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Suppose $p = 2^n - 1$ is prime. Show that $n \: | \: 2^n - 2$, or equivalently $n \: | \: p - 1$.
With hint: The order of any element in this field divides $p-1$.
Example: $n=7, \; p=127 \:\Rightarrow\: 7 \: | \: 126$.
I don't have any progress that seems to lead to a proof, but here are some of my ideas:
 - Because $p$ is a Mersenne prime, $n$ must be prime
 - Use Fermat's little theorem
 - Show that $2^n - 2 \equiv 0 \mod n$
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3 Answers 3
You have mentioned ingredients that lead to a proof. As you point out, the number $n$ must be prime, so we can use Fermat's Theorem.
There are a couple of different versions of Fermat's Theorem. Each version is not difficult to derive from the other.
Version 1: If $n$ is prime, then for any integer $a$, we have $a^n \equiv a \pmod n$. This says directly that $n$ divides $a^n-a$, which is exactly what you want to show, in the special case $a=2$.
Version 2: If $n$ is prime, and $n$ does not divide $a$, then $a^{n-1} \equiv 1 \pmod n$.
In your case, $n$ is odd, so if $a=2$, then $n$ does not divide $a$. It follows that $n$ divides $2^{n-1}-1$, and therefore $n$ divides twice this number, which is $2^n-2$.
However, you were given a hint which enables us to bypass Fermat's Theorem. So probably you were expected to argue as follows.
Since $p=2^n-1$, certainly $p$ divides $2^n-1$, so $2^n \equiv 1 \pmod p$. That implies that the order of $2$ in the field $\mathbb{Z}_p$ is a divisor of $n$. But the order of $2$ is exactly $n$, since $n$ is prime, and therefore the only divisors of $n$ are $1$ and $n$.
The order of any element of the field $\mathbb{Z}_p$ divides $p-1$. Since the order of $2$ in this field is $n$, we conclude that $n$ divides $p-1$, that is, $n$ divides $2^n-2$.
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You said "$p$ divides $2^n-1$, so $2^n \equiv 1 \pmod p$". How does this step work? – Nayuki Minase Feb 27 '12 at 6:31
_USER_ Minase: We say that $x\equiv y \pmod m$ if $m$ divides $x-y$. Take $x=2^n$, $y=1$, $m=p$. Since definitely $p$ divides $2^n-1$ (in fact is exactly equal to $2^n-1$), we have $2^n\equiv 1 \pmod p$. – André Nicolas Feb 27 '12 at 6:38
Ohh right, I understand now. I guess I'm not comfortable enough with modular arithmetic that such an elementary fact slipped past me, heh. – Nayuki Minase Feb 27 '12 at 6:40
Alternate explanation: $p$ divides $2^n-1$, so $2^n-1$ divided by $p$ leaves no remainder, thus $2^n-1 \equiv 0 \mod p$. – Nayuki Minase Feb 27 '12 at 6:42
_USER_ Minase: I can see why it is puzzling, in a sense it is *too simple. One expects to have to work a bit to show that a congruence holds. In this case, there was no real work involved. – André Nicolas Feb 27 '12 at 6:44
up vote 0 down vote accepted
Simpler answer:
Let $n \in \mathbb{N}^+$ be arbitrary. Let $p = 2^n-1$.
Clearly, $2^n \equiv 1 \mod {2^n-1}$. Moveover, $n$ is the smallest power where $2^n \equiv 1$. Thus the order of 2 in $\mathbb{Z}_{p}$ is $n$.
Now if $p$ is prime, then Fermat's little theorem guarantees that for any $a$ (except 0), $a^{p-1} \equiv 1 \mod p$. Furthermore, the order of $a$ divides $p-1$.
$a=2$ has order $n$, therefore $n$ divides $p-1 = 2^n - 2$, as wanted.
Complicated answer:
Fact: $x^{ab} - 1 = (x^a - 1)(x^{(b-1)a} + \ldots + x^{3a} + x^{2a} + x^a + 1)$. So for the special case of $2^n-1$, if $n$ is composite then $2^n-1$ can be factored. By contrapositive, if $2^n-1$ is prime then $n$ is prime.
Fermat's little theorem: If $q$ is prime, then $\forall a \in \mathbb{Z}, \; a^q \equiv a \mod q$.
Now, $n \: | \: 2^n - 2$ is equivalent to saying that $2^n-2$ is a multiple of $n$, or $2^n-2 \equiv 0 \mod n$.
We established that $n$ must be prime. By applying FLT with $a=2$, we get $2^n \equiv 2 \mod n$, which is easily equivalent to $2^n - 2 \equiv 0 \mod n$.
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Hint $\rm\: prime\: P,\: A^P\!\! = 1 = A^K\!\Rightarrow A^{(P,\:K)}\!\!=1,$ so $\rm\: P| K\ $ [if $\rm (P,K) = P$]$\:$ or $\rm\: A\! =\! 1\:$ [if $\rm (P,K) = 1$]
For further detail see this question: If the order divides a prime P then the order is P (or 1).
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Why are all your variables in uppercase? – Nayuki Minase Mar 2 '12 at 5:05
_USER_ It makes expressions in exponents easier to read. – Bill Dubuque Mar 2 '12 at 5:25
Other than that, I'm sorry but I don't understand your argument at all. – Nayuki Minase Mar 2 '12 at 6:34
_USER_ Do you not understand the proof in the hint, or do you not understand how it applies to your case? – Bill Dubuque Mar 3 '12 at 1:08
I didn't understand how your answer fits with my question. Please see the other answers as examples of proofs that I did understand. – Nayuki Minase Mar 3 '12 at 23:33
Your Answer


text:
Case Study: Implementation of 10 wedges
The scenario chosen for this case study used 10 wedges to reduce carbon emissions. The value "10" was entered into the spreadsheet (see the (1) in the figure bbelow) and the required emissions for 2061 entered as an equation (2).
25.85 Gt C - 10 Gt C = 15.85 Gt C
As shown in the table below, with only 10 wedges, the carbon dioxide emissions are expected to double and the CO2 concentration (534 ppm) is well above the target of 350 ppm. The following graphs confirm that the climate mitigation goals (green lines) are not met with this mitigation strategy (red lines).
The projected global average temperature anomaly was evaluated by reviewing results compiled from the EdGCM global climate model. Based on these results, the temperature will continue to change nearly 4°C over the 21st century (relative to the _PHONE_ baseline). This would be in addition to the ~0.5°C change between the late 1800s and the late 20th century for a total of ~4.5°C temperature increase. This is clearly much greater than the suggested goal of 2°C.
The choice of mitigation wedges can be based on your expectations for feasible solutions, distribution of strategies between electricity, fuel, forests, etc., and total cost. The worksheet below shows an example of the information that should be entered into the worksheet for each wedge.
Example Wedge Worksheet listing

