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When it comes to spatial memory—the part of one's memory responsible for navigation—there appears to be an inherent difference between the sexes. According to a study published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, men and women use different methods for remembering where one object is in relation to another—and the process men use seems to yield moderately better results.
The study was conducted at a shopping mall with a large parking lot (431 spaces). Researchers interviewed shoppers as they were leaving stores, asking them to describe where they parked their car and to estimate its distance from the mall by marking the car's locations on a map. Women were more likely to use landmarks to remember where they parked their cars, whereas men used quantifiable terms, like distance measurements.
The drivers were then followed to their cars to see how accurate their directions were. Only 14% of the shoppers made a "substantial detour," but most of them were women. However, the study didn't take into account certain behavioral variables that could affect the results. For instance, how many times had the women interviewed been to that shopping mall that month compared to the men? Could repeated trips to the mall and parking in several different spots in a shorter period of time cloud the memory?
While this study—which was conducted on 115 people—finds that men excel over women at spatial memory, previous studies have found that women are better at "verbal episodic memory," like words, objects, and everyday events. Women are more emotionally attuned, and thus, can remember things like what was said in conversations and what the people having those conversations were wearing and how they smelled.
Both studies would indicate while men might be more likely to remember his way out of the woods, women have the advantage with long-term memory based on personal experience, meaning they're more equipped to "keep score" emotionally. Anyone who watches any of the Real Housewives shows knows this.
Image via Leszek Glasner/Shutterstock | <urn:uuid:519cae50-1c49-4718-afa0-aef78e0ae948> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://jezebel.com/5963279/congrats-men-you-are-slightly-better-at-remembering-where-you-parked-your-cars?popular=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985139 | 398 | 3.140625 | 3 |
|imago - an audiovisual triptych||about | dates | documentation | making of | team|
the original idea was that the sole voice of a singer/performer should be the generator for what is going on musically and visually. so the audio processing was split into two parts:
at first the singers utterances were analysed and the cooked data sent to the visual engine via osc and to the stage light via a lanbox. second the voice was transformed through several processes. programs employed for these tasks where kyma on the capybara sound design engine
for analysis in max/msp we used tristan jehan's objects to track brightness and loudness of the singer. in kyma we used peakfollowers. due to the nature of the sound produced by the singer, pitch trackers were not adequate.
sound processing methods in max/msp where mainly sampling portions of the singer and then reading out those samples in different ways: pitching, stretching/squeezing, freezing and granulating the voice then applying filters and vst-effects and eventually feeding back the signal to the input and starting the process again...
with its 12 (out of 24 possible) dsp's the capybara was dedicated to the more processor-intensive cross syntesis and vocoding routines.
at some point we decided to spice up the sound and also use material not produced by the singer. those rhythmical patterns where generated within kyma and every time a trigger would occur it would also be sent to the visual engine. to avoid the network lag, the trigger was actually sent some milliseconds before triggering the sound in kyma. since we therefore basically used the same data to generate sound and visuals the synaesthetic link between them is quite strong.
finally all the audio was fed into max/msp and with the help of ville pulkki's vbap object distributed dynamically on the 6 channel PA through an edirol fa-101 interface. | <urn:uuid:960588fe-1a69-4e9e-b9a6-9189f2fe4fb8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://joreg.ath.cx/imago/makingof_sound.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941552 | 410 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The Swans show off their feeding strategy in this Quicktime Video
"The trumpeter swan is the largest species of North American waterfowl,"
with white feathers and black legs and feet (Ross 35). When viewed
up close, a thin orange-red line can be seen on the bottom part
of their bill. They can weigh between 21 and 30 pounds, with a
wing span over seven feet. In addition to the trumpeter swan,
there are two other species, all of which are usually confused
with one another. The major differences between the three species
of swans are their size, call, and migration. The trumpeter swan
is nearly twice the size of the tundra swan, has a deep, sonorous
call, and either is non-migratory or migrates small distances.
The tundra swan weighs approximately 15 pounds, has a high whistling
call, and migrates long distances between the summer and winter
months. (Trumpeter Swan, Wildlife Species Information) The mute
swan can be identified as having a black and orange bill with
a bulb on the top while the bills of trumpeter swans are smooth.
The mute swan also has a typically S-shaped neck with its bill
pointed downward, while the trumpeter swan holds its neck vertically
and its bill horizontally. (Making a Successful Comeback)
In this lab, we will be concentrating on the behavior of the trumpeter swans in the Western pond. The behavior of trumpeter swans is as complex as ours is; however, it is probably more difficult to figure out. Many studies have been done to determine more effective breeding strategies, how to preserve their precious habit, and their fascinating behavior in general. All these studies are in an effort to keep the few populations of trumpeter swans alive, well, and regenerating. It is said that today, "the trumpeter swan is considered one of the classic conservation success stories" (Ross 36). In 1933, the trumpeter swans were close to extinction with only 50 breeding in the United States, and 77 in Canada. They are a success story because of all the research done to aid us in helping them; for we'd know nothing if we did not give the time and energy to find out. Today there are about 16,000 trumpeter swans belonging to three main populations: the Pacific Coast Population, the Rocky Mountain Population, and the Interior Population. These three populations breed and winter mainly on the western coast of the United States and Canada, with the Interior Population originating from the mid-western United States. Roger Schlickeisen, President of Defenders of Wildlife, comments that the "usual work [in recovery] involves trying to prevent losing a species or habitat. We're too often losing something, but here we're trying to get ahead of the curve by restoring something. We're trying to bring back a magnificent species of wildlife with an important role in [many areas] for the benefit of future generations."
Along those lines, studying the behavior of the swans in Western pond offers the possibility of encompassing many things. Perhaps one day the pond becomes contaminated and the swans must be moved; what information may then be helpful in finding a suitable environment for the swans? This is one situation in which gaining and understanding a knowledge base of the swans is important for Miami University as well as other organizations, who may be holding onto swans. Through a series of experiments, extensive observation and collective data, we hope to study the behavior of the swans regarding three of their prominent instincts. The three main behaviors we will document include their feeding habits, grooming patterns, and swimming inclinations. While observing these we will also take into account the time they spend in and out of the water.
While many lab experiments can be presented quantitatively, we find it more beneficial and representative of our research to display our observations qualitatively as well. Studying the behavior of living things lends to a more descriptive explanation of observations as well as a numerically sound data table. Numbers can tell us only so much about how the swans behaved when approached, where they spent the most time, and what behaviors they perform most and varied descriptions of those behaviors.
By conducting this experiment, we plan to gain a conclusive knowledge of how the swans in Western pond behave as opposed to that of swans in the wild based on information obtained from books and published studies. This research will be interesting to us and capture our attention because we only have predictions as to the behavior of these swans, and in order to make a final report analyzing our collected information; we have to gather a knowledge base of these swans. Our hypotheses for this project concern their behavior as compared to that of swans in the wild. We are going to assume that the swans here in Western pond behave basically the same, as do swans in the wild. In relation to the data we will be collecting as well as our preliminary observations, we predict that the swans will spend the majority of their time in section 1, and swimming. And because we have already noticed that the birds are very synchronized in their behaviors, we will predict that the time they each spend actually performing them will be similar.
This research, when related to the larger question, will give us an idea of how similar wild swans are to those held in captivity, in their common behaviors. This research will also make evident the differences in the behaviors of the Western swans that are held in captivity as opposed to wild swans who can migrate and such. The swans in the Western pond have adapted to their new environment because they are forced to stay there. Over time, they will forget some of their normal behaviors like hunting for food or migrating to different areas during the different seasons. Some of their normal behaviors will stay the same though, like feeding, grooming and swimming.
Description of Common Behaviors
Feeding: During the spring, summer, and fall months swans feed
on leaves, tubers, and roots of aquatic plants at depths up to
1 m which they reach by dipping their heads and necks, or by up-ending.
During the winter months they feed on the roots of those aquatic
plants which can be found.
The swans feet are very important when feeding, constantly being pumped up and down over roots and plants to create a current of water which stirs up the mud and releases them from the ground. The large size of the feet also aids in balance when the swans up-end to feed.
The swans here on Western feed on primarily the same foods that those in the wild feed upon, however, they are given regular rations of dried corn year round, and in the winter are given lettuce. They also enjoy the occasional treat of bread from tourists. An article entitled "Gaining Ground: A Swan's Song" by Drew Ross described the winter supplementation of swans diets in the Yellowstone National Park population. These swans, also "feeding on leaves, stems, roots, and tubers of submerged, floating, and emergent plants", were given wheat and poultry feed during the winter in order to help ensure their health and survival (Ross 36).
One main problem caused by the continual feeding of swans occurs when large craters where the birds' bill has uprooted plants are created. This can be destructive to an area's vegetation.
Grooming: Swans, like us, groom themselves regularly. They may groom each other also, by picking at each other's feathers to remove dirt and bugs. When the swans groom themselves, they tend to come out of the water, ruffle their feathers, and on occasion spread their wings as if they are stretching.
Swimming: Of course we all know that swans swim, but do they swim in order to feed, for pleasure, or because the water is where they feel most at home? We defined swimming as time spent on the water when feeding or grooming was not taking place.
We will begin our explanation of our lab in class by giving a short introduction of what it is that we are trying to do and accomplish. This will include information on swans, descriptions of their behaviors, and our hypothesis. It will also introduce our thoughts as to the relevance of our research. A brief video taped by Amanda will then be shown so that the students will gain a better understanding of two of the three behaviors in which they will later be observing themselves. And following this we will explain our procedural and observation methods, as well as our data tables. (Attached)
In order to integrate the class into our research we are going to conduct one in-class observation session where each group will be assigned a section of the pond to monitor. This is in order to make sure that they understand how we went about collecting data, because they will then be assigned, according to their groups, a specific time to go and observe the swans and collect data. We will then use this data in our final evaluation and analysis.
Observation Schedule and Assignments
1) Group 1 (Water Striders) - between 8 and 11 AM
2) Group 2 (Fish) - between 11 AM and 1 PM
3) Group 3 (Kepler's Law) - between 2 and 4 PM
4) Group 4 (Erosion) - between 4 and 6 PM
- stop watch or timing device
- data table
- spray paint
- tape measure
- video camera
1) We first sectioned off the pond into four sections.
2) The boundaries of each section were then marked on the grass with spray paint so that we are able to tell from land the approximate dividing lines between sections in the water.
3) Next, we recorded brief descriptions of the environments of each section. Attached is a rough map of the pond sectioned off with environmental descriptions accompanying each.
4) Then we went about filling out the data tables, observing which sections the swans were in and what behaviors they are exhibiting and timing the occurrence of each behavior.
1) Go to the pond and wait for the swans to get use to you for about 2-5 minutes.
2) Use the data sheet for which section they are in and time what behavior(s) they are doing in that section. For example, time how long they are feeding in section 1, section 2, etc.
3) When they move to a different section use the chart from that section and observe the swans as before.
4) Continue to do this for 20 minutes
Other Research Done and Information Found
Conover, Michael R. and Kania, Gary S. "Impact of Interspecific Aggression and Herbivory by Mute Swans on Native Waterfowl and Aquatic Vegetation in New England." The Auk Jul 1994: 744-748.
Biologists launched this experiment of Mute Swans in Connecticut to study the impact of the increasing population of free-ranging Mute Swans on native waterfowl and plant life. Observations were made from the shore in order not to disturb the natural behaviors of the swans. Researchers concentrated on their behavior around other birds, owning to their aggressive nature. Along these lines, they also tried to establish whether there were sexual differences and seasonal variations in aggressiveness.
The experiments used to scientifically record the behavior patterns and herbivory effects of waterfowl are addressed in this article. The results of the given experiments are outlined, including observations and statistical information of the amount of sampling done and observations made. There are also various charts sited which list results largely by the sex of the specific swan, including the types and numbers of other native waterfowl which were being attacked, the seasons in which the most attacks occurred, the responses of the various waterfowl to these attacks, and the types of plants that were grazed and ungrazed by the swans in various seasons.
Biologists also summarize this experiment citing what was learned about the Mute Swans from this experiment and concerns and questions ignited by their research.
Cooper, James A. and Henson, Paul. "Trumpeter Swan Incubation in Areas of Differing Food Quality." Journal of Wildlife Management Oct 1993: 709-716.
Analysis of intraspecific variation in the incubation patterns of trumpeter swans in relation to age and body condition, nest site selection, variability in environmental foods, and geographic location. These patterns ultimately can be used to investigate the effects of age and experience on reproductive success in geese. This article outlines the experiment conducted in 2 breeding areas where food and quality differ. Methods for observation and gathering data are discussed, along with the results of the information gathered. Tables and graphs are provided to show the percentages of time female swans spent feeding on emergent, submerged, and surface vegetation, of the general activity of the female swans during incubation, and the amount of incubation recesses grouped by length female swans took. Discussion of findings and calculations and management implications are also included.
Delacour, Jean. The Waterfowl of the World, Vol. 1. London: Country Life Limited, 1954.
This book described the general habits and captivity of swans. More importantly, it taught me that mute swans migrate in search of food and open water. They feed mainly on waterweeds and look their best only on the water. Swans build big nests usually near swamps or reed-grown water.
Delacour, Jean. The Waterfowl of the World, Vol. 2. London: Country Life Limited, 1954.
This book described swans as a very popular waterbird. It gave me a general description of mute swans and some of their body characteristics. They seem to wag their tails pretty often. The mute swans, as their name implies, have a call that is not as loud as other species. That is the main difference between this species and others, such as the trumpeter, whose call is one of the loudest. These aggressive birds come across as very violent by moving both feet at once.
Johnsgard, Paul. Handbook of Waterfowl Behavior. New York: Cornell University, 1965.
This book taught me about the actions of mute birds, and their general, as well as sexual, behavior. When the swan's neck feathers are ruffled, it indicates aggression, and a slimming of the feathers is a sign of fear. Wing flapping is also used as a threat display.
Madge, Steve and Hilary Burns. Waterfowl. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
This book was most helpful in describing many of the resources I needed. I read about the description, parts, and measurements, as well as the habitat and distribution of the mute swans. The adult swans are all white and their young are brownish-gray. The habitat of swans centers around bodies of water like lakes, pools, lagoons, bays, and rivers. They are a very widespread breeding bird.
Nicholas, James D. and Bart, U. "Annual Survival rates of Adult and Immature Eastern Population Tundra Swans." Journal of Wildlife Management Jul 1992: 485-494.
Two of the primary objectives for this experiment on tundra swans was 1) to estimate annual survival rates for swans using capture-recapture-resighting data obtained over the last 2 decades and 2) to test the hypothesis about age- and sex-specific variation in annual survival of tundra swans. Researchers were interested in finding out if the survival rates for tundra swans were similar to those of other species of swans.
Methods for gathering data are discussed, including neckbanding and legbanding, and the capture-recapture-resighting technique. Through these processes the sex, weight, age, etc. of each bird studied was recorded and resightings were done to estimate the number of swans which remained, thereby satisfying the objectives for the experiment.
This article contains statistical data representing the neckband retention rate and the survival rate in relation to the age and sex of the swans. Models were also used to test a series of hypotheses about sources of variation in the neckband retention rates and estimates in the survival rates after initial calculations were done. Informational tables included relate to the goodness-of-fit tests and the likelihood ratio tests, both having to do with neckbanding and the capture-recapture-resighting technique. Also included in the article are the research implications and the discussion of what was learned and obtained from the research.
Paca, Lilian. The Royal Birds. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1963.
From this book I learned about the mating and many characteristics of swans. A swan mates for life with only one other mate. They never seem to age and stay gleemingly white, strong, and beautiful.
Ross, Drew. "Gaining Ground: A Swan's Song." National Parks Mar/Apr 1998: 34-39.
The flock of trumpeter swans, which inhabit the waters of Yellowstone National Park, was in grave danger of becoming non-existent. Recovery programs for these birds have been established, however, it is a long and slow process. Many of these programs have involved feeding the birds and augmenting their habitat in order to make survival and reproduction more fruitful. Researchers soon found out there were problems with this plan which ultimately led to overcrowding, which in turn could possibly cause the swans to die. Because of this occurrence, new ideas were discussed, and new plans enacted. Today the swan population in Yellowstone is being watched closely and is regulated with the help of the captive-breeding program.
Silverin, Bengt. "Reproductive Adaptations to Breeding in the North." American Zoologist Jun 1995: 191-202.
This article explores how swans, by altering their responses to day length, food availability, access to a mate and temperature, breed successfully in northern latitudes. Because the changes in the photoperiods of higher and lower latitudes differ, the swans must physiologically adapt to the changes in the environment so that the processes of reproduction won't be disturbed. This paper contains graphs that represent the breeding periods of different species of swans, the gonadal cycles in great tits exposed to different temperatures and light regimes, and the genous testicular and LH cycles in two newly established startling populations.
In the end, we chose to accept our hypothesis and assume that the swans in Western Pond behave basically the same as swans in the wild according to the three behaviors studied. The data obtained from our observation of the swans we plugged into StatView and were given a range of graphs and statistics in which we will explain and evaluate. See attached graphs.
This graph describes the three behaviors of the swans and when they were most likely to perform these behaviors. Time, the y-variable, is computed in seconds, and the three behaviors are listed on the x-axis. From this graph we found that:
The swans fed more during the afternoon hours than morning hours, feeding about 3000 seconds in the afternoon and only 500 in the morning. We attribute this to the fact that they are regularly fed by the university around 2:30 everyday and that they are more inclined to perform other behaviors in the early morning.
The swans groomed more in the morning than in the afternoon, grooming about 5000 seconds in the morning hours, and only about 1500 seconds in the afternoon. We feel this is a natural inclination that they not only have, but we, as humans possess as well.
The swans swam more during the afternoon than in the morning, swimming about 6500 seconds in the afternoon, and only about 3000 in the morning. This could be because they spend most of their time in the morning grooming themselves; however, they tended to generally be more active during the afternoon hours.
This graph describes the feeding patterns in relation to the big and small swan. From this graph we are able to tell which swan performed more of a behavior than another did, or just how synchronized they are. From this graph we found that:
The swans feed for about the same lengths of time during each interval, feeding at the most for about 600 seconds and the least for 20 seconds. When it comes to feeding the swans appear to be very sychonized and perform many of the behavior swans in the wild do such as pumping their feet to loosen plants, etc. We also noticed that when it came to feeding on the grass and corn left by the university, the larger swan (male) usually came out of the water to feed first and only after he returned to the water would the smaller (female) come out to feed.
For example, during intervals 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8, the swans feed for the same amount of time ranging from as little as 20 seconds to as much as 600 seconds. During intervals 2 and 9, the big swan feed for more time than the small, and during intervals 3 and 6, the small swan feed for more time than the big swan.
This graph shows the swimming patterns in relation to the big and small swan. From this graph we found that:
The swans are pretty much the same in their habits. For example, during intervals 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 16 they swam for the same amounts of time ranging from about 100 seconds to 700 seconds, with the small swan almost always following the big swan.
This graph shows the grooming patterns in relation to the big and small swan. Unlike the other behaviors, we found the swans to be somewhat synchronized in their grooming tendencies. From this graph we found that:
The swans tended to each groom at different intervals, with the small swan grooming during 7,8, and 9 for up to 100 seconds. We believe the reason for this is that the small swan would usually groom the big swan more often than the big groomed the small.
Graphs 5 - 7
All these graphs show the varied amounts of time that the swans spent doing each behavior. For all three behaviors, both swans spent an average of 120 seconds doing each.
Graphs 8 - 9
These graphs show the amount of time the swans spent in and outside the water. At most, the swans would spend 20 minutes outside the water. Usually this was to feed on the grass and corn, or groom on the mud bars in the pond.
Graphs 10- 13
These four graphs show the temperature ranges, times of day, weather conditions, and section distributions in which our data was obtained. We feel that the swans spent more time in section 1 (A) because of the shallow water, which is more conducive to feeding, and the various disturbances in the other sections.
In addition to the graphs, we found the average times the swans
spent doing each of the three behaviors, the time spent in and
outside the water, and the temperature. From these averages, we
can assume that the swans tend to swim more that they groom, and
groom more than they feed. They also seem to spend more time in
the water than out of the water.
The standard deviation of each of the behaviors tells us how much, +/- whatever the value may be, our data varies. For instance, The standard deviation for the temperature is about 6. This means that, when added to and subtracted from the mean, that the majority of the temperatures varied between 46 and 58 degrees. In the rest of the categories, the standard deviation is quite large. We attribute this not only to the obviously widespread data collected, but from collection error that may have occurred with the class observations as well as our own. The difficulty of accurately timing the swans in each section is great, and therefore must be done often over a long period of time in order for the data to be more precise and conclusive. That would also aid in the reduction of our percentage of error in each of the categories, with our highest being for their time spent out of water.
Our project may not seem the same as other groups', but our study had the most changes. At first, we could not decide what to do. Eventually, we developed a hypothesis on the eating or feeding habits of the swans and how they reacted toward colors. This hypothesis and experiment was similar to the
fish group, where they were testing fish's reactions toward colors. In our initial attempts to carry out this experiment we tried to throw colored balls on to the pond and see how the swans would react to them. Unfortunately, they did nothing. So we had to develop yet another plan of attack along with a new hypothesis. Our new hypothesis was based on the swans' behavior in nature. This experiment shared some similar motives with the water strides group. They were studying how nature affected the water strides with the purpose of finding out where they most preferred to live, while we were testing how their nature of seclusion has changed the way the swans behave in the pond as opposed to in the wild. Just as the erosion group was testing the after effects of nature, we were testing the after effect of seclusion on the swans. And like the Kepler group, we were also trying to prove, again, the known facts on the specific ways that the swans will feed, swim, and groom.
Of course, there were many different ways we could approach this study. First, we could concentrate on only one of the swan's behaviors like feeding, swimming, or grooming. Secondly, we could study their living habits in the water or out of the water. And thirdly, we could study their behavior toward humans. Within our study, there were more questions we needed to consider. We didn't have sufficient time to take into account the temperature changes, noise of the street, or the mating season. If given more time, we could've studied their changing behaviors during many weather conditions and through the different seasons. We would've been really interested to see how the swans' behave during their mating season and how they protect their young.
Unfortunately, based on the nature of our data and observations and that of which we found from other sources, we could not do a T-test to compare our data to the already known data, but we did compare the pond's swans' behaviors to that of the wild swans' behaviors. In general, our swans have not been greatly effected by being held in captivity. Contact with humans is limited, other than the daily visits from the groundskeeper or the few students that stop by to see them. In conclusion, we decided to accept our hypothesis, in that their normal habits concerning the three behaviors we studied: feeding, swimming and grooming, were not greatly affected by their seclusion from other swans and their captivity here on Western pond.
Ross, Drew. "Gaining Ground: A Swan's Song." National Parks Mar/Apr
"Making a Successful Comeback: The Reintroduction of the Trumpeter Swan." Aldo Leopold Chapter, Society for Conservation Biology. http://www.ies.wisc.edu/partners/alc-sch/wiscbiod/swan.html
"The Swans Have Landed." Migratory Bird Project. 19 December 1997. http://www.defenders.org/pr121997.html
"Trumpeter Swan." Canadian Wildlife Service: Hinterland Who's Who. 10 November 1997. http://www.ec.gc.ca/cws-scf/hww-fap/swan/swan.html
"Trumpeter Swan, Wildlife Species Information." The United States Fish and Wildlife Service. http://www.fws.gov/r9extaff/biologues/bio_swan.html
"Trumpeter Swans: A Regal Release." Minnesota Zoo. http://www.wcco.com/partners/mnzoo/tswan.html
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IMPORTANT: For each Response, make sure the title of the response is different than previous titles shown above! | <urn:uuid:be6dc644-bde3-4816-9a23-809ad7c45567> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall98/finalarticles/astudyinthebehaviorofswan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962073 | 5,860 | 3.9375 | 4 |
Kilogram per cubic metreSI measure of density and is represented as kg/mó, where kg stands for kilogram and mó stands for cubic metre. The density of water is about 1000 kg/mó, since a cubic metre of water weighs about a tonne.
"kg/mó" is sometimes equivalently written as "kg m-3".
To convert from g/cmó to kg/mó, multiply by 1000; divide by 1000 for the opposite conversion. A gram per litre is identical in value to kg/m3. | <urn:uuid:2f05c5bc-c405-4578-8d9d-2e6a5a097f97> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://july.fixedreference.org/en/20040724/wikipedia/Kilogram_per_cubic_metre | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899567 | 117 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Keratin does not grow on skin, and once it does, it could be keratosis. Actually, keratin is the main component of hair, toe nails and fingernails. If ever keratin grows into the skin, it could cause solidification, lumps and wart like skin growth. There are several types of keratoses, actinic keratosis, pilaris keratosis, hydrocarbon keratosis and seborrheic keratosis. Our focus will be on actinic keratosis and its surgical removal. Solar keratosis is another term for it. Parts of the body which gets the most sun exposure such as the face and arms are more likely to be affected. The disease most likely occurs on people with fair skin. Since it could lead to cancer, it must be treated at once.
Actinic or solar keratosis is mainly triggered by being exposed to the sun for long periods of time. It looks like a mole in color and in size. Keratosis gets thicker and a bit bigger while moles don’t. If having keratosis is verified, many treatments are available. This also depends on the severity of one’s keratosis. For mild cases, there are creams and gels which can be applied on the affected area for about 2-3 months. Application of these will soften the area hardened by keratosis and its removal would ensue. Surgical procedures like cryosurgery are also available.
Very cold temperature is employed in cryosurgery to kill off abnormal growths in the skin tissue. Liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide snow is applied to the affected area. Application of those matters would make it easy to remove the keratosis. Through this, the cost, pain and scar can be reduced. Cryosurgery could also affect nearby healthy tissues and some nerve tissues.
Laser surgery could also be chosen. This type of surgery does not need the use of scalpel. Laser surgery burns out bad tissues, and it could be costly. Laser treatment also has benefits such as quick healing and less pain.
Conventional surgery, or surgery with scalpel is another less expensive choice. Keratosis is not as skin deep as some skin disorders are and can be treated with cream and surgery. The pain you would feel would amount to the safety of your health. | <urn:uuid:fffcd8a1-734d-42c7-8ae2-669329a53a80> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://keratosisremoval.com/surgical-removal-of-keratosis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964553 | 486 | 2.875 | 3 |
LAWRENCE — What makes the difference between being a have and a have-not in America?
A millionaire might attribute his fortune to hard work and initiative. He might also say the poverty-stricken simply don’t put the same effort into becoming successful.
A low-income American might explain his financial troubles as the result of being born to poor parents in a bad neighborhood, lacking access to quality education and other tools that could have helped him achieve wealth and power.
Both perspectives are understandable, but they’re not so useful when it comes to actually solving injustices of economic equality, said Derrick Darby, philosophy and law professor at the University of Kansas.
“When either side feels like it has to take all the responsibility for a problem, they’re less inclined to help fix that problem,” he said. “That’s why we have to stop finger pointing and playing the blame game.”
In a new research article, Darby and KU psychology professor Nyla Branscombe examine why people disagree, not only on the causes of economic injustice, but also on what constitutes injustice and whether society is obligated to respond to it. They argue that dwelling on the causes of inequality hinders society’s ability to move forward in solving it.
The article, “Egalitarianism and Perceptions of Inequality,” appears in a forthcoming edition of the journal Philosophical Topics.
“We’re not saying the causes of inequality don’t matter,” Darby said. “But to make positive change, we have to find ways to develop solidarity amongst a very broad group of people.”
Drawing on several previous studies, the authors write that several social psychological factors are critical to understanding why some groups perceive inequality differently from others.
For historically disadvantaged groups such as women and racial minorities, equality is typically a more important goal than it is for their more advantaged counterparts. They’re more likely to compare existing circumstances to the ideal or end point of full equality.
Advantaged groups are more likely to judge the present circumstances to the past, when discrimination was legal or more widely accepted. In other words, they may define equality as being free from overt or institutional segregation.
Advantaged and disadvantaged groups also differently view the current realities of equality.
While 72 percent of white Americans believe the racial wage gap has decreased over the past 10 years, only 38 percent of black Americans believe the gap has become smaller.
Men reported that 40 percent of women would need to have salaries lower than men’s for them to call the gender wage gap unfair. “By setting a more severe standard for judging inequality, men were able to conclude that the inequality that exists is less unfair,” the authors wrote.
“Human psychology has shown us that people are invested in protecting the groups they belong to,” Darby said. “It’s just how people operate. They cling to their own groups.”
Even if everyone agrees about what constitutes inequality and what causes it, group membership has its own powerful effect on whether inequality is seen as fair or unfair.
“Those who are disadvantaged know that discrimination affects their choices and outcomes; in effect choice and circumstances are inextricably bound together for them,” the authors wrote. “In contrast, advantaged groups do not experience exclusion and discrimination as typically defined, but they do at times experience privilege — benefits based on their group membership.”
“Ironically enough, privileged group members are quite motivated not to perceive their own circumstances as a determinant of the choices and options available to them,” the authors wrote. “Doing so would undermine their perceived responsibility for those favorable outcomes.”
Darby and Branscombe will address how society can respond to the ethical challenges presented by perceptions of inequality in a followup article, to be published in the journal Midwest Studies in Philosophy. | <urn:uuid:29415f21-d9fe-4972-b27d-904e61c5fa81> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://law.ku.edu/news/blame-wont-help-solve-economic-inequality-KU-researchers-argue | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968838 | 824 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Friday, July 31, 2009
According to the Environmental News Service, a report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy reports that energy efficiency investments can provide up to half of the 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions reductions the US committed to with the Group of Eight in July. The report concludes that investments in more energy-productive technologies can save consumers and businesses $ 2 trillion dollars by 2050. The report "Positive Economics of Climate Change Policies: What the Historical Evidence Can Tell Us," suggests that most studies that evaluate cap-and-trade policies either ignore or greatly understate the potential advances in energy efficiency, which the ACEEE calls "the largest and most cost-effective form of greenhouse gas mitigation." The focus of the report on green energy and energy efficiency as the ultimate mechanisms for cutting greenhouse gas emissions is healthy, but news accounts about the report appear to confuse policies designed to provide the incentives for energy efficiency (subsidies, cap and trade, tax credits, taxes, regulation), with the outcome of those incentives, which we hope will be reduced energy demand because of new products and processes that are more energy efficient and provision of our energy supply through green energy. | <urn:uuid:6e34ee27-035f-42d2-9c2d-3b4be5815566> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/environmental_law/2009/07/according-to-the-environmental-news-service-a-report-by-the-american-council-for-an-energy-efficient-economy-reports-that-en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920434 | 238 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Adoption: Children Waiting in Foster Care
Waiting children refers to kids in foster care who need adoptive families. The parental rights have been legally terminated.
Thousands of kids in foster care need adoptive families. State agencies generally refer to them as waiting children, and you may see their photos in local newspapers, on agency websites, or even on television programs. According to statistics from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS) from the federal government, in 2001 (the latest data as of this writing), the average child who was adopted from foster care in the United States was 7 years old. Most of the children (80 percent) were in foster care for more than 11 months before they were adopted.
The numbers of foster children needing families vary from state to state, but every state has foster kids who need parents. (You can also adopt a foster child from another state, although it's more complicated than adopting from your own state. I recommend looking homeward first.)
The number of children adopted from foster care (“public child welfare involvement”) have doubled or increased even more in many states since 1995, primarily because the federal government, at long last, made adoption a favorable choice for states. For example, 3,094 children were adopted from foster care in California in 1995, and that number increased to 8,713 children by 2002. In Missouri, 538 foster children were adopted in 1995, and 1,542 were adopted in 2002. North Dakota also saw triple increases in adoptions from 1995 to 2002, as did South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Keep in mind that even though adoptions of foster children have increased greatly, many children still in the system need families because so many children enter foster care. For example, according to national statistics released by the Children's Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services, in fiscal year 2002, 302,000 children entered foster care, up from 295,000 children entering the system in 2001. An estimated 126,000 foster children nationwide were ready and waiting to be adopted, but less than half (51,000 kids) were adopted.
How Do Kids Enter Foster Care?
When a child is abused, neglected, or abandoned and the protective services division of the state or county learns of the problem, the parents or primary caregivers are investigated. The child may also be removed from the family while the investigation occurs, especially if severe physical abuse or sexual abuse is suspected. Sometimes the child is placed in an emergency shelter or group home while social workers determine whether the child needs longer term care or not. If the child appears to need longer-term care because it would be unsafe to return her to the biological family, she then may be placed with a foster family.
If the state or county finds that no abuse or other serious problems have occurred, the child is returned to the family (although sometimes red tape delays the return).
Social workers say that many prospective adoptive families make mistakes at two extremes when it comes to adopting foster kids: They either assume that foster children have no problems that can't be cured by lots of love or that they are children who cannot recover from the abuse and neglect. In most cases, neither is true.
The abusive or neglectful family is given a performance agreement or a goal, which is a plan to change their behavior so they will be able to be reunited with the child. They may be given a time limit or target date to complete these goals. Often, however, a sympathetic judge will extend the time period.
Many abusive parents have problems with drug or alcohol abuse. In addition, they might have criminal records and jail time on their dossier. A performance agreement could include such stipulations as staying off drugs or alcohol, getting a job, and staying out of trouble. Parents are also often required to take parenting classes.
If all attempts to preserve the biological family fail, the biological parents might consent to an adoption or, as more commonly happens, the parents' rights are involuntarily terminated. Termination of parental rights (TPR) is not taken lightly by the courts, and in most cases, courts bend over backward to give biological parents chance after chance to overcome whatever problem caused their children to be placed in foster care. However, since the passage of the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act in 1997, states have revised their laws to restrict the time that parents are given to resolve their problems, and more foster children are available for adoption than in the past. Consequently, thousands of children in foster care nationwide are free to be adopted now. If and when a foster child is released for adoption, the child might be emotionally distressed by years of going in and out of foster care. Adoptive parents must prepare for the probability that the child will need therapy and extra support as he or she learns to trust in the permanency of the adoptive family.
Legal risk refers to a program in which parents become foster parents to children who might become available for adoption. Some states also use the term “fost/adopt” to describe the same program. The intent is that the agency will seek to terminate the biological parents' rights to the child. Some attorneys use the term legal risk to denote the time frame during which a child could be legally reclaimed by a birthparent; for example, during the days allowed by a state (if any) to revoke consent.
Foster kids who need families are included in special photolisting books that state agencies maintain for prospective parents and might also be listed on Internet websites. The books or websites might include short descriptions of the child. Sometimes videotapes of children are also available, and these can be very helpful.
Legal Risk Adoptions
Some states offer legal risk (sometimes called fost/adopt) programs. This means that you might become a foster parent to a child who the state or county agency believes will soon become available for adoption.
This program is called a “risk” because the biological parent might fight the loss of parental rights. Another risk is that social workers change, and a new social worker might decide to try to reunite the child with the biological family—no matter how many workers in the past have tried and failed. So it's possible that the child will never become available for adoption.
More on: Adoption
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Adoption © 2004 by Christine Adamec. 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:a7258f11-4fce-440d-9310-2fb484f48b79> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://life.familyeducation.com/adoption/foster-care/45767.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965368 | 1,361 | 2.625 | 3 |
Teaching character traits is one of the first skills we cover in reading and it's also one of my favorite things to teach! When I taught this lesson last year, it went great except for one tiny detail. While my kids could identify traits and assign them to certain characters based on actions, dialogue, interactions, etc., they didn't know the meaning of a lot of the traits. That's when I realized that I needed to expose my kids to more vocabulary and increase their knowledge of these words. Thus, A Trait A Day was born.
I can't wait to use this next year! I made this into a mini bulletin board that will hang in my classroom. The display pieces are included in the pack.
I'll change the trait sheets each day and we will study a new trait. I may have them do something with it or include a task in their warm ups. I haven't decided yet. The traits correlate with my Character Comprehension unit and accompany this chart.
Click here to grab a copy! :) | <urn:uuid:7fc6c3ca-ac11-4bc8-8946-b0f2bdf63f09> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://lifeinfirstgrade1.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-trait-day-character-traits.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972995 | 210 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Orange Oil and Limonene
The use of Orange Oil has become a popular alternative to harsh and sometimes dangerous household cleaners, pesticides and solvents. Because of its safeness and effectiveness, it is now considered an excellent alternative to many cleaning products and toxic chemicals that are often used as pesticides.
How Orange Oil Is Produced
The rind of an orange fruit contains glands that produce the essential Orange Oil. During the production of orange juice, this oil becomes a by-product through either steam distillation or extraction. The extraction process begins after the harvesting of oranges. The oranges are shipped to a processing and packaging plant where they are steam distilled for the production of orange juice. The essential oil of the Orange Oil is mainly composed of d-limonene that is extracted naturally from the orange rinds.
The Benefits of Orange Oil and Limonene
Limonene is considered environmentally friendly and relatively safe, which makes it a good alternative to harsh and toxic chemicals. With its powerful antiseptic abilities, it is a highly effective cleaning product. It also contains solvent properties that are often used in many products such as stain removers, strippers and adhesives. Due to its pesticide properties, it is now being used as a safe alternative to toxic poisons that are often used by the pesticide industry. Limonene is also the source of the citrus fragrance, giving Orange Oil products their pleasant citrus aroma. Due to the safeness of Limonene, which is the major ingredient of Orange Oil, using Orange Oil around plants, people and animals is considered a better choice than potentially dangerous chemicals. Because of the many positive benefits of Orange Oil, it can be found in many building supply centers and retail stores as replacements for solvents, household cleaners and pesticides.
Safety Issues of Orange Oil
Although Orange Oil is considered safe, it can cause mild skin irritation and may irritate the respiratory tract. Gloves should be worn as well as proper ventilation when using Orange Oil. These products should always be kept in a safe place away from children. They are considered safer than other synthetic and caustic chemicals, but Orange Oil can still be toxic and should never be ingested. Orange Oil products are also flammable.
Making Orange Oil Extract
The essential oil from oranges offers many health benefits. To make at home the orange peels must be dried and then grinded. They are then placed in a mason jar and covered with grain alcohol. The jar should then be shaken vigorously for a couple of minutes and then shaken again in a couple of days. Using grain alcohol that has been warmed will help produce more orange oil. The mixture should then be drained through a coffee filter and poured into a shallow dish. Cover the dish using a cloth material to allow the mixture to breathe and evaporate the alcohol. Once this is completed, the remaining liquid will be the orange oil. When making your own orange oil, be sure to wear gloves and keep away from children and open flames. This also applies to the finished product, as orange oil is very corrosive and flammable. For cleaning uses, use a quart of water mixed with a quarter of an ounce of oil. Always test the oil before using on large areas.
Read also about some citrus oils: lemon oil, lime oil and lemongrass oil. And other useful essential oils such as lavender oil and many uses in aromatherapy, jojoba oil and its incredible benefits, peppermint oil and its natural healing, grapeseed oil. | <urn:uuid:e4ed69af-4ed1-46cf-a978-e09ceefea518> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://limoneneorangeoil.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965211 | 713 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The key to many motion applications is in sizing the drive components lying between the motor and load. Here are the basics.
Authored by: Urs Kafader
Maxon Precision Motor Inc.
It can be difficult to specify drive components that transform power from a motor into a form that is useful for the load. The overall design may dictate use of basic drive mechanisms such as spindles, gearing, or belts. But the motor or motor/gearing combination determines the parameters that are optimum. These parameters can include spindle pitch, gear reduction ratios, and other factors. Drive-system components, in turn, influence the dynamic response, control quality, and positioning accuracy.
The promulgation of automation has thrust many engineers into the role of specifying drive parameters. So it can be useful to examine the equations that describe how drives transform one form of mechanical power into another: Linear-motion drives convert a motor’s rotary motion into linear motion. Rotary drives convert motor rotation into some other kind of rotation, typically either at a different speed ratio or with an intermittent motion. Linear drives include leadscrews, conveyor belts, cranes, and rack-and-pinion drives. Rotary drives include all types of gearheads and (toothed) belt constructions.
It typically takes just a few parameters to describe the conversion of power in such drives. The more common ones include reduction ratios, efficiency calculations, mass inertia, and a description of mechanical play.
The reduction ratio i indicates the ratio between the angular velocity at the input ωin (or input speed nin) and the angular velocity at the output ωout (or output speed nout). In linear motion drives, we define the reduction ratio as the ratio between ωin (or nin) and the output velocity vout. For calculating input speed the following equations apply:
ωin = ωout • i
nin = nout • i π/30 • nin = ωin = vout • i
The reduction ratio for rotary transformation is given as a
dimensionless ratio between two speeds of rotation. (In linear drives the dimension is in units of m-1.)
Next typically comes specification of losses and efficiency. Friction losses in a drive usually get described in a universal fashion by the efficiency, η. The torque required at the drive input is calculated from the required output torque Mout or from the output force Fout as follows: Min = Mout/(i • η), or Min = Fout/(i • η)
The usual assumption is that η is constant. This is a rough generalization because efficiency is a function of the load. Alternatively, the friction torque MR can be indicated at the input side as a function of the load and speed. The conversion equations then read:
Min = Mout/i + (MR (Mout, nin)),
Min = Fout/i + (MR (Fout, nin ))
When applications experience acceleration, design calculations must incorporate the masses and moments of mass inertia for the drive elements. Designers must recalculate the moment of inertia with respect to the input axis of the drive, Jin. A distinction must also be made between elements that are driven directly by the input shaft (with inertiaJ1), elements located on the output side (with inertia J2), and other moving parts. The mass inertia of these moving parts, J3, must be reflected on the input axis of rotation. The mass inertia so reflected is designated J*3.
Jin = J1 + [(Jout + J2)/i2] + J *3
A point to note is that the mass inertias of the load side reduce with the square of the drive reduction ratio. This makes the effective mass inertia on the input side much lower. Thus the motor has a much easier time accelerating heavy loads.
Mechanical play, elastic response
The mechanical play, Δφout , of a drive is conventionally indicated with respect to the output while the input shaft is held fast (blocked input). Backlash indicates the amount of play between drive components. In other words, it is the amount the output can be moved by applying a small amount of force or torque. When there is a change in the direction of rotation, the drive shaft must first compensate for this play, Δφin, amplified by the reduction ratio before there is any reaction at the output.
For a sufficiently big load at the output, the elastic deformation of the drive elements also come into play and must be added:
Δφin =Δφout • i
Thus mechanical play decisively influences the accuracy and quality of the control. It is possible to eliminate mechanical play through use of zero-backlash drives. These apply an elastic preload to drive elements. The downside: This reduction in play comes at the expense of higher losses from friction.
A factor related to mechanical play is elastic play (expressed in terms of rigidity). Elastic play describes how the drive elements elastically deform under load. There can be hysteresis effects accompanying elastic play, depending on the materials used. Most typically, elastic play and hysteresis crop up in drives containing plastic gears, less so in systems exclusively comprised of hard metals. Such effects represent an additional complication. Another point to note is that couplings typically found in drive systems generally exhibit little or no backlash. Their elastic response is fairly rigid with some hysteresis.
When you determine the necessary torque and speed for the input shaft of the drive, your calculations must account for the additional mass inertias, friction, and efficiency of the drive components. The results can be used, in turn, to determine the average thermal load in the form of the rms torque value.
In some cases it only takes a small amount of additional torque to accelerate drive components, compared with the torque needed to drive the load. Here, it is acceptable to make one set of calculations covering steady state operation and during acceleration. Just a few key load parameters are important. They include the maximum speed of rotation, the maximum torque and its duration, and the rms value of the torque (the effective value).
First, consider the calculations for gearheads and toothed belt drives. There are many models and variants of gearheads, from a simple spur gear stage to a Harmonic Drive gear. Standard types are planetary and spur gear heads. The most important selection criteria for these gearheads are output torque, input speed, temperature range, and environmental conditions.
The characteristic variables of a gearhead are its reduction ratio iG, efficiency ηG, and moments of inertia J1, J2 of the individual gears. Specs for assembled gearheads usually indicate the total inertia with respect to the input shaft, JG. The gear backlash, Δφout, is given with reference to the output shaft. Here’s how you calculate for:
Speed of rotation: nin = nout • iG
Torque: Min = Mout/(iG • ηG)
Additional torque for constant acceleration (duration Δta ):
Min, a = (Jin + J1 + (Jout + J2)/(i2G • ηG)) • π/30 • Δnin/Δta
= (Jin + JG+ Jout/(i2 • ηG)) • π/30 • Δnin/ Δta
Play: Δφin = Δφout • iG
Maximum efficiency of a spur gear is approximately 90% per stage. This efficiency applies for loads that are typically one-half the rated torque (continuous torque) and greater, where efficiency is essentially independent of the load.
There are other parameters that can be important for specific uses. They include the maximum permissible load of the gearhead, maximum permissible speed of rotation, backlash in positioning applications, temperature range (special lubrication may be needed), whether or not back driving is a possibility in the case of high gear reduction and a large number of stages, and whether or not there can be a reversal in the direction of rotation between input and output.
Toothed belts, compared to gearheads, run more smoothly. They are a frequent choice in uses that demand flexibility in the arrangement of the input and output shafts. Large pulley diameters realize a correspondingly high reduction ratio, a trait that sometimes comes in handy. And it’s easy to configure multiple drives with pulleys. Toothed belts require no lubrication and little maintenance, but are more sensitive to brief impact loads. Backlash can be kept small, although the elastic play is generally higher.
Toothed belts must work in tension, and the pulley bearings must absorb the resulting radial forces. There is also the possibility of generating electrostatic charges if components in the belt drives are not properly grounded. The same can be said for flat belts, V-belts, and chain drives.
Characteristic variables for toothed belts include the diameter of the drive and load pulleys (d1, d2), their moments of inertia (J1, J2), the mass m of the belt , and the total efficiency η. The play Δφout is indicated with reference to the output shaft. Here,
Speed of rotation: nin = nout • d1/d2
Torque: Min = d1/d2 = Mout/η
Additional torque for constant acceleration (with duration Δt):
Min, = (Jin + J1 + (Jout + J2)/η • (d1/d2)2 + (m • d21)/(4 • ηG)) • π/30 • Δnin/Δt
Play: Δφin = Δφout • d1/d2, plus elastic components
There are friction losses both in the bearings of the pulleys and resulting from deformation of the belt. Sliding friction in the tooth engagement contributes additional losses. But the typical efficiency of toothed belt drives is high, generally running 96 to 98%.
Several parameters can be important when planning toothed belt drives. They include the maximum loading of the belt, which may determine the belt width; a pulley diameter at least large enough to handle the belt’s minimum radius of curvature and the pitch; maximum speed of rotation; and for positioning applications, mechanical play and elasticities.
Sliding spindles, recirculating ball screws
Drive spindles transform rotary motion into linear motion typically by moving a nut up and down a threaded shaft or spindle. The two most common designs are the recirculating ball screw and threaded sliding spindles. Most such spindles have trapezoidal threads, but metric threads are also used in small drives.
Threaded sliding spindles are characterized by high surface pressure, so their nut typically stays in position when there is no power applied. These spindles typically operate at 60% of the duty cycle; the temperature of the nut may become an issue at high rates of operation. Spindles are low-efficiency devices (between 30 and 50%) and generally handle maximum speeds of up to 0.7 m/sec. Materials used in the leadscrew and the nut have an impact on suitability for specific uses. For example, specialty leadscrews made of industrial ceramics can be found in uses characterized by high loads and that demand a long life.
A recirculating ball screw differs from a sliding spindle in that its moving parts ride on balls that roll within guide grooves in the lead and nut. Basically ball screws are threaded spindles with a series of ball bearings that recirculate between the lead and nut. Manufacturers round the profile of the lead to improve the fit with the recirculation balls, so the coefficient of rolling friction is approximately 0.02.
Ball screws are characterized by high repeatability when preloaded, high efficiency (up to 0.99), and correspondingly low heating. Their operating cycles can have duty times to 100%. These devices typically serve in positioning systems and are more expensive than trapezoidal screws. One possible drawback is that ball screws do not self-lock, so a holding brake might be in order for specific uses.
Conversion formulas for screw drives include parameters of thread pitch p, the linear backlash ΔSout, the screw moment of inertia JS, the mass of the nut mS, and the total efficiency η.
Speed of rotation: (in units of min-1): nin = 60/p • Vout
Torque: Min = p/2π • Fout/η
Additional torque for constant acceleration (over duration Δta):
Min,a = (Jin + JS + (mout + mS)/η • p2/4π2) • π/30 • Δnin/Δta
Play (in radians): Δφin = ΔSout • 2π/p
The efficiency and friction losses between thread and nut, combined with the friction in the bearings of the screw, result in typical efficiencies between 20 and 50% for a sliding screw, and between 90 to 99% for recirculating ball screws. Applications with play and hysteresis caused by reversing action can minimize these effects by preloading the nut with respect to the screw. However, the value of the preload can influence torque, friction, and operating life of the device.
Other important points in screw drive designs include the maximum loading of the spindle (including operating cycle and heating), maximum speeds of displacement, backlash (for positioning systems), and temperature ranges. Also, screw mounts and bearings in the axial direction must be able to support the transport force over the life of the installation.
As a final example, consider rackand- pinion drives — basically a gear stage where the load pinion has an infinitely large diameter. The radial load of the motor pinion and its bearing system demands special attention because that is where reaction forces arise in the same magnitude as the transport forces.
Variables for the rack-and-pinion drives include the pitch p of the toothing (p = π • T, where T is teeth/in.), the number of teeth z of the pinion, the linear play ΔSout and the mass inertias of the rack m and the pinion J. Total efficiency η is the sum of toothing efficiency (usually 90%) and friction losses in the guide bushings.
Speed of rotation: (in units of min-1):
nin = 60/(p • z) • Vout
Torque: Min= (p • z)/2π • Fout/η
Additional torque for constant acceleration (over duration Δta):
Min,a = (Jin + J + (mout + m)/η • ((p • z)2/4π2)) • π/30 • Δnin/Δta
Play (in radians): Δφin = ΔSout • 2π/(p • z)
Important parameters for rackand- pinion drives include the maximum transport force and maximum radial bearing load of the pinion, maximum permissible torques caused by the toothing; maximum speeds, backlash (for positioning systems), lubrication and temperature ranges, and the bearing and guidance of the rack. | <urn:uuid:16e8f653-9b02-4f0c-94e8-791de5f397d6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://machinedesign.com/archive/basics-configuring-drives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908117 | 3,188 | 3.390625 | 3 |
ART EDUCATION AND EARLY WORKS
The exact date of this first step on the road to fame is also still somewhat uncertain. Vosmaer believes it was in 1619, but the assertion of Orlers that when his parents allowed him to abandon the unloved Latin, they apprenticed him to a painter, is so precise, that it is unreasonable to suppose that his father should have returned to the attack. We may consequently assume that the final desertion of the Muses and enlistment in the cause of the Arts came after, not before, that enrolment at the University--that is to say, late in 1620 or perhaps early in 1621. Further facts go to prove this point. His first apprenticeship, in accordance with the rules of the Guilds of Saint Luke, lasted three years, and came to an end therefore in 1623 or early in 1624. He then went to a second master in Amsterdam, but remained with him only six months; so that in either case the date of his leaving Amsterdam and returning to Leyden would have been some time in 1624. Now there is no doubt that it was in 1624 that this took place, and the only obvious conclusion is that his first apprenticeship did not commence before 1620.
The painter who was then chosen for the honour of first guiding the hand of the young Rembrandt, by which honour he is nowadays almost alone distinguished, was Jacob van Swanenburch. A man of good position, the son of one painter, the brother of an | <urn:uuid:23b547a3-ae89-48ae-b9bd-4f7214ab4255> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://manybooks.net/titles/bellmalcolm3266132661-8.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987129 | 316 | 2.921875 | 3 |
TopFor finding the Standard Deviation for the given Probability distribution, we use following steps -
Step 1: First of all we will find out Probabilities for each and every Random Variable means we will calculate Probability Distribution for that particular random variable like, if ‘X’ is a random variable, then probability distribution of ‘X’ is
Here p(X) is a probability value for each and every random variable X(x1, x2, x3, x4).
Step 2: After evaluation of probability distribution of the given random variable, we will calculate Mean value for that random variable which is called as an expected value of random variable by following method -
E(X) = x1 * p(x1) + x2 * p(x2) + x3 * p(x3) + x4 * p(x4),
Here x1, x2, x3, and x4 are random variables and p(x1), p(x2), p(x3) and p(x4) are different probabilities for the random variable ‘X’.
Step 3: After evaluation of mean value or expected value for random variable, we calculate Square of this mean or expected value for the given probability distribution means we have to evaluate E(X2), where
E(X2) = (x12) * p(x1) + (x12) * p(x1) + (x12) * p(x1) + (x12) * p(x1),
Step 4: After evaluation of square of expected value for random variable, we calculate the variance for the given probability distribution by following method -
Variance for the given probability distribution = E(X2) – (E(X)2),
Step 5: Now we calculate standard deviation of given probability distribution by using the variance:
Standard deviation = √ (variance)
Suppose we have a given probability distribution -
We will now use above steps for find the standard deviation for the given probability distribution-
Step 1: First of all, we evaluate expected value -
E(X) = 0 * p(0) + 1 * p(1) + 2 * p(2) + 3 * p(3),
= 0 * 5 + 1 * 7 + 2 * 4 + 3 * 3,
= 0 + 7 + 8 + 9,
Step 2: Now we evaluate variance of given probability distribution-
Variance = E(X2) – (E(X)2)
= 696 – 242,
= 696 – 596,
Step 3: Now we will evaluate standard deviation of given probability distribution -
Standard deviation = √ (variance),
= √ (100),
So, variance of given probability distribution is 10.
