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It can be a difficult task teaching children that it is better to give than to receive – after all who doesn’t like to receive a gift right? However, by teaching your children this valuable lesson is one of the most rewarding things you can give them.
Going about teaching your children about giving can be difficult, so here are a few ways to work with your children:
- Start small, especially if you are working with very young children. An example would be making cookies for a sick friend. Let the child know that he or she is doing something nice for the friend, even though your child may want to make and keep the cookies. Avoid this by making enough for both of them.
- Next, teach them that money isn’t necessary in order to give. They can draw a picture, do chores without being asked or even make breakfast in bed.
- Let your child be involved in deciding who will benefit from the gift. Maybe you’ve given to the cancer research society for years, but your child heard about a need at the local pet shelter. By allowing them to help with the decision they feel important and learn the value of giving to those who are less fortunate.
- Children learn by watching their most influential role model: YOU. If you volunteer at a local soup kitchen, when your child is old enough, let them go with you and start helping.
By teaching your children the value of giving rather than receiving, you’re instilling a sense of pride and self-esteem. These are character traits that will take them far as they grow.
For more information on childcare and parenting, check out Premier Academy’s Blog Page. | <urn:uuid:7b7c8cc1-1716-40bc-8e6a-ff1314a003e7> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.premieracademyinc.com/better-give-than-to-receive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943484.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20230320144934-20230320174934-00214.warc.gz | en | 0.969283 | 344 | 3.296875 | 3 | The extract provides practical advice on teaching children the value of giving, promoting empathy and self-esteem. It offers realistic scenarios and involves children in decision-making, demonstrating a basic understanding of soft skills development. However, the scope is limited to a single context and lacks complexity.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 401,308 | 0 |
What is it about?
This article discusses the impact of ostracism on sexual harassment, both before and after the #MeToo movement.
Photo by Antor Paul on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Ostracism, though a seemingly minor offense, has quite the impact in the work force. Those who are ostracized can lose out on workplace relationships and opportunities. Prior research has indicated that those who disclose workplace sexual harassment are at risk of both intentional and unintentional ostracism. Many choose not to disclose because of the fear of ostracism. However, the #MeToo movement has served as a way to help individuals overcome ostracism by connections to an online community with similar experiences.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ostracizing targets of workplace sexual harassment before and after the #MeToo movement, Equality Diversity and Inclusion An International Journal, February 2019, Emerald, DOI: 10.1108/edi-09-2018-0162.
You can read the full text:
The following have contributed to this page | <urn:uuid:f8e8444d-3e7b-43b6-9963-4da0b6a393fc> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.growkudos.com/publications/10.1108%25252Fedi-09-2018-0162/reader?utm_source=publication-page-you-might-also-like | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948673.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20230327154814-20230327184814-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.942042 | 233 | 2.90625 | 3 | The extract discusses the impact of ostracism on sexual harassment, highlighting its significance in the workforce and the role of the #MeToo movement in helping individuals overcome it. It touches on emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities, but lacks comprehensive and practical professional development opportunities.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 257,191 | 0 |
Stable Pushing Implementation
Kevin Lynch and Costa Nikou
We have developed a planner that finds stable pushing plans to move an
object from one place to another. A graphical user interface (GUI)
makes it easy to specify problems for the push planner and to display
the results of the planner. The output of the planner can be dumped
to the Adept 550 robot in our lab to execute the plan in the real
The code for the planner (in C) and the GUI
(in Tcl/Tk) is available online.
You can experiment with a WWW implementation of the planner
This is a shot of our Adept executing a pushing plan found by the planner.
This is a screen shot of the GUI and a problem specification. The
object to be manipulated is the pentagon. The top, red pentagon is
the start position, and the bottom, green pentagon is the goal
position. In this example, the object can only be pushed on the two
horizontal edges. We performed a mechanics analysis to determine sets
of pushing directions that are guaranteed to keep the object fixed to
the pusher. By using only these pushing directions, the plan can be
executed without sensing.
The push planner is a modification of a planner for car-like robots
due to Barraquand and Latombe. After 30 seconds running time on a
Sparc 20, the planner finds the following path.
The planner is not exact, as it only finds a path to a goal region.
In this example, the plan minimizes the number of contact changes
Go to my home page
or the Manipulation Lab home page. | <urn:uuid:c230c36c-f9ba-4e50-b884-9be015671a9f> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mlab/stable/description.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423787.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20170721162430-20170721182430-00270.warc.gz | en | 0.85884 | 348 | 2.796875 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on technical details of a planner for stable pushing implementation. It provides some context for problem-solving and critical thinking, but does not explicitly address soft skills or provide opportunities for practical application in a team or professional setting.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 457,421 | 0 |
April is National Minority Health Month.
The trusty forehead thermometer and pulse oximeter have long been used to evaluate patient health. But during the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic, they took on greater importance.
If a reading from a pulse oximeter — a device placed on a finger to measure blood oxygen levels — was too low, a person might need to go to the hospital. Higher temperatures on a forehead thermometer could indicate a possible Covid infection, and high fevers often warranted a trip to an emergency room.
Few would question the accuracy of either device, and Jayne Morgan, M.D., a cardiologist and clinical director of the Covid task force at Piedmont Healthcare Corp. in Atlanta, took the readings at face value. But that was before she read an article that explained how pulse oximeters passed light through skin to measure blood oxygen levels. Immediately, Morgan thought darker skin would absorb more light and possibly deliver inaccurate results for some patients.
She was correct. Morgan found research that showed how pulse oximeters were underdiagnosing patients of color, and multiple studies found that Black, Hispanic and Asian patients were less likely to get treated for Covid symptoms because of those readings. When she began looking into forehead thermometers, she found evidence that they were less accurate in Black patients as well.
The issue also wasn’t limited to forehead thermometers and pulse oximeters, either. Many medical disciplines have long relied on flawed mathematical formulas, questionnaires, pictures and devices to determine care plans, and this race-based medicine has often been practiced to the detriment of patients of color.
“Disease progresses, you see higher mortality, and nobody can figure it out because everybody’s following numbers,” Morgan said. “The bias is inherent in the medical equipment and formulas.
Where racial disparities exist
During the pandemic, Morgan launched the Stairwell Chronicles, a series of 60-second videos where she delivers medical advice from the stairs of her home. In addition to Covid information, Morgan has addressed women’s health and health equity, including the dangers of relying on race-based medical calculations and formulas.
“Doctors, unbeknownst to them, have been relegating patients to lower levels of care and concern,” she said.
The pandemic also launched Joel Bervell’s advocacy. A medical student at Washington State University, Bervell began investigating how common medical formulas and calculators were developed after seeing an Instagram story on racial bias in pulse oximeters. Realizing that he wasn’t learning about these concerns in medical school, he began sharing his findings on social media. Today, he has more than 600,000 followers on TikTok alone.
The formulas, calculations and technology that Morgan, Bervell and other medical professionals have explored include:
Spirometry.Spirometers are handheld devices that measure how much air you inhale and how much and how quickly you exhale. They’re often used to diagnose conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, and have been used to measure lung function in recovering Covid patients.
To this day, calculations used to evaluate pulmonary function incorrectly assume that Black and Asian patients have smaller lung capacity than white people. These false assumptions date back to Thomas Jefferson’s incorrect observations of people he had enslaved, which were worked into medical guidance in the 1800s.
As late as 1999, this false belief was still being promoted as truth, and healthcare providers were being taught that there were racial differences in lung capacity. Spirometer manufacturers began building their equipment with this racial difference built into the readings. Many doctors don’t even know the software is applying these incorrect formulas.
Why does this matter? Abnormal values on a spirometer are used to determine when a person needs to be seen by a specialist for more highly specialized care. For Black and Asian patients, an abnormal value can be missed because of this incorrect race-based adjustment.
eGFR. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) equation measures kidney function. For years, it used a separate calculation for African Americans because some research showed that they had higher levels of creatinine — a waste product made by muscles — than white patients. Researchers then incorrectly assumed the creatinine breakdown was related to higher muscle mass in Black patients.
“They put in a multiplication factor for African Americans that increases their eGFR, which makes their kidney function appear better than it is,” Morgan said. “Because of that, Black patients would get delayed referrals to specialists, delayed onset of medication, late arrival onto kidney transplant lists and fewer chances of receiving a transplant because their disease was so advanced.”
Without the incorrect race-based adjustment, 3.3 million more Black patients would have been classified more accurately as having a higher stage of kidney disease. Add that to the fact that Black patients remain on the kidney transplant list longer than white patients, and the delay caused by the inaccurate eGFR equation was costing people their lives.
Encouraging news: The Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration eliminated the race adjustment in 2021, and the College of American Pathologists has since instructed members to adopt the new formula.
VBAC calculator. While a cesarean section can be lifesaving for a mother and her infant if complications arise during birth, C-sections still come with risks to mothers and infants, including infection, blood loss, blood clots, the need for a hysterectomy and complications in future pregnancies.
Healthcare providers (HCPs) have been advised to use a formula to predict the odds of a successful birth for a woman wanting a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). While a VBAC can also have risks, such as rupture of the C-section scar on the uterus, it’s generally considered a safer option for many women, and avoids the complications of multiple surgeries.
“The calculator was a formula in which they asked about your height, weight and past deliveries,” Morgan said. “Then there were simple yes/no questions — Are you Black? Are you Hispanic? Yes or no? That answer determines your fate.”
Answering yes to being Black and/or Hispanic lowered your score, making HCPs less likely to offer the possibility of a VBAC.
“What we are really saying is that the Black patient is subject to another surgery,” Morgan said. “Make no mistake, a cesarean is a surgery, so Black mothers have more surgeries than other mothers. We then have the whole issue of poorer maternal health and fetal health outcomes and maternal mortality in the Black community. You can see how it all progresses.”
After Darshali Vyas, a Harvard Medical School student, published a paper challenging the race question in the VBAC calculator, medical bodies moved to remove it.
