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**During the COVID19 outbreak, administrative staff will continue to process and send out annual fire licenses. Businesses will receive their license, and when possible, fire department personnel will be out to inspect.**
For annual Fire License Renewal CLICK HERE
What We Can Do For You!A license is issued by the Fire Department to grant permission for an operation, process, or activity for which Fire Department approval is required.
Who Do You Call?Grand Forks Fire Department Fire Prevention Division _PHONE_
What We Need From You!
- Name of responsible person
- Address or location where the process or activity will occur
- Date of operation, activity or process
- Starting and ending time of the process or activity - annual or short term site permit
- Applicant contacts the Fire Prevention Division and requests a permit.
- Depending upon the process or activity, a Fire Marshal or fire department representative may inspect the location prior to issuing a permit.
- The Fire Marshal will issue a permit for a specific period of time, not to exceed one year.
- The permit will identify specific instructions and restrictions to the permittee.
List of operations or activities which requires a permit:
- Aerosol products
- Amusement Buildings
- Automatic Fire Extinguishing Systems
- Aviation Facilities
- Carnivals and Fairs
- Battery Systems
- Cellulose Nitrate Film
- Combustible Dust Producing Operations
- Combustible Fibers
- Compressed Gases
- Covered Mall Buildings
- Cryogenic Fluids
- Cutting and Welding
- Dry Cleaning Plants
- Exhibits and Trade Shows
- Fire Alarm and Detection Systems and Related Equipment
- Fire Hydrants and Valves
- Fire Pumps and Related Equipment
- Flammable and Combustible Liquids
- Floor Finishing
- Fruit and Crop-Ripening
- Fumigation and Thermal Insecticidal Fogging
- Hazardous Materials
- HPM Facilities
- High-Piled Storage
- Hot Work Operations
- Industrial Ovens
- Lumber Yards and Woodworking Plants
- Liquid or Gas-Fueled Vehicles or Equipment in Assembly Buildings
- Open Burning
- Open Flames or Torches
- Open Flames and Candles
- Organic Coatings
- Places of Assembly
- Private Fire Hydrants
- Pyrotechnical Special Effects Material
- Pyroxylin Plastics
- Refrigeration Equipment
- Repair Garages or Motor Fuel-Dispensing Facilities
- Rooftop Heliports
- Spraying or Dipping
- Standpipe System
- Storage of Scrap Tires and Tire Byproducts
- Temporary Membrane Structures, Tents and Canopies
- Tire Rebuilding Plants
- Waste Handling
- Wood Products
How Much Does It Cost?
There is a $57.00 fee per licensed activity.
Who Do I Talk To?
Grand Forks Fire Department
Fire Prevention Division
1124 Demers Avenue
Grand Forks ND 58201
Online Application/Permit Forms
Other Helpful Documents


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A particularly interesting chapter in the history of Anglo-American relations is the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, during which many British aristocrats married rich American heiresses in order to replenish their dwindling fortunes. Wealthy American industrialists (or at least their wives) were eager to lend their treasure to the British aristocracy in exchange for grandchildren with noble blood and aristocratic titles. This trend began with the emergence of the nouveau riche in the society of New York during the late 1860s and early 1870s. Old New York City was deeply rooted in the simple austerity of its Dutch Reformed heritage. New Yorkers eschewed the ostentation of fashionable trends in the courts of Europe. This is not to say that New York lacked for sophistication or appeal. New York was dominated by elegant (if not monotonous) brownstone homes. Celebrations were common, though informal, for the time period. Many New York homes lacked ballrooms, and gatherings took place in formal sitting rooms where furniture was rearranged for dancing and conversation. But the emergence of the nouveau riche, wealthy industrialists with "new money," made some members of the established families of New York nervous.
The matriarch of old New York was Caroline Schermerhorn Astor; known as "the Mrs. Astor." Caroline Astor was married to William Backhouse Astor of the famous Astor family with deep roots in the de facto aristocracy of New York and New England. Caroline Astor, along with Ward McAllister, sought to preserve the rules and etiquette of traditional New York society by excluding members of the nouveau riche from polite society. Astor's chief rival was Alva Vanderbilt who married William Kissam Vanderbilt of the Vanderbilt family. The solution that many wives of nouveau riche families settled upon was to take their daughters to Europe for presentation at court and, hopefully, marriage to a suitable aristocrat. The first destination for disaffected New Yorkers was Paris, but before long London became the destination of choice. This period was famously chronicled by Edith Wharton in her novel, The Buccaneers.
Many marriages between American heiresses and British aristocrats formed, often under the sponsorship of Prince Albert, son of Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Queen Victoria who would later become King Edward VII. Famous examples of these trans-Atlantic unions include Jennie Jerome, daughter of New York stock speculator and financier Leonard Jerome, who married Lord Randolph Churchill. Churchill was a younger son of the Duke of Marlborough, who enjoyed a successful career in the House of Commons. Churchill and Jerome were the parents of the future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Another famous Anglo-American marriage was of Consuelo Vanderbilt, the daughter of William and Alva Vanderbilt, to Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. In addition to British nobility marrying Americans, there are also examples of British commoners marrying American women in Rudyard Kipling, Bertrand Russell, and Hilaire Belloc.
Several aspects of this time period are fascinating. There are both good and bad takeaways from this interesting period in the history of Anglo-American relations. Here are some of my thoughts on what we can learn from the Edwardian ethos that brought about an era of unprecedented trans-Atlantic friendship.
The friendship between Great Britain and the United States was certainly a positive development after two major wars between them in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The relationship of the two nations had matured since the immediate aftermath of the Revolution. It is gratifying to witness the reconciliation of two nations which share "kindred blood," in the words of John Adams when meeting with King George III after the conclusion of the American Revolution.1
America was founded as an extension of the European people. As America continued to become more prominent during the course of the nineteenth century, it is only natural that upper echelons of American society would intermarry with the aristocratic classes of fellow European nations. This was a long European tradition that spans centuries of history. Marital unions between two kindred nations or tribes helped to forge lasting alliances by binding powerful families together, and there were at least a few Anglo-American marriages that followed this pattern.
The Edwardian epoch was one of fantastic taste and refinement. This was the age of the architecture of Richard Morris Hunt and Ralph Adams Cram. The wealthy American families of this period built magnificent mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, where they spent the summers. Fortunately, many of these glorious examples of Western culture still stand. In an age of ubiquitous degeneracy, it is gratifying to remember a time when our (admittedly flawed) elites displayed refinement, manners, and class.
Anglo-American marriages from this period were almost exclusively one-sided, in that wealthy American heiresses married relatively impoverished British aristocrats. For some time the British aristocracy had been in decline, and for several reasons. The chief problem that the British aristocracy faced was the decline of Christianity. Church attendance was at the beginning of a decline that has now left the modern Anglican Church completely moribund. British aristocrats were the vanguard of this apostasy. Marital fidelity was never a particular hallmark of the aristocratic classes, but promiscuity became more mainstream among the nobility during the social dominance of Prince Albert/King Edward VII.
At one time, membership in the aristocracy accompanied a profound sense of duty in service of King and country, but the aristocracy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had long since abandoned those ideals in favor of perpetual revelry. The dissolute lives that many aristocrats led frittered away family fortunes acquired over several generations in a relatively short timespan. The situation was worsened by Britain's abandonment of its tradition of nationalist economics, embracing free trade in the mid-nineteenth century. The result of this policy was the devaluation of land, which was the principal commodity of the aristocracy. The problems created by free trade policies were used as a rationale to implement socialism.
Accordingly, the social and economic status of the British nobility was in disarray, and wealthy American heiresses seemed like a good solution to solve these problems. Many of these trans-Atlantic marriages were formed on a purely utilitarian basis with the goal of bolstering the fortunes of the aristocracy, and providing American families with connections to ancient titled families from Britain. Needless to say, utilitarian considerations are a poor foundation for marriage.
Many of the American wives of British aristocrats found themselves profoundly lonely in their adopted homeland. British families were often suspicious of these newcomers, and several of these women wrote frequently to their American families about how much they missed home. For these women the beauty of the sprawling English countryside and the splendor of magnificently grand estates did not compensate for their social isolation. Charles Dana Gibson, whose artwork and drawings capture the spirit of the Edwardian epoch, drew a particularly poignant illustration of isolation experienced by American brides in England.
Gibson's picture A Castle in the Air portrays an American wife sitting in an elegant dining room across a long table from her English husband. A thought bubble appears above her head. She imagines herself back in America with a home in the country in which she and her American husband would play in the yard with their children and family dog. What this woman longs for is a life in which she trades the grandeur of Europe for the familiar comfort and simplicity of home. This period ought to serve as a warning for many proponents of miscegenation who believe that the obstacles caused by ethnic and racial differences can be overcome with enough effort. The reality is that even closely related kindred nations like America and Great Britain were dissimilar enough in their manners and customs, from a mere century's separation, that marriages between Americans and Britons encountered additional hardships. Money doesn't buy happiness, and for many American heiresses in England, this proved to be all too true.
Lessons to Learn
The era of trans-Atlantic Anglo-American marriages came to an end with the death of Edward VII. America had matured to a world power by the early twentieth century, so aristocratic titles in foreign countries had largely lost their luster in the American interest. The luster of British aristocratic titles had also waned in the eyes of the American industrial elite due to the very ignoble conduct of Britain's nobility. Franklin Work of New York City was particular irked by his daughter Frances' marriage to James Burke Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy. Roche was a feckless rake whose abandonment of his wife ultimately led to their divorce on the grounds of his desertion. Work's reaction is recorded in the book, To Marry an English Lord:
Frank Work, father of Frances Burke-Roche, put his disapproval of foreign marriages quite baldly. During an interview quoted in his obituary, which appeared in the New York Tribune in 1911, he stated: 'It's time this international marrying came to a stop for our American girls are ruining our own country by it. As fast as our hard-working men can earn this money their daughters take it and toss it across the ocean. And for what? For the purpose of a title and the privilege of paying the debts of so-called noblemen! If I had anything to say about it, I'd make an international marriage a hanging offense.2
Trans-Atlantic marriages lost their allure when the aura of the British aristocracy faded in American culture. Today, neither Great Britain nor America retains the prestige they once enjoyed. Cultural Marxism has rotted out both once-proud nations to their very core, and personally I can't help but look back at the Edwardian epoch with a certain degree of nostalgia in spite of the problems that were typical of this period. Are there lessons that we