Use the below widget to find standard deviation. | <urn:uuid:26b5e9ed-17b2-4b4e-b7b4-e6cf303ae0c1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://math.tutorcircle.com/probability-and-statistics/find-the-standard-deviation-for-the-given-probability-distribution.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.772299 | 603 | 4 | 4 |
The Reaction Control System (RCS) is the shuttle's system that has primary responsibility for
maneuvering the aircraft while it is in space. It consists of fuel
and oxidizer tanks, valves and other plumbing needed to provide propellant
to the maneuvering jets of the shuttle. It also includes electronic circuitry:
both to control the valves in the fuel lines and to prepare the jets to
receive firing commands.
The RCS is computer controlled during takeoff and landing. While
in orbit, however, astronauts have the primary control. When an orbital
maneuver is required, the astronauts must perform whatever actions are
necessary to prepare the RCS. These actions generally require flipping
switches. These switches are used to open or close valves or to energize the proper circuitry.
In more extreme circumstances, such as a faulty switch, the astronauts
communicate the problem to the ground flight controllers, who will come up with a sequence
of computer commands to perform the desired task and will instruct the shuttle's computer to execute them.
During normal shuttle operations, there are pre-scripted plans that
tell the astronauts what should be done to achieve certain goals. The
situation changes when there are failures in the system. The number of
possible sets of failures is too large to pre-plan for all of them.
Continued correct operation of the RCS in such circumstances is
necessary to allow for the completion of the mission and to help ensure
the safety of the crew. An intelligent system to verify and generate plans
would be helpful. It is within this context that this work fits.
The RCS/USA-Advisor can be viewed as a part of a decision support system for
shuttle controllers. It is based on a reasoning system and a user interface.
The reasoning system is capable of checking correctness of plans and finding
plans for the operation of the RCS. It employs a programming methodology based on the declarative
language A-Prolog, algorithms for computing answer sets of programs of A-Prolog,
and programming systems implementing these algorithms. The user interface is written in Java.
It allows the user to specify the reasoning task to be performed, and then
assembles into a program various A-Prolog modules, chosen according the components of the RCS that are
involved in the task. Finally, the interface invokes program smodels to compute
the answer sets of the A-Prolog program, and presents the results to the user.
Starting with version 0.95, the RCS/USA-Advisor includes two CR-Prolog planners that
improve the quality of plans. Planner "XFeed" is able to generate plans that use
the crossfeed, but avoids unnecessary use of the crossfeed. Planner "XFeed_SW"
is, too, able to generate plans that use the crossfeed. Moreover, XFeed_SW avoids
the use of computer commands if possible, and tries not to generate unnecessary
actions. In order to use the new planners, you will need to have
in your system (and reachable from $PATH) when you install the RCS/USA-Advisor.
For more information on the RCS, refer to the Links section.
The current version of the RCS/USA-Advisor system is 0.95.
The RCS/USA-Advisor Installer automatically downloads, compiles and installs
the RCS/USA-Advisor program. The installer assumes that Lparse and Smodels
are already present in the system, in a directory contained in the user's
PATH. In order to use the new XFeed and XFeed_SW planners, you will also need to have
Quick installation tips for lparse and smodels:
lparse: download lparse and unpack it in a directory of your choice. Then, move to that directory and type:
% make install
Make sure you execute the last step as root.
smodels: download smodels and unpack it in a directory of your choice. Then, move to that directory and type:
% cp smodels /usr/local/bin
% chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/smodels
Make sure you execute the last TWO steps as root.
When you are done, make sure that /usr/local/bin is in your PATH environment variable.
Download the installer and put it in a directory of your choice. After the
installation process is over, you can safely remove the installer.
Run the installer by typing:
java -jar rcs_install.jar
If another version of the RCS/USA-Advisor is already installed in the
directory where you plan to install the new version, please be sure to
remove the following files before you start the installation process:
share/RCS (THE WHOLE DIRECTORY)
The installer has been designed for Unix systems running Java 1.3. In order
to check what version of Java you are running, you can type "java -version"
at the command line prompt. The program has *not* been tested with Java 1.4.
The installer has been tested on NetBSD and Solaris. In principle, it should
run on any Unix system with Java 1.3, a standard shell (sh), and the tar and
Click here to download the installer.
Click here to go to the Lparse and Smodels web page.
Click here to go to the crmodels web page.
The RCS/USA-Advisor Group
The RCS/USA-Advisor has been developed at the Knowledge Representation Lab
of the Computer Science Department, Texas Tech University as part of a research project
supported by United Space Alliance.
People currently working on the RCS/USA-Advisor are:
User Interface and Installer
Publications regarding the RCS/USA-Advisor system can be found in the
Papers section of the
KRLab web site.
Author: Marcello Balduccini ([email protected]) | <urn:uuid:adc5cb63-277f-4759-bb02-e61fcab9a06f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mbal.tk/RCS/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.887342 | 1,284 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Pain is an unpleasant feeling that is conveyed to the brain by sensory neurons. The discomfort signals actual or potential injury to the body. However, pain is more than a sensation, or the physical awareness of pain; it also includes perception, the subjective interpretation of the discomfort. Perception gives information on the pain's location, intensity, and something about its nature. The various conscious and unconscious responses to both sensation and perception, including the emotional response, add further definition to the overall concept of pain.
Pain arises from any number of situations. Injury is a major cause, but pain may also arise from an illness. It may accompany a psychological condition, such as depression, or may even occur in the absence of a recognizable trigger.
Acute pain often results from tissue damage, such as a skin burn or broken bone. Acute pain can also be associated with headaches or muscle cramps. This type of pain usually goes away as the injury heals or the cause of the pain (stimulus) is removed.
To understand acute pain, it is necessary to understand the nerves that support it. Nerve cells, or neurons, perform many functions in the body. Although their general purpose, providing an interface between the brain and the body, remains constant, their capabilities vary widely. Certain types of neurons are capable of transmitting a pain signal to the brain.
As a group, these pain-sensing neurons are called nociceptors, and virtually every surface and organ of the body is wired with them. The central part of these cells is located in the spine, and they send threadlike projections to every part of the body. Nociceptors are classified according to the stimulus that prompts them to transmit a pain signal. Thermoreceptive nociceptors are stimulated by temperatures that are potentially tissue damaging. Mechanoreceptive nociceptors respond to a pressure stimulus that may cause injury. Polymodal nociceptors are the most sensitive and can respond to temperature and pressure. Polymodal nociceptors also respond to chemicals released by the cells in the area from which the pain originates.
Nerve cell endings, or receptors, are at the front end of pain sensation. A stimulus at this part of the nociceptor unleashes a cascade of neurotransmitters (chemicals that transmit information within the nervous system) in the spine. Each neurotransmitter has a purpose. For example, substance P relays the pain message to nerves leading to the spinal cord and brain. These neurotransmitters may also stimulate nerves leading back to the site of the injury. This response prompts cells in the injured area to release chemicals that not only trigger an immune response, but also influence the intensity and duration of the pain.
Chronic and abnormal pain
Chronic pain refers to pain that persists after an injury heals, cancer
pain, pain related to a persistent or degenerative disease, and long-term pain from an unidentifiable cause. It is estimated that one in three people in the United States will experience chronic pain at some point in their lives. Of these people, approximately 50 million are either partially or completely disabled.
Chronic pain may be caused by the body's response to acute pain. In the presence of continued stimulation of nociceptors, changes occur within the nervous system. Changes at the molecular level are dramatic and may include alterations in genetic transcription of neurotransmitters and receptors. These changes may also occur in the absence of an identifiable cause; one of the frustrating aspects of chronic pain is that the stimulus may be unknown. For example, the stimulus cannot be identified in as many as 85% of individuals suffering lower back pain.
Scientists have long recognized a relationship between depression and chronic pain. In 2004, a survey of California adults diagnosed with major depressive disorder revealed that more than one-half of them also suffered from chronic pain.
Other types of abnormal pain include allodynia, hyperalgesia, and phantom limb pain. These types of pain often arise from some damage to the nervous system (neuropathic). Allodynia refers to a feeling of pain in response to a normally harmless stimulus. For example, some individuals who have suffered nerve damage as a result of viral infection experience unbearable pain from just the light weight of their clothing. Hyperalgesia is somewhat related to allodynia in that the response to a painful stimulus is extreme. In this case, a mild pain stimulus, such as a pin prick, causes a maximum pain response. Phantom limb pain occurs after a limb is amputated; although an individual may be missing the limb, the nervous system continues to perceive pain originating from the area.
Causes and symptoms
Pain is the most common symptom of injury and disease, and descriptions can range in intensity from a mere ache to unbearable agony. Nociceptors have the ability to convey information to the brain that indicates the location, nature, and intensity of the pain. For example, stepping on a nail sends an information-packed message to the brain: the foot has experienced a puncture wound that hurts a lot.
Pain perception also varies depending on the location of the pain. The kinds of stimuli that cause a pain response on the skin include pricking, cutting, crushing, burning, and freezing. These same stimuli would not generate much of a response in the intestine. Intestinal pain arises from stimuli such as swelling, inflammation, and distension.
Pain is considered in view of other symptoms and individual experiences. An observable injury, such as a broken bone, may be a clear indicator of the type of pain a person is suffering. Determining the specific cause of internal pain is more difficult. Other symptoms, such as fever or nausea, help narrow down the possibilities. In some cases, such as lower back pain, a specific cause may not be identifiable. Diagnosis of the disease causing a specific pain is further complicated by the fact that pain can be referred to (felt at) a skin site that does not seem to be connected to the site of the pain's origin. For example, pain arising from fluid accumulating at the base of the lung may be referred to the shoulder.
Since pain is a subjective experience, it may be very difficult to communicate its exact quality and intensity to other people. There are no diagnostic tests that can determine the quality or intensity of an individual's pain. Therefore, a medical examination will include a lot of questions about where the pain is located, its intensity, and its nature. Questions are also directed at what kinds of things increase or relieve the pain, how long it has lasted, and whether there are any variations in it. An individual may be asked to use a pain scale to describe the pain. One such scale assigns a number to the pain intensity; for example, 0 may indicate no pain, and 10 may indicate the worst pain the person has ever experienced. Scales are modified for infants and children to accommodate their level of comprehension.
There are many drugs aimed at preventing or treating pain. Nonopioid analgesics
, narcotic analgesics, anticonvulsant drugs, and tricyclic antidepressants work by blocking the production, release, or uptake of neurotransmitters. Drugs from different classes may be combined to handle certain types of pain.
Nonopioid analgesics include common over-the-counter medications such as aspirin
, acetaminophen (Tylenol), and ibuprofen (Advil). These are most often used for minor pain, but there are some prescription-strength medications in this class.
Narcotic analgesics are only available with a doctor's prescription and are used for more severe pain, such as cancer pain. These drugs include codeine, morphine, and methadone. Addiction to these painkillers is not as common as once thought. Many people who genuinely need these drugs for pain control typically do not become addicted. However, narcotic use should be limited to patients thought to have a short life span (such as people with terminal cancer) or patients whose pain is only expected to last for a short time (such as people recovering from surgery). In August 2004, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued new guidelines to help physicians prescribe narcotics
appropriately without fear of being arrested for prescribing the drugs beyond the scope of their medical practice. DEA is trying to work with physicians to ensure that those who need to drugs receive them but to ensure opioids are not abused.
Anticonvulsants, as well as antidepressant drugs
, were initially developed to treat seizures and depression, respectively. However, it was discovered that these drugs also have pain-killing applications. Furthermore, since in cases of chronic or extreme pain, it is not unusual for an individual to suffer some degree of depression; antidepressants may serve a dual role. Commonly prescribed anticonvulsants for pain include phenytoin, carbamazepine, and clonazepam. Tricyclic antidepressants include doxepin, amitriptyline, and imipramine.
Intractable (unrelenting) pain may be treated by injections directly into or near the nerve that is transmitting the pain signal. These root blocks may also be useful in determining the site of pain generation. As the underlying mechanisms of abnormal pain are uncovered, other pain medications are being developed.
Drugs are not always effective in controlling pain. Surgical methods are used as a last resort if drugs and local anesthetics fail. The least destructive surgical procedure involves implanting a device that emits electrical signals. These signals disrupt the nerve and prevent it from transmitting the pain message. However, this method may not completely control pain and is not used frequently. Other surgical techniques involve destroying or severing the nerve, but the use of this technique is limited by side effects, including unpleasant numbness.
Both physical and psychological aspects of pain can be dealt with through alternative treatment. Some of the most popular treatment options include acupressure
, massage, chiropractic, and relaxation techniques such as yoga
, hypnosis, and meditation
. Herbal therapies are gaining increased recognition as viable options; for example, capsaicin, the component that makes cayenne peppers spicy, is used in ointments to relieve the joint pain associated with arthritis. Contrast hydrotherapy
can also be very beneficial for pain relief.
Lifestyles can be changed to incorporate a healthier diet and regular exercise
. Regular exercise, aside from relieving stress
, has been shown to increase endorphins, painkillers naturally produced in the body.
Successful pain treatment is highly dependent on successful resolution of the pain's cause. Acute pain will stop when an injury heals or when an underlying problem is treated successfully. Chronic pain and abnormal pain are more difficult to treat, and it may take longer to find a successful resolution. Some pain is intractable and will require extreme measures for relief.
Pain is generally preventable only to the degree that the cause of the pain is preventable. For example, improved surgical procedures, such as those done through a thin tube called a laparascope, minimize post-operative pain. Anesthesia techniques for surgeries also continuously improve. Some disease and injuries are often unavoidable. However, pain from some surgeries and other medical procedures and continuing pain are preventable through drug treatments and alternative therapies.
"Advances in Pain Management, New Focus Greatly Easing Postoperative Care." Medical Devices & Surgical Technology Week September 26, 2004: 260.
Finn, Robert. "More than Half of Patients With Major Depression Have Chronic Pain." Family Practice News October 15, 2004: 38.
"New Guidelines Set for Better Pain Treatment." Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA September 5, 2004: 95.
American Chronic Pain Association. P.O. Box 850, Rocklin, CA 95677-0850. (916) 632-0922. 〈http://members.tripod.com/∼widdy/ACPA.html〉.
American Pain Society. 4700 W. Lake Ave., Glenview, IL 60025. (847) 375-4715. http://www.ampainsoc.org.
— Pain in response to injury or another stimulus that resolves when the injury heals or the stimulus is removed.
— Pain that lasts beyond the term of an injury or painful stimulus. Can also refer to cancer pain, pain from a chronic or degenerative disease, and pain from an unidentified cause.
— Chemicals within the nervous system that transmit information from or between nerve cells.
— A neuron that is capable of sensing pain.
— Pain felt at a site different from the location of the injured or diseased part of the body. Referred pain is due to the fact that nerve signals from several areas of the body may "feed" the same nerve pathway leading to the spinal cord and brain.
— A factor capable of eliciting a response in a nerve.
a feeling of distress, suffering, or agony, caused by stimulation of specialized nerve endings. Its purpose is chiefly protective; it acts as a warning that tissues are being damaged and induces the sufferer to remove or withdraw from the source. The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association has accepted pain as a nursing diagnosis
, defining it as a state in which an individual experiences and reports severe discomfort or an uncomfortable sensation; the reporting of pain may be either by direct verbal communication or by encoded descriptors.
Pain Receptors and Stimuli
. All receptors for pain stimuli are free nerve endings
of groups of myelinated or unmyelinated neural fibers abundantly distributed in the superficial layers of the skin and in certain deeper tissues such as the periosteum, surfaces of the joints, arterial walls, and the falx and tentorium of the cranial cavity. The distribution of pain receptors in the gastrointestinal mucosa apparently is similar to that in the skin; thus, the mucosa is quite sensitive to irritation and other painful stimuli. Although the parenchyma of the liver and the alveoli of the lungs are almost entirely insensitive to pain, the liver and bile ducts are extremely sensitive, as are the bronchi and parietal pleura.
Some pain receptors are selective in their response to stimuli, but most are sensitive to more than one of the following types of excitation: (1) mechanical stress of trauma; (2) extremes of heat and cold; and (3) chemical substances, such as histamine, potassium ions, acids, prostaglandins, bradykinin, and acetylcholine. Pain receptors, unlike other sensory receptors in the body, do not adapt or become less sensitive to repeated stimulation. Under certain conditions the receptors become more sensitive over a period of time. This accounts for the fact that as long as a traumatic stimulus persists the person will continue to be aware that damage to the tissues is occurring.
The body is able to recognize tissue damage because when cells are destroyed they release the chemical substances previously mentioned. These substances can stimulate pain receptors or cause direct damage to the nerve endings themselves. A lack of oxygen supply to the tissues can also produce pain by causing the release of chemicals from ischemic tissue. Muscle spasm is another cause of pain, probably because it has the indirect effect of causing ischemia and stimulation of chemosensitive pain receptors.
Transmission and Recognition of Pain. When superficial pain receptors are excited the impulses are transmitted from these surface receptors to synapses in the gray matter (substantia gelatinosa) of the dorsal horns of the spinal cord. They then travel upward along the sensory pathways to the thalamus, which is the main sensory relay station of the brain. The dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus projects to the prefrontal cortex of the brain. The conscious perception of pain probably takes place in the thalamus and lower centers; interpretation of the quality of pain is probably the role of the cerebral cortex.
The perception of pain by an individual is highly complex and individualized, and is subject to a variety of external and internal influences. The cerebral cortex is concerned with the appreciation of pain and its quality, location, type, and intensity; thus, an intact sensory cortex is essential to the perception of pain. In addition to neural influences that transmit and modulate sensory input, the perception of pain is affected by psychological and cultural responses to pain-related stimuli. A person can be unaware of pain at the time of an acute injury or other very stressful situation, when in a state of depression, or when experiencing an emotional crisis. Cultural influences also precondition the perception of and response to painful stimuli. The reaction to similar circumstances can range from complete stoicism to histrionic behavior.
. There are several theories related to the physiologic control of pain but none has been completely verified. One of the best known is that of Mellzak and Wall, the gate control theory,
which proposed that pain impulses were mediated in the substantia gelatinosa of the spinal cord with the dorsal horns acting as “gates” that controlled entry of pain signals into the central pain pathways. Also, pain signals would compete with tactile signals with the two constantly balanced against each other.
Since this theory was first proposed, researchers have shown that the neuronal circuitry it hypothesizes is not precisely correct. Nevertheless, there are internal systems that are now known to occur naturally in the body for controlling and mediating pain. One such system, the opioid system, involves the production of morphinelike substances called enkephalins
. Both are naturally occurring analgesics found in various parts of the brain and spinal cord that are concerned with pain perception and the transmission of pain signals. Signals arising from stimulation of neurons in the gray matter of the brain stem travel downward to the dorsal horns of the spinal cord where incoming pain impulses from the periphery terminate. The descending signals block or significantly reduce the transmission of pain signals upward along the spinal cord to the brain where pain is perceived by releasing these substances.
In addition to the brain's opioid system for controlling the transmission of pain impulses along the spinal cord, there is another mechanism for the control of pain. The stimulation of large sensory fibers extending from the tactile receptors in the skin can suppress the transmission of pain signals from thinner nerve fibers. It is as if the nerve pathways to the brain can accommodate only one type of signal at a time, and when two kinds of impulses simultaneously arrive at the dorsal horns, the tactile sensation takes precedence over the sensation of pain.
The discovery of endorphins and the inhibition of pain transmission by tactile signals has provided a scientific explanation for the effectiveness of such techniques as relaxation, massage, application of liniments, and acupuncture in the control of pain and discomfort.
Assessment of Pain. Pain is a subjective phenomenon that is present when the person who is experiencing it says it is. The person reporting personal discomfort or pain is the most reliable source of information about its location, quality, intensity, onset, precipitating or aggravating factors, and measures that bring relief.
Objective signs of pain can help verify what a patient says about pain, but such data are not used to prove or disprove whether it is present. Physiologic signs of moderate and superficial pain are responses of the sympathetic nervous system. They include rapid, shallow, or guarded respiratory movements, pallor, diaphoresis, increased pulse rate, elevated blood pressure, dilated pupils, and tenseness of the skeletal muscles. Pain that is severe or located deep in body cavities acts as a stimulant to parasympathetic neurons and is evidenced by a drop in blood pressure, slowing of pulse, pallor, nausea and vomiting, weakness, and sometimes a loss of consciousness.
Behavioral signs of pain include crying, moaning, tossing about in bed, pacing the floor, lying quietly but tensely in one position, drawing the knees upward toward the abdomen, rubbing the painful part, and a pinched facial expression or grimacing. The person in pain also may have difficulty concentrating and remembering and may be totally self-centered and preoccupied with the pain.
Psychosocial aspects of tolerance for pain and reactions to it are less easily identifiable and more complex than physiologic responses. An individual's reaction to pain is subject to a variety of psychologic and cultural influences. These include previous experience with pain, training in regard to how one should respond to pain and discomfort, state of health, and the presence of fatigue or physical weakness. One's degree of attention to and distraction from painful stimuli can also affect one's perception of the intensity of pain. A thorough assessment of pain takes into consideration all of these psychosocial factors.
Management of Pain
. Among the measures employed to provide relief from pain, administration of analgesic drugs is probably the one that is most often misunderstood and abused. When an analgesic drug has been ordered “as needed,” the patient should know that the drug is truly available when needed and that it will be given promptly when asked for. If the patient is forced to wait until someone else decides when an analgesic is needed, the patient may become angry, resentful, and tense, thus diminishing or completely negating the desired effect of the drug. Studies have shown that when analgesics are left at the bedside of terminally ill cancer patients to be taken at their discretion, fewer doses are taken than when they must rely on someone else to make the drug available. Habituation and addiction to analgesics probably result as much from not using other measures along with analgesics for pain control as from giving prescribed analgesics when they are ordered. Patient-controlled analgesia
has been used safely and effectively.
When analgesics are not appropriate or sufficient or when there is a real danger of addiction, there are noninvasive techniques that can be used as alternatives or adjuncts to analgesic therapy. The selection of a particular technique for the management of pain depends on the cause of the pain, its intensity and duration, whether it is acute or chronic, and whether the patient perceives the technique as effective.
Distraction techniques provide a kind of sensory shielding to make the person less aware of discomfort. Distraction can be effective in the relief of brief periods of acute pain, such as that associated with minor surgical procedures under local anesthesia, wound débridement, and venipuncture.
Massage and gentle pressure activate the thick-fiber impulses and produce a preponderance of tactile signals to compete with pain signals. It is interesting that stimulation of the large sensory fibers leading from superficial sensory receptors in the skin can relieve pain at a site distant from the area being rubbed or otherwise stimulated. Since ischemia and muscle spasm can both produce discomfort, massage to improve circulation and frequent repositioning of the body and limbs to avoid circulatory stasis and promote muscle relaxation can be effective in the prevention and management of pain. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
(TENS) units enhance the production of endorphins and enkephalins and can also relieve pain.
Specific relaxation techniques can help relieve physical and mental tension and stress and reduce pain. They have been especially effective in mitigating discomfort during labor and delivery but can be used in a variety of situations. Learning proper relaxation techniques is not easy for some people, but once these techniques have been mastered they can be of great benefit in the management of chronic ongoing pain. The intensity of pain also can be reduced by stimulating the skin through applications of either heat or cold, menthol ointments, and liniments. Contralateral stimulation involves stimulating the skin in an area on the side opposite a painful region. Stimulation can be done by rubbing, massaging, or applying heat or cold.
Since pain is a symptom and therefore of value in diagnosis, it is important to keep accurate records of the observations of the patient having pain. These observations should include the following: the nature of the pain, that is, whether it is described by the patient as being sharp, dull, burning, aching, etc.; the location of the pain, if the patient is able to determine this; the time of onset and the duration, and whether or not certain nursing measures and drugs are successful in obtaining relief; and the relation to other circumstances, such as the position of the patient, occurrence before or after eating, and stimuli in the environment such as heat or cold that may trigger the onset of pain.
Surgical procedures designed to alleviate pain. From Ignatavicius et al., 1999.
1. one of the three categories of pain established by the International Association for the Study of Pain, denoting pain that is caused by occurrences such as traumatic injury, surgical procedures, or medical disorders; clinical symptoms often include increased heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate, shallow respiration, agitation or restlessness, facial grimaces, or splinting.
2. a nursing diagnosis accepted by the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association, defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience arising from actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage, with sudden or slow onset of any intensity from mild to severe with an anticipated or predictable end and a duration of less than 6 months.
pain accompanying uterine contractions during the second stage of labor
cancer pain one of the three categories of pain established by the International Association for the Study of Pain, denoting pain associated with malignancies and perceived by the individual patient; there are various scales ranking it from 0 to 10 according to level of severity.
1. one of the three categories of pain established by the International Association for the Study of Pain, denoting pain that is persistent, often lasting more than six months; clinical symptoms may be the same as for acute pain, or there may be no symptoms evident. The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association has accepted chronic pain as a nursing diagnosis.
2. a nursing diagnosis accepted by the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association, defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience arising from actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage, with sudden or slow onset of any intensity from mild to severe, without an anticipated or predictable end, and with a duration of greater than 6 months.
a somatoform disorder
characterized by a chief complaint of severe chronic pain that causes substantial distress or impairment in functioning; the pain is neither feigned nor intentionally produced, and psychological factors appear to play a major role in its onset, severity, exacerbation, or maintenance. The pain is related to psychological conflicts and is made worse by environmental stress; it enables the patient to avoid an unpleasant activity or to obtain support and sympathy. Patients may visit many health care providers searching for relief and may consume excessive amounts of analgesics without any effect. They are difficult to treat because they strongly resist the idea that their symptoms have a psychological origin.
growing p's any of various types of recurrent limb pains resembling those of rheumatoid conditions, seen in early youth and formerly thought to be caused by the growing process.
hunger pain pain coming on at the time for feeling hunger for a meal; a symptom of gastric disorder.
intermenstrual pain pain accompanying ovulation, occurring during the period between the menses, usually about midway.
the rhythmic pains of increasing severity and frequency due to contraction of the uterus at childbirth; see also labor
lancinating pain sharp darting pain.
pain felt as if it were arising in an absent or amputated limb or organ; see also amputation
symptoms of physical pain having psychological origin; see pain disorder
pain in a part other than that in which the cause that produced it is situated. Referred pain usually originates in one of the visceral organs but is felt in the skin or sometimes in another area deep inside the body. Referred pain probably occurs because pain signals from the viscera travel along the same neural pathways used by pain signals from the skin. The person perceives the pain but interprets it as having originated in the skin rather than in a deep-seated visceral organ.
Area of referred pain, anterior and posterior views.
rest pain a continuous unrelenting pain due to ischemia of the lower leg, beginning with or being aggravated by elevation and being relieved by sitting with legs in a dependent position or by standing.
root pain pain caused by disease of the sensory nerve roots and occurring in the cutaneous areas supplied by the affected roots.
pain (pan) [Fr. peine, fr L. poena, a fine, a penalty, punishment]
As defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain, an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience arising from actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage. Pain includes not only the perception of an uncomfortable stimulus but also the response to that perception. About half of those who seek medical help do so because of the primary complaint of pain. Acute pain occurs with an injury or illness; is often accompanied by anxiety, diaphoresis, nausea, and vital sign changes such as tachycardia or hypertension; and should end after the noxious stimulus is removed or any organ damage heals. Chronic or persistent pain is discomfort that lasts beyond the normal healing period. Pain may arise in nearly any organ system and may have different characteristics in each. Musculoskeletal pain often is exacerbated by movement and may be accompanied by joint swelling or muscle spasm. Myofascial pain is marked by trigger-point tenderness. Visceral pain often is diffuse or vaguely localized, whereas pain from the lining of body cavities often is localized precisely, very intense, and exquisitely sensitive to palpation or movement. Neuropathic (nerve) pain usually stings or burns, or may be described as numbness, tingling, or shooting sensations. Colicky pain fluctuates in intensity from severe to mild, and usually occurs in waves. Referred pain results when an injury or disease occurs in one body part but is felt in another.
Several factors influence the experience of pain. Among these are the nature of the injury or illness causing the symptom, the physical and emotional health of the patient, the acuity or chronicity of the symptom, the social milieu and/or cultural upbringing of the patient, neurochemistry, memory, personality, and other features. See: table
Many clinicians use the mnemonic “COLDER” to aid the diagnosis of painful diseases. They will ask the patient to describe the Character, Onset, Location, and Duration of their painful symptoms, as well as the features that Exacerbate or Relieve it. For example: The pain of pleurisy typically is sharp in character, acute in onset, located along the chest wall, and long-lasting; it is worsened by deep breathing or coughing and relieved by analgesics or holding still. By contrast, the pain of myocardial ischemia usually is dull or heavy, gradual in onset, and located substernally. It may be worsened by activity (but not by taking a breath or coughing) and relieved by nitroglycerin.
In 2000, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) issued pain-management standards, in 2001 began surveying for compliance, and in 2004 added patient-safety goals, thus most U.S. health care facilities have devised policies and procedures that require pain-intensity rating as a routine part of care (the fifth vital sign). Pain intensity usually is assessed on a numerical scale, in which 0 = no pain, 1 to 3 = mild pain, 4 to 6 = moderate pain, and 7 to 10 = severe pain. However, obtaining a numerical rating of pain intensity is possible only if the patient is able to provide this report of the pain being experienced, which infants, children, the critically ill, and cognitively impaired usually are unable to do. The Wong’ Baker FACES scale, developed for pediatric use, has been used successfully in other patient populations. It uses visual representations of smiles or grimaces to depict the level of pain a patient feels.
Health care professionals must be aware that pain in non-verbal patient can easily be overlooked and must make a conscious effort to ensure that pain in these patients is assessed and treated. Observing subtle behaviors and being sensitive to contextual clues are two pain methods used by health care professionals to try to determine when nonverbal patients are in pain. When this judgment is made, a trial of pain-relieving medication may be used. The responses of the patient and any complications of treatment should be carefully observed and appropriate changes made in dosing or the type of analgesic drug as indicated.
Because pain is a subjective and intensely personal problem, sympathetic care is an important part of its relief. In addition to administering analgesic drugs, health care professionals should use a wide range of techniques to help alleviate pain, including local application of cold and heat, tactile stimulation, relaxation techniques, diversion, and active listening, among others.
Pain that typically is produced by sudden injury (e.g., fracture) or illness (e.g., acute infection) and is accompanied by physical signs such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, pupillary dilation, sweating, or hyperventilation. Acute pain is typically sharp in character. It is relayed to the central nervous system rapidly by A delta nerve fibers. [Then, at the end of this entry please add the SYN:] fast pain Depending on the severity of the underlying stimulus, acute pain may be managed with acetaminophen or anti-inflammatory drugs, immobilization and elevation of the injured body part, or the topical application of heat or ice. Severe acute pain, such as that of broken ribs or of an ischemic part, may require narcotics, often with adjunctive agents like hydroxyzine for relief, or antiemetics. Acute pain should be managed aggressively. Synonym: fast pain
Discomfort arising from the fallopian tubes and ovaries; usually due to inflammation, infection, or ectopic pregnancy.
Pain felt in or along the spine or musculature of the posterior thorax. It is usually characterized by dull, continuous pain and tenderness in the muscles or their attachments in the lower lumbar, lumbosacral, or sacroiliac regions. Back pain is often referred to the leg or legs, following the distribution of the sciatic nerve.
Common causes of back pain include pain caused by muscular or tendon strain, herniated intervertebral disk, lumbar spinal stenosis, or spondylolisthesis. Patients with a history of cancer may have back pain caused by metastatic tumors to the vertebrae and should be evaluated to be certain that damage to the spinal cord is not imminent. Patients with back pain and fever (esp. those with a history of injection drug use, tuberculosis, or recent back surgery) should be evaluated for epidural abscess or osteomyelitis.
Depending on the underlying cause of the back pain, treatment may include drugs, rest, massage, physical therapy, chiropractic, stretching exercises, injection therapy, and surgery, among others. Most nonmalignant causes of back pain improve with a few days of rest, analgesics, and antiinflammatory drugs, followed by 2 to 4 weeks of anti-inflammatory treatment, appropriate muscle strengthening, and patience. Pain caused by an osteoporotic fracture may prove more debilitating and longer-lasting. Back pain produced by a spinal metastasis can improve with corticosteroids, radiation therapy, intravenous bisphosphonates, and/or surgical decompression. Patients with a spinal epidural abscess will need surgical drainage of the infection and antibiotics.
Prolonged bedrest is inadvisable in most patients with back pain. The treatment regimen is explained, implemented, and reinforced. Factors that precipitate symptoms are identified and preventive actions are discussed.
Rectal pressure and discomfort occurring during the second stage of labor, related to fetal descent and the woman's straining efforts to expel the fetus.
Piercing, used to describe pain felt deep within the body.
Transient episodes of pain that occur in patients with chronic pain that has been previously reduced to tolerable levels. Breakthrough pain disrupts the well-being of cancer or hospice patients who have been prescribed regular doses of narcotic analgesics. The painful episodes may occur as a previous dose of pain-relieving medication wears off (“end-of-dose pain”), or after unusual or unanticipated body movements (“incident pain”).
Pain caused near a joint affected with neuralgia when the skin is folded near it.
Pain experienced in heat burns, superficial skin lesions, herpes zoster, and circumscribed neuralgias.
Pain due to a lesion in the central nervous system.
Discomfort felt in the upper abdomen, thorax, neck, or shoulders. Chest pain is one of the most common potentially serious complaints offered by patients in emergency departments, hospitals, outpatient settings, and physicians' offices. A broad array of diseases and conditions may cause it, including (but not limited to) angina pectoris or myocardial infarction; anxiety and hyperventilation; aortic dissection; costochondritis or injured ribs; cough, pneumonia, pleurisy, pneumothorax, or pulmonary emboli; esophageal diseases, such as reflux or esophagitis; gastritis, duodenitis, or peptic ulcer; and stones in the biliary tree.
chronic idiopathic pelvic pain Abbreviation: CIPP
Unexplained pelvic pain in a woman that has lasted 6 months or longer. A complete medical, social, and sexual history must be obtained. In an experimental study, women with this illness reported more sexual partners, significantly more spontaneous abortions, and previous nongynecological surgery. These women were more likely to have experienced previous significant psychosexual trauma.
The pain associated with CIPP should be treated symptomatically and sympathetically. The participation of pain management specialists, complementary medical providers, and the primary health care provider should be integrated. Realistic goals (e.g., the reduction of pain rather than its elimination) should be set. Medroxyprogesterone acetate, oral contraceptives, presacral neurectomy, hypnosis, and hysterectomy have been tried with varying degrees of success.
1. Long-lasting discomfort, with episodic exacerbations, that may be felt in the back, one or more joints, the pelvis, or other parts of the body.
2. Pain that lasts more than 3–6 months.
3. Pain that lasts more than a month longer than the usual or expected course of an illness.
Pain that returns periodically every few weeks or months for many years. Chronic pain is often described by sufferers as being debilitating, intolerable, disabling, or alienating and may occur without an easily identifiable cause. Studies have shown a high correlation between chronic pain and depression or dysphoria, but it is unclear whether the psychological aspects of chronic pain precede or develop as a result of a person's subjective suffering. Chronic pain is the leading cause of disability in the U.S.acute pain
The management of chronic, nonmalignant pain is often difficult and may be frustrating for both sufferer and caregiver. The best results are usually obtained through multimodal therapy that combines sympathetic guidance that encourages patients to recover functional abilities, by combinations of drugs (e.g., nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, narcotic analgesics, and/or antidepressants), physical therapy and regular exercise, occupational therapy, physiatry, psychological or social counseling, and alternative medical therapies (e.g., acupuncture, massage, or relaxation techniques). Placebos, although rarely employed clinically, effectively treat chronic pain in about a third of all patients. Surgery and other invasive strategies are occasionally employed, with variable effectiveness.
Pain in the oral area, which, in general, may be of two origins. Soft tissue pain may be acute or chronic, and a burning pain is due to surface lesions and usually can be discretely localized; pulpal pain or tooth pain varies according to whether it is acute or chronic, but it is often difficult to localize.
Discomfort accompanying rhythmic uterine contractions during the first stage of labor.
Low back pain resulting from degeneration of an intervertebral disk. Discogenic pain differs from neuropathic pain in that it does not radiate into the extremities or torso.
A mild discomfort, often difficult to describe, that may be associated with some musculoskeletal injuries or some diseases of the visceral organs.
Pain occurring in peripheral structures owing to a lesion involving the posterior roots of the spinal nerves.
Pain located between the xiphoid process and the umbilicus. It may suggest a problem in one of many different organs, including the stomach, pancreas, gallbladder, small or large bowel, pleura, or heart. Synonym: gastralgic pain See: cardialgia
Discomfort during the second stage of labor, associated with bearing-down efforts to expel the fetus. Women may experience a similar pain during delivery of the placenta.
Abdominal discomfort associated with Braxton Hicks contractions, which occur during the last trimester of pregnancy. Characteristically, the woman complains of irregular, lower abdominal pains, which are relieved by walking. Vaginal examination shows no change in cervical effacement or dilation. See: Braxton Hicks contractions
fast painAcute pain.
fulgurant painLightning pain.
gallbladder painBiliary colic.
Pain in the intestines caused by an accumulation of gas therein.
gastralgic painEpigastric pain.
An imprecise term indicating ill-defined pain, usually in the shin or other areas of the legs, typically occurring after bedtime in children age 5 to 12. There is no evidence that the pain is related to rapid growth or to emotional problems. If these symptoms occur during the daytime, are accompanied by other symptoms, or become progressively more severe, evaluation for infection, cancer, and other diseases of muscle and bone should be undertaken. In the majority of cases, this evaluation is not necessary.
The child should be reassured and given acetaminophen or ibuprofen; heat and massage can be applied locally. Children with growing pains benefit from concern and reassurance from their parents and health care providers.
heterotopic painReferred pain.
Pain felt at the point of injury.
Pain in the epigastrum that occurs before meals.
Pain due to a sudden, forceful, unanticipated, or unusual body movement or posture.
Pain in the presence of inflammation that is increased by pressure.
Episodic, localized pelvic discomfort that occurs between menstrual periods, possibly accompanying ovulation. Synonym: midpain See: mittelschmerz
Chronic pain that is difficult or impossible to manage with standard interventions. Common causes include metastatic cancer, chronic pancreatitis, radiculopathy, spinal cord transection, or peripheral neuropathy. Intractable pain may also accompany somatoform disorders, depression, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and opiate dependence. Various combinations of the following management strategies are often used to treat intractable pain: antidepressant medications, counseling, deep brain stimulation, injected anesthetics, narcotic analgesics, neurological surgery, and pain clinic consultations.
Uncomfortable, intermittent, rhythmic, girdling sensations associated with uterine contractions during childbearing. The frequency, duration, and intensity of the events increase, climaxing with the delivery of the fetus.
lancinating painAcute pain.
A sudden brief pain that may be repetitive, usually in the legs but may be at any location. It is associated with tabes dorsalis and other neurological disorders. Synonym: fulgurant pain
Pain in the tongue that may be due to local lesions, glossitis, fissures, or pernicious anemia. Synonym: tongue pain
Sharp pain in the region of the lungs.
mental painPsychogenic pain.
middle painIntermenstrual pain.
Pain that moves from one area to another.
Pain that originates in peripheral nerves or the central nervous system rather than in other damaged organs or tissues. A hallmark of neuropathic pain is its localization to specific dermatomes or nerve distributions. Some examples of neuropathic pain are the pain of shingles (herpes zoster), diabetic neuropathy, radiculopathy, and phantom limb pain.
Drugs like gabapentin or pregabalin provide effective relief of neuropathic pain for some patients. Other treatments include (but are not limited to) regional nerve blocks, selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, psychological counseling, acupuncture, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and physical therapy.
Pain that awakens the patient at night or interferes with sleep; may be due to infection, inflammation, neurovascular compromise, or severe structural damage.
Pain induced by some external or internal irritant, by inflammation, or by injury to nerves, organs, or other tissues that interferes with the function, nutrition, or circulation of the affected part. It is usually traceable to a definite pathologic process.
A stinging or tingling sensation manifested in central and peripheral nerve lesions. See: paresthesia
A discrete, well-localized pain caused by inflammation of tissues surrounding a tooth. This may be contrasted with the throbbing, nonlocalized pain typical of a toothache or pulpal pain.
phantom limb pain
The sensation of pain felt in the nerve distribution of a body part that has been amputated. Phantom pain can lead to difficulties in prosthetic training. Synonym: phantom sensation
Phantom limb pain or nonpainful sensations are reported by most amputees. A multimodal or combination approach to management is appropriate. Drugs used to treat neuropathic pain may be helpful, including some anticonvulsant drugs, tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin inhibitors, and muscle relaxants. Nerve blockade and/or transcutaneous electrical stimulation may also be helpful. Health care professionals should encourage amputees to move the affected extremity, seek counseling or group therapy, engage in physical and occupational therapy, and use distraction techniques.
Abdominal pain after eating.
Pain felt in the center of the chest (e.g., below the sternum) or in the left side of the chest.
Ineffective contractions of the uterus before the beginning of true labor. See: false pain
The false sensation of movement in a paralyzed limb or of no movement in a moving limb; not a true pain.
Pain having mental, as opposed to organic, origin.
Pain that radiates away from the spinal column through an extremity or the torso resulting from the compression or irritation of a spinal nerve root or large paraspinal nerve. It may be accompanied by numbness or tingling.
SITES OF REFERRED PAIN
Pain that arises in one body part or location but is perceived in another. For example, pain caused by inflammation of the diaphragm often is felt in the shoulder; pain caused by myocardial ischemia may be referred to the neck or jaw; and pain caused by appendicitis may first be felt near the umbilicus rather than in the right lower quadrant, where the appendix lies. See: table Synonym: heterotopic pain; sympathetic pain See: illustration
Pain with temporary abatements in severity; characteristic of neuralgia and colic.
Pain due to ischemia that comes on when sitting or lying.
Cutaneous pain caused by disease of the sensory nerve roots.
Pain that seems to travel like lightning from one place to another.
Pain that is perceived a second or more after a stimulus. It is transmitted to the central nervous system by C (nerve) fibers, which are not myelinated, and therefore conduct sensations more slowly than A delta fibers. Slow pain lasts longer than sudden pain. It is usually perceived by patients as burning, cramping, dull, itchy, or warm.
standards for pain relief
Standards for the Relief of Acute Pain and Cancer Pain developed by the American Pain Society. These are summarized as follows:
1. In order to increase the clinician's responsiveness to complaints of pain, it is now considered by some health care professionals to be the fifth vital sign.2. Acute pain and cancer pain are recognized and effectively treated. Essential to this process is the development of a clinically useful and easy-to-use scale for rating pain and its relief. Patients will be evaluated according to the scales and the results recorded as frequently as needed.3. Information about analgesics is readily available. This includes data concerning the effectiveness of various agents in controlling pain and the availability of equianalgesic charts wherever drugs are used for pain.4. Patients are informed on admission of the availability of methods of relieving pain, and that they must communicate the presence and persistence of pain to the health care staff.5. Explicit policies for use of advanced analgesic technologies are defined. These advances include patient-controlled analgesia, epidural analgesia, and regional analgesia. Specific instructions concerning use of these techniques must be available for the health care staff.6. Adherence to standards is monitored by an interdisciplinary committee. The committee is responsible for overseeing the activities related to implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of these pain standards.
A pain accompanied by muscular spasm during the early stages of sleep.
A sharp stitchlike pain occurring during breathing caused, for example, by an abscess or tumor beneath the diaphragm. When the breath is held, the pain ceases. Pressure against the lower rib cage eases the pain.
subjective painPsychogenic pain.
sympathetic painReferred pain.
A boring or piercing type of pain.
thalamic pain See: thalamic syndrome
Pain caused by heat.
thoracic painChest pain.
Pain found in dental caries, headache, and localized inflammation. The pain is often thought to be caused by arterial pulsations.
tongue painLingual pain.
Pain that throbs or pulses, such as the pain of a migraine headache.
Pain that changes its location repeatedly.
|Generic Name||Dose, mg *||Interval||Comments|
|Acetylsalicylic acid||325–650||4–24 hr||Enteric-coated preparations available|
|Acetaminophen||650||4 hr||Avoid in liver failure|
|Ibuprofen||400–800||4–8 hr||Available without prescription|
|Indomethacin||25–75||8 hr||Gastrointestinal and kidney side effects common|
|Naproxen||250–500||12 hr||Delayed effects may be due to long half-life|
|Ketorolac||15–60 IM||4–6 hr||Similar to ibuprofen but more potent|
|Generic Name||Parenteral Dose (mg)||PO Dose (mg)||Comments|
|Codeine||30–60 every 4 hr||30–60 every 4 hr||Nausea common|
|Hydromorphone||1–2 every 4 hr||2–4 every 4 hr||Shorter acting than morphine sulfate|
|Levorphanol||2 every 6–8 hr||4 every 6 hr||Longer acting than morphine sulfate; absorbed well PO|
|Methadone||10–100||6–24 hr||Delayed sedation due to long half-life|
|Meperidine||25–100||300 every 4 hr||Poorly absorbed PO; normeperidine is a toxic metabolite|
|Morphine||10 every 4 hr||60 every 4 hr|
|Morphine, sustained release||30–90||60–180 2 or 3 times daily|
* By mouth unless indicated otherwise.PO—by mouth only.SOURCE: Adapted from Isselbacher, K.J., et al.: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, ed 13. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1994.
|Oxycodone||—||5–10 every 4–6 hr||Usually available with acetaminophen or aspirin|
|Organ of Origin||Location Felt|
|Head||External or middle ear|
| Nose & sinuses|
| Teeth, gums, tongue|
| Throat, tonsils|
| Parotid gland, TMJ joint|
| Diaphragm||Shoulder, upper abdomen|
| Heart||Upper chest, L shoulder, inside L arm, L jaw|
| Stomach & spleen||L upper abdomen|
| Duodenum||Upper abdomen, R shoulder|
| Stomach & spleen||L upper abdomen|
| Stomach & spleen||L upper abdomen|
| Stomach & spleen||L upper abdomen|
| Colon||Lower abdomen|
| Appendix||Periumbilical and R lower abdomen|
NOTE: L = left; R = right.
| Appendix||Periumbilical and R lower abdomen| | <urn:uuid:2e45bc18-5a6f-4fb8-bd89-b9026e892c78> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/pain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928697 | 11,002 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Monastic funerary biers from el-Ghalida (Egypt), and bedding in the Byzantine world
Peter Beatson - NVG Miklagard
A cemetary was exposed by illegal excavations at the abandoned medieval hermitage of el-Ghalida . The site was heavily disturbed by digging machinery but archaeologists managed to retrieve some remains, chiefly textile scraps, including coverings from ten funerary biers. As contexts had been utterly destroyed individual dating was not possible - but the associated settlement was abandoned in the Fatimid era, which is in line with the only radiocarbon date obtained: 890-1020AD .
2. Principle of bier construction
The frames of the biers are constructed of palm ribs in a grid-shaped arrangement, held together with cords of palm-bast or halfa grass. Width of about half the biers could be estimated, at 60-70cm. Only one estimate of length was possible, at about 120cm. Though this is too short to fully support a body, it is corroborated by finds at other Egyptian sites of late Roman to Byzantine date . The frames were covered in fabric which was tied in place, thus in both in size and construction the biers resemble one illustrated in a Constantinopolitan manuscript of the early 11th cent. (Fig. 1):
3. The fabrics and their purpose
The fabric covers were either laid on top of the frame and wrapped and tied around its edges (Type A: five examples); or folded in half and sewn togther into a pouch, so the frame was inserted through one open side (Type B: four examples) :
Most of the covers show signs of wear and other clues that indicate their cloth was used for other purposes before consignment to the grave. As indicated by the frequent preservation of starting/finishing borders and selvedges (see Table 2 below) in general they are large rectangular loom-pieces, frequently with fringes - possibly wraps, shawls and mantles, or coverlets and blankets. It is likely, however, that the most immediate source of fabric for an individuals funeral is the same bedding that the monk used in life . Type A covers could have been sheets or blankets, and the bag-shaped Type B covers from mattresses (strōmata).
4. Technical details of fabrics
Biers were covered with homespun fabrics of various qualities (Table 1). Linen was the most frequent fibre used, but two covers (both Type A) were woolen. As is usual for Egypt, both warp and weft threads were S-spun. All cloths were 1/1 (plain or tabby) weave with a slight predominance of repps, that is, cloths with unbalanced thread counts .
Decorative effects were achieved via several means - by weaving in weft stripes of contrasting colour , by texture effects such as calendaring , or by appliqué of strips of colored silk , but these must be considered in terms of the fabrics original, rather than final use.
5. Constructive details of fabric use
Starting/finishing borders and selvedges are usually viewed as technical aspects of weaving a fabric but here they also functioned - as edges of cloths that may have penultimately been used for bedding (Table 2).
Type A (blankets) - Apart from the types of fabric chosen, there is little that can be concluded about covers that may have come from sheets and blankets - none are really complete enough to guess their original size, although 80cm is the minimum full width preserved, and two are 150cm or longer.
Type B (mattresses) - As mentioned, all Type B covers were made of linen. They are generally of reasonably close weave, which would retain stuffing well. No. 6 and 9 are very similar, a full loom width (c.120cm) was folded in half, lengthwise so the selvedges meet, though there is no trace of a seam here. Their sole surviving ends were sewn up - a fringed border being given a deep turn inward, then overcast . The other two Type Bs are less complete but probably made much the same, though the end of no. 7 was fixed differently - the long fringe was knotted together in bunches before the cover was turned right side out.
Other seams and hems - Some cut edges were folded twice to ~1cm depth and hemmed with overcast stitching, but these hems come from pre-funerary uses as they were all turned toward the outside of the bier cover . Apart from the already mentioned seams used to close the Type B covers, only one other construction seam is present - two lengths are tacked together along their selvedges to make a double-width piece (No. 4). No. 2 has a repair - a hole is covered from inside and out, the edges of the patches are folded twice and overcast .
Sewing was generally performed with thread of the same fibre as the base fabric, the thread was doubled and plied .
6. Conclusion - implications for reconstruction of Byzantine bedding
Egyptian funeral biers of the Romano-Byzantine period and later appear to show definite preference for a particular size - 60 by 120 cm, even when the fabric coverings used could have amply accommodated a larger framework . Although one must consider whether construction was limited by the length of palm ribs available, could these biers actually have been based on the size of the monk's sleeping pallets? That would not resemble usual representations of bedding in Byzantine art, where the mattress is shown as long or even somewhat longer than body length.
A short pallet could though be combined with pillows for the head and even the feet, as illustrated by a late Antique female burial from Antinoopolis, Egypt (Fig. 3):
A two-or-three part bed suite would be more convenient for carrying, particularly if the stuffing is included . | <urn:uuid:8bd2ff4e-0e28-4451-801c-1bc54d27f46f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/byz_funeral_biers/funeral_biers.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972694 | 1,243 | 3.140625 | 3 |
The shortage of organs for kidney transplants has been met with a tech solution that eliminates the need for donors. The latest touted breakthrough took place live on stage at the latestTED conference in California.
A surgeon specialising in regenerative medicine on Thursday “printed” a real kidney using a machine that removes the wait for donors when it comes to organ transplants.
Scanners are used to take a 3-D image of a kidney that needs replacing, then a tissue sample about half the size of postage stamp is used to seed the computerised process, Atala explained.
The organ “printer” then works layer-by-layer to build a replacement kidney replicating the patient’s tissue.
College student Luke Massella was among the first people to receive a printed kidney during experimental research a decade ago when he was just 10 years old.
He said he was born with Spina Bifida and his kidneys were not working.
“Now, I’m in college and basically trying to live life like a normal kid,” said Massella, who was reunited with Atala at TED.
“This surgery saved my life and made me who I am today.”
About 90 percent of people waiting for transplants are in need of kidneys, and the need far outweighs the supply of donated organs, according to Atala.
“There is a major health crisis today in terms of the shortage of organs,” Atala said. “Medicine has done a much better job of making us live longer, and as we age our organs don’t last.” — AFP | <urn:uuid:f200feda-47d6-4f08-9ea3-c1ee500a4f98> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://memeburn.com/2011/03/at-ted-new-technology-unveiled-to-end-need-for-kidney-donors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97115 | 343 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The drop comes after researchers found VW engineers gamed software to fool emissions tests – and meanwhile, US may see a record year for car sales.
German auto giant Volkswagen revealed that 11-million of its diesel cars worldwide are equipped with devices that can cheat pollution tests.
Six large energy companies have asked the United Nations for help in setting up a carbon pricing scheme that would include their operations.
Can government afford to reconsider the imposition of a fee for pollution given the economic stresses that the country is currently facing?
The UN climate talks in Lima, Peru, head for weakened deals in Lima on limiting global warming as meetings continue for an extra day.
During secret negotiations, the US pledged to cut its emissions by 28% by 2025 and China promised to reach a peak in emissions by 2030.
Latest research shows that eating less red meat would have a greater impact in cutting carbon emissions than giving up cars.
Badly designed, poorly laid out and under pressure – the data centre is on the verge of becoming the environmental bad boy, writes Andrew Oldfield.
A report on greenhouse gas emissions says just 90 carbon emitters, some of which are South African, are reponsible for two-thirds of global emissions.
Levies have reduced emissions and, with a few tweaks, their economic effects will be manageable.