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Reactions - Not Distractions
The Stony Brook University Police Department is campaigning for a safer campus community. Whether you're a driver or a pedestrian, individuals can take control of distractions that are often times harmful and threaten the safety of everyone. Help us make our roads and our community safer for everyone. Make the pledge to stop distractions.
What is Driver and Pedestrian Distraction?
A distraction is any activity that shifts attention away from the primary task: walking or driving.
Driving While Distracted (DWD)
- Distraction from cell phone use while driving (hand held or hands free) extends a driver's reaction time as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of.08 percent.
- The number one source of driver inattention is use of a wireless device.
- Drivers that use cell phones are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.
- 10 percent of drivers aged 16 to 24 years old are on their phone at any one time.
- Driving while distracted is a factor in 25 percent of police reported crashes.
- Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent.
When using a cell phone, pedestrians commonly:
- Walk slower
- Are less likely to notice other objects in their environment
- Select smaller crossing gaps in traffic
- Are less likely to look at traffic before starting to cross the road
- Are less likely to wait for traffic to stop
- Are less likely to look at traffic while crossing the road
- Are more likely to walk out in front of an approaching car
Using electronic devices like cell phones and MP3 players while walking can increase your likelihood of being involved in a motor vehicle accident. Pay attention to your surroundings and avoid distractions. No plan or strategy guarantees your safety; all you can do is remain cautious and take no unnecessary chances. The more careful you are, the safer you will be.
Pledge Your Support
The first step in putting an end to distracted walking/driving is to pledge your support and cooperation. Sign our pledge. Please share this information with your family and friends and encourage them to pledge their support as well.
Campus Safety. It's our job, but it's everyone's responsibility.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
In somewhat simpler terms, static friction
is why your keyboard
doesn't move across the desk
while you type on it, and why everything you touch doesn't go flying
across the room. It's also why car
s have low gears and why you can keep your balance
standing on the ground.
Static friction is like a threshold force that has to be overcome in order for an object to move. Your keyboard is not moving while you type on it (well, it is, but infinitesimally). But if you firmly push the keyboard from one of its sides, it will slide a short ways. The minimum amount you have to push in order to make it move is essentially equal to the force of static friction (with adjustments for gravity, etc).
How much static friction is there for an object? It depends mostly on the object's weight. The weight of an object is determined not only by its mass, but also by the force of gravity, as well as all other forces acting in the vertical axis. The table that the keyboard is resting on exerts an upward force on the keyboard. It has to, if you think about it -- otherwise, the keyboard would simply sink into the table. This is an example of Newton's third law: "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." The force of the table pushing upward on the keyboard is called the "normal force" (in physics and mathematics, the word "normal" is used to mean "perpendicular"). The normal force is equal to the object's weight, and acts in the opposite direction of the weight. This is why you can easily slide the keyboard across the table, but you cannot easily slide a parked car that has its brakes on. The weight of the car makes the force required very large.
Briefly consider the normal force exerted on the keyboard by the table or desk. It would be equal to the keyboard's weight, which is equal to the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s^2) times the mass of the keyboard (1.3 kg, for a typical keyboard). Remember that force is measured in newtons, and is equal to the mass of an object times its acceleration. So we have:
W = (9.8 m/s2)(1.3 kg) = 12.74 N
The normal force is therefore:
N = -W = -12.74 N
There is one more factor to consider before we can calculate the static friction, which is both obvious and a pain. Different objects have different degrees of slipperiness. It takes much less force to get a 1.3 kg block of ice moving across the table than a 1.3 kg block of plastic (like a keyboard). Similarly, it takes more force if the keyboard has sandpaper on the bottom instead of a piece of plastic. This difference is reflected in a quantity called the "coefficient of static friction". It does not vary with an object's weight, but with the material it is made out of. The only way to determine the coefficient of static friction for a particular object is to consult a table or conduct an experiment. Furthermore, we would also need to figure out the coefficient of static friction for the table as well, since the bottom of the keyboard and the top of the table are in contact. Coefficients of friction get smaller as objects get slipperier. Teflon on teflon is very close to 0, while sandpaper on sandpaper is very large. We will disregard the coefficient of static friction for the table in this small example, assuming it to be close to 0*. The coefficient of static friction for the bottom of the keyboard might be around.4**.
The force of static friction is equal to the coefficient of static friction times the normal force:
f = μN = (.4)(-12.74 N) = -5.09 N
Note that the coefficient of friction was unitless, because it's only a coefficient by which to increase or decrease the action of the normal force. According to this calculation***, you would need to exert around 5.09 newtons of force sideways on the keyboard to make it move.
An experiment to figure out the coefficient of static friction for two surfaces could be as follows:
- Gather up a block (made of material A), a pulley, a bunch of weights, a rope or string, and a scale, plus a horizontal surface made of material B.
- Determine the mass of the block by weighing it on the scale, and multiply by gravity (9.8 m/s2 to calculate the weight.
- Tie one end of the rope to the block.
- Put the block on the surface (which needs to be elevated above the ground -- on a table is perfect. Of course, you can measure the coefficient for the table itself).
- Run the rope through the pulley and dangle it over the edge of the table.
- Add weights to the dangly end until the block just begins to move.
- Record the amount of weight you had to add, then add weights on top of the block, and repeat.
- Divide the added-weight numbers by the weight of the block. These are approximate coefficients of static friction (if you performed the experiment correctly) for surface A against surface B. Average them to get a better approximation.
This is only one method for determining the coefficient of static friction. More accurate methods are available.
This is inaccurate.
This is inaccurate -- I guesstimated.
The results of the calculation are grossly inaccurate for the real world, but correct in principle. The force REALLY required could be anything, as many factors have been glossed over or assumed out of existence.


The Balloon Bar
The Balloon Bar is a café/restaurant located in the University of Bristol's Students Union. In collaboration with a team of Master's students, The Balloon Bar took part in a pilot to measure and identify food waste.
During the seven day pilot, using the tracking sheet and calculator tools available, The Balloon Bar produced 60kg of food waste, at a projected annual cost to the business of £4,160.
This food waste is the equivalent cost of 16 full English breakfasts or 30 jacket potatoes on The Balloon Bar's menu.
The majority of food waste produced at The Balloon Bar came from plate waste (64%).
The majority of staff at The Balloon Bar were concerned about the amount of food they wasted.
Time pressure and a lack of awareness about best practice were barriers identified by staff.
Work out how much the food thrown away is costing your business.
"We undertook the food waste tracking pilot with the environmental aspect of reducing waste in mind using the materials also helped us in our goal to reduce costs and to be as cost effective as possible."
Feedback from The Balloon Bar's
A key challenge was the proportion of casual staff at The Balloon Bar.
Increasing employee engagement and gaining managerial commitment are key drivers to successful implementation.
Inside the restaurant
Since completing the pilot, The Balloon Bar has removed the salad from the buffet due to wastage levels (salad remains available as a menu option).
This will reduce spoilage waste, as well as gaining cost savings.
The pilot highlighted the importance of menu development and portion control in reducing edible food waste. The Balloon Bar plans to have a greater focus on these themes in the future.
Carrying out a food waste tracking pilot at The Balloon Bar has helped to generate useful insights as to the factors which may best help successful implementation in Universities. These include:
Target the materials at higher level catering managers and provide guidance on combining food waste and food safety policies. This will help drive managerial commitment and ensure that reducing food waste is led from the top.
Use managers and/or supervisors as your food waste reduction Champions in catering outlets with casual employees. This will help staff engagement.
Create visual aids and prompts for catering outlets that encourage staff. Getting creative can help prompt staff to help reduce food waste.
Consider encouraging staff to engage with the University's Green Impact scheme. This will help incentivise staff to reduce food waste.
Run another pilot of the materials in a catered halls setting. This will generate new insights, as the complexities of this environment will differ from those observed in The Balloon Bar.


text:
If you live near a major roadway, you may want to pay close attention. A new study has found a link between the onset of dementia and the proximity of your residence to highway traffic.
It's no secret that common air pollutants, particularly those associated with auto traffic, are bad for our health. But a team of researchers from Public Health Canada wanted to find out how these pollutants affect our brains. For the study, researchers tracked almost 7 million adults between the ages of 20 and 85 who lived in Ontario between 2002 and 2012. Using postal codes, they were able to determine which people lived near major roadways, with "major" defined as the equivalent of an interstate highway based on daily traffic volume. The team then compared this data with each person's medical records, looking specifically for three neurodegenerative conditions — Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and dementia. The team's findings were published in The Lancet.
Researchers didn't find a link between living near a highway and a person's likelihood of developing Parkinson's or multiple sclerosis, possibly because the overall likelihood of developing these conditions is so small. But they did find a connection between living near a major roadway and a person's chances of developing dementia.
"There is something different going on with dementia," said Ray Copes, chief of environmental and occupational health at Public Health Ontario and a co-author of the study.
The numbers make the risk clear
Copes and his team found that living within 50 meters (about 164 feet) of a major roadway increased a person's chances of developing dementia by 4 percent. That likelihood decreased as the residential distance from the roadway increased. Those who lived 100 meters (328 feet) away from a major road were 4 percent more likely to develop dementia while those who lived between 101 and 200 meters (as far as a tenth of a mile away,) had an increased risk of 2 percent. Beyond 200 meters, the increase in dementia risk was negligible.
The link between dementia risk and residential proximity to a major roadway held strong even after researchers adjusted for factors such as education, body mass index, smoking or socioeconomic status. Next up, researchers are hoping to determine if there's one particular pollutant that is responsible for the link, or if noise plays a role.


Should A Brain Be Super-Charge?
The brain, sometimes it's up all night, and sometimes it's snoring away. Sometimes, it needs coffee to get that extra boost of wakefulness, but too much coffee it goes jittery. When it's malfunction, it either gets duller or just pure dangerous. It makes that thing a you, and so greed, ambition, and needs would just creep into self. Nobody would understand why the brain is so useful and yet so mysterious. Sure, scientists have had taken a close look at the brain, but to fully understand it would not be possible as we speak. Nonetheless, this has yet to discourage the science community to explore how to fully map and understand every details of a brain. They, the brainiacs, want to be able to enhance the brain for coloring a humanity future. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which side you're with, there are people who oppose the idea of marrying technology with brain, because they think the brain itself should be pure as how it has been through eons for humanity sake. A jolt of electricity to make the brain smarter would be a no no to these folks. Matrix's brain-hack style would definitely be heretical. The brainiacs though, would want to use technology to enhance, modify, and tinker with the brain so it would go super smart and super useful. Will the brain make a self less of a self if it's going super-charge? Check out the discussion of super-charging a brain in the video right after the break. Enjoy!!!
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text:
Addressing sentencing of fraud under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, P.1
Sentencing is an important aspect of any criminal cases, and is a time when effective advocacy can have a significant impact on the ultimate outcome of a case. Judges have discretion to consider a variety of factors when issuing sentences, and there is a lot of room for defendants to advocate for themselves and potentially influence the outcome of their case.
Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, sentencing for fraud charges depends partly on the amount of money involved, typically the loss to victims. The approach was established as a way to achieve equality in sentencing, and economic loss seems to be an objective measure.
The problem, as some have pointed out, is that there are many factors that go into the dollar amounts involved in fraud schemes and using them as a basis for sentencing equality is somewhat precarious from the standpoint of sentencing equality.
Since the sentencing guidelines were ruled in 2006 to be non-binding, judges have become freer to exercise judicial discretion in their use of the guidelines, meaning they may depart from the outcome the guidelines would provide if they feel circumstances warrant a different outcome.
In some cases, those convicted of fraud have been served with rather lenient sentences in light of the circumstances. That being said, the guidelines do exercise a significant influence in most cases and it is important for defendants to be prepared to address the guidelines in the sentencing process to ensure full and effective advocacy.


text:
To increase student learning, new reform initiatives are emphasizing connections between and among STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects. But there has been little research on how best to integrate the subjects or what factors would make this approach most successful.
A new report released by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council reviews this issue and offers recommendations for a research agenda to advance our understanding of integrated STEM education. NYSCI President and CEO Margaret Honey, who co-wrote the report, said "the potential for fostering the natural connections among the four STEM subjects for the benefit of students is exciting. By guiding the future efforts of teachers, practitioners and others who are focused on STEM education, this report can help improve integrated approaches to STEM learning."


text:
Marooned on a desert island with a limited food supply, children investigate the properties and make-up of common foods. Investigations of water content, fat content and the roles of starch and gluten in flour all contribute to the overall question of what constitutes a "balanced" diet. Instructional material.
Explore It! is a series of exploratory science experiences for out-of-school programs and elementary school students (ages 8-12), funded by the National Science Foundation and developed by Education Development Center, Inc. Explore It! includes a guide for each project and a special guide for implementing the program. These extended explorations provide an experiential foundation for science concepts associated with basic phenomena and helps develops essential skills for inquiry in the formal context.
Instructional materials only.