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Europe in your life
A network of smart cities.
Europe Network in your life is born with the aim to help revitalize the local economy of the territories attached by:
1. An Interregional cooperation whose major function is to generate high visibility and reputation in the Internet on behalf of each part in a particular way. This cooperation, in turn, makes possible to optimize investments and ensure energy conservation and the resources, its efficiency and profitability.
2. Promoting the use of new technologies within the city in a more efficient and interactive way between local businesses, citizens, companies and entrepreneurs. Enabling easy interaction between people depending on their role at every moment (entrepreneur, merchant, consumer, public administrator,...).
3. The development of a whole European and continental strategy of positioning and visibility in the global network, relying on the transfer of technology, knowledge and experience from the cooperation between governments, economic units and people.
Gateway Territorial
The Europe in your life network is build through the addition of Regional Gateways. These Gateways are a window on the network that enhances the power and visibility thanks to its internal architecture based on the cooperation and optimization of resources between municipalities. It is, therefore, an interface designed to:
1. Encourage interaction between the cultural, economic and social promoting of the city and the citizens. Its effects are growing because of the formation of the cooperative network.
2. Channel the high energy resulting from this interaction and lead it back -no need for new investment or costto the different economic units (SMEs, entrepreneurs, government,...)
3. Provide access to information of the people with the aim of achieving a high collective intelligence so to increase local competitiveness.
4. Thanks to the Gateway, each territory may pose more innovation actions and strategies between local commerce, culture, entrepreneurship and good governance.
5. Be self-sustainable, whose expansion favors to a clear reduction of costs and to an efficiency and a potential every time increased. Increasing prosperity and making up positions on the European model of social welfare.
Links to the network Europe in Your Life:
Mari Carmen Pérez
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Mari Carmen Pérez
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Tel: +34 933770014 | Fax: +34 934741455
Cruz de Jujol


From Wikizilla, the kaiju encyclopedia
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Lizzie in Rampage
Species Genetically-edited crocodile
Height 50[1]-60.7 feet[2] / 18.5 meters[3]
Length 200[1]-225 feet[2] / 68.5 meters[3]
Weight 150 tons[2][3][note 1]
Allies George (initially), Ralph (initially)
Enemies George, Ralph, Davis Okoye
First appearance Rampage
Lizzie is a giant crocodile monster featured in the 2018 New Line Cinema film Rampage. She is loosely based on the character of the same name from Midway's Rampage video games.
Lizzie maintains the basic physical characteristics of a crocodile, but due to the Energyne pathogen she was infected with she has gained numerous auxiliary traits. In addition to her gigantic size, Lizzie has developed two huge tusks on each side of her head above her mouth and two smaller ones on each side of her lower jaw, a pair of frills flanking her face that cover her gills, countless large spikes on her back, and a spiked club on the end of her tail, as well as gecko-like feet.
Lizzie was an American crocodile living in Everglades National Park, where she ate one of the canisters containing Energyne's "Project Rampage" pathogen after it fell to Earth following the explosion of the Athena-1 satellite. The pathogen modified Lizzie's genome, drastically increasing her size, strength, and aggression, while also causing her to develop the physical characteristics of other species. In a short span of time, Lizzie went from a normal crocodile to a giant monster over 200 feet in length.
After the Athena-1 satellite exploded in Earth's atmosphere, one of the capsules containing Energyne's experimental "Project Rampage" pathogen crashed into Everglades National Park in Florida. The capsule was promptly swallowed whole by a crocodile swimming in the waters where it landed. The pathogen took effect, editing the crocodile's genome with weaponized DNA that had been developed aboard the Athena-1. In a matter of days, this crocodile had been transformed into the colossal monster known as Lizzie. When Claire Wyden activated a beacon aboard Willis Tower in Chicago to attract the other creatures infected with the pathogen, Lizzie responded to it as well and began swimming through rivers toward Chicago. Lizzie finally surfaced from the Chicago River when the city was already under siege by George and Ralph, a gorilla and wolf also mutated by the pathogen. All three monsters easily made their way through military resistance and began scaling Willis Tower. Lizzie burrowed through several floors of the skyscraper, compromising its structural integrity. By the time all three monsters reached the top of the building, it began to topple. When the dust settled, the three monsters began to turn on each other. Davis Okoye, George's former caretaker, had managed to administer a cure to George that halted his aggression, and worked with him to try and stop Lizzie and Ralph. Davis opened fire with a grenade launcher at Ralph, who jumped through a nearby building and began gliding through the air directly at Davis. However, Ralph was caught midair in Lizzie's jaws. Lizzie performed a death roll and tore Ralph's head off, then swallowed it whole. She then turned her attention to Davis, chasing him before George attacked her from behind with a truck. Davis threw a belt of live grenades between Lizzie's gills, with the explosion bringing her to the ground. However, Lizzie quickly recovered and prepared to smash Davis with her tail club, only for George to jump in the way and take the hit instead, causing him to be thrown into a building and impaled on a metal spike. Davis ran into a downed AH-64 Apache and fired its machine gun at Lizzie, drawing her attention. As she charged toward him, Davis fired a hail of rockets directly into her face. This too failed to wound Lizzie, who closed in for the kill. Lizzie trapped Davis in the ruins of a building and prepared to catch him in her deadly jaws, but George recovered and removed the spike from his chest. George then jumped into the air and drove the spike directly through Lizzie's eye, causing her to roar out in pain before finally dropping to the ground dead.
Teeth and jaws
Lizzie's mouth is lined with countless razor-sharp teeth, which in combination with the strength of her massive jaws grant her an incredibly lethal bite. This is demonstrated when Lizzie catches Ralph in the air with her mouth, then performs a death roll which tears his head off. Lizzie's mouth is also flanked by numerous tusks, which themselves are sharp enough to pierce Lizzie's own skin as shown when George tears one off and stabs her with it.
Tail club
Lizzie's tail is tipped with a spiked club which she uses in combat to strike George and send him flying into a building.
Lizzie is adapted for movement both on land and underwater. She can swim at impressive speeds, which allowed her to travel all the way to Chicago from the Florida Everglades. As one of her genetic modifications, Lizzie possesses gills on her neck which presumably allow her to remain underwater indefinitely without surfacing for air.
Lizzie is covered in an extremely thick, armored hide. Military weaponry cannot faze her, while physical attacks from George and Ralph are ineffective as well. While George is able to pierce Lizzie's skin with her own severed tusk, this does not seem to cause any noticeable injury. Lizzie also survives after Davis Okoye throws a belt full of live grenades in between her gills. While the explosion knocks her down, Lizzie quickly recovers. Davis later fires a hail of rockets from a downed AH-64 Apache directly into Lizzie's face, but this too fails to halt her. Only a metal spike being driven directly through her eye was able to kill Lizzie.
Like a gecko, Lizzie is able to climb up surfaces she normally couldn't thanks to adhesive pads on her toes. This was shown most dramatically when she climbed up the 1,048-foot Willis Tower once the transmitter at the top was activated by Claire Wyden.
In other languages
Language Name Meaning
Flagicon Japan.png Japanese リジー Rijī Transliteration of English name
 - Both Lizzie's origins and design in the Rampage film are very different from in the video games upon which it is based. In the games, Lizzie is a human mutated into a reptilian monster due to the experiments of Scum Labs, as are George and Ralph. In the games, Lizzie is a bright green lizard-like monster with a single row of spikes on her back that walks upright like a human. Her design may have been changed partly to avoid too much similarity to Godzilla.
 - Unlike George and Ralph, Lizzie's name is never spoken in the film. It is however included on the box for her figure in Lanard's official toy line for the film.
 1. While both SciFi Japan's press notes and the official Warner Bros. Japan Twitter page say that Lizzie weighs 150 tons, in Japan this would refer to 150 metric tons (approximately 165 U.S. tons).
This is a list of references for Lizzie. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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Warner Bros.