What healthcare providers can do to reduce racial bias in medical calculations
While some calculators and formulas have already been changed, it will take more time to update others. Researchers are working to improve the way certain devices work on dark skin, and medical organizations continue to push to have more people of color included in studies and trials to make sure technology is accurate for all.
Morgan said that HCPs also need education to make them aware of the limitations of medical technology when it comes to race, and about the changes in formulas like eGFR and the VBAC calculator.
Improving these calculations and devices is one step toward reducing racial disparities in healthcare.
“You can imagine by the time patients get more advanced care and finally meet the metrics for referrals and even transplants, they have more advanced disease,” Morgan said. “They’ve experienced more personal suffering. They know something’s [wrong], but every time they go to the doctor, they hear their values are normal. That’s just not right.”
We all want to be satisfied, even though we know some people who will never be that way, and others who see satisfaction as a foreign emotion that they can’t hope to ever feel.
Leave a Reply | <urn:uuid:33bda31a-c7e4-4fa5-aa55-4d548d19eaef> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.thewomenshealthsite.org/racial-bias-in-medical-calculations-can-create-healthcare-inequities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224650201.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20230604161111-20230604191111-00574.warc.gz | en | 0.963073 | 1,711 | 3.296875 | 3 | The extract discusses racial disparities in healthcare, specifically in medical calculations and devices, and their impact on patients of color. It highlights the importance of awareness, education, and improvement of these calculations and devices to reduce racial bias. The extract demonstrates a nuanced understanding of the issue, incorporating emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities. However, it lacks comprehensive professional development opportunities and sophisticated communication scenarios.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 774,992 | 0 |
At the same time, the close relationship of indigenous peoples to their environments means that they are often first and most severely affected by the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation. Furthermore, insecure tenure rights over their lands and territories and exclusion from environmental decision making often constrain the contributions of indigenous peoples to conservation and exacerbate their social and economic vulnerabilities.
IUCN has a long history of working with indigenous peoples both to promote recognition of their rights at policy level and to support their conservation activities on the ground. IUCN endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2008 and regularly monitors and reports on its contributions to the implementation of the Declaration. IUCN Resolutions and field-based work emphasize indigenous peoples' rights to the lands, territories, and natural resources they have traditionally owned, occupied and used, and the need to ensure effective participation of indigenous peoples in all conservation initiatives and policy developments that affect them.
Strengthening indigenous voices and action: an IUCN Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation Strategy
At the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2016, the IUCN Members Assembly adopted a landmark decision for indigenous peoples and conservation. Members voted to create a new category of IUCN membership for Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations (IPO), strengthening the recognition of their rights, participation, voice and role in IUCN. This was the first time IUCN reformed its membership structure in its 70-year history and it did so specifically to recognize the specific situation and role of IPOs. This change in IUCN’s governance structure now allows IUCN to play an important convening and facilitating role for indigenous participation in environmental decision-making.
As a distinct and mobilised constituency within IUCN, IPO Members have developed a self-determined strategy identifying joint priorities for advancing their rights and issues in conservation and engaging with each other and within IUCN moving forward. These priorities focus particularly on leveraging IUCN’s convening power, knowledge generation, standard setting and policy engagement in regard to indigenous issues. The strategy outlines actions to:
- Increase indigenous participation in IUCN’s governance;
- Participate in IUCN’s global policy engagement processes;
- Promote the recognition of rights in relation to lands and territories, natural and cultural resources;
- Promote the creation of a system of indigenous protected areas that strengthens the use, management and conservation of natural resources by indigenous peoples;
- Address issues related to cultural heritage;
- Address the rights and participation of indigenous women; and
- Support indigenous organisation institutional strengthening.
The IUCN Global Programme on Governance and Rights and the Commission on Environmental, Social and Economic Policy are supporting the further development and implementation of the IPOs’ strategy.
For IUCN, the term ‘indigenous peoples’ follows the definition or ‘statement of coverage’ contained in the International Labour Organisation Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. Therefore, it includes:
i. peoples who identify themselves as ‘indigenous’;
ii. tribal peoples whose social, cultural, and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community, and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations;
iii. traditional peoples not necessarily called indigenous or tribal but who share the same characteristics of social, cultural, and economic conditions that distinguish them from other sections of the national community, whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions, and whose livelihoods are closely connected to ecosystems and their goods and services.
While IUCN recognizes that all people should enjoy equal rights and respect regardless of identity, it is strategically important to distinguish indigenous peoples from other stakeholders. They have a distinct set of rights linked to their social, political and economic situation as a result of their ancestry and stewardship of lands and resources vital to their well-being.
Although IUCN takes a global approach in line with international provisions on recognition and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples, it recognizes the need to consider the national policy frameworks in order to operationalize this definition on the ground. | <urn:uuid:a4b78a00-1367-4a52-bbad-7ff34fd18645> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://www.iucn.org/theme/governance-and-rights/our-work/indigenous-peoples | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250591763.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20200118023429-20200118051429-00532.warc.gz | en | 0.928599 | 857 | 2.8125 | 3 | The extract scores 3 points as it discusses cultural awareness, rights, and participation of indigenous peoples in environmental decision-making, showcasing realistic scenarios that integrate emotional intelligence and critical thinking. It highlights the importance of recognizing and respecting indigenous peoples' rights, promoting their participation, and addressing their social and economic vulnerabilities. However, it lacks complex scenarios requiring sophisticated communication and strategic thinking across multiple contexts.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 60,231 | 0 |
||MAT653 - Motivational Leadership
||For the correct edition of the textbook assigned to a specific class, go to: http://www.nutextdirect.com
This course focuses on the current state of teacher leadership, emerging proposals for reframing teacher leadership, and examines emotion intelligence research and its impact on morale and motivation of staff within organizations. Through completion of a triangulation assessment, and the creation of a personal action plan to improve emotional intelligence, candidates will better understand their organization and develop a clear sense of their own strengths and challenges as leaders.
|Course Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the components of emotional intelligence.
- Develop their ability to conduct a rigorous self-assessment of their own emotional intelligence.
- Know how to connect emotional intelligence to their leadership style.
- Develop an understanding of what validates the connecting of emotional intelligence to leadership style.
- Know how to create a personal professional action plan.
- Be knowledgeable about the research surrounding emotional intelligence.
- Analyze their emotional intelligence competencies by conducting a rigorous self-assessment.
- Assess the validity of the need to connect emotional intelligence to teacher leadership by the creation of a personal professional action plan.
- Debate the research surrounding emotional intelligence.
- Engage with other colleagues to critique each others' professional action plan.
Students with Disabilities:
Students seeking special accommodations due to a disability must submit an application with supporting documentation, as explained under this subject heading in the General Catalog. Instructors are required to provide such accommodations if they receive written notification from the University.
Writing Across the Curriculum:
Students are expected to demonstrate writing skills in describing, analyzing and evaluating ideas and experiences. Written reports and research papers must follow specific standards regarding citations of an author's work within the text and references at the end of the paper. Students are encouraged to use the services of the University's Writing Center when preparing materials.
The following website provides information on APA, MLA, and other writing and citation styles that may be required for term papers and the like: http://nu.libguides.com/citations
National University Library:
National University Library supports academic rigor and student academic success by providing access to scholarly books and journals both electronically and in hard copy. Print materials may be accessed at the Library in San Diego or through document delivery for online and regional students. Librarians are available to provide training, reference assistance, and mentoring at the San Diego Library and virtually for online or regional students. Please take advantage of Library resources:
Contact the Library:
- (858) 541-7900 (direct line)
- 1-866-NU ACCESS x7900 (toll free)
Use the Library Training Tools (on the Library Homepage) for additional help
- Recorded class presentations
- Tutorials & Guides (APA/MLA, Peer-Review, and more)
Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else's ideas or work as one's own. Students must give credit for any information that is not either the result of original research or common knowledge. If a student borrows ideas or information from another author, he/she must acknowledge the author in the body of the text and on the reference page. Students found plagiarizing are subject to the penalties outlined in the Policies and Procedures section of the University Catalog, which may include a failing grade for the work in question or for the entire course. The following is one of many websites that provide helpful information concerning plagiarism for both students and faculty: http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml
Ethical behavior in the classroom is required of every student. The course will identify ethical policies and practices relevant to course topics.
Students are expected to be competent in using current technology appropriate for this discipline. Such technology may include word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Use of the internet and e-mail may also be required.
Learning to work with and value diversity is essential in every class. Students are expected to exhibit an appreciation for multinational and gender diversity in the classroom.
As a diverse community of learners, students must strive to work together in a setting of civility, tolerance, and respect for each other and for the instructor. Rules of classroom behavior (which apply to online as well as onsite courses) include but are not limited to the following:
- Conflicting opinions among members of a class are to be respected and responded to in a professional manner.
- Side conversations or other distracting behaviors are not to be engaged in during lectures, class discussions or presentations
- There are to be no offensive comments, language, or gestures | <urn:uuid:4b925130-182c-45aa-95c9-1cfd23c7d3b8> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.nu.edu/OurPrograms/SchoolOfEducation/TeacherEducation/Courses/MAT653Syllabus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999643993/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060723-00042-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913195 | 971 | 2.515625 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive outline of a course on motivational leadership, focusing on emotional intelligence, leadership style, and professional development. It covers various soft skills, including self-assessment, communication, and teamwork, with opportunities for practical application and nuanced interaction. The course also emphasizes cultural awareness, digital literacy, and ethical behavior, with resources for students to develop their writing and research skills.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 901,362 | 1 |
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968, shortly after he started speaking out
against the global elite and the injustice they inflict on all of humanity though orchestrated wars and economic oppression. He believed that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
While King may not physically be with us today, we are fortunate that he left us with powerful principles and tools for defeating tyranny. King, Gandhi and many others have set the precedent for our liberation, proving that courage, love, persistence, and some simple tools are ultimately victorious.