The food being wasted yearly adds to the earth's carbon emission and means that large amounts of land is used to grow food that is not consumed.
Research shows that the global concentration of CO2 emissions has risen to a level not seen in two million years.
A commonly held view is that the private sector has large amounts of capital and is not investing it in low-carbon and other development projects.
Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have hit 400 parts per million, a level not seen in two-million years.
The heatwaves, flooding and bush fires striking Australia have already been intensified by climate change and are set to get worse, says a new report.
The carbon tax is unique in that it encourages companies to lower their carbon intensity, and create a resource efficient economy, says experts.
In an accidental discovery, scientists have found that sea urchins could provide a cheap and sustainable solution to carbon emissions. | <urn:uuid:745f0297-5f42-475a-86fc-940ca7d41be0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mg.co.za/tag/carbon-emissions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965648 | 457 | 2.546875 | 3 |
A new research reveal that : human sperm are generally at their healthiest in winter and early spring.
Based on samples from more than 6,000 men treated for infertility, researchers writing in American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology found sperm in greater numbers, with faster swimming speeds and fewer abnormalities in semen made during the winter, with a steady decline in quality from spring onward.
The scientists said :” If there is a seasonal pattern, that knowledge may ‘be of paramount importance, especially in couples with male-related infertility struggling with unsuccessful and prolonged fertility treatments’””.
The World Health Organization defines anything over 16 million sperm per milliliter of semen as a normal sperm count.According to this criterion, Eliahu Levitas found that men produced about 70 million sperm per milliliter of semen during the winter. About 5 percent of those sperm had "fast" motility, or swimming speed, which improves a couple's chance of getting pregnant. That compared to the approximately 68 million sperm per milliliter the men produced in the spring, of which only about 3 percent were "fast."
In animal studies, seasonal changes in sperm production and fertility have been demonstrated,it is rare to link to human.
More article about anthropology please click < Advances in Anthropology >. | <urn:uuid:7962e436-18ec-4d82-9652-531fbfa17521> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mingliyi.blogspot.com/2013/03/sperm-also-has-its-season.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957072 | 269 | 3.671875 | 4 |
An independent energy economist has questioned the financial viability of new low emission brown coal power generation in Victoria's Latrobe Valley.
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt says carbon emissions from the region's power stations will be at least halved within a decade.
He has pointed to research which suggests large-scale diesel injection engines that use brown coal as a fuel, could replace existing generators.
Bruce Mountain from Carbon Market Economics says it will be tough to attract any investment into new coal-fired technology, regardless of Government policy.
"It would be a high hurdle because it would have to compete against existing brown coal generators, whose capital costs have sunk already and so it would have to actually compete at the margins, so it would be doubtful that a major new technology would be viable without assistance in some way," he said. | <urn:uuid:b40f757f-e758-4721-9412-75504bbf1a8c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-16/questions-raised-over-financial-viability-of-new/5025550?pfm=sm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964476 | 164 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Below is my discussion of this topic from page 2 of my pages on the Book of Abraham (the cited references are on that page):
Figure 6: the four quarters of the earth
Figure 6 is the same as the four canopic figures under the lion couch of Facs. 1 and is said by Joseph to represent "this earth in its four quarters." How many farmers would have guessed that four little statues represented such a thing? But it is an entirely plausible explanation based on a modern understanding of Egyptian, and fits nicely into the themes of the hypocephalus. E. Wallis Budge explained, "These jars were under the protection of Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and Serqet, and represented the south, north, east, and west respectively" [Budge, 1904, 1:210]. In the forward to Budge's translation of the Book of the Dead, Budge wrote that the four "children of Horus" were each "supposed to be lord of one of the quarters of the world, and finally became the god of one of the cardinal points" [Budge, 1967, p. cxxiv, emphasis mine]. Joseph was absolutely correct.
According to John Gee [Gee, 1991], the four canopic vessels represent the four Sons of Horus, each of which has its own unique name, its own animal head, and its own cardinal direction. The link between the Sons of Horus and the cardinal directions was first established in 1857 [Brugsch, 1857], so Joseph could not have drawn upon scholarly knowledge in saying that they represented the four quarters of the earth. Indeed, there was essentially no valid knowledge of Egyptian to draw upon in 1842 when the Book of Abraham was published.
Stephen E. Thompson criticizes Joseph Smith's interpretation of Figure 4 [Thompson, 1995]. Concerning the claim of LDS scholars that the fours sons of Horus represent the four quarters of the earth, Thompson objects:
"As far as ancient Egypt is concerned, there is no evidence currently available to support this claim. There is only one context in which the sons of Horus are associated with the cardinal directions, i.e., 'the earth in its four quarters.' They were sent out, in the form of birds, as heralds of the king's coronation....I must emphasize that it is only in this context, and in the form of birds, that these gods were associated with the cardinal points. In the funerary context no such relationship is evident. Furthermore, the fact that these gods are sent to the four quarters of the earth does not mean that the Egyptians equated them with these directions. There is no evidence that they did so."Thompson's approach fascinates me. Instead of marveling at how Joseph could have guessed even a remotely plausible meaning for the canopic figures, he quibbles. After flatly stating that there is no evidence for a link to the four quarters of the earth, then he admits that there is only one context - coronations - in which such a link exists. He then denies the relevance of that link, alleging that Facsimile 2 is only a funerary scene. I wonder if he is unaware of what Hugh Nibley has been writing about Facsimile 2 for many years: that it centers around the concept of the endowment, which is the "coronation" of the resurrected soul in the kingdom of God. Indeed, non-LDS scholars acknowledge that figures of this type (the hypocephalus) are concerned with the life after, with a triumphant resurrection and entrance into eternity. It seems entirely reasonable to me to place Facsimile 2 into the context of a coronation scene, the one scene for which Thompson says the sons of Horus are linked to the four quarters of the earth. But Thompson can allow no room for plausibility in anything Joseph says.
I also disagree with Thompson's stance that only one context permits a relationship between the sons of Horus and the cardinal directions. John Gee provides others in his article. For example, in the Pyramid Texts, "the Sons of Horus are associated with the orientation of the four corners of the earth and used to orient the Pyramid" [Gee, 1991, p. 38]. They are also connected to winds from the four corners of the sky.
I feel that identifying the "four quarters" with the sons of Horus in Figure 6 is especially appropriate, since the four legs of the adjacent cow, Hathor = 'house of Horus', have a similar meaning mentioned in the quote from Campbell [discussed in connection with the upside down cow of Facs. 2 on my Book of Abraham page].
Still puzzled about Thompson's allegation, I borrowed a copy of Richard W. Wilkinson's Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art [Wilkinson, 1994] from our local library. The discussion of the Sons of Horus in Wilkinson clearly links them to the four quarters of the earth or the four cardinal directions, with no hint at all that this connection only occurred during coronation ceremonies. For example, Wilkinson's glossary entry for the Sons of Horus explains that they "were four genii or minor deities connected with the cardinal points and which guarded the viscera of the deceased. Originally human-headed, they were regularly portrayed with the heads of different creatures: Imsety, human-headed (south); Duamutef, jackal-headed (east); Hapy, ape-headed (north); Qebesenuef, falcon-headed (west)" (p. 213). His section on the meaning of the number four notes that the four Sons of Horus were one of several groups of four commonly found in Egyptian art. Then he writes, "Frequently the number [four] appears to connote totality and completeness and is tied to the four cardinal points...The four cardinal points are certainly an ancient concept.... Usually ... the four areas represent the four quarters of the earth alone. This is the case in most religious rituals which find representational expressions" [Wilkinson, 1994, pp. 133-134, emphasis mine]. He does cite the coronation of the king as well as the jubilee ceremony as examples involving the cardinal directions, but there is no hint that the connection between the four Sons of Horus and the four quarters of the earth only occurs in a narrow and limited context.
Page 145 of Wilkinson shows a photograph of canopic jars (shaped as the Sons of Horus, containing human viscera) in a decorated chest (22nd Dynasty). Each side of the chest also has one of the four Sons of Horus on it, being protected by the goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and Selket. This concept is discussed on pages 70-71 in the context of placement of coffins, which were sometimes oriented with the cardinal directions (head to the north, with the body sideways facing east). The four Sons of Horus were sometimes placed on the long sides of the coffin, with two on the west side and two on the east. Wilkinson then notes that the Son of Horus are sometimes represented on the four sides of the chests in which canopic jars were stored. Again, the Sons of Horus are linked to directions in a context other than coronation rites alone. Joseph's "four quarters of the earth" remains a "direct hit," in my eyes. Now how can the critics explain that? If Joseph were a fraud, why the direct hits?
E. Wallis Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, or Studies in Egyptian Mythology 1 (1904), as cited by Welch, Reexploring the Book of Mormon, 1992, p. 148; and 2 (1969), New York: Dover, as cited by McGregor and Shirts, p. 218.
E. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, (New York: Dover, 1967, originally published 1895).
H. Brugsch, Die Geographie des alten Aegyptens, Leipzig, 1857, pp. 30-37, as cited by Gee, 1991.
John Gee, "Notes on the Sons of Horus," FARMS paper GEE-91, Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1991.
Stephen E. Thompson, "Egyptology and the Book of Abraham," Dialogue, 28, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 143-162.
Richard W. Wilkinson, Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994). | <urn:uuid:67750ed0-7315-4f0b-9c51-102a22b15817> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2005/02/can-you-spare-four-quarters-for-old.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959087 | 1,740 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Ms. Faith Siegrist over at Classy Classroom has this great year-round Gingerbread activity in her TpT Store (and even better, it's on SaLe right now!). Here is how I put it to great use with my "on the bubble" students.
I'm always looking for great ways to get my students thinking beyond what they are reading on the page. Nothing makes me crazier than when they are going through the motions, reading the words and leaving them there on the page. This activity was just the ticket to get them thinking!
Gingerbread in Disguise suggests a handful of Gingerbread Man books to accompany this lesson, however my school library is extremely limited so I improvised and used a classic Gingerbread Man book. The greatest thing about this activity is she included SO MANY different activities and opportunities to differentiate, which is right up my Title I alley. I chose to use the fill-in-the-blank story for my 1st graders. First, we read the book and discussed all of the gingerbread man's dilemmas and options. This quickly led into my students suggesting that he could either hide or disguise himself (perfect!). We then talked further about disguising our gingerbread men (or girls). After discussion I gave them each a black and white gingerbread to disguise. (Mrs. Siegrist suggests having students use classroom materials such as foil or yarn to disguise your gingerbread man, but I didn't have those supplies. Instead we went with the good ol' crayons and colored pencils. Worked like a charm!)
My students LOVED decorating their gingerbread people and thinking of clever ways to disguise them. We then worked together to fill in the blanks on the provided worksheet. Then we took it a step further and I had my students rewrite their stories on the "First/Next/Then/Last organizer" and they drew pictures of their disguised gingerbread people to reinforce their understanding of what they were writing.
The students were so proud of their project, they insisted I hang it for their classroom teachers to see when they passed by, so that's exactly what I did. My classroom is right next to the office, so everyone passing by got a chance to stop and read about our gingerbread people.
I will tell you, at first I chose to do this activity right before winter break because I was thinking, gingerbread = Christmas time, but don't be fooled. This activity can be done anytime of year, just as the Gingerbread Man is a classic no matter what month it is.
I hope you will stop over and visit Mrs. Siegrist, she's sweet as pie and has some really great items in her store. Just click on either of the links below and enjoy!
Looking for a whole collection of great products reviewed by fellow teachers? Head on over the Mrs. Stanford's Class! | <urn:uuid:c6c311a6-42e9-4854-93a2-a03afe476628> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mrsnuttersreaders.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974742 | 593 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Al-Jazari (1136-1206) was an important Arab Muslim scholar. He was an inventor and mechanical engineer who gained fame and glory with his famous book of mechanics Al-Jami `bayn al-`ilm wa 'l-`amal al-nafi `fi sina `at al-hiyal (A Compendium on the Theory and Useful Practice of the Mechanical Arts), the most significant treatise of the Islamic tradition of mechanical engineering and a ground breaking work in the history of technology. Some 800 years after his death, modern history of science is appealed to give him credit and celebrate his work.
Al-Jazari's life and environment
Al-Jazari(1136-1206) was an important Arab Muslim scholar. He was an inventor and mechanical engineer who gained fame and glory with his famous book of mechanics, Al-Jami `bayn al-`ilm wa 'l-`amal al-nafi `fi sina `at al-hiyal (A Compendium on the Theory and Useful Practice of the Mechanical Arts), the most significant treatise of the Islamic tradition of mechanical engineering and a ground breaking work in the history of technology. Some 800 years after his death, modern history of science is appealed to give him credit and celebrate his work.
Al-Jazari's greatest treatise has always aroused great interest from historians of technology and historians of art. Indeed, alongside his accomplishments as an inventor and engineer, al-Jazari was also an accomplished artist. The surviving manuscripts of his book provide detailed instructions for all of his inventions and illustrate them using miniature paintings, a medieval style of Islamic art, to make it possible for a reader to reconstruct his inventions.
To have an idea of the innovative work of al-Jazari in the history of technology, we quote this sentence from the historian Lynn White who writes: "Segmental gears first clearly appear in al-Jazari, in the West they emerge in Giovanni de Dondi's astronomical clock finished in 1364, and only with the great Sienese engineer Francesco di Giorgio (1501) did they enter the general vocabulary of European machine design ."
Donald R. Hill, the English historian who was an academic authority in the history of Islamic mechanics and engineering, wrote in Studies in Medieval Islamic Technology: "It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance of al-Jazari's work in the history of engineering. Until modern times there is no other document from any cultural area that provides a comparable wealth of instructions for the design, manufacture and assembly of machines… Al-Jazari did not only assimilate the techniques of his non-Arab and Arab predecessors, he was also creative. He added several mechanical and hydraulic devices. The impact of these inventions can be seen in the later designing of steam engines and internal combustion engines, paving the way for automatic control and other modern machinery. The impact of al-Jazari's inventions is still felt in modern contemporary mechanical engineering ."
Due to his fundamental mechanical inventions, al-Jazari has been described as the "father of modern day engineering", and due to his invention of an early programmable humanoid robot, he has been hailed as the "father of robotics". Actually, he should be considered just as important an inventor as Leonardo da Vinci.
Al-Jazari's full name is given at the beginning of his book as "al-Shaykh Ra'is al-A`mal Badi`al-Zaman Abu al-‘Izz ibn Isma`il ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari." The title Ra'is al-A`mal indicates that he was a chief engineer, while Badi`al-Zaman and al-Shaykh are titles of honour indicating respectively that he was unique and unrivalled and a learned, dignified person. The word ‘Al-Jazari' indicates that his family came from Jazirat ibn ‘Umar in Diyar Bakr. Another hypothesis is hat he was named after the area in which he was born, al-Jazira –the traditional Arabic name for what was northern Mesopotamia and what is now northern Iraq and north-eastern Syria, between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
|Figure 1: Picture of one of al-Jazari's automatic machines: a musical toy in the form of a boat. From a manuscript of his book copied in Syria in 715 H/1315 CE (opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper). (Source).|
We do not know the date of his birth and our information about his life is obtained from his book. Like his father before him, he served as chief engineer at the Artuqid court, while serving the Diyarbakir branch of the Turkish Artuqid dynasty which ruled across eastern Anatolia. Al-Jazari was in the service of three Artuqid rulers: Nur al-Din Muhammad ibn Arslan (570-581 H/ 1174-1185), Qutb al-Din Sukman ibn Muhammad (681-697 H/ 1185-1200) and Nasir al-Din Mahmud ibn Muhammad (597-619 H/ 1200-1222).
It was in response to the request of Nasir al-Din Mahmud that al-Jazari wrote his book. He says in his introduction that he started his service at the Artuqid court in the year 570 H/1174, and that when he started writing the book he had already spent twenty five years in the service of Nur al-Din Muhammad, the father, and Qutb al-Din Sukman, the brother. From this information we conclude that probably al-Jazari started writing his book in the year 595/1198, two years before Nasir al-Din became king. From the Oxford manuscript copy of al-Jazari's treatise we learn that al-Jazari finished writing his book on 4 Jumada the Second, 602 H/ 16 January 1206. The oldest extant copy (preserved in Topkapi Sarayi Libray, Ahmet III collection, MS 3472) was completed by Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn ‘Uthman al-Haskafiat the end of Sha'ban 602 H/ 10 April 1206. From al-Haskafi's colophon we learn that al-Jazari was not living at this date. From these indications and other data, it may be concluded that he died in the year 602 H/1206, just few months after he had completed his work.
amid, now known as Diyar Bakr, where al-Jazari did most of his engineering research, is situated on the left bank of the Tigris. Travellers who visited the city during the 11th century admired its prosperity and enjoyed a period of peace and stability. Thus al-Jazari lived in the court of the Artuqid kings under conditions favorable for the invention and construction of his machines and for writing .
Al-Jazari's Magnum Opus book
The title of the oldest manuscript of al-Jazari's book is: al-Jami `bayn al-`ilm wa 'l-`amal al-nafi` fi sina`at al-hiyal (A Compendium on the Theory and Useful Practice of the Mechanical Arts). The Arabic edition published by Ahmad Y. al-Hassan in 1979 carries this title. The English translation published by Donald R. Hill in 1974 carries the title Book of Knowledge of Mechanical Devices. This translation was based mainly on MS Graves 27 of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, where the Arabic title is Kitab fima`rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya. Between 1915 and 1921, two German scholars Wiedemann and Hauser published in German a series of seven articles in which they covered the six categories using the Bodleian copy .
The book describes in detail fifty devices (ashkal), which are grouped into six categories (anwa`):
1) ten water and candle clocks;
2) ten vessels and figures suited for drinking sessions;
3) ten pitchers and basins for phlebotomy and washing before prayers;
4) ten fountains that change their shape alternately, and machines for the perpetual flute;
5) five water raising machines;
6) five miscellaneous devices.
Each device or shakl is described in simple Arabic that is easy to understand, and each is accompanied by a general drawing. There are fifty of these and are numbered by the letters of the Arabic alphabet from one to fifty. For the complicated devices al-Jazari gave detailed drawings for the components of a device or for subassemblies so that the operation could be understood. The edited version of his book based on the surviving manuscripts, contains a total of 174 drawings. An alphabet letter marks each part in a device. The text explains the construction of the device with the aid of the letters so that the reader can understand the device by reading the text and referring to the illustrations.
The published Arabic text edited by al-Hassan enumerates fifteen manuscripts of al-Jazari's book in world libraries with one only probably in private hands. One is a Persian translation . The best five manuscripts were used in arriving at the final printed text. The main one, however, was MS Ahmet III 3472 in the Topkapi Sarayi Librarary, Istanbul. This is the closest copy to the time when al-Jazari completed his writing in 602 H/1206.
Al-Jazari's achievements in the history of mechanical engineering
|Figure 2: Drawing of al-Jazari's "Elephant Clock" depicted by Fakhr ibn 'Abd al-Latif on a leaf. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New Yourk. Online here.|
Al-Jazari's book deals with a whole range of devices and machines, with a multiplicity of purposes. What they have in common is the considerable degree of engineering skill required for their manufacture, and the use of delicate mechanisms and sensitive control systems. Many of the ideas employed in the construction of ingenious devices were useful in the later development of mechanical technology.
The American pioneer historian of science George Sarton says about the special status of al-Jazari's book in the history of science and technology: "this treatise is the most elaborate of its kind and may be considered the climax of this line of Moslem achievement ." Donald R. Hill concludes also that "until modern times there is no other document, from any cultural area, that provides a comparable wealth of instructions for the design, manufacture and assembly of machines ."
Al-Jazari inherited the knowledge of his predecessors, but he improved on their designs and added devices of his own invention. The merit of his book is that it was the only book to discuss such a large variety of devices and to present them with text, illustrations and dimensions so that a skilled craftsman is able to construct any device on the basis of al-Jazari's description. This is why several of his inventions were reproduced, from the monumental water clock created for the World of Islam Festival in 1976, until the huge "Elephant clock" that stands 8 meters high in the "India" court at the Ibn Battuta shopping mall in Dubai and the recreation by FSTC scholars in Manchester of 3D-model animations of some machines of al-Jazari, such as the reciprocating pump with a water wheel as the drive source. The recreated machines as well as their animated models proved to be real machines, working perfectly well, and far from being just toys described in al-Jazari's book, as some historians have assumed erroneously.
|Figure 3: The huge "Elephant clock" that stands 8 meters high in the "India" court at the Ibn Battuta shopping mall in Dubai (free photograph by Jonathan Bowen, 2007.) To see the animation of the 3D-model recreated by FSTC of the elephant clock, click here.|
Many of al-Jazari's components and techniques were useful in the development of modern mechanical engineering. These include the static balancing of large pulley wheels; calibration of orifices; use of wooden templates; use of paper models in design; lamination of timber to prevent warping; the grinding of the seats and plugs of valves together with emery powder to obtain a watertight fit; casting of brass and copper in closed mold boxes with greensand; use of tipping buckets that discharge their contents automatically; and the use of segmental gears.
Al-Jazari's double acting piston pump is unique. It is remarkable for three reasons:
- it incorporates an effective means of converting rotary into reciprocating motion through the crank-connecting-rod mechanism;
- it makes use of the double-acting principle; and
- it is the first pump known to have had true suction pipes.
|Figure 4: The reciprocating pump from al-Jazari's manuscript, Topkapi Palace Museum Library, Ahmet III 3472. (Source).|
Al-Jazari occupies an important place in the history of automata, automatic control, robotics and automated musical theaters. His pioneering work is duly acknowledged in most histories. The inventions of al-Jazari are a source of inspiration to modern designers such as the use of rolling balls to sound the hours on cymbals and operate automata. This concept is currently used in toys and other devices and their makers had registered patents in their names.
Al-Jazari described a combination lock. There are now in world museums three combination locks that were made in the same period of al-Jazari. Although they are simpler than the lock of al-Jazari, they follow the same principle. Two were made around 597 H/1200 CE by Muhammad b. Hamid al-Asturlabi al-Isfahani and are located in Copenhagen and Boston. The third is in Maastricht, Holland. The first combination lock in Europe was described by Buttersworth in 1846 and the wheels of this lock are strikingly similar to the discs of al-Jazari .
All illustrations in al-Jazari's book are in color, and among the fifty main drawings are miniatures that are of great artistic merit. This resulted in the disappearance of some of these paintings from the manuscripts and they found their way to the international museums of art or to private collections.
Historians of art are of the opinion that there existed at the court of the Artuqids in amid a school of painting that produced narrative paintings of great value. Three of the existing al-Jazari's manuscripts were illustrated by members of this school.
|Figure 5: 3D-model recreated by FSTC of the reciprocating pump with a water wheel as the drive source. To see animation of the pump, click here.|
The elephant clock
One of the most significant inventions of al-Jazari was the famous elephant clock, consisting of a water-powered clock in the form of an elephant. The various elements of the clock are in the housing on top of the elephant. The various elements that compose this clock move and make a sound every half hour. This device is reminiscent of the elaborate clocks found on medieval town halls in Europe, which made the passage of time more entertaining with the performance of the moving figures.
A modern full-size working reproduction can be found as a centrepiece in the Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai.
The timing mechanism is based on a water-filled bucket hidden inside the elephant. In the bucket is a deep bowl floating in the water, but with a small hole in the centre. The bowl takes half an hour to fill through this hole. In the process of sinking, the bowl pulls a string attached to a see-saw mechanism in the tower on top of the elephant. This releases a ball that drops into the mouth of a serpent, causing the serpent to tip forward. At the same time, a system of strings causes a figure in the tower to raise either the left or right hand and the mahout (elephant driver at the front) to hit a drum. This indicates a half or full hour. Next the snake tips back again and the sunken bowl is raised out of the water. The cycle then repeats .
This was the first clock in which an automaton reacted after certain intervals of time. In the mechanism, a humanoid automata strikes the cymbal and a mechanical bird chirps, like in the later cuckoo clock, after every hour.
The elephant clock of al-Jazari was the first mechanism to employ a flow regulator, which was used to determine the time when the clock strikes at hourly intervals. The hourly intervals were determined with the use of a small opening in a submersible float, which was calibrated to give the required rates of flow under different water rates.
This appears to be the earliest example of a closed-loop system in a mechanism. The clock functioned as long as there were metal balls in its magazine.
The different mechanical and artistic components of the Elephant clock of Al-Jazari reflect the contributions of Greek, Egyptian, Indian, Chinese and Muslim civilisations. This is why it was called rightly a clock of civilisations, a device in which met influences going back to different cultures, as it was currently the case in the past, and especially in the Islamic civilisation .
References and resources
1. Articles on al-Jazari in www.MuslimHeritage.com
- Al-Jazari - the Mechanical Genius
- The Machines of Al-Jazari and Taqi Al-Din
- Automation and Robotics in Muslim Heritage: The Cultural Roots of al-Jazari's Mechanical Systems
- Attempts of Flight, Automatic Machines, Submarines and Rocket Technology in Turkish History
- The Clock of Civilisations
- A Review of Early Muslim Control Engineering
- Muslim Heritage Videos
- Transfer of Islamic Technology to the West
- Pioneers of Automatic Control Systems
- When Ridhwan al-Sa'ati Anteceded Big Ben by More than Six Centuries
- The Mechanics of Banu Musa in the Light of Modern System and Control Engineering
- Water Management and Hydraulic Technology
2. Further resources and works
- Aiken, Jane Andrew, "Truth in Images: From the Technical Drawings of ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari, Campanus of Novarra and Giovanni de' Dondi to the Perspective Projection of Leon Battista Alberti", Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies, vol. 25 (1994): pp. 325-359. BBC & Open University, What the Ancients Did for Us, Episode 1, "The Islamic World".
- Al-Hassan, Ahmad Yusuf and Hill, Donald Routledge, Islamic Technology. An Illustrated History. UNESCO/Cambridge University Press, 1986. French translation: Sciences et techniques en islam, Paris: Edifra, 1991.
- Al-Hassan, Ahmad Yusuf, Al Jazari and the History of the Water Clock.
- Al-Hassan, A. Y., The Origin of the Suction Pump: Al-Jazari (1206 A.D).
- Ahmad Y Hassan, Transfer Of Islamic Technology To The West, Part II: Transmission Of Islamic Engineering.
- Al-Hassan, Ahmad Y, The Crank-Connecting Rod System in a Continuously Rotating Machine.
- Al-Hassani, Salim, Muslim Engineer: Al-Jazari.
- Al-Hassani, Salim, Al-Jazari: the Mechanical Genius (2001).
- Al-Hassani, Salim, The Machines of Al-Jazari and Taqi Al-Din. (2004).
- Al-Hassani, Salim, and Abattouy, Mohammed, "La pompe hydraulique d'al-Jazari(début du 13ème siècle)", L'Islam des découvertes. Paris: Editions Le Pommier (forthcoming in 2008).
- Hariri, F. 1997. Study and Analysis of the Water Machines in the book entitled `A Compendium of the Theory and Practice of the Mechanical Arts by al-Jazari'. Applying Modern systems on Control Engineering. Master Thesis. Aleppo: Aleppo University (in Arabic), 1997.
- Hill, Donald R., "Technology and Mechanics (Hiyal)". In The Genius of Arab Civilization: Source of Renaissance, edited by John Hayes, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, 1983, pp. 203-217.
- Hill, D. R., History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times, London: Croom Helm, 1984.
- Hill, D. R., "Islamic Fine Technology and its Influence on the Development of European Horology", Al-Abhath (American University of Beirut), vol. 35 (1987): pp. 8-28.
- Hill, D. R., "Mechanical Engineering in the Medieval Near East", Scientific American, May 1991, p. 64-69.
- Hill, D. R. "Arabic Mechanical Engineering: Survey of the Historical Sources", Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), vol. 1 (1991): pp. 167-186.
- Hill, D. R., Islamic Science and Engineering. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993.
- Hill, D. R. "From Philo to al-Jazzari". In Learning Language and Invention. Essays Presented to Francis Maddison, edited by D. W. Hackmann & A. J. Turne. Aldershot: Variorum, 1994, pp. 188-206.
- Hill, D. R., A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times, London/New York: Routledge, 1996.
- Hill, D. R., "Engineering". In Encyclopaedia of the History of Arabic Science, edited by Roshdi Rashed. London and New York: Routledge, 1996, vol. 2, pp. 751-795.
- Hill, D. R. Studies in Medieval Islamic Technology: From Philo to al-Jazari--From Alexandria to Diyar Bakr, edited by David A. King. Aldershot, Eng./Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1998, Variorum Collected Studies Series.
- Hill, D.R., "Mechanical Technology" and "Civil Engineering". In The Different Aspects of Islamic Culture, edited by A. Y. Hassan, Yusuf Iskandar, Albert Zaki and Ahmad Maqbul. Vol. 4: Science and Technology in Islam, Parts I-II. Paris: UNESCO, 2001.
- Jazari, al-, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices: Kitáb fí ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya, translated by D. R.. Hill. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1974.
- Jazari, al-, Al-Jami` bayn al-`ilm wa 'l-`amal al-nafi` fi sina`at al-hiyal. Edited by Ahmad Y. al-Hassan. Aleppo: Institute for the History of Arabic Science, 1979.
- Jazari, al-, Al-Jami` bayn al-`ilm wa 'l-`amal al-nafi` fi sina`at al-hiyal. Compendium on the Theory and Practice of the Mechanical Arts. Edited by F. Sezgin. Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabish-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 2003.
- [Jazari, al-], The Automata of Al-Jazari. The Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul.
- Nick, Martin, "Al-Jaziri (sic!): The Ingenious 13th Century Muslim Mechanic", http://www.alshindagah.com/marapr2005/jaziri.html
- Kumarasvami, Ananda K. The Treatise of Al-Jazari on Automata Leaves from a Manuscript of the Kitab fi Ma'arifat al-Hiyal al-Handasiya in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Elsewhere, Boston: Museum of fine arts, Boston. Communications to the trustees, VI, 1924.
- [Mostra (= exhibition)], Le Origini della scienza moderna nella reciproca
influenza tra Islam ed Europa: Da al-Jazari a Leonardo da Vinci.
- [Sezgin, ed.] Badi` Azzaman al-Jazari (d. after 1206). Texts and Studies. Collected and reprinted by F. Sezgin et al. (Natural Sciences in Islam, 41). Frankfurt: Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabish-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 2001.
- Sheffield University, A 13th Century Programmable Robot.
- Kâhya, Esin & Dosay Gökdogan, Melek & Demir, Remzi Gazi & Topdemir, Hüseyin & Unat, Yavuz, Cezeri, Yesterday and Today (in Turkish). University of Ankara, Faculty of Letters, Research of the History of Science in Turkey, 2003.
- [Wikipedia]. Al-Jazari (From Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia).
- Yavuz Unat, "Two Scientists in the History of Technology: Jazari and Taqi al-Din" (in Turkish). Proceedings of the Congress `Turkish Science and Technology', edited by Emre Dölen and Mustafa Kaçar. Istanbul: The Turkish Society for History of Science, 2003, pp. 75-94.
D. R. Hill, Studies in Medieval Islamic Technology, 1998, II, pp. 231-232.
A new manuscript never used before in all the earlier work done on al-Jazariis MS Orient fol. 3306 preserved at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin; it is descibed in Mohammed Abattouy, "A New Arabic Text of Mechanics: Sinan ibn Thabit on the Theory of Simple Machines", forthcoming.
See British Library: Supplementary Handlist of Persian Manuscripts, 1966-1998, London: The British Library Publishing, 1998.
G. Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, 3 vols. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1927-1948, vol.2: p. 510.
D. R. Hill, Studies in Medieval Islamic Technology, edited by D. A. King, Ashgate, 1998, p. 231.
Salim al-Hassani, "The Machines of Al-Jazari and Taqi Al-Din". See also this article including a photograph of the Ibn Battuta Mall elephant clock and this page providing information on a page from al-Jazari's manuscript preserved in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
See the presentation "Clock of Civilisations" by FSTC, 12 September 2007 at York University: click here for the flyer of this presentation and see this general description by Muslim Heritage Consulting: The Elephant Clock. | <urn:uuid:e6503ded-ebeb-4c25-baf9-49d1d97d9e3d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://muslimheritage.com/article/800-years-later-memory-al-jazari-genius-mechanical-engineer?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926644 | 5,793 | 3.140625 | 3 |
The Paleontology Division is an active research and learning environment. Our scientists are constantly working to understand the lives and deaths of the fossil plants and animals housed in our collections.
Collecting new specimens in the field is essential to paleontology. New fossils are always being revealed by erosion, and there are countless new sites that have never been visited.
More on Paleontology Field Collecting
Current Projects include:
Dogs of the Juntura Formation
For much of the last 30 million years, dogs and their relatives have been some of the most important carnivores in North America. The Late Miocene (9 million years ago) was an especially important period in dog evolution, both because it saw the appearance of the giant, bear-sized Epicyon and because it marks the beginning of the diversification of the group that includes all living dogs, foxes, and wolves. John Orcutt and Samantha Hopkins describe the dogs found in southeast Oregon's Juntura Formation, which dates to the Late Miocene. It includes fossils of Epicyon and a small, fox-like dog, as well as the rare skeleton of the medium-sized dog Carpocyon. These finds are important not just because of what they reveal about the evolution of dogs, but because they allow age estimates for other sites across the Northwest in which similar animals have been found. Here is a link to the abstract of the paper.
Giant Felid (Cat) of the Miocene
John Orcutt, Edward Davis, and David Levering are currently describing specimens of a giant felid (cat) from the late Miocene of eastern Oregon. Currently, the cat is known only from fragmentary bones of the front limb: a piece of ulna from McKay Reservoir and a piece of humerus from Juntura. We think this animal may be the same as one described by J.C. Merriam in 1911 from Thousand Creek, NV. The cat was bigger than a modern tiger. It was likely a top predator, like a tiger, which would explain its rarity in fossil deposits.
Pronghorn from Thousand Creek, NV
Edward Davis and Jonathan Calede are describing the astragalus (ankle bone) variation of Ilingoceros alexandrae and Sphenophalos nevadensis, two kinds of pronghorn antelope from the late Miocene fossil site at Thousand Creek. These species have very different horn styles, implying different mating systems. Surprisingly, the other bones of their skeletons are almost identical, including their ankle bones (astraguli).
Evolution of Headgear in Ruminants
Edward Davis, working with Andrew Lee of Ohio University and Katie Brakora of UC Berkeley, is investigating the origin and evolution of headgear (horns, antlers, pronghorns) in ruminant artiodactyls. Until recently, the evidence suggested that horns on bovids (cows, sheep, goats, and African antelope), antlers on cervids (deer, moose, and elk), ossicones on giraffids (giraffe and okapi), and pronghorns on Antilocapra americana (the pronghorn antelope) all evolved independently. Our research has generated new insights about the family trees of these animals and the way they grow their horns and antlers, and suggest that this was not the case. You can read the paper free online at Proceedings B.
Evolution of Digging in Small Mammals
Samantha Hopkins, Curator of Paleontology and assistant professor in the Clark Honors College, is studying the evolution of digging behavior in small mammals, such as gophers and moles. Measurements taken from fossil and living skeletons shed light on the levers in arms, legs, and heads that animals use to make their burrows. Insights about the evolution of these levers can be made by comparing incompletely preserved skeletons of fossil animals to the complete skeletons of living animals.
Evolution of Cambrian and Precambrian Soils
Greg Retallack has been looking at soil formation in very ancient rocks--before mammals, trees, or land plants--in Cambrian and Precambrian sedimentary sequences of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia (more than 540 million years ago). Fossil soils are surprisingly well preserved and diverse in these ancient rocks of river floodplains. Some of these paleosols (fossil soils) reveal evidence for life on land, which includes some of the classical Ediacaran fossils, traditionally regarded as marine organisms. The increase in soil development and diversity through time is new evidence for the early history of life on land. | <urn:uuid:d1434789-c0ce-45a0-ba69-4d46f4c74e03> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/research/paleontological-research | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939235 | 963 | 3.359375 | 3 |
On September 3, 1855, the U.S. Army's 600-man Sioux Expedition,
commanded by Col. William
S. Harney, attacked and destroyed a Lakota village located three miles north on Blue Creek. The
fight became known as the Battle of Blue Water, sometimes the Battle of Ash Hollow after the nearby landmark, or the Harney Massacre.
The army's attack avenged the Indian annihilation of Lt. John
Grattan's command near Fort
Laramie in 1854. Harney concluded the more than 250 Brules and Oglalas camped on Blue
Creek were the guilty parties. He divided his force and led his infantry towards the village. While
Harney engaged in a delaying parley with Chief Little Thunder, the mounted troops had circled
undetected to the north.
The infantry opened fire with its new, long-range rifles and
forced the Indians to flee toward the
mounted soldiers, who inflicted terrible casualties. Eighty-six Indians were killed, seventy
women and children were captured, and their tipis were looted and burned. This first, yet often
overlooked, military campaign against the Lakota kept the Overland Trail open, but only
postponed until 1863-64 a war between the two nations.
Erected in memory of Dennis Shimmin
Ash Hollow State Historical Park Superintendent, 1968-1998.
Nebraska State Historical Society
U.S. 26, 1 1/2 miles west of Lewellen | <urn:uuid:900e915c-a94b-4136-b69f-c2ac9017d489> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nebraskahistory.org/publish/markers/texts/battle_of_blue_water.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974685 | 313 | 3.5625 | 4 |
|Simulated into extinction?|
Scientists at the Brown University have, using climate models, simulated the fate of the 15 species of frog in the US. None of the frogs are currently endangered, but after going through the Brown simulation, "eight species would be extinct or, at best, endangered in 2100".
Here is one of the new findings:
For example, during the latter half of this century, the speckled black salamander could expand from its range in northern California, north into Oregon. However, in the simulation, climate fluctuations rendered areas along that path unsuitable — for example, between 2071 and 2080 — preventing the animal from spreading toward Washington.
Read the entire article here
Isn´t it amazing, how the scientists are able to pinpoint that some "climate fluctuations" in areas north of California are going to stop the northward trek of the speckled black salamanders towards Washington state, exactly during the years 2071-2080. (Please note, that the salamanders "roads" are still open in 2070. Hopefully most of the amphibians will hit the road latest by then!).
Welcome to the wonderful world of climate modelling! | <urn:uuid:9382ac8b-39e3-47b0-a551-d83a0d6c8cf1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://newnostradamusofthenorth.blogspot.com/2011_10_02_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934571 | 244 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are thought to be infected with hepatitis C
Scientists looking for a treatment for a dangerous liver virus have found new ways to study it in the laboratory.
For the first time, a US team managed to watch the progress of a rare strain of hepatitis C among liver cells kept alive in a lab dish.
In the journal, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they say it could lead to easier drug testing.
However, a UK expert said the method needed to work with more common hepatitis strains.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are thought to be infected with hepatitis C.
For most, it is an asymptomatic infection, but a small percentage, often many years later, develop liver cancer or failure.
One of the obstacles to the disease's study is that while many types of human cells can be grown successfully in the laboratory, liver cells have always been problematic.
After a very short while in a lab dish, the cells normally change or "differentiate" into forms which no longer behave in the same way.
The researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were able to extend their useful life by weeks by using a lab dish with a tiny pattern on its base.
This directed the cells to exactly the right place, and allowed other types of cells, called fibroblasts, to align with the liver cells.
This was important because fibroblasts are known to support the growth of liver cells.
Professor Sangeeta Bhatia, who led the research alongside scientists from Rockefeller University in New York, said: "If you just put cells on a surface in an unorganised way, they lose their function very quickly - if you specify which cells sit next to each other, you can extend the lifetime of the cells and help them maintain their function."
In addition, the team managed to infect their cells with a strain of hepatitis C, opening the opportunity for potential drugs to be tested over a two or three-week period.
William Rosenberg, a professor of hepatology at University College London, said that the research represented a "significant advance".
He added: "This is a tool which can be used to study hepatitis C in more detail, and with greater accuracy, than existing culture systems."
However, the cells were infected with a strain of hepatitis C responsible for a very small number of very severe cases of the illness, and Professor Roger Williams, also from University College London.
He said that the success would have to be repeated using more common strains.
"What they have managed to do is interesting, but this is a very unusual strain, and patients with this form of 'fulminant hepatitis' are very different to those with other strains of the virus." | <urn:uuid:bb7bd59f-a699-4b07-a4a0-db5b2165315c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8479301.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963297 | 562 | 3.5625 | 4 |
FRIDAY, May 23, 2014 (HealthDay News) — The size of a brain aneurysm does not play a major role in its risk of bursting, a new study finds.
A brain aneurysm occurs when a blood vessel in the brain weakens and balloons out. If it bursts, it causes a bleeding (hemorrhagic) stroke that typically results in brain damage or death.
Finnish researchers analyzed data from aneurysm patients who were followed for their entire lives, and found that about one-third of all aneurysms burst, including about one-quarter of small aneurysms.
The size of the aneurysm had little effect on its risk for rupture, particularly among men. Rupture risk was particularly high among women who smoked and had aneurysms that were 7 millimeters (mm) or more in diameter. The risk of rupture was exceptionally low among men who didn’t smoke.
“This is not to say that aneurysms in nonsmoking men never rupture, but that the risk is much lower than we previously thought. This means treating every unruptured aneurysm may be unnecessary if one is discovered in a nonsmoking man with low blood pressure,” study author Dr. Seppo Juvela said in a University of Helsinki news release.
Previous short-term studies have concluded that the size of an aneurysm is the most important risk factor for rupture. This has led to small (less than 7 mm in diameter) aneurysms often being left untreated.
The study findings were published online May 22 in the journal Stroke.
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about brain aneurysms. | <urn:uuid:e4f39135-3a71-4cc5-b7a0-ebd2d90e67a1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.health.com/2014/05/23/size-of-brain-aneurysm-doesnt-predict-chances-of-rupture-study/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970018 | 370 | 3.046875 | 3 |
James Hansen, a former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies who was one of the first scientists to raise concerns about global climate change, spoke at MIT Tuesday in the biennial David J. Rose Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE).
Richard Lester, the Japan Steel Industry Professor at MIT and department head of NSE, said in introductory remarks that Hansen “may well be the world’s best-known climate scientist.” Hansen came to prominence in the late 1980s, when he first testified before Congress about the perils of accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — testimony that “had a galvanizing effect,” Lester said.
“I think it’s really important that young people understand the situation that we older people are leaving them with,” said Hansen, currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. “It’s going to be extraordinarily difficult to deal with … and I’ve become frustrated with governments that don’t recognize their responsibilities to future generations.”
He said that while it may not have been apparent during this year’s harsh winter in the Boston area, “the planet was actually extremely warm in January, February, and March” — in fact, he added, the readings for those months were the warmest for that season in recorded history. That wasn’t obvious locally, Hansen said, merely because, “We’re stuck in this pattern where the eastern part of North America has been extremely cold.”
That pattern, Hansen suggested, may be related to a cold patch in the North Atlantic, generated by increasing meltwater from Greenland, that may portend a slowdown of the present Atlantic circulation system. Overall, he said, 2014 was the warmest on record, and 2015 is on track to exceed it.
“We have an emergency,” Hansen said. He pointed out that there is a lag in the climate system, so the planet has not yet finished warming from the greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere. “And we’re adding more all the time,” he added.
What’s more, the response to this increase in greenhouse gases is likely to be extremely nonlinear, he said: “It just turns out that our climate system is dominated by amplifying feedbacks … so there’s a danger that the system is going to run out of control.”
“The things that we need to do actually make sense for other reasons,” Hansen stressed, “but they’re not being pursued, and frankly they’re not even being proposed by governments.”
Some effects of climate change, he said, are simply irreversible. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has projected that 25 to 50 percent of all species on Earth could be extinct by 2100 if energy use continues on its current trajectory. The loss of ice sheets is essentially also irreversible, since it takes thousands of years for these sheets to accumulate.
While most policy recommendations have focused on trying to limit greenhouse gas emissions to a level that would produce warming of no more than 2 degrees Celsius, that is “actually a disaster scenario, in my opinion,” Hansen said: It would likely cause so much melting of ice sheets that the resulting sea-level rise would render most of the world’s coastal cities uninhabitable.
Rebalancing the system
“We have to rebalance the planet’s energy balance,” Hansen said. Earlier calculations, he said, had indicated that would require a sustained reduction of 6 percent annually in global carbon emissions — a very difficult target to meet — but more recent measurements have shown that the planet is absorbing more carbon dioxide than scientists had expected, so the actual needed reduction may be less.
“The science is crystal clear,” Hansen said: We can’t afford to burn even the already known reserves of fossil fuel. And avoiding that, he said, will require a substantial increase in the use of nuclear power.
“We need to be realistic in looking at the available energy sources,” he said, pointing out that solar and wind energy still represent only about 3 percent of global energy supply.
“If we could decarbonize electricity, then we could solve the problem,” Hansen added: Even liquid fuels for transportation can be manufactured using alternative sources of electricity. Sweden, he noted, has already achieved essentially carbon-free electricity, thanks to a combination of nuclear power and abundant hydropower; France is nearing this goal, thanks mostly to its extensive use of nuclear power. Both countries, he said, produced most of their nuclear infrastructure within a decade, “so that has been the fastest way to decarbonize that has been demonstrated so far.”
Fossil fuels have been artificially cheap because their true costs to society, including pollution and climate change, have been ignored, Hansen said. To counter that, he added, what’s needed is “to put a rising fee, a tax, on carbon emissions,” which would be collected at the source, and then returned directly to the public.
“That would be a huge incentive for entrepreneurs to develop no-carbon and low-carbon energy and products,” Hansen said. And by returning the money to the people, he said, those who achieve the greatest reductions in carbon use would reap the greatest profit. Projections show that such an approach could reduce U.S. carbon emissions by more than half within 20 years — and create 3 million new jobs in the process.
“I think you need to be open-minded,” Hansen said. “We should be looking at all the carbon-free energy sources, and figuring out what their contribution should be — and frankly, the market should be helping us do it. … We should have a carbon-free energy portfolio, and let the market find what is the least expensive way. We should be doing [research and development] on all the good candidates, and certainly nuclear is one of them.” | <urn:uuid:29e9b828-eddd-4b7c-9e1b-8de8d1a1e4d3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.mit.edu/2015/james-hansen-climate-change-rose-lecture-0416 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959392 | 1,275 | 2.71875 | 3 |
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A village of Palestine, fifteen furlongs, or one mile and three-quarters, east of Jerusalem, at the base of the southwestern slope of the Mount of Olives. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament; in the New Testament it comes into prominence as the Village of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and as the scene of the great miracle of the raising of Lazarus to life by Jesus. Here Jesus often received hospitality in the house of his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; and near this village Jesus ascended into Heaven. The most accepted etymology of the name is Beit-æAniaæ, "House of Misery". The Talmud derives the name from Beit-Hine, or Betæuni, "House of Dates". The modern name of the village is el-æAzariye, so called from the memory of Lazarus. The initial letter of the name Lazarus is elided in Arabic after the l of the article.
Some believe that the present village of Bethany does not occupy the site of the ancient village; but that it grew up around the traditional cave which they suppose to have been at some distance from the house of Martha and Mary in the village; Zanecchia (La Palestine d'aujourd'hui, 1899, I, 445f.) places the site of the ancient village of Bethany higher up on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, not far from the accepted site of Bethphage, and near that of the Ascension. It is quite certain that the present village formed about the traditional tomb of Lazarus, which is in a cave in the village. The identification of this cave as the tomb of Lazarus is merely possible; it has no strong intrinsic or extrinsic authority. The site of the ancient village may not precisely coincide with the present one, but there is every reason to believe that it was in this general location. St. Jerome testifies: "Bethany is a village at the second milestone from Aelia [Jerusalem], on the slope of the Mount of Olives, where the Savior raised Lazarus to life, to which event the church now built there bears witness" (Onom. ed. Lagarde 1008, 3).
In the early ages this church was called the "Lazarium" and held in great veneration. Towards the close of the fourth century St. Silvia declares that on the Saturday before Palm Sunday the clergy of Jerusalem and the people go out to the Lazarium at Bethany, so that not only the place itself but the fields round about are full of people. In memory of this ancient custom the Franciscan Fathers of the Holy Land and the pilgrims go out and worship at the tomb of Lazarus on Friday of Passion Week. There is no Catholic chapel at Bethany. The Schismatic Greeks have a monastery and chapel there. The land about Bethany is largely a desert of stone, and from the elevated ground north of the village, the eye sweeps over an undulating desert even to the valley of the Jordan. The present village is made up of about forty wretched Moslem houses; there is not a Christian in the village. The only notable ruin at Bethany is that of a tower, a few paces southeast of the tomb of Lazarus. The massive stones yet remaining in portions of the walls indicate that it is older than the Crusades; it may date from the fourth or fifth century. In 1138 Melisenda, wife of King Fulke I, of Jerusalem, founded a cloister of nuns at Bethany but the ruins of this cloister have not been identified. The sites of the house of Martha and Mary, and of that of Simon the leper are shown at Bethany; but it is evident that these localizations are purely imaginary.
Quarterly statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund; Palestine Pilgrims' Tent Society; HEJDET in VIG., Dict. de la Bib.; GUÉRIN, Samarie; BAEDEKER-BENZIGER, Palästina und Syrien; MURRAY, Handbook, Syria and Palestine; DE HAMME, Ancient and Modern Palestine, tr. ROTTHIER (New York), IV; FAHRNGRUBER, Nach Jerusalem, II, 15f.; Survey of Western Palestina, Mem., II, 89; MOMMERT, Aenon and Bethania (Leipzig, 1903), 30-56; HAGEN, Lexicon Biblicum; BREEN, Diary of my Life in the Holy Land.
APA citation. (1907). Bethany. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02531a.htm
MLA citation. "Bethany." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02531a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by the Cloistered Dominican Nuns, Monastery of the Infant Jesus, Lufkin, Texas. Dedicated to the preservation of the holy places in Israel.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads. | <urn:uuid:7890e199-910a-4992-8bc5-8ad85e7a727d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://[email protected]/cathen/02531a.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930395 | 1,214 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play an essential role in maintaining the homeostatic balance of immune responses. Asthma is an inflammatory condition of the airways that is driven by dysregulated immune responses toward normally innocuous antigens. Individuals with asthma have fewer and less functional Tregs, which may lead to uncontrolled effector cell responses and promote proasthmatic responses of T helper type 2, T helper 17, natural killer T, antigenpresenting, and B cells. Tregs have the capacity to either directly or indirectly suppress these responses. Hence, the induced expansion of functional Tregs in predisposed or individuals with asthma is a potential approach for the prevention and treatment of asthma. Infection by a number of micro-organisms has been associated with reduced prevalence of asthma, and many infectious agents have been shown to induce Tregs and reduce allergic airways disease in mouse models. The translation of the regulatory and therapeutic properties of infectious agents for use in asthma requires the identification of key modulatory components and the development and trial of effective immunoregulatory therapies. Further translational and clinical research is required for the induction of Tregs to be harnessed as a therapeutic strategy for asthma.
American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology Vol. 43, Issue 5, p. 511-519 | <urn:uuid:92b95460-a9a3-4d61-aa43-c0ce6db0df6c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11495?f0=subject%3A%22asthma%22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910391 | 270 | 2.625 | 3 |
Saint Alexander of Svir was born on July 15, 1448, on the feastday of the Prophet Amos, and was named for him in Baptism. St Alexander was a beacon of monasticism in the deep forests of the Russian North, living in asceticism, and he was granted the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.
His parents, Stephen and Vassa (Vasilisa) were peasants of the near Lake Ladoga village of Mandera near Lake Ladoga, at the bank of the River Oyata, a tributary of the River Svira. They had sons and daughters who were already grown and lived away from their parents. Stephen and Vassa wanted to have another son. They prayed fervently and heard a voice from above: “Rejoice, good man and wife, you shall bear a son, in whose birth God will give comfort to His Church.”
Amos grew up to be a special child. He was always obedient and gentle, he shunned games, jokes and foul talk, he wore poor clothes and so weakened himself with fasting, that it caused his mother anxiety. Upon coming of age, he once met some Valaam monks who had come to the Oyata to purchase necessities, and for other monastery business.
By this time Valaam was already known as a monastery of deep piety and strict ascetic life. After speaking with the monks, the young man was fascinated by their account of the skete life (with two or three monks together) and the solitary life of the hermit. Knowing that his parents had arranged a marriage for him, the youth went secretly to Valaam when he was nineteen. In the guise of a traveler, an angel of God appeared to him, showing him the way to the island.
Amos lived for seven years at the monastery as a novice, leading an austere life. He spent his days at work, and his nights in vigilance and prayer. Sometimes he prayed in the forest bare-chested, all covered by mosquitoes and gnats, to the morning song of the birds.
In the year 1474, Amos received monastic tonsure with the name Alexander. After several years, his parents eventually learned from Karelians arriving in Mandera where their son had gone. Following the example of their son, the parents also went to the monastery and were tonsured with the names Sergius and Barbara. After their death, St Alexander, with the blessing of the igumen of the monastery, settled on a solitary island, where he built a cell in the crevice of a cliff and continued his spiritual exploits.
The fame of his asceticism spread far. Then in 1485 St Alexander departed from Valaam and, upon a command from above, chose a place in the forest on the shore of a beautiful lake, which was afterwards named Holy. Here the monk built himself a hut and dwelt in solitude for seven years, eating only what he gathered in the forest (Later at this place, Holy Lake, 36 versts from the future city of Olonets and 6 versts from the River Svira, St Alexander founded the monastery of the Life-Creating Trinity, and 130 sazhen (i.e. 910 feet) off from it, at Lake Roschina, he built himself a hut on the future site of the St Alexander of Svir monastery).