American West Module 3: Conflicts and Conquest, 1876-95
In this module you will revise;
 1. Changes in farming, the cattle industry and settlement (The impact of new technology and farming methods, changes in farming including; the winter of 1886-87 and the end of the open range, Continued growth of settlement; the Exoduster movement and Kansas (1879), the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893)
 2. Conflict and tension (How effective were the solutions to problems of law and order; Sheriffs and marshals, Significance of Billy the Kid, OK Corral (1881), Wyatt Earp, the Johnson County War of 1892, conflicts at; The Battle of Little Big Horn (1876) and Wounded Knee Massacre (1890))
 3. The Plains Indians; the destruction of their way of life (The hunting and extermination of the buffalo, reservations, changing government attitudes towards the Natives, including the Dawes Act (1887) and the closure of the Indian Frontier)


- | Is Elite Sport Becoming a Platform for Targeting Transgender Athletes?
Is Elite Sport Becoming a Platform for Targeting Transgender Athletes?
article by Ryan Storr
Tennis champion Martina Navratilova recently called the participation of transgender women in elite female sporting competitions "insane" and "cheating".
And she's not alone. Several other prominent women athletes have also used social media, mainly Twitter, to voice their concern about the eligibility of transgender women in sport, including former British swimmer Sharron Davies, double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes, and former long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe.
There is an inherent contempt that lies within these statements, and it impacts more than just trans athletes. It can impact the integrity of public discourse by reducing the debate to be about whether trans women are "real women", and we need to move past this crude and destructive rhetoric.
Here, I use the term trans as an umbrella term to include all identities within the trans community, such as transgender and transitioned athletes.
What is the debate really about?
So why have we revisited this discussion in recent weeks? We are witnessing a broader movement against the trans community.
Australian gay rights activists Dennis Altman and Jonathan Symons call it the "queer wars" in their book of the same title. They explain how resistance to LGBTI issues across the globe is being used by governments and religious leaders to uphold traditional values, and increased polarisation towards LGBTI rights.
In recent years, we saw bathrooms used as a platform for division in the US. In 2016, North Carolina became the first US state to introduce a law prohibiting transgender people from using the restroom corresponding to their gender.
Then, in Australia, the Australian Christian Lobby suggested a "yes" vote for marriage equality would lead to boys wearing dresses to the detriment of society.
And the UK saw backlash against a youth trans charity, called Mermaids, where half a million pounds of funding was disputed.
It seems sport is now being used as yet another tool to incite fear and hatred towards the trans community.
Some male commentators have raised concerns that the integrity of women's sport is at risk. But where have these so-called male champions of change been in advancing women's sport in recent years?
Another commonly-cited issue is that men might identify as women to reap rewards in competition. There have been no reported cases of men transitioning to women to earn money and dominate podiums. It is simply a myth.
Do trans polices in sport work?
The introduction of the International Olympic Committee's policy on trans athletes in 2003 – amended in 2013 to remove surgical requirements and introduce a minimal level of testosterone – has led to no publicly out trans athletes competing at the Olympic games.
At the Commonwealth Games, trans weightlifter Laurel Hubbard qualified, but had to withdraw due to injury.
Therefore, the perception that trans women are, and will, dominate women's elite sport is not supported with any clear evidence.
UK research also found, after reviewing a series of trans policies in elite sport: "the majority of these policies were unfairly discriminating against transgender people, especially transgender females".
If we are to start scrutinising the ethics and integrity around cheating and enforcing a level playing field, there are many other places we could start.
Match fixing, illegal gambling markets, substance abuse, and corruption have been found to exist within local grassroots matches in Victoria. Issues around ball tampering, match fixing at various levels of tennis, doping within various sporting codes, and salary cap breaches have also been reported at the elite level.
Particularly in women's sport, there is a disproportionate allocation of funding and resources compared to men's sport, a gross lack of media coverage, and women continue to fight for equal pay.
Advancing trans and gender diverse inclusion in sport
New guidelines and policies are being introduced from various sporting codes in the coming year in Australia.
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission led the way with updated guidelines last year, but the most prominent policy to be released soon will be the Australian Human Rights Commission and Sport Australia's guidelines for Trans and Gender Diverse Athletes in Sport. This will likely be adopted by most sporting codes in Australia.
But as the debate continues, it is important we hear from trans athletes. No trans person has the same transition experience and there is great diversity among the trans community. We also need to understand the wider impact of negative commentary against this community.
What we have seen so far from the Olympic movement is promising in promoting trans inclusion in sport. The International Olympic Committee released mini documentariesabout trans athletes in sport, and Tokyo 2020 is set to have gender neutral bathrooms.
We must remember that sport is a human right, and should be accessible to everybody, regardless of gender identity.
Ryan Storr is a Lecturer and Academic Course Advisor n Sport Development at Western Sydney University. He Recently completed his PhD at Victoria University, whereby his thesis explored how community sports clubs respond to diversity and engage in diversity work. He has have led several recent research projects, specifically around LGBTI+ inclusion within sport, with the most recent being a funded evaluation exploring the current level of LGBTI+ inclusion within an Australian sporting code. Ryan is also the co-founder and director of LGBTI+ sport charity Proud 2 Play.
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Monarchy of Sierra
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This article is a B-class article. It is written to a good standard. This article is a part of Altverse.
King/Queen of Sierra
Rey/Reina de Sierra (es)
Roi/Reine du Sierra
黃金王國國王/女王 (zh)
黃金王國國王/女王 (tn) Vua/Nữ hoàng của Sierra (vn)
시에라의 킹/퀸 (kr) シエラの王/女王 (ja)
König/Königin von Sierra (de)
Coat of arms of Sierra.svg
Elizabeth II 2018.jpg
Elizabeth II
since June 21, 2015
Style Her Royal Majesty
Heir presumptive Marc, Prince of Sonora
First monarch Charles I
Formation November 28, 1858
Residence Flag of Gold Coast.svg Occidental Palace
Porciúncula, GC, Sierra
Appointer Hereditary
Website monarchy.gc.ks
The monarchy of Sierra is the constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom of Sierra, its overseas territories, and its crown dependencies. It serves as the foundation of the Sierran government (also referred to as the Crown) with the monarch as the sovereign head of state. The role, powers, limits, succession, and mechanisms of the monarchy is codified and defined in the Constitution of Sierra and the Charter for the Kingdom of Sierra. Additional laws passed by Parliament and rulings passed by the Supreme Court further govern the institution and powers of the monarchy. The current ruling and sole house is the House of Columbia, which is descended from the historic British House of Stuart.
The current monarch, Elizabeth II, ascended the throne following the abdication of her father, King Charles II in 2015. Angelina's great-great-grandfather, Charles I, was the first king of Sierra and one of the nation's founding fathers. She and her predecessors are also direct descendants of James II of England, the last Stuart king of England, Scotland, and Ireland before the Glorious Revolution. Through that capacity, they have claimed the title as "Monarch of Britain", a claim and title of which, is purely cosmetic. The responsibilities and roles of the Monarch are currently held in trust by The Prince Regent George of Sonora, who was appointed by the Queen in January 2016 to assume the duties of the Crown while she pursued her collegiate academics. The monarch is also the head of the Columbia Realms, making them the monarch of four other countries (Alaska, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Tlingit and Haida Gwaii).
The monarch and their immediate family constitute the royal family while extended family and honorary guests constitute the much larger Royal Household. The monarch and members of the Royal Family undertakes various ceremonial, diplomatic, and representational duties to advance the interests of the Sierran people. Although the monarchy officially holds ultimate authority over the government through royal prerogative, in practice, this authority is dispensed to the Prime Minister and Parliament. While not outlined in the constitution, by convention and custom, the modern monarchy plays a nonpartisan role. Historically, monarchs played a more political role, especially under the reign of Louis III. Being sovereign, the monarch is also graced with the position as commander-in-chief of the Sierran Crown Armed Forces, directing all combat operations with close cooperation with the prime minister and Parliament during times of war and emergency.
Constitutional role[edit | edit source]
Kingdom of Sierra
This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of the
Kingdom of Sierra
The Constitution of Sierra declares that the monarch is the sovereign head of the Kingdom of Sierra and therefore, the highest-ranking official in the governments of Sierra, Hawaii, and the Deseret, and is the fount of honor of the Sierran peerage system. Whenever there is a king, he is styled, His Royal Majesty (abbreviated HRM) while in the case of a queen, she is styled, Her Royal Majesty. All oaths (both civilian and military) to the State are made to the monarch and his/her successors.
As a hereditary non-partisan member of the government, the monarch enjoys limited power and relies most of his/her duties to be executed by the prime minister, officers of the Cabinet, Parliament, or other legal bodies which have been authorized to work under the monarch's name. Legally, the monarch of the state, is referred to as the "Crown" which by its own right, is simultaneously the embodiment of Sierra itself. These fused concepts constitute a single corporation sole wherein the monarch may serve in both a corporate or individual capacity, but the distinction between the office and the individual is deemed the same entity under the law. In this sense, the monarch's possession of the Crown, as the Crown, signifies that he/she is the foundation of all power of the Sierran government. Any actions performed by authorized government officials are done so in the name of the Crown.
Among the few exclusive rights conferred onto the monarch is the royal prerogative (which consists of several special privileges and discretionary powers), the act of assent, the issuance of letters patent, and the issuance of edicts. The monarch usually executes these rights with the advice of the prime minister, the Executive Council, and the Privy Council, the Cabinet, and the Parliament. Rarely has a monarch acted out independently from the civil government and any laws passed by the monarch without the consent of Parliament would easily be rendered null and void by the Supreme Court. The royal prerogative includes the right to appoint and dismiss officials, declare war, make peace, negotiate and ratify foreign agreements including treaties, issue passports, and create or dissolve government offices. In addition, the monarch is responsible for appointing and dismissing Lords and Ladies Superintendent or Proprietor, viceregal representatives who link the monarchy with provincial, state, areal, or territorial governments.
Royal assent is the act of the monarch formally approving a bill passed in Parliament and therefore, making it a law. The monarch has the power to veto either by refusing to give assent (After two weeks of no response, the withheld bill automatically becomes law however.) or by explicitly rejecting it. If the monarch were to veto the bill, Parliament may override the veto provided two-thirds of both houses vote in favor of the bill.
Edicts are issued by the monarch at his/her discretion and treated as full-binding law. Edicts are usually reserved for and enacted during emergencies. Edicts also include the power to invoke martial law and the suspension of habeas corpus which entail the monarch's assumption of more direct and rigorous control in relation to the civil government. There are several legal safeguards to protect and circumvent against an abuse of the edict. The Supreme Court could declare the edict unconstitutional, the Parliament could pass a law to repeal the edict (they would not need an assent in such cases), or the executive civil branch (under the prime minister) could simply choose to ignore the edict and fail to execute it.
History[edit | edit source]
Early years[edit | edit source]
The Sierran monarchy was established in 1858 by the Constitution of Sierra with Charles I as Sierra's first king. The idea of a monarchy was inspired by the royalist faction of the Californian Constitutional Convention who advocated for a monarchy mirroring that of Britain's. A great number of these royalists were settlers from Britain itself and some even proposed creating a political union with the Kingdom. Members of the federalist faction vehemently opposed incorporating a monarchy and delayed any significant development for well over a year. The convention's head, Smith C. Miller, was one such opponent but when his views changed, he championed a compromise between American federalism and British monarchism which would appeal to both factions. Miller proposed that the new government would indeed be a monarchy but which would be limited by a constitution, an electable civil government, and a legislature heavily inspired by the United States Congress.
Sierran Civil War[edit | edit source]
Post-war years[edit | edit source]
Sierran Cultural Revolution[edit | edit source]
Cold War years[edit | edit source]
Contemporary years[edit | edit source]
Succession[edit | edit source]
Upon the death of the king or queen, the heir apparent immediately succeeds the throne along with its privileges, rights, and honors. The phrase, "Ten thousand years! The king/queen is dead, glory, glory to the king/queen!" must be uttered by the prime minister who is the first to officially deliver the news of the deceased monarch. After an official autopsy is conducted by a state-sanctioned coroner, the same phrase is appended to the end of all federal and provincial oaths for 7 days. In addition, an official mourning is declared which in effect, stipulates that all national flags at official buildings be flown at half-mast. The successor's coronation may only be commemorated after the former monarch's state funeral ceremony has been held.
Absolute primogeniture is used to determine the next successor and his/her issue would automatically take precedence in the line of succession over their uncles, aunts, and their issues. Succession is based on age favoring the eldest living child first when determining the order of precedence within the monarch's issue.
Finances, services, and benefits[edit | edit source]
The monarch's finances, expenses, and most of his/her assets are held and managed by the Keeper of the Privy Purse who is appointed and dismissed by the monarch at their personal discretion. The position is one of the few posts


