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Have you ever wondered why rooms with thick curtains tend to stay warmer in the winter? If you're interested in reducing your family's carbon footprint or simply want to help your folks save a little money, then knowing how to insulate your windows is really important! Which type of window covering will keep a room the warmest?
Which model window solution will keep a room the warmest?
- Four small square cardboard boxes of the same size
- Four 1-liter bottles of water
- Four inexpensive thermometers
- Plastic wrap
- Thin curtain material
- Heavy, insulated curtain material
- Small funnel
- Double-sided sticky tape
- Duct tape or packing tape
- Cooking pot
- Notebook and pen
- Cut a large "window" into the same side of each of three of the cardboard boxes. Each window should be the same size, so you'll want to use the ruler to measure and mark with a pencil before cutting. Do not cut a window in the fourth box—this box will model a room that has no windows.
- Cover the inside of your windows with plastic wrap, taping it into place on the inside of the box.
- Cut curtains from the two types of curtain material that will completely cover your plastic wrap window. Secure the thinner curtain material in place with double-sided sticky tape over the inward-facing surface of one of the box's windows. On the next box's window, secure the heavier insulated curtain material in the same way. For the third box, leave the plastic wrap window unadorned.
- Pour the bottles of water from the plastic bottles into the pot and ask a parent to bring the pot to a boil. Allow the water to cool slightly so it won't scald if it splashes on you.
- With your parents' help, use the funnel to pour the hot water back into each of the bottles so that about the same amount of water is in each bottle. Some water may have evaporated when you boiled it, so the bottles will not be completely full.
- Insert a thermometer into each bottle and record the temperature reading in your notebook.
- Remove the thermometers from the bottles.
- Place each bottle into a box and seal each box closed with duct tape. Leave the boxes outside in the evening, preferably at a time when the sun is setting. Remember, we're trying to determine how much heat each box loses, so we don't want the boxes to cook in the sun.
- After three hours, open the boxes and take a temperature reading for each of the bottles. Remember to record the results each time you take a reading.
- What do you notice about how long the bottles stay warm? Which boxes are more efficient than others at keeping the heat inside the bottle?
Any type of window allows heat to escape, so the box without any window at all should have retained the most heat. However, for the boxes with windows, a heavier fabric helps retain heat better than a thinner one. The box with no curtain should have lost the most heat.
Insulated curtains are more energy efficient than curtains made of regular material. Why? One of the ways heat travels is through conduction, when heat moves from a warmer area to a cooler one. However, thicker materials are better insulators—that is, they tend to prevent conduction from occurring as rapidly. Interestingly enough, the best insulator is nothing at all, because heat can't travel by thermal conduction through a vacuum! That's why manufacturers of insulated food and beverage containers often nest two flasks together and suck all of the air out of the space in between. Heat is only able to effectively leave via conduction through the top of the container, and only a little is lost through the sides due to minimal conduction and some thermal radiation.
So how much less energy might the average household use by adding thermal curtains to heated rooms? Is the cost of insulated curtains worth it if you weigh it against the money you might save? Thermal curtain manufacturers estimate that homeowners can save up to 25% on their home's energy bill, and the US Department of Energy recommends that homeowners use insulated curtains to save money. Can you find any other methods to help save some money on your family's energy bill? Use your creativity, and apply what you've learned about heat and heat conduction!


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On January 12, 2012, Heather Guy presented a program on the history of Sloss Furnaces at the Bessemer Public Library. Heather is the education coordinator at Sloss, and she brought photos and artifacts to complement her slide show.
In April, 1882, the furnaces went into blast and within a year had sold 24,000 tons of iron. read the story of Sloss here.
Sloss produced pig iron. This is pig iron, much smaller than the ones produced by the furnace back in the day.
Here is a picture of a group of workers at Sloss.
Here a lone iron worker is dwarfed by the hot furnace.
Sloss Furnaces is now a National Historic Landmark. A visit to Sloss Furnaces is worth the time. Information on hours, etc, can be found here.
Many community events are held at Sloss, including Stokin' the Fire Barbecue competition in the summer and Sloss Fright Furnace in October
One annual event at Sloss is sponsored by Central Alabama Pride; Pridefest is during the month of June. Read about Pridefest 2009 here.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Nearly everybody with more than the minimum amount of computer knowledge will have used the built in Windows Task Manager, and know what an important tool it can sometimes be. Whenever a program crashes, hangs, consumes too many resources or just shouldn't be there, often the quickest and easiest way to solve the problem is using Task Manager to forcefully close the program.
The problem with Task Manager is it's such a vital troubleshooting component, malware often targets it and tries to block use of the Task Manager so the malicious process cannot be terminated. Some more sophisticated malware can even block third party task management software such as Process Explorer from running.
If you're stuck and the default Task Manager has been blocked or you can't run a third party task manager tool then things can become quite tricky. There is however, a rather interesting solution to get around this problem, which is to use a task manager tool built to run in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Most people would expect a utility like this to be an executable.exe file, but this one is actually a standard Office 97 – 2003 Worksheet.xls file with some built in trickery.
TaskManager.xls is a small (41KB) and simple task manager that has been created using the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language component built into Excel and other Office applications. While it doesn't show you things like running services, performance graphs or network activity, it can list the currently running processes, and terminate, suspend or resume any of them, which is the most important part when dealing with malware.
For this to run you have to make sure Macro's are enabled in Excel because their usage is disabled by default to protect against potential Macro viruses. If Macro's are disabled for instance in Excel 2003, and you don't get asked if you want to enable them for the current sheet, go to Tools -> Options -> Security -> Macro Security, and set the level to medium which will always ask to run a Macro in future.
There are only 2 buttons and a blank window in TaskManager.xls to start with. The List processes button will populate the window with a list of all running and active processes on your computer, and the Execute commands button will perform one of the three tasks available of terminate, suspend or resume a process. These are used by entering t, s or r into column A of the worksheet, then pressing the button.
The screenshot below shows that the MaliciousProcess.exe is to be suspended and Ransomware.exe terminated when the Execute commands button is pressed. Clicking the button will do just that, then press the List processes button again to update the list. Do note that like a traditional task manager tool, TaskManager.xls is unable to terminate protected processes. For example, nothing will happen if you try to terminate the Client Server Runtime Process (csrss.exe) from TaskManager.xls.
TaskManager.xls is very useful but unfortunately it does have problems working in other Office suites. In Libre Office v4 clicking the List Processes button will prompt a runtime error, and Softmaker Office free version doesn't support VBA. The free version of Kingsoft Office doesn't support VBA either so won't run although the professional version does support it and might work. Even the free Excel Viewer provided by Microsoft doesn't work, so it appears that sadly the TaskManager.xls tool is only compatible with the real Microsoft Excel.


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In the world of software development, the flow-based programming (FBP or flow-based programming) is a paradigm that defines applications as networks of process "black box". The data is exchanged using predefined and external to the process connections.
The FBP is a particular form of component-oriented programming and the DrawFBP Diagram Generator is used to deal with this paradigm. It was developed by the creator himself methodology, Paul J. Morrison, and enables the construction of multilayer diagrams.
The creations are saved in XML format and can be used to generate JavaFBP connections that can be compiled and run in the Eclipse IDE. The program does not support creating diagrams from text, but you can draw streams from which the DrawFBP can collect information.
Download DrawFBP Diagram Generator For Windows

