- Business, Digital, Tech
The Impact of Alert Fatigue (And How to Avoid It)
Cybersecurity professionals are exposed to a high number of alerts, some of which pose real threats and others which are considered false alerts. The way these IT personnel react to these alerts can have an effect on the business they work for and can even cause alert fatigue. Alert fatigue affects various industries and is an example of how the human element in cybersecurity can cause problems. By working with a reputable IT company, you can help your business to avoid alert fatigue.
What is alert fatigue?
In certain fields, such as medicine, or IT, professionals receive such a high number of alerts that it can be overwhelming. Alert fatigue occurs when these professionals become desensitized to alerts and stop taking them seriously. For example, in a medical situation this could cause doctors to ignore alerts that impact on a patient's health, and in IT certain threats to cybersecurity can go unnoticed. Alerts happen for a reason and are part of a system in place to protect your company's data, staff, and systems.
How does alert fatigue impact individuals and businesses?
In a recent survey, 99% of IT leaders claim that alert fatigue could cause problems for cybersecurity. When IT professionals become unable to cope with the high number of alerts they recieve, they are less able to detect threats that could lead to security breaches. If an individual's data is compromised this could lead to them falling victim to theft or fraud. If a business experiences a data breach this could result in detrimental downtime. This would also lead to a significant loss of profits and would negatively impact their reputation.
How can you avoid alert fatigue?
Fortunately, there are several ways to avoid alert fatigue. Many businesses are now using automated solutions to differentiate between false alerts and serious threats. This helps to prevent alert fatigue in employees. Companies are also outsourcing cloud hosting and managed IT services for complete protection and monitoring of their systems. By outsourcing IT services, you can also manage alerts more effectively.
How can a managed IT service provider help?
A managed IT service provider can help by ensuring the right security framework is in place and that your business is compliant with data protection laws and regulations. They will carry out the necessary steps to detect and identify risks, and provide a suitable solution. When you work with an experienced New York IT company, you'll also get access to advanced tools and resources, and experienced professionals will manage all alerts and possible threats to cybersecurity.
There has been a rise in cyber attacks, and no business is too small to be affected. It's important to work with an IT company that has experience in dealing with the various types of cyber attack and how to prevent them. It's also the best way to avoid alert fatigue.


text:
A reAqua grey water recovery system collects waste water from the first floor bathroom's shower, bath and basin and treats the water so it can be used for toilet flushing. Heat is recovered from the waste water and used to pre-heat the water in the hot water cylinder.
How does it work?
A revised plumbing setup takes all the waste water from baths and showers in a property and redirects it through a reAqua filtration unit to treat it with a disinfectant. The treated water is then piped on to supply all flushing water needs for multiple toilets. If one toilet is specified, gravity feed is sufficient. If two or more are connected, an electrically pumped feed is provided within the unit.
The unit also recovers the heat from the bath and shower water used, transferring it to the building's central heating system through use of a heat-exchanger. The recovered heat is transferred to the cold feed of a combi-boiler or hot water cylinder, reducing demand on the existing central-heating system.
- Reduces water consumption
- Reduces energy consumption by pre-heating water in the heating or DHW system
- Unit is compact, fitting into a cupboard.
Resource Efficient House

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Breaking Down of a Force into Equally Distributed Component Forces
Angles complicate how forces are distributed. This project explores a simple situation similar to hanging a sign with two different length cables.
What You Need
- 2 spring scales
- mass—(should give close to a full-scale reading in the vertical position on your spring scales)
- 2 ring stands with clamps or comparable support
- key ring
- Place the ring stands about 18 inches apart.
- Cut two equal-length sections of string. The strings should be 8 inches, leaving a couple of inches on each side for attaching to the support and the weight.
- Set the spring scales to read zero (in the position they are being used), with no weight hanging from them.
- Hook both of the spring scales to each of the ring stands.
- Attach each string—one side to the key ring and the other side to the clamp on the ring strand.
- The apparatus should be as shown in Figure 34-1.
- Hang the mass on the key ring.
- Record the reading on each of the spring scales.
- Repeat, using different masses and different string lengths.
- Repeat the previous steps, using different string lengths.
- Based on your evaluation, can you answer the question posed at the beginning of this section?
In the case of the symmetric supports, the two scales will read the same.
If the strings are different lengths, the shorter of the two strings will bear more of the weight.
Why It Works
The force in a cable is the combination of the various forces present. The overall force depends on how large each of the forces is and its direction. The method of combining these forces is called vector addition.
Other Things to Try
Tension is the force in a rope or cable that can change direction without losses by going around a pulley. How do you think the force in each of the cases in Figure 34-2 compares? Test it out with weights and pulleys.
Each spring scale should read 9.8 newtons, which is the amount of force exerted by gravity on a 1 kg mass.
Tug of war. It is almost impossible to pull a rope supporting a moderate weight tight enough to be perfectly horizontal. The experimental setup is shown in Figure 34-3. A gallon milk container filled with water makes a good 4 kg mass to try this with.
To bring the rope to within 5 degrees of horizontal with a 4 kg weight in the middle, you need to pull with a force of 560 newtons (or over 125 pounds). To bring the rope to within 1 degree of horizontal, you need to apply a force of about 2300 newtons (or over 500 pounds).
This exercise shows how a force can be broken down into or resolved into a pair of component forces. The downward force from the suspended sign is supported by cables of various lengths in various directions. This is the type of thinking civil engineers apply on a daily basis—to oversimplify, how strong something (like a bridge cable) needs to be to support a load (like the road surface with cars).
Warning is hereby given that not all Project Ideas are appropriate for all individuals or in all circumstances. Implementation of any Science Project Idea should be undertaken only in appropriate settings and with appropriate parental or other supervision. Reading and following the safety precautions of all materials used in a project is the sole responsibility of each individual. For further information, consult your state's handbook of Science Safety.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
Primary Use: Textbook for moving from intermediate level Arabic to advanced Format: 10 chapters, each with new vocabulary, various lessons with the included DVD set, exercises throughout the chapter, and reading passages Pages: 431 Exercises: Yes Key: Separate volume Meant For: Intermediate to advanced
The al-Kitaab books have a particular philosophy of teaching grammar. It states in the preface to al-Kitaab: Part One that "students acquire language by constructing their own internal grammar rather than by internalizing a presentation of grammar to them" (al-Kitaab: Part One p xii). However, beginning in al-Kitaab: Part Two, a slight departure from this philosophy is taken. Although certain grammatical concepts still remain embedded in the lessons, the lessons specific to grammar occur more frequently and in a more timely fashion. The longer vocabulary lists also include roots of the new words as well as various conjugations of new verbs and their masdars.
The grammar in al-Kitaab: Part Two focuses on two key areas of Arabic grammar. One is the root and pattern system; the other is complex sentence structure. The focus on the root and pattern system is why the vocabulary lists are structured in the new way in this volume. The practicing of complex sentence structure largely rests on translation exercises.
As in the previous volume, the grammatical concepts presented generally move from the simple to the increasingly complex. However, the grammar lessons are not tied down to any particular story in this volume.
How to Use It
In order to use this book to the fullest extent, one must already know the following:
As with al-Kitaab: Part One, a computer with DVD capabilities is also necessary in order to do all the exercises in the book. However, this book focuses more on reading and less on listening in general.
- The Arabic script
- Arabic numerals
- solid foundation in Arabic at the intermediate level
- preferably have gone through Alif Baa and al-Kitaab: Part One
The chapters in this book are meant to be gone through in order, as each chapter builds on the previous chapters, making it seem difficult to skip around. However, various grammatical topics can be referenced through the grammar index in the back of the book, and these can be skipped ahead to if so desired. Unlike al-Kitaab: Part One, and perhaps unfortunately, in al-Kitaab: Part Two there is only an Arabic grammar index and no corresponding English grammar index. The index is in alphabetical order and is not based on the root system. Some grammatical items in the index are located in al-Kitaab: Part One; these items are indicated by the page numbers in parentheses.
As in al-Kitaab: Part One, grammatical terms in Arabic are not found in the Arabic-English dictionary located in the back, although they can be found in the grammar index.
The table of contents also references some of the grammatical lessons, but as this is written entirely in Arabic, one must be aware of the Arabic grammatical terms before browsing this section.
Additionally, various charts are found in the back of the book. There is a diagram of parts of the body, a chart on colors, many charts on verbs, and so forth. A list of these charts can be found in the table of contents. It should be noted that these charts are written almost entirely in Arabic. It is worth browsing through these charts before beginning the book, as it is easy to forget they are back there and ready to be used.
The answers to the exercises are found in the key which can be purchased separately.
al-Batal, Mahmoud, Kristen Brustad, and Abbas al-Tonsi. al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya: Part Two. 2nd ed. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2006.


text:
The reason behind this fish's name is apparent at first glance. The animal's entire body is a brilliant crimson red with dark half-moon shapes around the eyes and a dark band that runs parallel with the dorsal fin. Flame Hawkfish are predators, feeding mostly on small fish, invertebrates and crustaceans. Like most reef fish, they generally tolerate other marine species but will chase away other bottom-dwellers if they are intruding on its hunting grounds. Hawkfish live in harems, or large groups of females that are dominated by one large male. If this male disappears or dies, a female hawkfish will spontaneously change gender to replace him. Other fish like wrasses and angelfish have a similar ability.
Range & Habitat
The Flame Hawkfish is commonly found among coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean, from Japan south to Australia. It is a bottom-dweller, often using rocks and pieces of coral on which to perch before ambushing its prey.