In fact, the tools and principles utilized by King are so powerful that they rocked the foundation of the global elite’s power structure. As Andrew Gavin Marshall writes:
When Martin Luther King began speaking about more than race, and openly criticized the entire social structure of empire and economic exploitation, not simply of blacks, but of all people around the world and at home, he posed too great a threat to the oligarchy to tolerate him any longer. It was at this point that the National Security State
chose to assassinate Martin Luther King, and the philanthropies greatly expanded their financing of the Civil Rights Movement to ensure that it would be led in their desired direction.
Hatred for King by the elite’s agents in government intensified after he publicly identified the U.S. government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” The FBI and U.S military kept King under 24-hour surveillance, and agents had infiltrated the civil rights movement. Therefore, the elites were aware of King’s Poor People’s Campaign for Washington D.C., where King planned to shut down the nation’s capital in the spring of 1968 through massive civil disobedience until the government agreed to combat economic inequality in the United States rather than drop bombs on Vietnam.
On December 8, 1999, in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the King Family, a jury composed of six white and six black people deliberated less than three hours to find that Loyd Jowers (who confessed on television in 1999) and others “including governmental agencies,” were parties to the conspiracy to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr. During closing argument, King family attorney William Pepper stated: “When Martin King opposed the war, when he rallied people to oppose the war, he was threatening the bottom lines of some of the largest defense contractors in this country. This was about money. He was threatening the weapons industry, the hardware, the armaments industries, that would all lose as a result of the end of the war.”
All Americans would be well advised to review the evidence
that was presented at the trial.
Now we shall examine Martin Luther King, Jr.’s principles and tools for restoring freedom in greater detail, committing them to memory by applying them with action each day.
Principles to Defeat the New World Order
In his eloquent speeches, King often quoted great philosophers. It was Aristotle that said, “courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees the others.” Everything we do requires a particular degree of courage
, whether it be interviewing for a job, asking for a date, playing a sport, or resisting a global fascist oligarchy. Fear prevents us reaching our potential and accomplishing what is most important. “Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste death but once.” Every time fear prevents us from doing what our conscience tells us we must, we suffer a spiritual defeat which, if not remedied, can lead to habitual cowardice and spiritual death. “A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
King realized that agape love is essential to bring about positive social change. Agape love is simply redemptive good will for all men and women. If you truly love your spouse, children, family friends, neighbors, and humanity itself, you will take action to reverse mankind’s incremental enslavement. An important aspect is telling others the truth, even when the truth is not pleasant to hear. Agape love also requires that you not allow yourself to hate the global elite and their agents despite their history of unspeakable crimes against humanity. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Of course, agape love does not imply that the global elite should not be arrested, tried by an impartial jury, convicted, and imprisoned for their crimes.
The Civil Rights Movement would not have been successful without perseverance. Perseverance means moving steadily towards an important goal in spite of difficulties and obstacles. Martin Luther King Jr.
worked towards equality, justice and equal rights from the early 1950s until his assassination in 1968, which he foresaw. King and other activists faced being sprayed with high-power fire hoses, police dogs, arrest, prison, beatings, court injunctions, and death threats. The King family home was even bombed on January 30, 1956. When he arrived home to his bombed house, King walked onto the front porch and calmed the crowd of his angry supporters:
I did not start this boycott. I was asked by you to serve as your spokesman. I want it to be known the length and breadth of this land that if I am stopped, this movement will not stop. If I am stopped, our work will not stop. For what we are doing is right. What we are doing is just. And God is with us.
Tools That Defeat All Forms of Tyranny
The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
King valued education and spent much of his time teaching others in the Civil Rights Movement. As Thomas Jefferson said, “if a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Therefore, we must educate ourselves and others on the fact that wealthy individuals
and private organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations
are primarily responsible for government policy. Most importantly, we must escape the false left-right paradigm
(Democrat vs. Republican) which is nothing more than a divide-and-conquer strategy implemented by the global elite.
Martin Luther King stated that, “
one has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” Rosa Parks refused to comply with the law requiring her to give-up her seat on the bus. Sit-ins
were an integral part of the non-violent strategy of civil disobedience and mass protests that eventually led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended legally-sanctioned racial segregation in the United States.
Much like past civil rights activists refused to submit to unjust and immoral laws, we must refuse to comply with laws and administrative dictates that reduce us to serfs. We must refuse to be radiated by airport naked body scanners
. We must refuse to be groped and fondled
by government agents, in violation of the 4th Amendment and natural unalienable rights, when there is no probable cause or even reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. We must refuse to allow our naïve young men and women to join the military, so that the global elite cannot use them as pawns
to conquer practically defenseless third-world countries
to steal natural resources for profit
. We must refuse to allow three-year-old children to be strip-searched in public by mindless drones
, while adult men and women stand by immobile. We must refuse to let government forcibly medicate us into submission by fluoridating the public water supply
. We must refuse to give our kids vaccines loaded with toxic levels of mercury, aluminum, and squalene
. We must refuse to allow low-level drug offenders to be incarcerated at taxpayer expense while the government traffics narcotics
. You can think of many other things that you should not tolerate as well.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give-up her seat due to her skin color and move to the back of a public bus. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and others followed, lasting 385 days. The boycott campaign ended with a U.S. District Court ruling in Browder v. Gayle that ended racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses.
Boycotts can be successful today as well. We must refuse to do business with companies that donate money to ‘think-tanks,’ tax free foundations, and false charities that strategize how to take our money while enslaving us. Furthermore, why support a bank that made huge profits making bad loans through the fractional reserve banking scam
, only to later be bailed out by taxpayers? It should be noted that by some estimates the four largest banks
make up 55 percent of U.S. banking assets.
We must boycott credit cards in favor of cash because their high interest rates are usury, and using them promotes the cashless society control grid, where a record of all of your transactions is kept so that companies and the government can monitor and predict your behavior. Make no mistake, mortgage and credit card debt is the modern form of slavery. Special laws have been passed to allow banks and credit card companies to charge absurdly high interest rates.
Protests and Marches
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” King led many marches and protests on his quest for equality, most notably the Albany movement (1961), Birmingham campaign (1963), and the march on Washington (1963). Today, organizing a peaceful march, protest, or meetup is easier than ever thanks to online meet-up groups and social networking.
While peaceful protests and marches are effective in attracting public attention important issues, it must be noted that there are obstacles
to organizing large demonstrations. First, similar to the FBI falsely labeling King as a communist and wire-tapping his phone, the government may label you a “domestic extremist” and put you on a watch list
. Second, the city where you want to have the protest may violate your Fist Amendment by requiring you to obtain a permit, or telling you that you may only protest in a free speech zone
. Third, as King’s movement was infiltrated
by people he trusted, your march or protest will be infiltrated by undercover law enforcement
, modern day Judas Iscariots, or, at worse, agents provocateur
and black-bloc (government sponsored) anarchists
Unfortunately, King did not have the access to the power and efficiency of email. On the other hand, we must utilize it each week by emailing our contacts the best articles for exposing the New World Order from the many great sites and blogs exposing the agenda. Our future economic health, safety, and survival depends on us educating our friends and families about the Chinese-like totalitarian policies that the globalists intend to implement. If you do not inform your friends and family, who will?
Every weekend each peace/truth activist should deliver at least 50 to 100 flyers to front doors in their neighborhood. The flyers should contain the “real news” and links to trustworthy alternative news sites. If just 10,000 people distribute 100 flyers every weekend, 49 weeks per year, we will reach 49,000,000 people each year (10,000 people x 100 flyers x 49 weeks). Distributing 100 flyers takes less than an hour and black and white copies are inexpensive.
Martin Luther King, Jr. stated that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Jury nullification occurs when a jury returns a verdict of “Not Guilty” despite its belief that the defendant is guilty of the violation charged. The jury in effect nullifies a law that it believes is either immoral or wrongly applied. In the United States, jury nullification
first appeared in the pre-Civil War era when juries sometimes refused to convict for violations of the Fugitive Slave Act. Later, during alcohol prohibition, juries often nullified alcohol control laws, possibly as often as 60% of the time. Should juries nullify laws pertaining to speeding, drug use, tax laws, refusing to be drafted during times of war?
“State nullification is the idea that the states can and must refuse to enforce unconstitutional federal laws.” This power is granted to the states by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In short state and local governments should not assist the federal government in enforcing unconstitutional federal laws.
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” We must demand our freedom now and use the tools listed above to peaceably bring it into existence. Martin Luther King, Jr. broke silence,
and the Civil Rights Movement set the precedent. Just as the globalists have spent many years implementing their plans to enslave mankind in debt and fear of war, our victory will not be gained overnight. Each individual that desires freedom must be the change that he or she wants to see in the world. Once our freedom is obtained, it must be vigilantly guarded, as the masters of deception always quickly regroup when defeated. But rest assured, by all of us who desire true freedom, following King’s example in our local communities, the banking and corporate sowers of inequity will lose their control over humanity.
When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but bends towards justice.
Ethan Jacobs, J.D. is a licensed California attorney with a B.A. in Political Science. His passion is researching and writing about a wide range of issues, hoping to raise public awareness.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
Andrew Gavin Marshall. The American Oligarchy, Civil Rights and the Murder of Martin Luther King. Global Research.
Jim Douglass. The Martin Luther King Conspiracy Exposed in Memphis. Probe Magazine (Spring 2000)
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. http://www.constitution.org/ari/ethic_00.htm
William Shakespeare. Julius Ceasar. Act II, Scene ii. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/shakespearequotes3.html
Mohandas Gandhi. BrainyQuote.com, 2010. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mohandasga164233.html
Martin Luther King Jr. The Power of Non-Violence. June 4, 1957. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1131
Martin Luther King Jr. Strength to Love (1963). http://www.mlkonline.net/quotes.html
January 30, 1956 – Martin Luther King Jr.’s Home was Bombed. January 1, 2009.