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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Conic sections were discovered by Menaechums, a Greek mathematician, in the third or fourth century BC. He dicovered conics while he was trying to solve the problem of doubling a cube. He was the first to show that the conics could be obtained by cutting a cone with a plane. Much of our knowledge about the early history of conics is due to the works of Apollonius. Apollonius, another Greek mathematician, wrote an eight book collection titled Conic Sections in the second century BC. Apollonius supplied the names ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola to describe the shapes of the conics. The early Greeks were primarily concerned with the geometrical properties of conics. It wasn't until the 16th and 17th centuries that people began to use conics to solve pratical problems. Mathematicians and astronomers such as Copernicus, Galileo, Johann Kepler, and Issac Newton used conics to describe the motions of objects on the earth and in space.
The third way is to define the conics as a locus of points satisfying
a certain geometric property. This is the approach that we are going to
In the above diagram, V is the vertex of the parabola, D is the focus,
and d is the directrix.
if the parabola is along the vertical axis and
if the parabola is along the horizontal axis.
Here we would like the students to investigate parabolas using Algebra
Expresser and GSP. In Algebra Expresser the students would look at the standard
equation of a parabola. The students would then investigate this equation
by varying values for h,k, and a. What happens to the parabola as each value
is increased or decreased? What happens if a is negative?
For GSP construction the students would begin by constructing an arbitrary line and an arbitrary point. Now, create a point on the line by choosing the Point on Object command from the Constuct menu. Your challenge is to construct the line that represented the crease in your paper. You might want to look back at your paper folding exercise to get a clue as to how you would do this. After you construct this line, select it and choose the Trace Locus command from the Display menu. As you drag point D back and forth along line j you'll trace the outline of your curve.
Experiment with different locations of point D to see the change in appearance
of the curve you trace. Describe your findings. Also describe what happens
to the curve when you drag and rotate line j.
The vertices are located at the intersection of the line through the foci and the ellipse. The segment joining the two vertices is called the major axis and its midpoint is the center of the ellipse labeled C is the above sketch. The chord perpendicular to the major axis and passing through the center is called the minor axis.
Hands on investigations of the ellipse
Ellipse - paper folding
1. Draw a circle on the wax paper
2. Label the center of the circle C
3. Pick a point F inside the circle
4. Select a point A on the circle and fold the paper so that point A coincides with point F
5. Make a sharp crease in the paper to keep track of this fold
6. Continue this process by picking other points on the circle until you can identify the type of curve being produced.
7. Discuss the results with your classmates. What are the similarities and differences between the shapes you and your classmates have made?
In the above figure, A and B are the foci, C is the center of the hyperbola, H and I are the vertices and d(1) and d(2) are the distances to the foci from (x,y).
if the transverse axis is horizontal and
if the transverse axis is vertical.
If the transverse axis is horizontal, the equation for the asymptotes
and if the transverse axis is vertical, the equation for the asymptotes
1. Choose a point A on the incomplete hyperbola shown above. Measure the distance AF1 and AF2.
2. There is exactly one more point B on the hyperbola such that AF1=BF1 and AF2=BF2. Draw and label this point in the figure above.
3. There is at least one more point C on the hyperbola such that AF1=CF2 and AF2=CF1. Find all points meeting these conditions and draw and label them.
4. Use the above information and draw the rest of the hyperbola.
5. Compare with your classmates.
Once you are finish answer the following questions.
1. What happens when you move point F closer to the edge, closer to the center, on the circle, and outside the circle?


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Hot and cold moves of cyanide and water
September 03, 2009
Temperature determines which molecule rocks out
RICHLAND, Wash. –
Scientists have long known that molecules dance about as the temperature rises, but now researchers know the exact steps that water takes with a certain molecule. Results with small, electrically charged cyanide ions and water molecules reveal that water zips around ions to a greater extent than expected. The findings improve our understanding of a chemical interaction important in environmental and atmospheric sciences.
"One of the cornerstones of Department of Energy nuclear cleanup missions and climate research is a fundamental understanding of water and ions, one of the most common chemical interactions in the environment," said chemist Xue-Bin Wang of the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Washington State University.
"We've developed a new instrument to probe the dynamics of ions in water," Wang said. "And we've combined theory and modeling to make sense of those experiments, giving us a deeper fundamental understanding of what is happening with this ubiquitous molecule — water."
Wang, PNNL physical chemist Sotiris S. Xantheas, physical chemist Lai-Sheng Wang of PNNL and WSU, and their colleagues published the results in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A. The journal featured their work on the cover of its September 3 issue.
Thirst for Details
Environmental scientists want to know how contaminants move through watery environments below ground, and atmospheric scientists want to know how small particles flutter through water vapor in the sky. To get at the basics, they study a simpler interaction: water and ions, small atoms or molecules that have a slight electrical charge and exist everywhere in nature.
For example, when common table salt — sodium chloride — dissolves in water, the negatively charged chloride ions (Cl-) and the positively charged sodium ions (Na+) each interact separately with the water molecules.
Previous work with chloride ions and water has yielded conflicting results about how a water molecule (which is shaped like a boomerang) and a chloride ion (shaped like a ball) face each other. Other groups study barbell-shaped cyanide ions because many molecules found naturally in the environment contain cyanide. The chemical interactions of water and either chloride or cyanide are influenced by the charge and the shape of the molecules, as well as the temperature at which they find themselves.
But directly observing temperature's role in how water and cyanide ions interact has been difficult. So, the team developed a unique instrument that allowed them to precisely control the temperature down to almost absolute zero, or the temperature at which everything freezes. The team used "temperature-controlled photoelectron spectroscopy" in EMSL, the DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus, to determine how tightly one cyanide ion and one to three water molecules interact at the very low temperature of -438 F (12 Kelvin) and again at ambient temperature of 80 F (equivalent to 300 Kelvin).
The team measured the molecules' "electron binding energy" at low and high temperatures. This energy is an indication of how tightly the molecules hold onto their electrons — the tighter the hold, the stronger the bonds that will form between molecules. The team found that ones at low temperature exhibited higher electron binding energy than the ones at high temperatures, as they had expected. However, the difference between the two scenarios was greater than the team expected.
To explore the unexpected difference in energy, the researchers ran computer simulations on the Chinook supercomputer in EMSL. This also let them determine how the boomerang-shaped water and barbell-shaped cyanide faced each other. First they estimated how much energy the molecules used to take different configurations. Then they compared the computer-based estimates to the data they collected in their unique instrument at different temperatures.
The team found that the molecules behaved differently at cold and warm temperatures. At lower temperatures, the boomerang-shaped water held still while the cyanide teetered at the end of one of water's two arms. There, the cyanide flipped, sometimes pointing its carbon (C) atom towards the water's arm, and sometimes pointing its nitrogen (N). At the coldest temperature tested, -438 F, the molecules froze, with cyanide pointing its nitrogen end at the water.
Hot to Trot
At ambient temperatures, however, the barbell-shaped cyanide held steady while the water molecule rocked and flipped around the cyanide. Although the researchers were surprised at how much the water moved, the many positions water could take explained why they saw less electron binding energy than they expected at room temperature: A wiggly water means that the bond between molecules isn't that tight.
"Water can interact with cyanide's carbon or nitrogen and rock back and forth on one atom," said Wang. He added that the detail they get with this instrument is impressive. "Scientists have known for years that atoms move around when temperature rises. Now they can determine the most probable position that the molecule is in at different temperatures."
The results also explain the conflicting results with chloride ions and water, the researchers said, because of the importance of temperature on that interaction as well.
The researchers plan to follow up with studies that include many water molecules and ions at once, as well as with more complex ions than cyanide.
Other authors include PNNL's Karol Kowalski and Alfred Laubereau and Jasper Werhahn from the Technical University of Munich at Garching.
Reference: Xue-Bin Wang, Jasper C. Werhahn, Lai-Sheng Wang, Karol Kowalski, Alfred Laubereau, and Sotiris S. Xantheas, Observation of a Remarkable Temperature Effect in the Hydrogen Bonding Structure and Dynamics of the CN-(H2O) Cluster, J. Phys. Chem. A, DOI 10.1021/jp9034002.
This work was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences within the Office of Science.
Tags: Environment, Fundamental Science, EMSL, Climate Change, Chemistry, Biomolecular Science


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Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
- This article is about flavor, the sensory impression. There is another article on Flavor (particle physics) for the particle property.
Flavor (or flavour) is the sensory impression of a food or other substance. It is determined by the three chemical senses of taste, olfaction (smell), and the so-called trigeminal senses, which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat.
The contents of this article is licensed from _URL_ under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details


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Polar sky takes twinkle out of astronomers' eyes
Clear skies, again... the stellar view from Antarctica's Dome C plateau allows for images 2.5 times sharper than from anywhere else in the world. Photo: Eric Aristidi/University of NSW
It has the clearest skies on Earth. It doesn't rain, clouds are rare and the air is so still the stars never twinkle.
After a decade of searching, Australian scientists have found the best place in the world from which to watch the universe.
To get above the turbulent atmosphere that would ruin their view, the world's biggest telescopes are on mountain tops. The largest eyes on the sky, the twin 10-metre-diameter Keck telescopes, sit near the summit of Hawaii's 4200-metre Mauna Kea.
But astronomers from the University of NSW have found a better place: an Antarctic plateau 3260 metres above sea level.
They now want to prove their case by building a relatively small $10 million, two-metre-diameter telescope at the spot unromantically dubbed Dome C, 1000 kilometres from the Antarctic coast. While temperatures at the site range between minus 25 in summer and minus 85 in winter, there is little atmospheric turbulence.
"Turbulence," explained Michael Ashley, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of NSW, "is what causes stars to twinkle. Twinkling is bad for astronomy."
The scientists initially studied the South Pole but found the air overhead was far too turbulent.
Then last year scientists set up a lab at Dome C, to automatically record atmospheric conditions and photograph the sky. Over 100 days, there were clouds on just two.
The view, Professor Ashley said, allowed for images 2.5 times sharper than from anywhere else in the world.
He estimated a two-metre telescope there would compete with any $150 million eight-metre version elsewhere; and an eight-metre version would match a 30-metre $1 billion giant on the drawing board.
Because Dome C is so high above sea level, Professor Ashley said, "it literally takes your breath away. When you step on to the plateau you are suddenly exposed to this expanse of ice as far as you can see. You see the blue sky, but there is no wind. It's an amazing experience."
A fellow astronomer, Dr Jon Lawrence, also of UNSW, said: "It is one of the calmest places on Earth. There are no penguins, no wildlife, nothing but flat white snow from horizon to horizon."
Dr Will Saunders, of the Anglo-Australian Observatory, wants to build a giant 16-metre telescope at Dome C, using compressed snow ("ice-crete") as building material.
Their research on Dome C will be published today in Nature.