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I love this document. It's a survey of property allotted to Hassanamisco Nipmuc Sarah Robins who married Peter Muckamaug. Though Native, Peter was not from Hassanamesit so the land could not be allotted to (or owned by) him. When Sarah Robins died, the land passed to her children.
The Muckamaug allotment was originally 106 acres. The land came from the division of the Hassanamisco Praying Plantation. Praying Plantations, or towns, were the colonial Massachusetts equivalent to today's reservation system. The Praying Town at Hassanamesit was 8000 acres. In 1728, the MA Bay government allowed those 8000 acres to be divided up between 40 English proprietors and 7 Native families. Land was also set aside for a Native church and school and stipulations made for a minister and teacher. The 7 Native families received 1200 acres in separate parcels. The rest was sold to the 40 proprietors and monies from the sale deposited for use by the Hassanamiscos. Since it was not believed that Native people could control their own resources, guardians were appointed to oversee their assets. Native people throughout Massachusetts could not sell their land or spend even the interest on their money without asking their guardians to petition the legislature until 1869.
Another map from the collections of American Antiquarian Society showing part of the 1728 allotments. This was posted on a Grafton, MA town webpage.
Part of the Muckamaug allotment is now owned by the town of Grafton and is preserved as "Hassanamesit Woods".The Fiske Center for Archaeological Research is conducting an archaeological dig in Hassanamesit Woods where the Muckamaug's great-granddaughter's house stood from at least 1790 to 1923 when it was bulldozed over. The story of 4 generations of Nipmuc women living on this land will be coming to this blog soon!
(You may have noticed that sometimes I write Hassanamisco and sometimes Hassanamesit. Hassanamesit refers to the land and means "the place of many small stones". Hassanamisco refers to the people of that land.)
Until next time,


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U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert between short tons and metric tons?
Convert short tons to metric tons by multiplying the number of short tons by 0.907184
For example: 12,300 short tons X 0.907184 = 11,158 metric tons.
Convert metric tons to short tons by multiplying the number of metric tons by 1.10231
For example: 11,158 metric tons X 1.10231= 12,300 short tons.
Last reviewed: September 6, 2012
Other FAQs about Coal
- Does EIA have county-level energy production data?
- Does EIA publish coking coal prices?
- From what country does the U.S. import the most coal?
- How do I convert between short tons and metric tons?
- How large are U.S. coal reserves?
- How many and what kind of power plants are there in the United States?
- How much coal, natural gas, or petroleum is used to generate a kilowatt-hour of electricity?
- Which states produce the most coal?
- To what country does the U.S. export the most coal?
- What are the different coal prices published by EIA?
- What is the average heat (Btu) content of U.S. coal?
- What types and amounts of energy are produced in each state?


_USER_{NBERw11097, title = "Urban Growth and Housing Supply", author = "Edward L. Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko and Raven E. Saks", institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research", type = "Working Paper", series = "Working Paper Series", number = "11097", year = "2005", month = "January", URL = "_URL_ abstract = {Cities are physical structures, but the modern literature on urban economic development rarely acknowledges that fact. The elasticity of housing supply helps determine the extent to which increases in productivity will create bigger cities or just higher paid workers and more expensive homes. In this paper, we present a simple model that provides a framework for doing empirical work that integrates the heterogeneity of housing supply into urban development. Empirical analysis yields results consistent with the implications of the model that differences in the nature of house supply across space are not only responsible for higher housing prices, but also affect how cities respond to increases in productivity.}, }


text: When we think of New England, we envision village greens surrounded by neat, white-framed houses; tall elms and church spires; country stores; Yankee farmers; sailing ships; rocky coastlines; brilliant autumn foliage. Despite the fact that there is a New England of cities, factories, and an increasingly diverse ethnic population, it is the Old New England that Americans have always treasured, finding in it a kind of?national memory bank.? This beautiful book examines images of Old New England created between 1865 and 1945, demonstrating how these images encoded the values of age and tradition to a nation facing complex cultural issues during the period. The book begins with an introduction by Dona Brown and Stephen Nissenbaum that provides a historical background to the era. Then William Truettner, Roger Stein, and Bruce Robertson turn more directly to New England images and discuss a variety of artistic efforts to historicize the past. They show that paintings of the Revolutionary War, of harvest scenes, or of genteel old New England towns served, for example, to provide reassurance to urban dwellers after the Civil War, to counteract the effects of modernism, and to encourage a sense of community during the Depression. They also examine paintings of coastal New England and favorite haunts of tourists and artists such as Winslow Homer and Marsden Hartley. The many images of Old New England, say the authors, represent shared cultural beliefs?ways of seeing the present in terms of a mythical past. This book is the catalogue for an exhibition at the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., from April 2 to August 22, 1999.