Martin Luther King , Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
Martin Luther King Jr. Stride Toward Freedom. A Testament of Hope: p. 429. (1958).
Martin Luther King, Jr. Wikipedia. Ibid.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963).
Doug Linder. Jury Nullification (2001). http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/nullification.html
Thomas E. Woods, Jr. Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century. Regnery Press. (June 28, 2010)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
A quote attributed to Mohandas Ghandi.
Martin Luther King Jr. Where Do We Go From Here? Address to the Southern Christian Leadership (1967). | <urn:uuid:5924a378-4296-4c2a-8f60-824a5aaf5ae2> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.activistpost.com/2011/01/martin-luther-king-jr-and-tools-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320763.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626133830-20170626153830-00116.warc.gz | en | 0.946208 | 3,512 | 3.15625 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive discussion of Martin Luther King Jr.'s principles and tools for restoring freedom, including courage, agape love, perseverance, and nonconformity. It also explores the importance of education, boycotts, protests, and jury nullification in bringing about positive social change. The text encourages readers to take action and be the change they want to see in the world, promoting a sense of empowerment and agency. The inclusion of historical context, quotes, and references adds depth and credibility to the discussion.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 32,331 | 1 |
Like the chimpanzees in our last post, Einstein solved problems with a combination of body thinking and visual imaging.
You might not think that chimpanzees solving animal puzzlers—like how to get hold of an out-of-reach banana—would illuminate scientific thinking, let alone the scientific thinking of Albert Einstein. Einstein is about as great a human genius as one can find. Moreover, psychologist Howard Gardner has characterized Einstein's genius as stemming from his "logico-mathematical" mind (Gardner, 1993), something we can all agree that chimpanzees just don't have. Chimps - well, they're just not in Einstein's league.
Well, let's see. We argued in our previous post that chimpanzees solving physical problems use a combination of body (or kinesthetic) thinking and visual imaging. Unexpectedly, so did Einstein.
Contrary to Gardner's characterization of Einstein as someone who thought primarily in mathematical symbols, the great scientist himself wrote in his autobiographical notes, "I have no doubt that our thinking goes on for the most part without the use of symbols, and, furthermore, largely unconsciously" (Schilpp, 1949, 8-9). He expanded on this theme in remarks to Jacques Hadamard, stating, "The words of the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The psychical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs and more or less clear images which can be 'voluntarily' reproduced and combined.... The above mentioned elements are, in my case, of visual and some of a muscular type" (Hadamard, 1945, 142-3; see also Wertheimer, 1959, 213-228). This puts Einstein's famous gedanken or thought experiments, in which he imagined himself feeling like a photon moving the speed of light, into a whole new light. By his own admission, one of the greatest of human minds did not think in words or numbers, but in bodily feelings and mental images!
So who's aping whom here?
Those who are really familiar with Einstein's work agree that he was, in fact, mathematically challenged. He wasn't kidding when he replied to a letter from high school student Barbara Wilson, "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics; I can assure you that mine are still greater" (Calaprice, 2000, 252). Indeed, he gave up on mathematics early in college when he realized, as he put it, that "[m]y intuition was not strong enough in mathematics to differentiate clearly the fundamentally important... from the rest" (Schilpp, 1949, p. 15). Quite a handicap for a world-class physicist! So how did he manage to translate the insights he gained through visual and bodily thinking into "E = mc2" ?
He did it by working with collaborators - all of whom were mathematicians -- in a distinctly secondary step in his creative process, one that involved the translation of his private intuitions into public forms of communication: "I very rarely think in words at all," he wrote to Max Wertheimer. "A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards" (Wertheimer, 1959, 213). To Hadamard he explained similarly that "[c]onventional words or other signs [presumably mathematical ones] have to be sought for laboriously only in a secondary stage, when the associative play [of images and feelings] already referred to is sufficiently established and can be reproduced at will" (Hadamard, 1945, 143).
Now THAT'S interesting! Einstein THINKS in images and feelings, but he COMMUNICATES in symbols. And it's that secondary communication that clearly differentiates the physicist from a chimp. No chimpanzee can perform this translation and communication task at the level of a normal human adult, let alone an Einstein.
Nevertheless, the fact that there is, first, a thinking phase and, second, a translation phase of creative problem solving, and that chimpanzees can think their way through some types of physical problems as well as human beings, should give us pause. In teaching physics (not to mention other sciences) have we been aping the wrong aspects of great thought? Of what value is it to be able to write "E = mc2" if a student cannot imagine, using his or her mind and body, what that equation means? It may very well be that we've been confusing how we think with how we communicate. If so, we've put the proverbial "cart before the horse". We don't need an equation to figure out how well that arrangement is going to work!
So let's try aping Einstein. Let's put the horse in front of the cart where it belongs and see what happens. Might a student who cannot write the equations for a problem in physics still be able to solve physical problems? Stay tuned!
© Robert & Michele Root-Bernstein 2012
Calaprice A, ed. The Expanded Quotable Einstein. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hadamard J. An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1945.
Gardner H. Creating Minds. New York: Basic Books, 1993.
Schilpp P, ed. Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. Evanston IL: Library of Living Philosophers, 1949.
Wertheimer M. Productive Thinking. New York: Harper, 1945. | <urn:uuid:ba2a0e48-82b7-4e68-a698-b883cba2a53f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/aping_einstein | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701445114/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105045-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94892 | 1,134 | 3.140625 | 3 | The extract earns a score of 4 due to its in-depth discussion of soft skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication. It presents complex scenarios, like Einstein's thought process, and highlights the importance of visual and bodily thinking in creative problem-solving. The extract also touches on collaboration, intercultural fluency, and digital literacy, although these aspects are not extensively explored.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 313,478 | 1 |
University of Minnesota students can be a part of discovering history by helping researchers decipher Greek characters on 2,000-year-old fragments of ancient papyri discovered in Egypt.
Their participation could also help develop an algorithm to faster assess data in different disciplines — the sole responsibility of the University in the project.
The team is collaborating with the University of Oxford in the Ancient Lives project to translate papyri preserved in Egypt since about the third century B.C.
The damaged fragments are available online for the public to identify and match Greek letters in order to translate works. About 120,000 people participate internationally.
“You don’t need to know Greek,” said Marco Perale, papyrology and Greek language expert.
Only 30 percent of ancient Egyptian works have surfaced, Perale said. Other literature is alluded to in books or poems but wasn’t copied down by scribes and monks.
Lost works, like a book of poetry by Greek poet Sappho, have been deciphered since the excavation of the papyri from a trash heap in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.
The project has the potential to unveil those treasures as well as develop an algorithm to speed up computers when deciphering data in any discipline.
Public participation is needed to develop this algorithm — it is the key to moving this project and others like it forward.
“We’re now in a position where we’re drowning in our own data,” said Lucy Fortson, associate professor of physics and astronomy and executive member of Zooninverse, the parent project of Ancient Lives.
She said the consensus algorithm uses human error to assign a confidence level to each letter the public chooses.
Upon comparing that with the translations of experts like Perale, the first draft of the algorithm is 70 to 80 percent accurate each time.
Once there is confidence in the algorithm, Fortson said it could be released on other Zooniverse data, like identifying galaxies and whale sounds, to sort it more quickly.
And humans are necessary to teach the computers how to do that. Humans have the capability to match distorted patterns and shapes, while a computer can’t. Kids as young as 4 or 5 years old, who are just learning how to match things, can participate.
“It’s exactly what that age range is doing,” Fortson said.
Those results are compared with Perale’s translations to perfect the algorithm, which is being developed solely by the University.
As of January, more than 5 million characters had been transcribed since Ancient Lives went live in July 2011, said Nita Krevans, classical and near Eastern studies associate professor.
A study found that participants actually enjoy helping with research more than watching television, Fortson said.
“We’ve tapped into a very large audience that actually really does care about science and research, and they want meaning in their lives,” she said.
The U’s role
The project combines work from both the classical and near Eastern studies department and the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute and operates under a $250,000 award from the Minnesota Futures Grant program.
For Theresa Chresand, a sophomore Greek major and computer science minor, the project’s application to both disciplines made it “perfect” for her to help out with the research.
She manages an online group just for Minnesotans who are helping with the project.
Besides translating Greek from the papyri, Perale is in charge of website commentary.
Users have the option to search literary texts online and try to determine if what they are deciphering is from a pre-existing text, like some of Greek poet Homer’s work, including the Iliad and the Odyssey.
They can comment on a forum and receive replies from other users or from Perale himself.
Ancient papyri found wrapped on mummified crocodiles
The lost work of Greek authors like Aristotle could be found on the papier mâché covering on the mummy of a crocodile, which is a sacred animal to ancient Egyptians.
The Egypt Exploration Society, a nonprofit foundation, has sponsored the excavation and publication since its beginning. The sites are currently still being excavated.
Census returns depicting the change of population in a village, wedding contracts showing the legal rights of divorced women and letters from a child to his mother asking for money were all types of documents found in Egypt on preserved papyrus fragments.
These documents had been “mushed up, covered with paint and wrapped around crocodiles,” Krevans said. They were also found in trash heaps, like the one in Oxyrhynchus.
Papyrus, an ancient substitute for paper made from a reedy plant, dissolves in water. But because the villages where they were found were “bone dry,” the documents were preserved, Krevans said.
She said the Nile River, which floods once per year, is the main irrigation source for Egyptian agriculture. Because the villages were so far away, these “treasure troves” survived.
Since the trash heaps and mummy coverings were discovered more than a century ago, only 1 percent of a total 500,000 fragments have been deciphered and published between 1898 and last month.