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Changing the Face of Hunger : At least 2,000 verses in the Bible deal with the hungry, the sick, the poor, and the oppressed. No biblical instruction is clearer or more often repeated than our responsibility to the downtrodden people Jesus called "the least of these." Dubbed by colleagues as "the conscience of Congress," Tony Hall has confronted human disasters so immense that they have stretched every fiber of his faith. In this first-person account he tells how the plight of millions of starving Africans shook him to the core of his soul and roused his passionate efforts to rally the more prosperous nations of the world to feed their suffering neighbors.
|Religión y Espiritualidad||Christianity - Stewardship|


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A TVB's poll reveals that 81% of media agencies are planning to shift to impression-based buying by 2020.
Implementing an "impression-based currency" allows brands to increase their audience reach and improve their advertising strategies effectively. Advertisers can also leverage impression data from Nielsen and ComScore to extend their audience visibility on local TV.
Buying impressions allow advertisers to target consumers based on Broadcast TVs media schedule and their wider reach. This piece says that impression-based metrics will reduce the friction between buyers and sellers, allowing brands to create ads based on consumer preferences.
Analysing TV programs based on impressions also allow advertisers to identify and target valuable audiences effectively. The author contends that running local broadcast TV based on impressions can help brands create multiplatform campaigns and influence their most valuable consumers.
[5 minute read]


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Mussar is a thousand-year-old Jewish system for personal growth, specifically in the realm of character improvement. Mussar provides a distinctively Jewish answer to the sorts of questions any thinking person asks about life:
This 20-part course gives an overview of the basic concepts and practices of Mussar. The course examines a variety of character traits -- truth, anger, kindness, gratitude and others -- that are the stepping stones on the journey toward spiritual greatness. Students will be guided in a practical system for how to track and measure their spiritual progress.
This course also features 8 dynamic video segments.
Are there areas of your character you want to improve? Mussar is a great way to get there.
Each class features a dynamic essay that includes stories, insights, thought questions, and spiritual exercises. These essays can be read online, or printed in a beautiful PDF format. The course also includes 8 video presentations.
Part One: Foundations
Part Two: Character Traits
Part Three: Conclusion

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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|Conducting Needs Assessment|
|Framework for Program Development|
|The Logic Model for Extension|
Developing and conducting research-based educational programs that result in a demonstrated impact on clients is the premise of extension work.
Planning extension programs offer an opportunity to learn more about our communities and set our work's direction. Planning programs is about understanding our community situation. This involves identifying community needs and assets, and identifying priorities.
The program design includes planning the learning environment and experience through conceptualizing change and selecting program activities to achieve desired results.
Learn more about extension program development by accessing the following resources:
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture


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Corn harvest finished, soybeans not far behind
In mid-August, the USDA began reporting corn harvest progress. Now, 12 weeks later, the Crop Progress report is showing corn harvest at 95 percent complete. It also indicates that this will be the last week corn harvest progress is reported, marking the end to the earliest harvest season ever in Crop Progress history dating to 1985.
Compared to last year (85 percent) and the five-year average (71 percent), producers across the country can start preparing for 2013, which hopefully will bring better conditions.
All but three states are nearly finished with corn harvest – Pennsylvania (72 percent), Ohio (74 percent) and Michigan (75 percent). Michigan made the biggest advances from last week, jumping by 18 percentage points. Ohio has reported the largest difference from 2011's report, putting the state 45 percentage points above last year's pace.
Looking back, it's easy to see how what was to be a record-breaking crop quickly turned into devastation thanks to relentless drought and heat waves. This year's corn harvest began well before any of the other years in the Crop Progress' history.
Soybean harvest isn't far behind, reported at 93 percent complete. Once again, North Carolina is lagging behind the other reporting states and their pace from last year. During this time in 2011, North Carolina reported 32 percent of soybeans harvested. This week, the USDA showed that the state had wrapped up harvest on just 26 percent of soybeans.
The USDA will continue to report progress on the soybean harvest through next week.


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Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Complete algebraic variety
- X × Y → Y
is a closed map, i.e. maps closed sets onto closed sets. (NB Here the cartesian product variety does not carry the product topology, in general; the Zariski topology on it will except in very simple cases have more closed sets.)
The most common example of a complete variety is a projective variety, but there do exist complete and non-projective varieties in dimensions 3 and higher. The first example of a non-projective complete variety was given by Heisuke Hironaka. An affine space of dimension > 0 is not complete.
The morphism taking a complete variety to a point is a proper morphism, in the sense of scheme theory. An intuitive justification of 'complete', in the sense of 'no missing points', can be given on the basis of the valuative criterion of properness, which goes back to Claude Chevalley.
The contents of this article is licensed from _URL_ under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details


Monday, November 17, 2014
High School Math Solutions – Polynomial Long Division Calculator
Polynomial long division is very similar to numerical long division where you first divide the large part of the number, multiply the answer by the divisor, subtract and continue dividing the reminder until the reminder is smaller than the divisor.
With polynomials you do the same, only now you have to divide the higher order terms (first term of the numerator divide by the first term of the denominator).
Let's start with a simple example (click here):
Here's another example this time with multiple iterations (click here):


A Way of Living. Celebrate how you live your life!
How CMM Machines Help North American Manufacturers Adapt
how to use a cmm machine
It's a common sentiment, and a true one: companies that can't adapt to technological change get left behind. In the North American manufacturing industry, one common form of adaptation is increasing automation on the production line in order to compete with factories in countries with less regulation and cheaper labour.
Thankfully, automation has helped manufacturing become viable again in North America when many had predicted its demise here after decades of decline.
One of the tools playing a central role in automation is the coordinate measuring machine (CMM). Read on to learn more about how CMM machines work, and how they have helped to manufacture in North America to be competitive again on a global stage.
Quality Control
A CMM machine is designed to automate quality control on the production line. CMM machines measure the physical geometrical characteristics of an object or part. It may be manually controlled by a human operator, but it can also be computer controlled. Measurements are defined by a probe attached to the third moving axis of the CMM machine.
After the CMM machine scans the object or the part, it compares the measurements to the blueprint of the piece, which has been uploaded into the machine. If there are any differences between the blueprint and the part, the machine immediately knows there is a flaw in the part.
In a broad sense, having these machines on the production line to automate quality control has been perhaps the fundamental way North American manufacturers have managed to successfully adapt to the changes posed by globalization.
CMM machines are very sophisticated, so click here for more info that will give you a sense of the other functions they can perform, and see the different kind of CMM machines available.
Even Newer Adaptations
The need for change is constant, and the breakthrough technology that helped North American manufacturing compete against international rivals must also evolve, or risk becoming obsolete.
This process is already underway. Known as Industry 4.0, new technology is transforming manufacturing once again, with the creation of software that enables machines to automatically exchange data with each other. While Industry 4.0 is still in the early stages of development, it is already re-writing the rules of North American manufacturing.
Software programs like PolyWorks enable CMM machines to communicate with other equipment along the production line, so if the CMM machine detects a flaw in a part caused by machine degradation, other machines further up the production line will instantaneously know.
CMM machines don't only catch the defect: they can identify what caused the flaw in the first place. This means an employee doesn't need to waste time trying to figure out what went wrong. New software in CMM machines mitigates the cost of equipment failure automatically, without requiring a human employee — in a sense, automation is being automated.
International competition shows no signs of slowing down, and North America's manufacturing sector is going to need to keep up. CMM machines have played a large role in the resurgence of the manufacturing industry, and this equipment must continue to evolve to ensure North American factories stay competitive in the decades to come.


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Make an effort on one's own behalf. Shakespeare used this expression in 2 Henry IV (3:2): "She is old, and cannot help herself," and it also appears in the old proverb, God (or heaven) helps those who help themselves.
[ First half of 1500s
Serve oneself, as in The food's in the kitchen; just help yourself. When it takes an object this phrase is put as
help oneself to, as in I helped myself to more meat. It also is used as a euphemism for stealing, as in She simply helped herself to the hotel towels and left. The first usage dates from the late 1600s; the second, a colloquialism, from the mid-1800s.


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The Demand For Cigarettes and Restrictions on Smoking in the Workplace
NBER Working Paper No. 2663
The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the effect that restrictive clean air laws have on the level of smoking. Restrictive clean air laws refers to the laws which prohibit smoking in private workplaces as well as in public places. The data employed in this study consist of a time series of cross sections of the fifty states of the U.S., and Washington D.C., over the time period from 1975 through 1985, Since states where sentiment is strongly against cigarettes are more likely to pass a clean air law, endogeneity between cigarette demand and the clean air law is a problem. A two step estimation model is used to control for endogeneity. Both a single equation and a two equation model of cigarette demand were estimated. The single equation results indicate that a clean air law has a significant negative effect on cigarette demand. However, the two equation model indicates that cigarette demand has a significant negative effect on the probability of passing a clean air law. The results indicate that when endogeneity is controlled for the clean air law dose not have a significant effect on cigarette demand. This does not imply that the enactment of a clean air law would not reduce the level of smoking if such a law were imposed in all states, but rather that only states with low levels of smoking are able to pass restrictive clean sir laws.
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w2663
Published: "Clean Indoor Air Laws and the Demand for Cigarettes." Contemporary Policy Issues, Volume X, No. 2, April 1992, pp. 72-83
Users who downloaded this paper also downloaded* these:


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Here, readers will find an overview of the factors that put students at risk for missing school and dropping out. This Concise Companion presents strategies to improve school attendance and to engage under-served student populations such as those who are pregnant or in foster care. Each chapter is filled with charts, checklists, and cases and is organized around What We Know, What We Can Do, Tools and Practice Examples, and Key Points to Remember.
|Print publication date: 2008||Print ISBN-13: 9780195370577|
|Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: April 2010||DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195370577._PHONE_|


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Transmission system operators (TSOs) 50Hertz and Energinet have successfully used offshore wind power to perform a live simulation of a power grid restart.
They used voltage supplied from two German offshore wind farms and a wind-powered cable connecting Denmark and Germany to restart the grid after a simulated power outage at a German coal plant.
This was the first time a land and sea interconnector and offshore wind power was used to restart a power plant, according to 50Hertz.
Black start capability allows for electricity generation to be restored without relying on external electric power transmission networks.
In 50Hertz and Energinet's simulation, a coal-fired power plant in Rostock, Germany, was completely separated from the grid.
Energinet, then provided 380kV voltage via the recently inaugurated 400MW Combined Grid Solutions interconnector – which connects Germany and Denmark, and integrates EnBW's Baltic 1 and Baltic 2 offshore wind farms – and newly constructed converter systems in substation near the port of Rostock.
German TSO 50Hertz explained that the substation's back-to-back converter synchronises and connects the two asynchronous power systems of Denmark and Germany.
This helped to restart the Rostock coal plant, successfully simulating the restart of a power grid, 50Hertz and Energinet explained.
Dirk Biermann, chief markets and system operations officer at 50Hertz, said: "This successful start-up attempt illustrates the importance of cooperation at European level in the age of renewables."
Transmissions system operators regularly test the capability of their grid restoration plans to be prepared for a power outage, but typically use storage capacity from gas-fired power stations because they do not need external power sources to start up.