During this time the saint experienced fierce sufferings from hunger, frost, sickness and demonic temptations. But the Lord continually sustained the spiritual and bodily strength of the righteous one. Once when suffering with terrible infirmities, he not only was unable to get up from the ground, but was unable to even lift his head. He just lay there and sang Psalms. Then a glorious man appeared to him. Placing his hand on the sore spot, he made the Sign of the Cross over the saint and healed him.
In 1493 while hunting for deer, the adjoining land-owner Andrew Zavalishin happened to come upon the saint’s hut. Andrew spoke to him of a light he had seen at this place, and he entreated the monk to tell him about his life. From that point Andrew started to visit St Alexander often, and finally through the monk’s guidance, he went to Valaam, where he was tonsured with the name Adrian. Later, he founded the Ondrusov monastery, and led a saintly life (August 26 and May 17).
Andrew Zavalishin was not able to keep silent about the ascetic, in spite of the promise he had given. News of the righteous one began to spread widely, and monks started to gather around him. Therefore, St Alexander withdrew from the brethren and built himself a dwelling place 130 sazhen from the monastery. There he encountered a multitude of temptations. The demons took on beastly shapes, they hissed like snakes, urging him to flee. However, the saint’s prayer scorched and dispersed the devils like a fiery flame.
In 1508, twenty-three years after he came to this secluded spot, the Life-Creating Trinity appeared to St Alexander. One night he was praying in his hut. Suddenly, an intense light shone, and the monk saw Three Men, robed in radiant white garb, approaching him. Radiant with heavenly Glory, They shone in a pure brightness greater than the sun. Each of Them held a staff in His hand.
The monk fell down in terror, and coming to his senses, prostrated himself on the ground. Taking him up by the hand, the Men said: “Have trust, blessed one, and fear not.” The saint was ordered to build a church and a monastery. He fell to his knees, protesting his own unworthiness, but the Lord raised him up and ordered him to fulfill the commands. St Alexander asked in whose name the church ought to be dedicated. The Lord said: “Beloved, as you see Those speaking with you in Three Persons, so also construct the church in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity One-in-Essence. I leave you peace and My peace I give you.” And immediately St Alexander beheld the Lord with out-stretched wings, going as though along the ground, and He became invisible.
In the history of the Russian Orthodox Church this appearance is acknowledged as unique. After this vision the monk began to think where to build the church. Once, while praying to God, he heard a voice from above. Gazing up to the heavens, he saw an angel of God in mantiya and klobuk, such as St Pachomius (May 15) had seen.
The angel, standing in the air with outstretched wings and upraised hands, proclaimed: “One is Holy, One is the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Glory of God the Father. Amen.” Then he turned to St Alexander saying, “Build on this spot the church in the Name of the Lord Who has appeared to you in Three Persons, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, the Undivided Trinity.” After making the Sign of the Cross over the place three times, the angel became invisible.
In that same year a wooden church of the Life-Creating Trinity was built (in 1526 a stone church was built here). And at the same time as the building of the church, the brethren began to urge St Alexander to accept the priesthood. For a long time he refused, considering himself unworthy. Then the brethren began to implore St Serapion, Archbishop of Novgorod (March 16), to convince him to accept the office. And so in that very year St Alexander journeyed to Novgorod and received ordination from the holy archbishop. Soon afterwards, the brethren also asked the saint to be their igumen.
As igumen, the monk became even more humble than before. His clothes were all in tatters, and he slept on the bare ground. He himself prepared food, kneaded dough and baked bread. One time there was not enough firewood and the steward asked the igumen to send any idle monks for firewood. “I am idle,” said the saint, and he began to chop firewood. Another time, he carried water.
When all were asleep, the saint was often busy grinding wheat with hand-stones to make more bread. At night he made the round of the cells, and if he heard vain conversations, he lightly tapped on the door and departed, but in the morning he admonished the brother, imposing a penance on him.
Towards the end of his life, St Alexander decided to build a stone church of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. One evening, after singing an Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, he settled down to rest in the cell and suddenly said to his cell-attendant Athanasius, “Child, be sober and alert, because at this hour we will have a wondrous and astounding visit.”
Then came a voice like thunder, “Behold the Lord and His Mother are coming.” The monk hastened to the entrance to the cell, and a great light illumined it, shining over all the monastery brighter than the rays of the sun. The saint beheld the All-Pure Mother of God over the foundation of the Protection church sitting at the site of the altar, like an empress upon a throne. She held the Infant Christ in Her arms, and a multitude of angels stood before Her shining with indescribable brightness.
He fell down, unable to bear the great light. The Mother of God said, “Arise, chosen one of My Son and God. I have come here to visit you, My dear one, and to look upon the foundation of My church. I have made entreaty for your disciples and monastery. From this time on there will be an abundance; not only during your life, but also after your death. Everything your monastery requires will be granted in abundance. Behold and watch carefully how many monks are gathered into your flock. You must guide them on the way of salvation in the Name of the Holy Trinity.”
The saint arose and saw a multitude of monks. Again the Mother of God said: “My dear one, if someone carries even one brick for the building of My church, in the Name of Jesus Christ, My Son and God, his treasure will not perish.” Then She became invisible.
Before his death the saint displayed wondrous humility. He summoned the brethren and told them: “Bind my sinful body by the legs and drag it to a swampy thicket and, after covering it with skins, throw it in.” The brethren answered: “No, Father, it is not possible to do this.” Then the holy ascetic ordered that his body not be kept at the monastery, but in a place of seclusion, the church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. St Alexander departed to the heavenly Kingdom on August 30, 1533 at the age of 85.
St Alexander of Svir was glorified by wondrous miracles during his life and upon his death. In 1545, his disciple and successor, Igumen Herodion, compiled his Life. In 1547 the local celebration of the saint began and a service was composed for him. On April 17,1641, during the rebuilding of the Transfiguration church, the incorrupt relics of St Alexander of Svir were uncovered and his universal Church celebration was established on two dates: the day of his repose, August 30, and the day of glorification (and the uncovering of his relics), April 17.
St Alexander of Svir instructed and raised up a whole multitude of disciples, as the Mother of God had promised him. They are the Holy Monks: Ignatius of Ostrov, Leonid of Ostrov, Cornelius of Ostrov, Dionysius of Ostrov, Athanasius of Ostrov, Theodore of Ostrov, and Therapon of Ostrov.
Besides these saints, there are disciples and conversers with St Alexander of Svir, who have separate days of commemortation: St Athanasius of Syandem (January 18), St Gennadius of Vasheozersk (February 9), St Macarius of Orodezh (August 9), St Adrian of Ondrosov (May 17), St Nicephorus of Vasheozersk (February 9), St Gennadius of Kostroma and Liubimograd (January 23).
All these saints (except St Gennadius of Kostroma) are depicted on the Icon of the Monastic Fathers who shone forth in the land of Karelia (icon from the church at the Seminary in Kuopio, Finland). The festal celebration of the Synaxis of the Saints who shone forth in Karelia is celebrated by the Finnish Orthodox Church on the Saturday falling between October 31 and November 6.
The incorrupt relics of the saint were removed from the Svir Monastery by the Bolsheviks on December 20, 1918 after several unsuccessful attempts to confiscate them. There was an infamous campaign to liquidate the relics of the saints which continued from 1919 to 1922. Many relics of Russsian saints were stolen and subjected to “scientific examination” or displayed in antireligious museums. Some were completely destroyed.
Hoping to prove that the relics were fakes, the Soviets conducted many tests. However, the tests only confirmed that the relics were genuine. Finally, the holy relics were sent to Petrograd’s Military Medical Academy. There they remained for nearly eighty years.
A second uncovering of St Alexander’s relics took place in December 1997.
The relics were found to be incorrupt, just as they were when they were confiscated. The saint’s appearance matched the description in the records from 1641. Once it was determined that these were in fact the relics of St Alexander, Metropolitan Vladimir of St Petersburg permitted them to be taken to the church of St Sophia and her three daughters Faith, Hope, and Love (September 17) for four months before their return to the Svir Monastery. As people venerated St Alexander’s relics they noticed a fragrant myrrh flowing from them.
The holy relics were taken to the St Alexander of Svir Monastery in November 1998, and miraculous healings continue to take place before them. | <urn:uuid:c2fb7266-709f-4fa9-8233-dd94af7177cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/08/30/102423-venerable-alexander-the-abbot-of-svir | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980786 | 3,014 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Sustainable Design is the phrase buzzing around in architecture today. With the world taking steps towards “being green,” more electric cars being designed, energy efficient light bulbs, and more, architects are expected to do their part when designing new homes and buildings. Here are few of the elements of sustainable architecture:
- Evaluating the site: architects need to know what each site has to offer, including predominant wind, views, solar exposure, watershed, existing vegetation, and the site’s topography in order to factor them into their designs. Installing solar panels on the side of the house that gets little sunlight is a big no-no.
- Energy Efficiency: architects deign a house using appliances that use renewable energy, energy efficient lighting and light fixtures, wind turbines, solar panels, and geothermal heating systems in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many also use passive heating and passive solar systems in order to save on energy. Double glazed windows and foam insulation can also keep heat or cold out, and “bought air” in.
- Material Selection: materials used to build a house should, where possible, be recycled or recyclable, non-toxic, and produced locally. These measures can reduce CO2 emissions and can help boost the local economy. Many companies are starting to demolish homes a little more carefully so that materials can be reused or repurposed.
- Water Efficiency: using appliances and fixtures that are low flow will help reduce the amount of water used, saving both money and water. Installing proper irrigation systems, a tank for collecting rainwater, and planting indigenous plant life (that doesn’t require much, if any, watering) can also help reduce water use.
- Efficient use of space: more homes are being built with fewer rooms, and a more open floor plan. There are many reasons for that, one of them being that without small, unused rooms pulling heat or cold form the main house, energy efficiency goes up. Open floor plans also have fewer walls which means saving on materials as well.
- Avoid common chemicals: there are more non-toxic substances on the market now, one of which can be used to coat wood, making it fire resistant, mold and termite-resistant. This saves on later costs if termites infest, and keeps nasty fumigation chemicals out of a house.
There are many more ways to make a house as energy efficient and environmentally friendly as possible, but these are just a few ways to start. While building green is still a fairly expensive option, with it growing in popularity the hope is that costs will come down and materials will become more readily available to everyone. | <urn:uuid:86a3b36a-e1d4-4772-a1b6-9b65bcf0f642> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://online-architecture-degree.com/architects-work-towards-sustainable-design/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948175 | 550 | 4.09375 | 4 |
An effort (thanks to the UNO Team for the definition) consists of the following things:
* a goal or a mission,
* to solve a problem,
* while using a solution,
* optionally having a time plan,
* a list of things which need to be done, these may directly be some content (e.g. specifications, implementations, tests, articles) or other efforts, and
* a status (e.g. planned, in progress, finished, cancelled).
To discover new developers and build a bridge between OpenOffice.org Project and Educational System, OpenOffice.org Education Project proposes applications, doable in one or two month of work for a student ( time to discover everything, and do the real work). All these applications below are correlated with IssueZilla issues, and need new code to be solved.
What we propose is to accompany the peers teachers/students solving the issues: the work must be done by the student, and we are resources. This means, most of the time, we have no clue about the solution (but we could work on it), or the needed changes, and sometimes, just a little change in the code can solve the issue. Sometimes, a lot of code can be needed.
The most important is to work together, and make the students discover OpenOffice.org source code and organisation.
The applications are classed
- by difficulty level (more stars means means more work and more difficult to be solved )
- by themes, e.g. Mac OS X
For further information, please look Education Project Effort
Want to contact us ?
Mailing list. [email protected] is the good one (please subscribe before)
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Our View From The Top,
A School Intervention Project,
For Vision Therapy in CT Schools and Everywhere
Our View From the Top empowers parents, teachers, and students to overcome visual barriers to learning through public awareness and intervention in Connecticut and everywhere.
- • 1 in 4 children is struggling with a visual issue that is negatively impacting their ability to learn effectively.
- • While it is estimated that approximately 80% of learning occurs visually, the standard school vision screenings test only for distance vision, while most learning occurs up close.
- • These issues are often not detected because they are not properly screened for at school, the pediatrician’s office, or the eye doctor’s office.
- • Many children with undetected visual difficulties are placed in Special Education or put on medication for behavioral issues.
- • A major cause for low self-esteem among children has its basis in poor academic performance.
Call to action:
- • With appropriate education of our teachers, principals, school counselors, and school nurses, we can better identify children with potential visual issues early.
- • Early detection and intervention are crucial to eliminating these barriers to allow for more efficient learning.
- • Many of these visual issues can be corrected with glasses, behavioral changes, and/or vision therapy for children.
What is possible:
- • Children learning free from visual barriers
- • Teachers able to educate without physiologic obstacles
- • Decreased spending on already financially strained Special Education Departments
- • Education dollars able to be reallocated to areas like the arts
Our View From the Top (OVT) is made up of volunteers from helping professions including: Doctors, Vision Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Teachers, Counselors, Psychologists, Nurses, Tutors, and many others in Connecticut and everywhere.
- — Medical Director: Juanita Collier, MS, OD
“Our View From The Top, Overcoming Visual Barriers To Learning”
© 2012 – 2013 All rights reserved. Our View From The Top – Vision Therapy in CT – Vision Therapy in Connecticut Schools | <urn:uuid:b273d48e-bb6d-4c31-9a4f-9207f17bf692> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ourviewfromthetop.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912374 | 435 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Law as a Profession
Justice (R) Dr. Munir Ahmad Mughal
Punjab University Law College; Superior Law College
September 24, 2011
The paper is a guideline for those who enter the profession of law and start their independent practice.An advocate is a person who supports or speaks in favour of a cause, policy, or person. He is a person who pleads for another person in a cause or lis or case in a Court of law. The person who engages an advocate to plead for him in the court of law in a case is called “the client” and the advocate so engaged is called his pleader or counsel or advocate. The matter, the cause in the court is called a “lis.” The sheet giving details of the matters pending in a court of law for hearing and the serial number of their call and the stage at which those are showing names of the parties and their counsel is called a “Cause List.”
An advocate is thus a person who stands by his client and speaks on his behalf concerning the cause pending before a court of law. An advocate is a person authorized by his client by means of a power of attorney to appear on his behalf and plead his case.
To become an advocate one is to pass his graduation in any discipline and then pass the examination of Batchelor of Laws (LL.B) from a recognized university and then apply for becoming a member of the bar Council and the bar association. For this purposes six months training is necessary to get the license to practice in the District Judiciary and 2 years practice in lower courts to become an advocate of the High Court of a Province. Thereafter if a person is to become a Supreme Court Advocate he must have a standing of at least 15 years as a practicing lawyer in the High Court.
An Advocate whether he is to practice as a lawyer at Civil or Criminal Courts at District & Sessions level, or at High Court of the Province level or the Supreme Court level he is to have the following necessary tools: 1. An office. 2. Staff. 3. Library. 4. Stationary 5. Clientele. 6. Conveyance. 7. Sound health.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 15
Date posted: September 25, 2011
© 2016 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Encopresis is voluntary or involuntary fecal soiling in children who have usually already been toilet trained.
Mayo Clinic defines encopresis here:
Encopresis occurs when your child resists having bowel movements, causing impacted stool to collect in the colon and rectum. When your child's colon is full of impacted stool, liquid stool can leak around the impacted stool and out of the anus, staining your child's underwear. Encopresis may also be called stool holding.
Encopresis usually occurs after age 4, when your child has already learned to use a toilet. In most cases, encopresis is a symptom of chronic constipation. Less frequently, it may be the result of developmental or emotional issues.
Encopresis can be frustrating for you — and embarrassing for your child. However, with patience and positive reinforcement, treatment for encopresis is usually successful. | <urn:uuid:990ce3be-777b-46dd-a563-b6acb6be2d8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://parenting.stackexchange.com/tags/encopresis/info | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937108 | 189 | 3.171875 | 3 |
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Palgrave Macmillan (2009)
Kant famously identified 'What is man?' as the fundamental question that encompasses the whole of philosophy. Yet surprisingly, there has been no concerted effort amongst Kant scholars to examine Kant's actual philosophy of man. This book, which is inspired by, and part of, the recent movement that focuses on the empirical dimension of Kant's works, is the first sustained attempt to extract from his writings on biology, anthropology and history an account of the human sciences, their underlying unity, their presuppositions as well as their methodology. In exploring his philosophical and epistemological foundation of the human sciences, it reveals an unexpected picture of Kant, a picture of a thinker who is profoundly attentive to the diversity, detail and complexity of the human world.
|Keywords||Biology Anthropology Kant Human Sciences Freedom Pragmatic|
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Kurt Godel, the greatest logician of our time, startled the world of mathematics in 1931 with his Theorem of Undecidability, which showed that some statements in mathematics are inherently "undecidable." His work on the completeness of logic, the incompleteness of number theory, and the consistency of the axiom of choice and the continuum theory brought him further worldwide fame. In this introductory volume, Raymond Smullyan, himself a well-known logician, guides the reader through the fascinating world of Godel's incompleteness theorems. The level of presentation is suitable for anyone with a basic acquaintance with mathematical logic. As a clear, concise introduction to a difficult but essential subject, the book will appeal to mathematicians, philosophers, and computer scientists.
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Ludwig van den Hauwe (2011). Hayek, Gödel, and the Case for Methodological Dualism. Journal of Economic Methodology 18 (4):387-407.
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Carlo Cellucci (1993). From Closed to Open Systems. In J. Czermak (ed.), Philosophy of Mathematics, pp. 206-220. Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky
N. Shankar (1994). Metamathematics, Machines, and Gödel's Proof. Cambridge University Press.
Peter Smith (2013). An Introduction to Gödel's Theorems. Cambridge University Press.
Zofia Adamowicz & Teresa Bigorajska (2001). Existentially Closed Structures and Gödel's Second Incompleteness Theorem. Journal of Symbolic Logic 66 (1):349-356.
Roman Murawski (1997). Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems and Computer Science. Foundations of Science 2 (1):123-135.
Raymond M. Smullyan (1993). Recursion Theory for Metamathematics. Oxford University Press.
Panu Raatikainen (2005). On the Philosophical Relevance of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 59 (4):513-534.
Added to index2009-01-28
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Heine, detailed here, exhibits Low Reflectance Material (LRM) and high reflectance rays to the west of the crater. The LRM (darker area to the bottom) is likely darker, older material found in some southern areas on Mercury. The bright rays emanate from Degas, located approximately 150 km to the north. Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) is considered one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. One of Heine's best known poems is "Die Lorelei".
This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-resolution 3-color imaging campaign. The map produced from this campaign complements the 8-color base map (at an average resolution of 1 km/pixel) acquired during MESSENGER's primary mission by imaging Mercury's surface in a subset of the color filters at the highest resolution possible. The three narrow-band color filters are centered at wavelengths of 430 nm, 750 nm, and 1000 nm, and image resolutions generally range from 100 to 400 meters/pixel in the northern hemisphere.
Date acquired: May 06, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 244776305, 244776297, 244776301
Image ID: 1773153, 1773151, 1773152
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
WAC filters: 9, 7, 6 (996, 748, 433 nanometers) in red, green, and blue
Center Latitude: 32.28°
Center Longitude: 234.5° E
Resolution: 111 meters/pixel
Scale: The diameter of Heine is about 70 km (43 mi.) in diameter.
Incidence Angle: 43.0°
Emission Angle: 0.2°
Phase Angle: 43.1°
The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. MESSENGER acquired over 150,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is capable of continuing orbital operations until early 2015.
For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy. | <urn:uuid:98ba2a48-d164-4502-b104-5e458e92031b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17431 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884968 | 480 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Bat-bot boosts sonar researchAugust 22, 2005 in /
A robotic bat head that can emit and detect ultrasound in the band of frequencies used by the world's bats will give echolocation research a huge boost. The Bat-Bot, developed by IST project CIRCE, can also wriggle its ears, a technique often used by bats to modulate the characteristics of the echo.
CIRCE developed the Bat-Bot to closely mimic the amazing echolocation skills of bats and to act as a tool for further research in echolocation.
"Sonar in water is a mature field, but sonar in air is far less advanced," says Dr Herbert Peremans, who is head of the Active Perception Lab the University of Antwerp and CIRCE coordinator.
"Whenever a robot team wants to build an autonomous robot they look at sonar first, but they quickly run into problems due to the simple nature of commercial sonar systems, and switch to vision or laser-ranging. We hope that the research we can now do with the robotic bat will lead to more sophisticated sonar systems being used for robot navigation and other applications," he says.
One of those potential applications could be identifying plants using echolocation. During development of the Bat-Bot CIRCE research validated that different plants give off unique echo signatures.
"We tested several plant species and they could all be reliably identified by echolocation, proving that in principle the technique could work for plant identification. But further research into the technique is needed," says Peremans.
While building the robotic head was the primary aim of CIRCE, the group generated many useful results along the way. One project partner developed a broadband transducer that could both convert acoustical energy to electrical energy and electrical to acoustical across the 20 to 200 kHz spectrum.
"There are about 700 echolocating bat species, and they use a wide range of frequencies. We needed a single device that could handle that entire range. The transducer developed by one of the partners can do that and has some additional advantages making it a promising technology for further commercialisation," he says.
The project also completed CT scans on about 20 bat species, demonstrating that the ear shape of bats varies enormously, and heavily influences their performance. This knowledge could also be used to enhance the performance of existing sonar systems.
"We're the first to build a high resolution computer model of bat ears, which act as antennae. It's a result we're very proud of and so we've manufactured a series of simplified nylon ears (rapid prototyping tool) which we can now begin to characterise by investigating how their shape influences their sound reception," says Peremans.
The Bat-Bot will now feature in a number of new research projects, such as the EU project CILIA, due to start in September, which will examine how sets of tiny hairs on insects, fish and in the cochlea of mammals like bats and humans can be used to extract information on the organism's environment.
"We're interested in further exploring active sonar sensing with the device, and we hope that other researchers and teams will get in touch with us to collaborate on new projects," says Peremans.
It's impossible to guess at what potential results the Bat-Bot might generate, but CIRCE's work with plants and bat ear design demonstrate that sonar in air has potentially many applications, not least in the development of functional sonar navigation for robots.
Source: IST Results istresults.cordis.lu/
"Bat-bot boosts sonar research" August 22, 2005 http://phys.org/news/2005-08-bat-bot-boosts-sonar.html | <urn:uuid:bd1a39c4-06e7-46d9-8c93-9e2d717bb8b2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://phys.org/print5940.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948903 | 778 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Foto: Beto Ricardo, 2002
Indigenous societies have never been in a state of complete isolation, for even before having relations with Brazilian society they have always related among themselves. In many regions and in many ways, different peoples interrelated through wars, exchange of objects, marriages, invitations for ceremonies and rituals etc.
In spite of being transformed with time, these interrelations have not ceased today. They may take place among a small group of neighboring peoples or extend through a vast region. In some cases, they form very complex exchange networks, in which each society has a specialized role. In others, the relations occur only occasionally.
The Waiwai, located in the Northern part of the State of Pará and in the State of Roraima, have always maintained relations of various natures - matrimonial, commercial and ceremonial - with neighboring populations. So much so that today, after the intensification of contacts with non-Indians, they live with other peoples, among them the Katuena, the Xereu and the Hixkaryana. In the Waiwai communities, although at certain times everyone considers herself/himself Waiwai, there are groups that make a point in clearly marking their difference from the others; when necessary, this may mean even the adoption of a posture of rivalry vis-à-vis others.
Upper Negro River
The region of the Upper Negro River has a vast network of relations connecting the various peoples that live there. It is a rule in some of these societies that a man has to marry a woman from another group, who must necessarily speak a different language. Thus the Tukano, the Arapasso, the Desana, the Tariana, the Tuyuka, among so many others, cannot be considered closed groups, but rather units always open and prone to exchanges.
Relations among the groups of the Upper Negro River do not have only the aspect of an alliance. They also reveal a complex hierarchy system. Those considered ‘river Indians’ – that is, who live on navigable regions and generally speak languages of the Tukano or Aruaque families –, marry among themselves, whereas the ‘forest Indians’, who generally speak Maku languages and live at a distance from the large rivers, are marginalized by the others.
‘River Indians’ not only do not marry the Maku but also refuse to learn their language, because they do not follow the correct patterns of residence and because they marry people who speak their own language, something they consider absurd. Both groups nevertheless maintain constant relations: for example, ‘river Indians’ exchange fish and cassava for meat and services from the Maku.
Upper Xingu River
Home of societies of the Jê, Tupi, Caribe, Aruaque and Trumai languages, the region of the Upper Xingu River is where the most intense interrelations among different Indigenous peoples take place in Brazil.
In the Upper Xingu, old conflicts have given way to peaceful intertribal relations, which includes exchanges of objects and rituals. As anthropologist Eduardo Galvão pointed out, at the time of the creation of the Xingu Indigenous Park (early 1960’s), the different peoples living there ended up specializing themselves in the production or extraction of a given item in order to participate in the exchange network. Thus the Waujá made ceramics; the Kamayurá, bows made of black wood; the Kuikuro and the Kalapalo snail necklaces, and so on.
To this day, it is the rituals that provide a common language to all of them. In the kwarúp, a recently deceased chief is honored, and the homage is extended to other well-liked dead. The yawarí is performed to honor those who have been dead for a while, and also for initiating young men. Both rituals strengthen the links that exist among the various peoples, marking in a symbolic way the opposition between warring ferocity (the guests simulate an attack against host village) and regulated reciprocity (exchange of objects and services). | <urn:uuid:0d9ae0bf-630f-434d-9df9-4964ea93a588> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/c/no-brasil-atual/modos-de-vida/redes-indigenas-de-relacoes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951258 | 855 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Hanukkah is sometimes called the “Jewish Christmas” because it occurs at the same time of the year, and this year, as it happens, actually began on the same day.
Hanukkah, however, has its own origins and meaning, and begins with the triumph of the Maccabee guerrilla fighters, around 165 BCE, against the Seleucid empire, which then dominated Israel.
Under the ruler Antiochus, the Seleucids, based in Syria, tried to “Hellenize” the Israeli colony by introducing Greek customs and repressing the native Hebrew religion and its practices. Eventually the Maccabees, a priestly family, regained control of the temple in Jerusalem, which had been used for pagan rites.
Under Jewish law the temple needed to be cleansed and reconsecrated before it could be used for Jewish worship. Part of the ritual involved burning a lamp. But enough oil for only one day was available, and it would take eight days to prepare a new supply. According to legend, however, the oil miraculously burned for eight days.
Thus the tradition of the menorah, an eight-branched candelabra (sometimes with one in the middle), was created. On the first night of Hanukkah observant Jews light one candle, and on subsequent nights they light another until all eight are burning, symbolizing the increasing triumph of light over darkness.
The candlelights of what is also called the Festival of Lights can be viewed in several ways. In the days before electricity the idea of light in the darkness was a more powerful beacon of hope and comfort than we moderns can perhaps comprehend. The light could also be taken to mean the progressive triumph of the light of Yahweh’s teachings and wisdom over the darkness of ignorance and superstition.
Rooted in the struggle against religious and political oppression, Hanukkah’s lights are also a symbol of freedom and the hope that it will grow from strength to strength in a world where tyranny and oppression are all too commonplace. Hanukkah is a powerful reminder that tyranny can be defeated and freedom restored.
Activists in London have proposed appearing in front of Iranian embassies around the world during Hanukkah this year, and simply and silently lighting candles for eight nights to declare solidarity with the aspirations of Iranians who desire freedom.
Freedom, especially the freedom to practice one’s religion without hindrance, is a universal aspiration. Jews and non-Jews alike can honor the spirit of Hanukkah by resolving to renew their vigilance and determination to protect freedom where it exists and to spread its blessings where its light does not yet shine. | <urn:uuid:1940c4bb-cb07-4220-8c02-4c4db86f34df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://pntonline.com/2005/12/27/celebrate-protection-of-freedom-during-hanukkah-holiday/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965106 | 553 | 4.03125 | 4 |
RURAL ROUTES/Margot Ford McMillen
Hong Kong Chickens
On December 29, Hong Kong health officials ordered the slaughter of the
island's chickens. Workers gassed commercial flocks, school pets, 1.3 million
chickens and, according to Reuters, "unknown numbers of ducks, geese,
quail, partridge and pigeons that might be responsible for infecting humans
with a disease previously thought to affect only birds." This undertaking
is front-page news of the highest order.
Come Home to Roost
And, today, on this farm, we have run out of eggs. After extravagant omelette
and meringue consumption over Thanksgiving, when we fed 25 people one day
and 50 people the next, my husband and I rationed our remaining eggs until
now we are out. Not news of international concern, but important here.
Humans and chickens have shared homesteads at least since 6000 B.C. when
the first chickens were domesticated in southern Asia. To humans, that's
400 generations, if you estimate one generation per 20 years. To chickens,
which reproduce yearly, it's 8,000 generations. To viruses, which inhabit
both humans and chickens, it's a whopping 124,800,000 generations, if you
use the estimate that a virus packs in about 300 generations a week. Most
of these virus generations live in relative peace with their hosts, eventually
discarded through normal bodily processes.
But, with every virus generation, there's a chance that some genetic information
will develop that leads the virus to kill its host, be it chicken or man.
This isn't a successful strategy for viruses unless they also develop a
way to move to someone new.
In animal confinement operations, movement from host to host is easy. In
fact, Asian operators have grown accustomed to huge die-offs. On December
12, when investigations into the deadly H5N1 influenza were first widely
reported, the South China Morning Post reported that months earlier
an epidemic had killed thousands of chickens but had not been reported because
operators "considered it normal." A few days later, the same paper
reported that chicken deaths in the Hong Kong market tripled between December
1 and December 16. The big news isn't that chickens died but that humans
were killed by the same virus that got the birds.
Slaughtering all of Hong Kong's poultry was designed to kill off H5N1. The
precaution was criticized for coming too slow -- the first influenza death
came in May. Other critics say the kill-off came too soon, before all the
facts were in.
No one is criticizing how chickens have come to be raised and how the manure
is treated and the human lifestyle that leads us to raise chickens and eggs
the way we do. This commentary is missing because confinement poultry operations
seem normal. As one chicken company employee told me, "That's just
how it's done."
Maybe that's how it's done, but it's not working.
Raised the old way, our farm's hens run and graze from early morning until
dusk in all kinds of weather. Their diets range from spring dandelions to
summer grass to autumn acorns to cracked corn in winter and to bugs and
earthworms and manure in all seasons. They reward us daily in egg season
with joyous cackles that announce eggs with clear albumin and bright yellow-orange
yolks. We get an egg a day per hen for much of the year -- plenty for ourselves
and all our friends, with enough left over for the occasional setting hen
to hatch out and raise.
"How picturesque," I hear you saying, "but, studies by the
American Egg Professionals say we should eat eggs every day. If we had to
depend on yesterday's methods, we'd never have enough."
So, how many chickens is enough? The industry began to grow in 1975 by 1
percent to 6 percent per year, according to the U.S.D.A. Much of the increase
now goes to the export market, but the rest has been fueled by domestic
demand for "The Incredible, Edible Egg." And, the increased number
of chickens are now crammed in a decreasing amount of space and benefitting
just a few Goliath corporations. Farmers who once benefited from chicken
and egg sales and from the chicken's helpful bug-killing and manure production
Given free range, chickens move around most of the day. From time to time,
hens abandon their normal laying habits in their coops and find a new spot.
They'll take up residence in the barn, or the garage, or on top of the feed
shack. This roving habit might be exactly what keeps free chickens healthy.
In the wild, all animals roam, leaving parasites behind.
In confinement, chickens are medicated to stay healthy in unnatural conditions,
but, in fact, standing around is a sure sign that a free chicken is unhealthy.
A sick chicken will stay in one place, an easy mark for a predator to carry
away. Sometimes, sick chickens will recover, but if they don't, that's one
weak bit of genetic material snatched from the gene pool.
Keeping hens the ancient way, we lose some to predators and some are old
enough to collect social security. Unlike the commercial growers, we never
need or use antibiotics.
And, we are proud, even boastful, of our home-grown eggs. We show them off
to visitors, and demonstrate their superiority against factory eggs by inviting
people to break one of each into glasses and compare. Even a first-time
egg breaker can tell the difference. The hardness of the shell, the thick,
bright yolk, the clear albumin. In comparison, factory eggs come off sickly,
with watery whites and yolks, thin shells. Our eggs fill you up, and stay
with you all morning. They taste good, even to the egg-spurner.
When the days get short and dark, hens quit laying. The natural production
cycle favors long daylight hours, a bit of genetic selection that long ago
chose chicks hatched in warm weather when things are growing rather than
chicks born in the uncertain cold. That happened here in early November.
In a bright spell, the hens honor us with a few eggs, but we have only seen
sun a few times in the last two months.
There are tricks you can play on the hens -- lengthening the daylight with
lamps, feeding them extra hormones and keeping them in buildings that are
artificially warm. Commercial egg producers do this to stabilize the egg
supply, but I believe there is meaning in cycles. I can't help thinking
that the eggless intermission is a reminder that we humans -- only 400 generations
away from the Stone Age -- should respect our fellowship with nature.
If, in the meantime, we must have cake or pancakes I will ferret out my
old-time cookbooks with their recipes for "eggless cake" and "eggless
pancakes." Maybe in some way that we will never understand, the pause
is good for us. Many cultures celebrate spring with festivals featuring
eggs, and we will have ours. On this farm, the hens will have a rest, and
we'll scramble when the sun shines.
After so many generations of life together, this only seems fair.
Margot Ford McMillen farms and teaches English at a college in Fulton,
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ProPublica analyzed federal education data from the 2009-2010 school year to examine whether states provide high-poverty schools equal access to advanced courses and special programs that researchers say will help them later in life. This is the first nationwide picture of exactly which courses are being taken at which schools and districts across the country. More than three-quarters of all public school children are represented. Read our story and our methodology.
From http://projects.propublica.org/schools. © Copyright 2011 Pro Publica Inc.
Find a school
6700 CRADLEROCK WAY, COLUMBIA, MD., 21045 | Grades PreK-8
|Students||Total Teachers||Inexp. Teachers|
Percentage of relevant students who...
Cradlerock School, part of the Howard County Public Schools district, is located in Columbia, Maryland. The school reports enrolling 950 students in grades pre-kindergarten through eight, and it has 78 teachers on staff.
ProPublica's analysis found that all too often, states and schools provide poor students fewer educational programs like Advanced Placement, gifted and talented programs, and advanced math and science classes. Studies have linked participation in these programs with better outcomes later in life. Our analysis uses free and reduced-price lunch to estimate poverty at schools. We based our findings on the most comprehensive data set of access to advanced classes and special programs in U.S. public schools — known as the Civil Rights Data Set— released by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.
Cradlerock School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 11 percent.
William Pinderhughes Elementary, in Baltimore, Md., is a higher-poverty school than Cradlerock School, with 98 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 12 percent of students in its gifted and talented program.
These data points were reported by schools and districts to the Office for Civil Rights. For more information about the data, see our full methodology.
— Generated by Narrative Science | <urn:uuid:b9d73664-46c0-41fb-8f0c-30689d0854d9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://projects.propublica.org/schools/schools/240042001361 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944869 | 434 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Travel ban could reduce spread of SARS or other infectious diseases
Restricting travel could help reduce the spread of infections like SARS by more than 50%. In a study published today in the open access journal BMC Medicine, Swedish researchers simulated infection scenarios and tested the impact of travel restrictions on the spread of infection. They show that banning trips longer than 50 km would greatly reduce the spread of infection, even if 30% of the population did not comply.
Martin Camitz, from the Swedish Institute for Infectious Diseases Control and Fredrik Liljeros, from Stockholm University simulated the spread of an infection in Sweden, using data about all inter-city trips carried out by 17,000 individuals during two assigned months. All single, inter-city trips were included, regardless of the destination, aim of the trip and the mode of transport. The authors then tested scenarios where the infection outbreak started in Stockholm and where travel between towns and cities was subsequently restricted.
The results of the simulations show that restricting travel so that all trips further than 50 km are banned would reduce the number of infected individuals by 50% and the number of affected municipalities by over 80%. A ban on trips longer than 20 km would reduce the spread of the infection even more. The impact of a travel ban on the spread of infection would be significant even if compliance were as low as 70%.
The authors conclude: "The model and results are robust and there is no reason to believe that the results are not generally applicable to any country or region."
The effect of travel restrictions on the spread of a moderately contagious disease
Martin Camitz and Fredrik Liljeros
BMC Medicine 2006, in press (14 December 2006)
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Apr 2016
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:7ec53867-c016-46a9-9f81-20f5a2037749> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychcentral.com/news/archives/2006-12/bc-tbc121206.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953374 | 372 | 3.015625 | 3 |
All The Money The Government Is Printing This Year, In One Graphic
Usually when we talk about the Fed printing money, we're speaking metaphorically. Most money the Fed "prints" these days isn't actually currency; it's just an electronic representation showing that somebody has a certain amount of money in their account.
But the government does still print actual, physical bills. This doesn't really have anything to do with monetary policy or the deficit or anything like that. We're just weirdly fascinated by it.
For the most part, the government just prints new bills to replace old, weathered bills that are taken out of circulation. On top of that, the government has been printing lots more $100 dollar bills in the past few years, because people overseas have taken to holding onto them.
The Fed has submitted its order for the fiscal year 2013, which started at the beginning of this month and runs through September of next year. In all, the order came to 7.8 billion notes, valued at $472.9 billion. Here's the complete order, broken down by denomination.
BONUS GRAPHIC: How long does a bill last? Depends on the denomination. All bills are printed on the same durable paper, which a company in Massachusetts has been making for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing since 1879.
But small bills, which change hands frequently, have a much shorter life than $100s, which people tend to hoard.
See photos of how dollar bills were made a century ago.
Correction: The "money to be printed" graphic in an earlier version of this post was mislabeled. | <urn:uuid:92669a99-f2d7-44b9-ba79-1b0dd16bd1a7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://publicradioeast.org/post/all-money-government-printing-year-one-graphic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973054 | 340 | 3.3125 | 3 |
The Use of Speech by Nathalie Sarraute (trans. Barbara Wright). Counterpath Press. 151 pp., $14.95.
Born in 1900 in Ivanovo, Russia—although she spent most of her life in Paris after being abandoned there, as a young girl, by her mother—and forced into hiding by the Nazi invasion of France because of her Jewish heritage, Nathalie Sarraute was (along with figureheads such as Raymond Queneau, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and Claude Mauriac) a highly respected author within the Nouveau Roman movement of mid- to late-20th century French literature, which sought to do away with many narrative constrictions, particularly within the Realist tradition, perceived to be imposed on the form of fiction. (Sarraute is also one of the only authors to have had a Pléiade edition of her works printed by the Gallimard publishing house during their lifetime, an honor reserved for major writers.) Her novel The Use of Speech, originally published in the early 1980s, has been recently reprinted by Counterpath Press, in Barbara Wright’s beautiful translation of the author’s characteristically dense, elliptical, and terse paragraphs.
As a work of fiction, The Use of Speech is remarkable for exploring the seemingly contradictory idea that if language is the primary form of communication between human beings, it is also their primary form of persecution. This analysis is especially evident within the novel’s drawn-out meditations on the similarities between the structure of language and the structure of societies, and it is primarily through this concept that Sarraute explores a strand of conscious thought always present in human culture, but nearly invisible to each person experiencing it: namely, the extent to which our perceptions both determine and, perhaps more importantly, are determined by linguistic acts.
It is appropriate that for a novel—a form of art constructed out of language—this consideration on Sarraute’s part should take place within the work on levels of both form and content, of language and idea. Sarraute often structures the narrativein such a way that words themselves seem to overpower the few characters who dimly appear and quietly disappear, as though in waves of fog, within the circumscription of her prose, even while the characters try to master their own sense of reality by describing the world as they perceive and exist within it. This formal element of doubling and mirroring literary structure and subject matter may also act as a reflective process for the reader; Sarraute use a style of thematic layering that mimics not just the effect that language has on the book’s characters but also, in a wider sense, on the society in which the audience plays out their lives.
Throughout The Use of Speech, Sarraute dismantles the assumptions that support deceptively simple ideas; she shows that they are, in fact, complicated and bear such force that they irrevocably act on the worldview of the person who utters or hears them. Her technique is thus reminiscent of the essays of Roland Barthes, wherein what initially appear to be pure, transparent symbols are shown to be strands of thought forever lost in depths of abhorrent social restrictions to which they are rooted. (Celia Britton, for example, has pointed out that a common element to the writing of practitioners within the Nouveau Roman movement was the influence of Barthes. (The Nouveau Roman: Fiction, Theory, and Politics” (St. Martin’s, 1992).))
Thus each chapter of the novel begins with a ghostly narrator who directly addresses the reader on the subject of a simple phrase that occurs in an isolated, dramatized conversation (with sections of the book having titles such as “The word love”; “So what, he’s crazy”; and “See you very soon”). The narrative voices dramatize situations in which these phrases have come to surface: a meeting between friends; a man on his deathbed (who happens in this case to be Anton Chekhov) speaking to those surrounding him; a discussion of a political exile; etc. Sarraute visualizes the phrase “So what, he’s crazy,” for example, as a concrete form of separation between human beings, specifically by linking the way in which the sentence implies an outsider exterior to the dialogue, in opposition to both the person uttering the phrase and the listener, to the parallel process through which an individual is, in reality, excluded from society because of insanity.
This example of Sarraute’s casting back of thought is an important point in understanding the novel, and it is in a sense the forte with which Sarraute cuts through a wall built between human relationships. The example’s use illustrates an area of life in which the behavior of citizens within a society mimics a linguistic figure: Sarraute’s narrator says, “‘So what, he’s crazy’. . . is a strong-room. Nothing from outside can pass through its walls, they’re guaranteed proof against all risks, they’re totally impenetrable. . . . [The phrase] ‘So what, he’s crazy’ erects its impenetrable walls all around him.” This series of lines is almost certainly a metaphor for the act of consigning a person deemed insane to an asylum, and it calls to mind those have been willed, as it were, into a state of nonexistence. That the phrase is imagined as an impenetrable series of walls surrounding a victim also evinces the idea that by dividing our perceptions into oppositional categories—sane/insane, etc.—language takes a unified perception of the world and divides it into pieces, an effect that extends to our relationships to those relegated to the margins of society. In fact it is as though, in this case, the walls of the asylum are first reinforced by the cement of language: the narrator notes that “‘Crazy’” is “a powerful word by which all agitations and convulsions are mastered, put in a safe place, locked away, well guarded.”
Sarraute goes on to suggest that we also extend this tension between language and action—as we have seen in its effects on the insane—to political outcasts. In another section of the book, Sarraute writes of someone gunned down by enemy guards: “But where do you think you are? With your fellow countrymen, in peacetime? You didn’t realize you were in a country occupied by enemy troops? You didn’t know the regulations? You have infringed them, a patrol saw you, they’ve taken aim at you, they fire . . . and with a tremendous din, something explodes in his head.” Here the outsider is not only subjectively erased from our perception through a turn of language, but also objectively erased, as it were, from reality; the scene is all the more sad because we know such tragedies occur and go undocumented within war-zones on a daily basis.
In another of the novel’s most profound and tragic passages, dealing with the borderlines between silence and speech, as well as death and life, Sarraute’s narrator considers the phrase “Ich Sterbe,” or “I’m dying,” the last words of Chekhov as he lay on his deathbed in a German hotel room. Sarraute uses this example, I believe, as a specific case in which a human being has attempted to encompass the indefinable—the experience of near-death—in an act of language. It is notable that dying is a place in which language must necessarily fail, because it lacks a past or common ground of experience between speaker and listener: the experience is only felt by the dying, and only felt once. It follows that Sarraute describes the great writer rendered nearly speechless by the event: “[Chekhov] is so at a loss, so bereft of words . . . he has none . . . This resembles nothing, this recalls nothing anyone has ever described, ever imagined . . . this is surely what is meant when people say that there are no words to say it . . . There are no more words, here.” It is as though, Sarraute suggests, life is an impenetrable darkness, an unknowable mass that we attempt to focus through language: here Chekhov is “Swept along, carried away, trying to hold myself back, clutching . . . solid earth: Ich sterbe.” As though swept up in a dark river, he looks for some purchase to keep himself above the water, and language would seem to provide this hold, a false moment of certainty in a landscape bearing only uncertainty. In that Chekhov was a doctor, Sarraute has him say (as though he is taking control over his physical state with words in the same way that a surgeon may take over the body), “I am going to put into words [with the phrase 'Ich sterbe']. . . An operation which will introduce order into this infinite disorder. The unsayable will be said. The unthinkable will be thought. The senseless will be restored to reason.” Furthermore, “[with] the blade of excellent make—I have never used it, nothing has ever blunted it—I anticipate the moment, and I, myself, cut: Ich sterbe . . . I certify the event.”
Is this not, in a sense, what Sarraute intends to do herself, by writing a novel on the very subject of the “act of speech”? In this comparison of a phrase to a blade, cutting through experience, Sarraute again asserts that language by necessity acts upon reality, describing the moment of impact and separation. That we are so chained to this violent state of affairs is a testament to the importance of thinkers such as Sarraute; in the act of writing this novel she has shed light on the possibility of a future in which “the unsayable will be said,” when perception would no longer negate the difference between ourselves, others, and the world around us. That Sarraute accomplishes this negation through language is a profound artistic achievement.
Jordan Anderson is a writer living in Oregon whose main interests are the 19th century and contemporary literatures. He can be reached at anders [dot] jordan [at] gmail [dot] com.
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- A goal without a plan is just a wish.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 - 1944)
- It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
- Arnold Toynbee (1889 - 1975)
- The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.
- Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1959)
- The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.
- Denis Watley
- Achievable goals are the first step to self improvement.
- J. K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement Address, 2008
- Before you begin a thing, remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead. If you could see them clearly, naturally you could do a great deal to get rid of them but you can't. You can only see one thing clearly and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin.
- Kathleen Norris
- A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat but not too much above his last achievement. In this way he steadily raises his level of aspiration.
- Kurt Lewin (1890 - 1947)
- Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.
- Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)
- We find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.
- Maxwell Maltz, Communication Bulletin for Managers & Supervisors, June 2004
- To will is to select a goal, determine a course of action that will bring one to that goal, and then hold to that action till the goal is reached. The key is action.
- Michael Hanson
- Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus.
- Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ), O Magazine, July 2003
- The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work.
- Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ), O Magazine
- Do not turn back when you are just at the goal.
- Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims
- In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.
- Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)
- The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.
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Developing preschool writing skills – salt tray
At some point in preschool years children start to develop an interest in letter formation and writing moving on from scribbles and circles to noticing letter forms and wanting to copy. J is at this stage and very interested in letters at the moment so I set up this preschool writing activity for him using a Salt Tray. Having seen The Imagination Tree’s Sensory Salt Tray around this time last year I set up something similar for him using table salt (uncoloured).
What you need for this preschool writing activity
A plain tray
Mark Making Equipment (pencil or pen)
Setting up and working on preschool writing
Looking at letter formation there are some standard shapes that are used in forming most of the letters, lines, circles, waves and zig zags so I focused on producing some cards that showed these for J to replicate in the salt on the tray. Folding a piece of paper in half I drew a set of lines, shapes on one half of the paper and made sure that it would stand up on the table and set up the tray with the salt on it front and introduced the activity to J.
Initially using our fingers I showed J what we were going to do and then J started – his first instinct was to remove his hand at the end of each part of the sequence of shapes as in the image above but we worked on forming a continuous line as if he were to form a chain of u’s or w’s.
Using a pencil with grips on J worked on his favourite shape a circle – we are working on pencil hold at the moment and you can see he has the grip now we need to work it lower we’ve been using the tips from this video from I can Teach my child.
One of the things I love about preschool and early years of school aged children’s hand writing is the difference in the scale of letters they form – J loves drawing circles and his circle was miles bigger than the other forms he drew in the salt tray – the zigzag he found quite hard and drew very small in the tray. | <urn:uuid:e332bca8-7f0c-4d80-82dd-4b1c86b82b55> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://rainydaymum.co.uk/preschool-writing-salt-tray | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973032 | 457 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Wastewater garden — A system to treat wastewater with environmental benefits to community
Nair, J. (2008) Wastewater garden — A system to treat wastewater with environmental benefits to community. Water Science & Technology, 58 (2). p. 413.
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Many communities and villages around the world face serious problems with lack of sanitation especially in disposing of the wastewater—black water and grey water from the houses, or wash outs from animal rearing sheds. Across the world diverting wastewater to the surroundings or to the public spaces are not uncommon. This is responsible for contaminating drinking water sources causing health risks and environmental degradation as they become the breeding grounds of mosquitoes and pathogens. Lack of collection and treatment facilities or broken down sewage systems noticed throughout the developing world are associated with this situation.
Diverting the wastewater to trees and vegetable gardens was historically a common practice. However the modern world has an array of problems associated with such disposal such as generation of large quantity of wastewater, unavailability of space for onsite disposal or treatment and increase in population. This paper considers the wastewater garden as a means for wastewater treatment and to improve the vegetation and biodiversity of rural areas. This can also be implemented in urban areas in association with parks and open spaces. This also highlights environmental safety in relation to the nutrient, pathogen and heavy metal content of the wastewater. The possibilities of different types of integration and technology that can be adopted for wastewater gardens are also discussed.
|Publication Type:||Journal Article|
|Murdoch Affiliation:||Environmental Technology Centre|
|Publisher:||International Water Association Publishing|
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The Palatine Hill eventually came to be dominated by the massive palace complex of the Roman emperors.
If Augustus had intially lived in a relatively modest house on the hill, then his successors showed no such restraint.
Above is the view onto the main facade, looking from Circus Maximus. Immediately below is the most likely reason for the location of the palace; the view down onto the Circus Maximus.
The most impressive ruins remaining today are those of the Domus Flavia and the Domus Augustana, both built by emperor Domitian. The Domus Flavia was the official part of the palace in which emissaries might be received or state banquets might be held. The Domus Augustana meanwhile was the emperor's luxurious private residence.
Fountains played a great part in the splendour of the great palace. Above is the court yard of the Domus Augustana with its large central fountain. Below is another fountain, the oval fountain which could be viewed from the dining hall of the Domus Flavia.
Above is yet another fountain, the octagonal fountain of the Domus Flavia.
Also part of Domitian's palace, was this open area known as the Stadium. Opinions are divided on if this was a stadium for exercising horses or merely a large garden.
The oval enclosure at one end of it is an addition made by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric in the 6th century.
Below is the so-called Exhedra, which is believed to have held a balcony from where to survey the area of the Stadium.
Model of Rome in the days of Constantine the Great
Museo della Civilta, Rome | <urn:uuid:d673115c-cf6c-4a07-9cdd-da1095ea717a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://roman-empire.net/tours/rome/palatine.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973091 | 351 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Symbolical Masonry, by H.L. Haywood, , at sacred-texts.com
The Three, Five and Seven Steps have long been a puzzle to the candidate and a problem to Masonic writers; in the present connection there is no need that we go into the erudite debates that have circled about the matter, because our main concern is with that living and practical truth of which the stairs are a symbol.
Whence came this symbolism? To that question many answers have been offered, some ingenious, but none very convincing. Any discussion of origin is valuable only as it throws light on the symbol itself.
Some scholars have contended, though not in recent years, that there was a winding stair of three, five and seven steps in Solomon's temple itself. It is thought that at the Gate Nicanor there was a semi-circular stairway leading from one court to another, and that it was on the successive steps of this stair that the Levites chanted the fifteen "Psalms of Degrees," specimens of which remain in the Book of Psalms. But the archæologists who have learned most about the Temple as it actually existed are generally agreed that this stairway could not have been the prototype of the three, five and seven steps as we find them in our Second Degree. Sir Charles Warren, as eminent in archæology as he is in Masonry, writes that "there was a winding staircase, certainly, but this led to little cells or chambers a few feet square in the thickness of the Temple walls, in which the functionaries
[paragraph continues] [temple attendants] kept their stores for the votive offerings." ("A.Q.C.," vol. 1, p. 42.)
Other scholars have opined that the steps were originally the same in the Masonic system as the Theological Ladder, and had the same historical origin. This Theological Ladder, which appears on our Tracing Board, and represents by its seven rungs the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, and the four cardinal virtues of Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice, was introduced into the Ritual it is thought by Martin Clare in 1732. This ladder was made to stand for the progress of the soul from the earthly to the heavenly and it was looked upon as a Masonic type of a similar symbol used in several of the Ancient Mysteries (especially in Mithraism), in Brahminism, etc., and it was generally held to be, in its strictly Masonic form, a suggestion of that Ladder which Jacob saw in his vision, up and down which the angels came and went. Inasmuch as this Theological Ladder symbolised progress, just as does the Winding Stair, some have argued that the latter symbol must have come from the same sources as the former. This interpretation of the matter may be plausible enough, and it may help toward an interpretation of both symbols, but it suffers from an almost utter lack of tangible evidence.
Other scholars of more modern views believe that the Winding Stair symbol may have been devised by Operative Masons during the Saxon period in England. It seems that the numbers, three, five and seven were in the air, so to speak, at that time as is proved by Gould, who gives examples to show that these numbers were grouped together in laws, religious doctrines, superstitions, etc., "with startling frequency," especially during the years 449–1066. But this latter date, it will be seen, is some two centuries earlier than our oldest Masonic record, consequently there can be no hope of tracing the Winding
[paragraph continues] Stair symbol to that time with any degree of accuracy.
