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This website can be a powerful public information tool that can reach many people. How influential is the internet? For a lot of people, it is their main form of communication, information, and entertainment. More people spend time on the internet than watching television. There are 68% of Canadians on average that use the internet for personal reasons*. Alberta at 71% and British Columbia at 69% are two of the three provinces whose internet usage is above the average*.
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Laos warty newt (or Laotriton laoensis), is a species of salamander in the family Salamandridae. This newt is classified as Paramesotriton laoensis. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and rivers.
The species is known only from the mountains of northern Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). To date, it has been reported in only four districts: Xaysomboun District, Vientiane Province, Phoukhout and Pek Districts, Xiengkhouang Province, and Phoukhoun District, Louangphabang Province. In 2013, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Lao program team conducted additional surveys for the species. These surveys provide further evidence that the species may not occur further east of where it currently known, may not occur in Viet Nam, and may be truly endemic to Lao PDR.
The species appears locally abundant, with 1,200 individuals estimated to occur in 4.7 km of stream in an area thought to have the highest abundance of the species. The species is likely to occur in relatively isolated sub-populations, as it only occurs in pools at the headwaters of streams. As they are mostly aquatic and restricted to high elevations, there is unlikely to be significant gene flow between subpopulations. Due to harvesting, and the loss and degradation of habitat it is estimated that there has been at least a 50% decline in population of the species in the last 10 years.
Habitat and Ecology:
This species inhabits pools within the headwaters of streams. These streams flow through a variety of disturbed and undisturbed habitats, including evergreen forest, shrubs, grassland, and rice fields. The habitat of disturbed sections of its range is undergoing continuous degradation. The breeding season occurs in the coolest season (November to February). In the wild, larvae have been found in February and April.
Use and Trade:
Laotriton laoensis is in high demand for the international pet trade and lesser demand for medicine and food. Historically, commerce in L. laoensis consisted of only limited local trade for medicinal or food purposes, but that demand for the species had dramatically increased in very recent years. Commercial networks have also become established in very recent years in response to demands for the species, and interviewees reported that Lao wildlife traders from Vientiane and Bolikhamxay provinces also had been placing orders with them to collect it. There is also evidence that the demand for the species for medicinal purposes has increased (Wildlife Conservation Society Laos, unpubl. data).
The primary threat to this species is over-harvesting, to which its biology (behaviour and morphology) makes it extremely vulnerable. As it is active during the day, swimming on the bottom of shallow pools in clear water, and is brightly coloured dorsally, it is harvested quickly, easily, and in large numbers. It is possible that all mature individuals could be harvested from a site in a few days, and this is why they are sold sometimes as "hundreds" of individuals or by the kilogram.
New roads being constructed within the known range of the species also facilitate harvesting.
Habitat loss and modification are also likely to threaten the species. Although the species is likely to be tolerant of some human modification of the surrounding habitat, it would probably suffer from severe changes in stream water quality or flow and extensive burning in grasslands adjacent to streams (where efts occur).
According to many scientists, because suitable habitat is currently almost entirely unprotected, a new reserve should be established and managed in core habitat to provide protection from harvesting and habitat degradation.
Also recommended are ex situ conservation measures (specifically conservation breeding), as well as international laws against trade and the establishment of public awareness campaigns.
In 2008, the species was nationally listed (as Paramesotriton laoensis) as a Category I species in the Lao Wildlife and Aquatic [Animal] Law, thereby prohibiting all commercial trade in the species (food, medicine, and pets).
Continued research is needed on the species' population status, life history and ecology, harvest rates, other threats to the species, and monitoring of its population trend is required.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Robert Venturi's Rome (Paperback)
Robert Venturi's Rome is a guidebook to the city of Rome seen through the eyes of Robert Venturi, reinterpreted by two subsequent Rome Prize fellows and architects, Frederick Fisher and Stephen Harby. Published in 1966, Venturi looks at architecture, landscape and art as different manifestations of common themes. As students the book is fundamental to the development of any young architects' outlook on architecture. Venturi wrote the book following a two year Rome Prize fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, and there is no doubt that the city had a profound influence on his thinking. He used many buildings in Rome as examples to illustrate his theories. From the Pantheon, through works by his favorite artist, Michelangelo, and on to 20th century buildings by Armando Brasini and Luigi Moretti, Venturi reveals Rome as a complex and contradictory city.


TMT Libraries
Sharjah, UAE
ANARCHITECT was commissioned to design a public library as part of an initiative between the Government of Sharjah and Knowledge without Borders in support of '2016 - Year of Reading', aimed to make reading and books more approachable within a cultural and new contextual condition within the Emirate.
The practice created two mirroring library TMT structures (Thermally modified timber), one containing Philosophical and the other Psychological literature that would engage in a physical dialogue with one another in multiple configurations around an unexpected piece of nature (tree, or shrub) occurring in the urban realm.
We developed subtle differences between each library in a way that one of the structures would be oriented towards the courtyard, darker, and suitable for introspection of one's own mind and emotions, and the other would be more open and transparent, letting its readers observe the surroundings and responding and embracing the natural sunlight.
Client: Sharjah Investment & Development Authority (Shurooq)
Project Status: Design delivered for Construction
Area: 250 sqm


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The Move Away from Laissez-faire Int 2 Cradle to the Grave.
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Presentation on theme: "The Move Away from Laissez-faire Int 2 Cradle to the Grave."— Presentation transcript:
1 The Move Away from Laissez-faire Int 2 Cradle to the Grave
2 Ideology of Laissez-faire Describes government attitudes to the welfare of its people in the 19thC Most people accepted that poverty and hardship were not things the government could or should do anything about Governments became increasingly prepared to become involved in social policy Eg. Education Acts, Public Health Acts, Factory & Mines Acts
3 Why did so many believe in LF MONEY – government involvement = cost = taxes have to go up (middle classes having to pay more but the money not being spent on them) "Why should we help people who are too lazy to help themselves?"
4 Samuel Smiles Book called Self Help (1859) "Self help is the root of all genuine growth" = best way to avoid poverty Believed that effort and positive thinking could make anything possible Encouraged people to improve themselves through hard work Led to inventions, fortunes, Industrial Revolution
5 Self Help "Heaven helps those who help themselves" The spirit of self help constitutes the true source of national strength and vigour Smiles warned against governments helping people too much Bad = makes men helpless Role of governments should be very limited
6 Whatever is done for man or classes, to a certain extent takes away the stimulus and necessity of doing for themselves; and where men are subjected to over-guidance and over government, the inevitable tendency is to render them comparatively helpless…it is every day becoming more clearly understood, that the function of government is negative and restrictive, rather than positive and active.
7 Importance? Led to belief poverty could be beaten by hard work and positive thinking alone Smiles said himself that any help given by government to the poor was useless because "no laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober" Only way to escape poverty was through your efforts
8 Self Help Average worker could avoid poverty by working hard and saving some wages Savings could be used whenever the worker was out of a job, or became unable to work because of illness or old age Duty of the individual to look after themselves Those that didn't were either idle, unable or unwilling to save, or drunks
9 What Self Help was there? Worked for those who had a regular income Mostly skilled Could save money in a number of places
10 Places to save if you had a regular income Friendly societies Popular choice, benefits given out based on contributions made. By 1890's 8,000,000 made a contribution. Also ran social events e.g. gala days, annual parades Savings Banks Popular with servants and those saving for their children. 'Penny savings banks' were aimed at the very poor who could only save very small amounts. Encouraged good habits and behaviour The Co-operative Movement Formed by working class. Communities would get together to provide low cost food and services for themselves e.g. a grocery store or a funeral parlour
11 Critics Not everyone liked idea of self help Argued not everyone could save for a 'rainy day' Henry Mayhew in his great study of London Labour and the London Poor (1861) identified that casual labourers were unable to save regularly because they did not have regular employment Lack of education and poor health also stopped many improving their lives Not possible for everybody to improve by positive thinking alone
12 Summary Self help meant that people could escape poverty by saving money and living a sensible life. Such ideas were popular Working class were encouraged to save through organisations like Friendly Societies and Savings Banks Working class helped themselves by setting up cooperative stores to provide good food/services at a fair price Not everyone believed that all poor people could save money for a 'rainy day'
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Influence is also a term from the game of Go
). It is very commonly used, but difficult to explain.
The idea is basically this: Go is a game of territory. Whoever has the most territory at the end wins. When a stone is played on the goban (board), it influences the area around it, and (usually) makes it more likely that the points nearby will end up under the control of the person who played the stone. Generally, the more stones there are in a region, the stronger the influence. Certain shapes of stones have more influence than others, and can direct their influence in a specific direction. For instance, a wall (several stones in a row) radiates influence perpendicular to itself.
Learning how to use your influence is crucial in Go. Having a lot of influence nearby can greatly change the balance in a local fight, provided the player knows how to apply his influence.
Every game of Go involves lots of trade-offs of various sorts, but one of the most common is the trade of influence and territory. This generally happens when two players are building walls up against one another, near the edge of the board. The person whose wall is on the outside (closer to the edge) will get secure territory between the wall and the edge, while the person whose wall is on the inside (closer to the center) will gain influence over the center of the board. Here is an example (the corner of the board is in the bottom left, marked by ###):
The corner territory belongs to White (o), while Black (x) has considerable influence over the bottom side of the board; fights there will favor Black (unless White also has strong influence from somewhere else). Whom this favors depends on what other stones there are on the bottom of the board. If it is White's turn, White might consider playing at the point a. This would most likely elicit a Black response at b. White would enlarge her territory by about 3 points, while Black's influence would be expanded. A move like a or b, extending a wall which is up against the opponent's, is called a push. After the a-b exchange, White and Black might continue to push, trading White territory for Black influence, but at some point, one player or the other will decide that it is no longer in his or her best interest to continue the pushing battle and will try something different, or play tenuki (temporarily abandon the local situation and start something elsewhere).