The Digital Journalist
Images of a Journey: India in Diaspora
© Steve Raymer
Images of a Journey: India in Diaspora
Scholars have filled the shelves of the world's great libraries with books and articles about the Indian diaspora, a collective term that describes people who have migrated out of South Asia, but who generally think of themselves as Indian and are tied to the culture of India no matter where they might live.
by Steve Raymer
India in Diaspora: Foreward
Wanderlust has created the world we know today. Ever since our human ancestors walked out of Africa in search of a better life, the journey has not stopped. That incessant journey, or "scattering to the winds" summed up in the Greek word diaspora, has emerged as a prominent factor in the making of a globalized world.
by Nayan Chanda


Introducing the EdApp Discussions and Assignments Feature
Introducing the EdApp Discussions and Assignments Feature
At EdApp, we are constantly evolving to inspire and drive growth in the L&D space, making learning more accessible, engaging, and effective. After the announcement of our Playlists feature, we are excited to follow up with Discussions and Assignments. This innovative new feature has been introduced as a boost to our social learning elements. To ensure the success of adult learning, this feature delivers instant coaching and mentoring opportunities to learners by providing the closest simulation that we have to face-to-face, instructor-led sessions.
Read on to discover how this feature will enhance your learning initiatives and experience its full capabilities.
Why was it developed?
The Discussions and Assignments feature was designed to increase the amount of social interaction to ensure the success of adult learning. This exciting addition enables learners to collaborate with each other in a forum-like discussion, strengthening the power of peer learning. But what is really exciting is this feature forces reflection and applied knowledge from your learners.
The feature also facilitates coaching and mentoring throughout the process, giving you the opportunity to comment and lead the discussion when necessary along with providing real-time feedback. Nobody knows your company's products or processes better than your existing workers, so leveraging that expertise to reinforce vital content makes a great deal of sense. Learners will be more engaged when they can relate to both the lesson and the teacher, resulting in even more effective learning outcomes.
Enhancing EdApp's existing social learning element, the Discussions and Assignments feature includes conversation threads that can be leveraged to analyse specific concepts and topics provided by you. Having these discussions provides a more dynamic and interactive learning experience, where employees can learn additional information, resulting in a more in-depth understanding of the content provided.
For example, a course provided to retail employees on a new line or product can be discussed by colleagues to create a holistic understanding of the features of the product, enabling employees to be able to effectively sell to new and existing customers. Coaches can step in, highlighting key responses to provide insight for reinforcing the most important details of the new product. This forum enables instantaneous interaction with your team, all from within the EdApp platform.
What is digital learning?
Beyond the use of Discussions, Assignments provide an option in which learners submit responses directly to you, which can then be easily reviewed and graded. Submissions can be made through boxes of free text, designed to task learners with submitting a more in-depth and personal response. This structure ensures that the progress and knowledge of employees is tracked, meaning that you have the opportunity to fill possible gaps in learning if any are identified.
The EdApp team built this feature as a way to facilitate the growth of essential knowledge amongst employees through increased engagement and interactivity with learning material.
What does it change?
Within the EdApp platform, learners can collaborate to spotlight important pieces of information about specific topics. This means that there is no need to host forums on external platforms, and it also provides you with continued access to the conversations and progress reports, keeping it organised. The feature also offers a new LMS screen for learners, which makes it easy to switch between courses and topics.
What do learners see?
If a learner is completing a Discussions and Assignments lesson, they will have access to a wealth of knowledge provided by peers. Topics can be discussed in a conversation-like forum to express areas which may require extra clarification to master important bits of information.
When an Assignment is set for completion, the learner will be provided with an abundance of free space to write their response, which will later be reviewed by yourself. After the learner's submission has been made, they will see 1 of 4 options: No submission, submitted, try again or pass. From here, they will then receive your feedback, highlighting areas of strength or potential room for improvement.
On top of participating in conversations, learners also have the ability to keep track of certain Discussion threads so they do not miss out on any important updates. This "watching" feature sends push notifications directly to their device when a new comment is added to the comment of interest.
What do you see?
As an admin, you have continued access to social reports and tools, where you can review the progression and engagement of your learners, enabling a more smooth experience in managing your cohort. When assessing your Assignments tasks, ensure that you leave a comment on the assignment status. From there, you can either make this response hidden or public by the simple switch of a toggle.
You also have the option to make Assignments tasks mandatory along with the ability to set up completion requirements through peer learning. To make things easier, completed Assignments are counted in the analytics the same way that lessons are.
New image and video enhancement
To enhance this peer learning feature even further, we have also added the ability for learners to submit an image or video as a submission, giving you (and your learners) the freedom to choose the medium for their response. Available in both the Discussions and Assignments space, learners can submit an image or record a video and upload it as a submission straight from their smartphones. The EdApp platform can accommodate most sizes and formats, but we recommend following our microlearning rhetoric by keeping video submissions to a couple of minutes long. This way, learners have the freedom to express their points in an open-ended format and viewers can easily absorb the information at hand without losing interest or focus.
Implementing visuals and especially video in your L&D strategy has proven benefits including higher interaction and retention rates, along with strengthening the connection between learners. When individuals can clearly see their peers' responses, it provides an even more dynamic and interactive learning experience. Ultimately, your audience can easily absorb additional information in a more effective way, resulting in a more in-depth understanding of the content provided.
We hope you enjoy our newest feature and continue to experience the success of your learning strategy!
To learn how to access the Discussions and Assignments feature and how to implement it into your next lesson, we have created a step-by-step guide. Find our comprehensive guide on Discussions and our guide on Assignments.
Stay tuned for more exciting announcements coming throughout the year and please reach out to us at for feedback and any more enhancements you would love to see.
The EdApp Team


How to Convert an AM Car Radio to FM
by William Jensen
itstillruns article image
vintage car. image by Victor Samoilovich from
If your old car has an AM radio, you can obtain more stations and better sound quality by converting it to FM with an FM car radio converter box. These boxes essentially work the same way as digital TV converters: the FM signal comes through the antenna and enters the box's tuner. Then the converter transfers the audio to the car radio through an AM frequency, so the radio simply treats it as a strong AM station. It effectively replaces the tuner, but continues to use the same antenna, receiver and speakers.
Step 1
Obtain an AM to FM car radio converter. As of late 2010, eBay's completed listings show these converters generally sell for around $30 to $65, including shipping costs. Try searching for "fm radio converter" on eBay, but ignore the "FM Band Expanders" and Japanese FM band expansion units.
Step 2
Attach the converter to the car's electricity, AM radio and antenna. According to, you should connect the converter to the "fuse block" for power, attach its output to the radio's antenna input and connect the car antenna cable to it. Ensure that each wire runs to the correct sockets on the radio and converter. Now you're ready to convert FM signals to AM.
Step 3
Switch on the converter and tune the AM car radio until you find the converter's frequency. Then use the converter's tuning knob to find an FM station. Switch off the converter and tune the radio normally to hear AM stations. Some converters have an AM/FM button and allow you to accomplish all tuning via the converter.
Verify that you connected the antenna cables securely, if sound or reception is poor. Fine-tune the AM radio to ensure that it's picking up the converter's signal as well as possible. Some FM converters have an AFC (Automatic Frequency Control) switch; engage it after tuning in a station, to limit distortion and prevent broadcasts from drifting.
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A sign a student held up in one of the recent school closings meetings read, "My family has lived in this community for over 60 years. I am the third generation to attend Talcott School. How long will you be around, Duncan Huberman Mazany Brizard Byrd-Bennett?" The sign underscores how school closings not only harm specific communities but also disrespect community values. School closings disregard the continuity, history, and commitment that make communities strong. The string of Chicago Public Schools CEOs referred to in the student's sign begs the question: if CPS can't maintain stability and continuity in its own leadership, how can it presume to impose drastic decisions on communities that have integrity and staying power?
When students, parents, and teachers plead with the CPS Board to keep their neighborhood schools open, they talk about school as a family, as an extension of home. They emphasize the importance of constancy, stability, trust, and respect – all the qualities that help human beings grow in community. They talk about the ways their schools fight to remain a healthy community in dangerous times and places, and to connect the community with wider cultural opportunities, thorough creative and dynamic partnerships.
In a family, each person is valued for who they are, and encouraged to contribute to the family as a whole. In a family, a child is not a test score. CPS should be proud that so many families view their schools as such vital supports in their lives and communities; it should be seeking ways to build on these supportive structures rather than tearing them down. In its frenetic campaign to transform schools, CPS is missing the fundamental fact that children need relationships and stability to learn.
CPS brass may not want to see its schools as families – but it would have a lot more to work with if it would learn from the families who speak, love, and fight for one another.