What is Pretzel Salt?
Pretzel salt is a coarse large-grained white salt of uniform size with no additives. The grains are rectangular shaped and flat. This ensures that they adhere to pretzels and other baked goods like bagels, focaccia, bread or hard rolls. The salt can also be used in coarse rubs, for curing meat, for salt crusted fish, pickling and for zucchini fritters.
Pretzel salt is also described non-melting. (King Arthur)
A distinctive feature of Rock-Pretzel Salt is that it has a translucent appearance (Morton Salt)
Pretzel salt is also known as coarse food grade salt.
Common substitutes for pretzel salt include: bagel salt, kosher salt, Red Diamond sea salt, rock salt, and Coarse Mediterranean Sea Salt.
Where to buy it. you can buy it online at Amazon and other independent sellers. it can also be bought in supermarkets like Walmart.
 1. Morton Salt
 2. My Spicer
Author: Liz
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Planning algorithm for training cosmonauts in ISS
We consider the problem of trainings planning on ISS. Shown that the problem is a combination of a k Partition Problem and an Assignment Problem. NP-compleeteness is proofed. A heuristic and an exact algorithms are proposed.
We consider the problem of planning the ISS cosmonaut training with different objectives. A pre-defined set of minimum qualification levels should be distributed between the crew members with minimum training time differences, training expenses or a maximum of the training level with a limitation of the budget. First, a description of the cosmonaut training process is given. The model are considered for the volume planning problem. The objective of the model is to minimize the differences between the total time of the preparation of all crew members. Then two models are considered for the timetabling planning problem. For the volume planning problem, two algorithms are presented. The first one is aheuristic with a complexity of O(n) operations. The second one consists of a heuristic and exact parts, and it is based on the npartition problem approach.
The central question that motives this paper is the problem of making up a freight train and the routes on the railway. It is necessary from the set of orders available at the stations to determine time-scheduling and destination routing by railways in order to minimize the total completion time. In this paper it was suggested formulation of this problem by applying integer programming.
We consider the problem of planning the cousmonaut's time in ISS with given set of tasks, time planning horizon and load constraints. Shown that the problem is NP-hard in a strong sense. The heuristic algorithm was proposed. Proved that proposed algorithm is exact for problem with requirement of performing all tasks. Program C++ was written and algorithm's work was qualitatively analyzed.
In this article, the fairdivision problem for two participants in the presence of both divisible and indivisibleitems is considered. Three interrelated modifications of the notion of fairdivision–profitably, uniformly and equitably fairdivisions–were introduced. Computationally efficient algorithm for finding all of them was designed. The algorithm includes repetitive solutions of integer knapsack-type problems as its essential steps. The necessary and sufficient conditions of the existence of proportional and equitable division were found. The statements of the article are illustrated by various examples.
In this paper, we will show that the width of simplices defined by systems of linear inequalities can be computed in polynomial time if some minors of their constraint matrices are bounded. Additionally, we present some quasi-polynomial-time and polynomial-time algorithms to solve the integer linear optimization problem defined on simplices minus all their integer vertices assuming that some minors of the constraint matrices of the simplices are bounded.


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It was no coincidence that as post-war reconstruction began after the Winter War in 1940, residential building was based on the single-family wooden house. At the time, wood was the only material available for housing construction on a mass scale. The small single-family house could mostly be built of wood, and as a building type was suitable to both countryside and town. Until 1956 most were built in the countryside, as until the 1950s two thirds of Finland's population was rural and because the countryside was important in terms of food production.
The first significant appearance of these type-planned houses were the 2000 partly prefabricated timber houses donated by the Swedish state scattered around the country. Domestic mass production followed shortly after, as Puutalo Oy and A. Ahlström Oy began producing prefabricated small houses, while the Finnish Union of Architects together with municipalities and ministries, started producing standard drawings for small houses. After the war, following standard drawings was also a precondition for securing a loan and a plot. In this way, the architecture of small houses was swiftly consolidated into a very uniform style, and though there were many different versions by different designers, distinguishing between them is difficult. Standard small housing designs spread across the country in the 1940s and 50s and it has been estimated that over 100,000 were built. The best known of the single-family houses of the reconstruction period is the gable roofed, wood clad, one and a half story so-called war veterans' house (rintamamiestalo).
Image: A type-planned house by Lauri Pajamies is being constructed near city of Lahti. Photographer unknown, ca. 1941 © The Finnish Museum of Photography


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A recent breakthrough in stem cell research reveals that women have the capability of creating sperm and creating offspring. The breakthrough means that infertile couples may have new hope.
"The researchers at Newcastle University say that the advance, when developed further, could help men with certain types of infertility to become fertile and even one day could enable a lesbian couple to have children that genetically would be their own. The experiment used embryo cells to produce seven baby mice, six of whom lived into adulthood, although the survivors suffered adverse events of the kind seen in cloning experiments." - Irish Health
Women Could Make Sperm
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What Makes Accelerate Different?
What separates Accelerate from other book summary programs?
The First Difference: Our Book Summary Philosophy.
There are TWO principles that shape our book summaries and make this program unique:
#1: The Insight Principle
 "Books don't change people, paragraphs do and sometimes sentences. They may lodge themselves so powerfully in our mind that its effect is enormous when all else is forgotten." – John Piper
You may forget a book's page numbers, but you'll never forget its' worldview-shaping insights.
Accelerateidentifies these paragraphs and sentences. After spending hours analyzing a book, our team extracts the key insights and then strategically presents them in a way that is easy to grasp. More than summarizing books chapter-by-chapter, we focus on maximizing reader comprehension and retention.
#2: The 20% Principle
"80% of a book's main insights are found in 20% of the pages. So without apology, I ransack books for what I can get in the little time I have in this season of life." – David Mathis
In other words, while most of a book's pages exist to illustrate and solidify a handful of main ideas, these main ideas reside within 20% of the pages. Accelerate book summaries give you access to this 20%, allowing you to quickly grasp the book.
The Second Difference: Focus on Reader Comprehension
While we're proud of the many features that are unique to Accelerate, the second main difference is our focus on reader comprehension. Rather than simply summarizing books chapter-by-chapter, our goal is to present a book's key insights in a memorable and accessible way. Our book briefs are designed intentionally to maximize learning and retention.
Additionally, knowing that we're all wired to learn differently, next year (2019) we plan to introduce accompanying audio mp3s and infographics for every book brief. We're pretty excited about that :)
Still feeling stuck? Contact Us Contact Us


Top 5 Most Scenic National Parks in Canada and Alaska
Known for their spectacular flora and fauna, Canada and Alaska continue to attract an ever-increasing number of Australian travellers each year.
Webjet Exclusives CEO Brendan Sawyers, said "The Canadian and Alaskan national parks are proving the biggest drawcard for Australian travellers as they cater for our outdoorsy and adventurous nature and provide a fascinating contrast to what we find at home."
Inspired by Australia's love of the two popular destinations, the team at Webjet Exclusives has compiled a list of the Top 5 National Parks in Canada and Alaska, and the must-see attractions in each.
Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Must see: Lake Louise
Nestled in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, Banff is home to the diamond in the Rockies' exquisite rough: Lake Louise. The world-famous pure turquoise waters are framed by jaw dropping mountains that are up to 120 million years old.
There are over 1,600 kilometres of maintained trails to choose from however the Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail is the most popular for walking, cycling and even in-line skating. The paved trail runs alongside the Trans-Canada highway and connects Canmore to Banff, incorporating numerous lookouts and stunning scenic views.
Jasper National Park, Canada
Must See: Columbia Icefield
Made up of six glaciers and stretching over 25 kilometres, the Columbia Icefield is the largest mass of ice in the Rocky Mountains. The dramatic destination is one of only two places in the world that is atop a triple continental divide (located north to the Artic Ocean, east to the Atlantic Ocean and west to the Pacific Ocean).
Luckily for travellers, it is also one of the most accessible glaciers in the world that can be seen up close with the Ice Explorer. These imposing six-wheeled passenger vehicles have been specifically designed to go over snow and ice and will have you feeling small in comparison.
Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada
Must See: Emerald Lake
 Yoho is a Cree expression of awe that gives Yoho National Park its unusual name. Established in 1886, Yoho National Park is spectacular and unique in natural beauty with 28 mountain peaks and several waterfalls including Takakkaw Falls, one of Canada's highest at 254 m. Silt carried by streams from melting glaciers leads to the largest lake in the park, Emerald Lake, and is the reason for its deep and rich turquoise colour.
Travellers can walk, paddle, or cross-country ski across the lake depending on the season. For those who want to unwind, there are plenty if spots to picnic on the lakeshore or dine in luxury at one of two restaurants nearby.
Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Must see: Tracy Arm Fjord
The Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is the largest intact temperate rainforest on earth. Nearly 17 million acres in size, it supports an abundance of fish and wildlife including all five species of Pacific salmon, Brown bears, Sitka black-tailed deer, Bald Eagles and Marbled Murrelets.
The 43-kilometre long Tracy Arm Fjord is the biggest and most dramatic natural gem within the National Forest. Best viewed by cruise ship, the inlet is very narrow, with cliffs that rise more than 900 m on either side with waterfalls cascading down. The ice in Tracy Arm interferes with the sonar sounds of whales, making it a perfect place for hundreds of harbour seals to have their pups here in the summer months.
Glacier National Park, British Columbia, Canada
Must see: Grinnell Glacier
With exceptional alpine scenery and infamous snowfall, Glacier National Park is a year-round paradise attracting hikers and ski-touring enthusiasts from around the world.
One of the most popular routes, the 16-kilometre Grinnell Glacier trail keeps getting better as you climb with elevated views over Grinnell Falls, Angel Wing, Mt. Gould, the Continental Divide and Grinnell Lake. Keep an eye out as visitors regularly spot wildlife such as mountain goats or the American Dipper, a robin-sized bird that resides year-round in many of the streams.
To book popular tours across Canada and Alaska, visit