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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History of the Dan Beard Council
The Dan Beard Council has a long history of providing life-changing programs to the young men of the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area. There have been a lot changes since the foudnding of the Scounting movement way back in 1910, but the character values of the Scout Oath and Law remain the same. One-hundred plus years later, the Scouting movement is the largest organized movement in the world and the largest youth organization in the United States. The Dan Beard Council's story is one of mergers and changes, progress and growth, and outstanding individual that gave of themselves for the cause of instilling good values in youth. We invite you to learn more about the development of the Scouting movement in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area - a history that begins even before the Boy Scouts of America itself was founded.
Daniel Carter Beard
Daniel Carter Beard was born in 1850 in Cincinnati, Ohio. In his youth, his family moved to 322 E. 3rd Street in Covington, Kentucky where Beard loved exploring the banks of the nearby Ohio River and the Banklick Creek region south of Covington. It was during these explorations, that Beard developed his great love for nature and outdoors living. In 1882, Beard wrote The American Boy's Handy Book, a book which gives instructions and advice on animals, outdoors, knots, tents, fishing and more.
In 1905, Beard founded the "Sons of Daniel Boone," an outdoor education and exploration program for young men. Boys were organized into "forts," uniforms were based on the outfits of frontiersmen and in place of ranks or advancement, boys earned notches and top notches for achievements in a variety of interest areas. In 1910, Beard merged his organization (then known as the "Boy Pioneers of America") into the fledgling Boy Scouts of America and became one of the first National Commissioners, serving Scouting for 30 years. The Daniel Carter Beard Bridge spanning the Ohio River and connecting I-471 in northern Kentucky to I-71 in Ohio was named in his honor and dedicated in 1981.
Mergers and Past Councils
The Dan Beard Council as we know it today is actually a merger of four original Councils that underwent many changes in their time.
- The first to form was the Fort Hamilton Council, founded in 1913, just three years after the founding of the Boy Scouts of America. The Fort Hamilton Council was headquartered in Hamilton, Ohio and the territory of the Council was defined as "Butler County Ohio with the exception of Middletown and Lemon Townships."
- The Middletown Council was chartered in February 1917 in Middletown, Ohio. It began as a provisional (second-class) council, but became a first-class council in 1920.
- In 1918, the Covington Council was founded as a "first-class" or non-provisional Council serving the city of Covington, Kentucky exclusively.
- A fourth Council, the Cincinnati Area Council was formed to serve the city of Cincinnati though its inception date is not known.
- In January 1925, the Covington Council was re-organized as the Northern Kentucky Council, headquartered in Covington, Kentucky, and serving the counties of Boone, Campbell, and Kenton.
- Around the same time, 1926, the Fort Hamilton Council was renamed the Butler County Council. In February 1931, the counties of Bracken, Grant, and Pendleton were added to the Covington Council's territory. The following year, 1932, the counties of Mason, Owen, Robertson and Fleming were added to the Covington Council.
- Meanwhile, in August 1928, the following territory was added to the jurisdiction of the Middletown Council: Warren County, Ohio, and Lemon, Liberty, Madison, and Union Townships in Butler County.
- In 1932, Union Township in Butler County was transferred to the Butler County Council's jurisdiction from the Middletown Council. The territory of the Butler County Council was now Butler County, Ohio, with the exception of the city of Middletown and the Townships of Lemon, Liberty, and Madison.
- In 1933, the Middletown Council changed its name to the Mound Builders Area Council. A 1936 charter renewal application showed the Butler County Council's name had reverted back to the Fort Hamilton Council.
- In 1941, the Northern Kentucky Council moved its headquarters to Newport, Kentucky. In May 1944, Gallatin County was added to the territory jurisdiction. In September 1951, the counties of Bracken, Fleming, Mason, and Robertson were transferred to the jurisdiction of Scioto Area Council, #457, Portsmouth, Ohio.
- In 1952, the Northern Kentucky Council moved its headquarters back to Covington and changed to Dan Beard Council.
- In January 1955, Liberty Township in Butler County was added to the Fort Hamilton Council's territory from Mound Builders Council.
- In October 1956, the Dan Beard Council consolidated with the Cincinnati Area Council, Cincinnati, Ohio, to form the Dan Beard Council, #438, Cincinnati, Ohio. The territory of this consolidated council in 1956 was Boone, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Owen, and Pendleton counties in Kentucky; and Brown, Clermont, and Hamilton counties in Ohio.
- Effective January 1, 1959, Fort Hamilton Council, #448, Hamilton, Ohio, merged into Dan Beard Council, #438, Cincinnati, Ohio.
- Effective July 1, 1985, Mound Builders Area Council, #454, Middletown, Ohio, merged into Dan Beard Council, #438, Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Dan Beard Council Today
Since the final merger of the Mound Builder's Area Council in 1985, the Dan Beard Council's territory has remained the same until this day. The territoy at present inlcudes Boone, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Owen, and Pendleton counties in Kentucky; and Brown, Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren counties in Ohio.
In 2009, the council moved it's headquarters from 2331 Victory Parkway in East Walnut Hills to the new Scout Achievement Center in Evendale, Ohio, ushering in a new century of Scouting for the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area. Serving over 33,000 youth led by over 10,000 volunteers, the Dan Beard council has certainly grown from the early days of the Scouting movement and become a tradition of fun, achievement, and character development for families to enjoy for many years to come.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 August 2012 14:31


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The post about Wooden Paddle With Holes was uploaded on November 1, 2017 at 5:59 am. It is published at the Wooden category. Wooden Paddle With Holes is tagged with Wooden Paddle With Holes, Wooden, Paddle, With, Holes..
Woodenwood•en (wŏŏd′n),USA pronunciation adj.
- consisting or made of wood;
wood: a wooden ship.
- stiff, ungainly, or awkward: a wooden gait.
- without spirit, animation, or awareness.
- dull or stupid.
- indicating the fifth event of a series, as a wedding anniversary.
Paddlepad•dle1 (pad′l),USA pronunciation n., v., -dled, -dling.
- a short, flat bladed oar for propelling and steering a canoe or small boat, usually held by both hands and moved more or less through a vertical arc.
- any of various similar implements used for mixing, stirring, or beating.
- any of various similar but smaller implements with a short handle for holding in one hand and a wide or rounded blade, used for a racket in table tennis, paddle tennis, etc.
- such an implement or a similarly shaped makeshift one, used to spank or beat someone.
- an implement used for beating garments while washing them in running water, as in a stream.
- Also called float, floatboard. a blade of a paddle wheel.
- See paddle wheel.
- any of the blades by which a water wheel is turned.
- a flipper or limb of a penguin, turtle, whale, etc.
- an act of paddling.
- Also, pattle. Brit. Dial. a small spade with a long handle, used to dig up thistles.
- (in a gate of a lock or sluice) a panel that slides to permit the passage of water.
- to propel or travel in a canoe or the like by using a paddle.
- to row lightly or gently with oars.
- to move by means of paddle wheels, as a steamer.
- to propel with a paddle: to paddle a canoe.
- to spank or beat with or as with a paddle.
- to stir, mix, or beat with or as with a paddle
- to convey by paddling, as a canoe.
- to hit (a table-tennis ball or the like) with a paddle.
- paddle one's own canoe. See canoe (def. 3).
Withwith (with, wiᵺ),USA pronunciation prep.
- accompanied by;
accompanying: I will go with you. He fought with his brother against the enemy.
- in some particular relation to (esp. implying interaction, company, association, conjunction, or connection): I dealt with the problem. She agreed with me.
- characterized by or having: a person with initiative.
- (of means or instrument) by the use of;
using: to line a coat with silk; to cut with a knife.
- (of manner) using or showing: to work with diligence.
- in correspondence, comparison, or proportion to: Their power increased with their number. How does their plan compare with ours?
- in regard to: to be pleased with a gift.
- (of cause) owing to: to die with pneumonia; to pale with fear.
- in the region, sphere, or view of: It is day with us while it is night with the Chinese.
- (of separation) from: to part with a thing.
- against, as in opposition or competition: He fought with his brother over the inheritance.
- in the keeping or service of: to leave something with a friend.
- in affecting the judgment, estimation, or consideration of: Her argument carried a lot of weight with the trustees.
- at the same time as or immediately after;
upon: And with that last remark, she turned and left.
- of the same opinion or conviction as: Are you with me or against me?
- in proximity to or in the same household as: He lives with his parents.
- (used as a function word to specify an additional circumstance or condition): We climbed the hill, with Jeff following behind.
- in with. See in (def. 22).
- with child, pregnant.
- with it:
- knowledgeable about, sympathetic to, or partaking of the most up-to-date trends, fashions, art, etc.
- representing or characterized by the most up-to-date trends, fashions, art, etc.
- with that. See that (def. 10).
Holeshole (hōl),USA pronunciation n., v., holed, hol•ing.
- an opening through something;
aperture: a hole in the roof; a hole in my sock.
- a hollow place in a solid body or mass;
a cavity: a hole in the ground.
- the excavated habitation of an animal;
- a small, dingy, or shabby place: I couldn't live in a hole like that.
- a place of solitary confinement;
- an embarrassing position or predicament: to find oneself in a hole.
- a cove or small harbor.
- a fault or flaw: They found serious holes in his reasoning.
- a deep, still place in a stream: a swimming hole.
- a small cavity, into which a marble, ball, or the like is to be played.
- a score made by so playing.
- the circular opening in a green into which the ball is to be played.
- a part of a golf course from a tee to the hole corresponding to it, including fairway, rough, and hazards.
- the number of strokes taken to hit the ball from a tee into the hole corresponding to it.
slot: The radio program was scheduled for the p.m. hole. We need an experienced person to fill a hole in our accounting department.
- (in wire drawing) one reduction of a section.
- a mobile vacancy in the electronic structure of a semiconductor that acts as a positive charge carrier and has equivalent mass.
- an air pocket that causes a plane or other aircraft to drop suddenly.
- burn a hole in one's pocket, to urge one to spend money quickly: His inheritance was burning a hole in his pocket.
- hole in the wall, a small or confining place, esp. one that is dingy, shabby, or out-of-the-way: Their first shop was a real hole in the wall.
- in a or the hole:
- in debt;
in straitened circumstances: After Christmas I am always in the hole for at least a month.
- [Baseball, Softball.]pitching or batting with the count of balls or balls and strikes to one's disadvantage, esp. batting with a count of two strikes and one ball or none.
- [Stud Poker.]being the card or one of the cards dealt face down in the first round: a king in the hole.
- make a hole in, to take a large part of: A large bill from the dentist made a hole in her savings.
- pick a hole or holes in, to find a fault or flaw in: As soon as I presented my argument, he began to pick holes in it.
- to make a hole or holes in.
- to put or drive into a hole.
- [Golf.]to hit the ball into (a hole).
- to bore (a tunnel, passage, etc.).
- to make a hole or holes.
- hole out, [Golf.]to strike the ball into a hole: He holed out in five, one over par.
- hole up:
- to go into a hole;
retire for the winter, as a hibernating animal.
- to hide, as from pursuers, the police, etc.: The police think the bank robbers are holed up in Chicago.
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Alongside that, occasionally we are baffled. Wooden Paddle With Holes that we need while is very important, but to the other hand we likewise experience waste, office seats which we've been there it really is only the form and coloring have not been suitable.
- Choose a seat in line with the budget / wants of the firm.
- Choose a couch that has a comfortable foam or gentle when you sit back.
- Change the color of the seat along with shade and your preference of your furniture.
- Select A certain brand office chairs, office chairs usually have both thighs of the chair, hydraulic, a guarantee of 24 months, as well as the forearms of the chair through the agreed.