Thus it is that we are thrown back upon conjecture. Accepting that alternative we may believe that the Stairway was first used simply because it was a necessary part of the symbolic temple of the Second Degree. Here were the pillars standing at the entrance on the porch; yonder was the Middle Chamber, on a higher level; some means of ascent was obviously needed to get the candidate from one to another.
But the difficulties in the way of accounting for the origin of the symbol need not perplex us while searching for an interpretation, for that is plain; the mystical use of numbers in the Ascent suggests to us that the climb itself is a divine task, worthy of the noblest in man; the stair as a whole is a symbol of the progress of a man from the low level of natural ignorance toward that high level of spiritual power and insight symbolised by the Middle Chamber.
The number Fifteen itself cannot have much mystical significance because it is another one of those dreaded "American innovations" which have given so much scandal to certain interpreters. In some eighteenth century tracing boards the stair is composed of only five steps, in others of seven. Preston divided them into one, three, five, seven, nine and eleven, making thirty-six in all. The Hemming lectures, which replaced Preston's at the time of the Union, struck out the group of eleven steps, thus reducing the number to twenty-five. The American Ritual, in turn, further reduced the number to fifteen by striking out the one and the nine. Albert Pike was of the opinion that the nine should have been retained because he believed that the series three, five, seven and nine
had a very ancient and very precious meaning. "As long ago as the time of Zarathustra," he writes, "the Irano-Aryan Soldier and King of Bactria, five thousand years or more before our era, [this date is most certainly wrong.—H.L.H.] the Barecura, or bundle of twigs used in the sacrifices, were bound by three, five, seven and nine twigs, and even then the number seven had a peculiar significance." I consider it a fine thing that the architects of the House of the Temple at Washington, which is a monument to Albert Pike and headquarters of the Scottish Rite of the Southern Jurisdiction, have divided the steps that lead from the street to the entrance of that noble building into groups of three, five, seven and nine. But while it may possibly be true that the original symbolism should have contained the group of nine, the Winding Stair as it now exists in the Second Degree can never be changed; to do so would dislocate the entire structure of the Ritualism of the Second Degree, and it is doubtful if the additional group would give us any additional meanings.
From ancient times numbers have been much employed in symbolism as is proved by the records of all the ancient nations, philosophies, and religions. For one reason or another, too complicated to explain here, the even numbers were usually made to denote earthly or human things while the odd numbers were revered as expressions or suggestions of divine or heavenly truths. This was not the case invariably because the early Christians used 888 as the number of Jesus; but even they made 666 to stand for the human or demoniac and 777 to mean absolute perfection. It is now believed that the "number of the beast" spoken of in the Book of Revelation, and given as 666 in our Authorised version was really 616, which was the numerical value of the words "Kaisar Theos," or "God Cæsar," and referred to the worship of the emperor.
[paragraph continues] At any rate, with few exceptions, number symbolism has always made the odd number to suggest that which is divine or very noble and as such we may understand the use of the odd numbers, three, five and seven. An old Roman historian of architecture notes that ancient temples were nearly always approached by an odd number of steps because they led to the divine precincts.
The Three, or triad, or ternary, is found scores of times throughout the Ritual, and it is bodied forth in the Triangle, the symbol of Deity. It would be impossible in the present space even to hint at the wealth of instances in which the Triad occurs in the various symbolic systems of the past; we must satisfy ourselves with the following paragraph from Pierson's "Traditions of Freemasonry.
"The ternary [or triad] is the first of unequal numbers. The triad, mysterious number, which plays so great a part in the traditions of Asia, the philosophy of Plato, the mysteries of all ages, an image of the Supreme Being, includes in itself the properties of the two first numbers [that is—1 plus 2, equals 3.—H.L.H.]. It was to philosophers the most excellent and favourite number, a mysterious type, revered by all antiquity and consecrated in the mysteries; wherefore there are but three essential degrees among Masons, who venerate in the triangle the most august mystery—that of the Sacred Triad, object of their homage and study."
Concerning the number five I cannot do better than give Mackey's interpretations, as found in his Encyclopædia, Volume I:
"Among the Pythagoreans five was a mystical number, because it was formed by the union of the first even number and the first odd, rejecting unity; and hence it symbolised
the mixed conditions of order and disorder, happiness and misfortune, life and death. The same union of the odd and even, or male and female, numbers made it the symbol of marriage. Among the Greeks it was a symbol of the world, because, says Diodorus, it represented ether and the four elements. It was a sacred round number among the Hebrews. In Egypt, India, and other Oriental nations, says Gesenius, the five minor planets and the five elements and elementary powers were accounted sacred. It was the pentas of the Gnostics and the Hermetic Philosophers; it was the symbol of their quintessence, the fifth or highest essence of power in a natural body. In Masonry, five is a sacred number, inferior only in importance to three and seven. It is especially significant in the Fellow-Craft's Degree, where five are required to hold a lodge, and where, in the Winding Stairs, the five steps are referred to the orders of architecture and the human senses. In the Third Degree we find the reference to the five points of fellowship and their symbol, the five-pointed star. Geometry, too, which is deemed synonymous with Masonry, is called the fifth science; and in fact, throughout nearly all the degrees of Masonry, we find abundant allusions to five as a sacred and mystical number."
The number seven usually stands for perfection, and it may not be without meaning that in the V.S.L. it occurs, as one writer has said, "an incredible number of times." During the mediaeval period knowledge was usually divided among seven branches of learning; first was a group of three, called the trivium and composed of grammar, rhetoric, and logic; secondly was the quadrivium, which comprised arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. It is interesting to observe how our monitorial interpretation of the third group of steps preserves this old idea. Gould says that during the same period these seven
[paragraph continues] "sciences" were thought of as "a number of steps leading to virtue, and finally to heaven."
Let us now glance first at the group of three steps. The most familiar explanation of them is that they represent the Three Degrees or the three principal officers of the lodge. In either case the first three steps suggest to the candidate that he is being helped on his way by an organised fraternity, represented by the degrees or the officers. Does not this have much to tell us? Is not this one of the prime functions of Masonry? Instead of leaving the individual to climb on alone it surrounds him with its inspiration and its help, as the organised public school stands back of the child that begins the ascent to an education. No individual Mason need fail in his attempt to lead a manly life; a world-wide brotherhood, with its almost inexhaustible resources, is at hand to help him. Have you kept that in mind during dark days? No Mason climbs alone, even from the start; the entire Order, sensitive to his needs, and responsive to his call is ever ready to help him on and up.
If we glance at the next group of five steps we find another teaching, equally valuable and quite as practicable, a teaching that has more boldness in it than appears on the surface. Let us agree with the Monitor that this group of steps now represents to us (whatever it may have originally meant) the five senses; in other words, our physical body with its organs, functions, and faculties. What does this mean? Is it not this, that the very body itself, when kept in control by thorough discipline and when trained by education, may be a stepping stone toward the highest life? This was an exceedingly bold teaching when first promulgated, for it was at a time when religious teachers and moralists were telling people that the body was evil in itself and must be put
under foot. Masonry does not despise the physical, but urges us to prepare it so as to serve as a stairway toward the noblest life.
The third group of seven steps is interpreted as referring to the liberal arts and sciences; in other words, we are told that right learning and culture of the mind will lead us up and on. This is a teaching as badly needed now as ever because so many men tend to make light of knowledge, or to excuse themselves for not having it. But Masonry condemns this attitude, teaching us as it does in other connections as well as in this that ignorance is a sin. If we lay our prejudices aside here and are brave enough to face the facts I believe that we must agree with Masonry. We may say that we have no time to read, or to learn; the fallacy of this is proved by the number of men about us who are as busy as we yet manage to get an education in odd moments. We may say that we have not the opportunities for securing an education, that we cannot go to school, or that we cannot buy books. We do not need to go to school; we can turn our bedroom into a school and be our own teacher, like Elihu Burritt, or Benjamin Franklin, or David Livingstone. Nor do we need to buy books; they can always be borrowed from public libraries or from our friends. When we remember how superstition, crime, fanaticism, disease, poverty, and kindred evils grow out of ignorance we can well afford to study again the lessons of the Winding Stairs.
The Winding Stair, as a whole, is a symbol of progress. When is a man progressing? Let Ruskin answer: "He alone is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace." In spite of the Great War, which for so long dragged its bloody coils across the world, we may still believe that the race progresses, that
But we must not fall into the error of measuring progress by merely mechanical achievements as the custom is; the race as a race goes forward only as mankind as a whole becomes possessed of those qualities described by Ruskin. Do you not believe that Masonry has a leading rôle to play in this real progress of man? Can you think of a better recipe for advancement than Masonry's—to unite with others for co-operation, to control the passions and discipline the faculties, to enlighten the mind, and to keep ever before one a great ideal, as is suggested by the Holy of Holies? | <urn:uuid:1e6c3f5b-d10f-4871-bb3a-e055274c95ad> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sacred-texts.com/mas/syma/syma40.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976964 | 3,220 | 3.015625 | 3 |
This week, New York Senator Chuck Schumer introduced a new bill, The Children and Firefighter Protection Act, to ban the ten most notoriously toxic flame retardant chemicals in upholstered furniture and children’s products, and to set up a process to examine and regulate other similar chemicals.
While states have taken action on some of the worst toxic flame retardants, and some forward thinking companies have begun to rid their supply chains of these chemicals, America’s families need more protection from these ubiquitous hazards. Senator Schumer’s bill represents decisive action to get cancer out of our living rooms and playrooms.
Most people don’t think of their couch as a dangerous place. Sure, we might worry that we’re spending too much time on it that we should spend exercising. You might even worry that you spent a lot of money on a nice piece of furniture, only to have your cat use it for a scratching post.
Here’s a bigger danger.
Scientists tell us that couches across the U.S. contain high levels of toxic chemicals. In fact, 85% of couches tested in a Duke University study contained toxic or untested flame-retardants. And the newer the couch, the more likely they were to contain toxic chemicals. The use of flame-retardants has increased over the years and now more than 94% of new couches contain one or more of these toxic chemicals.
We’re learning more and more about the links between exposure to toxic flame retardants and a variety of health concerns like cancer, hormone-disruption, and harm to the developing brain. What’s worse is many of these chemicals are persistent, meaning they stay in our bodies and the environment.
We’ve also learned that firefighters, who are exposed to the burned treated foam as they respond to fires, are at higher risk for cancers and other serious health effects.
These chemicals aren’t just in our living rooms. They’re also found in our children’s rooms – in nap mats, in children’s furniture with kid friendly images like Elmo and Mickey Mouse.
But here’s the good news.
States are taking action to reduce our exposures to these toxics. Since 2003, legislatures in twelve states have taken action to ban some of these chemicals. Just last month, the California legislature voted to require labels on furniture containing flame retardants.
This summer, health care giant Kaiser Permanente announced that it will effectively ban chemical flame retardants from the furniture it buys for its hundreds of facilities across the country, putting its $30 million in annual purchasing power for furniture behind its health and safety commitments.
States like New York, Maine and California are taking the lead, and companies like Kaiser are leading the industry, but it will take a lot more to get these chemicals out of our homes.
Senator Schumer’s bill will ban ten toxic flame retardants in upholstered furniture and children’s products, and will set up a process to examine and take action on the host of others in the marketplace.
With his leadership, we can curl up on the couch more comfortably in the future. In the meantime, I hope you’ll get off your couch and get on the phone—urge your senators to support Senator Schumer’s bill to ban toxic flame retardants. | <urn:uuid:fd964d40-b272-4cba-8db5-636d6de0f104> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://saferchemicals.org/2014/09/15/new-federal-action-on-toxic-flame-retardants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948909 | 697 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The American West once had hundreds of precious metal mills. Now, most are in various stages of ruin. One important exception is the Mayflower Mill, (or the Shenandoah-Dives Mill) located two miles northeast of Silverton. A National Historic Landmark, this wonderful piece of mining history is open to the public. Witness first hand how the miners were able to extract gold, silver and base metals from the hard rock ores in this complete processing mill. The San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado were one of the last ranges to be prospected. Although some prospectors were still looking for placer gold, it was becoming quite evident that if any wealth was to be made in the San Juans, it was going to be in underground lode mining.
When word of several rich strikes hit the northern mining camps, the rush was on, with prospectors and miners swarming in by the thousands. Mining was here to stay for the next 125 years. The technique of deep hard rock mining was well established and with advances in transportation (and machine drills), the amount of ore to be processed increased dramatically. The Mayflower Mill was the last and the most advanced of the big mills to be built in the San Juans.
The Mill began to take shape in the summer of 1925 as the dream of Charles A. Chase, who had made a reputation as a successful mine manager at the Liberty Bell near Telluride, Colorado. In the spring of 1929, a contract was issued to Stearns-Roger Manufacturing Co. of Denver for $375,000 to erect the mill. It was to be built of pre-framed Oregon fir, a good choice for the mountain environment and harsh San Juan winters it would have to withstand. The latest industrial equipment was employed in its construction, including the innovative steam shovel and dump trucks coming onto the market, incorporating the latest in mill technology. Construction was pushed to take advantage of the short mountain summer. The mill was completed in six months, and started processing ore in February of the following year. The Mayflower Mill was the single longest running mill in the history of the San Juan Mountains. In its 61 year milling career from 1930 to 1991, it was shut down only a total of 12 years, resulting in 49 years of actual milling. The total amount of rock milled is estimated at 9,700,500 tons. The Mill produced 1,940,100 ounces of gold; 30,000,000 ounces of silver; and 1,000,000 tons of combined base metals -- a remarkable record for hard rock mining in the 'old' techniques seldom employed in today's modern mining world.
The Mill recovered metals from the ore by gravity separation and by selective flotation. Sulfide ore minerals were concentrated by froth flotation, a method used in the early twentieth century that allowed processing of ores. The original mill equipment is still in working order. It is the only intact and functional mill of its kind in Colorado.
The Mill was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000. The Mill is owned by the San Juan County Historical Society of Silverton, Colorado, which staffs an information and gift shop at the mill under the name Mayflower Mill. The mill is open for self-guided tours in the summer months.
The Mill closed in 1991 and sat vacant until Standard Metals donated the Mill, out-buildings and acreage near the Power Station to the San Juan County Historical Society. The Society has made great strides in preserving this Mill, but there is a lot more work to do.
Structural stabilization work was completed at the Shenandoah-Dives (Mayflower) Mill in the initial phase of a major rehabilitation effort funded through a Congressional Appropriation and a grant from the State Historical Fund totaling $375,000. Phase One of the project focused on the restoration of the tram terminal, ore conveyor and its trestle substructure and custom or bins. Improvements were made to the drainage and grading around the site to direct runoff away from several buildings where tailings deposits had accumulated over the 60 plus years of the mill's operation. In addition to the planned work in phase one, the wood floor in the conveyor has been selectively repaired and replaced. With these floor repairs in place, tours of the conveyor will significantly add to the drama of our future visitor's experience at the mill.
The Society was awarded $154,000 in 2011 from the State Historical Fund with a $70,000 match coming from several other institutions, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, for the rehabilitation of the Assay Office building. The Shenandoah-Dives Mine Company's operation was based out of the historic Assay Office building. Located at the center of the mill complex, the building served as the central focus for the company's business, including exploration and processing of ore, and housed the office of Charles Chase, the highly regarded General Manager and founding officer of the Company.
The Assay Office building is a unique hybrid flat roof construction, using a heavy timber frame with light stud frame in fill. The structure has undergone many alterations during the course of its history and this project will attempt to preserve many of the elements that tell the story of the buildings evolution. Spreading limited resources to preserve all ten industrial components on the Mill site is challenging, and the maintenance of the entire complex has hampered the Society's in maintaining the assay building without outside help. The whole project is a huge undertaking for our small underfinanced organization. The development of the assessment of all the buildings at the site and the award winning H.A.E.R documentation with the National Park Service in 2009 started us toward success. We hope to complete Phase II and expect to submit a grant for Phase III in 2013. It will focus on the interior finish of the assay office as well as significant deterioration in the coal tank trestle and historic water tank located in the upper level of the site.
The rehabilitation of the Assay Office building will provide important rental income for the Society and honor the historic contributions to the floatation milling industry that Charles Chase brought to the San Juans. Each structure within the National Landmark boundary of the Shenandoah-Dives Mill complex will be rehabilitated in successive phases, and the preservation of the site will significantly compliment the other heritage treasures along the Alpine Loop.
Drop by the Mill during the summer for a tour of the Landmark status floatation technology that exemplifies the Shenandoah-Dives operation and get a first hand look at a major preservation project in process. Take a self-guided tour of this once operational gold mill and see how gold and silver were processed after the ore came out of the mine. Visit the Aerial Tram House, where the buckets and tram system are still in place.
Ask about our Heritage Pass.
Save on a tour package; Old Hundred Mine Tour, the Mayflower Mill and Mining Heritage Center & Jail. | <urn:uuid:70d5ef25-f122-4193-85e0-10c4bb0d134c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sanjuancountyhistoricalsociety.org/mayflower-mill.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960199 | 1,414 | 2.96875 | 3 |
four missionary plants
Last week, I saw Doug Darnowski, a biology professor at IUS, give a talk on four plants that have been (or could be) used by missionaries to explain the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people.
-Flowers in the Shroud of Turin
St. Patrick, famously, used the three leaves of this clover-like plant to describe the Trinity.
The Passion Flower has various features that make it conducive to aspects of the crucifixion.
The Glastonbury Thorn is perhaps the only living relic-- and a tree that stems from a traditional story about the missionary work of Joseph of Arimithea in England. (I had never heard of that before!) For more on the GT, click here.
The flowers in the Shroud are particularly interesting in that 29 of the 30 types of pollen grains are indigenous to Jerusalem in March/April. | <urn:uuid:90286d29-bba7-4ae3-ab93-fc4e05dc1ce5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://schansblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/four-missionary-plants.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956472 | 181 | 2.84375 | 3 |
It's unlikely that you'll ever be faster than a speeding bullet on your own. But if there were an invention that could actually sense when an incoming round was on its way to meet you, well, that would be something. And if such a device could also compel you to dive out of harm's way, it would surely be ranked among the most awesome science-borne superpowers.
IBM filed a patent for Bionic Body Armor, which would accomplish such tasks, in early 2009 [source: Anderson]. The device would have induced a shock to the wearer that would in turn cause reflexive movements in the opposite direction of a threatening projectile. Unfortunately, IBM pulled the patent in February of the same year [source: Anderson].
Never fear though. Smart armor is still being developed in the form of liquid body armor. One version uses magnetorheological fluids (MFs), which thicken when exposed to a magnetic field, and another uses shear-thickening fluids (STFs), which harden when agitated or struck forcefully by an object.
As these forms of armor become more refined, they will certainly change the landscape of war. And while they haven't been perfected yet, their value in terms of lives saved and casualties prevented will be immeasurable. That's why smart armor will grant users with one of the most awesome superpowers of all.
Ready for the last one? | <urn:uuid:aa2f336d-5e52-41a5-ad23-61062e0770dc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/scientific-experiments/5-science-borne-superpowers4.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970496 | 286 | 2.6875 | 3 |
"All the objects are made of bronze. The treasure contains a pickaxe, dozens of fragments of a spiral necklace and a bracelet of with recurving endings" - told PAP Piotr Kotowicz, an archaeologist at the Historical Museum in Sanok.
Ice axe and valuables were hidden in a clay jug with a diameter of 25 cm. Before burying it in a pit, the vessel was turned upside down and placed on a sandstone plate.
Archaeological discovery in Rzepedź was made accidentally. A few days ago, while walking, Łukasz Solon from Sanok noticed an ice axe sticking out of the ground. After returning, he contacted the Sanok museum.
On the next day, archaeologists began searching the around the place he pointed. It turned out that the ice axe was just one of many finds.
"For me, as an archaeologist it is very important that after finding one object the discoverer did not explore the place further himself, but reported the discovery and waited for specialists. This approach is commendable, and from the point of view of archaeology, it means preserving a lot of information that are unrecoverable after amateur exploration of a treasure such as the one from Rzepedź" - Piotr Kotowicz told the portal Archeolog.pl.
According to Kotowicz, the discovered objects were probably made south of the Carpathians. "The treasure is probably related to the communication route, which ran from the nearby Łupków Pass through the Osława and San valleys" - noted the archaeologist.
Bronze monuments from Rzepedź have been preliminarily dated to approx. 1500 years before Christ. "We do not yet know who and why had hidden the treasure so carefully. Axe and jewellery are most likely related to the Piliny culture, then existing south of the Carpathians" - noted Kotowicz.
In the 1990s in Trzcinica near Jasło, approx. 30-40 km from Rzepedź, archaeologists discovered Poland’s oldest fortified settlements dating back more than four thousand years, with strong Transcarpathian influence. Later, between 1650 and 1350 BC, the area was inhabited by the highly civilised Transcarpathian Otomani-Füzesabony culture.
Piotr Kotowicz told PAP that in recent days a survey has been conducted with a representative of the local conservation office in Krosno, which is a prelude to broader research. It might allow to determine whether the discovery is isolated, or had been buried within a settlement from that period.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
kyc/ par/ szz/ agt/ | <urn:uuid:0c73e0ef-3bfd-427b-8289-c92520c46377> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news,403787,treasure-of-bronze-objects-from-before-35-thousand-years-discovered-in-bieszczady.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961358 | 576 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Posts in: endangered species
An endangered bird is promised future habitat at home, but needs help sooner
$100 million refuge proposed to shelter iconic rabbits and other thicket species
How citizen scientists and biologists are working together to help the endangered birds
Bee-lovers race against population declines and bureaucracy
Instrument makers and their use of natural resources
Is there hope for the Florida scrub-jay?
Will emerging technologies save imperiled wildlife?
Age-old remedies drive trade in endangered species and promote animal suffering, despite alternatives
Media focus on charismatic, sexy animals loses sight of the bigger picture
Zoos can help save species, but are they only saving the ones we like? | <urn:uuid:efd3efcf-eb87-4eea-84ca-3dff79d72467> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://scienceline.org/tag/endangered-species/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.887496 | 139 | 2.53125 | 3 |
TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT - EARTH DAY, 2002
Scorecard now collects action opportunities addressing all the environmental problems it covers, and makes it easy for site visitors to get engaged. You can speak out to relevant elected officials, telling them to address the most serious pollution problems in your area. You can join together with others to share your opinions about environmental issues, or help spread the word about local problems to your friends. And you can support organizations working to protect the environment, by making a donation or offering your help as a volunteer.
Take action to protect the environment in your community!
And share what you learn about local pollution from Scorecard with your friends. Help us spread the word! Scorecard can now send a free, customized report summarizing local environmental problems to anyone - just provide their name, email address and zipcode.
Send your friends or colleagues a community profile.
DIESEL CANCER RISK DWARFS ALL OTHER AIR TOXICS COMBINED - JULY 12, 2001
Nationwide, exhaust from diesel engines accounts for 78% of the total added cancer risk in outdoor air from all hazardous air pollutants combined, according to Scorecard's analysis of newly released U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. This new information is based on EPA's National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment, which provides detailed estimates of the levels of 41 top hazardous air pollutants in every community in the U.S. EPA's previous version did not include information on diesel particulate emissions.
Find out what the risk is in your community. Virtually all Americans - over 270 million people -- live in neighborhoods where the additional cancer risk from toxic chemicals in outdoor air is more than 100 times higher than the goal set by Congress a decade ago. For over 50 million Americans, according to the new estimates, cancer risk from their neighborhood air is more than 1,000 times higher than Congress' goal.
A very small set of chemicals and chemical categories account for the majority of health risks associated with hazardous air pollutants, according to Scorecard's screening-level analysis of EPA's exposure estimates: Nationally, just 8 chemicals account for 99% of estimated cancer risks. One pollutant - diesel emissions - accounts for almost 80% of the estimated lifetime cancer risk associated with outdoor hazardous air pollutant exposures.
FIRST-EVER DATA ON ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOR EVERY COMMUNITY IN U.S. - EARTHDAY, 2001
Scorecard now shows different degrees of environmental burden felt by different racial/ethnic and income groups in each county in the U.S. Go to our new environmental justice section and type in your zip code for a report on your community.
WATER QUALITY AND WATERSHED HEALTH - SEPTEMBER 1, 2000
EPA estimates that 40 percent of the nation's waterways are too polluted for fishing and swimming. Find out how the waterbodies in your community are doing: Scorecard now provides easy access to information from the Environmental Protection Agency about Clean Water Act compliance and watershed health. Type in your zipcode and get a summary of water quality issues, or explore Scorecard's new water section. Learn more about nonpoint source pollution, which is the leading cause of water quality problems. Take action to support policy changes needed to ensure the nation's waterways are cleaned up.
INTRODUCING THE SCORECARD GUIDE - NOVEMBER 3, 1999
Get the most out of Scorecard - check out our new, easy-to-use downloadable tutorial that steers you quickly to pollution information about your community and the nation. Taking you on a tour through this website, the Scorecard Guide helps you understand the different features of the site. The Guide provides a clear introduction to the reports, maps and information available to you on Scorecard. Additionally, the Guide provides tools for local organizing and for conducting educational community meetings. Even if you are unfamiliar with the Internet, The Guide makes it easy to become a Scorecard expert and to share this information with others. The Scorecard Guide is downloadable for free in both English and Spanish. | <urn:uuid:5442c593-a73c-47c5-93f2-1ea1a250e575> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://scorecard.goodguide.com/about/txt/new.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907765 | 844 | 2.796875 | 3 |
© the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales and is used under licence with the permission of the State Records Authority. The State of New South Wales gives no warranty regarding the data's accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose.
In the early years of the New South Wales colony, most convicts were married by banns. Convicts could only be married by banns after they had first obtained official permission to marry.
This database contains registers of convicts’ applications for permission to marry between 1826 and 1851. Information listed in the registers includes:
- Names of individuals intending to marry
- Their ages
- Date of permission or refusal to marry
- Ship of arrival
- Whether bond or free
- Name of clergyman | <urn:uuid:e6364eac-e341-4837-bb36-863a61bf4279> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://search.ancestry.com.au/search/db.aspx?dbid=1504 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950541 | 162 | 2.546875 | 3 |
This section of our learning guide focuses on a tried and true malware adversary: Spyware. Find information on spyware and adware detection, keyloggers and their destructive capabilities, bots, proper spyware removal tactics and antispyware tools. Also, be sure to visit our Windows Security Clinic for information on troubleshooting spyware infections.
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive emails regarding relevant topic offers from TechTarget and its partners. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Contact TechTarget at 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA.
Table of contents
Spyware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet (where it is sometimes called a spybot or tracking software), spyware is programming that is put into someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer as a computer virus or as the result of installing a new program.
Spyware is often installed without the user's consent, as a drive-by download, or as the result of clicking some option in a deceptive pop-up window. Adware, software designed to serve advertising, can usually be thought of as spyware as well because it almost invariably includes components for tracking and reporting user information.
While spyware is no longer necessarily at the forefront of the malware realm, it can still be quite a nuisance. Keyloggers, for example, relay what you type to a hacker who has installed a program on your system without your knowing. This can result in anything from lost user account passwords to credit card information. A bot can use one of your machines or servers as a hub to distribute other forms of malicious software.
Recognize your malware
Spyware and adware are two types of software that some people find hard to distinguish.
To make matters more confusing, there are many pieces of malware that merge characteristics of both spyware and adware. The distinction between the "wares" is important to businesses that make money distributing adware because they generally don't like to be associated with the "dark side." Some adware vendors are even suing anyone who calls their programs malware or spyware.
The distinguishing characteristic of spyware is that it makes undesirable changes to your computer as it collects data about your computing activities. Using that data, spyware can perform any number of tasks:
- Deliver targeted advertising
- Forward sensitive data such as user names, passwords and account numbers to the spyware operator
- Perform unauthorized financial transactions involving the user's bank, credit card or investment accounts
- If the computer has a modem connected to a telephone line, the spyware operator may connect with expensive pay-per-access numbers leaving the unsuspecting user with the charges
Adware is software that displays advertising such as pop-ups and banner ads. Some collect personal information so the ads can target and be customized for the user. Adware typically is installed in conjunction with some other free software that the user actually wants. When downloading or installing the free application, the user also agrees to allow the adware to run. Legitimate products let the user uninstall or disable the adware, but doing so typically disables the primary software.
The term keystroke logger, or keylogger for short, has come to be associated primarily with its use as an unauthorized or malicious tool installed to secretly capture all of the keystrokes typed on a compromised machine. The reality is that, like many malicious hacker tools, keystroke logging has its roots as an administrative and diagnostic tool. Unfortunately, some of the most helpful tools and utilities can end up being used for evil.
A keylogger is a hardware product or software utility that records every keystroke typed on the computer. It may simply log the keystrokes and require someone to manually retrieve the data, or it could be designed to automatically send the accumulated keylogger data to an e-mail address.
The most common delivery method for this type of malware infection is through spyware or rootkits. Malicious Web sites can use known system exploits or poor active scripting security to automatically install the keylogger utility when users visit them. When installed secretly by a spyware utility or other malware, the keylogger can be used to capture user names, passwords, account numbers, social security numbers or any other personal or sensitive information that you type into your keyboard.
A bot (sometimes referred to as a zombie) is a type of malicious software that can infect Windows servers or workstations and can be used for propagating spam, distributing denial of service attacks and other criminal hacker shenanigans. Spy bots have not had the media exposure that viruses and rootkits have had. But times are changing. Research reports and malware vendor marketing hype are growing and spy bot infections and bot removal are starting to be taken seriously.
Spyware responsibilities: From user to admin
Defending your system from spyware is a process that has many layers. Some roles are performed by users and some by the administrator. These bits of advice begin with the basics and move on to more advanced practices.
Use a spyware scanner/screener
You won't be protected against spyware and adware unless you install an appropriate antispyware package (see TopTenReviews Inc.'s Anti-Spyware ratings on that software genre for pointers). The first such package you install on your machine generally also works just like antivirus software. It will not only run at regular intervals and scan your machine, but it will also check all incoming files, messages, Web pages and so forth to look for and block spyware, adware and other malware from taking up residence on your machine. For that reason, the screening function is very important because it provides real-time protection against potential infestation by malicious software.
Run one or more back-up scans weekly
Recent studies show that, unlike antivirus packages (many of which routinely achieve 100% effectiveness ratings in the virus handling department, as demonstrated by the Virus Bulletin 100% award), no single antispyware package can correctly identify or block all known spyware (not to mention new, unknown spyware).
Thus, best practices dictate that you install at least two antispyware packages on all machines. Use one for real-time screening and regular scans; use the other once a week as a backup scanner to catch spyware and adware that the other may miss.
Use a rootkit detector
Although rootkits often work and run by themselves (and are no less dangerous in that mode), they are increasingly incorporated into spyware and viruses by clever hackers. They may even be combined with Trojans to enable what they learn to be reported to remote locations across a network or the Internet. They allow keyloggers to capture account info, passwords and other sensitive data.
The real problem with rootkits is that most antivirus or antispyware tools can't detect them. A special class of tool, called a rootkit detector, is required to ferret out such malware. What's worse is that no automated clean-up tools yet exist to get rid of rootkits, so the only cure for an infestation is to wipe the drives clean and reinstall your system (and then restore your data files and software from a known clean backup).
You can also try using the Windows System Configuration Utility as an unexpected spyware tool. Although the System Configuration Utility has been around since Windows ME, and it was never really intended as a security tool, some experts have found it to be particularly effective in the war against spyware.
Clean up spyware with the Windows Security Clinic
No one is safe from spyware -- particularly not naïve users who are quick to click pop-up boxes and installation prompts, entertain spam offers or surf malicious Web sites.
The best preventative measure is probably to educate end-users about spyware, but for many, it's already too late and spyware issues are running rampant on Windows workstations. To help you identify, troubleshoot different types and clean up spyware infections, check out the Windows Security Clinic on spyware removal. We'll present several end-user complaints followed by diagnoses and possible courses of action to take from three Windows security experts. You'll find that each expert has a unique solution to each problem -- so be sure to consider them all when troubleshooting your own spyware issues. | <urn:uuid:09a4fec9-4816-4b00-b549-f34325353e1e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/tip/Prevent-and-defend-against-spyware-infection | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928955 | 1,732 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Lately, I have been reflecting on all of the other areas in my teaching that relate to writing - specifically, oral language and the importance I place on discussion and conversation within my classroom. With Common Core, new teacher evaluations, additional assessments, and everything else that fills our day, it is easy to rush through our lessons in an attempt to "get everything done" on our agenda. It is also easy to rush through our class discussions and not give enough time to really hear our students, challenge them to think deeper and explain more, and listen to their ideas and thoughts. However, when we do that, we rob our students of the gift of thinking and the ability to formulate clear and concise thoughts that can later turn into a beautiful piece of writing.
In order to communicate and write clearly within the Common Core, our students need to be able to think and compose clear, organized thoughts that are backed up with evidence and explanations. Just because we teach our students how to write a complete sentence, does not mean we can expect them to sit down and write a solid opinion piece with supported reasons. We need to allow our students to think, create, and communicate their thoughts through verbal discussion and conversation. How many of your students read out loud? For many of our children, they have not yet fully developed their "inner thinking" skills. They need to say it aloud! Have you ever been on your way to an interview and rehearsed or formulated aloud in the car what you were planning on saying? I do this each and every time I'm on my way to give a workshop to teachers. It's how I think through my thoughts to make sure they make sense and are clear. This is an important part of the creative process for our young writers. Give them time to talk. Be there to facilitate and challenge their ideas and thoughts. Push them to explain more. When you do that, you will foster critical thinkers who are clear communicators in both their speech and their writing.
So how was I going to promote this in my own classroom? I started to think about the ways my teachers had fostered my own writing abilities. I came up with two ingredients:
1. Time to Write
2. Conversation and Discussion
My high school English teacher made us write a lot. For half of our class period, she would send us to the computer lab. Sometimes she just said "Write. Write about anything. Just write the whole time." Other times we would write a reflection to a piece of literature. I remember typing and typing and typing some days. But I also remember being able to whip out a college essay while I was at my university faster and more effectively than any of my college roommates. Time to write is a key ingredient to writing success.
For the second ingredient: conversation and discussion, I'm reminded of my favorite college professor. He challenged me to read books that I would not have ordinarily picked up in a library. Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself is one such book. After college, I went on to read many other books by this author. I fell in love with it because of the discussions we had in class. This professor discussed new ideas with us that we had not given thought to before. He challenged us to express our opinions and thoughts clearly and concisely. Quite a few times, I remember him saying things such as, "Be more specific," or "Give me an example." These are not magical words, yet they helped me to develop my inner thoughts and critical thinking skills. His impact on who I became as a writer is what I hope to give to my students...even if they are only seven years old. :) If he ever reads this, I hope he knows the impact he made on me as a learner. He valued us as young writers and showed us this by taking the time to have true and meaningful conversations with us about our ideas and thoughts. As beginning writers, our elementary students deserve this same respect.
I want to encourage you to slow down in your writing instruction this week. I want to challenge you to let your little ones verbally discuss their ideas before you require them to hit the ground running with their pencil. When their writing does not make sense, ask them to tell you aloud what they want to say. Give them time to talk to one another. In doing so, you will promote their communication skills and vocabulary, which will in turn seep into your students' writing skills. I promise. :) My students are getting there. :)
Here are some recent pictures of our informational penguin essays. I did not guide them through the process as much as I did with their polar bears. Rather, I pretty much helped to facilitate their research skills and then said, "Go! Write!" Take a look. :)
We researched three different kinds of penguins. We organized our research through color-coded paper:
We had long conversations about what we learned in our research. We discussed inferences we made about the penguins, interesting information, and verbally paraphrased key details. Then, I released responsibility to them! I was there to support them if they needed to "think through" and orally communicate an idea that seemed unclear to them. If I noticed a sentence that did not make sense, I asked them to rephrase what they wanted to say in a complete sentence. 9 times out of 10, they realized their mistake and were able to self-correct. (P.S. I did not have them edit everything or fix little errors. I only asked them to revise a sentence if it was really, really unclear what they were trying to communicate.)
Time to write and discuss thoughts and ideas through collaborative, engaging conversation has played a major role in our writing success this year. In a couple weeks, we will move on to an opinion project, and I can't wait to share it with you! Thank you so much for taking the time to stay with me through this lengthy blog post! :) I hope you and your students have fun writing this week! | <urn:uuid:1dc71277-eef2-4adf-96df-69e836eb1926> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://secondgradesugarandspice.blogspot.com/2014/03/reflections-of-writing-teacher-raising.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981991 | 1,226 | 3.34375 | 3 |
The first branch building was the second branch in the system and opened on January 2, 1902. It was named the McCreery Branch in honor of Andrew McCreery who donated the land and paid for construction. It was damaged in the Daly City Earthquake of 1957 and demolished. The site was used to construct a new building designed by Appleton and Wolford at a cost of $192,335 and opened on December 20, 1961. It was named the Eureka Valley Branch. In 1981 the Library Commission officially changed the name of the branch to Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library to honor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Harvey Milk served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors until he was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone on November 27, 1978. In 2006 the City honored Jose Sarria, the first openly gay man to run for Supervisor (in 1961) by renaming the section of 16th Street adjacent to the branch as Jose Sarria Court. Jose Sarria is best known for founding the Imperial Court System, one of the cornerstones of the GLBT community.
Eureka Valley Branch Library Interior c.1960s | <urn:uuid:2c853f7a-2903-45db-9d02-e2aa13e972bf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sfpl.org/mobile.xhtml.php?pg=2000076501&fullsite=false | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973111 | 248 | 2.71875 | 3 |
An unusually durable fungus that was first spotted on tiny insects feeding on eggplants in Texas may become a new biological control for the widespread and costly agricultural pests known as whiteflies.
The fungus was first isolated by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Entomologist Enrique Cabanillas, working with Entomologist Walker Jones at the ARS Beneficial Insects Research Unit, Weslaco, Texas.
The silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia argentifolii (previously known as B. tabaci biotype B), may be small in stature, but it can be deadly as a pest — sucking and feeding on the juices of a myriad of host plants. Heavy feeding can give plants under attack a yellow, mottled look and eventually kill them.
Whiteflies cause major crop losses, both directly by feeding and indirectly by transmitting plant viruses.
Pesticides have been ineffective for controlling whiteflies because of a built-in natural resistance, the need for repeated applications and the potential hazard some insecticides may pose to the environment, animal life or humans.
Isolated by Cabanillas in 2001, the new fungal species has been named Isaria propawskii. In the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, it has been shown to kill both larval and adult stages of silverleaf whitefly. In fact, since 2001, it has periodically wiped out whiteflies at the ARS insect-rearing facilities in Weslaco.
Notable aspects of I. propawskii include its natural establishment in a semi-arid region where temperatures can reach 107 degrees Fahrenheit — and its continuing persistence, even in the absence of insect hosts. A high spore production in common culture media makes this fungus comparatively easy to grow in vitro, in the laboratory.
These features, plus its high pathogenic potential against a second major insect pest — the glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis (previously known as H. coagulata) — make the I. propawskii fungus a promising candidate for practical biological control of two major U.S. farm pests.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. | <urn:uuid:7111b6e5-f65f-4f28-9201-ccec4da364a6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://southeastfarmpress.com/possible-new-control-whitefly-discovered | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937479 | 454 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Georgia farmers grow more vegetables than Georgians can eat each year. The extra is shipped and sold to other places. But there's one big place farmers haven't shipped to that could bring them and Georgia's economy more money in the future.
When it comes to vegetables, it's all about timing. And the time is right for Georgia vegetable farmers to sell their produce to consumers around the world. Something they've done little of in the past, says Greg Fonsah, a University of Georgia Extension Service vegetable economist.
Georgia's mild climate allows farmers to grow vegetables virtually year-round. As a result, Georgia's vegetable production has steadily grown since the mid-1980s and has surpassed what Georgians can eat.
For example, Fonsah says Georgia farmers grow about 248.5 million pounds of cabbage annually. This is more than three times what Georgians consume. The average Georgian eats about 8.5 pounds of cabbage a year.
Georgia farmers also produce about 176 million pounds of cucumbers each year. Again, more than three times what is consumed in Georgia. The average Georgian eats about 6.9 pounds of cucumbers each year.
It's the same for other vegetables like onions, beans and bell peppers, Fonsah says.
Northern states and Canada are the main out-of-state buyers of Georgia vegetables. But there's always room for other markets, says Kent Hamilton, a vegetable farmer in Colquitt County in southwest Georgia.
Vegetables are very time sensitive, Hamilton says. For good crops, farmers must plant, water and fertilize them at the right times. And come harvest, they have to be ready to pick and sell their crops fast. As most consumers know, veggies don't stay fresh long.
“We always need to look at other places to potentially sell our produce because we are dealing with a perishable commodity that you have to do something with,” Hamilton says. “Sometimes markets do become saturated, and there are no places to sell.”
The global economy is and will continue to be driven by consumers. And Fonsah believes it's time for Georgia vegetables to step onto the world stage.
But just because Georgia farmers can grow almost any vegetable, doesn't mean they should, Fonsah says. Georgia produces about 33 different vegetables.
“We need to concentrate on what we grow the best and the cheapest,” he says, “and be sensitive to what consumers want to buy. A farmer should have his crop sold before he even plants it.”
Many Georgia farmers are listening to consumers, he says, and now grow and package their produce accordingly. But it's time for more to follow suit.
The U.S. dollar has weakened over the last year, making U.S. products, like vegetables, more attractive to overseas buyers, Fonsah says.
The Caribbean buys about 95 percent of its vegetables from the U.S. Fonsah recently visited the region. The only Georgia vegetables he found were baby carrots. That's it.
“The time is right,” Fonsah says. “It's time for Georgia to export more and capture some of this region's market.”
The same could be said for other regions of the world.
Georgia's vegetable industry is one of the largest in the nation. It's worth about $600 million a year. And a lot of that vegetable money finds its way into the small, rural economies of south Georgia, where most Georgia vegetables are grown. You find more money for vegetables, and you'll insert more money into these economies, he said.
Georgia farmers are concerned about selling their produce overseas, Fonsah says. Some feel dealing with new, foreign buyers and the extra costs of shipping overseas is too risky and costly. And they would have to manage their farms differently.
“But with high risks are associated high returns,” Fonsah says.
Georgia's veggie growers can learn, he said, to minimize their risks and take advantage of a world market ripe for quality Georgia produce. And timing is everything. | <urn:uuid:da4c7d1c-2a26-4c7d-bc3b-bfd497745c6b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://southeastfarmpress.com/world-stage-set-georgia-vegetables | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964968 | 848 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Inequalities in Education: What are we teaching our children?
Photo by Donald Tetto
By Casey Grier
Through a series of paintings, I intend to expose the inequalities that are subtly reinforced in schools, including those deriving from racism, sexism, heterosexism, and ableism. While it would be comforting to dismiss these issues as those from America’s past, the sad reality is that they continue to affect America’s future because they continue to affect America’s schools. This series serves as documentation for the inequities and inequalities I routinely witness in public schools as part of my field-based preparation for teaching. By the particular and specific use of the elements of color and line, I aim to translate a social reality into the abstract language of painting, creating aesthetically pleasing and conceptually engaging works of art. In addition to the aesthetic challenges that paintings pose, I want to stimulate the viewers to consider the following question: “What biases are we unintentionally teaching our children?” My immediate goal is to invite the viewers to think about these biases, but my broader hope is that my paintings will set them on a path to living for social justice. | <urn:uuid:833dda23-83a3-4bf9-889c-c2628b43c308> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://southwestern.edu/live/news/2487-inequalities-in-education-what-are-we-teaching-our/academics/kcf/news.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960512 | 243 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Seaweed may be an anomaly in north Mississippi, but animal researchers at the Prairie Research Unit in Monroe County are using the marine algae to improve production of the state's beef cattle.
Fescue, often used as forage for cattle, horses, sheep and other ruminants, grows abundantly north of Highway 82. Much of it is infested with an intracellular endophyte that grows between cell walls and is harder to overcome than intercellular bacteria that grow within cell walls. No foliar treatment has been found for treating the fungus.
For the past two years, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station animal scientist Richard Evans and MAFES agronomist Roscoe Ivy have sprayed both fungus-free and fungus-infested tall fescue with an extract from the seaweed. Steers produced from the preliminary research have shown positive responses to the seaweed extract.
"Many cattle produced in Southern states are shipped west to the Southern Plains for grazing and finishing in the feedlots and are then processed for shipment back to Eastern markets. Animal health has always been a concern with Southeastern cattle grazing on fescue. Treating fescue with a seaweed emulsion has produced steers with increased resistance to diseases and better weight increase," Evans said.
Fungus-infested fescue is frequently planted as groundcover for lawns and golf courses because of its resistance to insects. When used as forage for cattle, though, results have not been as beneficial.
"The endophyte causes reduced adult weight gains, depletion of hair, rougher coats, elevated body temperatures, lower weaning weights in calves, and a depressed immune system," Evans said.
Additionally, fescue raises body temperatures three to four degrees or more, which is detrimental to fertilization. Both egg and sperm are affected, and reproductive rates decrease, Evans said.
Fescue toxicity causes major negative economic problems for livestock industries in Mississippi. Production of beef cattle contributed $1.66 million to the state's economy in 1998.
In the 1980s, Virginia Tech began investigating the effects of treating tall fescue with seaweed extract. MAFES joined the project in 1996. Trials at both institutions were comparable.
After grazing on both infected and uninfected tall fescue that had been treated with a seaweed extract, cattle showed improved immune function, an effect that appears to be long lasting. Responses were measured after transporting cattle from Virginia and Mississippi to a feedlot in Texas. Measurement continued every 28 days over the 130-day feedlot-finishing period.
"Seaweed-treated fescue is an additional tool available for increasing animal health and may be particularly helpful for north Mississippi cattle producers where fescue coverage is heavy," Evans said.
Fescue covers more than 600,000 acres in Mississippi and grows especially well in the Prairie and Hill sections of the northeast area of the state. Mississippi is one of several Southern states located in the "fescue belt," an area in the Southeast comprising 35 million acres.
Cattle can detect fungus-infected fescue and tend to shy away from it if other more-palatable forage is in the area. In many cases, though, this is the only forage available. | <urn:uuid:5bda6d33-4001-4efe-ba2c-66887e84d54a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://southwestfarmpress.com/print/beef-cattle-benefit-seaweed-emulsion-fescue | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960933 | 677 | 3.203125 | 3 |
FOO FIGHTERS is the name given to the general body of spherical, circular, disc-like, or wedged shaped "bogies," sometimes seeming to glow, shine, or reflect a high degree of illumination seen mostly by World War II pilots or flight crews. They usually paralleled or followed aircraft and were seen by aviators on all sides of the action, being reported by American, British, German and Japanese crews. No Foo Fighter was known or reported to have made or attempted any sort of contact, interaction or attack. They were known, however, for their high rate of speed and agility, being much faster than any known aircraft at the time as well as being extremely manuverable, often exhibiting highly unconventional abilities such as instantaneous acceleration and deacceleration, rapid climbing and descent, and hovering in place.
England entered the war long before the U.S. What became known as Foo Fighters were reported by the British as early as September 1941, with regular sightings by all sides continuing, except for a several month lull in 1943, throughout the war. On the U.S. side, although sightings occured periodically before the deployment of P-61 Black Widows in Europe, it was the night fighter pilots of Black Widows that were among the first American military men to regularly report seeing Foo Fighters, saying "unknown objects" followed or paralleled their planes and glowed in the dark. It is said the night fighters shot at them a few times, but the fire was never returned. It is also thought it was the pilots of the Black Widows that finally gave the UFOs the nickname that stuck: "Foo-Fighters," a term picked up from the then popular Smokey Stover comic strip.
FOO FIGHTER AS SEEN OVER GERMANY CIRCA 1944
THE INFAMOUS P-61 BLACK WIDOW NIGHT FIGHTER
Interestingly enough, with all the sightings and reports, and all the qun cameras and high altitude photographs, no truly GOOD pictures of Foo Fighters from the period have surfaced. The photo at the top of the page showing what is alledged to be both a wedge-shaped and spherical-shaped Foo Fighter together with two Japanese planes is perhaps the most often depicted when citing Foo Fighters. The photo, from the 1975 photo-history by G. De Turris & S. Fusco, "Obiettivo sugli UFO," has both its supporters and detractors. If the picture was taken by Japanese photographers, which it surely must have been, it would seem, except for a quest for truth, they would have no vested interest in continuing or falsely perpetrating a myth. If, however, the photo was altered after the fact that would be another story. The question to be asked, if you were going to alter a picture, why start with such a dumb photograph when there must be thousands upon thousands of other pictures one could select?
On July 16, 1945 at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time, at the Trinity Site, White Sands, New Mexico, somewhat west of the city of Roswell and long before it became famous for the Roswell UFO the first nuclear explosive device on Earth was set off.(see) Shortly after that test and especially so after the war the general New Mexico area was inundated by "green fireballs." Theoreticians in the Air Force believed the fireballs were propelled objects and not natural phenomena, bearing a very close similarity to Foo Fighters. Because it wasn't clear that the Foo Fighter-like fireballs were not natural, the noted astronomer and meteorite expert Dr. Lincoln La Paz was called in to investigate. La Paz, in agreement with the theoreticians, stated that normal fireballs (meteors) are seldom if ever green, their trajectory is forced on them by gravity, and leave meteorites when they plunge to Earth. The green fireballs sighted over New Mexico did none of these things. Neither did they appear to La Paz to be electrostatic phenomena as they moved too regularly and too fast.
Painting by Leota La Paz, the wife of Dr. Lincoln
La Paz, showing a nighttime sighting of a green
fireball over the Sandia Mountains, New Mexico.
The La Paz investigation was called Project Twinkle. As the the investigation wound down a Project Twinkle memo to the Directorate of Intelligence, dated April 3, 1952 came to the conclusion:
"A logical explanation was not proffered with respect to the origin of Green Fireballs, it was however generally concluded that the phenomenon existed and should be studied scientifically until these occurrences can be satisfactorily explained. Further, that the continued occurrence of unexplained phenomena of this nature in the vicinity of classified installations is a cause for concern."
In today's world a Foo Fighter would be called a UFO, an Unidentified Flying Object, of which, by all accounts, Foo Fighters were. Some discriptions such as "glowing balls of light" or "spherical fire" match the aforementioned more-or-less Green Fireballs so described over the desert southwest and do not fit the conventional image of UFOs --- but the disc and wedge shaped objects do, as does the uncoventional manuverability. Both those aspects, disc or wedge shape and unconventional manuverability, have been attributed to many UFO or Flying Saucer accounts, but most especially so to one of the most high profile ones, the so-called Roswell UFO, wherein an object of unknown nature broke up over the barren ranchland near Roswell, New Mexico, late one night in July, 1947.
Although the Roswell Incident was originally reported in the local paper within a few days of the crash as being a flying saucer or a flying disc, the main body of the object that slammed into the lower north slopes of the Capitan mountains some 35 miles south of the debris field was reported by some eyewitnesses as being quite different. According to ROSWELL ARCHAEOLOGISTS: The Dirt Before The Dig as well as other sources such as found in the works of UFOlogist Thomas J. Carey, an archaeologist by the name of William Curry Holden reportedly stumbled across the downed craft early in the morning following the crash, one of the first to see it, and described it as "looking like a crashed airplane without wings with a flat fuselage" with some reports implying the fuselage had a definite delta or wedge shape to it. It must be stated in contrast, however, that another archaeologist, William Lawrence Campbell, known as Cactus Jack, albeit not nearly so high ranking or reputable in the field as Holden and classified by many as not much more than a Pothunter --- but who had nevertheless seen the aerial apparitions called Foo Fighters during World War II first hand himself --- reported being "out there when the spaceship came down" and seeing a "round object but not real big."
As stated previously, shortly after the atomic bomb test at Trinity Site, and especially so right after the war a couple of weeks later, the general New Mexico area was inundated by "green fireballs" and because of same famed astronomer Dr Lincoln La Paz was brought in to investigate. The exact date of the first green fireball is up for question, but just past mid August of 1945, around the time the first green fireballs were starting to show up in enough strength that they were becoming a concern to the powers that be, and a full two years before Roswell, a non-fireball hardshell object similar in scope to Roswell crashed into the desert near San Antonio, New Mexico. The following is from Meeting Dr La Paz and describes what was seen by an eyewitness:
"(A)fter spending a good part of the afternoon in a relative cool shaded area, including a nice siesta induced nap, my uncle gathered up his stuff and headed out to continue his biosearching, slowly wending his way on foot some distance into a section that was too rough for his vehicle. As the day was edging toward dusk he was jarred from his concentration first by the feeling of an intense blast of heat followed by a deep chest shuddering air-vibration caused by a huge, weird-shaped flying object, seemingly made of metal and whining like a sick vacuum cleaner that streaked in out of the sky almost directly overhead on a slightly down-angle from parallel to the ground. The object, as it crossed out of sight barely maintaining its height advantage above the undulating canyons and rock strewn hills, all the while traveling at an ultra high speed, by the sound of it, slammed hard, and somewhat explosively so, possibly before it even hit, into the rocks and soil some distance away."