“It’s taken that long to transcribe and edit and interpret and publish 1 percent of the entire collection from Oxyrhynchus,” Fortson said. | <urn:uuid:4de411ed-6add-4b2b-a2f5-c065542a99f3> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.mndaily.com/2012/02/09/excavators-find-treasure-egyptian-trash-heap | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394011192582/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305091952-00005-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955201 | 1,149 | 3.140625 | 3 | The extract scores 4 points as it discusses soft skills such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving in a complex and realistic scenario. The Ancient Lives project requires collaboration between researchers, students, and the public to decipher ancient papyri, promoting intercultural fluency and digital literacy. The project's use of crowdsourcing and algorithm development also highlights advanced problem-solving and technological adaptation.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 898,943 | 1 |
Hi everyone! I’m Mandy Bush and I am the online business manager for Cardinal Rule Press (Maria’s publishing company). I am a mother of 2 (son and daughter) and I will be blogging this month on Be the Difference and will be recapping some valuable tips from Maria’s new show, Empowering Kids With Character – The Show!
On February 22, Maria gave us a great visual way to explain verbal bullying, verbal abuse and meanness to our children! You can watch the first part of the 2 part video here and the conclusion here.
- Piece of paper
- Draw a heart and make it as nice and pretty as you can.
Show your child the heart and explain that this child is so happy and their heart is gleaming and they have friends who respect them and are kind and sweet.
One Monday, this child’s friends started speaking unkind and teasing her. Her very best friends were calling her names. It didn’t just happen Monday, it went on all week. The unkind words just continued to happen over and over again (wrinkle paper while you say this).
Friday, this child’s teacher noticed that she wasn’t as happy as she normally was and asked what happened? The girl said she tried many things but her friends wouldn’t stop saying unkind and mean things to her. (Here, Maria said that the teacher gave the girl some suggestions, but that the suggestions the teacher gave is a whole ‘nother video lesson ?)
Then, un-wrinkle the paper and show your child that the heart is wrinkly and not as pretty as it once was. Her heart will never be the same. Continue by explaining to them that when we say unkind words to another person, we can say we’re sorry but people will not forget those unkind words. They leave a mark on our hearts. Physical abuse often leaves a mark that goes away but the verbal abuse sticks with you always.
You can personalize this activity by sharing a story of when someone said something unkind to you. Be sure to let them know how long ago that was so they see that unkind words will always stay with a person.
I really appreciated this video lesson – I know it was a lot more helpful for my son in realizing that what we say has a HUGE impact in someone’s life. Choosing to say kind and sweet things, instead of yucky and mean things, will always be the best choice! | <urn:uuid:59654110-fef0-457b-b564-498c696736c6> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://mariadismondy.com/2018/03/28/what-we-say-really-does-matter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945381.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20230326013652-20230326043652-00160.warc.gz | en | 0.966877 | 531 | 2.78125 | 3 | The extract discusses soft skills, specifically empathy and kindness, with a practical application through a visual activity. It promotes critical thinking and emotional intelligence, and raises cultural awareness about the impact of verbal bullying. However, the scenario is relatively straightforward and lacks complexity.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 258,822 | 0 |
Looked After Children - children who are in care or looked after by foster parents
Every school inspection team must have one. Lay inspectors must have no paid experience of teaching or managing a school, but are fully trained to take part in inspections.
Level Description Basis for making judgements about pupils’ performance at the end of key stages 1, 2 and 3.
Learning difficulties and disabilities
Local Education Authority was the part of the local council that was responsible for education. The phrase is now obsolete in official use and has been replaced by the Children Services Authority or commonly known as local authority
Also known as Learning Support Practitioner or teaching assistant. Widely used job title for an assistant providing in-school support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
List 99 - list of teachers whose employment is barred or restricted on either misconduct or medical grounds. The list is held by local authorities, FE corporations and associations representing independent schools.
Local government with responsibilty for education (formerly known as local education authority). | <urn:uuid:5a8b8bc6-9c75-462e-8d36-b01dbf6cb929> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.peterhouse.norfolk.sch.uk/l/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320873.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626235612-20170627015612-00335.warc.gz | en | 0.970915 | 210 | 2.765625 | 3 | The extract provides definitions for various terms related to education, but lacks discussion of soft skills, realistic scenarios, and practical applications. It focuses on theoretical knowledge and basic concepts, with no emphasis on communication, teamwork, or problem-solving.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 246,018 | 0 |
Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM) is native to Eurasia and is found throughout Europe, Asia, and northern Africa ( Couch and Nelson 1985, Nichols and Shaw 1986)
EWM can now be found on every continent except Antarctica. (Jacobs 2009)
EWM was possibly introduced into the U.S. in the late 1800s from ship ballast dumped in the Chesapeake Bay area; however, circumstantial evidence suggests that EWM may have been introduced to the United States by the Plant Introduction Branch of the USDA as an ornamental plant that escaped cultivation (Aiken et al. 1979, Couch and Nelson 1985). The earliest confirmed detection of EWM in the U.S. was October 29th 1942 in Belch Spring Pond in Washington, D.C. (Couch and Nelson 1985). EWM was also a popular aquarium and ornamental pond plant and could have been accidently or intentionally introduced on many occasions. The ornamental plant trade, aquarium and fish pond escapes, and dispersal via boats and waterfowl contributed to its rapid spread westward throughout the country. It was also used as fresh packing material for worms sold to anglers in Oklahoma resulting in its spread throughout that state (Couch and Nelson 1985). EWM was intentionally planted to improve fish habitat in a Tennessee lake around 1953 (Aiken et al. 1979). That population subsequently escaped into the Tennessee River Valley reservoirs resulting in a major infestation of over 10,000 ha shortly after (Aiken et al. 1979). EWM became a major weed problem nationally in the 1960s and 70s and has since been reported in every state except for Hawaii and Wyoming (figure 1).
EWM was first collected in the Great Lakes Basin when it was discovered in 1949 Put-in-Bay, Ohio on Lake Erie. According to herbarium records, it was first collected in Michigan in St. Clair County in 1961; however, due to the difficulty distinguishing it from northern watermilfoil (Myriophyllum sibiricum), it wasn?t recognized as EWM until 1970 and was most likely established in Michigan well before that (Reznicek and Voss 2012). It was later collected in Whitmore Lake, Washtenaw Co. in 1965(Coffey and McNabb 1974). The first detection of EWM in Michigan?s Upper Peninsula was when a population was discovered in Little Bay de Noc near Escanaba between 1972 and 1973 (Coffey and McNabb 1974, Reznicek and Voss 2012). A small (250 sq ft) infestation of EWM was recorded in 2006 in the Les Cheneaux Islands of Northern Lake Huron. That small patch later grew to a mat of over 400 acres by the end of 2012; conservatively, over 1500 acres of EWM have been identified in the Les Cheneaux Islands (Smith 2010). EWM is now found throughout the Great Lakes States (Figure 2) and has been reported to be present in 11 counties in the Upper Peninsula (Reznicek and Voss 2012, EDDMapS 2014), including Houghton County where EWM and Hybrids were discovered in the Keweenaw Waterway in 2012 (KISMA 2013).
Figure 1. The spread of Eurasian watermilfoil since its first detection in Washington, D.C. in the 1940s to the present, based on herbarium records and literature. Modified from Couch and Nelson 1985 & USDA Plants database (http://plants.usda.gov/).
Figure 2. Counties in the Great Lake States with EWM detections. Modified from the Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System (EDDMapS 2014: http://www.eddmaps.org/).
Assistant Research Scientist
Casey Huckins (PI) | <urn:uuid:2315a9d8-d05e-443c-97f8-e514412ccce3> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://mtri.org/eurasian_watermilfoil_spread.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549426693.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170727002123-20170727022123-00367.warc.gz | en | 0.940161 | 783 | 2.90625 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing solely on the spread of Eurasian watermilfoil. It provides detailed information on the plant's introduction, distribution, and detection, but does not address communication, teamwork, or professional development.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 525,991 | 0 |
Five things to know about Notre Dame Cathedral
PARIS, FRANCE: Catholics around the world watched with horror as the roof of Cathedrale Notre-Dame was engulfed with flames on Monday afternoon. The blaze began shortly after the church closed for visitors, and everyone was evacuated safely, though the entirety of the roof collapsed into the church.
— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 15, 2019
Here are five things you may not know about the church that has often been called the “Queen of Cathedrals.”
1. Building was an 182-year process
Rome was not built in a day, and neither was Notre-Dame. Construction of the cathedral began in 1160 and took nearly two centuries. While most work was done by 1260, it was finally completed in 1345.
2. It’s home to many relics
The most famous relic located in Notre-Dame is the crown of thorns believed to have been placed upon Jesus Christ during his scourging. The cathedral also contains a piece of the true cross and one of the nails used in the crucifixion, plus relics of many French saints. Initial reports suggest that the relics were saved from the blaze.
3. It’s not actually owned by the Archdiocese of Paris
Due to France’s laws regarding secularisation, the French government owns all churches built before 1905, including Notre-Dame. The government lets the Archdiocese of Paris use the building for free, and will continue to do so in perpetuity. The Archdiocese of Paris is responsible for the upkeep of the church, as well as for paying employees.
4. It is the most-visited site in Europe
With 12 to 13 million visitors annually, Cathedrale Notre-Dame has more visitors than anywhere else in Europe.
5. It has been destroyed before
While Monday’s fire was certainly the most extensive damage ever done to Notre-Dame, this is hardly the first time she has undergone structural trauma. In WWII, nearly all of the glass was broken when Paris was bombed, and Huguenots destroyed icons and statues during the sixteenth century.
During the French Revolution, Notre-Dame was ransacked and re-dedicated to the “Goddess Reason.” The building itself was used at that time for wine storage. The Church resumed use of the building in 1801.