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Analysis of ethnoveterinary treatments for cattle (Bos indicus) diseases referred in Sanrimgyeongje including twelve volumes of literature from the 7th to the 18th century.
ABSTRACT This study aims at a comprehensive analysis of ethnoveterinary treatment in the cattle-raising section of Sanrimgyeongje which covers 12 different volumes of literature including 4 Korean and 8 Chinese literatures from the 7th to the 18th century, with a special attention to the treatments for cattle diseases.
The above mentioned literature was analyzed through several steps: translation of the Chinese text into Korean, identification of diseases, verification of medicinal materials and confirmation of scientific names.
As recorded in the thirteen references, this study shows that there are 143 medicinal materials which have been used as therapies for cattle diseases. Of these, 55 plant species belonging to 52 genera in 29 families had 100 modes of usages, while one species of fungus was used in one way. Likewise, 11 species of animals belonging to 11 genera in 10 families were utilized in 18 different methods. Lastly, 9 kinds of inorganic matters were used in 11 ways with another 4 kinds being useful in 14 different ways. Consequently, each of rinderpests, murrains, and hooves has been treated, respectively with 14, 10 and 3 types of medicinal decoctions made from 35, 18 and 15 kinds of medicinal materials.
This diversified usage of various medicinal materials is incomparable to the modern ethnoveterinary investigation which tends to focus strictly in plants. If additional studies were to be conducted on these treatments and all the medicinal materials used within them, various new treatments and medicines can be developed to supplement the pharmacopoeia of contemporary veterinary medicine.


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We've cleared the waiting list and have already sent off a few extra headlights since Christmas. So now it's time to get back to more interesting blog posts.
One of the most common questions I get asked is:
'How long does the battery last?'
It's a good question to ask. The joy of using a high-powered headlight would be somewhat reduced if you needed to carry 20kg of spare batteries. Fortunately, a single set of 18650 cells will last most people an entire night.
If you missed my introduction to 18650 cells, then you can read up on them here.
The minimum runtimes you'll get with two Xtar (Panasonic) 3100mAh cells are:
- 3 hours on the spot,
- 4 hours on the flood at 100%,
- 10 hours on the flood at 40%,
- 28 hours on the flood at 15%,
- 85 hours on the flood at 5%,
- 400 hours on the flood at 1%.
For me personally, this means that by using the 15% flood most of the time, and only turning the spot when I need to find something, I can go all night on a pair of 18650 cells (which only weigh 45 grams each). It sounds like I am sacrificing light to make it last all night, but I'm not. The 15% flood is still brighter than most other headlights at full-power!
Below are some plots of the change in light intensity produced by the V3 over time. Each line represents a different power level.
Unfortunately, since the runtimes vary between 3 and 400 hours, it's hard to show them all on the same graph. So the first graph has a logarithmic time scale. This lets us see all the data on the same graph.
We just need to remember that the markings on the far left represent 6 minutes each, while the markings on the far right represent 100 hours each. Only the 1% level (which lasts 400 hours) gets into the 100-hour markings.
Unfortunately, not everyone thinks in logarithmic scales, so I've removed the lowest mode so that you can visualise it on a linear scale:
Comparing the levels
The important thing to remember with these graphs, is that the flood and spot beams are very different, so they were measured in different ways. There are no numbers on the vertical axis so that nobody gets confused. You cannot compare the intensity of the flood and the spot on these graphs. The graphs make it look like the spot is dimmer than the 100% flood, but this is not true.
The curve at the end of each line shows how the light gradually dims when the battery is almost flat. These lights are 'semi-regulated'. This means that they have a smart circuit inside them which maintains a constant level of light (see the flat bits in the graphs) until the battery is almost dead, then the light level drops gradually. This is better than 'unregulated' which starts to dim as soon as you turn it on. It's also better than 'fully-regulated' which stays bright for a few minutes longer but then goes out completely without any warning.
So how long does the spot really last?
Earlier I mentioned that the spot only lasts 3 hours, but the graph show us that it continues to shine up to about 8 hours. 3 hours is how long it lasts in regulation before it starts to dim slowly. So the way to think of it, is that it's a great beam for 3 hours, a good beam until 6 hours, and then a dim beam until 8 hours.
So how long does the battery last?
Long enough for most of us!


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Probability Lesson Plan
Probability Lesson Plan
Students learn what probability is by predicting the outcome of planned experiments,
and playing racing games.
Standards (NCTM 3-5)
Data Analysis and Probability
Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize,
and display relevant data to answer them.
Understand and apply basic concepts of probability.
- collect data using observations, surveys, and experiments.
- Describe events as likely or unlikely and discuss the degree of likelihood
using such words as certain, equally likely, and impossible.
- Predict the probability of outcomes of simple experiments and test the
- Understand that the measure of the likelihood of an event can be represented
by a number from 0 to 1.
Students must be able to:
- perform basic mouse manipulations such as point,
click and drag
- use a browser such as Netscape for experimenting with
Teacher will need an opaque bag containing marbles of two different colors.
Students will need:
- access to a browser
- pencil and paper
- miniature car
- race game board
- Focus and Review
- Chose a student to come to the front of the class.
- Ask the class who they think will win if you and the student
race across the classroom.
- Let the student have a 1/2 of the room head start. Now ask the class who they
think will win.
- Prompt the students to use terms like: likely, unlikely, and impossible.
- Inform the students that what they are discussing has to do with
the mathematical term "probability"
- Students will understand mathematical terms such as more likely and less
likely and apply those terms to real life situations.
- Perform simple experiments to collect data.
- Determine the probability of different experimental
- Understand computers can be used to help make time consuming
calculations much less cumbersome.
- Teacher Input
- Hold up your opaque bag and allow your students to see that there is
nothing inside the bag.
- Place 4 white marbles in the bag. Allow the students to watch
you place the marbles in the bag.
- Hold up the bag and ask the students what color marble you will
pull out of the bag if you were to reach in and grab a marble.
- Prompt the students to make the connection that you will definitely
pull out a white marble, because they are the only marbles in
- Place the marble back in the bag and add 4 marbles of a different color.
- Ask the students which color marble is most likely to be pulled out
of the bag and why.
- If the students don't realize right away that the chances of pulling out
either color marble is equally likely begin pulling out one marble at
time, recording what color it is, and replacing it back in the bag.
You may want to allow the students to pull the marbles out of the bag
to help involve them and keep their attention.
- Empty the bag. Place 3 white marbles and 1 marble of a different
color in the bag.
- Begin with this set of questions:
- Which color marble am I more likely to pull out of the bag? Why?
- Will I always pull out a white marble?
- How much of a chance do I have of pulling out the other color
- Explain that you have a 1 in 4 chance of pulling out a non-white marble.
- Do the experiment manually to show the students the results. The
more you repeat the experiment the closer your results will be to the
- Explain that 1 out of 4 chances can be represented as a fraction or
a percent and show them how this is done.
- Guided Practice
- Allow the students to partner up.
- Explain to the students that they are going to perform a probability
experiment. using miniature cars, a race board, and die.
- Tell them the rules you wish them to follow.
- Have the students calculate the theoretical probability of each car
winning on a one step board if:
- Player A moves when he/she rolls a 1, 2, or 3 and player B moves when
he/she rolls a 4, 5, or 6.
- Player A moves when he/she rolls a 1 or 2 and player B moves when he/she
rolls a 3, 4, 5, or 6.
- Pass out the game boards and cars.
- Have the students run the races manually a few times.
- Compile the class' results and compare them to the results that the
- Ask the class what they think caused the discrepancies in the their
experimental results and their theoretical results.
- Ask the class if they believe performing the experiment more
times would make their experimental results closer to the theoretical
- Ask them how long they think it would take them to perform that
experiment 10,000 times.
- Explain that this type of experiment is one of this things that computers
are really helpful for, because they can perform them extremely rapidly.
- Have the students open the
Racing Game with One Die applet and show them how to operate it.
- Instruct the students to turn off their monitors.
- Have the students predict the probability of a car A winning a two step race
if car A moves on rolls of 1, 2, 3, and 4 and car B moves on rolls of 5 and 6.
- Instruct the students to turn their monitors back on and run the race 10,000 times.
- Ask the students if the answers they came up differed from the computer generated
- Ask the students if they have any theories as to why their answers differed from
the computer generated answers.
- Show them the math behind the correct answer and point out how much quicker
it was to use the computer to check their math rather than having to manually
run the races using the cars and dice.
- Independent Practice
- Have the students calculate the theoretical probabilities for
each of the questions.
- Have the students use the computer to help them complete the
Modifications and Extensions
- Review new terms: probability, theoretical probability, experimental
probability, likely, unlikely, impossible, and definitely.
- Connect the vocabulary with the experiment.
- Talk about how computer applications can be useful when working with
This lesson can easily be modified to help meet the needs of more advanced
- Having them calculate the probabilities for games with more steps.
- Having them do the calculations for 2 dice and using the
Racing game with Two Dice.