text:
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the divine priesthood authority to act in His name was lost from the earth through an apostacy, which then needed to be restored. This Restoration happened in 1820 through a latter-day prophet chosen by Jesus Christ, named Joseph Smith. The following video is an illustrated excerpt of a talk entitled "How Choice A Seer" by the late LDS apostle Elder Neal A. Maxwell, discussing this Restoration.
To Learn More
1. Mormons & Jesus Christ: jesuschrist.lds.org
2. About the Prophet Joseph Smith: josephsmith.net
3. About Mormon beliefs: Mormon.org


text:
You heard a catchy new song a few days ago with your wife that you both liked. Today you were singing the song quietly to yourself while you worked. You want to tell her about it, so you confess this to her.
I've been humming that song all day.
To "hum" a song means to make the notes of the song with your mouth closed, without saying the words. People usually do this quietly for their own entertainment.
People use this phrase to describe something that they did several times in a day, and that they might continue doing.
(Print this lesson)


text:
The krone (sign: kr or,-; code: DKK) is the currency of the Kingdom of Denmark. The krone is pegged to the euro via the European Union's exchange rate mechanism. The plural of krone is kroner. The krone is divided into 100 øre, the singular form being the same as the plural. The ISO 4217 code is DKK; the domestic abbreviation is "kr.". Occasionally, the variants DKR or Dkr are seen, but these are not official. The currency is sometimes informally referred to as the "Danish crown" in English (since krone literally means crown in the Danish language).
Until the late 18th century, the krone was a denomination equal to 8 mark. A new krone was introduced as the currency of Denmark in 1873. It replaced the Danish rigsdaler at a rate of 2 kroner = 1 rigsdaler. The krone was introduced as a result of the Scandinavian Monetary Union, which lasted until World War I. The initial parties to the monetary union were the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Denmark, with Norway joining two years later. This placed the krone on the gold standard at a rate of 2480 kroner = 1 kilogram fine gold.
The name of the common currency was "krone" in Denmark and Norway (see Norwegian krone), and "krona" in Sweden (both names mean "crown" in English). After the dissolution of the monetary union, none of the three countries changed the names of the now separate currencies.
The Scandinavian Monetary Union came to end in 1914 when the gold standard was abandoned. Denmark returned to the gold standard in 1924 but left it permanently in 1931. Between 1940 and 1945, the krone was tied to the German Reichsmark. Following the end of the German occupation, a rate of 24 kroner to the British pound was introduced, reduced to 19.34 (4.8 kroner = 1 US dollar) in August the same year. Within the Bretton Woods System, Denmark devalued its currency with the pound in 1949 to a rate of 6.91 to the dollar. A further devaluation in 1967 resulted in rates of 7.5 kroner = 1 dollar and 18 kroner = 1 pound.
Faroe Islands and Greenland
In the Faroe Islands, Danish coins are used but the islands use distinct banknotes (see Faroese króna). During the British occupation of the islands in World War II, a shortage of small change occurred, which prompted the British to produce copies of Danish 1 øre, 2 øre, 5 øre, 10 øre, and 25 øre coins for use on the Faroe Islands, the first three in bronze, the latter two in cupronickel. This issue is identical to pre-war Danish coinage but carries the year 1942 and lacks the tiny heart identifying coins as products of the Royal Danish Mint in Copenhagen. No similar coins were issued this year in Denmark proper, as Denmark shifted to zinc issues this year. Banknotes in circulation in the Faroes were overstamped by the amt administration invalidating the notes outside of the Faroes.
The modern Faroese banknotes were introduced in the 1950s. Despite a common misconception, the Faroese króna is not an independent currency, but a separate set of DKK banknotes with a different design.
In Greenland, the colonial administration issued distinct banknotes between 1803 and 1968, together with coins between 1926 and 1964 (see Greenland rigsdaler and Greenland krone). In 2006, the governments of Denmark and the Greenland home rule authority announced that by 2008, distinct Greenlandic banknotes will be introduced. These will, like in the Faroes, have the status of a cosmetic variation of DKK banknotes. However, as of 2009, they are still not available, but are planned for distribution in 2011.
Due to this status, ordinary Danish banknotes are legal tender in both Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and Danish banks exchange notes issued for use in these regions 1:1 for ordinary Danish notes.
Relationship to the euro
Denmark negotiated special "opt-outs" of the Maastricht Treaty that allowed the country to preserve the krone while most other members of the European Union adopted the euro in 1999. A referendum on the currency issue held in 2000 rejected the proposed adoption of the euro. The Liberal-Conservative government of Anders Fogh Rasmussen planned another referendum on the issue in 2004, but these plans were dropped when polls showed decreasing support for the euro.
The krone is pegged to the euro via the ERM II, the European Union's exchange rate mechanism. Before the introduction of the euro, the krone was linked to the German mark, the intention being to keep the krone stable.
The coins of the krone currency are issued by the Danish National Bank. When the currency was introduced in the 1870s, coins were minted in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, and 25 øre; and 1, 2, 10, and 20 kroner. The 1, 2, and 5 øre were minted in bronze; the 10 and 25 øre, 1 and 2 kroner in silver; and the 10 and 20 kroner in gold. Production of gold coins ceased in 1917, followed by silver coins in 1919. Iron replaced bronze in 1918 and 1919. In 1920, cupro-nickel 10 and 25 øre were introduced, followed, in 1924, by aluminium-bronze ½, 1, and 2 krone coins.
In 1941, zinc 1, 10, and 25 øre and aluminium 2 and 5 øre coins were introduced, with zinc 2 and 5 øre following the next year. The ½ krone denomination was withdrawn due to lack of metal, and the 2 krone coin was not struck during the years of German occupation. Cupro-nickel 10 and 25 øre coins were reintroduced in 1946, followed by aluminium-bronze 2 krone coins the next year. In 1960, the 5 krone coin was introduced and the production of 2 krone coins ceased. 1 and 2 øre coins were withdrawn in 1973, and 10 krone coins were introduced in 1979. 5 and 10 øre coins were withdrawn in 1989 and are no longer legal tender. Between 1989 and 1992, 50 øre, 2 and 20 krone coins were introduced, and in 2008 the 25 øre ceased to be legal tender.
The decision to withdraw the 25 øre coin, which went in effect on 1 October 2008, was made due to high costs of production, and a lack of purchasing power for the coin. It is possible to exchange it at the Danish National Bank until the 1st of October 2011.
In 1875, the National Bank introduced denominations of 10, 50, 100, and 500 kroner, with 5 kroner following in 1898. From 1891, a number of private banks issued notes, including the Aalborg Kreditbank, the Aarhus Kreditbank, the Dansk Købmandsbank, the Esbjerg Kreditbank, the Fredrikshavn Kreditbank, the Hjørring Kreditbank, the Odense Kreditbank, the Randers Kreditbank, the Thisted Kreditbank, the Varde Kreditbank and the Vejle Kreditbank. Denominations included 10 and 25 øre, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, and 50 kroner.
In 1914, 1 krone notes were introduced due to the outbreak of the First World War and were issued until 1921. In 1945, the Allied Command issued notes for 25 øre, 1, 5, 10, 50, and 100 kroner.
5 krone notes were replaced by coins in 1960. The next new denomination was not introduced until 1972, when production of 1000 krone notes began. In 1979, the 10 krone note was replaced by a coin and 20 krone notes were introduced, although these have since also been replaced by coins (both are, however, still legal tender).
In 1997, a complete new series was issued ranging from 50 to 1000 kroner. During 2002-2005, additional security features were added.
The text on this page has been made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License and Creative Commons Licenses


text:
Botanical and Vegetable Gardens
At Discovery Yukon Lodgings, we are developing a Botanical Garden and the cultivated areas within the grounds are all planted with indigenous species, which are in the process of being labelled with both their botanical name in Latin and their common name to help you identify some of the more prolific species that you will encounter on your journey through the Yukon. Other plants of interest will be labelled throughout the property and it is our intention to develop the garden to include as diverse a plant collection as possible. We are fortunate to have a tiny insectivorous plant, which always creates interest if it is encountered during our guided ethno-botanical walks.
In this part of the Yukon, we do not have access to the ever increasing quantity of fast food outlets which are now an integral part of the modern everyday life. The change in our diets since the introduction and proliferation of these outlets, has led to an alarming increase in obesity in people of all ages and a decline in our general health as a result. How does a Mother Bear teach her cubs how to eat a healthy diet in their natural surrounding? She educates her cubs by making use of Mother Nature's food store. We encourage our visitors to raise their own fruit and vegetables and reinforce our message of a healthy lifestyle, enhanced by living off the land. We grow our own vegetables in raised beds (an area of soil raised three feet above the surrounding soil, encased by rock) to counteract the permafrost.