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Japanese (slang), 19th century
Acquiring reading materials and letting them pile up without reading them. It combines elements of tsunde-oku (積んでおく, to pile things up) and dokusho (読書, reading books). As currently written, the word combines the characters for "pile up" (積) and the character for "read" (読).
Example: My vast tsundoku looks overwhelming, but it's still comforting to me.
Image: Ronnie Filyaw – Whomp!


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Teachers' characteristics: One lesson, two learning environments
Diezmann, Carmel M. (2004) Teachers' characteristics: One lesson, two learning environments. In 27th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, 27-30 June 2004, Townsville, Qld..
This study explored the thinking exhibited by two teachers as they implemented a mathematical activity designed to introduce young children to investigations. The video data revealed substantial differences in the teachers' distinguishing teaching characteristics. Differences in the quality of their specific teaching characteristics were also identified using a classroom observation instrument. These differences in teaching characteristics suggest that though the teachers ostensibly implemented the same lesson, there was considerable variation in the learning opportunities for each class.
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Are Cardinals Endangered?
are cardinals endangered
It seems that you can't turn on the TV or look at a news report without coming across another beautiful and fascinating species that calls our planet home listed as being endangered. As birdwatchers we have a strong love for all species of our feathered friends. However, there is one that has a special place in the heart of most birders and that is the cardinal.
There have been surveys to suggest that cardinals are one of the main reasons why people gain an interest in taking up the hobby of birdwatching in the first place. That's certainly why I did, as I have mentioned a few times here at BirdWatchingBuzz.
Which is why you may be wondering as I was before I investigated the subject further, if the cardinal was endangered.
Are They Classified as Endangered?
With regards to the northern cardinal, those you are most likely to see in our neck of the woods, they are not considered either endangered or threatened. (Unlike the Yellow Cardinal Gubernatrix cristata, whose population suffers due to illegal trade of it as a caged bird in its native home of South America.)
However, they do face various hazards, like attacks by feral and outdoor domestic cats, the overuse of various insecticides and various other chemicals. They are also known to suffer from injuries and death due to window collisions.
As the birds are known to be adaptable and will readily visit cardinal bird feeders wherever they are set up, their range in the north has extended considerably and continues to expand. As a result of birders offering additional food during the wintertime, it often leads to cardinals living in locations that are less hospitable than they are used to.
They still have the Conservation status of Least Concern (Population Stable) as noted by the IUCN Red List.
There is no signs of it reaching the threshold for inclusion as an endangered or threatened species. For that to be the case there would need to be a decrease in the number of cardinals by over 30% over the course of either 10 years or 3 generations.
Are Cardinals a Protected Species?
Although they are not considered endangered or threatened in any way, in the US, the bird is protected under the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act. This ruling also bans them being sold as caged birds. In the US, it is against the law to possess, kiss or take in any way shape or form, cardinals and violation of this ruling could result in a prison sentence of as much as 6 months and a fine of as much as $15,000.
The species also receives protection under the Convention for the Protection of Migratory Birds in Canada.
You may wonder why anyone would want to keep them as an aviary bird, but cardinals are popular for just that in Europe. If you wanted to keep cardinals, you could apply for a special license in your home state to become an official wildlife rehabilitator.
So, although they do face some dangers, there seems to be no stopping everyone's favorite vibrantly red and handsome cardinal.
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Can someone explain the use of determiners (words like some or the) for the word beans in the following dialogue:
Aki: Lisa, here're some beans.
Lisa: Why are you giving me beans?
Aki: Because it's Setsubun today. It means the "Coming of Spring".
Lisa: OK, but why the beans?
Aki: We throw beans on this day so that bad luck will leave and good luck will come in.
In particular, I'd like to know:
- Why does Lisa drop the determiner (why are you giving me ø beans) when she asks her first question?
- Why does Lisa then introduce a determiner (why the beans) when she repeats her question?
- Aki also drops the determiner (we throw ø beans) when she explains the custom. Is it for the same reason as 1, or for an entirely different reason?


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Model ID: 119
Striking a drum excites a spectrum of vibration modes that together make up the instrument's characteristic sound or acoustic signal. These vibration modes correspond to the eigenmodes, or eigenfunctions, of the drum's membrane. Thus you can study this problem by solving eigenvalue problems for stretched membranes.
Two different geometric shapes are modeled, with all other parameters being equal. If you can find two differently shaped membranes that have identical eigenvalues—in other words, they are isospectral—then it's not possible to "hear" the shape of a specific drum.
|First eigenmode for one of the drums.|


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The Pitcher Plant is a carnivorous plant. It captures and eats insects that climb inside. Their flowers are tube shaped, hollow and open at the top. A sweet liquid at the bottom of the tube attracts insects which crawl down the tube over cilia that is pointed downward. Once in the tube, the insect can't climb out because of the little hairs. The liquid inside basically "digests" the insect and the plant absorbs the minerals as nourishment.
A bog is a wetland that's dry enough to burn once in a while in order to stay healthy. Fires burn off layers that would cause the ground to become shady and inhibit growth of these plants. Natural fires caused by lightning used to keep the bogs habitat in order but more recently controlled fires have done the trick thus keeping nearby homes safe.
There are 4 types of pitcher plants at this bog to look for: Sweet Pitcher Plant, Purple Pitcher Plant, Parrot Pitcher Plant and the most numerous type is the White-topped Pitcher Plant.
The bog is located on CR 17 off of US 98 just east of Fish River Bridge. After visiting the bog go across the bridge and visit the Weeks Bay Estuary Interpretive Center.


Arran Trail Map Thumbnail
06. Brodick Castle
06. Brodick Castle
06. Brodick Castle
Artists who worked here:
6. Brodick Castle / Caisteal Bhreadhaig
Listen to Gaelic translation
06. Brodick Castle
Brodick Castle, a former seat of the Dukes of Hamilton, and now owned by the National Trust for Scotland, has a long history which stretches back to the 5th century.
Sitting in extensive gardens, The distinctive castle we see today is largely the work of architect James Gillespie Graham (_PHONE_) who extensively remodelled the building in the Scottish Baronial style in 1844 for the 11th Duke William Hamilton (_PHONE_) and his new wife Princess Marie Amelie of Baden (_PHONE_).
The story of the 11th Duke, his wife, and the artist George Hering are forever intertwined, and in our placemarker we celebrate the contribution of the Hering family to the Isle of Arran.
Featured Artist
Hering, George Edwards
Born in London, George Edwards Hering (1805 - 1879) was an English artist primarily known for his landscape paintings. The son of a German craftsman, Hering trained at the Munich Art School, later embarking on a 'Grand Tour' through Italy, Greece, Transylvania and Romania.
On his return to London in 1838 he would publish a selection of sketches made on this trip. It was however the Italian landscape which would become the main focus on his work. A regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, one painting, Amalfi, was acquired by Prince Albert in 1841.
A regular visitor to Arran, Ormidale house was built as a summer house for the now wealthy artist and his wife. In 1846, having lost their first only child at the age of six, the Herings were persuaded to adopt a daughter, Marion, the illegitimate child of the Duke of Hamilton and a local girl.
Hering would go on to paint a series of important landscapes of the island, with his 'View of Brodick Bay'(1857) now hanging in the castle, and his romantic depiction of Machrie Moor'Druidical monuments at dawn in the Isle of Arran' of 1871 is currently on view at the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia. He would die in London in 1879, and is buried at Highgate cemetery.
His daughter Marion, who having moved to London from Arran at age 4, would sometimes use the name Jeanie Hering in honour of her adoptive father. She would go on to become a sucessful author of children's books and plays under this pseudonym, some of which were later performed at the Strand.
Marion would later marry the celebrated sculptor John Adams-Acton, and both would encourage artists such as Sir Noel Paton, poets such as Robert Browning, and writers such as Lewis Carroll to visit their summer home on the Arran, making it a fashionable destination for middle class audiences.