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By Mele Makalo
In Kalamazoo, black infant mortality is a pressing issue that demands continued community examination, dialogue, and action. While black infant mortality is not a recent problem in Kalamazoo, the collective community attention towards acknowledging and addressing the issue is. The unfortunate reality that from 2000 – 2012, the county's mortality rate for white infants was 5.7 deaths per one one thousand births while there were 18.2 deaths per one thousand black infants highlights the critical value of collective community dialogue and engagement in and with the issue of black infant mortality in Kalamazoo.
In recognizing the critical value of assessing and addressing this issue, The YWCA has recent launched the Kalamazoo Infant Mortality Community Action Initiative. The YWCA is a service dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all and in fulfilling this mission, the YWCA has committed their programming to further explicating the growing disparity between black and white infant deaths. In partnership with the YWCA, a group of Kalamazoo College student scholars worked on this initiative by gathering data from local community members and health professionals in Kalamazoo through engaging in focus group dialogues.
In these focus groups, a theme that came up is that as greater attention has been geared towards exploring contributing factors of black infant mortality, very minimal attention has been tailored towards the impacts of loss and grief of losing an infant. In the focus groups facilitated and organized by the YWCA and Kalamazoo College, there were apparent concerns with regards to the absence of support through grief from mothers in the community as well as a clear misunderstanding of how to handle grief and loss from the health professionals. When recalling and expressing coping with loss of infants, local mothers in the focus groups shared the following:
"Never ask if we need counseling, never, …nothing like that. And us black people really don't know nothing about it so we, we're ashamed of it when it comes up with somebody…You're ashamed when you live in these streets and our, you know, our area, 'Oh, I'm gonna go see a counselor'."
"My daughter just turned twenty-five, may she rest in peace, and her day is her day and I think about her every day of my life, especially on her birthday, you know. I've still got pictures of my baby. I got her hat. I got her bracelet. I got her certificate of baptism cuz I still got her baptized after the stillborn."
"People lost infants due to wanting to sleep with their baby. Imagine waking up knowing you slept on your baby. That's very traumatic."
"I was like seven and a half months… I knew something was wrong… they didn't give me any pictures or anything like that at the ultrasound. So they was taking a long time and, um, I went into the hallway and I seen like four doctors out there… they told me, 'Yeah, he wasn't breathing. He's gone.' They said he died like a week before that and I didn't know because I still felt him moving and I really don't want to talk about it."
Clinicians have direct contact with and responsibility for patients, but in the focus groups as women shared loss of infants, it was apparent that health professionals ability to handle and supporting patients through grief was and continues to be nonexistent. Sidney Zisook and Katherine Shear discuss what health professionals need to know about grief and bereavement. Bereavement is the actual happening of the loss and grief is the emotional, cognitive, functional, and behavioral responses to the death. Zisook and Shear emphasize the importance of recognizing grief as a process as opposed to a state and supporting patients experiencing grief through collaborative and consistent care. While grief is a process that each patient's experience is unique, there is a form of grief that is paralyzing that interrupts conditions and quality of life. These paralyzing conditions from grief breed psychological and emotional distress that further perpetuates greater risks of women of color under poverty losing their infants and children. The grief from losing an infant combined with grief from racism, poverty, and various forms of oppression put African Americans at greater risk with infant mortality which is what the Kalamazoo County is currently experiencing.
Health professionals in the focus groups recognize that black infants are dying at much higher rates than white infants in Kalamazoo, but struggle to acknowledge how to support patients experiencing grief from institutional oppression and loss as contributing factors to the issue of infant mortality:
"It's hard, you know, how do you tell what factors lead up to why a child dies? I would say it's got to be different in every one, and again it's why does it seem to happen in this group so much more than in another? What's different about them aside from the color of their skin? You know, and obviously there's probably some cultural things, but it's hard to pinpoint what a cultural factor would be that would cause this."
"Why is it just the African American population that their infant mortality is so high?"
"It sometimes feels like as healthcare providers we're missing something. It feels like there must be a way to do it better. Because the data is irrefutable."
"Except when the statistics come out, we find out it's four times the number of black babies that are dying than white babies. How is that happening?
What's wrong? What are we missing?"
"That's the hard part. That's the puzzle, because we feel like we are giving the same level of care and the same chances and the additional resources and the programs. So why are we still failing? Where are we losing these babies?
The crisis here as Arthur Kleinman notes in The Illness Narratives is the inconsistency between what the patient experiences and what the clinician treats. Through dialogue in the focus groups, it seemed that what health professionals were focusing on was assessing African American culture to discover reasons why black infants are dying at higher rates than white infants as opposed to assessing the culture of oppression in the United States that put African Americans at greater risks of grave disparities that produces grief. If clinicians are focusing on treating individuals as opposed to trying to support and treat patients while also treating the ill institutions such as the medical institution that they are a part of that breeds disparity, clinicians can not properly care for their patients. Racism, classism, and sexism are illnesses that produce symptoms of disparity such as infant mortality, educational inequity, poverty, and domestic abuse. Kleinman refers to illness as something "acting like a sponge, illness soaks up personal and social significance from the world of the sick person." In recognizing illness as such, this captures the essence of recognizing that people are not necessarily ill, the societies we live in are.
Everyday pains and oppressions are not treatable ills which is why health professionals in the aforementioned quotes expressed confusion and a grave misunderstanding with regards to why African American infants are dying at such high rates in Kalamazoo. Therefore, there needs to be continued dialogue so that everyone can become active culturally competent learners which is the prerequisite to being a culturally competent agent of change. Dialogue is essential because knowledge is not something out there waiting to be discovered. It is a process that rises out of interaction involving dialogue of some sort. Through dialogues, we are provided the opportunity to share our knowledge, challenge our knowledge, enhance our knowledge, and transform our knowledge. Participation in dialogue not only leaves ways for participants to build upon and share knowledge, it provides opportunities to discover our individual identity and develop our worldview. Discovering ones' own identity does not mean that one works it out in isolation, but to negotiate it through dialogue with others. In doing so, a transformed language is developed in which its discourse exists not for the sake of expression alone but for the sake of the community it makes possible among those who become parties to it. Such dialogue fosters a place of learning in which through conversation, prejudices are tested and meaning is sought out as a way for all participants to become more critical of themselves, their communities, and their role in it. This self awareness and building of consciousness that rises out of dialogue inspires social change.
All in all, dialogue, as being used here is a way of exploring the roots of the many crises that face humanity today. It enables inquiry into, and understanding of, the sorts of processes that fragment and interfere with real communication between individuals, nations and even different parts of the same organization. Dialogue provides ways of identifying and exploring distortions that exist. Dialogue used this way to transform discourse on infant mortality and approaches dedicated towards eradicating the disparity.


Hyperbaric Therapy for Autism: How Can HBOT Treat Children Having Muted Fear Response?
Hyperbaric Therapy for Autism
One of the most talked-about neurodevelopmental disorders, autism in children, has reportedly shown muted responses to general human feelings. Children are often credulous, and they are known to express their feelings more profoundly compared to an adult. Thus, moments of joy, anger, anxiety, or fear elicits a wide range of emotions. However, when facing a circumstance that would otherwise make a child afraid, an autistic child grows weirdly silent. As they continue to confront such situations, a series of verbal as well as non-verbal communication make way for such repetitive…
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Bridging the Worlds of Science and Popular Culture
"The periodic chart is the gateway to biology, chemistry and physics, because it is to science what the alphabet is to language; the fundamental-first steps that all people must take on the path to understanding the laws of science."
These are the words of Zak Zych, the illustrator behind the Cartoon Periodic Table of Elements. Fifteen years in the making, this 24" x 36" full color wall chart creatively bridges the worlds between science and popular culture. You'll find his unique mash-up of science and art to be playful, memorable, and thought provoking for young and old alike.
Also available for younger children, the "First 18 Elements" cartoon poster (item# _PHONE_ - see below) is the perfect way to introduce young learners to the Periodic Table.


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One of the most difficult genealogical tasks you may face in researching your Italian roots is in tracing the ancestry of an Italian foundling.
Known in Italy as Trovatelli or Proietti, a foundling is a child abandoned at birth, for one reason or another. The most common is that the child was born out of wedlock, but others, such as; the family being to poor to care for another child, are not unheard of.
These infants were usually left at a foundling home. The foundling homes were a place where Italian women could legally abandon their children, with complete anonymity (although, often times, especially in small towns, the identity of at least the mother was generally known). Sometimes children were left with tokens to indicate their parentage, in the event the mother or father should ever want to reclaim them, although, this was rare.
After the child was abandoned, their birth would be registered in the Stato di Civile, under a name the mayor or other town official would give the child. These names were made up by the town official, some of the names were unique (such as one I have in my ancestry, Clemanni), others were generic names given to many foundlings, such as; Esposito (literally meaning "exposed").
After the infant's birth was registered, they were placed in the care of a woman who recently had given birth to a child (usually one that had recently lost a child). These women were called, wet nurses. The roles these women had in the child's life varied greatly. Some took the child in, simply to collect money given to them by the town to care for the child, others treated them as their own, sometimes even giving the child their own surname.
Often times, family lore and myths existed about the child's parents. A common one is that the foundling was the child of a nobleman. These stories, while not always untrue, can stem from a variety of sources. One being that the mother made the claims while pregnant (to dignify to some extent something that was a social taboo at the time). Secondly being that when the child was born, he/she was given a name by the town official, that sounded "noble" (Della Luna, for instance). Whatever the case, while these stories are fun to think about, always take them with a grain of salt.
Birth records for foundlings can be found in the Registri dello Stato Civile, Atti di Nascita (birth acts) of the child's town of origin, usually in Parte II. These records rarely give the parents names (as previously stated, their identity was to be kept secret if they chose it to be).
If his or her parents recognized the child, these records can usually be found in the Atti Diversi (Misc. acts) for the year of the child's birth.
Other records that can help you in tracing your foundling ancestor's genealogy are marriage records and baptism records. Marriage records would be found in the Registri dello Stato Civile, Atti di Matrimonio (marriage acts), whereas baptism records (battesimo) are maintained by the church where he/she was baptized, and can be hard to obtain.
Again, tracing the ancestry of a foundling can be incredibly difficult, and sometimes, impossible, so to familiarize oneself with the common procedures that took place is very important. Foundling history in Italy is complex, and I couldn't begin to go through all the variables in one post. This is just an attempt to help you understand the general process. A valuable resource for further research is the book 'Sacrificed for Honor: Italian infant abandonment and the politics of reproductive control' by David I. Kertzer.