text:
DNA clues to Queen of Sheba tale
Clues to the origins of the Queen of Sheba legend are written in the DNA of some Africans, according to scientists.
Genetic research suggests Ethiopians mixed with Egyptian, Israeli or Syrian populations about 3,000 years ago.
This is the time the queen, mentioned in great religious works, is said to have ruled the kingdom of Sheba.
The research, published in The American Journal of Human Genetics, also sheds light on human migration out of Africa 60,000 years ago.
The Queen of Sheba
- Queen mentioned in the Bible, the Koran and the Ethiopian Kabra Nagast
- Sheba was a rich kingdom that prospered through trade with Jerusalem and the Roman Empire, and spanned modern day Ethiopia and Yemen
- Queen said to have visited Jerusalem with gold to give to King Solomon
- Some texts record that she had a son with King Solomon
According to fossil evidence, human history goes back longer in Ethiopia than anywhere else in the world. But little has been known until now about the human genetics of Ethiopians.
Professor Chris Tyler-Smith of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, a researcher on the study, told BBC News: "Genetics can tell us about historical events.
"By analysing the genetics of Ethiopia and several other regions we can see that there was gene flow into Ethiopia, probably from the Levant, around 3,000 years ago, and this fits perfectly with the story of the Queen of Sheba."
End Quote Dr Sarah Tishcoff Department of Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania
This paper sheds light on the very interesting recent and ancient population history of a region that played an important role in both recent and ancient human migration events"
Lead researcher Luca Pagani of the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute added: "The genetic evidence is in support of the legend of the Queen of Sheba."
More than 200 individuals from 10 Ethiopian and two neighbouring African populations were analysed in the largest genetic investigation of its kind on Ethiopian populations.
About a million genetic letters in each genome were studied. Previous Ethiopian genetic studies have focussed on smaller sections of the human genome and mitochondrial DNA, which passes along the maternal line.
Dr Sarah Tishcoff of the Department of Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, said Ethiopia would be an important region to study in the future.
Commenting on the study, she said: "Ethiopia is a very diverse region culturally and linguistically but, until now, we've known little about genetic diversity in the region.
"This paper sheds light on the very interesting recent and ancient population history of a region that played an important role in both recent and ancient human migration events.
"In particular, the inference of timing and location of admixture with populations from the Levant is very interesting and is a unique example of how genetic data can be integrated with historical data."
The scientists acknowledge that there are uncertainties about dating, with a probable margin of error of a few hundred years either side of 3,000 years.
They plan to look at all three billion genetic letters of DNA in the genome of individual Ethiopians to learn more about human genetic diversity and evolution.


text:
Kruger House Museum, Pretoria
The last house in which President Paul Kruger was to live, between 1883 and 1901, before he left South Africa to go into exile in Europe, the Kruger House Museum lies just a few blocks from Church square, where his bronze statue takes centre stage facing the Palace of Justice.
The beautiful Victorian style home was interestingly built using milk instead of water for mixing the cement as the cement of the time was deemed to be of a poor quality. Paul Kruger's home was one of the first in the city to use electricity, and he had one of the first telephones installed in Pretoria in 1891. The unpretentious home has been refurbished to reflect the time when Kruger and his second wife, Gezina Kruger, lived here and, amongst a number of bits and pieces is a knife that Oom Paul (Uncle Paul), as he was fondly known, used to amputate his thumb after a shooting incident. The lions on the verandah were given to Kruger by Barney Barnato, the mining magnate, as a birthday present in 1896.
Paul Kruger was State President of the South African Republic and was renowned internationally for his struggle for freedom from the British during the Second Boer War (1899 - 1902). Both the Kruger National Park and the Krugerrand coin are named after him, and today pipe manufacturers continue to produce a style called 'Oom Paul', that is similar to the large-bowled, full-bent shape of the pipe with which he was so often portrayed in photographs. Interestingly, the hat he wore on his voyage to Europe is today displayed at the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands.
Address: 60 Church Street, Protoria, Gauteng
Monday to Friday: 08h30-17h30; Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays: 08h30-17h00
Telephone: +27 (0)12 _PHONE_
Stay OvernightKruger House Museum
Attractions / Activities nearby
The gardens contain indigenous plants from all over South Africa, including cycads and aloes, grouped according to their climatic region, all clearly marked. They are especially attractive in winter when many different species of aloe are in flower, and in spring when the daisies and mesem... more information
Designed by Sir Herbert Baker and completed in 1913. Considered by many to be the architect's greatest achievement & South Africa's architectural masterpiece. This was the setting for President Nelson Mandela's historic inauguration in 1994. The spacious, terraced gardens command fine views of the city... more information
destinations / attractions in gauteng


text:
Kniha: Pathogenic Fungi: Structural Biology and Taxonomy v anglickom jazyku
Názov: Pathogenic Fungi: Structural Biology and Taxonomy
Dostupnosť: 2-3 týždne
The book opens with a section entitled "Fungal Dimorphism and Pathogenicity". This section focuses on morphogenesis, the cell cycle, and the cell wall of human pathogens. These play a major role in elucidating fungal relationships, both with the environment and with the host. Chapters are written as in-depth reviews with a focus on molecular and biochemical analysis. In addition there is a chapter detailing how mathematical modelling can be used to understand the building of three-dimensional cell structures in the morphogenetic process. The second section, entitled "New Taxonomic Tools", presents novel approaches to aid the understanding of strain variability, the significance of environmental and patient strains, and the relatedness of "uncultured" fungi. In addition the use of molecular tools for the taxonomic classification of previously unclassifiable fungi is featured.


Center for International Education
Holloway Hall
Untitled 1
Because Salisbury is situated between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, the climate here is rather mild, and the weather often humid. In the summer the high temperatures range from 85 F (29 C) to 95F (35C) and in the winter the lows range from 20F (-12C) to 30F (-6.5C), with 40F (4.5 C) being the average winter temperature. Although Salisbury rarely experiences extreme weather conditions (i.e. hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards), heavy thunderstorms occur from April through September. This mild climate provides for small amount of snow during our short winter, beautiful springs, tropical summers and warm autumns.
Celsius -18 -10 0 10 20 30 40
Fahrenheit 0 14 32 50 68 85 105
C = 5 / 9 (F-32)
F = 9 / 5 C +32


text( path = nil ) public
A convenience method which returns the String value of the first child text element, if one exists, and nil otherwise.
Note that an element may have multiple Text elements, perhaps separated by other children. Be aware that this method only returns the first Text node.
This method returns the value of the first text child node, which ignores the raw setting, so always returns normalized text. See the Text::value documentation.
doc = Document.new "some text this is bold! more text" # The element 'p' has two text elements, "some text " and " more text". doc.root.text #-> "some text
Show source
Register or log in to add new notes.


text:
Fla. Museum hosts "Butterflies and Moths in Contemporary Zuni Art " exhibit
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Visitors to the Florida Museum of Natural History can discover how butterflies have influenced Zuni Indian art in a new exhibit,"Butterflies and Moths in Contemporary Zuni Art." The exhibit is on display through 2008.
This temporary exhibit highlights the role of butterflies in the belief system and art of contemporary Zuni people, Native Americans who live in the high desert of the American Southwest. Many Zuni traditional arts feature butterflies and moths, and this tradition continues today in their fine arts, crafts and tourist art forms.
"From T-shirts to jewelry, butterflies have found their way into a broad array of Zuni folk art and fine art – sometimes whimsical, other times beautiful," said Darcie MacMahon, director of exhibits for the Florida Museum. "These works echo the importance of butterflies and moths in many cultural traditions, and also make clear the lively nature of Zuni art today."
For the Zuni, butterflies and moths represent fertility because they are important plant pollinators and because they usually appear along with the desert's life-giving rains. Butterflies and moths also represent beauty, rebirth and transformation, sometimes associated with the ability to know or change the mind. This derives from their amazing metamorphosis from caterpillar to cocoon or chrysalis to adult moth or butterfly.
The 85 pieces in this exhibit are from the collection of Gary Noel Ross, a lepidopterist and ethnobiologist with a lifelong interest in indigenous cultures. Ross has been chronicling the role of the butterfly and the butterfly motif in the belief systems and arts of indigenous Native American cultures.
"In the late 1990s, I became aware of the prominence of the butterfly symbol in Zuni culture of northern New Mexico," Ross says. "In 2006, I was able to visit Zuni Pueblo for nearly a month. I quickly became a student of Edward Lewis, an extraordinary painter and religious leader. Edward introduced me to many other artists who were surprised to finally meet a butterfly scientist. An instant bond developed. I think that the Zunis portray the butterfly in their art more than any other living American culture, and I am gratified that Zuni art and crafts are now becoming more and more popular in the 'outside' world."
- Marcel Raphael
- Paul Ramey, _EMAIL_, _PHONE_


Skip to Content
MIT Technology Review
Google's auto-complete for speech can cover up glitches in video calls
The news: With many of us now relying on video calls for face-to-face interaction, choppy connections are more frustrating than ever. An artificial intelligence that mimics an individual speaker's way of talking can smooth over the cracks by filling in small gaps with snippets of generated speech. Developed by a team at Google, the technology is now being used in Google's video-calling app Duo
What's the problem? When you're on an online call your voice gets chopped up into lots of tiny pieces that are zipped across the internet in data blocks known as packets. Packets often arrive at the other end jumbled up and software has to reorder them. But sometimes packets don't arrive at all, which creates glitches and gaps in a conversation. This happens at the best of times. According to Google 99% of Duo calls have to deal with jumbled up or lost packets. A tenth of those calls lose more than 8% of their audio.
Generating speech: To fix the problem, the team built on a neural network developed by DeepMind that can generate realistic speech from text. Called WaveNetEQ, the new neural network was then trained on a large dataset of 100 recorded human voices speaking 48 different languages until it could auto-complete short sections of speech based on common patterns in the way people talk. Because Duo is end-to-end encrypted, the AI runs on the device, not the cloud. During a call, WaveNetEQ is able to learn characteristics of a speaker's voice and generates audio snippets that match both the style and content of what the speaker is saying. When a packet is lost, the AI generated voice is inserted in its place.
For now, the AI can only generate syllables rather than whole words or phrases. But short samples Google posted online show that the results can be pretty lifelike. In one case, the AI replaces the second syllable of the word "trouble" in a voice that mimics the male speaker exactly.


text:
Develop a global partnership for development
Creating a global partnership for development
In September, world leaders convened at United Nations Headquarters in a high-level summit. An important outcome of that meeting was a renewed commitment to the Goals – by the countries that created them. Goal 8, to encourage a global partnership for development, finds its highest expression in the compact made by these leaders as they pursue ambitious plans to lead their people out of poverty and towards a better future.
Progress made worldwide
At the regional level, cooperation included events such as the First Islamic Ministerial Conference on the Child in Rabat (Morocco), organized jointly by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Islamic Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization and UNICEF to address issues important to the well-being of children in the Islamic countries and countries with large Muslim populations.
Collaboration at the national level is reflected in such countries as Ecuador, where UNICEF works closely with civil society and the government to make the country's budget-allocation process transparent, supportive of children's needs and more reflective of a state of rights than a state of privilege. As a result, in 2005, an additional $180 million was identified within the Ecuadorian budget for investment in education and health.
A network of partnerships
UNICEF helps obtain and extend resources for children through partnering with a wide range of private companies. Such partners are also moving beyond purely financial support to provide broad expertise in service of UNICEF's mission. Civil society is also being engaged on every level; to strengthen this engagement, UNICEF is currently undertaking a review of its policies and practices as a partner to civil society.