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HOME :: CHAPTER 17 :: Essay 17.2
Diversity of Phytochrome Chromophores
Ruairidh J. H. Sawers, Department of Plant Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
The first phytochrome photoreceptors to be characterized were isolated from flowering plants. However, recently, phytochrome and phytochrome-like proteins have been discovered in photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic bacteria, in fungi, and in slime molds. Such a distribution challenges ideas concerning the evolution of the phytochrome receptors and the nature of their function. Are they all photoreceptors? What was their ancestral function? It has been suggested that the phytochrome family is derived from proteins that evolved as bilin (linear tetrapyrrole) sensors. Of the proteins currently known, all bind a bilin chromophore and it is these light-absorbing prosthetic groups that confer spectral activity. The nature of the chromophore differs among the phytochrome-like protein family, resulting in subtle differences in spectral properties. However, a shared evolutionary history means that the proteins retain the potential to form adducts with certain nonnative chromophores, if they are provided. This observation opens up the possibility for ′spectral tuning′ of crop light-responsive behaviors by chromophore substitution.
Plant Phytochromes Influence Important Crop Traits
Figure 1 shows a mutant corn plant (elm1) that accumulates reduced amounts of the phytochrome chromophore, phytochromobilin (PFB). Although corn contains six different phytochrome photoreceptors, all six require the same PFB chromophore molecule, and without it, the plant becomes blind to red and far-red light. One agronomic benefit of PFB deficiency is an acceleration of flowering time under normally nonpermissive day lengths (Figure 1). However, accelerated flowering is coupled with increased elongation and a resulting tendency to lodge (fall over). The elm1 mutant demonstrates the importance of the phytochromes in the regulation of mature plant development and the potential to alter development by chromophore manipulation. However, the elm1 mutant also shows that dramatic alterations in a pathway (in this case, inactivation) may result in a combination of both beneficial and deleterious effects. Chromophore substitution, instead of chromophore removal, may offer one route to the more subtle manipulation of light-signaling pathways beneficial to agronomic performance.
Plant and Bacterial Phytochromes Bind Their Chromophores Covalently
How do phytochrome-like proteins bind their chromophores, and how conserved are mechanisms of attachment across the protein family? Phytochrome proteins possess an intrinsic lyase activity and will spontaneously assemble with certain bilins. A covalent thioether linkage is formed between the bilin and a cysteine residue in the phytochrome apoprotein (Figure 2).
Figure 3 shows the domain structure and position of chromophore attachment in higher plant and bacterial phytochrome-like proteins. In plant phytochrome (Phy), chromophore binding occurs via linkage to a cysteine in the GAF domain. Two broad classes of phytochromes can be recognized in bacteria. The first class of proteins (Cph), typical of the cyanobacteria, contains the conserved cysteine residue present in Phy proteins and binds their chromophore in a similar way. A second class of bacterial phytochromes (Bph) does not contain the conserved GAF domain cysteine, and instead, binds chromophore via a cysteine residue in a region preceding the PAS domain. However, although lacking the conserved cysteine residue, the GAF domain of Bph proteins is still present and the topography of the bound bilin may be very similar to that of Phy and Cph. The difference in chromophore binding between Bph and Phy appears to be the direction from which the binding cysteine approaches the A-ring of the bilin. This suggests that the evolutionary development of a Bph-type binding to a Phy type may only have required the introduction of the binding cysteine into an existing GAF domain and that very little further structural rearrangement was required.
A Number of Linear Tetrapyrroles Function as Phytochrome Chromophores
Figure 4 shows three naturally occurring bilin chromophores used by phytochrome and phytochrome-related proteins. Biliverdin IX (BV) is both a biosynthetic precursor to PFB and phycocyanobilin (PCB) and a chromophore in its own right, bound by Bph proteins. PFB is the chromophore used by the higher-plant Phy proteins, and PCB by the cyanobacterial Cph proteins. BV, PFB, and PCB are derived from linearization of a heme tetrapyrrole ring, familiar as the oxygenating pigment in mammalian blood. The elm1 mutant described above is deficient in one of the steps required for this conversion of heme to PFB. Although structurally very similar, BV, PFB, and PCB differ in the number of double bonds they contain. These differences lead to differences in spectral properties. Bilins absorb light as a result of a dissociated electron system. More reduced forms, containing fewer double bonds, have a shortened electron system and preferentially absorb light at shorter wavelengths (closer to the blue end of the spectrum). The presumed evolutionary switch from BV to the more reduced PFB and PCB in photosynthetic organisms has been interpreted as an adaptation to allow a greater sensitivity to the most photosynthetically active light.
Given what is known concerning chromophore diversity and the nature of attachment, to what extent are chromophores interchangeable? The attachment of PFB and PCB chromophores by Phy and Cph proceeds via a common mechanism of thioether formation with an ethylidene group present at the C31 carbon of the bilin A-ring (Figure 4). As might be expected, these two chromophores appear to be interchangeable and higher-plant Phy will assemble with PCB to generate a functional photoreceptor. The resulting Phy-PCB proteins possess blue-shifted spectral properties. Nonnative chromophores that share this common A-ring structure will also assemble with Phy and Cph proteins. One example is the phycoerythrobilin (PEB), a pigment linked to light harvesting in algae. In this instance, the resulting holoproteins are not spectrally active (PEB lacks the C15 double bond that is the site of light-dependent isomerization in PFB, PCB, and BV) but demonstrate intense orange fluorescence. In contrast to PFB and PCB, BV does not contain the A-ring ethylidene group required for formation of a thioether linkage with the GAF domain cysteine of Phy and Cph (BV has a vinyl group at this position), and therefore, does not covalently bind to Phy or Cph. Structural work has revealed that BV binding to Bph proceeds via linkage at the C32 carbon and that this reaction may be favored by the geometry of the attachment site. Such analyses have begun to reveal both the potential and limitations of chromophore replacement in the phytochrome-like proteins. However, they also suggest that engineering of the apoprotein itself may allow for alterations in the binding capacity and subsequent changes to the spectral activity of phytochrome-like proteins.
Interactions between Chromophores and Proteins Influence Spectral Properties
It was observed early on that the spectral properties of phytochrome holoenzymes did not exactly match those of the free chromophores in solution. Although this may be partially explained by binding chemistry, there is evidence that the bound chromphore is maintained in a linear form, and possibly somewhat distorted by interactions with the phytochrome protein. Determination of the structure of a Bph chromophore-binding domain has shown that the bilin lies in a cleft, buried within the protein. In addition to the covalent linkage, there are many other potential interactions between protein and chromophore. The nature of these interactions, and perhaps their alteration following chromophore isomerization, are believed to play a key role in overall phytochrome function and in specific properties. For example, a naturally occurring allele of Arabidopsis phyA has been isolated containing an amino-acid substitution that also results in changes to the absorption maximum. A second study identified a number of amino-acid changes near the site of chromophore-binding in Cph that result in changes to spectral properties. The most dramatic result in phytochromes is that they become more stable, or even locked, in one or other light-absorbing forms. Amino-acid mutations that sterically prevent chromophore isomerization can also create fluorescent holoproteins, similar to fluorescence induced by PEB adducts. It is now possible to express, and assemble, active phytochrome-like proteins in Escherichia coli. Such systems offer great potential for the identification and analysis of new protein variants and novel combinations of protein and chromophore.
Prospects for Phytochrome Engineering
A greater understanding and appreciation of the broader diversity and evolutionary history of the phytochrome-like protein family has opened up the possibility to rationally engineer the spectral properties of these light-sensing switches. The role of light in plant development has long been recognized and it is now clear that the phytochrome system plays a role in influencing many agronomically important traits. As might be expected, attempts to manipulate certain traits, but not others, can be problematic. Plant responses to light represent the subtle balance between a number of (in some cases, antagonistic) phytochrome-mediated signals in response to changes in the spectral quality of


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Tungsten oxide is not only a type of infrared thermal insulation nano material, but a photocatalytic material. Orthorhombic hydrate tungsten trioxide (o-WO3•0.33H2O) flower-like hierarchical structure may be synthesized via solvothermal method by regulating the amount of acetone. And the photocatalytic testing was carried out and the results showed that flower-like hierarchical structure tungsten trioxide hydrate displays superior photocatalytic performance than thorn sphere tungsten trioxide hydrate. And 88.5% of RhB may be eliminated after 240min.
The results also showed that: Compared with the morphology of orthorhombic hydrate tungsten trioxide thorn sphere (synthesized without adding acetone), (020) facet of orthorhombic tungsten trioxide hydrate can be reserved by acetone adsorption, and the flower-like hierarchical structure has been obtained.
In addition, the morphology of flower-like hierarchical structure has been influenced by the amount of acetone, due to the change of saturation vapor pressure in reaction system. And the visible-light absorption of sample has been improved by the increment of acetone.
More details, please visit:


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U.S. researchers say warmer water and higher wind speeds have contributed to Lake Superior's near record low-water levels.
In the last 25 years, water temperatures on the lake have risen twice as fast as air temperatures, while wind speeds have increased by 30 percent, researcher Jay Austin, of the University of Minnesota-Duluth, told a Great Lakes conference Friday in Toronto.
Lakes Huron and Michigan, just inches above record lows, have been experiencing the same phenomenon, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.
"What we are finding is completely counter-intuitive," Austin said. "You would expect that a bigger lake like (Superior) would react more slowly to global warming."
But just the opposite is happening, he said, probably because Lake Superior, the world's largest freshwater lake, has so much more surface area to absorb heat. Lake Superior has warmed about 3 degrees Celsius since 1900, mostly in recent decades, Austin said.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
Explore further: Source of life running out: water scientists


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Finance in Transition: Principles for a Positive Finance Future
Finance in Transition discusses the transition from traditional finance to transition finance.The current pattern of unsustainable economic development is supported by the global financial system, whose goal function is to create ever more financial value. Traditional finance is based on the concept of shareholder value. This paper develops new principles for a sustainable financial system. These guiding principles are: 1) from shareholder to integrated value, which combines financial, social and environmental value; 2) stewardship based on a direct link between financiers and companies; and 3) capital allocation based on long-term societal value.


