable us to feel what’s in other people’s heads and that these neurons lead to sympathetic care and moral action.You can read a much more in-depth account of Dr. Pinker's new work here. What strikes me most about his assertions is how carefully he has pruned some of the graphs.
The first graph is pruned by showing a mean but not a mode; the 20th century graph is pretty much on the line with what the mode would be. If you take "Europe and the US in the 20th century," and plot it against an average that is distorted by just a few of the graphs to the left, it looks like there has been substantial change. If you take "the 20th century" as a whole, and plot it not against the average but the mode, it looks like there is no significant change. The "100 Worst Wars and Atrocities" chart offers a hint as to why: there is a strong clustering of the "worst"-ever things as you approach our present time.
Likewise, the "Deadliness of War" graph is strangely constructed by having a flat number of people killed. The population has increased so much over the time frame, though, that the change makes a hash of the assertion. There is a huge difference in a nation losing 10,000 people when it has a population of 30,000 versus 300,000 versus 300,000,000. Note also that the scale on the graph is logarithmic, which makes the spike in the 20th century seem like a far smaller change than it really is: if you drew this same thing on an normal scale, the Thirty Years War would look like a blip beside WWII.
As always, I doubt these claims of "progress" in human nature. Cultures change over time, yes; but assuming you have an ordinary prejudice toward your own values, any period in history will be able to draw a chart showing "progress" of this type. After all, humans learn culture from interaction with each other; and we have more interaction with those humans who are closer to us than those further away. This is true in both space and time. Therefore, of course it looks like periods of time further away from us are less like us than closer periods; and of course you can draw graphs that appear to show lines on scales going in a consistent direction.
That doesn't imply "progress," though. Any age will be able to draw a graph just like this, showing movement from values alien to their own, to values closer to their own, to their own values. That will certainly look like progress to them, but that doesn't make it progress in any real sense. | <urn:uuid:db504f13-3b5c-4ca7-a7e4-a88f1d848c98> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://grimbeorn.blogspot.com/2011/09/empathy-and-its-discontents.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971247 | 657 | 2.625 | 3 |
Around 1900, Henri Matisse and Andre Derain began a movement of painting called “Les Fauves” (which means “wild beasts”) in order to describe their wild brushwork and raw color.
It's worth noting that elephants, who are possessed of an eleven-pound brain and 30,000 muscles in the trunk alone, can paint a representational portrait of a fellow elephant (or is it a self-portrait?), and that they do so not wildly or randomly, but with extreme care and deliberation.
The elephant is trained, and this is a commercial enterprise, you might say, but couldn’t the same be said of us all?
Related Gurney Journey post: Gorilla Portraits
Thank you, Daniel M. | <urn:uuid:562b0856-2733-4973-8f79-4daf8915e564> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/03/animals-are-not-fauvists.html?showComment=1206811020000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944388 | 160 | 3.375 | 3 |
This home is heated by a wood stove in the winter, which also produces hot water. But the other three seasons it’s an electric water heater that does the work. This latest hack is a solar collector meant to take over the hot water production work for the house. it uses basic building materials and rudimentary construction skills, making it much more approachable than trying to make electricity from the sun.
It’s really just a wood box with a glass lid. The inside has been painted black, and the black tubing that snakes through it holds the water. A three-way valve lets the homeowner patch into the hot water reservoir. The collector is lower than the reservoir, so the heated water makes its way back into the tank as cooler water takes its place. Not bad for an entirely passive system! | <urn:uuid:6a6b6119-4cfe-491d-adc6-cff6936fd7dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hackaday.com/2012/05/24/diy-solar-collector-boost-your-hot-water-system/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=104f7cb3e5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968172 | 164 | 2.53125 | 3 |
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