Question: Can Getting Angry Harm My Unborn Baby?
How can I control my anger during pregnancy?
4 Effective Measures to Control Your Anger during PregnancyOpt for a healthy lifestyle.
Having a healthy lifestyle is naturally going to instill positivity and emotional control in you.
Relax yourself.
Simple relaxation techniques such as deep breathing can do wonders.
Change the way you think.
When we are angry we tend to say a lot of harsh things we don't even mean.
Slow down..
What happens when a pregnant woman gets angry?
A pregnant woman experiencing anger can result in certain biological and physiological changes like increased blood pressure and heart rate; levels of hormones like epinephrine and adrenaline shoot up, resulting in the constriction of blood vessels.
How should a husband treat his pregnant wife?
Encourage and reassure her.Ask her what she needs from you.Show affection. Hold hands and give hugs.Help her make changes to her lifestyle. … Try to eat healthy foods, which can help her eat well.Encourage her to take breaks and naps. … Some women may want less sex. … Take walks together.
Why Pregnant ladies should not cry?
Can I breastfeed my husband during pregnancy?
Does anger during pregnancy affect the baby?
Some research has found that anger during pregnancy may impact the unborn child. One study found that prenatal anger was associated with reduced fetal growth rate.
Can getting angry cause a miscarriage?
Can your emotions affect your unborn baby?


text:
foment hatred by occasional attacks on blacks. They, for instance, try to restrict them from visiting restaurants and landlords, which cause a new wave of discrimination and vicious insults. Since apartheid has had a long history in South Africa, it probably will take long to eradicate it.
Racism in New Zealand essay
According to the surveysб New Zealand has experienced more positive attitude towards ethnically diverse groups during the last 15 years. Though New Zealand is regarded as a multicultural country (the main ethnic groups are European, Maori, Pacific people and Asian), it is regarded as constitutionally bicultural society, thus the main conflict lies between Maori, indigenous inhabitants, and Pakeha people, European descendants. In comparison to Pakeha, which is considered to be the foremost class of the society, Maori experience lack of medical insurance, lack of learning opportunities and low access to high-paid jobs. Also, there is such a problem as inequality in general income between Pakeha and Maori, and lower life expectancy of the latter. Another topic for writing an essay on is whether the current population of the country can be considered as New Zealanders. Many claim that it can destroy Maori cultural identity and lead to the deprivation of their rights.
Racism in Lebanon essay
Though Lebanon is known as a liberal country due to the vast freedom enjoyed by its female population, and the country attracts visitors with its archeological remnants, good weather and tasty food, the level of racism towards foreign workers grows rapidly. Most workers come from Nepal, Philippines, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka, usually these are females working as maids and nannies for wealthy Lebanese families. They, as well as dark-skinned men, experience vicious racism and are treated badly by their employers. For example, they are barred from visiting beaches and swimming pools, both private and public ones, and from Lebanese clubs. The most blatant racism is experienced by Palestinians, who are not allowed to work at almost every job possible. Ethnically-based discrimination in Lebanon is practiced since Lebanese consider migrants only as a cheap labor. The problem of discrimination is worsening mainly because the Lebanese government hasn't taken any measures against its elimination.
Racism in Puerto Rico essay
The history of Puerto Rico started in early 16th century when European colonizers have settled on its territory. For a long period of time, particularly for more than 4 hundred years, Puerto Rico has been a possession of Spain and it contributed a lot to the emergency of the so-called mix-race. The current population of Puerto Rico is primarily the descendants of Native Tainos, Spanish colonizers, and Africans who were brought here as slaves. At the same time, the U.S. census has shown that over 80% Puerto Ricans have identified themselves as being white, approximately 8% as black, the rest recognize themselves as representatives of other ethnical groups. The most rampant racism has been experienced by Africans, Native Americans, and their posterities. For instance, blacks have never been elected as governors or senators despite the fact that current president of the U.S. is African American. They are also less likely to get well-paid professions and consequently jobs, which are reserved for white citizens. It becomes obvious that though Puerto Ricans claim they have no prejudice in their country, these examples evidence that it still takes place in the society.
Racism in Russia essay
Russian federation is the largest country in the world, which consists of numerous autonomous federations and numerous ethnic groups, but at the same time, it is well known for its racist acts. For example, based on the data of the Sova Centre, in 2013, more than 20 people were murdered and over 173 were injured as a result of racist and neo-Nazi attacks in Moscow. Among the victims were primarily Central Asia and Caucasus republics natives, dark-skinned and Chinese. Thus, blacks and other ethnically diverse minorities are often warned from coming to study or even to visit Russia. There are also nationalist organizations in the country, which include thousands of members, who regularly train in gyms or forests. Such belligerent attitude towards "different" people seems to be mainstream. One more thing that reaffirms negative concern to foreigners is the refusal to shelter Syrian refugees and accusing Western European countries of accepting people from those parts of the world. Judging from Putin's politics, the situation of deep-seated racial prejudice will hardly alter for the better in the nearest time.
Racism in sports today essay
Sport is an important part of our society. Millions of people have their favorite teams and players and watch games all the time. That is why, whatever happens on the playing field, especially if it is an incident that displays discrimination towards colored players, cannot be left without proper attention. The issue of racism in sports is an old but still hotly disputed problem. They claim that racism has already been conquered, but in reality, colored players are challenged greatly. Though a lot of black sportsmen, known as African Americans, be they individual athletes or team players, have already proved that they can succeed at any sport, they are still discriminated to the present day. The history gives us many examples of African American black legends, starting from Jesse Owens who has won 4 gold medals during the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Unfortunately, the display of racial intolerance still remains a tendency in some sports.
Racism in hockey essay
If you write about racism in hockey, we advise you to mention that the majority of hockey players has always been white. Though the hockey leagues, like NHL league, try to change the situation by increasing the number of ethnically diverse players, the issue of racism in the leagues gets more serious as well. For instance, a damnable incident happened to one of the few NHL's African American player Wayne Simmonds during the game on September 23, 2011. One of the spectators threw a banana at Simmonds while the player was making a shootout attempt. Despite the shock, Simmonds managed to finish the game and commented later that if you are black playing white men's sport, things like that are expected. However, NHL claims that the organization takes necessary steps to end this awful game's practice by adopting inviting colored players to their league. This will also have a positive effect on the younger generation that still doubts whether they should go in for hockey or not.
Racism in football essay
Football is one the worldwide popular sports, and at the same time, it is considered to be the favorite sports of roughnecks and cads. As a result, the incidents of racist behavior happen on the field here and there. In most cases, such misconduct is shown by football fans, who often show their racist attitude. According to the surveys, the most ignorant football fans are those from Spain, Italy, Holland, and from Eastern-European countries. They display their intolerance towards ethnically diverse players in different ways: it can be offensive racist statements or chanting, inappropriate gestures, crowd violence, and other insulting acts. One of the most outrageous displays of racism happened in December 2011, when the Liverpool striker, Luis Suarez, abused Patrice Evra of Manchester United during the game. For such unacceptable behavior, Suarez received eight-match suspension and a fine, which is just one quarter of his monthly salary. Most experts believe that only more severe punishments for such acts can help to avoid intolerance on the soccer fields.
Racism in soccer essay ideas
It seems that soccer and racism are closely interrelated. That is why if you need to write an essay on racial bias in soccer, it won't be difficult due to a huge number of examples of discrimination misbehavior on a playing field. For example, Euro 2012 hosted by Poland and Ukraine, was overflowed with rampant racism. More than one-quarter of all federations of countries participating in the event, primarily Russian, Spanish and Croatian soccer federations, were fined for the uncontrolled racist behavior of their fans during the games. The German federation particularly was fined since its fans exhibited neo-Nazi symbols when their team won a game with Denmark. The former captain of England's federation even tried to persuade ethnically diverse English fans to stay at home not to "come back in a coffin". Even if the most loyal and tolerant countries, like England and Germany, face the problem of racism in sports, then prompt steps should be taken in order to change such a plaguy situation in our community.
In case you are short of time or loaded with other work, order essay online at Pro-Papers.com, and we will write a top-quality paper on racism for you.
Essay paper writing
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published / Required fields are marked *
Essay paper writing
Disputes about the necessity of school uniform are as eternal as the history of such clothing itself. Supporters insist that it accustoms children to order and removes signs of social inequality from…
5 Things To Exclude On Your Resume I recently worked with a client who had a 13 page resume! It included every single job for the past 25 years and a full page describing what he was looking for in…
Business paper writing
College admission papers
The name of this assignment defines its purpose and content. It's personal in every possible way, and that is why this type of assignment reveals your personality, the genuine you, opens your inner…