The eyewitness hiked into the crash site but, in the process of scaling down to the object, injured his ankle and had to return to his truck. The next day he was taken to Los Alamos and questioned, of which one of the questioners was the green fireball investigator La Paz. When the witness secretly returned to the scene a week or so later the object was gone and the crash site reworked as though nothing had happened. The witness died forty-four years later (1989) and to his knowledge, from the time of having first seen the object until the time of his death, no one else had ever come forward and said they saw anything remotely related to the event. So too, even though La Paz was one of the questioners, if the 1945 San Antonio event was somehow related to the Foo Fighter-like green fireballs the witness never learned.
Almost all reported sightings, official and unofficial, of the aerial phenomenon given the name Foo Fighters during World War II and seen by pilots and flight crews on all sides of the action, when seen, were invairably observed only while the flight crews were airborn. There is a highly credible instance that happened in the South Pacific in August of 1942 when a whole formation of unidentified flying objects were observed from the ground that everybody who saw them agreed they could not have been enemy aircraft. The event is said to have occurred on August 12, 1942 on the island of Tulagi during a short lull in the raging battle leading up to Guadalcanal. Although there were hundreds if not thousands of Marines on the island that day and most if not all saw the objects, the lion's share for reporting the sighting as it comes down to most of the internet goes to Marine Sergeant Stephen J. Brickner. Brickner reported that when he heard air raid sirens going off he looked to the sky and observed over 150 objects flying directly overhead in straight lines of 10 or 12 objects, one behind the other. He said no wings or tails were visible and they seemed to "wobble" slightly as they flew over at a speed faster than he had ever seen before by enemy planes. He said their appearance was that of highly polished silver and that they shimmered brightly in the sun. In a second confirmation of the same event, also found on the internet but typically lost because of not being under a Foo Fighter context, and told a few years after the war, a young boy was sitting in a cafe in Redondo Beach, California owned by the infamous Madam Fifi Malouf with an ex-marine when a second ex-marine joined them in the booth. The following ensued:
"I was sitting in the cafe with a couple of the women, only this time the ex-marine taxi driver was there as well. Another ex-marine who apparently knew one of the women stepped up to our booth and invited himself to join us. It wasn't long before the two former marines discovered they both had been on Guadalcanal and in the process began to dominate the once shared conversation with nothing but war stories. That is, until the self invited ex-marine interjected a story about an unusual situation he observed. In August 1942 he was on Tulagi Island, a short distance southwest of Guadalcanal when he and a bunch of other marines observed some sort of flying objects that were different than anything he had ever seen. He said they were round and nearly flat, shaped almost like an upside down tin pie plate, with no wings or fuselage, glistening with a silver sheen."
FAR FROM BEING A FOO FIGHTER, A HUGE ZEPPELIN-SIZE UFO
CAUGHT IN SEARCHLIGHT BEAMS OVER LOS ANGELES IN 1942
Not all aerial objects otherwise left unidentified in World War II, seen from the air, ground, or otherwise were fighter or bomber-size-like Foo Fighters or unexplained phenomenon such as Green Fireballs. Nor were any necessarily small in size either. Some were downright gigantic. The most infamous was an object seen by literally thousands of people along the coast of California barely three months into the war. The UFO Over Los Angeles is mostly forgotten now, but during the early morning hours of February 25, 1942 the whole city and surrounding communities were in an uproar as thousands of rounds of anti aircraft shells were expended to pull down whatever it was out of the sky that night. The slow moving object, said to be as big or bigger than a Zeppelin, was caught in the glare of the searchlights from Santa Monica to Long Beach and seemed impervious to the the constant barrarge of shells. It eventually disappeared out over the Pacific after cruising along the coast and cutting inland for a while. The huge object was never clearly explained and was basically hushed up without response from the authorities.
THE FIRST SIGHTING OF A UFO FROM A POWERED AIRCRAFT:
The Flying Saucer craze that erupted on the national scene shortly following World War II is usually credited to a pilot named Kenneth Arnold from an observation of his while flying over or near Mount Rainer in the state of Washington. From the cockpit of his plane, and at a fairly high altitude Arnold reported spotting nine highly reflective, disc-like or crescent shaped objects flying in a loose formation off in the distance and below him --- all exhibiting non-aircraft like maneuvering and all traveling at an ultra high rate of speed.
However, Arnold's sighting was NOT the first from an aircraft. The first reported sighting of a UFO from an aircraft happened years before Arnold's sighting, during World War I and involved what seemed to be a Zeppelin --- but instead, turned out to be a huge unidentified flying object. According to ZEPPELINS: High Altitude Warships, on the night of January 19, 1915 two German navy Zeppelins carried out the first successful bombing run against British soil. One year later, although not exactly a Foo Fighter in the World War II classical sense, the FIRST sighting of a UFO from a powered aircraft EVER as well as the first firing on a UFO from the air occurred over England.
David Clarke and Andy Roberts write in their book OUT OF THE SHADOWS: UFOs, the Establishment and the Official Cover-up (London: Piatkus, 2002) that early in January 1916 at the fighter aerodrome at Rochford in Essex outside London around 8:45 PM Flight Sub-Lieutenant J.E. Morgan arose for an anti-Zeppelin patrol in his BE2c fighter. When Morgan reached 5,000 feet he saw a little above and slightly ahead to the right about 100 feet away what he described as "a row of what appeared to be lighted windows which looked something like a railway carriage with the blinds drawn."
Believing that he had flown directly into the path of an oncoming Zeppelin in the act of preparing to attack London, Morgan drew his service pistol and fired several times in the direction of the "railway carriage." Immediately, "the lights alongside rose rapidly" and disappeared into the night sky, so rapidly in fact that Morgan believed his own aircraft had gone into a dive. Overcorrecting his actually not out of control aircraft he crashed into Thameshaven Marshes.
A full account of Morgan's sighting, dubbed "an encounter with a phantom airship" appears in German Air Raids on Great Britain 1914-1918 by Captain Joseph Morris published in 1925. The book was compiled from then classified Air Ministry records, and Morris refers directly to the airman's report filed with the War Office. Extensive searches of the Royal Flying Corps records at the Public Record Office have failed to locate Morgan's original report. The station log from Rochford aerodrome does give brief details of Morgan's flight with the addition of the word "Zepp" which shows he did have an encounter with something he took to be an enemy airship.
Morgan's report is NOT included in the official account of the January 31, 1916 raid published by the War Office at the end of the conflict, which charts the movements of the Zeppelin raiders and the attempts by British fliers to intercept them in great detail. There is, however, additional support for the claim that an airborne object of some kind was present over southeastern England during the air raid. Another RFC pilot by the name of McClelland, reported seeing what he described as "a Zeppelin" caught briefly in the glare of searchlights above London at 9 pm, 15 minutes after Morgan's encounter.
THE ROSWELL CRASH: UFO DOWN
ROSWELL: CIRCA 1947
THE UFO PAGE WITH A SNAPPY ENDING
ROSWELL UFO ARCHAEOLOGISTS
JAPANESE TACHIKAWA-KAWASAKI FIGHTERS
Leonardo Da Vinci and His Flying Machines | <urn:uuid:7d6784f3-b9b9-4b38-bc6b-80492d42f480> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sped2work.tripod.com/foo_fighters.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977731 | 3,600 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The recursive algorithm is:
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2. move disc n from A to C
3. move n−1 discs from B to C so they sit on disc n
Since the meaning of A, B and C (your
to) are relative to the current iteration and keep changing, it's easier not to pass the state of the game around and trying to understand what it means, but to simply generate solving instructions.
To implement the algorithm above in this way, you need the following inside your
(when (>= height 1):
1. Recursive call with n-1, swapping B and C. You got this one right already.
2. Print info about the move, for instance
(format t "~%Move ~a to ~a" from to).
3. Recursive call with n-1, swapping A and B. You got this one right too.
Then change your
(solve-hanoi) so that it takes the number of disks on the first rod as argument, and calls (hanoi) with this number and whatever names you want for the rods, for instance
(hanoi 4 'A 'B 'C) or
(hanoi 4 1 2 3) for 4 disks. | <urn:uuid:0aa0cd49-8a47-4ec4-aab4-9cf7b588d661> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7747691/solving-recursive-towers-of-hanoi-in-lisp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.883828 | 293 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Have you ever witnessed such a strange cloud phenomenon? Look at this highway forming in the sky of China!
What a strange sight! Is this the stairway to heaven? At least, it pretty much looks like a mysterious highway in the sky!
But how do such astronomical phenomenon form?
This strange sky appearance, which was shot above Boao Town of Qionghai City in Hainan Province, South China, is due to a sky phenomenon known as crepuscular rays – or sunbeams – being cast from over the horizon.
The sun is dim but still shining on parts of the cirrus cloud high up, but the dark blue section is due to shadows being cast by lower clouds. (SOURCE)
Pretty cool isn’t it? | <urn:uuid:e7f78bc7-d2c3-46ef-89be-1b59abd886e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://strangesounds.org/2013/08/amazing-cloud-phenomenon-mysterious-highway-in-the-sky-caught-in-china.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949401 | 157 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Scientists have been looking for a blood test or other biological marker for post-traumatic stress disorder, which can be difficult to diagnose.
Experimenting in rats, they may have found one.
In a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, researchers stressed out dozens of laboratory rats by exposing them to used cat litter. Even though the rats had never been exposed to a cat, they recognized the scent of cat urine as a threat.
Seven days later, the researchers tested the rats for symptoms of PTSD. Animals were deemed to be affected if they cowered in a closed section of a maze — counter to their instinct to explore — and failed to habituate to a loud clapping-like noise, continuing to jump even after hearing it 30 times.
The researchers then analyzed gene expression in blood and two parts of the brain. The rats with what were seen as PTSD symptoms had a distinct pattern of glucocorticoid receptor signaling.
Glucocorticoids are a class of hormones. The most important is cortisol, which is released in response to stress and plays a crucial role in metabolism and the immune system.
In a second phase of the experiment, rats were injected with corticosterone — a hormone that activates the glucocorticoid receptors — an hour after they were placed in a cage with the cat litter.
Compared with rats that did not get the injections, they showed far fewer PTSD symptoms when they were tested a week later.
The lead researcher, Dr. Nikolaos Daskalakis, a neuroendocrinologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, said clinical trials are already underway to see if a glucocorticoid given quickly to survivors of serious car accidents can help prevent PTSD.
In the aftermath of trauma, some people are more vulnerable than others to develop PTSD. Researchers are still trying to figure out why.
©2014 Los Angeles Times | Distributed by MCT Information Services. | <urn:uuid:420ea990-c59c-4f1d-97d5-341a7f96a488> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://swtimes.com/nationworld/scientists-find-possible-biomarker-ptsd-rats | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963043 | 399 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Other Settlements In Southwest Missouri, Before The Organization Of Greene County-Kickapoo And Other Small Indian Tribes.
The probable removal of the Indians from Southwest Missouri, about the year 1830, seemed to be the signal for quite a large influx of pioneers. Although Missouri had been admitted into the Union, ten years before, and the eastern and northern portions had been rapidly filling up with immigrants, there were very few white people southwest of the center of the State, and all of this vast amount of territory, now comprising forty or fifty counties, was still attached to Wayne county.
On the organization of Crawford County in 1829, this territory was transferred to its jurisdiction, under which it remained until the organization of Greene.
There were no regular roads, and the usual way of reaching this part of the country was either by way of the rivers, as we have already described in the former chapter, or by following the Indian trails across from Green's Ferry, on the Mississippi. For a description of this route we cannot do better than to quote the description published not long since in the Springfield Leader, and written by John H, Miller, of Ritchey, from whose writings we expect to draw pretty freely for this chapter:
"In the fall of 1829, Madison and J. P. Campbell left Maury County. Tennessee, on horseback, traveling toward the setting sun, in search of homes for themselves and their families. Crossing the Mississippi river, thence west through the then Territory of Arkansas, on to the present site of Fayetteville, then almost an entire wilderness; thence making a circle back in a northeasterly direction into Southwest Missouri, striking the old Delaware town, the first and only place of note on the James fork, eight miles southwest of where Springfield now stands. From there they went on to Kickapoo prairie and then north into the timber, discovering the Fulbright Spring and the natural well. Near the latter they cut their names on some trees to mark their claims to the land in that vicinity."
Mr. M. next goes on to mention several families who were living on the James, the names of whom we have already given in the preceding chapter, and says that Messrs. Gilliss and Fillabert had a little log store on a knoll near the Delaware town, where they kept a few pieces of blue calico, &c., for sale to the Indians. After mentioning their return to Tennessee, he says:
"In February, 1830, J. P. Campbell and his brother-in-law, Joseph Miller, fixed up with their small families, and set out for Kickapoo prairie. Mr. C.'s family consisted of himself, wife and one child, Tabitha, then not a year old, who was afterward the mother of Lula, wife of Frank Sheppard. Mr. Miller's family consisted of himself and wife and two children. Rufus was one year old, and John, who is now a citizen of Ritchey, was twelve. They also had Six darkies, one five horse team and one Derbin wagon which was driven by John. (Madison C. did not move until 1832).
They journeyed via Nashville and Hopkinsville, crossing the Ohio at Golconda, thence over the south end of Illinois to Green's old ferry on the Mississippi. It being in February, they encountered great difficulties in crossing on the quantities of floating ice, but after making several trips across the river in an old, rickety piece of a flat, the wind being high and cold, they succeeded in landing safe on the Missouri side; thence they were obliged to almost cut their own road, but onward they went toward the West, by old Jackson in Cape Girardeau county, stopping one day to rest at old Col. Abram Byro's, five miles west of Jackson. Thence they proceeded on to Farmington, in St. Francois county, and by Caledonia, in Washington county, which was the last town, and it only contained one little store and two or three dozen inhabitants. Then on west, with scarcely any road, to the present site of Steeleville, in Crawford County, and on twelve miles further to Massey's iron works, which had not been in operation but a very short time, and so on to where Rolla now stands. Twelve miles farther on, they came to old Jimmey Harrison's , at the mouth of Little Piney, on the Gasconade, about four hundred yards south of the present Gasconade bridge. Mr. Harrison kept a little store for the accommodation of the few settlers up and down the Piney and the Gasconade ; that was also the courthouse for the whole of Southwest Missouri. and so it was the only post office until 1832. Thence west twenty miles brought them across the Pig Piney on to Roubideaux, now Waynesville, in Pulaski County. Continuing their journey, they went up the Gasconade river to the mouth of the Osage fork, where they found a few white settlers --some of the Starks, Ballous, Tygarts, O'Neals, and one old `Jim Campbell,' who was sheriff of all of Southwest Missouri. This was in the neighborhood of the present Oldland Post office. From there they came on to Cave Spring, where they crossed the Osage fork, leaving it at the old Barnett place, from which they came to Pleasant prairie, now Marshfield, and striking James fork 20 miles east, thence down to Jerry Peirson's, where he had built a little water mill at a spring just below the Danforth place ; then on west they struck the Kickapoo prairie one mile east of the present Joe Merritt place ; thence five miles more brought them to the natural well a short distance north of the present public square of Springfield. Here they first camped on the night of the 4th of March, 1830.
In the meantime, Uncle Billy Fulbright had got about three weeks ahead of them, and stopped at the Fulbright Spring. His brother, John Fulbright, had settled at the spring where Capt. Geo. M. Jones now lives, and had a cabin up ;and his brother-in-law, A. J. Burnett, had succeeded in putting up a small oak-pole cabin l2x15, just on the spot of the old `Squire Burden residence. a little west of Mr. McElhany's. Mr. Campbell having had rather the oldest claim, by his name being cut en an ash tree at the well, Mr. Burnett gave way and went and commenced an improvement five miles east, at the Merritt place. Both Miller's and Campbell's families then moved into the pole cabin, the negroes having a good cloth tent to live in. This cabin had a splendid dirt floor.
"Then all pitched into cutting and clearing, and soon succeeded in opening a few acres on the north side of the branch (Jordan) and just north of the natural well. They also cleared a field on the top of the hill, where the city now stands, and just about where the old Bigbee house stands they had a pair of draw-bars going into the field, the north string of the fence being about in the middle of the public square running west and including the ground where the Metropolitan hotel now stands." The remains of the old Kickapoo Indian village still stood in the southwest portion of the present limit of Springfield. It was built of bark and small hickory poles bent over. The Kickapoos had moved northwest in 1828, but of their previous or later history but little seems to be known, as they were but a small tribe, and are not mentioned in any books within our knowledge. It is probable that they came here from Illinois, as there is still a postoffice in that State which bears their name.
We find a remnant of them mentioned by Mrs. Rush Owen, in a communication to the Leader, and also published in the Historical Atlas of Greene County. Her description of the present site of Springfield is so graphic, and her style so interesting, that it will bear reading again ; so we venture to reproduce it. It reads as follows:
"In 1827 my father, John P, Campbell, and my uncle, E. M. Campbell, took refuge from an autumnal storm in old Delaware town on the James, not far from Wilson creek battle-ground. The braves had just brought in a remnant of Kickapoos which they had rescued from the Osages. Among the Kickapoos was a brave boy, ill with a kind of bilious fever recently taken, Just before leaving home my father had been reading a botanic treatise and became a convert. In his saddle-bags he carried lobelia, composition and No. 6. He gave them to understand that he was a 'medicine man,' and, against Uncle Mat's protest, who feared the consequences if the Indian died, he undertook the case. Not understanding the condition of his patient, or, perhaps, the proper quantity of the emetic to administer, he threw the Kickapoo into an alarm, or in other words a frightful cold sweat and deathly sickness. Then there was work for dear life. Uncle Mat, the older and more cautious of the two, pulled off his coat and plunged in to help my father get up a reaction, which they did. leaving the poor patient prostrate, and 'weak as a rag.' My father always laughed and said: 'But feel so good, good-all gone,' laying his hand weakly on his stomach. They remained some time with the Indians, hunting and looking at the country. They finally made up their minds to return to Maury County, Tennessee, and bring their families. Piloted by the Kickapoo, they went some distance up the James, and made arrangements with an old trapper to get oat their house logs ready to be put up immediately upon their return, They had selected lands where Springfield now stands. They found four springs whose branches uniting formed Wilson creek, About the center of the area between these springs was a natural well of wonderful depth, now known to be a subterranean lake, hard by which my father `squatted,' after a toilsome journey through the wilderness, the Mississippi river being frozen over so hard that they crossed on the ice in January, 1828. Several families accompanied him, among whom was glorious Uncle Joe Miller. Who ever saw him angry? Who ever caught him looking on the dark side? The moment he was seated every child clambered and buzzed over him like bees over a honey comb, and we had implicit faith in his 'honey pond' and `fritter tree,' and have to this day. The Kickapoo came over immediately and became an almost indispensable adjunct to the family, Seeing that my father was very tender with my mother, he looked upon her as a superior being, something to be guarded and watched that no harm came near. He was out on a hunt when my sister was born, the first white child in Kickapoo prairie. When he came in, my father, who had thrown himself on the bed by my mother, said:."Oh, ho! look here!" He approached, looked at the little creature with quaint seriousness, and said, `What call?" My mother, to please him, said 'Kickapoo;' and my father, who was cheerful and bright, had just taken baby's tiny hand and exclaimed, 'My Beautiful;' so that the child was ever to the Indian 'Kickapoo, My Beautiful,' and exceedingly beautiful she proved to be, The old people discourse upon her loveliness to this day, and refuse to believe that there was ever another to compare with her. The Kickapoo's greatest pleasure was guarding the rustic. cradle, and drawing the delicately-tapered hand through his own.
Springfield soon became a habitation with a name. Cabins of round poles were hastily put up, and filled with immigrants. My father vacated and built thirteen times in one year to accommodate new comers. Log huts filled with merchandise, groceries, and above all that curse of America-whisky-soon did a thriving trade with the Indians and immigrants. On a cool autumn afternoon my mother, who was remarkably tall, with black hair and fine eyes, went to one of the primitive stores to buy a shawl, and could find nothing but a bright red with gay embroidered corners. She threw it over her shoulders, and crossed over to see a sick neighbor. Returning at dusk, she was forced to pass round it crowd of Indians who had been trading and drinking. A powerful, bare-armed Osage, attracted no doubt by the gay shawl, threw up his arms, bounded toward her, shouting, `My squaw.' She flew toward home. Just as she reached the door her foot twisted and she fainted. A strong arm with a heavy stick came down on the bare head of the dusky savage, and he measured his length on the ground. The Kickapoo, for it was he that came so opportunely to my mother's rescue, carried her in, closing the door, for by this time everybody had rushed to see what was the matter, the Osages calling for the Kickapoo who had dealt the blow upon their companion. He passed on to the kitchen, making a sign to Rachel to go in, took "Kickapoo, My Beautiful", from Elizabeth, pressed her tenderly to his heart, looked at her wistfully, returned her to the nurse, and was gone. The blow dealt really killed the Osage. Nothing but Rachel opening the door wringing her hands, with tears running down her's and Elizabeth's cheeks, with "Kickapoo, My Beautiful", screaming, the finding of my mother in a death-like swoon, and no trace of the Kickapoo, saved the village from serious trouble. Days, weeks, months and years passed, and all my father's efforts to find out the fate of his red friend were futile, and he concluded he had been assassinated by the Osages, though assured by them, "They so find him'".
It seemed to be a peculiar trait in the character of these Delawares that they were ever ready to assist and protect the smaller and weaker tribes. Besides the above reference to the Kickapoo, whom they had rescued from the hands of the more cruel and barbarous Osages, we are informed that they had under their protection, while here, small remnants of several other tribes, among whom were Potawatamies, Piankeshaws and Muncies. About the time that Messrs. Miller and Campbell settled in Springfield, there were settlements being made in various parts of what was soon to become Greene County, the county seat of which should finally become a flourishing city. As we have before mentioned, the Fulbright family had settled in the west part of what now constitutes the city, or perhaps just outside of the present city limits; the spring which bears their name, and furnishes and abundant supply of 'Adam's ale,' being, but a short distance from the fountain of that more recently invented beverage, lager beer. Wm. Fulbright had passed through what is now Greene County in 1819, but went back East, and settled in what afterwards became Crawford County. In 1829, just after the return of Mr. Campbell from his first trip, as we have before stated, Mr. Fulbright, with his brothers Levi and John, and his brother-in-law, A. J. Burnett, removed to this place and pitched their tents in the wilderness. They brought with them their families, and a number of negroes, among whom was Aunt Hannah, so well known to all citizens of Springfield claiming to be over a hundred years old, and to have assisted in the construction of that first little pole cabin. In 1832 a mill was erected by Wm. Fulbright on the site now occupied by the one owned by Lawson Fulbright, near the head of Little Sac. Many of the descendants of this family are still living in the vicinity of Springfield, and from the pen of Mr. Miller, in a communication to the Leader, we quote the following honorable tribute to some of the departed members:
"In making further drafts upon the tablet of memory, fond recollections are awakened of more, and not to be forgotten, men and women who once lived in and about Springfield, but are long since gone. I call to mind the Fulbright family and others; William Fulbright and his amiable wife (Aunt Ruthy) and their interesting young family of sons (they had but one daughter). When I first knew them in 1830, they lived at the spring, opened a large farm on the high ground south of the spring, and were the very first to break the soil in the way of plowing, in the neighborhood. Uncle Billy's late and last residence was at the site of the old fort or earth work, where he died in 1843, after spending a very energetic and useful life. He was very punctual, honest and strict in all his dealings. He taught all of his nine sons true habits of industry; to get money, but to get it honestly, or not at all. Some of their sons are still living in Boone county, Ark., one in Greene, and one in Lawrence County. Their third son, Henry, held several responsible offices in the county, and was for one term Receiver of the U. S. Land Office, and while adversity has overtaken some in the decline of life, they still struggle on, not forgetting their early training. It was my good fortune to be personally acquainted with Old Grandmother Fulbright, mother of Uncle Billy and great-grandmother of the present John Y. she was of Dutch or German origin from North Carolina, and had in her possession a very old Dutch Bible, the first I ever saw. She died, I think, in 1832, at a very advanced age. Aunt Ruthy, who died a few years ago, is well remembered, no doubt, by many for her kind, generous and amiable disposition. Though passed away, may they long be remembered."
Andrew Bass, the father of Sampson Bass, of Jackson township, left Tennessee in the fall of 1829 for Missouri, arriving in Greene county toward the close of the year. His first location was half a mile west of where Strafford now stands, but on the departure of the Indians, the following year, he removed to the place now owned and occupied by his son, in Jackson Township. Alpheus Huff, whose sons still live in that township, came from Franklin county, Missouri, in 1830, settled within a mile of Mr. Bass, and Alexander Chadwick came from Tennessee in the fall of 1831, after which there were no other arrivals in that part of the county for several years.
On the south side to the James, where John Caldwell now lives, Edward Thompson, from Tennessee, settled in 1830. Mrs. Page and her family, who were of French descent, came also about the same time, and remained for several years on what is known as the Galbreath place, in the same neighborhood. In the same year, Thos. Finney and wife and Samuel Weaver came, and lived for about a year, just below the present Boonville street bridge, where G. N. Shelton afterward had a tan-yard. Mr. Weaver was a son-in-law of Wm. Fulbright, but his wife had recently died, leaving an infant son named Marion, who is now a merchant in Lawrence County.
Joseph Miller settled at the spring, a short distance southwest of the city, where Mr. Beiderlinden has since lived, after which he sold out to Maj. Joseph Weaver, and removed to Sac river, thirty miles northwest of this city. Mr. Weaver came in March, 1830, from Marshall county, Tennessee, and first settled at the Delaware town, where he purchased and improved the farm now known as the Porter place, upon which he lived until his removal to the above named point. On this farm he remained three or four years before removing to the place known as the Weaver grove, two-and-a half miles west of town. After one or two other removals, he died in September, 1852, on the farm three miles northwest of the city.
Of his family of thirteen children, eleven were by his first wife, to whom he was married in Georgia. His second wife, and the mother of his two younger daughters, was the widow of Dr. Wm. Shackelford, who will hereafter be mentioned. Of the first family eight are still living, and one of the second. Of these J. J, and E. L. Weaver, and the wives of J. L. Carson and J. M. Griffith, all living in this city, are well and favorably known to most of our readers ; also another son, Thomas J. Weaver, who lives at the Weaver Grove. One brother, R. B., and two sisters, are living in Boone county, Arkansas, Mr. Weaver being at the present time the Representative of that county in the State Legislature. Joseph J. Weaver has taken a prominent part in the affairs of this city, having served two or three terms as Councilman from the Third Ward, and one year as Mayor.
In 1831, Daniel B. Miller, a brother of Joseph, settled at what is still known as the Miller spring. in the northwest part of the city. and which furnishes power in the form of steam for the Springfield woolen mills. Here he made a field, which was afterward used as the Federal burying ground. He also cleared a small field in the 'bottom," where the depot of the S. & .W.M. R. R. now stands. Mr. Miller remained in Springfield until his death, which occurred in January, 1839.
Samuel Lasley, who came with Mr. Miller, settled on Little Sac, where the Bolivar road now crosses ;and we are informed that Spencer O'Neil, mentioned in the former chapter, who had been absent during the general abandonment of homes, also referred to in that chapter, returned about this time and settled in the southwest part of the county, near where his son Charles, now resides.
Next came Joseph Rountree and family, from Maury County, Tennessee, reaching here in January, 1831. They had started in November, 1830, and after crossing the Mississippi were Snow-bound at Massey's Iron Works on the Merrimac. Here they fell in with Joseph Fillabert, the French trader mentioned in the former chapter, who was coming through with some Canadians and about thirty ponies. Mr. F. kindly piloted them through, and became a firm friend of the family. Mr. Rountree settled on the farm now owned by his son, Z. M. Rountree, two-and-a-half miles southwest of the Public Square. In honor of the old gentleman we insert the following from the pen of Col. Wm. E. Gilmore, as published in the Patriot of Feb. 14, 1867.
"Father Joseph Rountree, the patriarch of an exceedingly numerous and highly respectable family in this county, was born April 14th, 1782, in North Carolina, the State which, next to Tennessee. gave the most pioneers to Southwest Missouri, Mr. Rountree in 1806 married Nancy Nichols and remained upon the homestead farm in Carolina until the fall of 1819, when, having heard that in the far West there actually was land that would produce more than two barrels of corn to the acre, he started out to find it in the then remote Territory of Missouri.
"Having two brothers living in Maury county, Tennessee, whom he visited on his way to the West, he was induced by them to give up his intention of going to Missouri, and settle there. He accordingly bought a farm there and remained upon it eleven years. But he could not forget the glowing accounts he had heard of Missouri, and in the fall of 1830 he again "pulled up stakes" and came on to this place, as we have before stated.
"Father R., not long after coming here, was elected Justice of the Peace, which position he filled for several years, and in 1856 was chosen one of the Judges of the County Court. This office he filled acceptably until the war threw everything into confusion. In 1865,, the venerable old man was assaulted most wantonly by a brutal soldier, and after a struggle he was shot through the shoulder with a revolver bullet, after which the soldier made two or three unsuccessful attempts to shoot him through the head, but the weapon missed fire, and assistance coming at that moment, the brute was prevented from completing his murderous intentions, The soldier was promptly arrested, tried. and convicted by a court martial, and sentenced to ten years confinement in the penitentiary. Mr. Rountree suffered acutely for a long time from this wound., but finally recovered and lived several years. When he came to this State he brought with him a family of seven sons and two daughters, who have filled honorable places in society.
In company with Mr. Rountree on his journey from Tennessee was Sidney S. Ingram. who settled where Mr. John Demuth now resides on East Walnut street, just north of which he erected a cabinet and wagon shop. Mr. Ingram remained in the city a number of years, and afterward removed to a farm about one-and a-half miles southwest of town, after which he removed to the place On the James, where, in company with F. C. Howard, he erected a saw and grist mill, There he remained until his death, which occurred about the year 1847. Mr. Ingram will hereafter be mentioned in an official capacity. Of his family but few remain among us, Sidney P. living one-and-a-half miles south of town, and Benoni L., who lives in Texas, being his only children now living.
Somewhere about this time Randolph Britt came from near Bowling Green, Kentucky, and settled five miles southeast of town. on the farm now owned by Dr. Blake. and we are informed that Edmund Vaughn. living ten miles east of town, is probably the oldest permanent citizen of the county now living, he halving come while the Delawares were still here. He is said to be a well-read man, but not very communicative. Mr. Bufford also settled at an early day, some thirteen miles east of town.
Kindred Rose, who is still living on a farm a short distance southwest of Springfield, settled upon the same in .1831. We learn that he had been living about one year before this at Richwood, near Ozark.
Also in the same year Junius Campbell, then eighteen years old, came and put up a little log store, within a few feet of where the public school building now stands, and had a few goods hauled from Boonville. His partner was James Feland, an old Santa Fe trader. Mr. Campbell traveled all the way from Tennessee alone, on horseback, and Mr. Miller says that in a lonely region he halted at a small wayside cabin and asked permission to stay all night. The lady replied that she had no meal. "Well," said he, ."just make me a little mush." However this may be, citizens of Springfield have reason to be thankful that he reached the little hamlet in safety and entered into business, where he remained until his death in 1878, one of the staunch business men of the growing city. But as Mr. Campbell's name will occur again in future chapters, we leave him for the present and pass on to notice other arrivals.
Andrew Taylor, from West Tennessee, settled in 1831, one and a half miles southeast, on the prairie just east of the Phelps place, D. D. Berry, his brother-in-law, just south of him, where he put up a little log store, bringing his goods from Tennessee. Mr. Taylor soon moved back to Tennessee, and after a village began to be shaped here, Mr. Berry removed his store to town.
In the fall of 1831, Peter' Epperson and family came from Tennessee and settled on a place adjoining Mr. Rountree's, having sent an overseer with about twenty slaves, in the spring, to erect a house, open up a farm, and make necessary preparations to receive them.
Radford Cannefax and his family, including two grown sons, Benjamin and Chesley and a daughter, who afterwards became wife of S. S.. Ingram, arrived in 1831, and settled four miles southwest of the city, on the farm afterward owned by Chesley. They were originally from Campbell county, Virginia, where, in 1809, the elder Cannefax was compelled, in self-defense, to kill a man by the name of Pitts. Cannefax surrendered himself to the authorities, was tried and acquitted, He soon after removed to Kentucky, where he remained until his removal to this place, as before stated.
In the same year, Finis Shannon, brother-in-law of Joseph Miller, settled just below the Uncle Joe Rountree place, on Wilson creek , where he soon died and was buried. He was the first person ever buried in the neighborhood, the plank for his coffin being sawed from a green walnut log by Joseph Miller and a negro man, with a whip-saw, and the coffin was made by Junius Rountree and Sidney Ingram.
In the latter part of 1831, Samuel Painter came here from Montgomery County, Illinois, where he had lived about five years. He was formerly from Lincoln county, Tennessee, to which place he removed in 1813, when his son Jacob, who still lives in Springfield, was but two years old, Mr. Painter and his family, consisting of his wife and three sons-John, Jacob and Elisha-remained a few months in Springfield, after which they removed to the beautiful prairie in the north part of the county, where they remained about One year. on the place now owned by William H. Payne, near Ebenezer. Mr. Painter sold out to Thomas Wilson, and then removed to what was called the "Mill Bottom," on the James, the place first settled by Mr. Ingle, and afterward by a man named Seigler. Jacob. at the same time, removed to the place known as the "Brashear's Cave" farm, four miles southeast of Springfield.
About the time of the laying out of the town they both returned to Springfield. where the old gentleman remained until his death which occurred in 1836. Two of his sons, John and Ehas, are also dead. Jacob still lives in the Third ward. and is, without doubt, the oldest white settler in the city. In 1845, he purchased, for ten dollars, the ground on Olive street. where his present house and shop stand, and where he has ever since resided. Col. S. H. Boyd thus refers to him, in his Historical Essay, delivered at the meeting of Pioneers, July 4th, 1876:
"He was a professional gunsmith, and has turned out thousands of fire-arms, and he gained quite a celebrity for his pistol pattern. known as `Jake's best.' Californians, in 1849, 50, and 51, bought them in preference-to any other. Jake married the daughter of William Freeman, a soldier of the Revolution, who died in 1836, and was buried on the Gardner farm, two miles east from Springfield. Jake remembers well the house of John P. Campbell the only one where now is our city, in l83l. William Fulbright, Benjamin Cannefax, Joseph Rountree and Joseph Miller were the nearest residents to where now is Springfield. Jake, in those far-gone days, was accustomed to church-going, to hear the Rev. Thomas Potter, an uncle of Col. Thomas Potter, a leading man and politician of Greene County. The county was full of game, and the water courses filled with fish. Jake was champion then, but he always played fair and practiced no deceit, even upon the finest game and fish. Jake never told a falsehood, and be says honey was used as a lubricator for wagons, it being so plenty then. He has continually resided here since 1831, except for a few days, when he went into the country to his brother's. Some claim that is not now the oldest settler that he lost that right when he left as he left in a hurry. The story is that Henry Fulbright, son of William Fulbright, came from St. Louis, and brought the cholera with him, in 1835; and that when Jake left, he left for good. To a Tennesseean, that pest was more terrible and frightful than a thousand painted Indian warriors. Samuel Campbell, brother to John P. Campbell, a Mr. Foren, and some colored people of the Fulbrights, died of it. But it subsided, and Jake returned. Knowing the demoralizing effect cholera, has upon a Tennesseean, the court decided that Jake's domicile was not abandoned, and that he is entitled to carry the knife. Jacob Painter has filled well his part; always the quiet, fearless advocate of right, he never had an enemy. political or personal. Such is the oldest living settler of Springfield."
Some time in 1831, James K. Alsop, Samuel Scroggins and Daniel Johnson, settled on the Little Sac, and were followed, in 1832, by John Headlee and two brothers-in-law, Benjamin Johnson, and James Dryden. As an exception to the general rule, we notice that Mr. Headlee does not trace his history back to Tennessee, but to New Jersey.
In the same year came Thomas P. Whitlock. the father of W. P. Whitlock, of this city. He arrived in June, from Hardeman county, Tennessee. and settled in what is now Franklin township, in the north part of the county, near where he still lives. He brought with him a wife and one son. He has had in all, a family of eight children, all but one of whom are still living. We also learn the names of Zachariah Simms, Benjamin Johnson, Henry Morrison, David and John Roper, Drury Upshaw, and Larkin Dewitt, all of whom settled about the same time in that part of county. After 1832, we are informed, the settlers began to pour into that part of the county quite rapidly, and so we shall not attempt to mention all of their names; but, passing over a space of three years, we mention one of the pioneers whom we had rather overlooked. He was no less a personage than Mr. Panther, and he was so neighborly that he came within a hundred yards of Mr. Wheeler's house. where. being chased by dogs, he took refuge in a black-jack tree, and was shot by Mr. Benjamin Johnson, who, like most of the pioneers, was a great hunter.
John Briscoe, with his sons-in-law, Jacob and Andrew Roller, arrived from Tennessee in 1831 or 1832, and settled in the south part of the county. the former on the farm where William M. Ward now lives, and the two latter respectively on the present farms of Elijah Gray and Scott Fry.
In 1832, Bennett Robberson, the father of Dr. E. T. Robberson, who is. one of the oldest and most highly respected citizens of Springfield. came from Tennessee and settled near Mr. Rountree's about two miles southwest of Springfield, and about a year afterward his mother (the grandmother of the doctor) came with her sons William. Allen. John, Edwin, Russell and Rufus, who all settled in the north part of the county. on the prairie which still bears their name, She also had three daughters, who married, respectively, Rev, David Ross, father of Dr. Ross, Thomas Stokes and Richard Say.
John G. Lock settled on Flat creek in 1832. He was what is now known as "a sport"--i.e. a gamester--and the owner of race-horses, which he often matched for large wagers. He was, nevertheless, a good and genial man, who had many warm friends among the pioneers. Mr. Lock terminated his life in an affray with one of his cousins, John Short, by whom he was fatally stabbed in the abdomen. Short also received wounds in this affray, from which he never recovered.
In the spring of 1832, Humphrey Warren located in the prairie three and one-half miles from town, which is about the main and extreme head branch of Wilson creek, where James Massey afterward lived and died. Mr. Massey was the father of William Massey, Mrs. McAdams and Mrs. `Buck" Rountree. There is where Mr. Rountree and Mr. McAdams were married.
Thomas Horne also in the same year settled on the branch below the Beiderlinden place. James Dollison came from Tennessee about this time, and settled near where the cotton mills now stand, but soon afterward removed to a farm three and one half miles south of town, near where his son Grundy and several daughters still live. Mr. D. was for several years one of the Judges of the County Court.
We have only succeeded in getting a rather indefinite record of early settlements in the vicinity of Walnut Grove, although it is among the old landmarks of the county and this portion of the State, Among its early settlers, all of whom, probably, came before 1833, we find the names of Allen Williams, Michael Walsh, William Mallory, Joseph Moss, Mr. Sloan, (the father Of Dr. Sloan of Walnut Grove.) and Hugh Leeper, from whom the large prairie in the northwest part of the county took its name.
In the "Historical Atlas of Greene County," before mentioned, we find this sketch of the Boone family, and their connection with the early history of Greene county:
"The western part of the county wits explored at an early day by Nathan Boone. He was the youngest son of Daniel Boone, was a captain in the United States service, and was one of the first white men who traversed Southwest Missouri, He was pleased with the appearance of the west part of this county, and selected some land in the neighborhood of Ash Grove, and sent out his son to take out pre-emotion rights. Several of the Boone family has since lived in the county. Nathan Boone located in the heart of Ash Grove-a large grove of timber composed principally of walnut and ash, and receiving its name from the predominance of the latter. James, John. Benjamin and Howard were his sons, His sons-in-law were William Caulfield and Alfred Horseman, who also settled in the grove. Nathan Boone at one time owned several hundred acres of land. James Boone, his oldest son, is said to be the oldest American white male child born in Missouri, west of St. Louis County. He was born in St. Charles county in 1800." His two daughters, Mrs. Frazier and Mrs. Horseman, and his grandson, James W.. besides some other grandsons and granddaughters, still live near Ash Grove.
Again we quote from Mr. Miller: "In 18:31 Dr. James H. Slavens, then a young preacher from Warren county, and who married Joseph Rountree's oldest daughter, Amanda, in 1832, was the first Methodist that ever preached in this county. He is now a citizen of Buffalo, Dallas County. I will here mention old man Sol, Cotner as being one of the early settlers, who, with Jacob Painter, could kill more game, and they were considered -the most expert hunters in the country, and long after wild game had disappeared, they could find and kill deer almost in sight of town, when no one else could. Old man James Carter put up and run the first blacksmith shop, which stood not far from the northeast corner of the present Public Square. Mr. Carter died of cholera in 1835, as also two of Mr. Campbell's negroes-old Davy and Jim-and were buried just under the hill a little way above the present bridge. At the Miller spring is a disappeared graveyard of six or seven persons of the Miller family. It is some eighty or one hundred yards east of the spring, may be a little southeast, which I presume is now covered over with houses and fences. I am very sure they have never been taken up. The graves were near the foot of a solitary large black oak tree that then stood there, which was surrounded by a thick growth of young oak saplings or bushes. They were buried there in 1831-'32-'33-'34-'35 and '36.
In 1832, a Mr. Eads settled at the Schultz spring, one mile and a half southwest. Afterwards, Maj. Blackwell father-in-law of Junius Campbell, lived there, and at that place Mr. C. was married, The writer was at that wedding in 1833. Samuel Teas, another son-in-law of Maj. Blackwell, settled at the spring one mile south of town. He afterward put up a store at Sarcoxie, in Jasper County.
"Now, in rambling further, with your permission, I will lead you fifteen or twenty miles northwest into the noted Ash Grove and Walnut Grove neighborhoods-where, in by-gone days, lived the old stock of the Boones and others. Major Nathan Boone, of old United States army notoriety, whom I well remember, and his three honorable sons, James, John and Howard, have all long ago bid adieu to time, except, probably, John; and of the Boone daughters much might be said as to their amiability and respectability. They were the belles of the county at that date--say forty-four years ago-several of whom have long since passed away, One is, if living, the wife of Col. F. T. Frazier who is another highly respected old citizen. I would be much pleased to know what portion, if any, of the old Greene county Boone family are left, having spent many pleasant hours with different members of the old stock away back in the past, and they are remembered with respect.
"And near the Boones was another old and honorable citizen Dr. Constantine Perkins, who lived there a long and useful life as a physician. I have forgotten when he died, but it was a long time ago. You will find the names of Dr. Perkins and the Boones on the books of the first Masonic lodge in Springfield.
"Not far away we find traces of other old-timers of respectability among whom were the Caulfields, Kelleys, Whittenburgs, Looneys, Tatums, Wilsons, Murrays, Robinsons, Wadlows, and further south we come to mention that noted family the "Lepers," of "Leeper's Prairie," and the Reynolds, Yeakleys, Lindseys--all remembered, that is, the old ones, forty-eight years ago, who, together with the above named, with others, helped to brave the storms and bear the hardships of the then western wilderness country, and I am now proud to class them prominently among the distinguished adopted sons of Greene county.
"In 1831 a strange, odd and remarkable individual, in the person of an old and somewhat demented white man, appeared amongst us, named Jesse Bails. He had some English education, but lived a wilderness life among the wild beasts and Indians, seemed half crazy, dressed very scant and odd, wore an old white wool hat tucked up at the sides, and written thereon, in large red letters, "DEATH". He carried a long butcher knife and a tomahawk, and seemed dangerous to look at, but was harmless and even lively. I was with him considerable. He was fifty or sixty years old. He said no harm should befall me ; that he intended to keep the panthers, wolves and Indians from `ahold' of me. In a year or two he disappeared. He either died or followed the Indians.
About the same time another extraordinary and remarkable old man, then over sixty years of age, came 'round amongst the few settlers. His name was Robert Alexander ;originally from North Carolina; came West, alone, in 1825; lived several years with the Miami Indians, at the mouth of Swan, on White River (at present, Forsyth, Taney county.) He was well educated, had been a fine looking man and had been in high life, but ardent spirits had 'got away' with him, as it is getting the best of some of our American statesmen at this date. This old man, Alexander, came within a few votes of being elected Governor of the State of North Carolina in 1821, but, by domestic and political trouble, disappointment and defeat, he came West and lived a roving, reckless, dissipated life. He was a man of fine sense, always had good horses, would gamble with cards and race horses and drink whisky. Finally, in 1835, he found his way to William C. Campbell's, in Polk County, and, drunk, undertook to swim Sac river on horseback, and was drowned just below Orleans, and that was the last of poor old Bob Alexander."
Mr. Miller also mentions Christopher McElhannon, Randolph Lanham and Billy Warren, living just north of town, and a number of other families living in the northwest part of the county, but we are of the opinion they did not come before 1833, and are consequently out of the range of this chapter.
Some time in the year 1832, Wm. Ross, originally from South Carolina, but more recently from North Missouri settled the place now owned by Widow Wilson, in the north part of the county.
Alexander McKenzie came from Pulaski county, Kentucky, and settled, about the year 1830, on a farm three and a half miles southwest of Springfield, where he remained until 1832, when he sold out to Mr. Wm. Townsend, the father of A. M. Thomas B., and William M. A. Townsend, who still remain among us, their parents having long since "passed over the river." The oldest son, W.G. Townsend, removed about the year 1850 to Cassville, Barry County, where he still lives. The oldest daughter, Nancy, was married to Benjamin Cannefax, and lived three and a half miles southwest of town; the second, Lizzie A., became the wife Wm. Britt, who was the son of Randolph Britt, before mentioned; the third, Lucetta A., married Rev. Matthew Barnes, and lived three miles east of town; the fourth, Mary was the wife of Chesley Cannefax, who will hereafter be mentioned in the official records of the county and the youngest daughter, Drucilla, was first married to Meredith Carter, who lived near the Wilson Creek battle ground, and afterward to Jas. Kelley, with whom she removed to St. Clair county, where they still live. A.M. Townsend informs us that his father and mother, Wm. and Mary Townsend, came from Logan County, Kentucky, when he was but ten years old. He says that where Springfield now stands, was a fine forest of- red-oak timber, with but a small clearing around the residence of John P. Campbell, which was a small log cabin, and at that time the only house in what is now the business part of Springfield. He speaks in glowing terms of the happy times "when this old town was new,"
In the days when we were pioneers,
Some fifty years ago."
To hear these old settlers tell about it, one would almost think they were describing the Canaan of the Israelites. If it did not flow so freely with milk, it seemed to be made up by the abundance of honey. They all agree that if a person lacked Sweetness. all he hid to do was to cast his eye upward toward the heavens, and he would see that industrious little insect, the honey bee, heavily laden with his sweet Store, flying homeward to his storehouse, which was generally a hole in the side of some lofty oak. These bee-trees were so plentiful, and so easily found at that time, that a person had no difficulty in finding one, whenever he set out to look for it.
They also tell us wonderful stories of the productiveness of the soil, which would then produce abundant crops with little or no attention after breaking the new turf and planting the seed. Venison and other game was plentiful, and although these hardy pioneers were deprived of nearly everything which people of today consider the necessaries of life, and surrounded by the wilderness filled with Indians and wild beasts, they lived a comparatively happy life.
Again we quote from Mr. Miller: "The settlers in those days were driven by necessity to use their inventive wits. Doors were made of clap-boards, floors of mother earth, bedsteads with one leg were fastened to the walls in the corners of the houses, and wagon grease was made of honey, which was only twenty-five cents a gallon, or about one cent a pound in the comb. When they were able to afford good puncheon floors, and two bedsteads it seemed quite like civilization.
"Bread was scarce, and what little crops were made, were liberally divided, so that all could have a little bread. Very few hogs, and pork hard to get but wild game was plenty, and with the faithful dog and flint-lock rifle, every one had plenty. The meal was made by pounding the corn in a stump mortar, the coarsest. for hominy and the finest for bread, and very dark at that. Men worked then at fifty cents per day, and I say this to put a correct idea and feeling into men who now-a-days think it is a disgrace to work at that price. Honest labor at even twenty-five cents per day, where a man can't do better, is far more profitable and honorable than idleness.
"In those days neighbors were few and far between, but everybody was friendly and willing to divide the last mouthful. The first grist of corn was ground on a little wing-dam mill that old John Marshall had on James, near the mouth of Finley, although Jerry Pearson had a little rattletrap of a mill some nearer, but it was hardly competent to grind for his own use.
Prior to mill building, corn had to be beaten in wooden, mortars with a pestle, and these were used to some extent for a long time in preference to the little "one-horse" mills of the new country. The hand-pestle was a small wooden one, similar in shape to the pestle used by a druggist in compounding and pulverizing medicines, but the sweep-pestle was fastened to a spring-pole, after the manner of a well-sweep. The mortars were made by boring or burning holes, conical in shape, in the top of a stump, or section of a large tree, and were made about a foot wide at the top and eighteen inches- deep. Bread made from this meal was called "pound cake," and Mrs. Campbell used to tell her friends that for a number of years after coming to Springfield she had scarcely anything to eat but "pound cake."
Springfield-Greene County Library | <urn:uuid:b63f0a68-988a-4577-a8dd-fd9f48cbef60> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thelibrary.org/lochist/history/directory/ch2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984705 | 10,796 | 2.875 | 3 |
Sinking and floating activities for childrenFloating or Sinking - What objects float and what objects sink. Children's Float & Sink science experiments - from a diver in a bottle to. Various objects of different size, shape, weight, maybe include something with holes Homework Help, leveled quizzes, games and activities for kids. This is a great activity for kids to observe the eggs floating or sinking. Children are often entranced by the concept of floating and sinking.
Floating and sinking activities ks2KS2 / International Primary Curriculum (IPC) themes (4373) KS2. Materials and their properties > Floating and sinking Floating and Sinking Smartboard Activity. All about Rocks (ngfl-cymru.org.uk) KS2 A resource which introduces rocks as an everyday resource. Investigate Floating & Sinking (Click on Interactive Whiteboard Activity) Materials and their Properties. Thank you The activity is designed to illustrate soil. Classroom Key Stage 2 / KS2 - Science Activities & Resources Welcome to the Science. Primary Resources - free worksheets, lesson plans and teaching ideas for primary.
Floating and sinking science activitiesIf children are ready to explore sinking and floating further, we recommend screening BrainPOP?s Buoyancy movie. To make and test predictions about sinking and floating and then classify objects according to whether they sink or float. Free access to Floating and Sinking skills online, access over 2000 Science Lesson Guide, Experiments Air Pressure 2 Floating and sinking Introduction. Floating and sinking is a common activity in early years classrooms. See more lesson plans and resources: BrainPOP Educators. | <urn:uuid:ea274d91-9baa-46eb-8085-a08bd2f18f44> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tiyoyama.jimdo.com/2012/06/11/sinking-and-floating-activities-for-children/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906413 | 336 | 4.0625 | 4 |
This value is used to timeout the given command. The units of this value are milliseconds. The time being measured is from when a command is sent until when sg is informed the request has been completed. A following read() can take as long as the user likes. Timeouts are best avoided, especially if SCSI bus resets will adversely effect other devices on that SCSI bus. When the timeout expires, the SCSI mid level attempts error recovery. Error recovery completes when the first action in the following list is successful. Note that a more extreme measure is being taken at each step.
the SCSI command that has timed out is aborted
a SCSI device reset is attempted
a SCSI bus reset is attempted. Note this may have an adverse effect on other devices sharing that SCSI bus.
a SCSI host (bus adapter) reset is attempted. This is an attempt to re-initialize the adapter card associated with the SCSI device that has the timed out command.
The two error statuses containing the word "TIME(_)OUT" are typically _not_ related to a command timing out. DID_TIME_OUT in the 'host_status' usually means an (unexpected) device selection timeout. DRIVER_TIMEOUT in the 'driver_status' byte means the SCSI adapter is unable to control the devices on its SCSI bus (and has given up).
The type of timeout is unsigned int (and it represents milliseconds).
Whether aborting individual commands is supported or not is left to the adapter. Many adapters are unable to abort SCSI commands "in flight" because these details are handled in silicon by embedded processors in hardware. SCSI device or bus resets are required. | <urn:uuid:8b4e6d92-440e-4f7f-9a6e-9f8cfd0f9363> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tldp.org/HOWTO/SCSI-Generic-HOWTO/x215.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943904 | 353 | 2.515625 | 3 |
In unix like systems what is the difference between a
home directory and
working directory ?
A home directory is where you start when you open a shell. The working directory is where you are right now. You can usually go directly to the home directory with the command
The home directory is a directory associated with a user name in the system's user account database. It's the 6th field in the entry returned by
When you log in, the
That directory is usually owned and writable by the corresponding user, and it's typically where applications store the user settings and where the user stores his files.
The kernel has no notion of what a user name or home directory is. The home directory is entirely a user-space concept.
On the other hand, the working directory is an attribute of each process. It can be changed with the
The working directory is inherited upon a fork and preserved upon execution of a command. For instance,
When a user logs in, the working directory of the first process that is run under his name is set to his home directory, and as a result, unless anything changes it, every process started under that login session will have the home directory as the current working directory.
shells don't start in the home directory, they start wherever the current directory was when they were executed, though shells started by a terminal emulator itself started by a window manager itself started by the login manager will likely start in the home directory since there's no reason why the window manager or terminal emulator would change their working directory. | <urn:uuid:33f39f98-1976-443d-8923-7a4488998896> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/57121/home-directory-vs-working-directory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96784 | 316 | 3 | 3 |
|Home / Headlines / Governments should be held accountable by Muslims|
Governments should be held accountable by Muslims
"Unfortunately it is true that some in the Western media with an anti-Islamic agenda would take the Muslim condemnation of other Muslims for their own purposes."