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Background and aims. Trigeminal neuralgia is a disorder that can cause excruciating pain and diminish the quality of life. We examined and compared the effectiveness and observed influence of microvascular decompression (MVD) and percutaneous retrogasserian glycerol rhizotomy (PRGR), both used in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia, on the quality of life.
Methods. We asked all reachable patients, treated with MVD or PRGR in Estonia between 2002 and 2013, to fill in three questionnaires in order to provide us with information about their emotional state and influence of the disease on life before and after receiving treatment.
Results and conclusions. We received feedback from 79 out of 127 patients (62.2%). Pain intensity ranged from 9.1 points to an average of 1.7 points after MVD and from 8.3 to 3.2 after PRGR. At the time of the interview, pain intensity was 1.5 points for the patients treated with MVD and 3.5 for those treated with PRGR. Also, the number of completely pain-free patients increased over time after MVD, while no such change was seen in the patients after PRGR. Eating and/or speaking disturbance disappeared in 66.7% of the patients after MVD and in 26.3% of the patients after PRGR. Anticonvulsant use dropped from 94.7% to 35.9% in the MVD group and from 93.8% to 67.6% in the PRGR group. Patients assessed more invasive MVD as causing significantly more visual, auditory and/or balance and sensory disturbances. The results of the Emotional State Questionnaire 2 (ESQ-2) and the Headache Impact Test 6 (HIT-6) were not significantly different between the patient groups. Both methods are effective in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. The MVD is the preferred method in providing relief from complaints caused by the disorder. However, in certain cases PRGR should be considered the first line treatment.


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Around the Nation
Wed November 2, 2011
Climate Change Has Calif. Vintners Rethinking Grapes
Prime California wine country areas like the Napa Valley could soon be facing rising temperatures, according to climate change studies. So some wineries are thinking of switching to grapes that are better suited to a warmer climate. But when vineyards have staked their reputations on certain wines, adapting to climate change is a tough sell.
The specific type of grape, or varietal, is how most of us think about wine. At one recent meeting of the San Francisco Wine Lovers Group, for instance, members listed pinot noirs, sauvignon blancs or cabernets among their favorite kinds of wine. All are well-known varieties grown in the California region.
"That's the big problem," says Andy Walker, a grape breeder at the University of California, Davis. "We've spent the last 100 years emphasizing varieties, and we've really marketed those names very effectively."
The university's test vineyard grows hundreds of different wine grapes from around the world. The vast majority are unknown to consumers because most wineries focus on only a handful of French grapes that prefer cool climates.
Extreme heat can be the enemy of good wine; it destroys acidity, and changes color and aromatics, Walker explains.
Resistance To Grape Breeding
According to a recent study from Stanford University, about 2 degrees of warming could reduce California's premium wine-growing land by 30 to 50 percent. That could happen as soon as 2040. Water supply is also expected to be an issue.
"I think the interesting thing for me as a breeder is to take advantage of this and say, OK, let's actually re-adapt varieties to California," Walker says.
But Walker says grape breeding is frowned upon in the industry. Most vines are grown from a branch that's taken off an existing plant.
"This essentially means that grapes have not really been having sex very much," says Sean Myles, a geneticist at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. Myles says breeding is big business for other crops like corn, but wine grapes miss that opportunity to develop adaptability.
"That means that we're not allowing the genetic material to be shuffled anymore. That genetic material is now standing still in time," he says.
You could cross-breed today's varieties to make them more heat tolerant or drought resistant. But Walker says there's a big problem with that: Once you breed your pinot noir with something else, you can't call it pinot noir anymore.
"The last decision is the hardest," Walker says. "Can we market this variety?"
Hurdles On The Marketing Side
Walker says there are wine grapes from Italy and Spain that would do well in a warmer California.
"We could produce Barbera instead, or Negroamaro or Nero d'Avola from southern Italy, and we'd be far better ahead," he says.
Nick Dokoozlian, a vice president at E&J Gallo Winery, the largest family-owned winery in the U.S., says in most cases the company is responding to a consumer demand for a certain cultivar. The company has been testing new wine varieties and has found some promising grapes, Dokoozlian says. But the problem is that they can't necessarily sell those varieties.
"Consumers aren't aware of them. Really, the hurdles on the marketing side are much, much more significant," he explains.
Since vines can produce for up to 30 years, Dokoozlian says switching varieties is a major financial gamble.
"The wine business is an extremely capital intensive business. The financial risk of planting the wrong variety in the wrong place is pretty significant," he says.
Still, given the temperature and water supply changes projected for California, Dokoozlian sees the market shifting — eventually. Andy Walker says it's up to the industry to make it happen.
"I don't think it's the consumer that's going to make the shift. They have to be directed," Walker says.
And that means it could be some time before we see world-class Nero d'Avola from California on store shelves.


08:43 GMT18 January 2021
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 It's hard to find musical taste more underground than this. A new app allows visitors to Stonehenge to hear the site's acoustic manipulations dating back as far as 10,000 years ago.
 So the theory goes, wind and voices passing through the stones could have created a form of music when the monument was first built. Nowadays Stonehenge is just two miles from the town of Amesbury in Southern England, and its noise pollution makes it impossible to hear the music of the ancient druids.
 Enter Rupert Till, with the Department of Music and Drama at the University of Huddersfield, and his team. They spent eight years developing an Apple devices app called Soundgate that lets the user hear the music of the stones without interference.
 "You have a sense of reverberation, a bit like a gigantic bathroom," Till told Reuters. "People say 'well, you hear that anywhere." But not 2,000, 3,000 years ago; there weren't any large stone buildings. So this would have been one of the few human-made places where you'd have heard these kind of acoustic effects."
 To accomplish their objective, the researchers conducted a mathematical analysis and digital reconstruction of the placement of the stones. "If you build something that is circular, it has circular acoustics, so the acoustic and the sound of the space comes from the shape of its design," Till told the Daily Mail.
 Centuries of wear and tear aside, Stonehenge became a popular tourist attraction in the 19th century. Visitors would often chisel pieces off of the stones to keep as souvenirs, causing irreparable damage to the monument.
 Till says that their app can simulate different eras of Stonehenge acoustics too, as it was repeatedly altered between 8,000 and 1,600 BC. "Over time the monument has developed, and our app shows different phases of that development so you can see what it looked like 5,000 or 4,000 years ago, through a thousand years of development."
 As famous as it is arcane, Stonehenge has been a subject of interest and a source for conspiracy theories alike for close to a millennium. The massive stones were transported for miles by a society that probably didn't even have a wheel yet.
 There had to be a significant reason to use these particular stones, but no conclusive answers to that mystery have been found. One theory is that the stones are lithophones, a prehistoric proto instrument made of stone. Lithophones can result naturally, such as when stalagmite formations in certain caves make sounds.
 In some ancient cultures, lithophones were thought to have mystic or healing properties. Stonehenge was almost certainly a religious and ritualistic site of some kind, and as far back as the 12th century the stones were speculated to have healing properties.
 ian rovers. In February 2017 it was eliminated from consideration along with several other sites.
 Stonehenge Doppelganger: Mysterious Stone Structure Found in Brazilian Jungle
 Sicilian 'Stonehenge' Discovery Joins Similar Global Prehistoric Findings
 Lost & Found in the Amazon: Ancient Geoglyphs Reveal Forests Weren't 'Untouched'
 Forgotten Realms: Geologists Discover Lost Continent Off African Coast
 Researchers Discover Billions-Year-Old Samples from Earth's Original Crust
 app, ancient civilization, music, university of huddersfield, Stonehenge, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom
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Old State Capitol
Delve into the politics and everyday life of the tumultuous 19th-century by touring this National Historic Landmark that served as Kentucky's capitol from 1830 to 1910.
In the galleries of this stately building, witness the changing tastes of 19th-century Kentuckians in "Great Revivals: Kentucky Decorative Arts Treasures
," an exhibition that highlights five stylistic design eras and the commonwealth's treasures from those times. Estimated time: 1 hour.
Visit the re-created 1850s State Law Library
in its original site or debate legislative matters in the re-created 1850s House and Senate chambers
. Estimated time of historical building tour: 1 hour.
All Old State Capitol tours begin at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History.
History of the Building
Gideon Shryock, an early Kentucky architect, designed the Old State Capitol when he was only 25 years old. Shryock used architectural symbolism to connect the vigorous frontier state of Kentucky with the ideals of classical Greek democracy. The building, which introduced Greek-Revival architecture to the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains, is widely recognized as a beautiful masterpiece of 19th-century American architecture and boasts a self-supporting stone stairway, a light-flooded rotunda and dual legislative chambers.
This was the only pro-Union state capitol occupied by the Confederate army during the Civil War. Plans to swear in a Confederate governor and establish a Confederate state government were ruined by the approach of the Union army just days before the Battle of Perryville in 1862.
In the aftermath of the bitterly contested gubernatorial election in 1899, the state legislature met here in 1900 to decide the winner. An assassin, hiding in an office in the Old Capitol Annex next door, shot the Democratic claimant, William Goebel, as he approached the Capitol. Armed citizens and State Guard soldiers occupied the grounds, and here for a time Kentuckians threatened to fight their own miniature civil war. A plaque marks the site outside the building where Goebel, the only governor in United States history to be assassinated while in office, fell.
Replaced by the New Capitol in South Frankfort early in the 20th century, the building has served as the home of the Kentucky Historical Society since 1920. The subject of extensive restoration work since the early 1970s, the Old State Capitol looks today much as it did in the 1850s.
Old State Capitol
300 West Broadway
Frankfort, KY 40601
Tours of the Old State Capitol
Available March 9 - Dec. 14, 2013:
All tours begin at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History.
Wednesdays: 3 p.m.
Thursdays: 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Fridays: 3 p.m.
Saturdays: 10:30 a.m., noon, 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Hours and Admission
Plan a Field Trip
Calendar of Events
Old State Capitol Packet - Fourth and Fifth Grades