Credit: Photograph by Michael Pirrocco
At the risk of inviting the wrath of an entire continent, can we just say that South American wines leave a lot to be desired? It is not that South American wines are bad (Chile, for one, has a number of big, bold reds and leads the way in organic wines). Instead, these wines are guilty of something much worse: They tend to be maddeningly uninteresting. They all seem to show the same flavor profile: lots of ripe fruit, a soft texture, and (in the case of the red wines) innocuous tannins – they are the wine world's answer to elevator music.
That's why the emergence of Louis-Antoine Luyt is such a refreshing and exciting development. A native of France who trained under the late, great Beaujolais winemaker Marcel Lapierre, Luyt is making the finest South American wines we've yet tasted. Based in Chile's Maule Valley, Luyt works with a couple of different grapes: carmenere, carignan, and an indigenous variety called país (known locally as Huasa). Luyt uses organically farmed fruit and native yeasts to produce low-alcohol, earthy reds that exude a quality sorely lacking in most other South American wines: character.
The 2010 Louis-Antoine Luyt Huasa de Trequilemu ($22) is a terrific example. It sports an inviting nose of red berries, leather, black olives, and incense. In the mouth, it is cool, chewy, and spicy, with excellent structure and a long aftertaste. It is a very satisfying and distinctive wine, and as such is a beacon among the dull, formulaic reds and whites coming out of South America.


text:
Camille Pissarro and Caribbean Light
Camille Pissarro is not only considered the grandfather of Impressionism, but is also a forerunner of Post-Impressionists such as Van Gogh, Cezanne, Seurat and Gauguin. Starting life on St Thomas, in what is now the American Virgin Islands, perhaps inspired the painter's distinctive and pioneering use of light.
Pissarro was the son of a Hispanic Jew and a local Creole woman and spent his childhood marginalized from the white elite of St Thomas' society because of this mixed race background - his family were also frowned upon due to his father marrying his brother's widow. Subsequently the children were schooled in the local black school on the island. These humble beginnings may have contributed to his lifelong fascination with the common peasant people and agricultural scenes which would feature highly in his paintings.
Equally the trade winds, azure sea and bright sun of the Caribbean, like Gauguin with the Pacific, seem to have impacted the artist's disposition and fuelled his artistic leanings. Unlike other contemporaries, even within the Impressionist Movement, Pissarro painted outside for the duration of each piece of work, often completing works in just one sitting.
Though he would abandon Impressionism briefly in favour of the more exact style of pointillism ofSeuratand Signac he returned to it and all his life was devoted to embodying his immediate sensations in his painting. His commitment to capturing the subtle nuances of the natural world, which had previously been depicted in a grandiose and unrealistically ordered manner, caused early critics to be outraged.
It was also on St Thomas where Pissarro met his mentor Fritz Melbye – a Dutch painter who became both his teacher and his good friend. Despite his father wanting him to pursue a more stable career, encouragement from Melbye led him to the decision to become a painter professionally. The pair then moved to Caracas in Venezuela where Pissarro painted incessantly and indiscriminately, capturing everything he came across for two years, developing his style and individuality.


text:
What is the difference between "forgo" and "forego"? Are these just alternate spellings of the same word?
No, these are words with distinctly different meanings. And sometimes devilishly hard to tell apart. So let's fix that!
To forego (with an "e") means, literally, to "go before". That telltale syllable "fore" is our clue: It normally means in front of, or in advance of, something. We find it in words like "forefront" and "foreknowledge".
Thus we might speak of a "foregone conclusion", meaning a conclusion already settled, or established in advance.
Or a contract might refer to its "foregoing provisions", meaning all those provisions previously spelled out. ("Foregoing" in this sense is similar to "preceding".)
To forgo (without the "e") means to give something up, to relinquish it. Perhaps I'll forgo dessert tonight, in hope of losing weight. (Then again, maybe I won't; that jury is still out.)
When we mix these up, it's typically by including the "e" when we don't need it. Thus we may say we'll "forego" something (like dessert) when we mean forgo (relinquish).
How to remember the difference? That little "fore" (as I wrote before) is key: If we mean something goes before, then the word is "forego" (or one of its variants). Otherwise, forgo the "e"!
(This article is part of my series on words that are _TAG_.)


Using inline assembly language in C programs with mspgcc
mspgcc tries to be largely compatible with the other C language toolchains for the MSP430. Inline assembly language is one area where this is impractical. mspgcc uses the usual GCC syntax for inline assembly language, with a few extensions to deal with MSP430 specific issues. At first sight GCC's way of handling inline assembly language may seem a little more difficult to use than some of the alternatives. It is, however, generally more efficient and powerful than those alternatives.
Inline assembly language syntax
mspgcc supports the standard GNU inline assembler feature 'asm'. In an assembler instruction using 'asm', you can specify the operands of the instruction using C expressions. This means you need not guess which registers or memory locations will contain the data you want to use.
You must specify an assembler instruction template much like what appears in an assembler language, plus an operand constraint string for each operand. For example:
asm("mov %1, %0": "=r" (result): "m" (source));
This could also be written:
asm("mov %src,%res": [res] "=r" (result): [src] "m" (source));
which may be clearer. Here'source' is the C expression for the input operand while'result' is that of the output operand. '=' indicates, that the operand is an output. m and r are constraints and inicate which types of addressing mode GCC has to use in the operand. These constraints are fully documented in the GNU GCC documentation.
Each asm statement is divided into four parts, by colons:
 1. The assembler instructions, defined as a single string constant:
 "mov %src, %res"
 2. A list of output operands, separated by commas. Our example uses just one, and defines the identifier "res" for it:
 [res] "=r" (result)
 3. A comma separated list of input operands. Again, our example uses just one operand, and defines the identifier "src" for it:
 [src] "m" (source)
 4. The clobbered registers. This is left empty in our example, as nothing is clobbered.
So, the complete pattern is:
asm((string asm statement) : [outputs]:[inputs]:[clobbers]);
Each input and output operand is described by a constraint string followed by a C expression in parantheses. msp430-gcc recognises the following constraint characters:
and some other constraints which are common to all processors supported by GCC. These constraints cause the compiler to automatically generate preamble and postamble code, allocate registers, and save and restore anything necessary to ensure the assembly language is efficiently and compatibly handled. For example
 asm("add %[bar],%[foo]"
 : [foo] "=r" (foo)
 : "[foo]" (foo), [bar] "m" (bar));
is equivalent to
foo += bar;
and will result in the following generated assembly language (assuming "foo" is a global variable)
 mov &foo, r12
/* _TAG_ */
 add &bar, r12
/* _TAG_ */
 mov r12, &foo
If there are only unused output operands, you will also need to specify 'volatile' for the 'asm' construct. If you are writing a header file that will be included in ANSI C programs, use '__asm__' instead of 'asm' and '__volatile__' instead of 'volatile'.
A percent '%' sign followed by a digit or defined tag forces GCC to substitute the relevant operand. For 4 and 8 byte operands use the A, B, C, and D modifiers to select the appropriate 16 bit chunk of the operand. For example:
_TAG_ LONGVAL 0x12345678l
 long a,b;
 asm("mov %A2, %A0 \n\t"
 "mov %B2, %B0 \n\t"
 "mov %A2, %A1 \n\t"
 "mov %B2, %B1 \n\t"
 : "=r"((long)a),"=m"((long)b)
 : "i"((long)LONGVAL) );
_TAG_ LONGVAL 0x12345678l
 long a,b;
 asm("mov %A[longval], %A[a] \n\t"
 "mov %B[longval], %B[a] \n\t"
 "mov %A[longval], %A[b] \n\t"
 "mov %B[longval], %B[b] \n\t"
 : [a] "=r" ((long) a), [b] "=m" ((long) b)
 : [longval] "i"((long) LONGVAL));
This will result in something like the following generated assembly language (assuming 'a' is declared within the block, and 'b' is declared globally):
/* _TAG_ */
 mov _TAG_(305419896), r12
 mov _TAG_(305419896), r13
 mov _TAG_(305419896), 4(r1) ; mov _TAG_(305419896), &b
 mov _TAG_(305419896), 6(r1) ; mov _TAG_(305419896), &b+2
/* _TAG_*/
 mov r12, 0(r1)
 mov r13, 2(r1)
The I, J, K and L modifiers are similar, except they add 1 to an address or register. They should only be used in zero_extendMN operations.
There is also a %E modifier, which substitutes Rn from (mem:xx (reg:xx n)) as _USER_. This is a useful modifier for the first element on the stack or for pointers.!!! Do not use this unless you know exactly what are you doing!!!


text:
Exhibiting the Moving Image
Edited by François Bovier & Adeena Mey
Since the 1990s, a "cinematographic turn" has supposedly taken place in contemporary art paralleled by the emergence of a "cinema of exhibition" during the same period. This collection of new essays investigates the relationships between the "white cube" and the "black box," focusing mainly on the 1970s, a decade in which film practices and moving images were integrated into museums and art spaces.
In order to define what constitutes a "film exhibition," the authors in this volume analyze multiple modalities of presenting the moving image through historical case studies: the anatomy of video art, expanded cinema, artists' films and installations, and the moving image in the public sphere. Going back from the 1930s to the present, these contributions address commercial spectacular or advertising forms of moving images, artists' performative practices, installations in large museums, exhibitions devoted to projections, festivals of experimental films, and the likes. The challenge of this volume is to articulate historical case studies alongside wider questions that shape contemporary forms of artists' film and the moving image with their exhibition contexts.