Source: Catholic News Agency | <urn:uuid:8d82419b-b90f-4eee-809a-77df97ec8338> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.catholicvoice.org.au/five-things-to-know-about-notre-dame-cathedral/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145747.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20200223062700-20200223092700-00226.warc.gz | en | 0.984188 | 512 | 3 | 3 | This extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on historical and factual information about Notre Dame Cathedral. It does not include communication scenarios, team dynamics, or problem-solving opportunities, and cultural awareness is limited to basic historical context.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 624,912 | 0 |
NASA managers will make a final decision by Monday afternoon about whether to launch space shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday, June 17 or wait until later in the week.
Technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center are working to fix a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside Endeavour's external fuel tank. The leak postponed Endeavour's Saturday morning scheduled launch to the International Space Station. Teams on Kennedy's Launch Pad 39A are in the process of changing out internal seals in the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP, which is attached to the external tank. The vent line runs from the GUCP, away from the launch pad to a "flare stack" where excess hydrogen is safely burned off.
Managers met Sunday afternoon to evaluate how repairs are going and assess when Endeavour's next launch attempt will be. The earliest the shuttle could be ready for liftoff is June 17, however there is a conflict on that date with the scheduled launch of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
NASA managers are looking to maximize launch opportunities this week for both the shuttle and the LRO/LCROSS missions. If there are no issues with Endeavour's repair work, the shuttle would attempt to launch on June 17 and LRO/LCROSS would have launch opportunities on June 19 and 20. If Endeavour doesn't launch on June 17 and LRO/LCROSS launches on that day, the shuttle could make a launch attempt on June 20.
Endeavour's leak is similar to what happened during the first launch attempt of space shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission in March. Technicians are using the same repair method, which led to Discovery's successful launch on its next attempt. | <urn:uuid:f9ca5558-d182-49d6-8606-0816fbc5e8d6> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=31504 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999673147/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060753-00030-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950149 | 378 | 2.546875 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on technical details of a NASA launch. While it mentions teamwork and managerial decision-making, it does so in a superficial manner without exploring emotional intelligence, leadership, or complex problem-solving.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 730,248 | 0 |
This lesson plan is designed to be used with the film Bronx Princess, which chronicles the complex relationship between a young woman named Rocky and her Ghanaian mother as Rocky progresses from high school to college. Classrooms can use this film and its companion website resources to help students explore their own relationships with their parents through letter writing. (Note: This film sometimes uses English subtitles.)
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Please visit our film library to find other films suitable for classroom use.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Use viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret a series of video clips.
- Work in groups to read and summarize parent-child letters.
- Write a letter to a parent and invite him or her to write back.
- Discuss how writing to a parent influences the writing process.
GRADE LEVELS: 6-12
- Method of showing the entire class online video clips and a website
- Map showing the location of Ghana
- Handout: Viewing Guide
ESTIMATED TIME NEEDED: One to two 50-minute class periods, plus writing time outside of class
Clip 1: Blouse or a Shirt? (length 2:04)
The clip starts at 4:00 with Rocky in bed. It ends at 6:04, when Auntie Yaa says, "...if you put your head on your shoulder, you lose."
Clip 2: Respect (length 1:57)
The clip starts at 11:29 with Rocky and Auntie Yaa at the beauty supply store. It ends at 13:26, after the subway passes in the background.
Clip 3: Home From College (length :57)
The clip starts at 36:38 with a street with Christmas lights. It ends at 37:35 with Rocky saying, "This is like the best stuff ever," and her mother smiling in response.
In the film Bronx Princess, Rockyatu "Rocky" Otoo is shown graduating from high school with honors; going on a trip to visit her father, who is a chief in Ghana; and starting college on a full-tuition scholarship she has earned. Rocky grew up in New York City with her mother, "Auntie" Yaa, who is originally from the West African country of Ghana. "Auntie" Yaa runs her own beauty supply store in the Bronx.
1. Tell the class that you are going to show some video clips that introduce them to Rocky Otoo, who was raised in New York City. Rocky is graduating from high school and will attend college in the fall on a full scholarship. Her mother is "Auntie" Yaa, who runs a beauty supply store in the Bronx. Yaa is originally from Ghana. Show students where Ghana is on a map. Explain that Rocky's father lives in Ghana, where he is the chief of his village.
2. Distribute the Viewing Guide handout and show Clip 1. Tell students to complete the first row of the table on the handout. Ask students, "Based on the clip we just watched, what does Rocky think is important?" Discuss the same for Yaa. Do students feel that they think differently from their parents? What factors might account for this, both in Rocky and Yaa's situation and in the students' own lives? Responses might include differences in culture, age, values and so on.
3. Show Clip 2 and ask students to complete the second row of the handout. Ask students if they think that Rocky and Yaa love each other despite their disagreements. Tell students to elaborate on their answers.
4. Explain that the last clip shows Rocky coming home after her first semester away at college. Show Clip 3 and complete the handout. Ask students if any of them have ever been away from home for more than a week. Ask students who have been away from home to reflect on their experiences. What did they miss about home when they were away? What did they not miss?
5. Compare and contrast Rocky and Yaa's interactions with other parent-child relationships. Provide small student groups with one or two letters or blog posts to read together and summarize for the class. Consider pulling texts from the following sources, depending on the focus of your curriculum:
Blog Post: A Letter to My Mom (with response)
A daughter writes a letter on her blog to her mother about their relationship, and her mother responds.
A Special Delivery: Mother-Daughter Letters From Afar
by Joyce Slayton Mitchell and Elizabeth Dix Mitchell
This book features a collection of letters between a mother living in Vermont and her pregnant daughter living in New Zealand.
From Mother and Daughter: Poems, Dialogues, and Letters of Les Dames Des Roches
edited and translated by Anne R. Larsen
This book, available online, contains 16th-century letters that were sent by women in French literary history.
Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children
This online book provides a collection of letters that Teddy Roosevelt sent to his children.
While Father Is Away: The Civil War Letters of William H. Bradbury
This compilation of letters from a soldier in the Civil War includes messages to and about Bradbury's children. Search the text for his daughter Jane's name.
After each group has provided the class with a summary of its assigned letter(s), ask group members to identify similarities and differences in the relationships between the people in the letters they read and Rocky and Yaa. How might the time periods in which the letters were written have influenced the parent-child relationship?
6. Review the basics of personal letter writing and discuss what makes a good letter. Ask each student to write his or her own letter to a parent and invite the parent to write back. (Note: Please be sensitive to each student's family situation and feel free to have students write to a loved one other than a parent if that would be more appropriate.) If writers aren't sure where to start, suggest expressing gratitude, describing concerns or talking about roles and expectations. Keep letters focused by limiting them to one typed page. Tell students to write "SHARE" at the top of letters that they wouldn't mind sharing with the class or posting on the POV website. Explain that letters without this designation will remain confidential.
7. After an appropriate writing period outside of class, collect the letters from students and their parents and choose a sample of those marked "SHARE" to read to the class. Ask students how writing to a loved one such as a parent affects tone, style and content. What type of language best fits the relationship? Did the process of writing letters affect how students and their parents understand each other? If so, how? What might students and their parents think of these letters in 10 or 20 years?
8. Consider submitting high-quality letter sets to the POV website for others to enjoy.
Students can be assessed on:
- Completion of the Viewing Guide.
- Participation in class discussions and activities.
- The substance and clarity of the letters to their parents.
EXTENSIONS & ADAPTATIONS
- Expand the discussion of what makes a good letter (step 6 in the main activity) to develop a student-generated rubric to use when assessing student work for this lesson. The article "Developing Student-Generated Rubrics" shares some strategies for how this could be done.
- Have students create visual representations of their family trees. Ask students to research and record the full names, birth and death years (where applicable) and place of longest residence for three to four generations of their families (students being the first generation). Students should create a family tree poster to organize and display this information, and then decorate the poster in a way that reflects their family's culture and style. Display these posters around the room and discuss how knowing something about your family's past contributes to your identity.
- Explore different kinds of pen pal relationships. Help your class correspond with retired members of your community and record their personal histories. Or use an online service such as Kidlink to help class members establish intercultural pen pal relationships with other young people their age around the world so they can compare life experiences.
- Research the roles of families in different periods of U.S. and/or world history. Have students choose a time period, gather information and write essays on how family roles were affected by events or developments of that time. For example, what impact did industrialization or World War II have on the family? Or, how did the French Revolution change family life in France?
Friendly Letter Writing
This brief description of the purpose and typical content of friendly letter writing also provides links to a page showing the format for friendly letters and a sample friendly letter.
This page describes challenges that arise in mother-daughter relationships and some of the reasons that conflict occurs.
These standards are drawn from "Content Knowledge," a compilation of content standards and benchmarks for K-12 curriculum by McRel (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning)
Standard 4: Understands conflict, cooperation and interdependence among individuals, groups and institutions.
Standard 2: Understands the impact of the family on the well-being of individuals and society.
Standard 1: Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process.
Standard 5: Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process.
Standard 9: Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media.
Working with Others
Standard 4: Displays effective interpersonal communication skills.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cari Ladd, M.Ed., is an educational writer with a background in secondary education and media development. Previously, she served as PBS Interactive's director of education, overseeing the development of curricular resources tied to PBS programs, the PBS TeacherSource website (now PBS Teachers), and online teacher professional development services. She has also taught in Maryland and northern Virginia. | <urn:uuid:1d99b7ec-8632-4952-a467-95e331a03e33> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.pbs.org/pov/bronxprincess/lesson-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423901.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20170722042522-20170722062522-00614.warc.gz | en | 0.941866 | 2,096 | 2.90625 | 3 | This lesson plan earns a high score due to its comprehensive approach to developing soft skills, including communication, empathy, and critical thinking. It incorporates realistic scenarios, cultural awareness, and digital literacy, allowing students to explore complex relationships and write reflective letters to their parents. The plan also promotes teamwork, public speaking, and self-expression, making it a valuable resource for students' personal and academic growth.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 317,604 | 1 |
Question: Why do you think many people are in jobs that
Why do you think many people are in jobs that are not satisfying? Do organizations help people craft satisfying and motivating jobs, and if not, why not?