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Learn more about Dr. Gerald R. Patterson, author, research scientist and outdoor adventurer.
Now in his eighties, Dr. Gerald R. Patterson has published two thought-provoking and beautifully written memoirs, A Guide's Tale (2009) and Free and Moving (2012). In these two books, Dr. Patterson describes how his love of the wilderness and passion for science have inspired him to explore the north country by canoe and develop new theories that have changed the field of child and family psychology. Now, for the first time, we are invited to share his incredible journey through uncharted waters.
A Guides Tale traces the beginning of this journey back to Dr. Patterson's upbringing in northern Minnesota where he was raised in a lakeside cabin with the wilderness at his back door. Through a series of stories told as though sitting around a campfire, Dr. Patterson describes how he developed the outdoor skills that were required for the rite of passage into manhood in his tight-knit family. As an adolescent and young man he worked for ten years as a canoe guide in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) of the Canadian Quetico, testing and polishing his skills. Working as a canoe guide also set the stage for him to learn about the world of ideas when he was hired by a university professor who was generous with his brandy and worldly views.
A Guide's Tale describes how serving as an infantryman in World War II provided an unexpected catalyst that changed Dr. Patterson's life forever. The GI Bill helped him attend college and earn a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Patterson soon launched his research career when several major studies were published demonstrating that the techniques he learned in graduate school were ineffective when applied to delinquent and aggressive children. Since then, he has spent a half-century developing a better understanding of the problem and designing effective interventions.
Free and Moving describes in detail his efforts to satisfy his passion both for wilderness canoeing and scientific research that can be applied to prevent and treat antisocial behavior in youth. He discovered that traveling by canoe made it possible to stay in the wilderness for at least a month during which time he could travel two to four hundred miles. In this second book the reader shares the experience of exploring rivers that flow into Hudson Bay, to retrace the fur trading routes of the voyageurs and eventually follow the migration of the Inuit in the tundra of the Northwest Territories.
Dr. Patterson's journey in science presented a very different set of challenges. His psychological research was guided by two core questions: What causes aggression in children? How can aggression be treated successfully? His emerging theory was based on observational data collected in homes, schools and laboratories. Direct observation of family interactions represented a radical departure from traditional research approaches and it stimulated the development of new theories and treatment models that have changed the landscape of modern child clinical psychology.
A Guide's Tale and Free and Moving document the unusual and compelling life story of Dr. Patterson in exquisite detail. They are a "must read" both for canoe enthusiasts and for psychologists who want to understand Gerald Patterson the man, his motivation, and his unique contribution to the professional literature.