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TEXAS STATE PARKS
Natural Economic Assets
STATE PARK PROFILES
Balmorhea State Park
Balmorhea State Park is located in far West Texas in the community of Toyahvale, four miles west of Balmorhea. The 45.9-acre park's main attraction is San Solomon Springs, a spring-fed pool that covers 1.75 acres with a year-round water temperature between 72 to 76 degrees. The pool holds 3.5 million gallons, but anywhere from 22 million to 28 million gallons of fresh water flow through the pool every day. The deeper parts of the pool are in a natural state, allowing swimmers to enjoy the fish and aquatic vegetation. The park also includes the Cienega Project, a spring-fed desert wetland and canals that are home to endangered fish, a variety of aquatic life, turtles, birds and other animals.
In 2007, park attendance was about 52,000, evenly distributed between day users and overnight visitors.
The springs provided water to the American Indians and later to the Mexican farmers who used the water for their crops and dug the first irrigation canals. In the mid-1800s, the springs were called Mescalero Springs after the Apache Indians in the area, but later the Mexican farmers renamed them San Solomon Springs. Today, the clear and cool waters attract numerous swimmers and scuba divers to the area.1 In fiscal 2007, park attendance was about 52,000, evenly distributed between day users and overnight visitors.2 The park and the pool are popular with Texas and New Mexico residents. Groups enjoy coming to the park from the nearby Buffalo Trail Scout Ranch and the Historic Prude Ranch.3
In addition to the springs, the park includes a concession building, two bathhouses, the superintendent's residence and San Solomon Courts Motel, all built in Spanish Colonial style. The pool and other structures in the park were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the early 1930s. By helping to preserve these CCC structures, the park is playing an important role in safeguarding the nation's heritage.
The springs are a magnet for scuba divers and dive instructors in Texas and New Mexico. At 20 feet deep, with a horizontal clarity of 80 to 100 feet and constant water temperatures, the springs provide a predictable environment for divers.4 Lead Park Ranger Tony Fleenor says, "We have divers year-round. In the off season, fall and winter, divers are our bread and butter."5
Neta Rhyne, the owner of the Toyahvale Desert Oasis dive shop, adjoining the park, says, "I like to refer to San Solomon Springs as the only dive site that provides entertainment for the whole family. One can swim, scuba dive, snorkel, sunbathe, bird watch, picnic, play in the playground, sit under a shade tree by the spring, camp and enjoy the beautiful sunrises and sunsets."6
Balmorhea State Park also plays an important role in the economic wellbeing of the surrounding communities of Toyahvale and Balmorhea, with a combined population of just over 500. "The state park has a significant positive economic impact on local businesses," says Balmorhea City Manager Terry Upshur. "The park attracts tourists to the area, increasing business for local hotel/motels, grocery stores and restaurants."7
Local area retailer Rhyne says, "My business would not exist without the park, which is the main economic catalyst for the local economy. Many other area businesses would be unable to survive without the park."8
Balmorhea State Park contributed $961,316 in sales and $522,195 in personal income to Reeves County in 2006.
In fiscal 2007, the park reported operating expenses of $443,735 for staff salaries and minor repairs, and revenues of $657,837, for a net operating gain of $214,102.9
According to a study conducted by John Crompton and Juddson Culpepper of Texas A&M University, Balmorhea State Park contributed $961,316 in sales and $522,195 in personal income to Reeves County in 2006. The park also created 19.5 jobs and generated $4,806 in sales tax revenue for the county in that year.10
Summary Economic Impacts
Balmorhea State Park, Reeves County
|2006 County Sales||2006 County
|2006 County Employment
Sales Tax Generated
Source: Texas A&M University.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Direct Spending (Fiscal 2007)
|Revenues||Operating Expenses*||Net Income|
* Includes salaries, operating expenses and minor (non-capital) repair.
Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
- 1 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, "Balmorhea State Park," pp. 1-4, _URL_ (Last visited August 25, 2008.)
- 2 Data provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, "State Park Sites, Acreage, and Visits," with Texas Comptroller's office calculations.
- 3 Interview with Tony Fleenor, lead park ranger at Balmorhea State Park, Toyahvale, Texas, July 24, 2008.
- 4 Yvonne Lanelli, "Balmorhea State Park, Texas," DesertUSA (September 2005), pp. 1-4, 6, _URL_ (Last visited August 25, 2008.)
- 5 Interview with Tony Fleenor, lead park ranger at Balmorhea State Park, Toyahvale, Texas, July 24, 2008.
- 6 Yvonne Lanelli, "Balmorhea State Park, Texas," DesertUSA (September 2005), p. 4.
- 7 Interview with Terry Upchurch, city manager, city of Balmorhea, Balmorhea, Texas, July 24, 2008.
- 8 Interview with Neta Rhyne, owner of the Toyahvale Desert Oasis dive shop, Toyahvale, Texas, July 24, 2008.
- 9 Data provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, "Revenue Less Operating Costs, FY 2006-2007," with Texas Comptroller's office calculations. Amounts may not total due to rounding.
- 10 Texas Coalition for Conservation, The Economic Contributions of Texas State Parks in FY 2006, by John L. Crompton and Juddson Culpepper, Texas A&M University, Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences (Austin, Texas, December 2006), _URL_ (Last visited August 25, 2008.)


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WP1 - Literature Review and User Requirements definition:
Conduct a literature review on the current state of the art and best practice in the research area. Outline issues and pressures in an Irish context and include all relevant bibliography. Develop a detailed specification for user requirements.
WP2 - Hardware, Housing, Comms Development and Sensor Integration:
Development of end to end system architecture and testing strategy. Development of housing, electronics and communications system – data logger, display, data capture, and transmission. Integrate relevant off the shelf sensors and the Hydrolight lab on a chip technology for monitoring nutrients in receiving waters.
WP3 - Software Development – Design, Build and Test:
Building out a roadmap based on the prototype developed during Proof of Concept stage and develop machine learning software for optofluidic platform. End to end software system including integration and testing for IEM buoy to be developed.
WP 4 - Field Trial and performance analysis:
Initially, lab sampling and analysis will be used to generate unique spectral identifiers for a list of contaminants that can be detected in real time. Wastewater treatment plant critical operational scenarios to be identified and appropriate early intervention strategies recommended. Deployment optofluidic platform remotely and generation live signals. IEM buoy to be tested and validated in a real-world environment focusing on system durability, usefulness, real-time data gathering, system bugs etc.


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Tang's nesting crows 2: Yes, whose eggs were those?
The three eggs in the crows' nest as seen in Tang's earlier image, also shown here, show similarity in colour and pattern. However, one of the eggs is of slightly different shape than the other two and smaller. And according to the literature, the Asian Koel's (Eudynamys scolopacea) egg is smaller than that of the House Crow's (Corvus splendens). Can the smaller egg then be that of the koel's? We need to monitor the situation and wait for the hatching. The nestling of the koel can easily be differentiated from that of the crow once feathers develop (see image of koel nestling, bottomj).
Angie found bluish shells with dark speckles as well as light cream ones at the base of the tree where the crows' nest was the day after koels attacked the nest (see image on left as well as earlier posting. Is it possible that either the crow or the koel laid eggs of two different colours? After all, as Lin Yang Chen pointed out, there are reports of egg dimorphism among certain species of birds. Unfortunately bird watchers have yet to pay much attention to such details.
Input by Hung Bun Tang, Angie Ng and Lin Yang Chen
Images (top to bottom) by HBT, Angie and YC


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Indirect effects of biotic damage on photosynthesis in a forest understory.
Hamilton, Jason*,1, Aldea, Mihai2, Resti, Joseph1, Zangerl, Arthur2, Berenbaum, May2, DeLucia, Evan2, 1 Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY, _EMAIL_ University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
ABSTRACTArthropods, pathogenic bacteria, and viruses are important causes of damage to photosynthetic tissues in natural ecosystems. Calculating losses in leaf function and plant production based on leaf area removed by herbivores or infected by pathogens can greatly underestimate the actual reduction because of the indirect effects to tissues not directly injured. We quantified the indirect effects of naturally-occurring biotic damage on the photosynthetic efficiency of understory temperate hardwoods at the FACTS-1 research site (North Carolina, USA), using chlorophyll fluorescence and thermal imaging. Different damage classes( e.g. fungal, galls and chewing) produced different effects in the photosynthesis of tissue adjacent to the damage, suggesting different mechanisms of damage propagation. Halos of reduced function produced by fungal infections and galls propagated more than 2.5 times further from the visible damage, and photosynthesis was about 40% more depressed compared to chewing damage. Chlorophyll fluorescence quenching analysis revealed correlations between depressions of PSII and increases in NPQ within the areas indirectly affected by damage. However, the temperature of fungal halos was higher than the remaining leaf area, while gall halos were cooler, suggesting different mechanisms of propagation.
Key words: chlorophyll fluorescence imaging, thermal imaging, herbivory, photosynthesis
All materials copyright The Ecological Society of America (ESA), and may not be used without written permission.


text: Recent evidence suggests that the timing of DNA replication is coordinated across megabase-scale domains in metazoan genomes, yet the importance of this aspect of genome organization is unclear. Here we show that replication timing is remarkably conserved between human and mouse, uncovering large regions that may have been governed by similar replication dynamics since these species have diverged. This conservation is both tissue-specific and independent of the genomic G+C content conservation. Moreover, we show that time of replication is globally conserved despite numerous large-scale genome rearrangements. We systematically identify rearrangement fusion points and demonstrate that replication time can be locally diverged at these loci. Conversely, rearrangements are shown to be correlated with early replication and physical chromosomal proximity. These results suggest that large chromosomal domains of coordinated replication are shuffled by evolution while conserving the large-scale nuclear architecture of the genome.