Answer to relevant QuestionsDoes behavior always follow from attitudes? Why or why not? Discuss the factors that affect whether behavior follows from attitudes. What outcomes does job satisfaction influence? What implications does this have for management? Do you think the information in this case could help you tell whether someone’s smile is genuine? In your experience, do younger individuals differ from older individuals in terms of how long they plan to remain with a given firm? What are Hofstede’s five value dimensions of national culture?
Post your question | <urn:uuid:855f7390-ca86-47a6-80d0-8dda9d775309> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.solutioninn.com/why-do-you-think-many-people-are-in-jobs-that | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423774.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20170721122327-20170721142327-00593.warc.gz | en | 0.945612 | 152 | 2.71875 | 3 | The extract touches on various aspects of organizational behavior, job satisfaction, and cultural dimensions, but lacks depth and practical application. It raises relevant questions but doesn't provide nuanced discussions or complex problem-solving opportunities. Basic communication and teamwork concepts are implied but not explicitly explored.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 411,070 | 0 |
Vu MCM304 Mass Media In Pakistan Vu Current Assignment 1 Solution Spring 1st May 2013
Mass Media in Pakistan (MCM 304)”
To develop the critical and analytical thinking among students regarding real time issues.
To make them realize the importance of media in the international and national issues
We all know that the Elections 2013 are on the way. All news channels are covering almost all aspects of this event in their talk shows. Capital Talk and Kal Tak are the famous programs of GEO and Express Channels in this regard. These are hosted by the well-known journalists Hamid Mir and Javed Chaudhary.
Your task is to watch the two episodes of the above mentioned programs and give the analysis of these programs on the basis of the following points:
The mission statements of these programs
Content of programs
Influence of ownership on both programs with examples (positive or negative).
Reporting of upcoming elections issues in both programs. (Presentation format)
Role of Hosts in promoting awareness among masses regarding voting behavior
(3 Marks for each point)
Students will be able to:
Analyze the policies and values of media environments in Pakistan
Classify the position of Pakistani media in a changing and globalizing media setting. | <urn:uuid:2986d8eb-ea8e-4244-8868-9232560931b3> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://theeducation.pk/tag/mass-media/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424610.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170723202459-20170723222459-00609.warc.gz | en | 0.918988 | 257 | 2.734375 | 3 | The extract scores high for its focus on critical thinking, analysis, and media literacy. It encourages students to evaluate real-world media programs, considering factors like mission statements, content, and ownership influence. This promotes nuanced understanding of media's role in shaping public opinion and its impact on national issues.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 480,475 | 1 |
Faster and Faster, Bigger and Bigger
Of all of man's technological accomplishments, nothing matches what he has done with computers and the Internet. Web technology has advanced so much since my youth, the days of green-screen computers and 1200-baud modems seem like the Stone Age. The microwave oven has improved over the years, but we didn't go from taking an hour to warm up a cup of coffee to cooking a twenty-pound turkey in thirty seconds.
People used to talk about the miracle of the jet age. In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first controlled flight, going about 7 mph. It took about twenty years before many could travel over 200 mph. In 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier with a speed of 670 mph. In the 1960s, planes reached twice the speed of sound at 1,200 mph. The speed race came to an end in 1976 with the SR71's ability to travel 2,194 mph. Since then, we have actually gone backwards. The SR71 has been decommissioned without a replacement.
The exponential growth curve in the computer world shows no sign of ending. In 1971, the CPU for a computer had 2,300 transistors. Today, the same CPU has over 2 trillion. When Rapture Ready started in 1987, our monthly bandwidth limit was 25 megabytes. Today, we have a monthly limit of around 40 trillion bytes of data.
The growth in the web domains and users has also had a sharp growth spike. The number of web users is growing so fast, it's likely that the majority of earth's population will be using it in the next few years. The only limitation is people's ability to afford access to the global on-line community. In 1991, there were hardly any websites on the Internet. By 2009, there were over 200 million. As late as 2001, only 360 million people were using the Internet. As of September 2009, more than 1.7 billion people regularly use the Internet.
A Sea of Garbage
The Internet is the modern equivalent of the printing press. Everyone has the ability to be a publisher and share his or her voice with a global audience. Just as junk mail has become the bane of the printed world, junk information has been filling the web.
When the web first started, it was much easier to find resource material on various subjects. Today, one has to wade through a sea of garbage to find useful information. The web is clogged with ads of every form, broken links, and pages that are self-serving to the company or people who produced them. There is such a clutter of useless sites, I turn to trusted bookmarks for many of my inquiries.
One of the key factors that turns the net into a garbage dump is people's self-interest. They’re either trying to sell something or they ramble on about themselves. Millions of websites are part of hit farms. Their only purpose is to coax people into clicking on their links, which are ads made to look like useful information.
Even well-meaning Christians can add to the trash pile. I recently found a blog by a woman suffering from MS. She started the blog to benefit others. Rather than being a testimony about the sustaining power of God in trials, the blog was a random collection of trivial thoughts on things like the weather, shopping, and food. The Bible was only referenced once. This person seemed to think that the world is dying to read about her aches and pains.
I was once at a conference in Dallas, and an author asked me if I would add his website to our link page. Later, I checked it out and was shocked to find this huge site that was solely focused on promoting a book he had written. It was one of the most egregious examples of self-promotion I had ever seen. Just like the blog example, the Gospel message was nowhere to be found.
I think we need a Smokey-the-Bear-type of mascot to ask people not to pollute the web. You don't throw litter out of your car window because you know it will degrade the environment, so why should people throw trash into cyberspace?
The Core Problem with Christian Web Ministry
There are many reasons the Internet is lacking a good Christian witness. I was going to list several of them, but decided to focus on what I think is the key problem at hand. The reason we lack an effective approach is that the Internet has made everything too common and too accessible. There is no value in doing the Lord's work online.
The factor has had a similar impact on the Bible. At one time, the vast majority of people did not own a copy of God’s Word. Until the invention of the printing press, each Bible had to be transcribed by hand. Today, I have dozens of Bibles around the house. You can go to a discount store and find piles of Bibles that were mass-produced in China . For a buck, you can also buy a digital copy of the Bible.
Its amazes me to think that a Bible file only take three seconds to transmit to someone with a cable modem. During the Middle Ages, it would have taken three years to produce the same text for someone wealthy enough to afford one.
The accessibility of the Bible has not improved the average Christian’s understanding of the Holy Word. Christians today have far less understanding of Scripture than people who only know the Bible from what they heard in church.
In the early Church Age, people would invest their whole lives in efforts to send the Gospel to various nations. Today, you can reach over 140 nations in a single month through a web connection. A congregation would rather build a new daycare center than spend a few bucks on a better website for their church.
Any large Christian organization could be the one-stop source for Christian information if it wanted to spend a few million dollars of their budget. Thousands of ministries have an annual income of over $50 million, and the vast majority spends less than $5,000 a year on their Internet budget.
When Yahoo.com first came out in 1994, it had a directory-based format that listed similar domains together. RR was under "Bible prophecy" with several other end-time sites. I saved the list, and one time I checked the links. To my surprise, 90 percent of the sites from around 1997 no longer existed. The owners lost interest and closed up shop.
When the Internet was brand new, everyone was thrilled by the idea that hundreds of people were visiting their boards. Many sites would list all the countries represented by people who registered on their traffic counter. Today, the web is so pervasive, nothing is special about the fact that someone from China, for example, passes through your domain.
The good thing about the lack of value in the web is that it separates the devoted Christians from those who don't really care. Whenever I want to measure the dedication of a certain ministry, one area I always check is how well they maintain their website.
Putting All This Power to Good Use
One key factor that has made Rapture Ready so successful as a prophecy site is that our focus has been to use the web as a vehicle to offer Bible-based information to as many people as possible. We target questions that people might pose when they come to the net looking for answers.
Whenever I get ready to write on a subject, I always first do a search to see if some other site has covered the topic. Most of the time, I don't find anything that comes close to what I plan to write. I do have a unique way of approaching some subjects, but I think the bigger factor at work is that most people only care about content that suits their personal interests. For example, millions of online articles tell you what’s wrong with the world, but only a handful of articles offer advice on how to fix the problem.
I didn't find any relevant matches when I typed in the title of this article, "The End-Time Gospel and the Internet Age." One guy had something close, but he only went to a book he was trying to sell. Because this page is an answer to an inquiry on the subject of the Gospel and the Internet, it will naturally soar to the top of the search list once I upload it.
What makes the Internet such a wonderful tool for reaching the lost with the Gospel message is that fact that you are offering information to the public at almost zero cost.
In the world of books, DVDs, and CDs, you can't find production costs that are lower than a dollar per unit. Once a book's sales have dropped below a certain level, the publisher removes it from its catalog listing. The Left Behind novels written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins were part of one of the most successful series in the history of Christian media. In the publishing world, however, all good things must eventually come to an end. One day I was at a dollar store, and I saw the tapes for some of the Left Behind books available for sale.
There is no bargain bin for websites. A web page can remain active for an indefinite amount of time. Some articles on RR have been around for nearly two decades. Each month, they are visited by several thousand people.
"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Peter 3:15).
Adding Your Witness to the Net
A fundamental duty of every Christian is to share his or her faith with the lost. I firmly believe the Internet is one of the best ways to fulfill this obligation. If the 80 million professing Christians in the U.S. added one page of content to the net, nonbelievers would be repeatedly exposed to their witness.
I would be happy if one-tenth of that amount did something productive. The vast majority of Christians never do anything. We are told to pray for others, but we don't even bother to pray for our own needs. I would estimate that less than two hundred individuals are responsible for producing 90 percent of the prophetic content on the net.
There is little interest in God’s business because most Christians don’t see the reward. Most of them are more worried about making money here on earth than they are about adding to their heavenly bank account.