Why Do Butterflies Eat Dirt, Poop, and Dead Things?
Written by Nancy Miorelli
The short of this answer is that butterflies have a behavior where they sit on river banks, dead stuff, or poop and lap up the salts and minerals. It's a behavior that can be seen in a few other insects like bees and flies, however is most apparent in butterflies.
Let's take a further look into how and why butterflies puddle.
Butterfly Mouths 101
Before we jump right into things, we need to first take a look at the butterfly mouthpart bits. Most of the butterfly mouth is reduced and the parts don't have a function anymore (in most butterflies). However, two parts, the maxillary galeae fused to form the butterfly tongue which is called the proboscis. It acts basically like a straw. There's another part called the legulae which is part of the labium and has a top (dorsal) and bottom (ventral). This is where the action happens
General butterfly mouthparts. Well, the ones that are important for this article.
Also, drawn on the back of a placemat in Ecuador.
Now that we've made it through the vocabulary, I can show you some cool pictures. It was previously thought that butterflies could only drink liquid due to their straw-like mouth parts. This gave rise to the question, how can butterflies drink viscous material and lap up salts from the sides of rivers?
The answer is with sponges. Little sponges. Microscopic sponges.
Remember all those fancy words a few paragraphs up? Well, now here is where we're going to talk about them some more. The proboscis is hollow inside. The two fused galeae make a channel called the ¨food canal¨since that's where the food gets sucked into. At the tip of the proboscis lie the legulae. The dorsal legulae (the one on top) forms overlapping plates where as the ventral legulae (the ones on the bottom) form tight interlocking hooks.
These legulae form the sponge at the tip of the butterfly's tongue. The liquid sticks and pools in the sponge (legulae) and then is sucked up in the food canal (galeae) by capillary action.
Monaenkova et al. 2011
Monaenkova et al. 2011
The butterfly proboscis has been around for quite some time with this sponge. In fact, it's been here since the Jurassic period but we really see a diversification in butterfly species during the Cretaceous (146MYA). This was at the same time that plants were diversifying Therefore, we think as the plants developed different types of flowers and fruits, butterflies (and moths) diversified to eat a wide range of foods. This includes rotting fruit. The sponge at the end of the proboscis allowed the butterflies to access more resources. The same sponge that opened up the rotting fruit option allowed butterflies to absorb nutrients from the soil.
Painting the Picture
Butterflies actually eat many different things. We tend to think of them as only as nectar feeders but butterflies will eat pollen, fruit, sweat, tears, and blood. Each of their microsponges have slightly different shapes based on what they eat.
butterfly tongues
Butterfly tongue shape based on what the butterflies eat
Krenn, 2010
In fact, there are several non flower feeding butterflies that solely feed on fruit. These butterflies have lots of little hairs at the end of their tongue that appear to form a flat brush. The butterflies sweep the surface with their tongue and will dab wetter surfaces. The butterflies also will spit onto their food if it's not wet enough to eat.
Why Puddle?
Isn't this one of the questions of the century.
While most species of butterflies puddle, it's usually only the males that we see puddling. Therefore, we naturally assumed that the males needed some extra nutrition to give to the females during mating. Male insects deposit a sperm packet inside the female. This sperm packet includes sperm but also has essential amino acids, salts, and proteins.
So we're assuming the butterflies are looking one or two things. Sodium (salt) and nitrogen (to build proteins).
Puddling butterfly in the Maquipucuna Ecolodge in Ecuador.
Puddling Orange Daggerwing (Marpesia berania) in the Maquipucuna Ecolodge in Ecuador.
PC: Nancy Miorelli
Despite several studies looking into it, it appears that sodium doesn't affect female reproductive success. If them males uptake a lot of sodium it doesn't seem to make the females lay more eggs. Males of the African Fruit Feeding Butterflies had smaller sperm packets and took longer to mate when depleated of sodium but again, the female's reproductive success was unaffected.
There are some other ideas that more of the eggs hatch with sperm from males that ate more sodium. There's another hyothesis that sodium helps with sperm motility but ants are known to puddle for salts also, and they don't have sperm since the foragers are females. Another idea is that sodium helps amino acid uptake in the gut which helps the insects grow bigger and faster. There is supporting evidence in aphids and skipper butterfies but Japanese beetles died with added sodium.
Aside from reproduction, it's thought that maybe the male butterflies are more active and fly more and therefore need more salts to fuel their muscles. However, this doesn't hold up consisetnly either and again ants puddle for salts and the foragers don't have wings.
Nitrogen is the other thing the butterflies are probably looking for. We don't know exactly what it's doing, but we do know that we can trace nitrogren from when a male eats it to the eggs that the female in which he mated with lays. We also know that the cockroach Xestoblatta hamata actively feeds on bird poop (which is super rich in nitrogen) right before mating.
But basically, the sum of it is that we still don't really know, although something to do with mating is probably most of the answer. We also don't know how their guts are suited to handle the uptake of these minerals but there's a possibility that not all species of butterflies puddle on all types of surfaces.
Dangerous Business, Puddling
Butterflies just sit on poop, carrion, and riverbanks for sometimes hours at a time. They're relatively docile and can often be handled. So this begs the question, don't predators eat them?
And this hasn't been looked into much either. Butterflies often puddle in groups which seems to save them from bird attacks. Butterflies feeding on poop are especially docile and it could be that they're temporarily inedible to predators.
There's also some evidence of disease transmission as the butterflies that puddle on tears transmit diseases to their vertebrate hosts.
But basically we just don't know and we need some more researchers.
If we puddle together in groups then we're less likely to be munched on by predators. PC: Nancy Miorelli
If we puddle together in groups then we're less likely to be munched on by predators.
PC: Nancy Miorelli
Butterflies sit on poop, dead things, and riverbanks to absorb minerals like nitrogen and sodium. We're not really sure why they do this, but the limited evidence we have seems to suggest it's important for mating in some way. Butterflies are able to puddle due to microsponges found at the tip of their tongue. We assume that there is some cost to puddling, but there aren't many studies on the subject. Basically, if you like butterflies, and want to go into research there's a big gaping hole in the butterfly research waiting just for you!
Puddling swallowtails. PC: Nancy Miorelli
Puddling swallowtails.
PC: Nancy Miorelli
 1. Krenn, HW. 2010. Feeding mechanisms of adult Lepidoptera: structure, function, and evolution of the mouthparts. Annual Review of Entomology 55: 307-327.
 2. Molleman F. 2009. Puddling: from natural history to understanding how it affects fitness. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 134(2): 107-113
 3. Molleman F, Zwaan BJ, Brakefield PM. 2004. The effect of male sodium diet and mating history on female reproduction in the puddling squinting brush brown Bicyclus anynana (Lepidoptera). Behavioral Ecology Sociobiology 56: 404-411
 4. Monaenkova D, Lehnert MS, Andrukh T, Beard CE, Rubin B, et al. 2011. Butterfly proboscis: combining a drinking straw with a nanosponge facilitated diversification of feeding habits. Journal of the Royal Society Interface DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2011.0392
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Akiko Sakurai (Biwa)
Português | 日本語 | Español
In this fourth program of the series of solo concerts named Music in the Castle (Música no Castelo), organized by the Japan Foundation, we will present the noble court instrument, the Biwa, with the musician Akiko Sakurai, interpreter of this instrument.
The Biwa is a stringed instrument, shaped very similarly to the European lute. Within Shintoism, it is the instrument chosen by Benten, goddess of music, eloquence, poetry, and education, but the origin of this instrument is not Japan.
The Biwa comes from a Chinese lute called Pipa, which in turn was influenced by a Middle Eastern Persian instrument called the Barbat. In Japan, the Biwa arrived from China during the Nara period (A.D. 710-759), and it was during this period that the Gagaku court orchestra entered Japan.
This type of Biwa is called Gaku-Biwa, used mainly in the Gagaku Orchestra, and is the best known type. Another type of Biwa found its way into the Kyushu region. Thinner ones, called Moso-Biwa or Kojin-Biwa, were used in ceremonies and religious rites.
However, despite its popularity, during the Ōnin War, a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, the subsequent period of war between the fiefdoms interrupted the teaching of the Biwa and decreased further with the end of Todo, a divination method created by Yokohama Marumitsu, a great defender of the Biwa music. In the Meiji period, Biwa players lost their patronage.
Furthermore, the reforms arising from the Meiji Restoration (_PHONE_) led to the massive and rapid industrialization and modernization of Japan, which shaped its development inspired by Europe and the United States, praising the Western culture; consequently, traditional arts were considered to be outdated, and the Biwa did not escape this saga.
Biwa's reproduction and manufacturing almost died out during the Meiji Period, when Western music and its instruments became popular. At the end of 1940, the Biwa, already a Japanese tradition, was almost completely abandoned with the introduction of Western instruments.
However, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Japanese musicians, interest in Biwa is being revived. Both Japanese and foreign musicians have started to embrace traditional Japanese instruments, particularly the Biwa, and their compositions. While blind Biwa singers, who had a consolidated tradition, were also not excluded, many artists began to use the instrument in traditional and contemporary ways.
Nowadays, we still have some rare period instruments that served as a model in order for the Biwa to be made in Japan. Preserved since the Nara period, similar instruments are manufactured in small numbers until today.
The Biwa music is based on a pentatonic scale (a five-tone scale or five notes), which means that each octave has five notes. This scale sometimes includes supplementary notes, but the core remains pentatonic. The rhythm in Biwa songs and narratives allows broad pulse flexibility (rhythmic tempo). The songs don't have a defined tempo, although in contemporary compositions the definite rhythm becomes present. The notes played on the Biwa generally start slow and smooth and progress through gradual accelerations, increasing and decreasing rhythm during the entire performance. The Biwa's texture combined with singing are often compared to minimalist aesthetics.
There are seven types of Biwa:
- Gagaku Biwa
A large and heavy instrument with four strings and four frets. Its plectrum is small and thin, often of round shape, and made of solid materials, such as ivory. It was not used to accompany singing, and is played laterally, like a guitar, and in a sitting position.
- Gogen Biwa
This is a Biwa with the thinnest body, which was removed from court orchestras during the 10th century, as well as from Chinese orchestras. Not to be confused with the five-string variants.
- Moso Biwa
Also with a narrower body, its plectrum varies in size and material. It was widely used by monks in Buddhist mantras.
- Heike Biwa
This is a smaller instrument than the original Biwa, with four strings and five frets, and a slightly larger plectrum. It was widely used by minstrels, travelers in the Edo period (_PHONE_), as its small size helped in the portability during their travel.
- Satsuma Biwa
With four strings, very popular during the Edo period, in Satsuma Province, present day Kagoshima, the instrument has gone through some changes in the frets, allowing for bent notes and effects. The plectrum is much larger and allows for percussive techniques, by striking it on the body of the instrument. The body is made of hardwood, such as the Japanese mulberry, though the construction process, depending on the maturation of the wood, would last for years: 10 years after the wood was cut, and from then the craft process would start. Its strings were made of silk. Tsuruta Kinshi was a great player, who developed his own style using the 5-string Biwa.
- Chikuzen Biwa
There were two models, with four strings and four frets or five strings and five frets. Popularized during the Meiji Period by Tachibana Satosada, most contemporary artists use the 5-string version. The plectrum is smaller than that of other models and its weight will depend on it being played by a man or a woman. Men also played wider instruments. The tunings varied according to the singers' songs and vocal range.
- Nishiki Biwa
This is the modern Biwa, with five strings and five frets, popularized by Suito Kinjo. Its plectrum is the same as that used in the Satsuma Biwa.
With the modern Biwa, several attempts have been made to compose not only songs of classical style, but also new songs, solos and in sets. Some songs are composed according to the classical style, but the Satsuma Biwa has a great percussive effect and is often played in modern music.
For instance, November Steps and Eclipse, by the great composer Toru Takemitsu (_PHONE_), are widely known.
The Biwa is no doubt one of the most important instruments in Japanese classical music and history. Since arriving in Japan, in the Nara period, its universe has adapted to several historical moments and different musical styles.
It is often said that the largest freshwater lake in Japan, Lake Biwa (Biwa-ko), located within Shiga Prefecture, on the island of Honshu (main island), was so named due to its shape, similar to the Biwa instrument. We also often see ceramics that represent this instrument.
Akiko Sakurai
Musician, interpreter of the Biwa and professor at the Satsuma Biwa Diffusion Association, Akiko Sakurai studied the Satsuma Biwa with Yukio Tanaka, while attending the Tokyo College of Music.
As one of the representatives of traditional Japanese music, she has performed in several countries, such as Hungary, Canada, the United States, Hawaii, China, Italy, and Indonesia.
In the United States, she participated in the APAP Festival in New York, in 2011 and 2012, presented the "Miminashi Hoichi" project, at the Metropolitan Museum, has held a workshop at The Juilliard School, and performed at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
She has also toured 40 cities in Japan, performing with Kei Ogura, a renowned Satsuma Biwa musician, singer, and songwriter.
She has actively worked in collaboration with other artists, such as Kiyoshi Hikawa, Ayako Fuji, Sayuri Ishikawa, Hashinosuke Nakamura, Mitsuyo Asaka, and GACKT, and has been on educational programs on TV networks, the radio, and schools across the country.
Throughout her career, she has earned major achievements, such as the Top Prize in the Biwa Music Competition in Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan Award, and the President NHK Award.
She came to Brazil for the first time in 2015, as an official promoter of traditional Japanese culture, performing in various Brazilian cities.
In 2018, on the 110th Anniversary of the Japanese immigration in Brazil, she played the important work of Toru Takemitsu, November Steps, an original composition for the Shakuhachi, Biwa and Orchestra, at the Municipal Theater of São Paulo. It was the first presentation of this modern composition using the Biwa and Shakuhachi in Latin America. At the time, Shen Kyomei Ribeiro played the Shakuhachi.
In the solo concert of this program, Akiko will perform two historical narratives in the storytelling style, the classic way of playing and presenting the Biwa.
Gion Shoja
The sound of the Gion Shōja bell echoes the impermanence of all things
(Gion Shoja's bells chimes, just as people stop behaving as usual.)
The color of the Sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline.
(When Buddha left, even the most prosperous elements, such as Sara Soju's flowers, wilted due to grief)
The proud do not endure.
(The same applies to the proud and arrogant, who will eventually lose their power)
They are like a dream on a spring night
(The alternation between