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|Steroid withdrawal in renal transplant patients on triple therapy with a calcineurin inhibitor and mycophenolate mofetil: a meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials
|Pascual J, Quereda C, Zamora J, Hernandez D
This review assessed the effects of steroid withdrawal from triple therapy with cyclosporine or tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. The authors concluded that steroid withdrawal increases acute rejection but not early graft failure. Given the limitations of the review, and the poor reporting of some review methodology, it is not possible to guarantee the reliability of the conclusions.
To evaluate the effect of steroid withdrawal on rejection and graft failures in renal transplant patients who have received triple therapy with steroids, cyclosporine A or tacrolimus, and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) or sirolimus for at least a week.
MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, DARE, and CINAHL were searched up to March 2003; the search terms were reported. No language restrictions were applied. References of recent publications that the authors considered important were screened, as were abstracts from international transplantation society scientific meetings (2001 to 2003) that had been published in Transplantation Proceedings, Transplantation or American Journal of Transplantation.
Study designs of evaluations included in the review
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were eligible for inclusion. The duration of follow-up ranged from 3 to 24 months.
Specific interventions included in the review
Studies of treatment with triple therapy consisting of cyclosporine A or tacrolimus combined with MMF or sirolimus, where one arm experienced steroid withdrawal after more than a week of treatment and the other continued steroid treatment, were eligible for inclusion. Studies of steroid avoidance, or trials where participants received steroids for less than 7 post-transplant days, were excluded. No studies that used sirolimus were identified; all included studies evaluated either cyclosporine or tacrolimus combined with 1 or 2 g MMF per day and steroids. Steroid withdrawal commenced 3 or 6 months post-transplantation, and generally took place over 2 to 10 weeks (one trial seemed to have withdrawn the steroids abruptly).
Participants included in the review
Studies of patients undergoing renal transplant were eligible for inclusion. Some studies only included patients who had not experienced acute rejections, while others excluded patients with repeated, severe or vascular acute rejection; one study included any post-transplant patients. No further details relating to the participants were provided.
Outcomes assessed in the review
Studies evaluating acute rejection or renal allograft failure on an intention-to-treat basis were eligible for inclusion.
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
The authors did not state how studies were selected for the review, or how many reviewers performed the study selection.
Assessment of study quality
Study quality was assessed using the criteria developed by Kasiske (see Other Publications of Related Interest). This assessment involved 13 criteria relating to the following: peer-review; institutional review board approval; source of funding; use of a sample size calculation; description of inclusion or exclusion criteria; similarity at baseline; use of a placebo; adequacy of randomisation; description of statistical methods; description of drop-outs and withdrawals; use of an intention-to-treat analysis; and clearly defined end points. The maximum score was 14. The authors also recorded whether the study was double-blind.
The authors did not state how the studies were assessed for quality, or how many reviewers performed the quality assessment.
Two reviewers independently reviewed all of the included studies. The time steroid withdrawal commenced and was completed and the incidence of rejection or renal allograft failure were extracted from each study. Risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for each study. Where reported, information on serum creatinine, creatinine clearance, serum lipids, blood-pressure, serum glucose, bone density and infections were also extracted.
Methods of synthesis
How were the studies combined?
The pooled RR and risk difference (RD), along with 95% CIs, were calculated using a fixed-effect model (Mantel-Haenszel).
How were differences between studies investigated?
Heterogeneity was assessed using the chi-squared statistic. Meta-analyses were repeated after excluding one trial that only reported data for complete withdrawal of steroids. A subgroup analysis was used to examine the influence of drug (cyclosporine or tacrolimus) and quality (highand low-quality trials).
Results of the review
Six RCTs (n=1,519) were included in the review.
One study scored 2 for quality, one scored 2.5, one scored 3.5, one scored 11 and two scored 11.5. Two of the trials were double-blind and four were open. The three low-quality trials were published as abstracts and the three high-quality trials as full papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Acute rejection (5 RCTs).
The proportion of patients with acute rejection ranged from 0 to 23% with steroid withdrawal and from 0 to 14% with steroid maintenance; the difference was significant (RD 0.08, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.11, P<0.001). However, there was statistical heterogeneity between the studies (P<0.005). The proportion of people with acute rejection was, therefore, significantly higher after steroid withdrawal (RR 2.28, 95% CI: 1.65, 3.16, P<0.00001). There was no statistical heterogeneity between the studies for this analysis (P=0.23). There were no differences in the results when one trial using data only for complete withdrawal of steroids was analysed, when trials using cyclosporine or tacrolimus were analysed separately, or between highand low-quality trials.
Graft failure (4 RCTs).
The proportion of graft failures ranged from 0 to 6% with steroid withdrawal and from 0 to 7% with steroid maintenance; the difference was not significant (RD -0.01, 95% CI: -0.03, 0.01, P=0.28). The proportion of people with acute rejection was not significantly higher after steroid withdrawal. There was no statistical heterogeneity between the studies for either analysis (P=0.85 and P=0.94, respectively). There were no differences in the results when trials using cyclosporine or tacrolimus were analysed separately, or between highand low-quality trials.
The results for graft function and metabolic effects were also reported.
Steroid withdrawal resulted in a low but significant risk of acute rejection, but did not increase the risk of early graft failure.
The review question was clear with well-defined inclusion criteria. The authors undertook a comprehensive search for published trials without language restrictions, thus reducing the risk of language bias. However, there was a potential for publication bias that the authors did not assess. It seems that data extraction was undertake in duplicate, thereby reducing the potential for error and bias, but it was unclear whether similar steps were taken at the study selection and quality assessment stages of the review. Although the quality of the studies was assessed, several criteria related to the funding and publication of the data, and allocation concealment was not assessed. In addition, blinding in the RCTs was noted but did not form part of the quality score. Appropriate statistical methods were used. Given the limitations of the review and the lack of reporting of some review methodology, it is not possible to guarantee the reliability of the conclusions.
Implications of the review for practice and research
Practice: The authors did not state any implications for practice.
Research: The authors stated that steroid withdrawal trials with the new immunosuppressants are required, with extended controlled follow-up to confirm graft stabilisation.
Pascual J, Quereda C, Zamora J, Hernandez D. Steroid withdrawal in renal transplant patients on triple therapy with a calcineurin inhibitor and mycophenolate mofetil: a meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials. Transplantation 2004; 78(10): _PHONE_
Other publications of related interest
Kasiske BL, Chakkera HA, Louis TA, Ma JZ. A meta-analysis of immunosuppression withdrawal trials in renal transplantation. J Am Soc Nephrol 2000;11:1910-7.
Subject indexing assigned by NLM
Adrenal Cortex Hormones /supply & Calcineurin Inhibitors; Cyclosporine /therapeutic use; Drug Administration Schedule; Drug Therapy, Combination; Humans; Kidney Transplantation /immunology; Mycophenolic Acid /analogs & Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Tacrolimus /therapeutic use; derivatives /therapeutic use; distribution /therapeutic use
Date bibliographic record published
Date abstract record published
This is a critical abstract of a systematic review that meets the criteria for inclusion on DARE. Each critical abstract contains a brief summary of the review methods, results and conclusions followed by a detailed critical assessment on the reliability of the review and the conclusions drawn.