12 Tips for Making Sifteo Games
posted by scott, 08 Jan 2013
Sifteo cubes give developers an exciting opportunity to design new types of games. Forget traditional screens and controllers. Sifteo cubes are small magic blocks, each of which has a screen. You play by manipulating the cubes themselves, as you would play with board game pieces or building blocks.
Like the Nintendo Wii and iOS devices, Sifteo Cubes are intuitive and easy to use, which means people of all ages are attracted to playing with them.
Because Sifteo Cubes are so different from other gaming platforms, it can be challenging to design games for them. Just as Nintendo Wii made us think about moving our arms, and iOS devices made us think about swiping and pinching, so Sifteo Cubes have their own idiosyncratic language of gestural controls. And because Sifteo Cubes are not one device but several, you must think about games with multiple movable screens. You have no choice but to innovate.
To give you a head start designing games for Cubes, here are twelve guidelines that we use here at Sifteo for generating and evaluating game ideas. Keep these in mind as you develop your game.
First, here are the essential requirements that we look for in every Sifteo game.
1. Sifteonic
Your game should fit the unique capabilities of Sifteo Cubes like a glove, creating a magical experience that would be hard to reproduce on another platform. We call this quality "Sifteonic." For instance, players find it magical when characters walk from one cube to another in Sandwich Kingdom, or when putting cubes together causes colored dots to explode in Chroma Splash.
To make sure your game is Sifteonic: use large, simple graphics (we only support simple 2d graphics) keep text short have cubes interact with each other use cube gestures like neighbor, tilt, and press as the way you play the game Sifteo technology supports only a small amount of tile-based 2-dimensional art, plus up to 8 sprites per cube, so avoid 3d graphics and large amounts of art
Here's a video that highlights the unique things that Cubes can do.
Here's a rundown of all the features that together make a game Sifteonic.
Physical: Slide, stack. Use the cubes for their size, weight, and physical properties.
Multiple screens: We have multiple screens, so each cube can be a single object.
Neighboring: Actions triggered when two cubes are neighbored.
Configuration: The configuration of all the neighbored cubes matters.
Rotatable: Cubes are directionless — any of the four sides can be up.
Gesture: Cubes have accelerometers that can detect orientation and gesture.
Touch: Detect pressing the screen as one big button.
Networked: Communication between cubes allows coordinated visual displays.
2. Intelligent Play
Your game should make players feel smart. Parents should feel good about their kids playing it. Sifteo game are NOT educational software, but they should clearly exercise such cognitive skills as pattern recognition, strategic planning, problem solving and creativity.
At one end of the intelligent play spectrum, the action game Bleep requires only simple recognition of colors and patterns. At the other end of the spectrum, the puzzle games Chroma Splash and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles require deep problem solving skills.
3. Multi-cube
Sifteo Cubes sets come with a minimum of 3 cubes, so all Sifteo games must be playable with 3 cubes. At the same time every set can handle up to 12 cubes, so all Sifteo games should get even better with more cubes (yes, we want people to buy more cubes). Most games we have published are playable with up to 6 cubes; some work with as many as 8 or 12 cubes.
Sandwich Kingdom works naturally with many cubes
Sometimes crafting a game for different numbers of cubes is easy; sometimes it takes considerable extra work. For instance: - In Chroma Splash, the randomly generated Survival Mode expands naturally to any number of cubes, and the game is easier to play with more cubes. - In Chroma Splash's Puzzle mode, puzzles are carefully crafted for specific numbers of cubes; 40 puzzles are crafted for 3 cubes, 15 for 4 cubes, 15 for 5 cubes, and 10 for 6 cubes. - In Sandwich Kingdom cubes act as windows into a larger world — the game works naturally with any number of cubes, and tends to get easier with more cubes.
Prototyping a game with Post-Its
4. Fun
Of course your game must be fun to play. Two suggestions: tap into your passions for what is fun, and test your game early and often (square Post-Its are great for paper prototypes) on other players to make sure other people find it fun too. Since Sifteo Cubes are halfway between traditional video games and physical toys, we often look to board games, books and toys for inspiration.
5. Rated E for Everyone
Sifteo only publishes games rated E for Everyone. Like Pixar movies, our games must appeal widely to all ages, including kids as young as 7. But that does not mean our games should be childish or unsophisticated. Aim instead to create universal games that appeal to the pure intelligence in all of us. As Walt Disney said: "You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."
Some games work naturally for all ages, while others require special modes aimed at different age ranges. For instance, the abstract puzzle game Chroma Splash works naturally for all ages. The math game Code Cracker includes different difficulty levels aimed at different ages — Beginner features just plus and minus, Intermediate also includes multiplication, and Expert also includes division and fractions. Word Caravan cleverly skirts the issue of different versions for different ages by including a hint mechanism that allows young readers to make words even if they can't spell.
Desirable Characteristics
Next, here are characteristics that are desirable in all games, and how they play out on Sifteo Cubes.
6. Easy to learn
With small screens and little room for spoken audio, Sifteo games must be easy to learn. I recommend you integrate instruction into gameplay, so the players learn by playing, not by reading pages of instruction. Simple games like Bleep explained the rules during the course of gameplay. More complex games like Cube Buddies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ninja Slide unfold the rules gradually over the course of many chapters.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ninja Slide begins with a series of lessons in the Dojo
7. Replayable
The flip side of "easy to learn" is "hard to master". There are three ways to make the player want to play again.
 1. Games with authored levels (like Cube Buddies) challenge players to conquer a series of increasingly difficult puzzles.
 2. Games with randomly generated content challenge players to achieve higher and higher scores.
 3. Finally, multiplayer games invite players to keep coming back because the human element makes each play session a unique experience.
Chapters in Cube Buddies get increasingly difficult.
8. Marketable
For a game to be successful, people must hear about it. Can you pitch your game in 10 words or less? Can you give your game a name that draws people in? What character, action or thematic element will give your game a memorable identity? The most powerful form of marketing is word of mouth; what will players of your game tell their friends about your game?
Optional Characteristsics
Finally, here are some optional characteristics for you to consider including in your game.
9. Original
A Sifteo game does not have to be original to be successful, but since we are just starting to explore the range of games possible with Sifteo Cubes, we certainly value games that strike out in new directions.
Johann Sebastian Joust, by Die Gute Fabrik, for Sony Move
For instance, our initial suite of launch games focused on thoughtful single-player puzzle games where the cubes lie flat on the table. So we're now exploring fast-action multi-player games where the cubes sometimes leave the table, working with such developers as Die Gute Fabrik, makers of the wildly innovative game Johann Sebastian Joust. Other types of games we'd like to explore include games for girls, early learning preschool games, open-ended constructive games, and games that tell stories.
10. Multiplayer
Some of our games are single-player, some are multiplayer, some are both. Generally we prefer multiplayer. Our launch games are single-player, though they easily accommodate extra players who want to join in cooperative play. Many of our games in development are specifically designed for 2 to 4 players. Multiplayer games can be deliberate turn-taking games like the forthcoming battle game from Richard Garfield, or fast-paced free-for-alls, like Bleep, where everyone plays simultaneously.
Miami Heist uses uses Cubes as game board pieces
Besides thinking about other players, think about using other objects in the environment as part of the game. For instance, the student-produced game Miami Heist used Sifteo Cubes as playing pieces on a game board that looked like city blocks. You can also make games that dangle the blocks on strings, or slide them down ramps.
11. Episodic
To extend the lifetime of our games, we are creating small episodic sequels, where each new episode sells for just a few dollars. For instance, the first follow-up episode of our launch game Sandwich Kingdom is called


text: Introduction to Russian Language app (Kit Asas Bahasa Rusia') was developed as a way to learn Russian language through Malay language. The main objective of the development of this mobile application is to create an interactive language learning app which incorporates various multimedia elements inside it such as graphics, animation and sound to aid learning. The target user is mainly for native speakers of Malay language and being literate, regardless of what ages. The mobile app is developed for the Android operating system only. This application is developed using Adobe Animate CC, Adobe Photoshop Cc, Adobe Illustrator CC and Adobe Audition CC software with the aid of many resources from websites, books and individuals. The mobile application is successfully published and now available in Google Play. It has also received positive feedbacks and ratings from users.


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Documentation/4.6/Report a problem
- I have a question about how to use Slicer for a particular task or I'm not sure things are working right
- Try your best to sort out the issue by reading documentation and checking error logs
- I am still unclear about what to do.
- Something is definitely not working as it should or I would like to request a feature.
- File a bug report in the issues tracker (you need to register first) or on the Slicer users mailing list. It is important to provide enough specific information so that a software developer can duplicate the problem - see details below.
- Don't be anonymous: real people trying hard to solve real problems are more likely to get valuable help. A vague question from a random email is likely to be ignored..
- I would like to let the Slicer community know, how Slicer helped me in my research.
- Please send us the citation for your paper.
- Background: funding for Slicer is provided through competitive mechanisms to a large extent by the US government and to a lesser extend through funding from other governments. The justification of for those resources is that Slicer enables scientific work. Knowing about scientific publications enabled by Slicer is a critical step in this process. Given the international nature of the Slicer community, the nationality of the scientists is not important. Every good paper counts.
- I would like to give feedback on my experience with Slicer.
- Share your story using the Feedback link accessible from the Slicer Welcome module
Error report contents
- What steps were performed before the problem occurred
- What behavior you expected
- What happened instead
- Copy-paste the error log: you can access it from Slicer in the menu: Help / Report a bug. By default log of the current session is displayed but you can retrieve the logs of the last few sessions
- Optional: capture a screenshot that illustrates the issue
That could be summarized by the SSCCE (Short, Self Contained, Correct (Compilable), Example) approach documented on _URL_
Workflow for Handling Bugs and Feature Requests in Slicer
The following instructions describes the recommended workflow to report a problem related to Slicer application.
- 1. Register on the issue tracker
- 2. Sign-up on the developers mailing list
- 3. Create an issue in the tracker.
- 4. Optionally, if you would like to share dataset >= 2MB, you should consider uploading them on our dedicated server. See How to share and associate data with an issue
- 5. Send an email on the slicer-developers list pointing to the reported bug. Title of the email should start with
[BUG 1234] Title of the bug
The following diagram illustrates Slicer issue workflow:
Source: Adapted from _URL_