Language selection
Czech Republic cultural insights
On this page
Local and Canadian perspectives for the following subjects:
Local perspective
At first contact Czechs may often seem cautious and impersonal and/or indifferent, but with a tactful approach they might become effectively engaged. You have to consider the language barrier if you don't speak reasonably fluent Czech. However, even a few words of Czech will make a good impression. Not too many Czechs are able to communicate in English or French at a comfortable level.
Czechs almost never go straight to the point and meetings start with some small talk. They like very much negotiating and the first meeting is usually just for discussion on a general level. After the first meeting, they decide whether to continue or not. You should be well prepared and remember to allow enough time.
As in most parts of the world, topics such as weather or "where are you from" are safe to begin your conversation with. Explanations regarding the purpose of your visit might also work as an ice-breaker. No special taboos exists, except that vulgarities/obscenities should be avoided as in any other country. Otherwise, anything positive that the person can relate to can break the ice; for instance, it is advisable to know at least a couple of names of Czech players in the NHL.
As Czech culture is characterized by the relatively strong sense of masculinity, other suitable general topics for a conversation are sports, beer, and politics with man, or shopping or prices with women. Czechs are usually critical of politicians but foreigners are not supposed to volunteer their opinion on Czech politics. If you want to speak about politics, remember to be neutral. For instance, don't get dragged into criticizing the former communists (or the communist regime) unless you are sure that this is not controversial topic with you're the person you are talking to; remember that he or she might be one of the former or current communists. (Even now, one in five Czechs votes for the not-too-reformed Communist Party.)
Humour is part of traditional Czech culture, sometimes this is a "wetter" kind of humour than British or Canadian "dry" humour. This does not necessarily mean a "black" humour; at the same time, it is often a humour without any political correctness, sometimes containing "racial slurs." It is also extremely important to realize that Czech have two modes of speaking to one another: a) "vykání" or "polite form"—using the 2nd person plural when talking to an adult; and b) "tykání" or "familiar form"—using the 2nd person singular when talking to a good friend, family member, or a child. When talking in Czech to an adult in the Czech Republic you must always use the polite form (vykání) unless the person asked you to use the familiar mode.
Czechs have, perhaps, a stronger sense of etiquette than Canadians. Coughing or yawning without covering your mouth, spitting in public, littering, chewing a gum when talking to another person, or not offering a seat to an older person or woman on public transit, etc. are considered impolite if not socially unacceptable. Don't forget to behave with a special courtesy to women.
Canadian perspective
When encountering a Czech person for the first time from the country they will instantly make you feel welcome. If you tell them that you are from North America the locals initiate a conversation with you. They want to have the knowledge of our culture and determine the differences between us and their own culture. Conversations topics are usually on how the country is filled with cultural richness, arts, music and food. You're always surrounded by humour (lots of dirty jokes). Laughter comes from their history of overcoming hardship and winning victories. The one topic of conversation to be avoided is politics which always leads to debates about communism and the fall of communism. This topic always seem to leave people very bitter.
Communication styles
Local perspective
Regional /local background, level of education, and individual temperament are key factors in determining peoples' level of comfort with touching and gestures.
Although Czechs generally have quite a developed sense of space in personal dealings with one another, the actual distance depends very much on the context of the situation and the individual inclinations of persons involved. Distance is usually greater when speaking or dealing with not-yet-familiar people. The best guidance here is to observe. After an initial obligatory handshake, gauge each person's degree of comfort with touching and their preference for personal space, and then adjust as needed while maintaining your own level of comfort.
Regular eye contact is required if you want to be judged as trustworthy. Czechs will not necessarily maintain continuous eye contact (especially when they take their time to "think through" their response), but it is considered a sign of ill or "suspicious" intentions if a person refuses to make or is avoiding eye contact.
It is customary to shake hands with both men and women when greeting them. There are set rules for initiating a handshake. For example, it is expected that one should wait until an older person or a woman offers a handshake. In a familiar setting it may be customary that men and women will give each other a hug and /or kiss on each cheek; however, foreigners are advised not to initiate such actions. While talking, men generally do not touch other men unless they have reached a fairly high level of familiarity and comfort with that person. If one of the two persons is of significantly higher age or prestige, he/she might initiate occasional touching to show his/her assurances or for emphasis. This practice applies to a lesser degree for contact between men and women and it is usually considered a test of "good manners" that a man does not initiate any touching. The rules for a woman touching another woman are similar to those for men.
Czechs make relatively little use of gestures, though perhaps they use them slightly more than Canadians. It is interesting to note that they find a lot of gesturing annoying and ill-mannered. There are some gestures that are considered rude: waving a lifted fist, waiving a pointed index finger, pointing at someone, and especially pointing one's finger to one's forehead. A common, if not overly polite way of showing disapproval is by moving one's head from the right to the left while frowning.
Canadian perspective
In the Czech culture, hand gestures are a part of who they are. A non-local may sit and watch a conversation and actually know what is going on through movement and facial expressions. When my husband visited the country for the first time, he had no knowledge of the language at all and he managed to haggle the price of a pair of shoes to half its price simply through the use of hand gestures.
Though they are very accepting of visitors it is important to be more soft spoken to the older generation. Form of verbs and pronouns are the same in Czech as in French, to be formal you use third person (similar to vous) and not as formal you use (the equivalent of tu). Czech people are very loud and expressive and yet very formal and well spoken. They will get very insulted if a person is not well mannered. A simple handshake at every gathering is well received.
Display of emotion
Local perspective
Public displays of affection or anger might be more frequently observable in the Czech Republic than is the case with English Canadians but it differs significantly from one individual to another. It is not a matter whether such displays are "acceptable" but rather that they are tolerated to a larger degree than is the norm in Canada.
Canadian perspective
I find it ironic that such an expressive culture can be so evasive towards public affection. Pornographic magazines are on full view on every newsstand, television is very explicit with a lot of nudity and the younger generation is very uninhibited in its fashion statements. Public affection is almost taboo, but getting angry in public or loud is just a way of being demonstrative.
Dress, punctuality & formality
Local perspective
Work styles and dress code differ between workplaces but it is important to be punctual, orderly, and clean. The norm of working relationship at workplaces is slightly more formal than in Canada. Generally, Czechs are becoming increasingly informal. Women tend to dress nicely and wear sophisticated makeup in the "white-collar" workplace. The bigger the organization and the higher placed officials you visit, the more formal dress is expected, especially if you are to meet people for the first time in their official capacity.
Supervisors, colleagues, or anybody whom you meet for the first time must not be addressed by the first name, unless there is a mutual agreement to do so - which can sometimes come at an informal party but, more often than not, never. Using a person's professional or academic title - "Pane Profesore", "Pane Doktore", etc. - or "Pane", "Paní" (Mr. or Mrs.) with the last name are the only appropriate ways of addressing an adult until otherwise agreed.
In most Czech workplaces deadlines usually come with the expectation that they will be met; although there is often some degree of flexibility. When meeting the deadline is uncertain, people will often negotiate in good faith and/or try to explain or apologize. It is rather uncommon to work considerable overtime in order to meet a deadline, though the nature of the workplace, significance of the task ahead, or institutional custom may sometimes require it. The approach to time in terms of productivity awareness, absenteeism, etc. differs significantly between workplaces. In some of them, attitudes inherited from the former communist regime might prevail; in such workplaces disregard for the time factor is rather high and morale rather low. Also, on average, Czechs call in more paid "sick days" than in most other countries in Europe, if only to take