Hiring, References & Background Checks
The hiring process is crucial to the success of a business. The question "how on earth did this person get hired" is one that no employer wants to ask. Employers have only one chance to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate before wasting valuable resources on what later turns out to be a bad employee. Mistakes in the hiring process can even lead to legal liability. Moreover, the hiring process is itself littered with legal pitfalls for employers, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act which generally governs background checks for employment purposes and employment discrimination laws which cover questions employers may and may not ask in the hiring process.
Taft lawyers have experience in navigating the maze of legal regulations that govern the hiring process. They routinely help clients find practical solutions, in order to avoid the need to later ask: "how on earth did this person get hired?"


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One of my favorite constellations, little squarish Corvus the Crow, can be found in the south after sunset at this time of year. It's not far from the bright star Spica – and, in 2013, the golden planet Saturn. Learn more about how to find Spica and Saturn here.
Once you find Spica and Saturn in sring 2013, you'll recognize the constellation Corvus. It's always near the star Spica on the sky's dome. It's recognizable for its compact, boxy shape.
Corvus is an easy constellation to pick out in the sky. In Greek mythology, Corvus was seen as the cupbearer to Apollo, god of the sun. In ancient Israel, Corvus wasn't a crow. Instead, it was seen as a raven. In China, this grouping of stars had more distinction as an Imperial Chariot, riding on the wind.
Corvus is a friendly sight in the heavens. Along with all the stars, Corvus's stars will be found a bit farther west at nightfall in the coming weeks and months as Earth moves around the sun. Check it out now and watch for it in the next few months. The bright star Spica – near Corvus on our sky's dome – will always be there to guide your eye.
Bottom line: Use the star Spica – and in 2013 the planet Saturn – to introduce yourself to the constelaltion Corvus the Crow.


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Note: This item is more than five months old. Please take the publication date into consideration for any date references.
Nov. 27, 2012
Black bear activity on the upswing in the Hill Country and South Texas
AUSTIN — Black bear activity in the Hill Country and South Texas along the Rio Grande from Del Rio to below Laredo is increasing, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists.
Though historically it has been very rare for bears to be sighted south or east of Val Verde County, so far in 2012 there have been a dozen such sightings.
"This is likely a result of a growing number of bears in Mexico dispersing and searching for food after severe droughts and wildfires," says TPWD biologist Jonah Evans of Alpine, the department's bear coordinator. "Whether these sightings signify a permanent recolonization of Central and South Texas remains to be seen."
While black bears are native to all of Texas, in the early 1900's, heavy hunting and trapping completely eliminated them from the state. Currently, the only established breeding populations are in the Big Bend area of West Texas.
"Black bears are generally not a risk to humans," Evans says. "But they can become a nuisance if they gain a taste for human food, pet food, or trash. We've recently received several reports of bears tipping over and damaging deer feeders and a few raiding trash cans along the border."
Evans says the department's goal is for people and bears to coexist peacefully.
"By eliminating food rewards, we eliminate most of the problems," he says. "Many communities in bear country have effectively adapted to live with bears, but it takes everyone working together and doing their part."
The most effective strategy is for residents along the border to secure their trash, bird feeders, and pet food, so bears don't become habituated to easy meals, Evans notes.
"This cannot be overstated," he continues. "The saying 'A fed bear is a dead bear' is absolutely true. If a bear becomes habituated and food-conditioned, there is little we can do to save it. It will likely have to be destroyed."
TPWD is asking for people to report all bear sightings. If a bear is causing a nuisance, TPWD will work with residents to secure attractants and may attempt to haze the bear. In extreme situations, the bear may be relocated. Biologists are also available to give talks and educational programs on living with bears. Since black bears are a threatened species in Texas, they cannot be legally hunted or harmed.
If you see a bear, please report it to Jonah Evans at _PHONE_.
Bear activity reported so far this year includes:
- Maverick County — Jan. 26 — Sighting
- Starr County — July 30 — Relocated
- Kimble County — Aug. 6 — Sighting
- Menard County — Aug. 8 — Sighting
- Schleicher County — Aug. 8 — Sighting
- Sutton County Aug. 12 — Sighting
- Webb County — Aug. 27 — Killed on road by vehicle
- Uvalde County Aug. 31 — Sighting
- Kinney County Sept. 25 — Sighting
- Maverick County — Oct. 14 — Relocated
- Val Verde County — Nov. 3 — Sighting
- Edwards County — Nov. 5 — Sighting
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Job S. Ebenezer, Ph.D.
President, Technology for the Poor,
877 PELHAM COURT, WESTERVILLE, OHIO - 43081
The original Savonius design called
for a 7 to 8 inch overlap of the buckets. Research at Sandia Laboratories,
however, suggested an overlap of 10 to 15% of the bucket diameter or in this
case 3 inches (the bucket diameter=23 inches).
The second modification was the use of an automobile differential at the bottom of the machine to convert the vertical shaft power of the rotor to horizontal shaft power. A water pump or grain grinder could then be connected to the horizontal shaft either directly or via chain or V belt arrangements. The vertical main shaft of the wind machine was connected to the driveshaft of the differential., and one axle shaft of the differential became the horizontal power take off shaft for the wind machine. The other axle shaft was removed and the slip gears were locked. The gear ratio offered by this arrangement was 3:1, i.e. for every three turns of the wind machine's main shaft, the horizontal shaft turned once. This arrangement provided a high torque, low speed power to run a chain pump and a grain mill. A simple brake mechanism was provided to stop the machine in high winds.
A chain pump was constructed using a design proposed by Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA). A drawing of the chain pump constructed is shown below. In order to prevent corrosion of the metal chain, short lengths of nylon ropes were substituted for the lengths of chain between each leather washer. This substitution;. however, proved to be unsatisfactory
as there was much binding and
misalignment of the washers as they ascended the pipe. It is suggested that the
metal links should not be replaced by light weight ropes as the weight of the
links keep the washers taught and aligned well. Aside from these alignment
problems, the Savonius machine performed well. The Brace Research Institute in
Canada has successfully operated a diaphragm pump made of a tire with a Savonius
windmill. It is suggested that a diaphragm pump may be better suited for
Savonius windmill than a chain pump. Although the Village Technology Program did
not construct and test a chain bucket pump (shown below), it is believed that it
might perform very well with a Savonius windmill. Conventional piston pumps can
also be used with a Savonius windmill.
The Savonius windmill was also used to grind grain. A small grain mill known as "Corona Convertible" manufactured in Columbia, South America, was fitted with a hopper and sprocket.
The hopper holds a large amount of grain and can feed the mill automatically. A s shown below, the horizontal shaft of the windmill is connected to the grain mill via a roller chain and sprocket drive. The overall ratio between the wind machine and the grain mill was 5:1. The mill turned once for every five turns of the rotor.
This wind machine and mill combination successfully ground grain into fine flour. However, the rate of production and wind speed are not known with any accuracy, as this set up was not instrumented. Also unknown is the eventual durability of the mill's simple cast iron journal bearings. Perhaps the use of higher quality mills with better bearings will be required.
All factors considered, the Savonius design affords a very simple, stable machine requiring little maintenance. The Savonius' power output is relatively low (about 1 2 hp), but so is the initial investment for its construction (about $250 of materials). We highly recommend this machine for use in Third World countries.