Wellbeing, Health & Trauma
On this page we are aggregating content related to health both psychological and physical.
Mental Health Resources:
Crisis Response Wellbeing Resources
Feel free to add comments and we will include your resources to the doc.
Dara has been collecting some resources for mental health and trauma relief.
Recipes for Wellbeing
Recipes for Wellbeing has collected a list of 10 resources for taking care of our mental health after a traumatic event like the Beirut Explosion.
Check out their list of 10 resources for people living through a crisis.
Physical Health:
Air Quality information:
This information is from Dr. Najat Saliba at AUB, professor of chemistry and director of the Nature Conservation Center, and has been shared on their Facebook page. We will update this page as we have more information.
The smoke from the blast contains lots of toxic particles and gases. The most dangerous are the fine particles that cannot be stopped by regular masks and the gases like NO2 and all its organic derivatives that will linger and react in the air for a while. In a high relative humidity and stagnant weather, like in Beirut, NO2 in the air leads to nitric acid. However, the presence of ammonia from ammonium nitrate will neutralize part of the nitric acid. The other source of pollution is the deposited toxic dust that will be entrained and resuspended in the air as people move, drive, and sweep.
The immediate consequences, for the most vulnerable population: elderlies and children, are difficulty to breathe in addition to eye and skin irritations. To protect yourself you can do the followings:
 1. Send the elderlies and children to a safer place away from the blasted site, and if this is not possible, keep them in a cleaner environment (see below) indoors.
 2. Wash your hands, face, and exposed skin with soap and water several times during the day
 3. Clean all home indoor surfaces well with wet towels to swipe the deposited particles and avoid its dispersion in the air. Make sure you dry it afterwards as wet surfaces are a good medium for NO2 to deposit and react.
 4. If you have a dehumidifier, use it more at home to reduce the possibility of forming nitric acid indoors
 5. Wear masks especially when cleaning the dust and when going outside
 6. Wear thick gloves to protect your hands from fine particles of shattered glass
 7. Sweep the dust with a vacuum cleaner and not with a broom after removing all large size pieces of glass and other debris
 8. Spray water outdoors like open balconies and garden as much as possible and whenever possible to help particles deposit faster


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- Press Release
- September 25, 2022
Coastlines of the Southern Baltic Sea
Coastlines of the southern Baltic Sea are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 40 crew member on the International Space Station.
The crew photographed this panorama looking aft (back along the orbital path) of the spacecraft as the sun was setting over the North Sea. Seen from the space station, the sun's reflection point moves quickly across the landscape, momentarily lighting up water bodies. In this fleeting view the coast of southern Norway is outlined near the horizon.
The strongest reflection of the sun highlights the narrow sea passage known as the Skagerrak–revealing the thin tip of Denmark. Numerous small lakes in southern Sweden appear at center, and scattered clouds cast complex shadows on the southern Baltic Sea. The sweeping curves of the sand spit on the Polish coast, and the long barrier islands on the Russian coast appear in the foreground at the edge of the sun's reflection disc.


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The crescent Moon with earthshine is an inspiring site in the night sky. Earthshine images that capture the beauty seen by eye or through a telescope are rare. The extreme range of light and glare from the lunar crescent make it difficult to capture, with a camera, what the eye sees. Conventional High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques require many exposures and careful processing to give good results. A simple technique, day-lapse earthshine imaging, produces stunning images of the Moon. Earthshine detail, right up to the terminator, duplicates the view of the eye through a telescope. This is done using just two exposure settings.
Our eyes can see a larger range of light than the best cameras. HDR photography captures details in highlights and shadows. Multiple images taken at different exposures capture a scene's full range of light. Post-processing merges the images to produce a single HDR image without over or under-exposure. A typical daylight terrestrial HDR image includes three exposures taken about a stop (2X) apart to capture details in shadows and highlights.
The Moon with earthshine is very challenging to the HDR photographer. The sunlit portion of the Moon is bright and can be captured well by a single camera exposure. The rest of the Moon is dimly lit by earthlight, sunlight reflected from the Earth to the near side of the Moon. Because the Moon has no atmosphere, the terminator dividing lunar day from night is sharp. The difference in light levels between the crescent and earthshine is 8 to 10 stops (1000X).
Taking just two exposures 8 to 10 stops apart and combining them into an HDR image doesn't work well. The earthshine exposure above is spoiled near the terminator by glare from the badly overexposed crescent. A cropped HDR composite with the crescent exposure included (figure below) shows two problems: glare from the bright crescent and a shift in the apparent location of the terminator.
This shift in the apparent location of the terminator is due to the very low angle of the Sun near the terminator. This dimly lit area along the terminator is dark in the short crescent image exposure and overexposed in the earthshine image. This region is often painted out in earthshine images. The image looks better, but any detail in this part of the Moon is lost in a grey blur. Increasing the number of HDR exposures (8 or more are needed) can capture detail in this region of low angle sunlight. Many more exposures at different settings make this more difficult to shoot and process. Reduced contrast because of glare from the crescent is still a problem in HDR images with many exposures.
Other techniques used to improve image quality require even more exposures. Lucky image stacking combines the best of multiple images of a target to reduce noise and increase contrast. If we improve image quality by image stacking, many hundreds of images must be taken. Using a video camera speeds up the exposures at a cost. Video gives lower resolution images or requires even more images to stitch together into high resolution mosaics.
The earthshine photographer needs techniques that can capture the whole lunar disk, with high resolution, and require the fewest possible exposure settings for HDR. DSLR or mirrorless cameras with APS-C or larger sensors are a good match for capturing the full Moon in a single exposure with most telescopes.
A night's rest provides an simple solution to the many exposures problem… The terminator advances about 12 degrees across the Moon's face each day. We only have to add delay between exposures. With enough delay, the detail hidden by glare and terminator shift is revealed by the advancing terminator. A day or two wait between just two exposures is enough. With only one exposure setting needed per night, it's easy to take extra images for lucky image stacking. Detail in the earthshine will always be softer and lower contrast than in the crescent because of the dim, diffuse lighting from the nearby earth. Craters, highlands, and maria in the earthshine area are visible right up to the terminator in day-lapse earthshine images. They closely match the beauty of this scene in a telescope eyepiece.
Some fine points require attention. The apparent size of the Moon changes slightly because of distance changes due to its elliptical orbit around the earth. The portion of the Moon that we can see changes slightly because of the tilt between Earth's rotation and the Moon's orbit. Libration changes our perspective because the Moon's orbit is tilted with respect to its axis. A small change in the Moon's size is easy to correct during alignment. Large perspective changes cannot easily be corrected. With only a day or two delay, they can be corrected by aligning and transforming the earthshine layer to match the crescent layer features along the terminator. Corrected, small size and perspective changes are too small to see in the final result. For a waxing crescent take the earthshine exposure on the first day, for a waning crescent take it on the day following your crescent exposure.
There are too many software tools for processing HDR images to give details for each. Adapt these suggestions from my processing workflow to your own tools.
If you stack multiple images to improve the image quality, you need to deal with atmospheric seeing. The Moon has about 1/2 degree of apparent size. Variations in atmospheric seeing result in mirage-like distortions across the Moon. This makes lucky image stacking more difficult for full-disk Moon images than for lunar close ups. Align images using a stacking tool that corrects for geometric distortion. I use Nebulosity's non-stellar automatic alignment, with 8 parameter affine transform, very successfully. Alignment is slower, but the results are worth the wait.
Three layers are needed for two exposure HDR image merging in a layer based editor like Photoshop. The background layer is black. Lunar detail and background stars are picked up from the top two layers.
The earthshine layer is next; masked to include only the lunar disk shown. On this layer, I select the overexposed crescent area, and clone color sampled from the earthshine region. This will insure the correct level of earthshine illumination in the terminator and crater shadows in the brightly lit crescent.
The top layer is the exposure for the sunlit lunar crescent shown below. The earthshine layer must now be translated, rotated, and scaled to align to features on the crescent terminator. The final HDR merging is done by setting the top crescent layer to "lighten only" merge. The final balance between crescent and earthshine illumination is achieved by adjusting each layers exposure individually.
The final result below captures with fidelity the appearance of the Moon in the eyepiece when the crescent image was made. This image was made with small, light equipment, an 89mm f14 telescope and a 16 megapixel mirrorless APS-C camera at prime focus. The earthshine layer was exposed for 2.5 sec at ISO 800 with 14 frames stacked. The crescent layer was exposed 2 days later for 1/15 sec at ISO 200 with 9 frames stacked.
Compare this day-lapse image with these exceptional images made using conventional HDR techniques: Jerry Lodriguss's two-day old waxing crescent Moon and Dylan O'Donnell's March 20, 2015 Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Try this day-lapse technique with your own images and tools. Problems from glare and camera limitations will be gone. You will soon be making great earthshine images that capture the beauty of the scene as you see it through the eyepiece.
A very thin crescent, only a day or so from the new Moon, is relatively dim and reduces the exposure difference between earthshine and the crescent. This makes it easier to produce a good image without the need for the day-lapse technique:
Mercury & the Moon with Earthshine
Here are some more examples of the day-lapse technique. The image below was awarded 2nd place for the Astronomical League 2017 OPT Solar System Imaging Award.
January Earthshine Crescent Moon
04 Crescent Moon with earthshine
23 Waning Crescent Moon with Earthshine
Other astrophotographers from around the world are now using the day-lapse technique as well. Here's an example from Roch Lévesque. If you post any of your day-laps images, tell me about them, and I'll include them here.
Content created: 2015-05-29 and last modified: 2017-10-03
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