text:
Elicitation Techniques, counterintelligence
Download print version (pdf)
This brochure is an introduction to elicitation and elicitation techniques. Understanding the techniques and the threat may help you detect and deflect elicitation attempts.
Elicitation is a technique used to discreetly gather information. It is a conversation with a specific purpose: collect information that is not readily available and do so without raising suspicion that specific facts are being sought. It is usually non-threatening, easy to disguise, deniable, and effective. The conversation can be in person, over the phone, or in writing.
Conducted by a skilled collector, elicitation will appear to be normal social or professional conversation. A person may never realize she was the target of elicitation or that she provided meaningful information.
Many competitive business intelligence collectors and foreign intelligence officers are trained in elicitation tactics. Their job is to obtain non-public information. A business competitor may want information in order to out-compete your company, or a foreign intelligence officer may want insider information or details on US defense technologies.
The strategic use of conversation to extract information from people without giving them the feeling they are being interrogated.
Elicitation attempts can be simple, and sometimes are obvious. If they are obvious, it is easier to detect and deflect. On the other hand, elicitation may be imaginative, persistent, involve extensive planning, and may employ a co-conspirator. Elicitors may use a cover story to account for the conversation topic and why they ask certain questions.
Elicitors may collect information about you or your colleagues that could facilitate future targeting attempts.
Elicitation can occur anywhere— at social gatherings, at conferences, over the phone, on the street, on the Internet, or in someone's home.
Elicitation is Not Rare
It is not uncommon for people to discover information about a person without letting on the purpose. For example, have you ever planned a surprise party for someone and needed to know their schedule, wish list, food likes and dislikes or other information without that person finding out you were collecting the information or for what purpose? The problem comes when a skilled elicitor is able to obtain valuable information from you, which you did not intend to share, because you did not recognize and divert the elicitation.
Why Elicitation Works
A trained elicitor understands certain human or cultural predispositions and uses techniques to exploit those. Natural tendencies an elicitor may try to exploit include:
- A desire to be polite and helpful, even to strangers or new acquaintances
- A desire to appear well informed, especially about our profession
- A desire to feel appreciated and believe we are contributing to something important
- A tendency to expand on a topic when given praise or encouragement; to show off
- A tendency to gossip
- A tendency to correct others
- A tendency to underestimate the value of the information being sought or given, especially if we are unfamiliar with how else that information could be used
- A tendency to believe others are honest; a disinclination to be suspicious of others
- A tendency to answer truthfully when asked an "honest" question
- A desire to convert someone to our opinion
For example, you meet someone at a public function and the natural getting-to-know-you questions eventually turn to your work. You never mention the name of your organization. The new person asks questions about job satisfaction at your company, perhaps while complaining about his job. You may think, "He has no idea where I work or what I really do. He's just making idle chat. There's no harm in answering." However, he may know exactly what you do but he relies on his anonymity, your desire to be honest and appear knowledgeable, and your disinclination to be suspicious to get the information he wants. He may be hunting for a disgruntled employee who he can entice to give him insider information.
There are many elicitation techniques, and multiple techniques may be used in an elicitation attempt. The following are descriptions of some of those techniques.
Assumed Knowledge: Pretend to have knowledge or associations in common with a person. "According to the computer network guys I used to work with…"
Bracketing: Provide a high and low estimate in order to entice a more specific number. "I assume rates will have to go up soon. I'd guess between five and 15 dollars." Response: "Probably around seven dollars."
Can you top this? Tell an extreme story in hopes the person will want to top it. "I heard Company M is developing an amazing new product that is capable of …"
Confidential Bait: Pretend to divulge confidential information in hopes of receiving confidential information in return. "Just between you and me…" "Off the record…"
Criticism: Criticize an individual or organization in which the person has an interest in hopes the person will disclose information during a defense. "How did your company get that contract? Everybody knows Company B has better engineers for that type of work."
Deliberate False Statements / Denial of the Obvious: Say something wrong in the hopes that the person will correct your statement with true information. "Everybody knows that process won't work—it's just a DARPA dream project that will never get off the ground."
Feigned Ignorance: Pretend to be ignorant of a topic in order to exploit the person's tendency to educate. "I'm new to this field and could use all the help I can get." "How does this thing work?"
Flattery: Use praise to coax a person into providing information. "I bet you were the key person in designing this new product."
Good Listener: Exploit the instinct to complain or brag, by listening patiently and validating the person's feelings (whether positive or negative). If a person feels they have someone to confide in, he/she may share more information.
The Leading Question: Ask a question to which the answer is "yes" or "no," but which contains at least one presumption. "Did you work with integrated systems testing before you left that company?" (As opposed to: "What were your responsibilities at your prior job?")
Macro to Micro: Start a conversation on the macro level, and then gradually guide the person toward the topic of actual interest. Start talking about the economy, then government spending, then potential defense budget cuts, then "what will happen to your X program if there are budget cuts?" A good elicitor will then reverse the process taking the conversation back to macro topics.
Mutual Interest: Suggest you are similar to a person based on shared interests, hobbies, or experiences, as a way to obtain information or build a rapport before soliciting information. "Your brother served in the Iraq war? So did mine. Which unit was your brother with?"
Oblique Reference: Discuss one topic that may provide insight into a different topic. A question about the catering of a work party may actually be an attempt to understand the type of access outside vendors have to the facility.
Opposition/Feigned Incredulity: Indicate disbelief or opposition in order to prompt a person to offer information in defense of their position. "There's no way you could design and produce this that fast!" "That's good in theory, but…"
Provocative Statement: Entice the person to direct a question toward you, in order to set up the rest of the conversation. "I could kick myself for not taking that job offer." Response: "Why didn't you?" Since the other person is asking the question, it makes your part in the subsequent conversation more innocuous.
Questionnaires and Surveys: State a benign purpose for the survey. Surround a few questions you want answered with other logical questions. Or use a survey merely to get people to agree to talk with you.
Quote Reported Facts: Reference real or false information so the person believes that bit of information is in the public domain. "Will you comment on reports that your company is laying off employees?" "Did you read how analysts predict…"
Ruse Interviews: Someone pretending to be a headhunter calls and asks about your experience, qualifications, and recent projects.
Target the Outsider: Ask about an organization that the person does not belong to. Often friends, family, vendors, subsidiaries, or competitors know information but may not be sensitized about what not to share.
Volunteering Information / Quid Pro Quo: Give information in hopes that the person will reciprocate. "Our company's infrared sensors are only accurate 80% of the time at that distance. Are yours any better?"
Word Repetition: Repeat core words or concepts to encourage a person to expand on what he/she already said. "3,000 meter range, huh? Interesting."
Deflecting Elicitation Attempts
Know what information should not be shared, and be suspicious of people who seek such information. Do not tell people any information they are not authorized to know, to include personal information about you, your family, or your colleagues.
You can politely discourage conversation topics and deflect possible elicitations by:
- Referring them to public sources (websites, press releases)
- Ignoring any question or statement you think is improper and changing the topic
- Deflecting a question with one of your own
- Responding with "Why do you ask?"
- Giving a nondescript answer
- Stating that you do not know
- Stating that you would have to clear such discussions with your security office
- Stating that you cannot discuss the matter
If you believe someone has tried to elicit information from you, especially about your work, report it to your security officer.


text:
Luther Burbank's Plum Tree
In 1955 I was spending the summer camping in Wyoming, Montana, British Colombia, Washington, Oregon and California with my family and a friend. In Santa Rosa, California, we were lucky to visit Luther Burbank's home—part of which was surrounded by his test gardens. Burbank was a horticultural genius and created many new crops that we take for granted today—including the russet potato, Shasta daisy and spineless prickly pear cactus.
Hidden among these gardens was a plum tree, about twenty-feet high and as large in diameter, with many branches. We discovered that it was not just a normal plum tree—but one with 30 to 40 varieties grafted on it! Just think—a full spectrum of colors, flavors and maturation dates all on one tree!
Just One or A Few Fruit Trees?
This got me to thinking. It is easier to take care of a few trees. You can make sure that the soils are in good shape, that the trees are exquisitely pruned and that each fruit is harvested on time.
But would just one or a few fruit trees produce sufficient fruit for a family of four? Here's what I discovered might be possible:
One full-sized apple tree is placed on offset spacing 40' apart and grows high 40' high. At intermediate yields, the tree is capable of producing 1,200 pounds of apples. This would be up to 300 pounds per person each year! Pretty good! That is a little under a pound a day for the whole year! If you graft many different varieties on each tree, you will have just as many different colors, flavors and maturation dates. If you choose a good combination, you can harvest apples from late June until early December!
A full-sized pear tree is placed on 15' offset spacing. At intermediate yields the tree is capable of producing 90 pounds of pears. If you grow three pear trees, your productivity would be 360 pounds of pears, or about one pound of fruit per family each day. Again, you can take advantage of grafting different varieties on each tree.
Full-sized peach trees are placed on 15' offset spacing. At intermediate yields the tree is capable of producing up to 202 pounds of peaches, or a little over a half pound of fruit per family each day. You can graft different varieties on each tree as well.
Full-sized cherry trees are placed on 20' offset spacing. At intermediate yields the tree is capable of producing up to 134 pounds of cherries annually. Two trees could produce up to 268 pounds of fruit per family each year, or about two-thirds of a pounds of cherries daily. Grafting works here too.
Regular-sized apricots are planted on 25' offset spacing. At intermediate yields a tree is capable of producing up to 376 pounds of apricots daily, or about one pound per family daily. Grafting works for apricots as well.
Regular-sized plums are planted on 18 to 24' offset spacing. At intermediate yields a tree is capable of producing up to 291 pounds of apricots yearly, or about two-thirds of a pound per family each day. Grafting works for plums, and there are lots of varieties to try!
If you have a mild enough climate without winter frosts, Navel and Valencia oranges are planted on 22' and 24' offset spacing respectively. At intermediate yields a tree is capable of producing up to 232 and 363 pounds of sweet juicy oranges respectively, or about two-thirds of a pound and one pound respectively per family daily. Exciting!
Which Fruits and How Many Trees Should I Grow?
The choices are yours. The important thing is to realize that it does not take a lot of trees to grow a lot of fruit. It does take about seven years for a tree to reach full production, so start as soon as is practical! If you do not have room for a tree, why not get together with a friend and share one?
- Luther Burbank Gardens _URL_
- Western Fruits, Berries and Nuts: How to Select, Grow and Enjoy. by Lance Walheim and Robert L. Stebbins. H.P. Books. Out of print. Get through your library's Interlibrary Loan Service. Excellent. Worth several lifetimes of experience. Good for all tree raisers—not just Western ones.
- How to Select, Grow and Enjoy Fruit, Berries and Nuts in the East and Midwest by Theodore James Jr. H.P. Books. Out of print. Get through your library's Interlibrary Loan Service.
- Citrus: How to Select, Grow, and Enjoy by Richard Ray and Lance Walheim. Out of print. Get through your library's Interlibrary Loan Service. Visually exciting. Includes colors of juices made from different citrus crops.
- The Fruit Garden Displayed by Harry Baker. London: Cassell Educational Limited for the Royal Horticultural Society. Excellent.
- Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory edited by Kent Whealy. Seed Savers Exchange.
- How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine by John Jeavons. 2006 edition. Available at _URL_
Illustrations for "A World of Hope!" by Judy Chance Hope