It is a sad and unfortunate part of the human nature, that when oppressed by others, we appeal to humanity and Justice, and fight against the oppression, as we should. Once we get the upper hand we turn around and inflict similar atrocities on others. All ethnic groups, religions and societies have been guilty of this evil.
In these ever-repeating tragedies, the innocents are the victims. Yet by their quiescence, when it happens to others, they are guilty of being enablers. Often the lament is what could an individual do? It is usually true, but not always. As the history is witness, not many but a few times, an average individual has made a difference.
It is important to speak out against all atrocities, even when one can not make a difference materially. It is more difficult, therefore more important to speak out against atrocities committed by one's own kind.
Recently the Asian Center for human rights reported, the land grab and killing of indigenous "Jumma" people in south-eastern Bangladesh (Chitagong Hills). The attacks are aimed at terrorizing indigenous people for their lands. In April 2003, the army and illegal settlers burnt down Jumma houses in Bhuiochari village after indigenous peoples asked the settlers to stop encroaching onto their lands, and to dismantle the houses they had built. The army encircled the village and forced the indigenous people out of their homes while the settlers looted and burnt down the houses".
Recall that Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan in 1971 because of the inequities and the maltreatment from the more powerful Western Pakistanis. Similar atrocities are committed by the Janjaveed (Nomadic Sudanese, claming Arab decent) on the darker settled Muslims of Darfur region.
Muslims vocally, monetarily and emotionally decry and condemn, as they should, the atrocities and land grab against Muslims in Palestine, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Ughur, Kashmir, Gujarat and many other places. Such land grab, ethnic cleansing and genocide are occasionally even gingerly condemned by the supposedly Islamic governments, though not too vocally lest their own record may be examined more closely.
Yet, when Muslims oppress people of other religions or even other Muslims in the same manner the criticism at most is muted. For example the persecution of Muslims and non-Muslims by the erstwhile Talibans in Afghanistan, Kurds by Arab regimes, Jumma people in Bangladesh, Qadianis in Pakistan or tribal cleansing in Darfur region of Sudan and Acheh in Indonesia.
To their credit many Muslim journalists have taken pains to write about it with passion. Bangladesh Observer wrote a very strong editorial, but the governments, social and political organizations and individuals remain generally silent or perfunctorily shake their heads.
Often governments justify their actions or inaction by pointing to the follies and deviance of the people being oppressed. These are more self-serving than real. Even when true, the duty of the government is to treat all its citizens with equality and justice. The miscreants should be brought to the court of law. Governments that suppress civil descent and practice oppression in effect invite rebellion.
Unfortunately it is true that some in the Western media with an anti-Islamic agenda would take the Muslim condemnation of other Muslims for their own purposes. It should not deter us, because it has been going on for a long time. Our timidity and non-condemnation only helps the evil forces within our communities. Paucity of reform and negation of such heinous forces from inside the community bring condemnation and pressure from outside. It only helps to advance the agenda of those outside forces that are malicious towards Islam for their own vile reasons. It is always better if the opposition springs from within the community. It is more effective and conducive to thoughtful change.
The idea that "true understanding and adherence of religion would ameliorate these problems", have been bandied about in all religions since time immemorial. It has only produced more discord and arguments about the true meaning of the religion.
In public discourse we never tire of pointing out that Islam stands for peace, mercy and compassion' and it does! Oppression breeds extremism. When extreme becomes common, the normative base of the society is severely injured. Such perversity of beliefs must be opposed by the civil society, especially one that claims a moral high ground.
When others practice cruelty and mayhem against Muslims, it hurts and we resist and fight against it. When Muslims do it, we need to fight even harder. We should condemn it, resist it and fight against it with even greater resolve.
The question that is staring us in the face and tugging at our conscience is - Do we practice Islam as a religion of morality without exception as it ought to be, or simply as an extension of local tribalism into a super tribe? Should only others be condemned for inhumanity, but people in our own super-tribe are ours therefore should be supported lest they grow even weaker or at worst should be gingerly criticized so that others may not see what we refuse to acknowledge?
It is a shame that the central tenet of Islamic ethos based on Justice is so cavalierly and nonchalantly being violated by many Muslin governments to some degree, and we are mute, observers at best and by our quiescence collaborators at worst.
by courtesy & © 2004 Mirza A. Beg
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John Suler's The Psychology of Cyberspace
Conflict in Cyberspace:
How to Resolve Conflict Online
Kali Munro, M.Ed., Psychotherapist
Have you ever noticed how conflict can get blown out of proportion online? What may begin as a small difference of opinion, or misunderstanding, becomes a major issue very quickly. Conflict can be difficult at the best of times, but what is it about online communication that seems to ignite "flaming" and make conflicts more difficult to resolve?
There are a number of reasons to explain why conflict may be heightened online. One is the absence of visual and auditory cues. When we talk to someone in person, we see their facial expressions, their body language, and hear their tone of voice. Someone can say the exact same thing in a number of different ways, and that usually effects how we respond.
For example, someone could shout and shake their finger at you, or they could speak gently and with kindness. They could stand up and tower over you, or they could sit down beside you. How you feel, interpret, and respond to someone's message often depends on how they speak to you, even when it's a difficult message to hear.
In online communications, we have no visual or auditory cues to help us to decipher the intent, meaning, and tone of the messenger. All we have are the words on a computer screen, and how we hear those words in our head. While people who know each other have a better chance at accurately understanding each others? meaning and intentions, even they can have arguments online that they would not have in-person.
Projections and Transference
While many people are convinced that how they read an email is the only way it can be read, the truth is, how we read a text, or view a work of art, often says more about ourselves than it does about the message or the messenger.
All of our communications, online and in real-time, are filled with projections. We perceive the world through our expectations, needs, desires, fantasies, and feelings, and we project those onto other people. For example, if we expect people to be critical of us, we perceive other people's communication as being critical - it sounds critical to us even though it may not be. We do the same thing online; in fact we are more likely to project when we are online precisely because we don't have the visual or auditory cues to guide us in our interpretations. How we hear an email or post is how we hear it in our own heads, which may or may not reflect the tone or attitude of the sender.
We usually can't know from an email or post alone whether someone is shouting, using a criticizing tone, or speaking kindly. Unless the tone is clearly and carefully communicated by the messenger, and/or we are very skilled at understanding text and human communication, we most likely hear the voice we hear, or create in our head and react to that. This is one of the reasons why controversial or potentially conflictual issues are best dealt with by using great care and explicit expressions of our tone, meaning, and intent.
Where do projections come from? They come from our life experiences - how we've been treated, how important figures in our lives have behaved, how we felt growing up, how we responded and coped, etc. All of us project or transfer our feelings and views of important figures in our lives onto other people.
To take a look at your own projections or transference with people online, think back to the last time you felt angry at someone online. What was it about them or their email that made you so angry? What did you believe that they were doing to you or someone else? How did you react internally and externally? Was your reaction to this person (whether spoken or not) influenced by someone or something from your past? While it certainly happens that people are treated with disrespect and anger online, if there are any parallels between this experience and any of your past experiences, it's likely that how you felt and responded was coloured by your past. When our past is involved, particularly when we are unaware of it happening, we invariably project and transfer old feelings onto the present situation.
Conflict can be heightened online by what is known as the "disinhibition effect," a phenomenon that psychologist, Dr. John Suler, has written extensively about. Suler writes,
"It's well known that people say and do things in cyberspace that they wouldn't ordinarily say or do in the face-to-face world. They loosen up, feel more uninhibited, express themselves more openly. Researchers call this the "disinhibition effect." It's a double-edged sword. Sometimes people share very personal things about themselves. They reveal secret emotions, fears, wishes. Or they show unusual acts of kindness and generosity. On the other hand, the disinhibition effect may not be so benign. Out spills rude language and harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats" (Suler, 2002)
Suler explains that the disinihibition effect is caused by or heightened by the following features of online communication:
a) anonymity - no one knows who you are on the net, and so you are free to say whatever you want without anyone knowing it's you who said it.
b) invisibility - you don't have to worry about how you physically look or sound to other people when you say something. You don't have to worry about how others look or sound when you say something to them. "Seeing a frown, a shaking head, a sigh, a bored expression, and many other subtle and not so subtle signs of disapproval or indifference can slam the breaks on what people are willing to express." (Suler, 2002)
c) delayed reactions - you can say anything you think and feel without censorship at any time, including in the middle of the night when you're most tired and upset, leave immediately without waiting for a response, and possibly never return - in the extreme this can feel to someone like an emotional "hit and run."
d) the perception that the interaction is happening in your head - with the absence of visual and auditory cues you may feel as though the interaction is occurring in your head. Everyone thinks all kinds of things about other people in their minds that they would never say to someone's face - online, you can say things you'd otherwise only think.
e) neutralizing of status - in face-to-face interactions, you may be intimidated to say something to someone because of their job, authority, gender, or race. Because this is not visible to you online, you feel freer to say what ever you want to anyone.
f) your own personality style may be heightened online - for example, if your communication style tends to be reactive or angry, you may be more reactive or angry online.
Tips for Resolving Conflict Online
What can be done to prevent unnecessary conflict in cyberspace? The following are tips for handling conflict online with respect, sensitivity, and care:
Don't respond right away
When you feel hurt or angry about an email or post, it's best not to respond right away. You may want to write a response immediately, to get it off your chest, but don't hit send! Suler recommends waiting 24 hours before responding - sleep on it and then reread and rewrite your response the next day.
Read the post again later
Sometimes, your first reaction to a post is a lot about how you're feeling at the time. Reading it later, and sometimes a few times, can bring a new perspective. You might even experiment by reading it with different tones (matter-of-fact, gentle, non-critical) to see if it could have been written with a different tone in mind than the one you initially heard.
Discuss the situation with someone who knows you
Ask them what they think about the post and the response you plan to send. Having input from others who are hopefully more objective can help you to step back from the situation and look at it differently. Suler recommends getting out of the medium in which the conflict occurred - in this case talking to someone in person - to gain a better perspective.
Choose whether or not you want to respond
You do have a choice, and you don't have to respond. You may be too upset to respond in the way that you would like, or it may not be worthy of a response. If the post is accusatory or inflammatory and the person's style tends to be aggressive or bullying, the best strategy is to ignore them.
Assume that people mean well, unless they have a history or pattern of aggression
Everyone has their bad days, gets triggered, reacts insensitively, and writes an email without thinking it through completely. It doesn't mean that they don't have good intentions.
On the other hand, some people pick fights no matter how kind and patient you are with them. They distort what you say, quote you out of context, and make all sorts of accusations all to vilify and antagonize you. Don't take the "bait" by engaging in a struggle with them - they'll never stop. Sometimes, the best strategy is to have nothing more to do with someone.
Clarify what was meant
We all misinterpret what we hear and read, particularly when we feel hurt or upset. It's a good idea to check out that you understood them correctly. For example, you could ask, "When you said...did you mean...or, what did you mean by..." Or, "when you said...I heard...is that what you meant?" Often times, what we think someone said is not even close to what they meant to say. Give them the benefit of the doubt and the chance to be clear about what they meant.
Think about what you want to accomplish by your communication
Are you trying to connect with this person? Are you trying to understand them and be understood? What is the message you hope to convey? What is the tone you want to communicate? Consider how you can convey that.
Verbalize what you want to accomplish
Here are some examples, "I want to understand what you're saying." "I feel hurt by some stuff that you said. I want to talk about it in a way that we both feel heard and understood." "I want to find a way to work this out. I know we don't agree about everything and that's okay. I'd like to talk with you about how I felt reading your post." "I hope we can talk this through because I really like you. I don't want to be argumentative or blaming."
Use "I" statements when sharing your feelings or thoughts
For example, "I feel"... versus... "You made me feel"
Use strictly feeling statements
Feeling statements include saying you felt hurt, sad, scared, angry, happy, guilty, remorseful, etc. In everyday conversations, we describe our feelings differently than this. For example, we say that we felt attacked, threatened, unsafe, or punched in the stomach. When the person we're upset with is not present, or able to read our words, this is an understandable way to express the full depth of our feelings and experience. Generally though, these statements are not simply feeling statements because they contain within them unexpressed beliefs. For example, you believe that you were attacked by the person, not that it just felt that way. If you want to communicate with the person involved (or they can read your words), it is best to stick to simple feeling statements otherwise they will hear you as accusing them of attacking them and be angry or upset with you. Some people get confused why other people get upset with them when they think they are only expressing their feelings; usually in these cases there were unstated beliefs expressed which the person reacted to.
Choose your words carefully and thoughtfully, particularly when you?re upset
Do your best to keep in mind that the person will read your post alone. You are not physically or virtually present with them to clarify what you meant, and they can't see the kindness in your eyes. They must rely entirely on your words to interpret your meaning, intent, and tone. This is why it's important to choose your words carefully and thoughtfully. You can still be real and honest while being selective.
Place yourself in the other person's shoes
How might they hear your message? To avoid unnecessary conflict or a lot of hurt feelings, it helps to take into account who you're writing to. One person might be able to hear you say it exactly how you think it, and another person would be threatened by that style of communication. Think about the other person when writing your email or post. Do your best to communicate in a way that is respectful, sensitive, and clear to them. People often say, to do that feels like they're being controlled and why shouldn't they just write it the way they want to. Of course you can write it any way you want, especially online, but if you want to communicate with this person and have them hear and understand what you're saying, it helps to think about how they will hear it.
Use emoticons to express your tone
In online communication, visual and auditory cues are replaced by emoticons, for example, smiles, winks, and laughter. It helps to use emoticons to convey your tone. Additionally, if you like the person, tell them! Having a conflict or misunderstanding doesn't mean you don't like the person any more, but people often forget that reality, or don't think to say it. It may be most needed during a tense interaction.
Start and end your post with positive, affirming, and validating statements
Say what you agree with, what you understand about how they feel, and any other positive statements at the beginning of your email. This helps set a positive tone. End on a positive note as well.
The Paradox of Online Communication
Handling conflict constructively is hard at the best times, and it can be even harder online. It can take a great deal of effort, care, and thoughtfulness to address differences, tensions, and conflicts online. Paradoxically, some of the same things that contribute to heightened conflict online can contribute to peaceful resolutions as well. The internet is an ideal place to practice communication and conflict resolution skills. Just as the absence of visual and auditory cues, the anonymity, invisibility, delayed reactions, and neutralizing of status free us to say what ever negative thing we want, they can also free us to try new, and more positive communication styles and to take all the time we need to do that. As with any new technology, the internet can be used to enhance our personal growth and relationships, or to alienate us from each other. It's our choice.
Kali Munro, © 2002
All rights reserved.
See also in The Psychology of Cyberspace
The online disinhibition effect
Regressive behavior in cyberspace
Integrating online and offline living
Transference among people online
back to the Psychology of Cyberspace home page | <urn:uuid:d0688e78-d56d-4a5c-80a4-d4591dfcc0a3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://users.rider.edu/%7Esuler/psycyber/conflict.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966044 | 3,109 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The Dawn of Spring Allergies
Posted March 03, 2011
As the trees start to pollinate, the
spring season starts to dawn and so do those pesky allergies. A
time to put the winter cold past us and a look to the brighter days
are not so bright for those with allergies. Many pets are affected
by spring allergies and it is important to be aware if your pet
shows signs so you can lighten its discomfort and help provide
According to Dr. Adam Patterson,
clinical assistant professor and a board certified dermatologist at
the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical
Sciences (CVM), an allergy is an exaggerated response in which the
body's immune system overreacts to normally harmless environmental
substances known as allergens.
Patterson explains that animals can
show signs of allergic reactions during a particular season or
year-round dependent on what they are allergic to.
"Any cat and horse breed can be
affected by allergies," notes Patterson. "Any dog breed can also be
affected, but there are certain breeds that are more susceptible to
allergies, including: terriers, retrievers, Dalmatians, Shar Peis,
When people encounter allergic
reactions, they tend to sneeze and wheeze. Whereas, animals tend to
itch and scratch their way to a hopeful recovery, but this can
actually promote more severe skin problems.
"An itch may be manifested as licking,
chewing, biting, rubbing, scratching, head shaking, and/or
scooting," explains Patterson. "Common itchy body areas include the
face, ears, paws, armpits, groin, rump, and anal region. Horses may
present with an itchy skin disease and/or hives. Every pet has its
own itch tolerance which means the intensity and reason(s) for your
pet's itch may not be the same as another animal. Regardless of the
animal, allergic patients are prone to secondary infections that
can cause skin discoloration, hair loss, pimples, or scabs."
If your pet does show any of these
allergic signs, it is in everyone's best interest to contact your
veterinarian. Your veterinarian can develop a customized treatment
plan for your pet so the itch can be alleviated. However, Patterson
comments that allergies can be managed, not necessarily cured.
"Treatments are tailored to the
individual based on the extent, severity, and seasonality of
signs," says Patterson. "The 'absolutes' of therapy include:
routine bathing to remove pollen accumulation, infection control
(topical and/or systemic), and flea prevention. Other treatments
can be prescribed based on what the patient is sensitive to, and
the response to the 'absolutes.' It is important to recognize that
allergies can be managed, but often are not cured."
Sometimes steroids are used to
alleviate an itch. However, Patterson warns that long-term use of
steroids can cause detrimental health problems. "For this reason,
it is recommended that the underlying trigger of allergic signs be
sought and managed with other less harmful treatments for those
animals with chronic problems," explains Patterson.
The most common allergens that affect
pets are fleas, food, pollen, molds, mites, insects, and dander. As
there are a lot of factors to consider when diagnosing what your
pets are allergic to, your veterinarian can perform tests and
personal evaluations based on many factors to help determine the
"Elimination diet trials are used to
exclude food allergies," notes Patterson. "Skin or blood 'allergy'
testing is used to select candidate pollens for immunotherapy (oral
allergy drops or allergy injections) in animals with an
environmental allergy. It is important to recognize that these
tests DO NOT DIAGNOSE an environmental allergy as 'normal' animals
can have 'positive' test results. The diagnosis is based on the
history, clinical signs, and the process of exclusion."
Allergies are more common in pets than
most people believe. Ten percent of the canine population is
affected by allergies. It is important to be aware of the allergic
signs and notify a veterinarian when the symptoms persist. If you
have any questions pertaining to allergies or skin ailments you can
call the dermatology department at the CVM Small Animal Clinical
Sciences at 979-845-2351 or visit their webpage at /services/dermatology to review
frequently asked questions and answers.
ABOUT PET TALK
Pet Talk is a service of the College of Veterinary Medicine
& Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University. Stories can be
viewed on the Web at vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk.
Suggestions for future topics may be directed to [email protected].
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« Back to Pet Talk | <urn:uuid:23de4f19-a692-48d2-ae05-59b88f4b8f99> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk/the-dawn-of-spring-allergies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922797 | 1,061 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Submitted by Marilyn Turkovich on Tue, 2010-06-08 17:39
Some 1.8 million children have been affected by a three-year conflict in Darfur, according to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), where they risk being recruited to fight and are especially vulnerable to disease and malnutrition.
"It is a traumatised population and you can see it in the children's faces," said Hollywood actress and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow, who last month visited camps for some of the 2.5 million displaced by Darfur's war.
"Everyone has lost family, seen villages burn, seen relatives raped, been raped."
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres - who selected Congo, Uganda and the Sudan/Chad border, where some 200,000 refugees from Darfur eke out an existence - pointed to the physical and psychological consequences of living in crowded, underfunded camps "which are not conducive for a healthy child development".
In southern Sudan, children also suffer the effects of low-level violence, poverty and a lack of basic services. The region is struggling to recover from a 21-year civil war with the north that killed 2 million people, as 600,000 refugees forced to flee the country trickle home.
AlertNet, a humanitarian news website run by Reuters Foundation, asked 112 aid experts and journalists to highlight the world's most dangerous places for children.
After Sudan, they chose northern Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Somalia, India, the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Myanmar - with the top three clearly ahead.
More than 2 million children worldwide have died as a direct result of armed conflict in the past decade, and about 20 million have been forced to flee their homes, according to UNICEF. More than a million have been orphaned or separated from their families. | <urn:uuid:1bd502c7-d280-48bf-94f6-80ef849c3669> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://voiceseducation.org/category/tag/poverty-lack-basic-services | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957223 | 387 | 2.640625 | 3 |
|Learning all about kinetic energy and the effects of friction.|
To bring a real cool, real world example of physics to the students, Steve Gorman visited the school for an hour of fun taking about everything dealing with roller coasters. With a background in mechanical engineering and over 16 years of experience of amusement parks, Mr. Gorman kept the fourth graders on the edge of their seats while they learned about air time, centripetal forces, and how roller coasters stay on the tracks.
|Up close and personal with parts of Waldameer's roller coasters.|
Seeing some parts from Waldameer's coasters and learning all about how roller coaster designers use physics to make coasters safe made everyone excited for the upcoming season at Waldameer. With a new appreciating of how roller coasters work, maybe the students will ride the Ravine Flyer II this summer and pay more attention to the moments of greatest potential and kinetic energy and when the most friction occurs between the screams and laughter... then again, maybe not! | <urn:uuid:784ee1b7-63f9-42c2-8263-e36b090fcad8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://waldameer.blogspot.com/2012/03/roller-coaster-physics-best-kind-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929486 | 215 | 2.75 | 3 |
For some reason I have received questions similar to this one several times, so I will drill into the matter anew… again… um…
From a reader:
Why do we say “rose again” in the Creed when Christ only rose from death once.
In the Creed of the Mass we say resurrexit. This is translated “rose again”.
Remember: LATIN is the official language of the Roman Rite. Also, our Latin liturgical texts (e.g., the Creed) is founded on Greek texts/symbols.
That said, the “again” confusion is again understandable in this age when English is devolving. If you “rise again” you must have already previously risen. Right? But we know our Lord rose only once. Right? So the translation is heretical. RIGHT?
In the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed we say or sing during Mass, Latin resurrexit is a compound of re– and surgo. The prefix re– conveys “again”.
In English “again” can mean more than mere repetition. Check a good dictionary of English and you will find “again” as “anew” without the concept of repetition.
In our Creed, “He rose again” means “He rose anew”.
So, resurrexit does not mean Jesus rose twice or more. He returned to life “anew”.
A reader once provided an example of a kid who falls while riding his bike. He gets up again and rides off. That “again” doesn’t mean that he repeatedly gets up before riding off. That “again” means “anew”.
“Rose again” for resurrexit is acceptable.
However, in our Latin liturgical worship we also use simple surgo, surrexit for the Lord “rose”. At Easter, and in the Octave, Holy Church sings “Surrexit Christus spes mea” in the sequence Victimae paschali laudes.
I hope that helps. | <urn:uuid:07579c48-a184-414b-9922-491f0033f831> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/10/quaeritur-why-he-rose-again-in-the-creed-when-we-know-christ-only-rose-once/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91671 | 454 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Proposed High Peaks Wilderness as seen from Maine's Appalachian Trail.
The Wilderness Society
Climate change is forcing many species to embark on a mass exodus out of their native habitats. Sometimes they’re able to find refuge in new areas that can support their biological needs, but sometimes there’s just nowhere to run.
Forests around the globe are disappearing in the face of a warming climate, and this is bad news for the woodland creatures that call them home. In the U.S., eastern forests are already experiencing a loss of plant species, fragmentation of landscapes and a decrease in biological diversity.
But what if we were able to preserve natural refuges that are resilient to the destructive effects of climate change? It turns out that these “climate change refuges” do exist, and they might just be some species’ best hope for survival.
Scientists with The Wilderness Society are embedded in Maine’s northern forests to ensure the protection of wild and intact ecosystems that will be relied upon as climate refuges in the future.
Scope of the High Peaks U.S. Fish and Wildlife project.
Northeast America, while the most populous region of our country, is also blanketed by approximately 26 million acres of vast, pristine forest. Ranging from the Adirondacks of upstate New York to the Appalachians of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, these wild forests clean our air and water, are home to myriad unique plant and animal species.
Our ecologists are have used extensive climate modeling surveys to identify northern Maine’s High Peaks National Wildlife Refuge as being exceptionally resilient to climate shifts. A true climate refuge.
Maine’s High Peaks yawns out over 230,000 acres of old-growth hardwood forests. Home to populations of golden eagle, North American moose, bobcat and lynx, this wildlife refuge provides crucial sanctuary to a host of threatened species. High Peaks is special because it connects large swaths of key habitat, preserving historic wildlife corridors that promote genetic diversity by allowing breeding populations to move freely over large territory.
Because this area is so inherently wild and diverse, it is often considered a living laboratory in which to study the effects of climate change.
Measuring High Peaks’ soil makeup, altitude, climate and hydrology, our ecologists believe this particular forest is better equipped to survive warming temperatures than other forests in the region. The geographic location of High Peaks, which is situated smack-dab between two elevations and unique ecosystems, endows it with Goldilocks-like properties. Its location, in addition to its large intact size and varied plant life, make High Peaks an ideal place for forest species to adapt to a changing climate while still being able to traverse their natural migration corridors.
Climate change is currently threatening Maine's Bicknell's thrush. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
One species that will rely on High Peaks to endure the assault of climate change is a songbird called the Bicknell’s thrush. This rare North American bird is currently seeing its breeding ground disappear as forest demographics shift. The Bicknell’s thrush relies on evergreen conifers, which flourish year-round, to breed, feed and survive. But as the climate warms and precipitation patterns change, these evergreens have been steadily succumbing to species of deciduous trees that shed their leaves seasonally, making large swaths of mountain-top forest unsuitable for the thrush and the insects it preys on.
Every acre of land counts when it comes to the survival of the Bicknell’s thrush because of its small population habitat area, which is restricted to forested areas in upstate New York and New England. If these forests were to change significantly, the bird would lose all of its mating and feeding grounds.
Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that listing the Bicknell’s thrush as a threatened or endangered species may be warranted. The best chance for its survival and ultimately its adaptation to a changing climate will depend upon places like the High Peaks.
Wilderness has many human, environmental and economic benefits, but in the coming years, these protected areas will be needed more than ever to provide a safe haven for species struggling to adapt to a warming world.
Because climate change (on the scale that scientists are forecasting) is unprecedented, The Wilderness Society is looking at ways that our precious wildlands can adapt. We are determined, using science and experience in the field, to ensure that these special places are protected. | <urn:uuid:8279dbe5-d8f6-48de-9c90-bd28394bb28d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wilderness.org/blog/maine%E2%80%99s-northern-forests-refuge-midst-climate-change | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94438 | 946 | 3.84375 | 4 |
When Talking About Weight, Words Matter
Doctors may want to think carefully about the language they use when talking with parents about a child’s weight. A new study by Yale University researchers finds that certain words reinforce negative stigma and may undermine important discussions about health.
Last year, Britain’s public health minister made a surprising recommendation, reported here by the ITN news service. "A health minister has suggested that GP’s and other health professionals should tell people they’re fat, rather than obese. Anne Milton said the term fat was more likely to motivate people into losing weight adding it was important people took personal responsibility for their lifestyles."
Rebecca Puhl, director of Research at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, says that may not be a helpful recommendation. "We knew from research that many people perceive language like ‘fat’ to be pejorative and judgmental."
Obesity rates among children have increased four-fold in the past 40 years according to the National Institutes of Health. And Puhl says with as many as many as 50% of America’s children struggling with their weight, its important for health care providers to find ways to talk productively about the problem. Her new study surveyed American parents with kids ages 2 to 18 years old. "And what we found was that language that was neutral, like the word ‘weight’ or ‘BMI’, was perceived to be much more desirable, much less stigmatizing compared to words like ‘fat’, or ‘morbid obesity’ or ‘obesity’."
And this held true whether or not the parent or child surveyed was overweight. Parents also reported troubling reactions if they felt a child was stigmatized because of his or her weight. "We found that about 35% would actually seek a new provider and about ¼ would avoid future medical appointments."
The study is published in the October issue of the journal Pediatrics. | <urn:uuid:d9977264-b82b-44f2-a671-12d70aae4c8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wnpr.org/post/when-talking-about-weight-words-matter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980105 | 409 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Humans are fallible. Deciding who has won a tennis game or a sprint race can come down to a millimetre-accurate decision. So when an Olympic gold medal is on the line, it’s no wonder we turn to electronics to help us.
But can we really rely on Hawk-Eye, or some other electronic gadget?
Many sports are now using some kind of electronics to assist in the judgement calls of the officials. In essence, these judgement calls are made as to the position and speed of the players. If the players use a moving object, then it’s also the position and speed of that object. Most commonly, that’s a ball.
The position of the player or object is generally measured relative to a line, such as the finishing line of a foot race, or the baseline of a tennis court. These measurements generally need to be done in a split second, requiring expert judges, or the assistance of electronics. In “tight” cases, these judgements are often wrong – and clearly, we need them to be right.
Two outstanding examples are tennis and cricket.
I was at Wimbledon recently, and as I walked into the stadium, I heard the commentators say “Hawk-Eye has got it wrong again, twice, in rapid succession”.
Most of us who have watched tennis will have seen Hawk-Eye in action. It’s an outstanding example of a system that measures the bounce point of the ball relative to the global coordinates of the tennis court, and then tries to infer the position of that bounce point relative to the line.
This is called a “secondary” measurement, and has to be far more accurate than a “primary” measurement, where the bounce point is measured relative to the line itself.
The video below gives a good explanation of how the technology is employed in practice.
Let’s explore Hawk-Eye in the context of tennis and cricket. It gives us a lot of insight on how electronic judging is done in many other sports (thought it’s worth remembering all these sports have very contrasting requirements).
Hawk-Eye uses an area of modern technology called Computer Vision (CV). CV has been enabled by the huge rise in freely-available computing power and our ability to capture images electronically and rapidly.
CV is different to image processing. It uses captured images to infer information about the physical environment around us. It’s central to robotics and to road speed cameras.
The input in CV is an image and the output is information about what is observed. In the case of image processing, the input is an image and the output is another image.
In tennis, we don’t care where the player is, other than when serving, and then only his feet. But we really do care where the ball bounces relative to the lines on the court. In the case of cricket, what we really want to know is where the ball may go after it has bounced.
Hawk-Eye uses exactly the same technology to provide these two contrasting pieces of information about the travel of a ball. It uses very clever algorithms that I will describe later, but it has a very serious failing: it makes a “secondary” measurement.
This secondary measurement measures the flight of the ball relative to its global position in the playing area. In the case of tennis it’s trying to infer millimetre accuracy relative to a playing area that may be 50 metres in length. (In cricket, we are starting to use a technology called “hot-spot”).
This is a primary measurement and is never challenged. It measures where the ball has actually struck by measuring the rise in temperature caused by that collision.
In tennis, Hawk-Eye rapidly captures images of the ball during flight from multiple positions around the court. The cameras have to be very accurately positioned relative to the court lines and the overall court coordinates.
It then uses CV to locate the position of the ball relative to the court multiple times as it travels along its trajectory.
These captured positions are not precise. The ball is a tube-like blur and there’s crowd movement and noise in the background.
These ball location estimates are then combined with the ball ballistics to provide a maximum likelihood estimate of what the ball trajectory may have been. The equation is then used to draw a graphic of the ball’s travel, and infer a bounce point.
It would be a tall order to get it right all the time. Some estimates suggest that Hawk-Eye only gets it right in tennis 60% of the time.
In summary, electronic judging tries to do a good job of reducing the uncertainty of human observation in sport. Mostly it “gets it right” – more often than humans do – but there are no absolutes.
What it definitely does do is add enormously to the entertainment value of sport, and particularly for those of us who watch it on television. | <urn:uuid:3f1ac195-331e-4508-b17d-5cbf86d1ce2e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://world.edu/a-hawk-eye-for-detail-how-accurate-is-electronic-judging-in-sport/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954482 | 1,028 | 3.40625 | 3 |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A police force is a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. Their powers include the legitimized use of force. The term is most commonly associated with police services of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from military or other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing.
Law enforcement, however, constitutes only part of policing activity. Policing has included an array of activities in different situations, but the predominant ones are concerned with the preservation of order. In some societies, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, these developed within the context of maintaining the class system and the protection of private property. Many police forces suffer from police corruption to a greater or lesser degree. The police force is usually a public sector service, meaning they are paid through taxes.
Alternative names for police force include constabulary, gendarmerie, police department, police service, crime prevention, protective services, law enforcement agency, civil guard or civic guard. Members may be referred to as police officers, troopers, sheriffs, constables, rangers, peace officers or civic/civil guards.
As police are often interacting with individuals, slang terms are numerous. Many slang terms for police officers are decades or centuries old with lost etymology.
- 1 Etymology
- 2 History
- 3 Personnel and organization
- 4 Varying jurisdictions
- 5 International policing
- 6 Equipment
- 7 Strategies
- 8 Power restrictions
- 9 Conduct, accountability and public confidence
- 10 International forces
- 11 See also
- 12 References
- 13 Further reading
- 14 External links
First attested in English in the early 15th century, initially in a range of senses ecompassing '(public) policy; state; public order', the word police comes from Middle French police ('public order, administration, government'), in turn from Latin politia, which is the Latinisation of the Greek πολιτεία (politeia), "citizenship, administration, civil polity". This is derived from πόλις (polis), "city".
Law enforcement in Ancient China was carried out by "prefects" for thousands of years since it developed in both the Chu and Jin kingdoms of the Spring and Autumn period. In Jin, dozens of prefects were spread across the state, each having limited authority and employment period. They were appointed by local magistrates, who reported to higher authorities such as governors, who in turn were appointed by the emperor, and they oversaw the civil administration of their "prefecture", or jurisdiction. Under each prefect were "subprefects" who helped collectively with law enforcement in the area. Some prefects were responsible for handling investigations, much like modern police detectives. Prefects could also be women. The concept of the "prefecture system" spread to other cultures such as Korea and Japan.
In Ancient Greece, publicly owned slaves were used by magistrates as police. In Athens, a group of 300 Scythian slaves (the ῥαβδοῦχοι, "rod-bearers") was used to guard public meetings to keep order and for crowd control, and also assisted with dealing with criminals, handling prisoners, and making arrests. Other duties associated with modern policing, such as investigating crimes, were left to the citizens themselves.
In the Roman Empire, the Army, rather than a dedicated police organization, provided security. Local watchmen were hired by cities to provide some extra security. Magistrates such as procurators fiscal and quaestors investigated crimes. There was no concept of public prosecution, so victims of crime or their families had to organize and manage the prosecution themselves.
Under the reign of Augustus, when the capital had grown to almost one million inhabitants, 14 wards were created; the wards were protected by seven squads of 1,000 men called "vigiles", who acted as firemen and nightwatchmen. Their duties included apprehending thieves and robbers and capturing runaway slaves. The vigiles were supported by the Urban Cohorts who acted as a heavy-duty anti-riot force and even the Praetorian Guard if necessary.
In Medieval Spain, hermandades, or "brotherhoods", peacekeeping associations of armed individuals, were a characteristic of municipal life, especially in Castile. As medieval Spanish kings often could not offer adequate protection, protective municipal leagues began to emerge in the 12th century against bandits and other rural criminals, and against the lawless nobility or to support one or another claimant to a crown.
These organizations were intended to be temporary, but became a long-standing fixture of Spain. The first recorded case of the formation of an hermandad occurred when the towns and the peasantry of the north united to police the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, and protect the pilgrims against robber knights.
Throughout the Middle Ages such alliances were frequently formed by combinations of towns to protect the roads connecting them, and were occasionally extended to political purposes. Among the most powerful was the league of North Castilian and Basque ports, the Hermandad de las marismas: Toledo, Talavera, and Villarreal.
As one of their first acts after end of the War of the Castilian Succession in 1479, Ferdinand and Isabella established the centrally organized and efficient Holy Brotherhood (Santa Hermandad) as a national police force. They adapted an existing brotherhood to the purpose of a general police acting under officials appointed by themselves, and endowed with great powers of summary jurisdiction even in capital cases. The original brotherhoods continued to serve as modest local police-units until their final suppression in 1835.
The Fehmic courts of Germany provided some policing in the absence of strong state institutions.
In France during the Middle Ages, there were two Great Officers of the Crown of France with police responsibilities: The Marshal of France and the Constable of France. The military policing responsibilities of the Marshal of France were delegated to the Marshal's provost, whose force was known as the Marshalcy because its authority ultimately derived from the Marshal. The marshalcy dates back to the Hundred Years' 'War, and some historians trace it back to the early 12th century. Another organisation, the Constabulary (French: Connétablie), was under the command of the Constable of France. The constabulary was regularised as a military body in 1337. Under King Francis I (who reigned 1515–1547), the Maréchaussée was merged with the Constabulary. The resulting force was also known as the Maréchaussée, or, formally, the Constabulary and Marshalcy of France.
The English system of maintaining public order since the Norman conquest was a private system of tithings, led by a constable, which was based on a social obligation for the good conduct of the others; more common was that local lords and nobles were responsible for maintaining order in their lands, and often appointed a constable, sometimes unpaid, to enforce the law. There was also a system investigative "juries".
The Assize of Arms of 1252, which required the appointment of constables to summon men to arms, quell breaches of the peace, and to deliver offenders to the sheriffs or reeves, is cited as one of the earliest creation of the English police. The Statute of Winchester of 1285 is also cited as the primary legislation regulating the policing of the country between the Norman Conquest and the Metropolitan Police Act 1829.
From about 1500, private watchmen were funded by private individuals and organisations to carry out police functions. They were later nicknamed 'Charlies', probably after the reigning monarch King Charles II. Thief-takers were also rewarded for catching thieves and returning the stolen property.
The first use of the word police ("Polles") in English comes from the book "The Second Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England" published in 1642.
Early Modern policing
The first centrally organised police force was created by the government of King Louis XIV in 1667 to police the city of Paris, then the largest city in Europe. The royal edict, registered by the Parlement of Paris on March 15, 1667 created the office of lieutenant général de police ("lieutenant general of police"), who was to be the head of the new Paris police force, and defined the task of the police as "ensuring the peace and quiet of the public and of private individuals, purging the city of what may cause disturbances, procuring abundance, and having each and everyone live according to their station and their duties".
This office was first held by Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie, who had 44 commissaires de police (police commissioners) under his authority. In 1709, these commissioners were assisted by inspecteurs de police (police inspectors). The city of Paris was divided into 16 districts policed by the commissaires, each assigned to a particular district and assisted by a growing bureaucracy. The scheme of the Paris police force was extended to the rest of France by a royal edict of October 1699, resulting in the creation of lieutenants general of police in all large French cities and towns.
After the French Revolution, Napoléon I reorganized the police in Paris and other cities with more than 5,000 inhabitants on February 17, 1800 as the Prefecture of Police. On March 12, 1829, a government decree created the first uniformed police in France, known as sergents de ville ("city sergeants"), which the Paris Prefecture of Police's website claims were the first uniformed policemen in the world.
In 1737, George II began paying some London and Middlesex watchmen with tax monies, beginning the shift to government control. In 1749 Henry Fielding began organizing a force of quasi-professional constables known as the Bow Street Runners. The Macdaniel affair added further impetus for a publicly salaried police force that did not depend on rewards. Nonetheless, In 1828, there were privately financed police units in no fewer than 45 parishes within a 10-mile radius of London.
The word "police" was borrowed from French into the English language in the 18th century, but for a long time it applied only to French and continental European police forces. The word, and the concept of police itself, were "disliked as a symbol of foreign oppression" (according to Britannica 1911). Before the 19th century, the first use of the word "police" recorded in government documents in the United Kingdom was the appointment of Commissioners of Police for Scotland in 1714 and the creation of the Marine Police in 1798.
Policing in London
In 1797, Patrick Colquhoun was able to persuade the West Indies merchants who operated at the Pool of London on the River Thames, to establish a police force at the docks to prevent rampant theft that was causing annual estimated losses of £500,000 worth of cargo. The idea of a police, as it then existed in France, was considered as a potentially undesirable foreign import. In building the case for the police in the face of England's firm anti-police sentiment, Colquhoun framed the political rationale on economic indicators to show that a police dedicated to crime prevention was "perfectly congenial to the principle of the British constitution." Moreover, he went so far as to praise the French system, which had reached "the greatest degree of perfection" in his estimation.
With the initial investment of £4,200, the new trial force of the Thames River Police began with about 50 men charged with policing 33,000 workers in the river trades, of whom Colquhoun claimed 11,000 were known criminals and "on the game." The force was a success after its first year, and his men had "established their worth by saving £122,000 worth of cargo and by the rescuing of several lives." Word of this success spread quickly, and the government passed the Marine Police Bill on 28 July 1800, transforming it from a private to public police agency; now the oldest police force in the world. Colquhoun published a book on the experiment, The Commerce and Policing of the River Thames. It found receptive audiences far outside London, and inspired similar forces in other cities, notably, New York City, Dublin, and Sydney.
Colquhoun's utilitarian approach to the problem – using a cost-benefit argument to obtain support from businesses standing to benefit – allowed him to achieve what Henry and John Fielding failed for their Bow Street detectives. Unlike the stipendiary system at Bow Street, the river police were full-time, salaried officers prohibited from taking private fees. His other contribution was the concept of preventive policing; his police were to act as a highly visible deterrent to crime by their permanent presence on the Thames. Colquhoun's innovations were a critical development leading up to Robert Peel's "new" police three decades later.
Meanwhile, the authorities in Glasgow, Scotland successfully petitioned the government to pass the Glasgow Police Act establishing the City of Glasgow Police in 1800. Other Scottish towns soon followed suit and set up their own police forces through acts of parliament. In Ireland, the Irish Constabulary Act of 1822 marked the beginning of the Royal Irish Constabulary. The Act established a force in each barony with chief constables and inspectors general under the control of the civil administration at Dublin Castle. By 1841 this force numbered over 8,600 men.
Metropolitan police force
London was fast reaching a size unprecedented in world history, due to the onset of the Industrial Revolution. It became clear that the locally maintained system of volunteer constables and "watchmen" was ineffective, both in detecting and preventing crime. A parliamentary committee was appointed to investigate the system of policing in London. Upon Sir Robert Peel being appointed as Home Secretary in 1822, he established a second and more effective committee, and acted upon its findings.
Royal Assent to the Metropolitan Police Act was given, and the Metropolitan Police Service was established on September 29, 1829 in London as the first modern and professional police force in the world.
Peel, widely regarded as the father of modern policing, was heavily influenced by the social and legal philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, who called for a strong and centralized, but politically neutral, police force for the maintenance of social order, for the protection of people from crime and to act as a visible deterrent to urban crime and disorder. Peel decided to standardise the police force as an official paid profession, to organise it in a civilian fashion, and to make it answerable to the public.
Due to public fears concerning the deployment of the military in domestic matters, Peel organised the force along civilian lines, rather than paramilitary. To appear neutral, the uniform was deliberately manufactured in blue, rather than red which was then a military colour, along with the officers being armed only with a wooden truncheon and a rattle to signal the need for assistance. Along with this, police ranks did not include military titles, with the exception of Sergeant.
To distance the new police force from the initial public view of it as a new tool of government repression, Peel publicised the so-called 'Peelian Principles', which set down basic guidelines for ethical policing:
- Every police officer should be issued an identification number, to assure accountability for his actions.
- Whether the police are effective is not measured on the number of arrests, but on the lack of crime.
- Above all else, an effective authority figure knows trust and accountability are paramount. Hence, Peel's most often quoted principle that "The police are the public and the public are the police."
The 1829 Metropolitan Police Act created a modern police force by limiting the purview of the force and its powers, and envisioning it as merely an organ of the judicial system. Their job was apolitical; to maintain the peace and apprehend criminals for the courts to process according to the law. This was very different to the 'Continental model' of the police force that had been developed in France, where the police force worked within the parameters of the absolutist state as an extension of the authority of the monarch and functioned as part of the governing state.
In 1863, the Metropolitan Police were issued with the distinctive Custodian helmet, and in 1884 they switched to the use of whistles that could be heard from much further away. The Metropolitan Police became a model for the police forces in most countries, such as the United States, and most of the British Empire. Bobbies can still be found in many parts of the Commonwealth of Nations.
However, whilst the New South Wales Police Force was established in 1862, it was made up from a large number of policing and military units operating within the then Colony of New South Wales and traces its links back to the Royal Marines. The passing of the Police Regulation Act of 1862 essentially tightly regulated and centralised all of the police forces operating throughout the Colony of New South Wales.
The New South Wales Police Force remains the largest police force in Australia in terms of personnel and physical resources. It is also the only police force that requires its recruits to undertake university studies at the recruit level and has the recruit pay for their own education.
In 1566, the first police investigator of Rio de Janeiro was recruited. By the 17th century, most captaincies already had local units with law enforcement functions. On July 9, 1775 a Cavalry Regiment was created in the state of Minas Gerais for maintaining law and order. In 1808, the Portuguese royal family relocated to Brazil, because of the French invasion of Portugal. King João VI established the "Intendência Geral de Polícia" (General Police Intendancy) for investigations. He also created a Royal Police Guard for Rio de Janeiro in 1809. In 1831, after independence, each province started organizing its local "military police", with order maintenance tasks. The Federal Railroad Police was created in 1852.
In Canada, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was founded in 1729, making it the first police force in present-day Canada. It was followed in 1834 by the Toronto Police, and in 1838 by police forces in Montreal and Quebec City. A national force, the Dominion Police, was founded in 1868. Initially the Dominion Police provided security for parliament, but its responsibilities quickly grew. The famous Royal Northwest Mounted Police was founded in 1873. The merger of these two police forces in 1920 formed the world-famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
In India, the police is under the control of respective States and union territories and is known to be under State Police Services (SPS). The candidates selected for the SPS are usually posted as Deputy Superintendent of Police or Assistant Commissioner of Police once their probationary period ends. On prescribed satisfactory service in the SPS, the officers are nominated to the Indian Police Service. The service color is usually dark blue and red, while the uniform color is Khaki.
In British North America, policing was initially provided by local elected officials. For instance, the New York Sheriff's Office was founded in 1626, and the Albany County Sheriff's Department in the 1660s. In the colonial period, policing was provided by elected sheriffs and local militias.
In 1789 the U.S. Marshals Service was established, followed by other federal services such as the U.S. Parks Police (1791) and U.S. Mint Police (1792). The first city police services were established in Philadelphia in 1751, Richmond, Virginia in 1807, Boston in 1838, and New York in 1845. The U.S. Secret Service was founded in 1865 and was for some time the main investigative body for the federal government.
In the American Old West, policing was often of very poor quality. The Army often provided some policing alongside poorly resourced sheriffs and temporarily organized posses. Public organizations were supplemented by private contractors, notably the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which was hired by individuals, businessmen, local governments and the federal government. At its height, the Pinkerton Agency's numbers exceeded those of the United States Army.
In recent years, in addition to federal, state, and local forces, some special districts have been formed to provide extra police protection in designated areas. These districts may be known as neighborhood improvement districts, crime prevention districts, or security districts.
Development of theory
Michel Foucault claims that the contemporary concept of police as a paid and funded functionary of the state was developed by German and French legal scholars and practitioners in Public administration and Statistics in the 17th and early 18th centuries, most notably with Nicolas Delamare's Traité de la Police ("Treatise on the Police"), first published in 1705. The German Polizeiwissenschaft (Science of Police) first theorized by Philipp von Hörnigk a 17th-century Austrian Political economist and civil servant and much more famously by Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi who produced an important theoretical work known as Cameral science on the formulation of police. Foucault cites Magdalene Humpert author of Bibliographie der Kameralwissenschaften (1937) in which the author makes note of a substantial bibliography was produced of over 4000 pieces of the practice of Polizeiwissenschaft however, this maybe a mistranslation of Foucault's own work the actual source of Magdalene Humpert states over 14,000 items were produced from the 16th century dates ranging from 1520-1850.
As conceptualized by the Polizeiwissenschaft,according to Foucault the police had an administrative,economic and social duty ("procuring abundance"). It was in charge of demographic concerns and needed to be incorporated within the western political philosophy system of raison d'état and therefore giving the superficial appearance of empowering the population (and unwittingly supervising the population), which, according to mercantilist theory, was to be the main strength of the state. Thus, its functions largely overreached simple law enforcement activities and included public health concerns, urban planning (which was important because of the miasma theory of disease; thus, cemeteries were moved out of town, etc.), and surveillance of prices.
The concept of preventive policing, or policing to deter crime from taking place, gained influence in the late 18th century. Police Magistrate John Fielding, head of the Bow Street Runners, argued that "...it is much better to prevent even one man from being a rogue than apprehending and bringing forty to justice."
The Utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, promoted the views of Italian Marquis Cesare Beccaria, and disseminated a translated version of "Essay on Crime in Punishment". Bentham espoused the guiding principle of "the greatest good for the greatest number:
It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. This is the chief aim of every good system of legislation, which is the art of leading men to the greatest possible happiness or to the least possible misery, according to calculation of all the goods and evils of life.
Patrick Colquhoun's influential work, A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis (1797) was heavily influenced by Benthamite thought. Colquhoun's Thames River Police was founded on these principles, and in contrast to the Bow Street Runners, acted as a deterrent by their continual presence on the riverfront, in addition to being able to intervene if they spotted a crime in progress.
Edwin Chadwick's 1829 article, "Preventive police" in the London Review, argued that prevention ought to be the primary concern of a police body, which was not the case in practice. The reason, argued Chadwick, was that "A preventive police would act more immediately by placing difficulties in obtaining the objects of temptation." In contrast to a deterrent of punishment, a preventive police force would deter criminality by making crime cost-ineffective - "crime doesn't pay". In the second draft of his 1829 Police Act, the "object" of the new Metropolitan Police, was changed by Robert Peel to the "principal object," which was the "prevention of crime." Later historians would attribute the perception of England's "appearance of orderliness and love of public order" to the preventive principle entrenched in Peel's police system.
Development of modern police forces around the world was contemporary to the formation of the state, later defined by sociologist Max Weber as achieving a "monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force" and which was primarily exercised by the police and the military. Marxist theory situates the development of the modern state as part of the rise of capitalism, in which the police are one component of the bourgeoisie's repressive apparatus for subjugating the working class.
Personnel and organization
Police forces include both preventive (uniformed) police and detectives. Terminology varies from country to country. Police functions include protecting life and property, enforcing criminal law, criminal investigations, regulating traffic, crowd control, and other public safety duties.
Preventive Police, also called Uniform Branch, Uniformed Police, Uniform Division, Administrative Police, Order Police, or Patrol, designates the police that patrol and respond to emergencies and other incidents, as opposed to detective services. As the name "uniformed" suggests, they wear uniforms and perform functions that require an immediate recognition of an officer's legal authority, such as traffic control, stopping and detaining motorists, and more active crime response and prevention.
Preventive police almost always make up the bulk of a police service's personnel. In Australia and Britain, patrol personnel are also known as "general duties" officers. Atypically, Brazil's preventive police are known as Military Police.
Police detectives are responsible for investigations and detective work. Detectives may be called Investigations Police, Judiciary/Judicial Police, and Criminal Police. In the UK, they are often referred to by the name of their department, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Detectives typically make up roughly 15%-25% of a police service's personnel.
Detectives, in contrast to uniformed police, typically wear 'business attire' in bureaucratic and investigative functions where a uniformed presence would be either a distraction or intimidating, but a need to establish police authority still exists. "Plainclothes" officers dress in attire consistent with that worn by the general public for purposes of blending in.
In some cases, police are assigned to work "undercover", where they conceal their police identity to investigate crimes, such as organized crime or narcotics crime, that are unsolvable by other means. In some cases this type of policing shares aspects with espionage.
Despite popular conceptions promoted by movies and television, many US police departments prefer not to maintain officers in non-patrol bureaus and divisions beyond a certain period of time, such as in the detective bureau, and instead maintain policies that limit service in such divisions to a specified period of time, after which officers must transfer out or return to patrol duties. This is done in part based upon the perception that the most important and essential police work is accomplished on patrol in which officers become acquainted with their beats, prevent crime by their presence, respond to crimes in progress, manage crises, and practice their skills.
Detectives, by contrast, usually investigate crimes after they have occurred and after patrol officers have responded first to a situation. Investigations often take weeks or months to complete, during which time detectives spend much of their time away from the streets, in interviews and courtrooms, for example. Rotating officers also promotes cross-training in a wider variety of skills, and serves to prevent "cliques" that can contribute to corruption or other unethical behavior.
Police may also take on auxiliary administrative duties, such as issuing firearms licenses. The extent that police have these functions varies among countries, with police in France, Germany, and other continental European countries handling such tasks to a greater extent than British counterparts.
Specialized preventive and detective groups, or Specialist Investigation Departments exist within many law enforcement organizations either for dealing with particular types of crime, such as traffic law enforcement and crash investigation, homicide, or fraud; or for situations requiring specialized skills, such as underwater search, aviation, explosive device disposal ("bomb squad"), and computer crime.
Most larger jurisdictions also employ specially selected and trained quasi-military units armed with military-grade weapons for the purposes of dealing with particularly violent situations beyond the capability of a patrol officer response, including high-risk warrant service and barricaded suspects. In the United States these units go by a variety of names, but are commonly known as SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) teams.
In counterinsurgency-type campaigns, select and specially trained units of police armed and equipped as light infantry have been designated as police field forces who perform paramilitary-type patrols and ambushes whilst retaining their police powers in areas that were highly dangerous.
Because their situational mandate typically focuses on removing innocent bystanders from dangerous people and dangerous situations, not violent resolution, they are often equipped with non-lethal tactical tools like chemical agents, "flashbang" and concussion grenades, and rubber bullets. The London Metropolitan police's Specialist Firearms Command (CO19) is a group of armed police used in dangerous situations including hostage taking, armed robbery/assault and terrorism.