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What will the Asian Century mean for public administration in Australia? This probably isn't the first question that occurs to people pondering the implications of shifting economic and political power from West to East. But it's a more important question than it sounds.
That's why the authors of the Asian Century White Paper have proposed that by 2025, a third of the senior leadership of the Australian Public Service will have deep knowledge of Asia.
Achieving this requires a new approach to the continuing professional development of public servants, including building in opportunities to study and work elsewhere in Asia as a matter of course. This is a significant practical and cultural challenge for a country more used to receiving study delegations from countries in Asia than sending them.
It also requires that we pay attention to the content of public education so that all potential public servants have a much better grounding in Asian language, histories and cultures.
But it doesn't stop with language teaching. Deepening Australian public servants' understanding of the traditions and practices that inform other nations' systems of public administration could prove to be an important mechanism for what John Lenarcic calls "learning to think in another culture".
This in turn could lead to an exchange of ideas about the nature of public administration itself in Australia and beyond, how it is organised and the respective roles of politicians, public servants and citizens.
This idea might sound fanciful to hard-boiled public servants who have observed the almost ceaseless promotion of "new public management" strategies across public or civil service systems throughout the world. The ubiquity of new public management, which sees ministers as "customers" and citizens as "consumers" is partly a result of a particular economic orthodoxy. It continues to exert a powerful influence, even though many of its key tenets have fallen out of favour.
This approach is the source of considerable concern among some Asian scholars, who are frustrated with what they consider to be the perpetuation of Anglo-Saxon ideas and norms into Asian countries regardless of their unique cultural, political, and societal backgrounds.
This problem persists partly because so many Asian students continue to be educated in the West. This emphasises the salience of repeated calls for an alternative approach rooted in Asian philosophies and cultures.
While this concern is well founded there is evidence to suggest that public management is always tempered by context, wherever it is implemented. My own research across Europe, South America, Africa and Asia found considerable variation in public management determined by local contextual factors including long-standing public service traditions.
Confucianism is often cited as a philosophy that continues to be influential in parts of Asia. Research from Thailand suggests that the deep-seated Confucian ethical values generated a particular hybrid system that remained largely intact despite the advent of a major program of reform. This echoes historians who argue that new ideas are always diffused through their interaction with established local cultures.
Cross-cultural analysis can also help. Daniel Bell's recent contribution on political meritocracy in China highlights a different understanding of the relationship between politicians and civil servants in that country. In contrast to the Westminster model, which privileges a clear distinction between the roles of politicians and civil servants, Bell suggests that in China the system of political meritocracy works to select both. The two are not distinguished in the same way, and in fact it is hard to do so, as officials have political power. Recent debates in Australia, Europe and the US have focused on the role of public servants and the extent to which they should exercise political power.
Appeals to meritocracy or more accurately to political guardianship are also evident in public debate in Australia and beyond when discussing "what to do" about particularly challenging policy problems such as climate change or the decline in political party membership. These appeals have been strongly resisted by scholars and others who insist that what is required is a better democracy, with more engaged and informed citizens, rather than a thinner democracy run by an elite. The relationship between public administration and democracy is central to this discussion. It is here that more instructive insights may emerge from India, a complex democracy that has its own experience of how processes of "modernisation" may risk the loss of cultural identities.
The discussion of the relationship between democracy and public administration is an important reminder to not to romanticise Asian traditions. But it does suggest that the impact of the trends outlined in the Asian Century White Paper will be more significant than we appreciate. Public administration is as likely to be affected by the Asian Century as business and civil society, and it's time we got prepared.


February 25, 2016
The Wonderful World of Browser Support
Several windows on the side of a building
While it's important to ensure that content is viewable on as many browsers as possible, supporting archaic browsers often means an increased budget to accommodate a consistently decreasing number of users. At Fuse, working with our clients to outline browser support helps ensure they understand the implications of support levels across a variety of platforms, and prioritizes development of critical project features.
When discussing a project with a client, we find it is important to ensure that all parties involved understand what browsers will be supported, and what happens on those which are not.
Clients may have a general understanding of what browser support entails, but it can lead to incorrect expectations about what a project's supported browsers are. Even if browser support is well understood there are many variables between platforms, features, fallbacks, and more that should be discussed at the outset of a project.
If browser support is not discussed and agreed upon, a number of problematic events could occur through the course of the project:
 - Clients may view the final website on a browser they expected to be supported but was not developed for, leaving us to go through the entire codebase to include fallbacks, alternative techniques, and so on.
 - The decision to support additional browsers after development has started may require backtracking through completed code, which will affect the timeline and potentially the budget as well.
 - The project may be built for browsers which are not relevant to the client's actual user base, leaving the majority of visitors with incomplete or suboptimal functionality.
 - Modern features which include graceful fallbacks for browsers which do not support the feature (ie Backdrop video vs static poster image) may be seen as a bug by the client, prompting a discussion about why a feature was handled in such a manner.
Let's go over some talking points we use when discussing browser support use in client meetings, and then outline some base browser support tiers.
Determining Browser Support
How can we determine what browsers a project should support?
At Fuse, we start with a baseline of support which we feel covers most projects. It doesn't have to fit every project, and probably won't, but having a starting point saves us from recreating browser support tables every time and can be tailored to suit the project specifications.
Some things to keep in mind when discussing browser support with a client:
 - Not all clients understand what browser support is.
 - Some clients may have varying expectations of which browsers, versions, and platforms the project should support.
 - A client may not understand the implications of modifying browser support tiers after development has begun.
Important factors in determining browser support include the following:
Analytics data
When available, be sure to review the analytics data for the client's existing project. As browser usage varies between industries, companies, and individual websites, getting the most accurate data possible about the client's specific project is critical to making informed decisions about browser support.
For example, if less than 1% of the visitors of a current site use an obsolete browser, is it really worth the client's money to support it? Similarly, if the analytics shows that a large percentage users are using an older browser, how should an important modern feature in the project specification be handled?
Project features
Complex or modern features are often difficult and sometimes impossible to implement in some browsers.
What features are present in the project specification? How critical are these features and how many of them are there? Are fallbacks or enhancement features for a technology available and/or appropriate?
If there are not enough resources (time, money, developers) to support a feature set on an older browser then priorities may have to be adjusted based on the project's feature requirements and tempered by realistic application of available analytics data. Inversely, a project with a larger budget will have more room to improve support on older browsers, but may still have to compete with other development requirements for additional resources.
Client Request
Should a client request an outdated or obsolete browser be supported, we should determine why they find support for that browser to be important. Sometimes it is simply that they want to have their site be usable by as many users as possible, but do not understand the amount of resources required to support it.
This is an opportunity to discuss the budget implications and the facts about their users. If the client would still like to support an older or unsupported browser, then we can make modifications to the base browser support tiers (and budget), discussed in the next section.
Browser Support Tiers
Determining a base browser support system allows for a solid starting point during browser support discussions with a client. This base level of support should be used as an outline and can then modified if necessary for each project. This system was inspired by BBC's Browser Support Standards, but modified in order to be a more flexible starting point for use on a per-project basis.
The four support tiers are outlined below. All browsers should be categorized into one tier.
The page should appear and function as outlined in the design documentation, mockups, prototypes, etc.
With some reservations, the page should fully work in this browser. All content is readable, interactive elements work as outlined in the project specification, visual flourishes appear as intended, and so on.
As there are always browser inconsistencies, and because it is possible that specific issues cause problems with one or more features of the site, it is not possible to guarantee a 100% identical experience across all browsers. However, affected browsers in this tier will include a workaround, fallback, or alternative to alleviate issues as much as possible.
Limited Support
The browser is able to render the page in a reasonable manner, but will not likely be able to include all features.
Where necessary, fallbacks are used in place of incompatible effects, cosmetic flourishes, and other elements and effects not critical to the consumption of the page content by the end user. Fallbacks and alterations may range from exactly matching the behaviour of a supported browser to being completely omitted, and depends largely on the feature in question.
This browser is unable to render the page due to one or more technical limitations.
Efforts will be made to provide a visitor using this browser to view content in a reasonable, basic format. Any enhancements past a basic presentation of the content requires a separate audit and estimate.
This browser is not considered at any point during the course of the project.
An obsolete browser is not supported in any capacity. Clients wishing to support an obsolete browser to any degree must inform the developer before project work begins.
Closing Thoughts
It is important to have a game plan for browser support when starting a new project. Clearing up any misconceptions on the subject early on helps to avoid any potential misunderstandings during the development process. The suggestions above are not a hard and fast rule, and should be adjusted to fit your team and client projects.