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Accuracy of landmark scalp blocks performed during asleep-awake-asleep awake craniotomy: a retrospective study
To the Editor,
Awake craniotomy (AC) is often performed in patients with brain tumors that are present in regions linked to language processing to minimize any damage to language functioning [1]. During ACs, scalp blocks affecting the supraorbital nerve, supratrochlear nerve, greater and lesser occipital nerve, auriculotemporal nerve, and zygomaticotemporal branch nerve enable safe surgical procedure during the awake phase of ACs [1, 2]. If the scalp block is not effective, it becomes difficult to perform any awake tasks with the cooperation of the patient, as performance is hindered due to headache.
Scalp blocks in ACs are often performed under general anesthesia; however, at our hospital, we perform scalp blocks before the patient is anesthetized to achieve less headache during the awake phase [3]. If the block effect is insufficient as no sensation reduction is demonstrated by the cold test after blocking, an additional dosage of local anesthetic can be administered. To date, no study has considered the accuracy of scalp blocks performed by landmark methods. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the accuracy of scalp blocks performed using the landmark method in ACs.
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Nagoya University (Approval number: 2020-0108). We investigated retrospective cases of ACs (n = 103) performed at Nagoya University Hospital from January 1, 2016, to May 30, 2020. We performed all scalp blocks bilaterally by landmark methods as described previously with 0.375% ropivacaine [1, 3]: 1.5–2 mL for supraorbital/supratrochlear nerves, 2–2.5 mL for greater/lesser occipital nerves, 3–5 mL for auriculotemporal nerve, and 3–5 mL for zygomaticotemporal branch nerve (total number, 206). After all of the scalp blocks were performed, we assessed the number of block failures on each side by using the cold test before induction. We compared the number of block failures using Cochran's Q test. The statistical analyses were performed with EZR (Saitama Medical Center, Jichi Medical University [4]). All data were analyzed using Cochran's Q test and McNemar test with the post hoc Bonferroni test. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
The rates of failure in the scalp blocks were as follows: supraorbital and supratrochlear nerve (n = 5, failure rate 2.4%), greater and lesser occipital nerve (n = 15, 7.2%), auriculotemporal nerve (n = 23, 11.1%), and zygomaticotemporal branch (n = 34, 16.6%).
Among these blocks, the zygomaticotemporal nerve block failure rate was significantly higher than in other nerves (P < 0.001, at the Cochran's Q test, versus supraorbital and supratrochlear nerve (P < 0.001), greater and lesser occipital nerve (P < 0.001), auriculotemporal nerve (P = 0.015)).
This study revealed the failure rate for zygomaticotemporal nerve blocks was higher than that of the other nerve blocks. The zygomaticotemporal nerve is distributed deep below the surface of the skin and can have anomalies [5, 6]; therefore, it can be difficult to anesthetize using the anatomical landmark method. Patients often suffer headaches during AC, and as the zygomaticotemporal nerve is a nerve responsible for the sensation in the surrounding temple [6], it may be the cause of temporal pain during an AC.
To improve the success rate of the zygomaticotemporal nerve, further studies assessing different blocking techniques, such as using ultrasounds, are required in the future.
Availability of data and materials
They are available as an Excel® file upon reasonable request.
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Author information
TS wrote the manuscript and contributed to the research conception and design, acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data. NK contributed to the drafting of the article. The two authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Correspondence to Takehito Sato.
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Ethics approval and consent to participate
Our study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Nagoya University Hospital (Approval number: 2020-0108). Because of the retrospective nature of this study, the requirement for informed consent was waived.
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All authors did not receive financial aid for this work and declare no conflicts of interest.
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Sato, T., Nishiwaki, K. Accuracy of landmark scalp blocks performed during asleep-awake-asleep awake craniotomy: a retrospective study. JA Clin Rep 7, 8 (2021).
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text:
Imagine working so hard being intensely focused; everything is running smoothly and right in the middle of your work, Bang!
The saw gets jammed, and the chain gets out of the place. Isn't it enough to annoy the heck out of you, right?
And the more disturbing thing is when you have to pause your work and call a mechanic every time because you have no idea how to put a chain back on chainsaw.
But why suffer when you can do all of this on your own? If you came here thinking the same thing, you just made the right decision!
Chainsaws are of different types so are their mechanisms. We have covered everything in this article, no matter what kind of chainsaw you seek to repair. So, let's get straight into it!
How to Put a Chain Back on Chainsaw in Easy Steps?
Place your chainsaw to a suitable surface and assemble all the required tools, have a look at these basic steps, and get ready to deal with the chain that is off its place.
- Disconnect the power source and loosen the two bolts holding the guide bar.
- Unscrew the chain tensioner and remove the chain.
- Before putting on the new chain, check out its direction, make sure that the teeth face the front of the guide bar, and place the chain properly.
- Put the chainsaw cover back while holding the chain in one hand and the guide bar in the other.
- Tighten the tension screws with a flat screwdriver and move it forward and backward to keep up the pace.
- Wear gloves while you do all that to keep yourself away from an injury while putting the chain back.
How to Put a Chain Back on an Electric Chainsaw?
- The first step is all about getting the old chain off the saw. To do this, you have to loosen the cutting bar that is holding the chain. There would be a knob on the right side of tool-free chainsaws that you have to turn, and in case chainsaws require tools, you'll have to deal with nuts and bolts nearby chainsaws.
- The next step is de-tensioning the chain to slack the entire chain off the cutting bar. Look for knobs near the cutting bar, and after turning them, you can get the whole chain off.
- This step is all about putting the chain back on the chainsaw. Choose the suitable chain, note the direction, and ensure that teeth are sharp enough to stay fitted ideally. Put it over the sprocket and keep it parallel to the cutting bar.
- Keep an eye on lugs if they are aligned correctly.
- Keep on tensioning the cutting bar for the time being to reach the correct tension point.
- Fasten the chain with the knobs and try moving it forward and backward to ensure reliability.
How to Put a Chain Back on Husqvarna Chainsaw?
Before everything, Plug off the Husqvarna chainsaw to prevent any sudden start-ups. Break the connection between the handle and chain brake with the handguard.
Loosen the nuts engaged with the clutch cover with a socket wrench or combination spanner.
- Remove the clutch cover along with a transportation ring holding a bolt inside.
- Put the chain out of the groove around the edge of the guide bar, detach it from the socket.
- Clean the sprocket if needed. Also, cleaning the oil ports with a finish nail or 14 gauge wire would work and put the bar back on the bolt.
- Start the fitting of the new chain from the top of the sprocket while passing through the edge of the bar ending right at the bottom of the sprocket. Keep the rims of cutting links facing forward.
- Reinstate the clutch cover and fasten the nuts.
How to Put a Chain Back on Stihl Chainsaw?
- Put off the Stihl saw and disengage the chain brake.
- Loosen the nuts holding the sprocket cover in an anti-clockwise direction until the guide bar starts wagging.
- Tighten the tension screw that is usually placed outside the guide bar on the lower and upper sides of the sprocket cover clockwise.
- Keep tensioning the chain until it is secured on the bottom of the guide bar.
- Keep moving the slight bar to the upper while tightening the nuts on the sprocket cover.
- Test the tension of the chain and make sure that it is moving smoothly.
How to put a Chain Back on a Ryobi Chainsaw?
- Once it gets loosened, Fix the chain back to the grooves gradually, keeping in mind the right direction, and position the chain accordingly.
- Take a screwdriver or flat blade nature and turn the slot present next to the chain's base.
- While putting chain back on the chainsaw, make sure that it is not too tightened nor too loose to keep up smoothly with the pace.
- Now the chain is tightened, fasten the nuts and continue with your work.
Explore: Are Ryobi Chainsaws Any Good?
How to put a Chain Back on Homelite Chainsaw?
Homelite chainsaws don't make a huge fuss and are already designed to be handled precisely by house owners that require regular maintenance.
- Detach chainsaw from any power source to prevent unexpected accidents.
- Flatten the chain and mold it in the form of a loop so that cutters are facing the direction of rotation.
- Fix the drive links into the grooves seated on the bar.
- Make the loop to get fitted around the sprocket.
- After placing the bar flush around the mounting surface.
- Adjust the bar studs on a long slit on the bar. The tension pit should already be in a pinhole.
- Replace the lock knob of the chain cover and then place it onto the unit.
- Tighten the tension knob clockwise to adjust the chain ideally.
- Before securing the chain cover knob, make sure that there is no slack left anymore to avoid any other glitches.
How to Put a Chain Back on Craftsman Chainsaw?
Being a heavy-duty chainsaw, putting the chain back on Craftsman saw might feel a little trickier than others, but you can accomplish it by following the steps below:
- Place the chainsaw on a level surface and disengage the brake by pulling the chain brake lever toward the saw handle.
- Unlatch the nuts holding the brake cover and make the chain turn freely
- Remove the guide bar plate together with the brake cover, detach the chain from the sprocket.
- Turn the tension nuts counterclockwise with the flat head screwdriver to loosen the grip.
- Pin the replacement chain around the sprocket and slide the guide bar over the two bolts
- Place the drive links onto the respective grooves while rotating the sprocket clockwise.
- Make sure that cutting edges present on drive links are facing the nose.
- Place the guide bar and chain cover back to their original position, give clockwise turns to tension to tighten the chain, and progress your work.
- Keep the fuel lines of the chainsaw away from any disturbance.
After a few trials, you would become a pro in putting the chain back on chainsaw, and then you won't have to look for a mechanic every now and then. Doing repairs on your own not only saves you time but also saves your maintenance cost, so do give it a try and get free of these side worries.
Happy working 🙂
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- How to Remove Clutch from a Husqvarna Chainsaw in 7 Steps? - January 18, 2023