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A fast-growing meningioma is probably not benign, according to Mayo Clinic. The overwhelming majority of meningiomas are benign, grow very slowly, usually don't have symptoms and don't require intensive treatment.Continue Reading
Even a benign meningioma can cause problems if it grows large enough, claims Mayo Clinic. Some meningiomas are considered atypical, which means they are neither malignant or benign. If a meningioma has symptoms, they can include blurred or double vision, numbness and weakness, headaches, seizures, changes in personality and problems with speech. The symptoms may be subtle at first.
Meningiomas are usually found at the outer curve and top of the brain, at the base of the brain and in the tissue over the spinal cord, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. Problems occur when the tumor starts to grow downward into the brain or the spinal cord, which places pressure on them. The tumor can also grow upward and cause the bone of the skull to thicken.
Many meningiomas contain cysts, calcifications or tangles of blood vessels, according to ABTA. They are most often found in women and in people 60 years of age or above. Doctors don't know what causes them, but many people with meningiomas have an abnormality on chromosome 22.Learn more about Cancer


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LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT
In Australia, each jurisdiction has its own laws and policies for responding to FDV, whilst the Australian Government takes a lead in developing national approaches to policy. More information on the policy context for FDV can be found in the Conceptual Framework for Family and Domestic Violence, Australia, 2009 (cat. no. 4529.0).
Most Australian Government FDV service delivery occurs through funding arrangements with states and territories, however reporting obligations mean that there are also a number of Australian Government level data sources. National data sources have been included where available from Australian Government agencies, such as those relating to FDV services provided in the Family Court context and the drawing together of state and territory information related to homelessness services and coronial inquests. In addition, national data sources based on surveys run by or on behalf of the Australian Government to inform FDV policy areas have been included.
At the state and territory level, governments are primarily responsible for crime prevention programs, law enforcement, issuing of family violence orders, prosecution of FDV perpetrators, behavioural change programs within Corrective Services, delivery of public health, disability and medical services and provision of child protection services and other specific FDV services. Each state and territory agency that provides FDV services is a potential source of data. Further information about FDV support and services delivered by each jurisdiction, including the Australian Government is outlined in the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children.
This page last updated 28 March 2012


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Australian councils and their communities are at the forefront of dealing with the impacts of climate change, but they are under-resourced, ill-equipped to respond and are often hamstrung by state, territory and federal legal and institutional frameworks.
Addressing the challenges of climate change, at the necessary speed and scale, requires a more inclusive, adaptive, and innovative response across all levels of government.
Councils across the country are already taking strong action on climate change. If given the tools, they can help drive the implementation of national climate policies and ensure that meaningful results are delivered at the local scale.
The report, Many Hands Make Light work: Connecting governments to accelerate climate action, outlines a new approach to climate governance (Multilevel governance) in Australia that can empower all levels of government, especially councils, to fulfill their ambitions on climate change, and to genuinely contribute to Australia's national climate policy.
What is Multilevel Governance?
Multilevel governance (MLG) is a framework adopted by leading countries, which promotes effective coordination between and across levels of government. At its core, MLG refers to the relations between tiers of government and embodies a set of collaborative mechanisms to ensure that local stakeholders have a voice.
Committing to MLG will allow Australia to demonstrate global leadership on climate action and help deliver coherent and integrated climate policy that can be scaled to achieve national climate mitigation and adaptation outcomes.
To demonstrate how better policy integration between the three levels of government can boost climate and energy goals, the report presents a case study on Australia's building sector.
Report Key findings:
1. Councils and communities are on the frontline of climate impacts and solutions,
2. Local climate action is stunted by the lack of coordinated state and federal climate policies,
3. To ratchet up local climate action across Australia, barriers councils face must first be addressed,
4. Australia's Paris Climate Commitments make little reference to local governments and significant scope exists to integrate local climate action into it,
5. The federal government can spearhead a Multilevel Governance approach to climate policy, and give those on the frontlines a seat at the table.
The Better Futures Australia (BFA) local government working group outlines three key ways the Australian Government could implement an MLG framework:
1. Establish a comprehensive climate policy framework that integrates all levels of government and recognises local government contributions in the Australian NDCs.
2. Establish an effective partnership between local governments and the federal government to deliver an Accord defining shared objectives for strengthening climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience across all tiers of government.
3. Allocate appropriate resources to implement the Accord. This should be based on a well-defined methodology to determine the region-specific real resilience and emissions mitigation costs. This will enable local governments to protect their communities and build back better.
The report methodology can be downloaded here. This includes details regarding the process for developing the recommendations to the Federal Government, as put forward in the report by the Better Futures Australia Local Government Working Group.
This report by Cities Power Partnership and University of Melbourne's Melbourne Centre for Cities, in collaboration with the Better Futures Australia Local Government Working Group, advocates for Multilevel Governance (MLG) as a means to enable more effective, collaborative climate action between all levels of government. Many Hands Make Light work: connecting governments to accelerate climate action in Australia was developed through consultation with the local government sector.


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11/18/2010 - For three nights in October, PBS broadcast God in America, a six-hour documentary on the beginnings of the nation's religious evolution and how the intersection of religion and public life has played out over the past 400 years, forging America's ideals, molding its identity and shaping its sense of mission.
The Pew Charitable Trusts was the primary funder of the program, which The Washington Post called "commendably even-handed."
In conjunction with the documentary, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life released the results of a survey on religious knowledge that had polled 3,412 adult Americans. While previous surveys by the Pew Forum have shown that America is among the most religious of the world's developed nations, the new poll showed that "large numbers of Americans are not well informed about the core teaching, history and leading figures of major faith traditions—including their own."
On average, Americans correctly answered 16 of the 32 questions in the poll. The study found that atheists and agnostics, who answered 20.9 correctly; Jews, who answered 20.5; and Mormons, who answered 20.3, outperformed evangelical Protestants, 17.6; Catholics, 16; and mainline Protestants, 15.8. Atheists, agnostics and Jews did particularly well on questions about the role of religion in public life.
More on God in America, including details on purchasing the documentary on DVD, is at _URL_ The Pew Forum's religious knowledge report and an online quiz with 15 of the survey questions are at _URL_.


text: For several years, increasing energy consumption and a lack of alternative energy sources have posed a challenge to the world economy. One of the possible solutions to avoid future energy shortages could be the steadily greater use of renewable sources of energy on a local level and a change of generation and distribution of energy itself. This thesis describes the option to produce and trade electric energy locally. This change in energy production and distribution can bring high-efficiency gains if handled skillfully. Dubbed energy transition, these changes will play a central role in future electricity supply and trading. The research methods for this thesis are comparative and qualitative analyses of trading, technological aspects and the social impact on society. The findings indicate that the best solution for future energy production is a combination of electricity production on a centralized level for factories and a decentralized level for households. This transition in electricity production would allow selling locally generated energy surpluses via virtual power plant. End consumers would lower their electricity expenses due to flexible tariffs. Household electricity producers would enjoy a higher income due to automated software controlling the trading process. Further research should focus on the financial aspects and economic viability of energy decentralization.


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The Conservation Learning Centre's School Program offers students in grades 3 through 11 practical, hands-on activities that reinforce the foundational and learning objectives set out in the Saskatchewan Education curriculum.
This new curriculum is great for groups with mixed grades, science clubs or groups that want something a little different. We also have a new grade nine curriculum called Risks and Limits that focuses on critical thinking and decision-making skills.
Worksheets and take-home materials are available in French upon request.
About School Tours
The CLC is a research and demonstration farm located 18 km south of Prince Albert on Highway #2. The agricultural practices at the CLC focus on the conservation of soil, water and wildlife habitat. Since 1994, over 30,000 students have participated in activities based at the Centre.
|May to June, and September to October|
|1-2 hours on-farm depending on the teacher's preference (plus one-hour in-class presentation, where applicable)|
|Morning session 9:30 AM / Afternoon session 12:30 PM
Alternate time arrangements can be made for schools travelling further distances.
|40 groups per season|
* We recommend that each class have a student-to-chaperone ratio of approximately 7 to 1.
The continued support of many organizations and programs enables the CLC to continue offering a quality learning experience to your students. We are grateful for their commitment and encourage you to express your appreciation by sending a letter to any of the sponsors listed in your farm visit packages. Your acknowledgement of their support will in turn ensure future participation by these groups in all education programs.
Grade three students will investigate the growth and development of plants, including the conditions necessary for germination. They will also analyze the interdependence among plants, individuals, society and the environment.
This class will investigate the interdependence of plants and animals, including humans, within habitats and communities. They will also analyze plants and animals' structures and behaviours that enable them to exist in various habitats and assess the effects of natural and human activities on habitats and communities and propose actions to maintain or restore habitats.
With a new state-of-the-art climate reference station at the Conservation Learning Centre, the students will learn how local weather, including temperature, wind speed and direction, amount of sunlight, precipitation, relative humidity and cloud cover, are measured. They will also investigate local, national and global weather conditions, including the role of air movement and solar energy transfer. Analyzing the impact of weather on society and the environment, including technologies that help humans address weather conditions, will also be investigated.
Students will learn to recognize, describe and appreciate the diversity of living things in local and other ecosystems and explore related careers.
Grade 7 students will observe, illustrate and analyze living organisms within local ecosystems as part of interconnected food webs, populations and communities. They will evaluate biogeochemical cycles (water, carbon and nitrogen) as representations of energy flow and the cycling of matter through ecosystems, and analyze how ecosystems change in response to natural and human influences and propose actions to reduce the impact of human behaviour on a specific ecosystem.
Students will analyze the impact of natural and human-induced changes to the characteristics and distribution of water in local, regional and national ecosystems. They will also examine how wind, water and ice have shaped and continue to shape the Canadian landscape. Students will also analyze natural factors and human practices that affect productivity and species distribution in marine and freshwater environments.
Students will learn to describe the processes and implications of sexual and asexual reproduction in plants and animals.
Students will study ecosystems.
Students will learn about sustainable agriculture, habitat destruction and pesticide use.
Book a Tour!
To book a tour through the School Program, please contact Dorothy Stewart using one of the following methods:
- Phone: _PHONE_
- Fax: _PHONE_
- Email: _EMAIL_
Please have the following information ready when you phone:
- Grade of students
- The approximate number of students
- School name, phone number and teacher's email address
- Possible dates (check calendar below for availability)
- Which curriculum you would like (for split grades)
- When the students in your class last visited the Conservation Learning Centre
- If you are planning to stay for lunch
If more than one class from your school is planning to visit the Conservation Learning Centre, please try to coordinate and work together to save on transportation costs.
Directions to the CLC
The Conservation Learning Centre is located 18 kilometres south of Prince Albert on highway #2.