text:
PhD candidate to conduct research on impacts of distinct types of mycorrhizas of soil carbon cycl...
The Institute of Environmental Sciences of Leiden university seeks a highly motivated PhD candidate to conduct experimental research aimed to understand impacts of distinct types of mycorrhizal fungi on processes of soil carbon sequestration. Soil carbon sequestration is an important but hardly understood mechanism counterbalancing atmospheric CO2 emissions and thereby climate change. Growing evidence suggests that vegetation stands featuring different mycorrhizal types differently relate to principle aspects of belowground carbon accumulation processes. However, the mechanisms involved and the causality therein are poorly understood. Within this PhD program the candidate will conduct research aimed to experimentally unravel these mechanisms through a combination of microbiological, physiological and ecological methods to examine plant-soil-microbial interactions in lab and possibly field conditions.
- Master's degree in one of the following topics: ecology, biology, plant sciences, environmental sciences or their equivalents;
- Understanding of plant and fungal taxonomy;
- A background in plant-soil interactions or/and microbial ecology is desirable;
- Knowledge of molecular biology methods will be an advantage;
- Statistical analysis skills, i.e. good level of mastering R, Matlab or alike tools will be appreciated; otherwise a demonstrated ability to rapidly acquire such skills is a pre-requirement;
- Proficient in spoken and written English;
- Good communication skills;
- A strong interest in a scientific career.
This job comes from a partnership with Science Magazine and


text:
THREE-DIMENSIONAL DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION OF HERITAGE SITES USING TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING AND UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Keywords: Terrestrial Laser Scanning, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photogrammetry, Three-dimensional Digital Documentation, Cultural Heritage Sites
Abstract. Three-dimensional digital documentation is an important technique for the maintenance and monitoring of cultural heritage sites. This study focuses on the three-dimensional digital documentation of the Magoksa Temple, Republic of Korea, using a combination of terrestrial laser scanning and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry. Terrestrial laser scanning mostly acquired the vertical geometry of the buildings. In addition, the digital orthoimage produced by UAV photogrammetry had higher horizontal data acquisition rate than that produced by terrestrial laser scanning. Thus, the scanning and UAV photogrammetry were merged by matching 20 corresponding points and an absolute coordinate system was established using seven ground control points. The final, complete threedimensional shape had perfect horizontal and vertical geometries. This study demonstrates the potential of integrating terrestrial laser scanning and UAV photogrammetry for three-dimensional digital documentation. This new technique is expected to contribute to the three-dimensional digital documentation and spatial analysis of cultural heritage sites.


text:
50 Fun and Easy Reproducible Activities That Help Every Child Master the Top 100 High-Frequency Words
By Mary Rosenberg
Put young learners on the path to reading with engaging, reproducible activities that teach the top 100 sight words! Skill-building activities help children learn sight words, strengthen reading fluency, and expand vocabulary. This teacher-written resource is packed with Fabulous Fill-ins, Word-Search Puzzles, Make & Share Mini-Books, and more! Perfect for nurturing Spanish language literacy. 96 pages.


text:
Italy commemorates the 150th anniversary of its unification in 2011. To celebrate and mark its significance, President Giorgio Napolitano launched celebrations with raising the Italian flag in Reggio Emilia, Italy where the flag was first selected more than 200 years ago on January 7, 1797. During the event, Napolitano honored Turin, Florence and Rome, the three cities that have served as Italian state capitals, with reproductions of the original flag and handed out copies of the Italian constitution to students from local schools.
Napolitano stated during his address that "…we cannot, as a nation, think of the future without memory and consciousness of the past. It serves us, it helps us to retrace the contradictions and harshness of the path that brought us in 1860 to become a united nation…"
Read the entire article from ANSA.
Photo by ANSA


text: In this paper, the effects of rotation on the distribution of a layer of oil on a bearing raceway are analyzed in relation to the geometry of the raceway. The research is motivated by the need to understand the behavior of grease lubricated bearings. Some specific aspects of grease lubrication can be understood by approximating the contact as a starved lubricated elastohydrodynamic lubrication contact. In such a contact, the shape and thickness of the inlet layer of oil, supplied to the contact on the running track, are of crucial importance to the film formation and contact performance. Small changes in the distribution of lubricant on the rolling track, as a result of reflow or redistribution, may have a large (local) effect on the film thickness inside the contact. Starting from the Navier–Stokes equations, the free surface thin layer flow equation for axisymmetric rotating surfaces is derived. For the case of bearing applications, it is shown that a simple quasilinear equation can be derived for the layer thickness, as a function of location and time, which can be solved analytically. Experiments have been carried out, measuring the changes of a layer of oil on rotating raceways in time in relation to the rotational speed and the raceway geometry. It is shown that the simplified model accurately predicts the thin layer flow, except in a region near the outflow boundary, where the effect of the boundary condition on the layer shape is crucial. This is further illustrated by results of numerical simulations.


text:
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- Their dinner had just arrived as the two college professors watched their guests, a group of singers from the Georgia coast, unexpectedly turn saying grace into an outburst of song, rhythm and shouted praises that soon had other diners in the restaurant joining in with the impromptu performance.
"Before you know it, they're out of their chairs and the beat is getting played on a table and you had all the children in the restaurant shouting praises with them," said Mary Ellen Junda, a music professor at the University of Connecticut.
The dinner at a restaurant in Richmond, Va., last year with the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters of Darien, Ga., turned into another lesson for Junda and fellow music professor Robert Stephens, who have spent years studying the art and traditions of the Gullah, descendants of slaves who live in coastal communities from North Carolina to northern Florida. Scholars say their culture, long isolated from the mainland, has clung to its African roots and traditions more than any in America.
Now Junda and Stephens are preparing to share their firsthand research next year with 80 classroom teachers from elementary and high schools across the U.S., who will spend a week visiting Gullah communities in coastal Georgia and South Carolina. It's an effort to spread word of a distinct American culture that's rapidly giving way to assimilation as younger generations leave small island communities for life on the mainland.
Last summer, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Junda and Stephens a grant worth $180,000 to develop the teacher workshops, which will take place over two weeks next July.
For Stephens, a Savannah native, introducing school teachers to the Gullah people, their distinctive creole language and rich history is one way to combat the stereotypes he recalls from his childhood in the South.
"It gives voice to the fact that this is a legitimate, viable cultural tradition," Stephens said. "When I was growing up in Savannah attending high school, people sort of pooh-poohed the Gullah. They were not looked upon as being well informed."
It's not surprising two music professors -- Stephens specializes in world music while Junda focuses on folk traditions -- would end up studying the Gullah. The slave descendants of the Southern sea islands have largely passed down their history and traditions orally, through stories and songs. Prior researchers traced a song sung by Gullah on the Georgia coast to the West African nation of Sierra Leone, where the tune was sung as a funeral dirge.
The Connecticut professors will share not only their findings but also the firsthand sources of their research to the visiting teachers next summer. Teachers selected for the workshop after applying by March 3 will join Stephens and Junda in Savannah for tours of African-American landmarks in Georgia's oldest city.
They'll also take a field trip to St. Helena Island, S.C., to visit the Penn Center, formerly a school established in 1862 that educated freed slaves that's now home to a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Gullah history and traditions. Back in Georgia the group will cross the water from the mainland to Sapelo Island, where about 50 slave descendants still live in the tiny community of Hog Hammock.
Sapelo native Cornelia Bailey, who was born on the island in 1945, has become Hog Hammock's pre-eminent storyteller and keeper of the community's oral history. The professors have tapped her to share that history with the visiting teachers next summer.
"The teaching aspect of it I love because the more you spread the word the more respect there is for a culture that's endangered," Bailey said. "And teachers are the best people to spread the word."
Emory Shaw Campbell of Hilton Head Island, S.C., agrees. He'll be working with the group in South Carolina, where Campbell is a former Penn Center director. He recently headed a commission designated by Congress to study ways to promote and preserve Gullah culture in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.
Campbell said he hopes the teachers visiting next summer will take lessons about Gullah history and traditions far beyond the Southeast coast to schools in other regions where children may otherwise never learn of them.
"Not enough grade school and high school teachers know about Gullah culture, which is the root of African-American culture," Campbell said. "People say that unless you know yourself, you really find it difficult to function in this world. I think it's important for kids to know their history, know their origin, know why they look the way they do and speak the way they do."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Something unusual: Acupuncture for ailing sea turtles. (Photos)
Can you guess why this pigeon is the world's most expensive?
Check out the most expensive home for sale in the U.S. (Video)
This fox plays like a cat when he gets his paws on a golf ball. (Video)