text:
Purple Loosestrife (c) David McClean
A Living Landscape is our recovery plan for nature. It is a new way of thinking about how we manage land to do more for wildlife, people and the economy.
We currently live in a world where over 12% of our land mass is protected in some form or another; however, despite this, we are still experiencing a loss of biodiversity. The reason is simple: our protected sites have become isolated oases of biodiversity. Without linkages, our wildlife remains trapped within the confines of protected sites, and without buffer zones, our most valuable habitats remain vulnerable to damage outside of their boundaries.
But the challenges do not stop there; almost 10% of the Northern Ireland landscape is now classified as urban, so for our vision of A Living Landscape to be realised we must also tackle the challenges of providing for wildlife in our gardens, and in our towns and cities. We will be working with communities to undertake work in their local areas that will help wildlife to survive, even in the most developed areas.
The Ulster Wildlife vision of A Living Landscape will not just involve the recreation, restoration and reconnection of valuable habitats. It will also involve the reconnection of our local communities to the wildlife around them; it is a vision that will help us transform our fragmented landscape into an environment that is rich in wildlife and valued by all.


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Office of Child Health Equity
Learn more about our mission and our approach
To advocate for improving the health status of children while reducing health disparities in the Bay Area, California and nationally.
The Pediatric Advocacy Program at Stanford provides a coherent structure for local advocacy efforts and community partnerships at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH) and the Stanford University School of Medicine (SOM).
The advocacy program is designed to improve the coordination of child-focused advocacy activities and local programs underway at Stanford. The program strives to provide a critical base for developing new initiatives of national importance defining how a major pediatric center can support efforts to strengthen local, regional, and national child health programs and policies through innovative training and community-engaged partnerships.
What is Advocacy?
A commitment to ensuring that all efficacious health and social services are provided to all children in need. Advocacy requires more than good will; it requires both a base of knowledge derived from analytic insight and technical expertise in advocacy, which must be learned through directed educational experiences.
The Pediatric Advocacy Program seeks to provide a strong academic base for advocacy activities and recognizes the proper role of such activities within a university setting. Specifically, the objectives of the Pediatric Advocacy Program are:


White supremacy has been a global issue for years, despite the progress that has been made in regards to these kinds of hate crimes. But a few people have flipped it around on Nick Cannon as they accused him of "black supremacy" after he made lots of anti-semitic comments and discussed the history of white people.
Read on to find out exactly what he said...
Nick Cannon has really got himself into trouble here...
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After making some really disgusting comments about the Jewish community, he then went onto discuss the history behind how white people became "savages."
But why are his comments extremely problematic?
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First, let's start with the Jewish community. Despite Isreal being the only explicitly Jewish state and the only state with a Jewish majority, the overall worldwide population reaches figures of around fifteen million.
The United States is home to millions of Jewish people.
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The US has an estimated population of 5.3 million Jewish people, which is 40.2 percent of the overall Jewish population.
Judaism is an ancient Abrahamic religion.
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It encompasses the religion, philosophy, and culture of Jewish people, and it is considered by its believers to be the expression of the covenant that God established with the Children of Isreal. It contains a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization.
The Jewish community was the victim of the biggest mass-murder in history.
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The genocide of European Jews that was carried out between _PHONE_ involved Nazi Germany capturing and containing Jewish people in concentration camps across Europe.
The Holocaust caused suffering and misery to millions.
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An estimated 6 million Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust, along with 11 million others. Jews were tortured, worked to death, and killed in extremely inhumane and unconventional ways.
Memorials are found all over the world.
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The most famous memorial is found in Berlin, Germany, which contains a 19,000 square meter site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern to commemorate the millions of Jewish people who lost their lives in the Holocaust.
The Jewish community celebrates what their religion has survived.
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Despite the tragedies that generations of Jewish people have lived through, the community often to celebrates and remembers the lives of the victims of these horrific crimes, and, most importantly, they embrace the religion that they are proud to be a part of.
Supremacists still sadly exist, however.
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Despite the peaceful and private nature of religions, especially of Judaism, sick individuals around the world like to believe that they are superior and express hate and prejudice against religious people for no reason at all - well, for no reason other than their ignorance and arrogance...
And Nick Cannon has recently been under fire for doing exactly the same thing.
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The Wild 'n' Out out star has been hounded by fans and critics alike after he made some very contreversial comments on his podcast.
Without directly mentioning who he was referring to, he said this:
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"You can't be anti-Semitic when we are the Semitic people."
He continued:
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Because of these insensitive comments, he faced some severe consequences.
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Cannon was dropped by ViacomCBS in a lengthy statement after they agreed that his comments were inappropriate and had anti-semitic undertones. I mean, some of you might be thinking he hasn't made a direct "racist" comment, but do you fully understand what he's saying by making such a remark? He's promoting the idea that you can't be discriminatory.
They heavily condemned the star's words saying this:
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"ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism." His actions were heavily criticized as they continued in their lengthy statement.
They told us that we spoke to Cannon about his actions.
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And things get even worse in the same podcast he talked about the history of white people.
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Cannon claimed some very problematic things about white people too, saying that their "lack of melanin" makes them "fearful."
And this was passed down through generations.
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He was speaking in evolutionary terms meaning that their current "lack of compassion" comes from white people "in the past".
He also referred to them as "barbaric" and "savage."
Yikes, that's not a way of going about things at all, is it?
Some people took it so badly that British rapper Zuby decided he was going to call Cannon out.
"Nick Cannon has gone full black supremacist. This is 100% certified racist." This has been a rough week for the star and it continues to get worse as he faces more and more consequences.
Cannon issued a non-apology after it all happened...
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But it would have just been better to apologize for offending people.
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He continued: "I encourage more healthy dialogue and welcome any experts, clergy, or spokespersons to any of my platforms to hold me accountable and correct me in any statement that I've made that has been projected as negative." Keep scrolling to see how one blatant racist got what he deserved.


Hiring in-house counsel? Ask these three questions when assessing candidate fit
May 16, 2018
I am frequently asked to assist our in-house legal department clients in preparing them for interview with their finalist candidate(s). In particular, they often look for key questions to help identify best fit beyond a lawyer's technical or legal skill set for a given role. Here are three questions senior executives frequently explore when conducting interviews with prospective in-house counsel hires:
 1. How would you make a key decision on behalf of the organization in a situation where you were unable to reach the CEO on a time sensitive matter? Perhaps provide a recent example of an issue the leadership team faced along these lines.
This question is designed to assess how a candidate deals with making decisions they aren't normally accustomed to making. The goal is to better understand a candidate's decision process; how they arrive at a decision can be as important as the decision itself. Often, our clients are also interested to see whether a candidate introduces any safeguards to walk back a decision in the event it diverges from company objectives.
 1. How would you deal with a situation where the CEO and the board have divergent views on how to move forward on a company initiative?
This question is designed to assess how a candidate deals with conflicting senior opinions on a matter – you can easily substitute two other senior roles (CEO, CFO, COO etc.) in the question. Clients are often interested to see how a candidate balances competing organizational views against any legal obligations the company may have as it relates to the question.
 1. How do you deal with ambiguity in your decision-making process?
This question is designed to assess how a candidate fills in knowledge and/or procedural gaps as it relates to their duties as counsel. Do they aim to introduce process once a gap is identified? Do they revert to guiding/core principles for the organization? This may also shed some light on a candidate's general risk tolerance as well. We have also seen this question paired with a specific scenario to provide additional insight on how a candidate works through ambiguity in real time.
Whether you are preparing to interview a legal counsel for your company, or are a candidate preparing to be interviewed, turning your mind to these types of questions can help shed light on fit beyond the technical requirements of the role. Of course, if you are looking for further assistance in developing your hiring strategy for your next in-house counsel hire, we would welcome the opportunity to chat with you and your organization on how we might be able to assist.
Warren Smith, Managing Partner


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Stream and Download
In this interactive, students use logic and mathematical skill to place animals at the correct points on a Cartesian graph representing the cardinal directions. Then, they use the Pythagorean theorem to determine the distances between points. The riddles in the interactive, including one requiring an understanding of rate, have randomized values so that students can place points at different locations and calculate different distances. The activity provides a review of concepts related to determining the distances between points on a Cartesian graph using the Pythagorean theorem and a response sheet to help students work with the interactive. This resource is part of the Math at the Core: Middle School Collection.