Military police may refer to:
- a section of the military solely responsible for policing the armed forces (referred to as provosts)
- a section of the military responsible for policing in both the armed forces and in the civilian population (most gendarmeries, such as the French Gendarmerie, the Italian Carabinieri, the Spanish Guardia Civil and the Portuguese Republican National Guard also known as GNR)
- a section of the military solely responsible for policing the civilian population (such as the Romanian Gendarmerie)
- the civilian preventive police of a Brazilian state (Policia Militar)
- a Special Military law enforcement Service, like the Russian Military Police
Some Islamic societies have religious police, who enforce the application of Islamic Sharia law. Their authority may include the power to arrest unrelated men and women caught socializing, anyone engaged in homosexual behavior or prostitution; to enforce Islamic dress codes, and store closures during Islamic prayer time.
They enforce Muslim dietary laws, prohibit the consumption or sale of alcoholic beverages and pork, and seize banned consumer products and media regarded as un-Islamic, such as CDs/DVDs of various Western musical groups, television shows and film. In Saudi Arabia, the Mutaween actively prevent the practice or proselytizing of non-Islamic religions within Saudi Arabia, where they are banned.
Police forces are usually organized and funded by some level of government. The level of government responsible for policing varies from place to place, and may be at the national, regional or local level. In some places there may be multiple police forces operating in the same area, with different ones having jurisdiction according to the type of crime or other circumstances.
For example, in the UK, policing is primarily the responsibility of a regional police force; however specialist units exist at the national level. In the US, there is typically a state police force, but crimes are usually handled by local police forces that usually only cover a few municipalities. National agencies, such as the FBI, only have jurisdiction over federal crimes or those with an interstate component.
In addition to conventional urban or regional police forces, there are other police forces with specialized functions or jurisdiction. In the United States, the federal government has a number of police forces with their own specialized jurisdictions.
Some examples are the Federal Protective Service, which patrols and protects government buildings; the postal police, which protect postal buildings, vehicles and items; the Park Police, which protect national parks, or Amtrak Police which patrol Amtrak stations and trains.
There are also some government agencies that perform police functions in addition to other duties. The U.S. Coast Guard carries out many police functions for boaters.
In major cities, there may be a separate police agency for public transit systems, such as the New York City Port Authority Police or the MTA police, or for major government functions, such as sanitation, or environmental functions.
The terms international policing, transnational policing, and/or global policing began to be used from the early 1990s onwards to describe forms of policing that transcended the boundaries of the sovereign nation-state (Nadelmann, 1993), (Sheptycki, 1995). These terms refer in variable ways to practices and forms for policing that, in some sense, transcend national borders. This includes a variety of practices, but international police cooperation, criminal intelligence exchange between police agencies working in different nation-states, and police development-aid to weak, failed or failing states are the three types that have received the most scholarly attention.
Historical studies reveal that policing agents have undertaken a variety of cross-border police missions for many years (Deflem, 2002). For example, in the 19th century a number of European policing agencies undertook cross-border surveillance because of concerns about anarchist agitators and other political radicals. A notable example of this was the occasional surveillance by Prussian police of Karl Marx during the years he remained resident in London. The interests of public police agencies in cross-border co-operation in the control of political radicalism and ordinary law crime were primarily initiated in Europe, which eventually led to the establishment of Interpol before the Second World War. There are also many interesting examples of cross-border policing under private auspices and by municipal police forces that date back to the 19th century (Nadelmann, 1993). It has been established that modern policing has transgressed national boundaries from time to time almost from its inception. It is also generally agreed that in the post–Cold War era this type of practice became more significant and frequent (Sheptycki, 2000).
Not a lot of empirical work on the practices of inter/transnational information and intelligence sharing has been undertaken. A notable exception is James Sheptycki's study of police cooperation in the English Channel region (2002), which provides a systematic content analysis of information exchange files and a description of how these transnational information and intelligence exchanges are transformed into police case-work. The study showed that transnational police information sharing was routinized in the cross-Channel region from 1968 on the basis of agreements directly between the police agencies and without any formal agreement between the countries concerned. By 1992, with the signing of the Schengen Treaty, which formalized aspects of police information exchange across the territory of the European Union, there were worries that much, if not all, of this intelligence sharing was opaque, raising questions about the efficacy of the accountability mechanisms governing police information sharing in Europe (Joubert and Bevers, 1996).
Studies of this kind outside of Europe are even rarer, so it is difficult to make generalizations, but one small-scale study that compared transnational police information and intelligence sharing practices at specific cross-border locations in North America and Europe confirmed that low visibility of police information and intelligence sharing was a common feature (Alain, 2001). Intelligence-led policing is now common practice in most advanced countries (Ratcliffe, 2007) and it is likely that police intelligence sharing and information exchange has a common morphology around the world (Ratcliffe, 2007). James Sheptycki has analyzed the effects of the new information technologies on the organization of policing-intelligence and suggests that a number of 'organizational pathologies' have arisen that make the functioning of security-intelligence processes in transnational policing deeply problematic. He argues that transnational police information circuits help to "compose the panic scenes of the security-control society". The paradoxical effect is that, the harder policing agencies work to produce security, the greater are feelings of insecurity.
Police development-aid to weak, failed or failing states is another form of transnational policing that has garnered attention. This form of transnational policing plays an increasingly important role in United Nations peacekeeping and this looks set to grow in the years ahead, especially as the international community seeks to develop the rule of law and reform security institutions in States recovering from conflict (Goldsmith and Sheptycki, 2007) With transnational police development-aid the imbalances of power between donors and recipients are stark and there are questions about the applicability and transportability of policing models between jurisdictions (Hills, 2009).
Perhaps the greatest question regarding the future development of transnational policing is: in whose interest is it? At a more practical level, the question translates into one about how to make transnational policing institutions democratically accountable (Sheptycki, 2004). For example, according to the Global Accountability Report for 2007 (Lloyd, et al. 2007) Interpol had the lowest scores in its category (IGOs), coming in tenth with a score of 22% on overall accountability capabilities (p. 19). As this report points out, and the existing academic literature on transnational policing seems to confirm, this is a secretive area and one not open to civil society involvement.
In many jurisdictions, police officers carry firearms, primarily handguns, in the normal course of their duties. In the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland), Iceland, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, and Malta, with the exception of specialist units, officers do not carry firearms as a matter of course.
Police often have specialist units for handling armed offenders, and similar dangerous situations, and can (depending on local laws), in some extreme circumstances, call on the military (since Military Aid to the Civil Power is a role of many armed forces). Perhaps the most high-profile example of this was, in 1980 the Metropolitan Police handing control of the Iranian Embassy Siege to the Special Air Service.
They can also be armed with non-lethal (more accurately known as "less than lethal" or "less-lethal") weaponry, particularly for riot control. Non-lethal weapons include batons, tear gas, riot control agents, rubber bullets, riot shields, water cannons and electroshock weapons. Police officers often carry handcuffs to restrain suspects. The use of firearms or deadly force is typically a last resort only to be used when necessary to save human life, although some jurisdictions (such as Brazil) allow its use against fleeing felons and escaped convicts. A "shoot-to-kill" policy was recently introduced in South Africa, which allows police to use deadly force against any person who poses a significant threat to them or civilians. With the country having one of the highest rates of violent crime, president Jacob Zuma states that South Africa needs to handle crime differently from other countries.
Modern police forces make extensive use of radio communications equipment, carried both on the person and installed in vehicles, to co-ordinate their work, share information, and get help quickly. In recent years, vehicle-installed computers have enhanced the ability of police communications, enabling easier dispatching of calls, criminal background checks on persons of interest to be completed in a matter of seconds, and updating officers' daily activity log and other, required reports on a real-time basis. Other common pieces of police equipment include flashlights/torches, whistles, police notebooks and "ticket books" or citations.
Police vehicles are used for detaining, patrolling and transporting. The average police patrol vehicle is a specially modified, four door sedan (saloon in British English). Police vehicles are usually marked with appropriate logos and are equipped with sirens and flashing light bars to aid in making others aware of police presence.
Unmarked vehicles are used primarily for sting operations or apprehending criminals without alerting them to their presence. Some police forces use unmarked or minimally marked cars for traffic law enforcement, since drivers slow down at the sight of marked police vehicles and unmarked vehicles make it easier for officers to catch speeders and traffic violators. This practice is controversial, with for example, New York State banning this practice in 1996 on the grounds that it endangered motorists who might be pulled over by people impersonating police officers.
Motorcycles are also commonly used, particularly in locations that a car may not be able to reach, to control potential public order situations involving meetings of motorcyclists and often in escort duties where motorcycle police officers can quickly clear a path for escorted vehicles. Bicycle patrols are used in some areas because they allow for more open interaction with the public. In addition, their quieter operation can facilitate approaching suspects unawares and can help in pursuing them attempting to escape on foot.
Police forces use an array of specialty vehicles such as helicopters, airplanes, watercraft, mobile command posts, vans, trucks, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, and SWAT armored vehicles.
Other safety equipment
The advent of the police car, two-way radio, and telephone in the early 20th century transformed policing into a reactive strategy that focused on responding to calls for service. With this transformation, police command and control became more centralized.
In the United States, August Vollmer introduced other reforms, including education requirements for police officers. O.W. Wilson, a student of Vollmer, helped reduce corruption and introduce professionalism in Wichita, Kansas, and later in the Chicago Police Department. Strategies employed by O.W. Wilson included rotating officers from community to community to reduce their vulnerability to corruption, establishing of a non-partisan police board to help govern the police force, a strict merit system for promotions within the department, and an aggressive recruiting drive with higher police salaries to attract professionally qualified officers. During the professionalism era of policing, law enforcement agencies concentrated on dealing with felonies and other serious crime, rather than broader focus on crime prevention.
The Kansas City Preventive Patrol study in the 1970s found this approach to policing to be ineffective. Patrol officers in cars were disconnected from the community, and had insufficient contact and interaction with the community. In the 1980s and 1990s, many law enforcement agencies began to adopt community policing strategies, and others adopted problem-oriented policing.
Broken windows policing was another, related approach introduced in the 1980s by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, who suggested that police should pay greater attention to minor "quality of life" offenses and disorderly conduct. This method was first introduced and made popular by New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, in the early 1990s.
The concept behind this method is simple: broken windows, graffiti, and other physical destruction or degradation of property, greatly increases the chances of more criminal activities and destruction of property. When criminals see the abandoned vehicles, trash, and deplorable property, they assume that authorities do not care and do not take active approaches to correct problems in these areas. Therefore, correcting the small problems prevents more serious criminal activity.
Building upon these earlier models, intelligence-led policing has emerged as the dominant philosophy guiding police strategy. Intelligence-led policing and problem-oriented policing are complementary strategies, both which involve systematic use of information. Although it still lacks a universally accepted definition, the crux of intelligence-led policing is an emphasis on the collection and analysis of information to guide police operations, rather than the reverse.
In many nations, criminal procedure law has been developed to regulate officers' discretion, so that they do not arbitrarily or unjustly exercise their powers of arrest, search and seizure, and use of force. In the United States, Miranda v. Arizona led to the widespread use of Miranda warnings or constitutional warnings.
In Miranda the court created safeguards against self-incriminating statements made after an arrest. The court held that "The prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way, unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the Fifth Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination"
Police in the United States are also prohibited from holding criminal suspects for more than a reasonable amount of time (usually 24–48 hours) before arraignment, using torture, abuse or physical threats to extract confessions, using excessive force to effect an arrest, and searching suspects' bodies or their homes without a warrant obtained upon a showing of probable cause. The four exceptions to the constitutional requirement of a search warrant are:
- Search incident to arrest
- Motor vehicle searches
- Exigent circumstances
In Terry v. Ohio (1968) the court divided seizure into two parts, the investigatory stop and arrest. The court further held that during an investigatory stop a police officer's search " [is] confined to what [is] minimally necessary to determine whether [a suspect] is armed, and the intrusion, which [is] made for the sole purpose of protecting himself and others nearby, [is] confined to ascertaining the presence of weapons" (U.S. Supreme Court). Before Terry, every police encounter constituted an arrest, giving the police officer the full range of search authority. Search authority during a Terry stop (investigatory stop) is limited to weapons only.
Using deception for confessions is permitted, but not coercion. There are exceptions or exigent circumstances such as an articulated need to disarm a suspect or searching a suspect who has already been arrested (Search Incident to an Arrest). The Posse Comitatus Act severely restricts the use of the military for police activity, giving added importance to police SWAT units.
British police officers are governed by similar rules, such as those introduced to England and Wales under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), but generally have greater powers. They may, for example, legally search any suspect who has been arrested, or their vehicles, home or business premises, without a warrant, and may seize anything they find in a search as evidence.
All police officers in the United Kingdom, whatever their actual rank, are 'constables' in terms of their legal position. This means that a newly appointed constable has the same arrest powers as a Chief Constable or Commissioner. However, certain higher ranks have additional powers to authorize certain aspects of police operations, such as a power to authorize a search of a suspect's house (section 18 PACE in England and Wales) by an officer of the rank of Inspector, or the power to authorize a suspect's detention beyond 24 hours by a Superintendent.
Conduct, accountability and public confidence
Police services commonly include units for investigating crimes committed by the police themselves. These units are typically called Inspectorate-General, or in the US, "internal affairs". In some countries separate organizations outside the police exist for such purposes, such as the British Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Likewise, some state and local jurisdictions, for example, Springfield, Illinois have similar outside review organizations. The Police Service of Northern Ireland is investigated by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, an external agency set up as a result of the Patten report into policing the province. In the Republic of Ireland the Garda Síochána is investigated by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, an independent commission that replaced the Garda Complaints Board in May 2007.
The Special Investigations Unit of Ontario, Canada, is one of only a few civilian agencies around the world responsible for investigating circumstances involving police and civilians that have resulted in a death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault. The agency has made allegations of insufficient cooperation from various police services hindering their investigations.
In Hong Kong, any allegations of corruption within the police will be investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Independent Police Complaints Council, two agencies which are independent of the police force.
Due to a long-term decline in public confidence for law enforcement in the United States, body cameras worn by police officers are under consideration.
Use of force
Police forces also find themselves under criticism for their use of force, particularly deadly force. Specifically, tension increases when a police officer of one ethnic group harms or kills a suspect of another one. In the United States, such events occasionally spark protests and accusations of racism against police and allegations that police departments practice racial profiling.
In the United States since the 1960s, concern over such issues has increasingly weighed upon law enforcement agencies, courts and legislatures at every level of government. Incidents such as the 1965 Watts Riots, the videotaped 1991 beating by Los Angeles Police officers of Rodney King, and the riot following their acquittal have been suggested by some people to be evidence that U.S. police are dangerously lacking in appropriate controls.
The fact that this trend has occurred contemporaneously with the rise of the US civil rights movement, the "War on Drugs", and a precipitous rise in violent crime from the 1960s to the 1990s has made questions surrounding the role, administration and scope of police authority increasingly complicated.
Police departments and the local governments that oversee them in some jurisdictions have attempted to mitigate some of these issues through community outreach programs and community policing to make the police more accessible to the concerns of local communities, by working to increase hiring diversity, by updating training of police in their responsibilities to the community and under the law, and by increased oversight within the department or by civilian commissions.
In cases in which such measures have been lacking or absent, civil lawsuits have been brought by the United States Department of Justice against local law enforcement agencies, authorized under the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. This has compelled local departments to make organizational changes, enter into consent decree settlements to adopt such measures, and submit to oversight by the Justice Department.
Protection of individuals
Since 1855, the Supreme Court of the United States has consistently ruled that law enforcement officers have no duty to protect any individual, despite the motto "protect and serve". Their duty is to enforce the law in general. The first such case was in 1855 (South v. State of Maryland (Supreme Court of the United States 1855). Text) and the most recent in 2005 (Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales).
In contrast, the police are entitled to protect private rights in some jurisdictions. To ensure that the police would not interfere in the regular competencies of the courts of law, some police acts require that the police may only interfere in such cases where protection from courts cannot be obtained in time, and where, without interference of the police, the realization of the private right would be impeded. This would, for example, allow police to establish a restaurant guest's identity and forward it to the innkeeper in a case where the guest cannot pay the bill at nighttime because his wallet had just been stolen from the restaurant table.
In addition, there are Federal law enforcement agencies in the United States whose mission includes providing protection for executives such as the President and accompanying family members, visiting foreign dignitaries, and other high-ranking individuals. Such agencies include the United States Secret Service and the United States Park Police.
In many countries, particularly those with a federal system of government, there may be several police or police like organizations, each serving different levels of government and enforcing different subsets of the applicable law. The United States has a highly decentralized and fragmented system of law enforcement, with over 17,000 state and local law enforcement agencies.
Some countries, such as Chile, Israel, the Philippines, France, Austria, New Zealand and South Africa, use a centralized system of policing. Other countries have multiple police forces, but for the most part their jurisdictions do not overlap. In the United States however, several different law enforcement agencies may have authority in a particular jurisdiction at the same time, each with their own command.
Other countries where jurisdiction of multiple police agencies overlap, include Guardia Civil and the Policía Nacional in Spain, the Polizia di Stato and Carabinieri in Italy and the Police Nationale and National Gendarmerie in France.
Most countries are members of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), established to detect and fight transnational crime and provide for international co-operation and co-ordination of other police activities, such as notifying relatives of the death of foreign nationals. Interpol does not conduct investigations or arrests by itself, but only serves as a central point for information on crime, suspects and criminals. Political crimes are excluded from its competencies.
- Chief of police
- Criminal citation
- Criminal justice
- Fraternal Order of Police
- Highway Patrol
- Law enforcement agency
- Law enforcement and society
- Law enforcement by country
- Police academy
- Police brutality
- Police certificate
- Police science
- Police state
- Police training officer
- Private police
- Public administration
- Public Security
- Riot police
- State Police
- The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc
- Women in law enforcement
- List of basic law enforcement topics
- List of countries by size of police forces
- List of law enforcement agencies
- List of protective service agencies
- Police rank
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|Look up police in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.| | <urn:uuid:fdf49379-fb03-4761-8f14-1135e0ae3af3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/Police | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938795 | 14,172 | 3.875 | 4 |
schools in the state are already familiar with and are using
a multi-tiered instructional model, an initiative of Response
To Intervention (RTI). Central to the multi-tiered model
is frequent progress monitoring for mastery of content.
to read more about Multi-Tiered Instruction and Gifted Education
the National Association for Gifted Children
Department of Education
Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has set aside $350
million of Race To The Top funds for grants aimed at reforming
state assessments aligned with common standards. The new
assessments will also be designed to be computer-adaptive
and be better measures of growth. This should provide information
that helps improve instruction and accelerate student learning.
here for more on the Race To The Top Grants The power
point version includes an illustration of international
benchmarking in West Virginia. | <urn:uuid:92e77c96-2994-4071-b13b-70fb11c2de78> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wvde.state.wv.us/osp/giftede-news15.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894778 | 179 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Despite the fact that those not very familiar with the subject will have much of the content go over their heads, this is perhaps the only place (in 1998 at least) that all this information is available in one, organized book. For that reason alone, it is an excellent reference.
My other complaint (in addition to the possible comprehension difficulty) is the evolution element is not always as prominently discussed and integrated as the title and preface suggest. Plenty of information on cells and embryonic development are covered but the evolution tie-in occasionally is lacking or at least not as strong as it could be.
There are several main themes in this textbook. Given the length, of over 600 pages, I will only go over a couple of them here. First is the conservation maintained in flexible biological mechanisms and organisms. As ironic as it may seem on the surface, conservation is a key part of the diversification process. While the morphology of species fills much of the imaginable spectrum (i.e. there is great diversity), the differences in genes, processes, body parts/positioning, and inter-cellular communication are relatively constant through millions of years of evolution. For instance, the three-dimensional structure of the a clam hemoglobin can be superimposed almost exactly on that of the 'same' myoglobin in a sperm whale. Likewise, with body plans, whether you are dealing with a goose, a mouse, a newt, a zebrafish, or Xenopus the site of the forelimb or pectoral fin is at the anterior boundary of the Hox-c6 and Hox-b8 expression compartments. Somewhat similarly, whether you are looking at a whale, a human, or a giraffe, you are looking at a species with seven cervical vertebrae. Of course each of those in the giraffe is longer than all seven of the human's combined.
The other main theme is that of the evolution of evolvability. Although individuals aren't selected to be able to 'better evolve', populations and species are. In addition, the systems that make up organisms (especially when the systems were in their infant stages hundreds of millions of years ago) are specifically selected for based on their flexibleness, versatility, and robustness. The immune system is one example that is gone over is ample detail.
Also of interest, but not necessarily main themes in the book, are things like the development of the nervous system (which relies on superfluous growth and functional selection rather than pre-programmed, exact genetic function), probable causes of the Cambrian 'explosion' (somewhat related to the evolution of evolvability above), time-dependent gene expression, and neural crest cells (which allow for 'rapid' diversification of the size and shapes of skeletogenic elements).
For those who are looking for a rebuttal to creationist propaganda, you will find tons of ammunition here. Besides the attacks that have been made by creationists on the immune system other topics like the evolution of eyes are discussed. Species like Anableps anableps, the 'four-eyed fish', and cubomedusan jellyfish, which have no brain but do have camera-type eyes (unlike the less useful reversed-retina human eyes), will leave creationists scratching their heads and wondering where their creator went wrong in creating humans. I don't think the authors intended the book to be a direct response to Michael Behe but their allusions to Black Boxes being opened in the final chapter let the reader know that the god-of-the-gaps theory Behe postulates is only plausible when all the evidence isn't carefully examined.
Cells, Embryos, and Evolution is essential for advanced students of the subject. The rest of us have many things to learn on the topic, but a text aimed at more general audience is needed. If you get nothing else out of this book you will at least get to view numerous photographs of mutants which can only be described as 'really cool'. ;)
from the publisher:
In Cells, Embryos, and Evolution the authors' ambition is to continue what Darwin started: to understand not only the influence of selection on the path of evolution but also the capacity of the organism to generate heritable variation upon which selection can act. Drawing on the understandings derived from molecular, cell and developmental biology in the past 20 years, John Gerhart and Marc Kirschner have begun to explain the origins of phenotypic variation and evolutionary adaptation from within eukaryotic cell biological and developmental processes. This has required them to confront the paradox of, on the one hand, deep cellular and molecular conservation and the extraordinary stability of body plans of the major metazoan phyla and, on the other hand, the rapid diversification of the anatomy and physiology of organisms. Cells, Embryos and Evolution is richly illustrated with examples drawn from modern palaeontology, developmental biology and cell biology. It sets out to establish a coherent basis for evaluating the role of cellular and embryological mechanisms in evolutionary change.
Contents (Chapter Titles)
The surprising conservation of cellular processes; Contingency; Regulatory linkage; The exploratory behaviour of biological systems; Novelty; Conditionality and compartmentalization; Body plans; Axis specification and reproductive strategies; Developmental flexibility and robustness; Evolutionary diversification of the body plan; Evolution and evolvability | <urn:uuid:653d5b08-2b1d-49bb-8171-54b76af8ecc1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.2think.org/cells.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934074 | 1,107 | 2.625 | 3 |
Scientists in the U.S. and a specialist in Denmark have created a lifelike model of an ancient mollusk using a 3D printer. The mollusk, a type of multiplacophoran called Protobalanus spinicoronatus, is a oval-shaped sea creature what lived about 390 million years ago.
This "less than an inch long" creature was covered with stiff plates and surrounded by a ring of spines. Using a micro CT scan researchers created a 3D view of the fossil based on a prehistoric mollusk discovered in 2001 in northern Ohio. "Partially covered in rock, the animal's shell and spikes had become fragmented as it decayed."
Researchers pieced the broken fragments of the digital fossil back together. The CT scan gave an animated view of the original position of the creature's shells and spines.
The reconstruction revealed that the interlocking plates that made up the creature's armor were actually arranged in two parallel rows, instead of one long row—the first step in re-creating what team member Esben Horn likens to a "movie monster."
The CT scan also allows researchers to produce a multicolored, textured model in clay, resin and silicone showing how the creature looked, and how it crawled with a single, suction-like foot millions years ago.
The 3D model is enlarged it by about 12 times until it could be held in the palm of a hand and touched with fingers.
"We can now demonstrate that multiplacophorans are distant relatives of the modern chitons, which did not evolve until later in Earth history," said Jakob Vinther, a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences. "We can also show that they evolved a number of characteristics seen in some modern chitons convergently."
The new mollusk model and reconstruction is detailed in the Sept. 18 in the journal Paleontology.
Source: National Geographic
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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- Minecraft, 3D printing and post-scarcity economy | <urn:uuid:bb2479f9-04e3-431c-9897-039e6c0ebb91> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.3ders.org/articles/20120920-ancient-sea-creature-reconstructed-with-ct-scan-and-3d-printer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920743 | 646 | 3.953125 | 4 |
The Second Caliph: Umar ibn Al-Khattaab
MSA National Publication
eBook: The Rightly Guided Caliphs
source: MSA National
The Second Caliph, Umar (634-644 A.C.)
"God has placed truth upon Umar's tongue and heart." [Hadith]
During his last illness Abu Bakr had conferred with his people, particularly the more eminent among them. After this meeting they chose 'Umar as his successor. 'Umar was born into a respected Quraish family thirteen years after the birth of Muhammad (peace be on him). Umar's family was known for its extensive knowledge of genealogy. When he grew up, 'Umar was proficient in this branch of knowledge as well as in swordsmanship, wrestling and the art of speaking. He also learned to read and write while still a child, a very rare thing in Mecca at that time. 'Umar earned his living as a merchant. His trade took him to many foreign lands and he met all kinds of people. This experience gave him an insight into the affairs and problems of men. 'Umar's personality was dynamic, self-assertive, frank and straight forward. He always spoke whatever was in his mind even if it displeased others.
'Umar was twenty-seven when the Prophet (peace be on him) proclaimed his mission. The ideas Muhammad was preaching enraged him as much as they did the other notables of Mecca. He was just as bitter against anyone accepting Islam as others among the Quraish. When his slave-girl accepted Islam he beat her until he himself was exhausted and told her, "I have stopped because I am tired, not out of pity for you." The story of his embracing Islam is an interesting one. One day, full of anger against the Prophet, he drew his sword and set out to kill him. A friend met him on the way. When 'Umar told him what he planned to do, his friend informed him that 'Umar's own sister, Fatima, and her husband had also accepted Islam. 'Umar went straight to his sister's house where he found her reading from pages of the Qur'an. He fell upon her and beat her mercilessly. Bruised and bleeding, she told her brother, "Umar, you can do what you like, but you cannot turn our hearts away from Islam." These words produced a strange effect upon 'Umar. What was this faith that made even weak women so strong of heart? He asked his sister to show him what she had been reading; he was at once moved to the core by the words of the Qur'an and immediately grasped their truth. He went straight to the house where the Prophet was staying and vowed allegiance to him.
Umar made no secret of his acceptance of Islam. He gathered the Muslims and offered prayers at the Ka'aba. This boldness and devotion of an influential citizen of Mecca raised the morale of the small community of Muslims. Nonetheless 'Umar was also subjected to privations, and when permission for emigration to Medina came, he also left Mecca. The soundness of 'Umar's judgment, his devotion to the Prophet (peace be on him), his outspokenness and uprightness won for him a trust and confidence from the Prophet which was second only to that given to Abu Bakr. The Prophet gave him the title 'Farooq' which means the 'Separator of Truth from False hood.' During the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, 'Umar was his closest assistant and adviser. When Abu Bakr died, all the people of Medina swore allegiance to 'Umar, and on 23 Jamadi-al-Akhir, 13 A.H., he was proclaimed Caliph.
After taking charge of his office, 'Umar spoke to the Muslims of Medina: "...O people, you have some rights on me which you can always claim. One of your rights is that if anyone of you comes to me with a claim, he should leave satisfied. Another of your rights is that you can demand that I take nothing unjustly from the revenues of the State. You can also demand that... I fortify your frontiers and do not put you into danger. It is also your right that if you go to battle I should look after your families as a father would while you are away. O people, remain conscious of God, forgive me my faults and help me in my task. Assist me in enforcing what is good and forbidding what is evil. Advise me regarding the obligations that have been imposed upon me by God..."
The most notable feature of 'Umar's caliphate was the vast expansion of Islam. Apart from Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine and Iran also came under the protection of the Islamic government. But the greatness of 'Umar himself lies in the quality of his rule. He gave a practical meaning to the Qur'anic injunction:
"O you who believe, stand out firmly for justice as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it concerns rich or poor, for God can best protect both." [4:135]
Once a woman brought a claim against the Caliph 'Umar. When 'Umar appeared on trial before the judge, the judge stood up as a sign of respect toward him. 'Umar reprimanded him, saying, "This is the first act of injustice you did to this woman!"
He insisted that his appointed governors live simple lives, keep no guard at their doors and be accessible to the people at all times, and he himself set the example for them. Many times foreign envoys and messengers sent to him by his generals found him resting under a palm tree or praying in the mosque among the people, and it was difficult for them to distinguish which man was the Caliph. He spent many a watchful night going about the streets of Medina to see whether anyone needed help or assistance. The general social and moral tone of the Muslim society at that time is well-illustrated by the words of an Egyptian who was sent to spy on the Muslims during their Egyptian campaign. He reported:
"I have seen a people, every one of whom loves death more than he loves life. They cultivate humility rather than pride. None is given to material ambitions. Their mode of living is simple... Their commander is their equal. They make no distinction between superior and inferior, between master and slave. When the time of prayer approaches, none remains behind..."
'Umar gave his government an administrative structure. Departments of treasury, army and public revenues were established. Regular salaries were set up for soldiers. A popuation census was held. Elaborate land surveys were conducted to assess equitable taxes. New cities were founded. The areas which came under his rule were divided into provinces and governors were appointed. New roads were laid, canals were lug and wayside hotels were built. Provision was made for he support of the poor and the needy from public funds. He defined, by precept and by example, the rights and privileges of non-Muslims, an example of which is the following contract with the Christians of Jerusalem:
"This is the protection which the servant of God, 'Umar, the Ruler of the Believers has granted to the people of Eiliya [Jerusalem]. The protection is for their lives and properties, their churches and crosses, their sick and healthy and for all their coreligionists. Their churches shall not be used for habitation, nor shall they be demolished, nor shall any injury be done to them or to their compounds, or to their crosses, nor shall their properties be injured in any way. There shall be no compulsion for these people in the matter of religion, nor shall any of them suffer any injury on account of religion... Whatever is written herein is under the covenant of God and the responsibility of His Messenger, of the Caliphs and of the believers, and shall hold good as long as they pay Jizya (the tax for their defense) imposed on them."
Those non-Muslims who took part in defense together with the Muslims were exempted from paying Jizya, and when the Muslims had to retreat from a city whose non-Muslim citizens had paid this tax for their defense, the tax was returned to the non-Muslims. The old, the poor and the disabled of Muslims and non-Muslims alike were provided for from the public treasury and from the Zakat funds.
In 23 A.H., when Umar returned to Medina from Hajj;, he raised his hands and prayed, "O God! I am advanced in years, my bones are weary, my powers are declining, and the people for whom I am responsible have spread far and wide. Summon me back to Thyself, my lord!" Some time later, when 'Umar went to the mosque to lead a prayer, a Magian named Abu Lulu Feroze, who had a grudge against 'Umar on a personal matter, attacked him with a dagger and stabbed him several times. Umar reeled and fell to the ground. When he learned that the assassin was a Magian, he sid, "Thank God he is not a Muslim."
'Umar died in the first week of Muharram, 24 A.H., and was buried by the side of the Holy Prophet (peace be on him). | <urn:uuid:44dd80e9-0134-45de-b56c-b8b44de67304> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.a2youth.com/ebooks/the_rightly_guided_caliphs/the_second_caliph_umar_ibn_al-khattaab/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989025 | 1,936 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Sports Medicine, Health and Fitness
- Sports Medicine, Athletic Trainers for High School Athletes
- Sports Medicine, Persons with Disabilities: Participation in Sports and Physicial Activities
- Sports Medicine, Counseling About Risk of Contact/Collision Sports
- Protective Equipment for Recreational and Competitive Sports Activities
- Ultimate Fighting and Disabling Competitions
- Physical Activity in Children
The need for fitness begins at an early age and extends well into later life. As such, the issue of sports participation is integrally related to the patient's sense of well-being, both physically and emotionally. The family physician is uniquely positioned to be involved across the entire age spectrum and is able to recognize that health and fitness are dependent on a certain degree of physical activity and regular exercise throughout one's life.
The pre-participation assessment as well as diagnosis and treatment of exercise-related injuries and diseases are best incorporated into comprehensive medical management. The pre-participation assessment is best performed within the context of the medical home or, at a minimum, by a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant. The family physician is uniquely qualified to be the sports medicine "doctor of choice" because of a broad knowledge base and experience.
The AAFP promotes continued medical education and supports patient education products for its members in the area of sports medicine, health, fitness and nutrition. It encourages the family physician to be the sports medicine doctor in his or her own community.
The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) states that “Sports Medicine is a body of knowledge and a broad area of health care which includes: 1) exercise as an essential component of health throughout life; 2) medical management and supervision of recreational and competitive athletes and all others who exercise; and 3) exercise for prevention and treatment of disease and injury.” The ABFM has developed a Certificate of Added Qualifications to recognize excellence among those with special expertise in Sports Medicine. (1988) (2015 COD) | <urn:uuid:7c9c467e-f572-45e3-8c6a-2826d294afd9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/sports-medicine-health.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958782 | 402 | 2.890625 | 3 |
AfriGeneas States Research Forum
[OK] The State Capitol
THE NEW JERUSALEM PLAN -- The Oklahoma House of Representatives and the "Stealing" of the State Capital.
Eighth Commandment: You Shall Not Steal
ENABLING ACT OF 1906 -- The movement for statehood thus culminated in June 1906 with the passage of the Enabling Bill, setting in motion the process of establishing constitutional state government. The Enabling Act empowered the people of the Oklahoma and Indian territories to elect delegates to a constitutional convention and set up a state capital temporarily at Guthrie, in former Oklahoma Territory. The capital was to remain at Guthrie until 1913 and thereafter would be located permanently by electors chosen at a statewide election that would be called by the legislature.
The Legislature passed House Joint Resolution 11 in 1908 to put a NEW JERUSALEM question on the general election ballot that November. The question directed the state to acuqire a site of sufficient size for a capital and the sale of lots to cover the cost of construction of a capitol building. | <urn:uuid:a90242b3-e3e1-4278-9290-7a7f7a9f4f94> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.afrigeneas.com/forum-states/index.cgi/md/read/id/9850/sbj/ok-the-state-capitol/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946851 | 219 | 3.046875 | 3 |
In a study investigators said might help explain how social norms arose and regulate behaviour, brain centres linked to enjoyment and satisfaction lit up in young men who punished others for cheating them.
Dominique de Quervain of the University of Zurich and colleagues tested 15 male students, telling them they were doing an economic study.
The men all sat in positron electron tomography, or PET scanners, that recorded brain activity.
In the study published in the journal Science, they paired the men in an exchange of cash. Player A could give all or some of his money to player B, who could then give some or none of it back.
If the first player gave all his money, the amount was quadrupled and the player B could share the reward with player A. This scenario would obviously benefit both the most, so player A had an incentive to share.
If player B declined to share, player A could punish him by taking away imaginary points or taking away money.
"We scanned the subjects' brains while they learned about the defector's abuse of trust and determine the punishment," the researchers wrote.
The PET scans showed a clear pattern of activity in the brain's dorsal striatum, involved in experiencing satisfaction, when one player penalised the other for selfishness.
This was the case even when player A had to use some of his own money to inflict the punishment.
"Instead of cold, calculated, reason, it is passion that may plant the seeds of revenge," commented psychologist Brian Knutson of Stanford University in California.
He likened the feeling to a driver refusing to let another he considers a cheater squeeze in front of him in traffic.
"After squeezing back the intruder, you can't help but notice a smile creep onto your face," Knutson wrote in a commentary. | <urn:uuid:56f3823f-2fd2-441f-b287-da2eb746e75e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2004/08/2008491514785508.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976352 | 368 | 2.8125 | 3 |
A Brief History Of The Tomato
Learn the history of the tomato. Originally thought of as poisonous, tomatoes are now recommened to prevent prostrate cancer. How did we get so far?
No European had seen the tomato until Cortez landed in Mexico in 1519. When the explorers brought some back to Spain, they were rather easily adapted by the Spanish population, but without it spreading to much of the rest of the continent. The earliest mention of it by a European was by Venetian Petrus Matthiolus, who in 1544 recommended frying it and seasoning with salt and pepper. Nonetheless, it took a while for this now popular vegetable (or fruit, if you must) to catch on.
Perhaps some of the reason for hesitancy in eating it was it's relation to the poisonous nightshade family (as is a potato). Some tried to find medical reasons for eating it--perhaps it was good for curing rheumatism, or fevers. Or, given it's Latin name of pomum amoris (love apple), perhaps it was an aphrodisiac. As late as 1820, however, eating tomatoes was something of a rarity, to the point of being something of a stunt--Robert Johnson ate one raw on the courthouse steps in Salem, New Jersey, much to the wonderment of the crowd.
Shortly, thereafter, there seems to have been a change. Perhaps enough people ate them without dropping dead that they began to be seriously considered as a food. Dickens, in the Pickwick Papers, mentions dishes with tomato sauce in the 1840s, and by that time, tomato sauces were well-known in the upper and middle classes of Britain.
For the next hundred years, tomato varieties were cultivated and flourished under loving attention. Interestingly, many of them bore little resemblence to the red round tomatoes you usually find in supermarkets today. One cultivated by the Cherokee Indians was a dusty rose in color and bumpy in shape, and was known as the Cherokee Purple. The Mortgage Lifter was developed in the 1930s to help the inventor pay off his mortgage--two to four pounds in size, it was a real family sized vegetable!
After World War II, however, the desire of year round tomatoes led to the increase in long-distance shipping of same. And with the need to ship came the need for more uniform tomatoes. Ones that ripened at the same time, were a regular size and shape, and had a skin that take the punishments of long-distance travel. And the brighter the red color, the better.
Fortunately, however, consumers eventually rebelled. Although it is entirely too easy still to find watery tomatoes with brilliant color, more and more farms are turning to producing heirloom tomatoes, such as the ones mentioned above. And more markets are providing them to consumers.
The tomato may well be America's favorite vegetable--found in sauces, stews, and ketchup, it provides many of us with the majority of our vitamin C and anti-oxidant requirements. As well, recent research has suggested that men that wish to fend off the liklihood of prostrate cancer would do well to eat tomatoes, or tomato-based products, three times a week. Perhaps the Europeans of the 17th century were right to look at medicinal uses for this vegetable! | <urn:uuid:f6bca076-7731-485c-8610-c727d64b9f86> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.allsands.com/gardening/gardening/historyoftomat_bqc_gn.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982296 | 678 | 3.109375 | 3 |
- Historic Sites
The Man Who Invented Himself
August 1977 | Volume 28, Issue 5
The voyage also taught him about the bloody business of life. There was month after month of following the seal herd, killing and stripping the skins off the pretty beasts, then flinging their carcasses to the sharks that followed the boat for their share of the massacre. This daily slaughterhouse was the young sailor’s first sight of nature red in tooth and claw. The men were more bestial than the animals they killed. It was a crude, commercial competition, dictated by the market in furs. Jack began to see that the struggle among humans to live was part of the battle among species to survive. The men got the wages, the captain took the profits, the women wore the furs, the sharks devoured the meat, the masses of the seals died.
Yet the sea was only a place to escape to, not to work upon. He returned to factory jobs and heaving coal in Oakland in a time of national depression. When his free spirit could endure no more, he took to the road. Although he went with “Kelly’s Army,” California’s detachment of Coxey’s army of the unemployed, which set out for Washington, D.C., in 1894, he was no radical when he started, just a young man on the loose. In fact, he rode a raft down the Mississippi like Huckleberry Finn, eating the food he was supposed to be begging for the mass of the marchers behind, and he deserted the army at Mark Twain’s home town of Hannibal. As he wrote later in The Road , he went on the bum because he could not keep away from it; he did not have the price of the fare in his jeans; he was so made that he could not work always on the same shift; and, finally, “just because it was easier to than not to.”
So Jack turned into a thoughtless road kid, until a month in Pennsylvania’s Erie County Penitentiary on a charge of vagrancy made a radical out of him. Jack saw in the jail the depths of human degradation, a society of degenerates and misfits tyrannized by a few trusties and hallmen, who shamefully exploited their fellow prisoners. To him, it seemed a parable of the whole of industrial America. He found himself living one of his childhood nightmares about falling into the stench and darkness of a bottomless pit. The alternative was the tooth-and-claw fight for social success, and upon his release he returned to his mother’s home in Oakland, determined to educate himself.
Then began a frantic pursuit of knowledge. Jack was brave to go to high school after dropping out of the educational system for six years. His schoolmates were so young that he felt he was in a kindergarten. To them, he was an object of fear, an unbelievably shabby and careless man who had been a tramp and who chewed tobacco. His determination was so great, however, that after only two years he qualified in 1896 as a special student to enter the University of California at Berkeley.
Yet already a pattern in his career had begun to emerge. The rootlessness of his upbringing made him stick at no job or plan of study for too long. He had been brought up on the move, and he remained on the move in restless California. Whenever the pressures on his life seemed too great for him, he would pack up and go. Early in 1897 he dropped out to become a writer, because gossip about his birth was too much to bear; what was more, by then Jack had learned of and had contacted his real father—who had promptly denied his paternity. Jack was now determined to succeed on his own, without the help of the society that had made him poor, of the mother who did not love him, of the father who had deserted and denied him. Isolated, he determined to be utterly self-made—and how better to do it than by writing?
He worked at this new trade as diligently as ever, but found only frustration. The one anchor in his drifting, driven young life was his socialism, to which he had been converted by his jail, road, and sea experiences and by the books he read so voraciously. Radical socialism, he was now convinced, was the only thing that could keep men from being degraded and thrown out of work and crippled by the factory system. At the same time, the horror of the vicious struggle to survive in the gutters of America had hardened Jack’s dreams into a fierce personal ambition. “I had been in the cellar of society,” he later wrote, “and I did not like the place as a habitation.… If I could not live on the parlor floor of society, I could, at any rate, have a try at the attic. It was true, the diet there was slim, but the air at least was pure.”
Although Jack’s socialism was the passion of his life and made him many friends among the young radicals of San Francisco Bay, he did not put the good of the cause before his ambition for himself. He left California to look for instant fame and fortune in the Yukon gold rush of 1897. It was a stampede to illusion. He started off with enormous enthusiasm and energy, backpacking up Chilkoot Pass and getting to Dawson City before the ice froze the river. He staked a claim, but when he saw the actual grim drudgery of extracting a few ounces of gold from tons of frozen gravel, he did not stay to work it. The fact that he caught scurvy and hated to be ill also sent him back home to cure himself. The trip back to the sea two thousand miles down the river inspired him to keep a detailed diary. There was a gold mine, perhaps, in writing about Alaska. | <urn:uuid:f2b3c00e-ba1e-496f-be71-7abec75c3d1c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americanheritage.com/content/jack-london?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990835 | 1,224 | 2.921875 | 3 |
- Historic Sites
The Myth Of The Happy Yeoman
Changing times have revolutionised rural life in America, but the legend built up in the old days remains a powerful force
April 1956 | Volume 7, Issue 3
The sheer abundance of the land—that very internal empire that had been expected to insure the predominance of the yeoman in American life for centuries—gave the coup de gràce to the yeomanlike way of life. For it made of the farmer a speculator. Cheap land invited extensive and careless cultivation. Rising land values in areas of new settlement tempted early liquidation and frequent moves, frequent and sensational rises in land values bred a boom psychology in the American farmer and caused him to rely for his margin of profit more on the appreciation in the value of his land than on the sale of crops. It took a strong man to resist the temptation to ride skyward on lands that might easily triple or quadruple their value in one decade and then double in the next.
What developed in America, then, was an agricultural society whose real attachment was not, like the yeoman’s, to the land but to land values. The characteristic product of American rural society, as it developed on the prairies and the plains, was not a yeoman or a villager, but a harassed little country businessman who worked very hard, moved all too often, gambled with his land, and made his way alone.
While the farmer had long since ceased to act like a yeoman, he was somewhat slower in ceasing to think like one. He became a businessman in fact long before lie began to regard himself in this light. As the Nineteenth Century drew to a close, however, various things were changing him. He was becoming increasingly an employer of labor, and though he still worked with his hands, he began to look with suspicion upon the working classes of the cities, especially those organized in trade unions, as he had once done upon the urban lops and aristocrats. Moreover, when good times returned alter the Populist revolt of the 1890’s, businessmen and bankers and the agricultural colleges began to woo the farmer, to make efforts to persuade him to take the businesslike view of himself that was warranted by the nature of his farm operations. “The object of farming,” declared a writer in the Cornell Countryman in 1904, “is not primarily to make a living, but it is to make money. To this end it is to be conducted on the same business basis as any other producing industry.”
The final change, which came only with a succession of changes in the Twentieth Century, wiped out the last traces of the yeoman of old, as the coming first of good roads and rural free delivery, and mail order catalogues, then the telephone, the automobile, and the tractor, and at length radio, movies, and television largely eliminated the difference between urban and rural experience in so many important areas of life. The city luxuries, once do derided by farmers, are now what they aspire to give to their wives and daughters.
In 1860 a farm journal satirized the imagined refinements and affectations of a city in the following picture:
Slowly she rises from her couch. … Languidly she gains lier feet, and oh! what vision of human perlcclion appears before us: Skinny, bony, sickly, hipless, thighless, formless, hairless, teethless. What radiant belle! … The ceremony ol enrobing commences. In goes the dentist’s naturalization efforts: next the witching curls are lashioned to her “classically molded head.” Then the womanly proportions are properly adjusted: hoops, bustles, and so forth, follow in succession, then a proluse quantity of whitewash, together with a “permanent rose tint” is applied to a sallow complexion: and lastly the“killing” wrapper is arranged on her systematical and matchless form.
But compare this with these beauty hints for farmers’ wives horn the Idaho Farmer April, 1935:
Hands should be soil enough to Halter the most delicate of the new labrics. They must be carefully manicured, with none of the hot, brilliant shades ol nail polish. The lighter and more delieate tone’s ate in keeping with the spirit of freshness. Keep the tint of your fingertips friendly to the red of your lips, and eheck both your powder and your rouge to see that they best suit the tone ol your skin in the bold light of summer.
Nothing can tell us with greater duality of the passing of the veoman ideal than these light and delicate tones of nail polish. | <urn:uuid:63e19743-9668-4ed2-b04e-cfaf3238183c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americanheritage.com/content/myth-happy-yeoman?page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963278 | 985 | 2.859375 | 3 |
SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
Tight Arms Linked to Bigger Black Holes in Galaxies
from National Geographic News
Images from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed an important relationship between supermassive black holes and spiral galaxies: The more massive the black hole, the tighter the host galaxy's arms.
"This means that to determine the mass of a supermassive black hole, you only need an image of a galaxy," said Marc Seigar of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Within the past decade astronomers have determined that almost every galaxy has a black hole lurking at its center that can range from ten thousand times to a billion times the mass of the sun.
Read more ... | <urn:uuid:8582d608-b60e-4481-96be-e3638e70bd5f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americanscientist.org/science/id.3842,content.true,css.print/science.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894705 | 143 | 3.234375 | 3 |
In which Scrabble dictionary does NOTCHING exist?
Definitions of NOTCHING in dictionaries:
- verb -
cut or make a notch into
- verb -
notch a surface to record something
verb - to make an angular cut in
There are 8 letters in NOTCHING:
C G H I N N O T
Scrabble words that can be created with an extra letter added to NOTCHING
All anagrams that could be made from letters of word NOTCHING plus a
Scrabble words that can be created with letters from word NOTCHING
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SCRABBLE is the registered trademark of Hasbro and J.W. Spear & Sons Limited. Our scrabble word finder and scrabble cheat word builder is not associated with the Scrabble brand - we merely provide help for players of the official Scrabble game. All intellectual property rights to the game are owned by respective owners in the U.S.A and Canada and the rest of the world. Anagrammer.com is not affiliated with Scrabble. This site is an educational tool and resource for Scrabble & Words With Friends players. | <urn:uuid:ac3dd5ae-6776-4555-9fa1-dec3305b398d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.anagrammer.com/scrabble/notching | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907798 | 281 | 2.796875 | 3 |
July 19th, 2011, 10:20 PM
- from w3schools.com
The SMTP protocol is used for the transmission of e-mails. SMTP takes care of sending your email to another computer.
Normally your email is sent to an email server (SMTP server), and then to another server or servers, and finally to its destination.
SMTP can only transmit pure text. It cannot transmit binary data like pictures, sounds or movies.
SMTP uses the MIME protocol to send binary data across TCP/IP networks. The MIME protocol converts binary data to pure text.
A question for those more knowledgeable than me: Why are just the media sent through Email considered binary data? At its essence isn't all data binary? I mean I know text is derived from ASCII standard (if 'standard' is the correct term for it) but broken down even farther isn't it also binary in its origin?
Can someone break this down a bit for me, I'd really like a better understanding of this.
Thanks in advance to all respondents.
"In most gardens they make the beds too soft - so that the flowers are always asleep" - Tiger Lily
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Last Post: May 31st, 2003, 04:22 AM | <urn:uuid:c1a5a924-22e8-4d75-aa0f-9b14dd5fab10> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?279474-Binary-Breakdown&p=959391&mode=threaded | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912246 | 371 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Born: April 2, 1803; Rain am Lech, Germany
Died: January 20, 1890; Munich, Germany
Franz Lachner was an important conductor and well-known composer of the early half of the Romantic era. His music is well-crafted and enjoyable, though not highly original or important in the history of musical evolution.
He was born to a musical family and his father, Anton, was the organist of the small city of Rain am Lech; his father died in 1822. At that point, the boy went to Munich and eked out a living playing in the orchestra ofRead more the Zisartor theater orchestra as an organist and even as a music teacher. In 1823, he became organist of the Lutheran church in Viennam, which enabled him to study with Simon Sechter and Abbé Stadler. Through them, he met Beethoven, but he mainly socialized with musicians his own generation, including Franz Schubert, who was a close friend. (As such, he was a valuable contributor of first-hand information to early biographies of the great composer.)
In 1825, he joined the staff of the Kartnerthor Theater as a coach. By 1828, he worked his way up to the post of music director. He made a bad career move when he went to Berlin to try to make his way there. He ended up on the conducting staff of the Mannheim Opera for a couple of years and returned to Munich in 1836, where he had success in the court opera of King Ludwig I. He became highly prominent in the musical world of that city, eventually becoming conductor of the court opera, director of the Musikalishe Akademie concerts, and often conducted at the Königliche Vokalkapelle. In 1862, he was named general music director of Munich.
Lachner built musical life in Munich into the most impressive in western Germany. Under his direction, the opera became the leading center of musical theater in Germany, with the possible exception of Berlin. Moreover, he exercised the power and influence of his position in a highly responsible and non-partisan way. For instance, he was not personally fond of Wagner's music but, recognizing its importance, he saw to it that Wagner's music got performed on his concert and operatic stages. It was the high standards to which he had drilled his opera theater and their familiarity with previous Wagnerian operas that made Munich the only possible place where Tristan und Isolde could be premiered. As often happened to Wagner's most honorable benefactors, Lachner was treated shabbily in return.
In the spring of 1864, the 18-year-old King Ludwig II ascended the throne of Bavaria. At that time, the premiere of Tristan was scheduled to occur under on May 15 under the baton of Hans Von Bülow. On April 30, Wagner received an unsolicited letter from the King, pledging undying devotion and inviting Wagner to settle in Bavaria, where every possible resource would be dedicated to realizing Wagner's theatrical dreams. By the time Tristan was staged (it was delayed a month due to the soprano's illness), Lachner had been effectively discarded as director of the opera in favor of the de facto leadership of Wagner's disciple Hans Von Bülow. Lachner had no choice but to apply for retirement. To save face, he accepted the fiction that he had been granted an extended vacation until his contract expired in 1868. He was kicked out of his other leadership positions as well, in favor of Von Bülow (whose own "repayment" by Wagner was that Wagner impregnated his wife, passed the child off as Von Bülow's for as long as he still needed the conductor's services, and then openly eloped with her.).
Lachner was given good terms as part of his retirement settlement and became a respected elder statesman of music by the time he died 23 years later. He refused to become bitter and even sought to defuse the critical battles between supporters of Brahms and Wagner as representatives of the right path in music by arranging that both of them would be presented the Royal Order of Maximilian in 1873.
Lachner wrote six operas between 1828 and 1852. Of them, Caterina Cornaro (1841) was especially successful in its time. Other examples of his best work are the Requiem, Op. 146, and Orchestral Suite No. 7 in D minor, Op. 190 (1881). His music is written with great skill and command of the orchestra or instruments. Much of it enjoyed considerable success but found no lasting place in the repertoire. The best music is still interesting as a representation of the above average but not great composers of its time. Read less
There are 5 Franz Paul Lachner recordings available.
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Sign up now for two weeks of free access to the world's best classical music collection. Keep listening for only $0.0/month - thousands of classical albums for the price of one! Learn more about ArkivMusic Streaming | <urn:uuid:14eeb55e-6270-49ec-ac0b-749b2c60ca16> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Franz-Paul-Lachner/Composer/127105-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984211 | 1,090 | 3.109375 | 3 |
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