tech-kern archive
Re: fifo and [acm]time
> On ufs (and tmpfs and perhaps others), reading from or writing to a
> fifo updates its [acm]time [...]
> Note that the same [acm]time updates do not apply to sockets.
Aside from whether this is a good idea, this difference may make sense.
A FIFO is a single shared object; multiple opens result in multiple
references to a single FIFO.
You don't say whether the socket case is SOCK_STREAM or SOCK_DGRAM
For SOCK_STREAM, a socket in the filesystem is more like a cloning
device: a connection established using it as a rendezvous point results
in new sockets, distinct from the socket corresponding to the
filesystem entry (though one of them is derived from it). It is these
new sockets that the I/O occurs on and whose [acm]time would logically
be updated (if they had [acm]times, which they don't, because they
don't have [iv]nodes).
For SOCK_DGRAM, the above argument does not apply. As a matter of
theory, read()/recv()/etc on such a socket should update the atime and
write()/send()/etc should update the mtime (and, of course, in each
case the ctime as well). (I/O on the peer socket, the one that doesn't
have a filesystem entry, should not do anything of the sort, because
that socket doesn't have any [iv]node to update the [acm]time of.)
Pragmatically speaking, it's not clear to me that there's enough value
in either stance to make it worth changing whichever behaviour the
implementation happens to provide.
> And what applications would ever rely on the [acm]time of a fifo?
The only value I can see in the [acm]time of either a FIFO or an
AF_LOCAL socket "file" is to see when the relevant software last did
anything with it. This is less a matter of an application proper using
the timestamp and more one of a human who's investigating something
looking for relevant (or possibly-relevant) data.
> One consequence of this is that in a vanilla NetBSD install, Postfix
> triggers disk I/O every minute when master tickles the pickup daemon
> by writing to the fifo /var/spool/postfix/public/pickup.
Is one inode update per minute enough to be a significant issue?
(Sure, there will be cases where it is enough to matter. But are the
common enough that it's worth doing anything to NetBSD in consequence,
or are they outliers that call for per-system custom tuning? I can
think of at least one approach which likely would address this problem,
in cases where it _is_ A problem, already, and that's with no more than
a minute or so of thought.)
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
When backpacking in a coastal region, you sometimes have access to both fresh water (e.g. a stream) and salt water (sea, bay, etc.).
If you do not treat the water used for washing dishes, what are the pros and cons of using saltwater vs. freshwater? Is there one source that is less prone to contamination?
The choice is easy if the shoreline is polluted or the stream is next to a privy (established or... improvised). However, when there are no obvious differences in water quality, which one would be more recommended and why?
share|improve this question
"If you do not treat the water used for washing dishes" -- Incredibly bad idea. What is the point of purifying water to drink if you are going to contaminate everything else? – Russell Steen May 13 '13 at 15:40
A worded the question so that it doesn't imply whether you treat the water you drink. I believe what you pointed out would be a good question on its own. – ppl May 13 '13 at 16:35
3 Answers 3
Leaving aside the questions of water purity, then the answer would be fresh water, no question.
Salt water does not lather up many soaps very well, although detergents are a different story. Salt water also does not rinse cleanly, so even those long-distance sailors that use salt and Joy detergent (no corporate affiliation, but lots of online reading) use (clean) fresh to rinse.
So, fresh it is. (But purify somehow, by boiling if by nothing else)
share|improve this answer
Great information about the sudsing and rinsing. Good to know! – Russell Steen May 15 '13 at 13:38
Seawater typically has more organisms growing in it than a flowing stream of clear water. However, it's a good idea to use something (boiling, wet ones, clorox wipes, etc.) that kills giardia, microspiridia, and other protozoa or bacteria than can give you the diarrhea.
share|improve this answer
Does seawater generally has more harmful organisms than stream water? For example, is it not less likely to have giardia in seawater compared to lake or stream water? – ppl May 14 '13 at 17:16
Coastal seawater sometimes has harmful organisms from sewage and animal waste -- enough for beach closures. I don't know any statistics or specifics. Just because it's salty does not mean bad stuff won't grow in it. – xpda May 15 '13 at 5:19
The question states all things being equal. Today I had the opportunity to ask biology professor the question. Of the top of his head, he would favor the sea water because of a (presumably) lower likelihood of encountering human pathogens. I understand that the salinity of the water does not prevent growth of all (or any) pathogens. However I would hypothesize that it have an influence on some relevant pathogens listed in the answer. I would be interested if somebody could shed some light on this aspect of the question with possibly data or scientific references. – ppl May 16 '13 at 2:41
You should never plan to not purify. Levels of contamination will depend on the location. A stream running by a pasture 50 miles upstream will possibly contain more contaminants than ocean, even if the ocean (on average) is worse.
If you have a way to purify, then purify! If you can't purify, consider heating your dishes over a flame afterwards until they are dry and too hot to touch. That should kill most of organisms that would hurt you.
If you have absolutely no way to purify and no way to sterilize, then it's a crap shoot no matter what.
share|improve this answer
Yes, this is not a direct answer. IMO -- There's too much variance due to location to answer directly, and this is an important answer – Russell Steen May 13 '13 at 19:07
I agree. We definitely should not imply that it's "the norm" to use untreated water for food, drink, or dish washing. – xpda May 15 '13 at 5:17
Regarding dishwashing (see original question), if I had to guess based on my small sample of personal observations, I would bet on the 'norm' being untreated water for dishwashing. ;) – ppl May 16 '13 at 2:55
99% of the dishwashing I have done (and seen done) uses untreated water. Frankly, who's going to filter/pump enough water to wash with? Put a few drops of bleach in your final rinse if you are concerned - but I'll bet the # of harmful water-living organisms that can survive a thorough drying on non-porous dishes is pretty low. – LBell May 20 '13 at 7:06
Your Answer


Local News
Nursery Owners Do What They Can To Protect Plants From Cold
Posted March 10, 1998 6:00 a.m. EST
— When you head to the local nursery this spring to buy plants for your yard, you can only hope that they'll be in good condition.
From spraying the plants with water to covering the plants with a tarp, nursery owners are doing everything they can to protect the plants from the chilly air.
Ronald Copeland is working to protect his 35-acre-large Apex Nursery. Recently, his staff removed the white plastic tarps that covered the plants over the winter. With this week's cold spell gripping North Carolina, the tarps are being put back on the plants.
Copeland says that the tarps protect the plants from the cold air, and they also allow the plants to dry out. He says that homeowners who want to try the tarp idea should water their plants first.
Nurseries also use irrigation to put a protective coating of ice on plants which are especially vulnerable to freezing temperatures, like trees.
Bring plants inside the house when you can. If you can't, then water the plants, and use a white tarp to cover them. The tarp has to be white -- if it's clear, then more sunlight will get through, and it could dry the plants out too much. Then, you need to take the tarp off the next day, once the temperatures are above freezing.
Repeat as necessary, and Old Man Winter may pass you by.


text:
The summarized text of the question submitted to the Personal Tao site is:
What is the Taoist perspective on periods of personal crisis? Is it something that we must go with; to follow in its natural course, and not do anything of an unnatural manner? Does Taoism ever advocate perceiving a crisis as something that should be intervened upon? (For example: calling crisis intervention workers). Put another way: how do you think Lao Tzu would act (or not act) in a period of personal crisis/stress?
This is a question which can't be definitively answered as the response is situational to the full details of the crisis itself.
Broken down we can answer as follows:
What is the Taoist perspective on periods of personal crisis? Is it something that we must go with; to follow in its natural course…
First, you must do what feels right. For example: sometimes you do have go against the "flow". Salmon swim against the flow of the river to breed. It's not easy for them, in fact it kills them, but it's part of their larger life cycle of reproduction, a larger flow than the river itself.
In other words, we are surrounded by many currents of life. People get so focused on "right actions", that they then end up resisting a more important larger flow of their lives.
… and not do anything of an unnatural manner?
We are of nature, relax, feel everything around you. Take a breath and assess what is moving about. When you label possible solutions as unnatural, it means having placed limitations on defining the situation. This in turn makes it harder to act.
Does Taoism ever advocate perceiving a crisis as something that should be intervened upon? (For example: calling crisis intervention workers). Put another way: how do you think Lao Tzu would act (or not act) in a period of personal crisis/stress?
Depends on the moment and the situation of the crisis. Asking this question defeats any answer, since it shifts the problem from reality/the moment into the mind. Any pre-conceived answer of mine could never match to the moment described by this general question.
Therefore Lao Tzu would shrug his shoulders and continue what ever he was doing. Since stated in this way: it's a mind game and not reality. Now if something were actually happening in front of Lao Tzu: then he would assess the situation and then would move along a path that flows from acceptance…
Of course as Taoist: I would also laugh, answer that Lao Tzu no longer walks a mortal life and therefore wouldn't do anything. It's really up to you to work from your own acceptance of the situation.
Live in peace and know everything sorts itself out, as we are all of the Tao.
The waking chapter from a Personal Tao might help if you are trying to resolve a personal crisis.
Looking deeper into the question of Taoist Crisis Management
A crisis is a point of potential. Many possible answers exist on how to resolve any crisis. While we might look at a crisis as a negative event, positive outcomes can also arise due to the crisis itself.
Look at the definition of crisis:
- A crucial or decisive point or situation; a turning point.
- A point when a conflict reaches its highest tension and must be resolved.
A Taoist views a crisis as an opportunity to explore and improve the experience of life itself.
When a crisis represents a turning point for another person, A Taoist often acts very simply or not at all. To overreact removes the power of the situation to help those involved to actually learn and make it past the transitional stages of the crisis.
A simple and non violent example: Zen often uses riddles of contradiction to teach enlightenment. The riddle is often something which is both illogical and a contradiction. The riddle works by creating a crisis of logic which literally breaks the mind out of one pattern and into a new direction.
In the previous Zen example. If I were to answer the riddle for another person (or look up the answer in a book), it prevents the whole process of the mental crisis trying to resolve the logic vs. illogical contradiction. So answering the riddle for someone else actually does more harm than good. In this example: knowledge (a solution) is never the goal, rather the experience of the crisis along with the new directions inspired by it: are the goal.
However, if in trying to resolve a crisis a person was about to "harm" themselves, then outside help could be important to help that person resolve the crisis (i.e. help from crisis intervention workers). After-all, sometimes it takes time and several attempts to resolve longer term problems and a more complicated crisis.
A Taoist is very careful in defining harm. Something which might seem harmful to you, could be healing for another person. Or something which might hurt now, could be healing later. The tale of the Taoist Farmer and his Horse illustrates this point.
So in effect you have given me a riddle with real world consequences. As such, the answers are even more difficult to resolve due to real world consequences of actions. No easy answer exists, since by the principle of Yin and Yang: all answers contain elements of beneficial and harmful effects. So to a Taoist this leaves only one course of action: you follow what feels right and with acceptance: then at least you have done the right thing as you acted to your nature. Then you move on: a moment at a time.
It's never about an answer, it's always about the journey.