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Positive Definite Matrices
This book represents the first synthesis of the considerable body of new research in positive definite matrices. Through detailed explanations and an authoritative and inspiring writing style, R. Bhatia carefully develops general techniques that have wide applications in the study of such matrices. The book begins with a quick review of some of the basic properties of positive matrices. The author introduces several key topics in functional analysis, operator theory, harmonic analysis and differential geometry, all built around the central theme of positive definite matrices. Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to a study of positive and completely positive maps and, in particular, on their use in proving inequalities. In chapter 4 the author discusses means of two positive definite matrices with special emphasis on the geometric mean. Among some spectacular applications of these ideas, the author includes proofs of some theorems in the field of matrix convex functions and two of the most famous theorems in the field of quantum mechanical entropy. Chapter 5 gives a quick introduction to positive definite functions on the real line. Again, special attention is given to various means of matrices. Many of these results come from recent research work. Chapter 6 presents some standard and important theorems of Riemannian geometry as seen from the perspective of matrix analysis. Notes and references are appended to each chapter.
The textbook is an informative and useful reference book for mathematicians and other researchers and practitioners. The numerous exercises and notes also make it ideal for graduate-level courses.


Spending cuts—not tax hikes—to balance Alberta's budget
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Appeared in the Edmonton Journal, October 8, 2019
Spending cuts—not tax hikes—to balance Alberta's budget
As the Kenney government's first budget approaches, some pundits and analysts are calling for higher taxes to help shrink the Alberta's deficit. These calls are ill-advised. Instead of hiking taxes, the government should stick to its guns and tackle the deficit by reforming and reducing provincial spending.
Following the release of the MacKinnon report on Alberta's public finances, which called for a path to balance over four years based entirely on spending restraint, calls for new or higher taxes became louder and more frequent. Journalists, pundits and some academics asked the question—why focus entirely on spending restraint instead of raising taxes to balance the budget? And more specifically, why not implement a sales tax, which exists in every other province except Alberta?
To be sure, there's a reasonable argument for an HST in Alberta. It is, after all, a relatively less-economically harmful tax than most others. But this policy change should not be used to shrink the deficit. Indeed, any new sales tax should be "revenue-neutral," matched with dollar-for-dollar cuts in either the corporate income tax or personal income tax to help the economy grow.
But even introducing an HST to help shrink the deficit, without such corresponding tax cuts, would unnecessarily impede Alberta's economic recovery. In reality, trying to reduce the deficit through higher taxes would be an economically-harmful strategy. There are better ways to reduce the deficit with an eye on economic growth and job creation.
In other words, if the purpose of a new HST is to replace more harmful taxes and make the tax system more efficient, that's fine. If it's intended as a partial solution to the deficit, it should be a non-starter.
The economic case for slaying deficits by reducing spending—instead of generating more tax revenue—is sound (as Harvard economist Alberto Alesina's work shows). Higher taxes create a headwind that would interfere with the province's economic recovery, which would make getting out of the fiscal hole even harder. Spending reductions, on the other hand, can help fill the gap without similar negative economic consequences.
Back to the original question posed by some pundits. Given the size of Alberta's deficit, is it practical to focus on just one side of the ledger instead of both? Can Alberta really slay the deficit without raising taxes?
The answer is, emphatically, yes. As the MacKinnon Report shows, Alberta spent $2,451 per person more on government program spending than the average spent by the three largest provinces in Canada. Reducing spending to that average rate would save the province $10.4 billion per year—enough to easily erase the deficit. The MacKinnon report further shows that a nominal spending freeze over four years will be enough to eliminate the deficit. And our own analysis shows that if the government went further and reduced spending by approximately three per cent annually over the next three years, it could balance the budget ahead of schedule while also creating room for economy-boosting tax cuts including reductions to personal income tax rates, a crucial area where Alberta has become less competitive in recent years compared to several U.S. energy-producing states.
Of course, spending reductions aren't as simple as waving a magic wand. But previous governments in Canada, of all political stripes—Romanow's NDP in Saskatchewan, Chretien's Liberals in Ottawa and Klein's Tories here at home—all made much deeper cuts in much shorter time periods, successfully solving even worse fiscal challenges than Alberta faces today.
Alberta's fiscal problems today are serious but not impossible to solve, and they can—and should—be addressed without tax hikes.
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text: Can anybody elaborate on the insulating fluid, or point me to a good source which can? This is why I ask: First, we must remember that the Earth is rotating at about 1,666 km/h about its axis. Second, the Earth is orbiting the sun at about 107,000 km/h. The sun is moving through space at about 792,000 km/h. And, it is claimed that the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is hurling through space at about 2,000,000 km/h. But ultimately, nothing is stationary. So... "If a stationary point charge, whether it be a positive or a negative charge, exhibits an electric field, and a moving charge creates a magnetic field, then how can this be true if we are already moving through space at phenonemenal speeds? You see, even though point charges are stationary from our point of view, in reality they are moving through space at phenomenal speeds. So, if the'supposedly' stationary point charge exhibits an electric field, then exactly what is the electric field given that the point charges are not stationary?" And, no, this is not me constructing or promoting my own theory. This is based on experiments performed and accepted by the community by Sir William Crookes. I'm looking for some intelligent follow ups to Crooke's ideas.


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This is different than SUM. A COUNTIF allows you to gather the total number of incidents, where a SUM totals numbers.
For example, let's say you wanted to know the number of times a driver went over 140 kph. You could set up a formula like the one below, where F9:F11 refers to the speed for each row. The result would be the number of times the incident occurred.
SUMIFS and COUNTIFS: The Multiple Criteria Paradigm
So far, the formulas discussed work when there is only one criteria to meet. What happens when you need to set multiple requirements? This is when SUMIFS and COUNTIFS come into play. These formulas are an extension of the basic SUMIFS and COUNTIFS by allowing the specification of multiple criteria and only the rows that meet all the desired criteria will be taken into account.
The syntax for SUMIFS is:
While the syntax for COUNTIFS is:
=COUNTIFS,(criteria_range1,criteria1, [criteria_range2,criteria2], …)
In the above syntax examples, the fields with square brackets are optional. It is also important to note that you must at the very least have one criteria set but you can have any number of criteria.
Now that we know how to write these formulas, we can fulfill the requirement mentioned previously, which was to obtain the total driving duration during work hours for only a subset of your fleet. To illustrate: let's assume that we want to get the total driving duration for the vehicles that are part of the Trucks group in MyGeotab.
In the formula below, H9:H11 refers to the cells that contain each trip duration, this is what will be summed when all the criteria is met. The cells C9:C11 refer to the vehicle's groups, here we check against Trucks, and finally the cells L9:L11 refer to the work hours, much like in an earlier example.
There are many other ways you can manipulate strings. Here is a good resource to help immerse yourself in all things Excel: Mr. Excel.
In fleet management especially, custom fleet management reporting is key to unlocking more value from your data. Getting to know your data better can help you achieve those fleet safety, compliance, or productivity goals.
In this post, I've barely scratched the surface. Excel has so much more to offer. There are hundreds of functions that you can use in Excel. Combine that with the ability to create your own custom formulas, Excel becomes a powerful management tool.
Author: Mauricio, Engineering Support Manager – Geotab Inc
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MIT Technology Review
Would a Universal Basic Income Be Good for the Economy?
A study from the Roosevelt Institute has concluded exactly that. It suggests that a government handout to every American of $12,000 a year, no strings attached, would boost the U.S. economy to the tune of a cumulative 12.5 to 13 percent over eight years. The report also says it would create more jobs.
Okay, time for the massive grain(s) of salt: the report's view is highly controversial, for a couple of reasons. First, the economic model it uses assumes that the U.S. economy is sitting in a state of artificially low demand. One reason for this, some economists think, is that income inequality has led a few rich people to hoard a disproportionate amount of wealth, instead of spending it, which acts to have a chilling effect on economic activity. (This is a view most notably espoused by Thomas Piketty—see "Technology and Inequality.") Assuming that's the case, a huge cash infusion from the government might be worth it because, the model suggests, it would lead to economic growth worth around $2.5 trillion, as well as the creation of millions of jobs. As Vox points out in its analysis of the report, though, this is an opinion that many economists disagree with.
A second assumption is potentially even more misleading. The Roosevelt Institute assumes that people given a basic income would not be inclined to work less. They cite several small-scale studies that support this. But as we have written before in an in-depth look at the impact a universal basic income would have in the U.S., the evidence is murky at best. That makes such a scheme incredibly risky—both from a labor standpoint and, if the return in economic activity is no guarantee, for its overall pricetag.