12 Years a Slave Is a Perfectly Crafted, Brutal Story. But Does Its Beauty Keep Us at a Distance?
Chiwetel Ejiofor, second from left, as Solomon Northup, before being kidnapped and sold into slavery
Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave is the movie for people who think they're too smart for Lee Daniels' The Butler. The story it tells, a true one, is horrifying: In 1841, Solomon Northup, a free, educated black man from Saratoga, N.Y., was kidnapped, sold into slavery and transported to Louisiana. His captivity lasted 12 years. To survive, he had to hide the fact that he could read and write, which prevented him from contacting not just his wife and children but also any of his friends in the North who might have helped him.
Northup recounted his story in 12 Years a Slave, a piercing memoir published in 1853. The title alone is austere and direct, almost painfully elegant, and that must have been the effect McQueen was going for, too. His interpretation of 12 Years a Slave is beautifully shot (by Sean Bobbitt), contrasting the all-too-visible evil of mankind with the occasional ribbon of pretty sky peeking through the Louisiana trees. The story is told with calm clarity, its pace stately and respectful in accordance with its subject matter. John Ridley's script hews closely to the language and details of Northup's book. Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano and Paul Giamatti all render their services in villainous roles, playing, respectively, a twisted slave owner, a megalomanic, murderous overseer and a sleazy slave trader. It's all so perfect, so right.
But is there any blood in its veins? 12 Years a Slave is a pristine, aesthetically tasteful movie about the horrors of slavery. Aside from a characteristically nuanced lead performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor — plus an oak-tree-tall supporting one by Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as a breath of movie-star vitality from Brad Pitt in a small role — it's a picture that stays more than a few safe steps away from anything so dangerous as raw feeling.
Even when it depicts inhuman cruelty, as it often does, it never compromises its aesthetic purity. In one scene, Fassbender's creepy plantation owner forces Ejiofor's Solomon to whip a female slave who has sneaked away to a neighboring plantation for a bar of soap. The camera moves slowly, in a partial arc the shape of a comma: It takes the measure of the grisly brutality of the scene, and of Solomon's anguish, without really breathing it in. The moment is terrible, yet it comes off as weirdly antiseptic, history made safe through art.
That's a style, a choice. Filmmakers — the best ones, at least — think and feel through images, and the artisanal remoteness of 12 Years a Slave isn't such a surprise when you consider McQueen's two previous features: Hunger, a beautifully controlled picture about Bobby Sands' hunger strike and death, and Shame, a meditation on sex addiction that's as obsessive and single-minded as a lady-killer looking for his next conquest.
McQueen, who is also a video artist, has a superb sense of composition, and he always knows just how and where the light should hit. In an early scene in 12 Years a Slave, Solomon, after being deceived and drugged, wakes up in chains, locked in some dungeonlike room. Contrasted with the inky blackness around him, the billowy white shirt he's wearing practically sizzles; small parcels of light glint off his iron chains, giving off a matte, dull glow. It's an image of great visual beauty. And it looks like art direction.
There's no reason a movie dealing with an ugly subject should be ugly itself. And there is an upside to that remoteness: McQueen isn't out to punish or scold us with his filmmaking. Northup's story is anguishing, and McQueen seeks only to tell it; he knows there's no need to bludgeon us. But compared with The Butler, a movie about another angle of the African-American experience, 12 Years a Slave is buffed to a dry, prestigious sheen. You could go to a European cocktail party and profess your love for it without having to apologize. Try doing that with The Butler, a messier movie with an unapologetic pop sensibility — it features a supporting turn by Oprah, after all. It's not nearly as pretty, but it's alive.
12 Years a Slave works so hard to be noble, but it doesn't have to: Ejiofor is there to do all the heavy lifting. Too often stuck playing astrophysigeologists in Roland Emmerich movies, Ejiofor brings all his gifts to bear here. His subtlety is the earth-moving kind: He probably could shift a mountain just by arching an eyebrow.
Northup's book is written in the slightly formal, manicured language of a well-educated man, yet its directness is heart-stopping. "I was heartsick and discouraged," he wrote, describing his despair after suffering the first of many brutal beatings. "Thoughts of my family, of my wife and children, continually occupied my mind. When sleep overpowered me I dreamed of them — dreamed I was again in Saratoga — that I could see their faces, and hear their voices calling me. Awakening from the pleasant phantasms of sleep to the bitter realities around me, I could but groan and weep."
12 Years a Slave takes the spirit of that prose and arranges it with painstaking, distracting care for the camera. Ejiofor carries it inside him, hidden. Still, the light shines through.
12 YEARS A SLAVE | Directed by Steve McQueen | Written by John Ridley | Fox Searchlight | Cinemark Baldwin Hills, Landmark, ArcLight Hollywood
Sponsor Content
Sign Up >
No Thanks!
Remind Me Later >


Strategies for communicating effectively with students across learning environments
Student showing work to teacher online
This school year has presented many uncertainties for teachers as they continue to navigate virtual, hybrid, and in-person learning environments. Using clear and positive communication can build trusting and supportive teacher-student relationships, especially with students who experience behavioral challenges. But what exactly does effective educator-student communication look like, particularly in a virtual space? Below, we highlight some research-based practices that educators can use in any setting.
Set clear behavioral expectations
Educators frequently provide guidance and instruction throughout the school day regardless of the educational setting. Behavioral expectations may look different these days, such as maintaining six feet of distance between peers or muting microphones during a virtual lesson. With limited visual cues and body language in virtual classrooms or behind a mask, students need explicit instructions that outline clear and concrete expectations. This helpful resource includes important guidelines that can help educators provide clear guidance, such as the following:
 - Keep instructions as brief as possible. Provide directions one step at a time and ensure that students understand the instructions by pausing and providing time for students to ask questions.
 - Use a matter-of fact, business-like tone. Keep calm and avoid power struggles. Take a deep breath before responding to students and feel comfortable remaining in silence, if necessary.
 - State the expectation as a directive, not a question. Phrasing expectations as a question ("Can you mute your audio?") may give students the option to decline. If a student needs to do something, make that clear ("Please mute your audio and use the chat").
 - Avoid long explanations or justifications. If a brief explanation is necessary, provide it before stating the expectation. Keep the guidance clear and refrain from giving more details than needed.
 - "Wait time" is not just an academic strategy! Give students an appropriate amount of time to demonstrate appropriate behavior. This is another instance where taking a deep breath might be helpful! Try to avoid providing too many prompts or adding steps to the expectation while waiting for the student to demonstrate appropriate behavior.
Outlining clear expectations is a critical component of providing effective instructions and promoting positive communication between students and teachers. As simple as it may sound, for a student to behave appropriately, it is helpful to focus on exactly what they should be doing, instead of what they shouldn't be doing. Sometimes changing the wording of a request can provide students with guidance on the appropriate behavior and can increase the likelihood they will demonstrate competency.
Emphasize appropriate behaviors in your directions. For example:
Instead of saying, "I won't help you if you don't go back to your seat," change the phrase to, "I will help you when you get back to your seat."
Similarly, try asking students to "start" an appropriate behavior instead of "stopping" and inappropriate behavior. In a virtual setting, instead of saying, "Stop yelling out your answers," say, "Be sure to use the chat box so I can hear from everyone."
Provide recognition for appropriate behavior
Students and teachers alike are facing an unprecedented amount of stress during the COVID‑19 pandemic. This may contribute to an increase in inappropriate behaviors in physical or virtual classroom settings; however, there are ways for teachers to remain encouraging and focused on appropriate behavior. When students follow instructions, it is important to give them positive reinforcement in the form of specific behavioral praise. Aim to maintain a ratio of five positive comments to every reprimand or corrective comment (5:1) when interacting with a student. Sometimes, when it seems like a student is mostly engaging in inappropriate behaviors, it can be tricky to provide positive recognition, but try to "catch them being good." Finding positive things to say and providing effective praise can improve interactions and, ultimately, the students' behaviors. The tips below can help you provide praise that is meaningful, specific, and tied to concrete behaviors:
 - Be genuine. Meaningful praise is sincere and not exaggerated.
 - Use specific language about concrete behaviors. Describe exactly what students did well so they know the appropriate behavior you want them to repeat. For example, acknowledging "Great job logging into our video lesson on time and with your work complete!" is more specific and concrete than saying "You did a good job this morning!"
 - Praise hard work and effort to foster a growth mindset. Instead of praising natural talents or skills ("You are excellent at math!"), focus on student's efforts and achievements ("I am impressed by how carefully you read the word problem and the strategies you used to try to solve it.")
Praise students' effort in the face of challenges. For example:
If a student who typically struggles with reading shows noncompliant behaviors during reading lessons, you could praise their efforts by saying "Great job following directions and getting your reading materials out for our next lesson." This will encourage their engaging in even a challenging task.
Even in a virtual setting, you can provide non verbal praise by giving students a thumbs up or quick smile when they engage in positive behaviors.
Using these simple communication strategies can go a long way in virtual, hybrid, and in-person educational environments. Interested in learning more?
 - This resource from Michigan's MTSS Technical Assistance Center provides additional tips for encouraging positive student behavior in virtual learning environments.
 - Our previous Student Behavior blog post lists five strategies educators can use in a virtual setting to support students experiencing trauma during COVID-19.
 - Another previous Student Behavior blog post provides teachers' perspectives on distance learning approaches and includes five recommendations for a successful fall semester.
 - Another great resource is the Reducing Behavior Problems in the Elementary School Classroom practice guide developed by the What Works Clearinghouse in the U.S. Department of Education.
Stay tuned! In an upcoming post, we'll highlight additional strategies for supporting students, particularly those who exhibit challenging behaviors.
Topics: School-wide prevention Social–emotional and behavioral challenges
Tags: COVID-19 Disruptive behaviors Prevention