The wonderful thing about doing something is that once you invest the time to do it, you put yourself ahead of a long line of people who do nothing. With a little effort, you can become the 201st person to share the claim to the 90-percent portion of the end-time pie.
Rapture Ready has long had an open policy on posting the works of other authors. You don't need to create a whole website. You could spend all the time you need writing on single article and then send it to us for posting. Once you have a witness on the web, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that every month, hundreds of people are reading your material and being guided to the truth.
"For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard" (Act 22:15).
The Master Plan
I'm sure you have seen one of those infomercials that offers you a bonus amount on some type of cheap product. After telling you about the wonders of a set of plastic storage containers, the announcer says, "But wait! Act now and we will double your order."
Well, I'm about to double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, sextuple, septuple, octuple...your potential reward. The windfall is so great that I have no idea how high it even reaches.
A few years ago, I wrote an article called "The Master Plan." It details what will happen when billions of people realize they have been left behind and turn to the web for answers. During a short period of time, an article that may have only been read a few hundred times could receive hits that number into the millions.
When the Lord Jesus comes to earth to remove the Church, I strongly believe the Rapture will generate one of the greatest panics in human history. The intense need for information will cause millions of people to turn to the Internet for answers. Because Rapture Ready is so closely related to the subject, a huge number of people will find their way to this domain. Currently, only about 0.00115 percent of global Internet users visit our site. I would not be surprised if 20 percent of the post-Rapture population eventually reads an article from RR. The only limitation will be the ability of servers hosting RR to distribute data to the eager public.
It is never too late to become actively involved in works that are pleasing to God. Even if you're ninety years old, you still have time to make up for lost time. To share in this wonderful opportunity that the Internet offers, you need to act. I started RR twenty-three years ago by asking myself a very basic question, "Until the Lord comes, what should I be doing?" | <urn:uuid:a83e5e1d-4e12-4a5a-b112-6c3c142a591c> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.raptureready.com/rr-internet.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163040130/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131720-00061-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972655 | 2,703 | 2.578125 | 3 | The extract discusses the impact of the internet on society, the importance of using it for Christian ministry, and the potential for individuals to share their faith online. While it touches on some soft skills like communication and problem-solving, the discussion is largely superficial and lacks practical application. The text focuses more on the author's personal experiences and opinions rather than providing nuanced scenarios or complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 359,307 | 0 |
There are three basic types of peer-review: open, single blind and double blind. Open peer-review means everybody knows each others’ names. This is normally discouraged, since people tend to read with a bias, even if they don’t know they do. Good points by somebody you don’t like are disregarded, bad points by a friend are accepted. Single-blind protects one or the other group, depending: are the papers or the reviewers anonymised? If the authors are anonymous, then the reviewers don’t know who they grade, if the reviewers are anonymous, then the authors don’t know who evaluated them. The last is often done if the issue can be expected to be severely contested, and the repercussions become aggressive. That kind of single blind is very rarely used. Double blind is when the authors don’t know the reviewers, and vice versa. This is the most common type, and what most journals and conferences practice, including DiGRA. DiGRA has recently (2010) tightened the peer-review net, and on top of having a double blind process, there’s also a meta review, which means that there are reviewers whose only job is to read the reviews and look for problematic reviews. This means that DiGRA not only peer-reviews articles, but also the reviews.
Why use meta reviews? Because a double blind peer-review process means that every review is weighted equally. This means that if you happen to hate one particular type of research, you can hide behind this process and downvote all that kind of research without being questioned. This tends to happen to new, challenging and very critical research. So if you have a brilliant new idea, peer-reviewing may destroy that idea rather than give it a chance, because most of the reviewers on any list will be dominated by who has the most common ideas about what is important. This is particularly visible when you want to introduce a challenging idea into a research community, for instance the idea that ethnography is as valid for collecting knowledge about society as surveys – if you visit a conference normally run by hard-data sociologists. The ethnographer is not likely to have a paper accepted. The same happens to a hard-data sociologist who feels that running books through a statistical program to see how many times certain phrases show up is a good idea , and then write about the quality of the book from counting, rather than reading – and then try to submit the results to a literature theory conference. It is very likely to be stopped in the peer-review process. This means that a regular, double-blind peer-review process is very good at maintaining a status quo, but bad at inviting innovation. Using meta reviews is a way to try to counter this. By reading through the reviews looking for methodological or theoretical bias, it gives a second chance to those articles that have been voted down because of the bias of the readers. Meta review is not used to remove already accepted papers, unless the process uncovers hints at collaborations.
How can one think to criticise a peer-review process? First of all, peer-reviewing is a way to restrict and control what can be published. It maintains the quality, but at the same time it frequently stops fresh, original and unusual ideas. Next, peer-reviewing is extremely costly, and makes it difficult to organise conferences on original, unusual topics. This means that scholars who want to study innovative topics – such as games – are punished in the academic system just because there are very few relevant conferences to go to, and few places to publish articles. No matter how good they are as scholars, they are handicapped in the general contest, just because they don’t have the same options for scoring academic points as other scholars. If let’s say a literature scholar can submit to a 100 potentially relevant conferences a year, and a game scholar can submit to five, getting the four accepted papers each year you need to impress your hiring board becomes very, very hard. And since Universities currently are focusing more on academic ”points” than on academic innovation, it means a game scholar will need to work a lot harder for the same recognition than the literature scholar. This is of course true of all new fields trying to gain traction in Academia.
This means that if a conference wants to be open to a wide range of ideas, it needs to go easy on the peer-reviewing. Many conferences do this by accepting abstracts, rather than full papers. This is risky, because you then don’t know what the quality will be, but at the same time it makes it easier for scholars who research actual new things to be heard. And since academia also is about actually learning new things, it is very important to keep some of these very open and welcoming conferences running, they are vital hubs for mixing the new and the old. Sadly, Universities tend to refuse funding to scholars that wish to go to the less rigidly reviewed conferences, which is another obstacle to innovation.
DiGRA currently has two types of paper submissions: full papers and abstracts. Full papers are very rigidly peer-reviewed, with two-three reviewers and then meta-reviewers. Abstracts are reviewed along the same lines, but the final full papers written from the accepted abstracts are not reviewed unless they are submitted to the journal, at which point they are reviewed again. This is to allow a mixture of traditional and new.
But all of this comes at a cost. A conference like DiGRA receives 2-300 papers each year. This means that scholars need to do from 600-900 reviews. Each reviewer can be expected to review 10 papers at the most – nobody gets paid to do this kind of work, so it’s all done on spare time next to very full schedules. This means that DiGRA each year needs 60-90 reviewers, and 10- 20 meta reviewers at least. These reviewers need to be scholars who know what they are talking about, which means preferably assistant- associate- and full professors. In a new field where there have not been all that many hires, finding 60 reviewers is not all that easy, particularly since you can’t expect more than a fraction of the existing professors to participate at any given time. It would be easier of there were 500 professors to choose from, harder if there are 100. This means that the double-blind peer-reviewing process itself becomes a huge bottle-neck for new fields of research, while it at the same time is absolutely vital to ensure academic quality and integrity. A dilemma well worth discussing. | <urn:uuid:688b9e8c-4190-49b8-9ae2-c0d972dcebfd> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://torillsin.blogspot.com/2014/09/what-is-peer-reviewing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875143784.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20200218150621-20200218180621-00089.warc.gz | en | 0.962819 | 1,359 | 2.96875 | 3 | The extract discusses the peer-review process, its types, and its limitations, particularly in new fields of research. It highlights the challenges of maintaining academic quality while encouraging innovation. The text demonstrates a nuanced understanding of the complexities involved, showcasing critical thinking, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence. It also touches on cultural awareness, digital literacy, and professional development, albeit indirectly.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 513,149 | 1 |
By studying social behaviors in animals, such as bonding, the herd instinct, the forming of trusting alliances, expressions of consolation, and conflict resolution, Frans de Waal demonstrates that animals–and humans–are “preprogrammed to reach out.” He has found that chimpanzees care for mates that are wounded by leopards, elephants offer “reassuring rumbles” to youngsters in distress, and dolphins support sick companions near the water’s surface to prevent them from drowning. From day one humans have innate sensitivities to faces, bodies, and voices; we’ve been designed to feel for one another.
De Waal’s theory runs counter to the assumption that humans are inherently selfish, which can be seen in the fields of politics, law, and finance. But he cites the public’s outrage at the U.S. government’s lack of empathy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a significant shift in perspective – one that helped Barack Obama become elected and ushered in what may well become an Age of Empathy. Through a better understanding of empathy’s survival value in evolution, de Waal suggests, we can work together toward a more just society based on a more generous and accurate view of human nature.
Written in layman’s prose with a wealth of anecdotes, wry humor, and incisive intelligence, The Age of Empathy is essential reading for our embattled times. | <urn:uuid:3ddbe6b3-9bbb-437d-8d0e-25a5cb10cf20> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://humanjourney.us/product/the-age-of-empathy-natures-lessons-for-a-kinder-society/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949644.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20230331144941-20230331174941-00617.warc.gz | en | 0.942618 | 299 | 3.171875 | 3 | This extract scores high for its discussion of empathy, a crucial soft skill, and its realistic scenarios integrating emotional intelligence and critical thinking. It highlights the importance of empathy in human nature, challenging the assumption of inherent selfishness, and promotes a more just society. The text demonstrates cultural awareness and encourages readers to consider the value of empathy in various contexts.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 285,079 | 1 |
Debating Culture and the Courtroom—Past and Present
Take Action! - When Guilt or Innocence Depends on the Era
1. What do you think the outcome of Wild Bill Hickok's trial would be in the United States in 2002? Would a jury of "twenty-first century peers" convict, jail, and (perhaps) execute someone for committing the same act? Explain your answer. In your opinion, should the outcome of this trial have depended on its era? Why or why not?
2. Research some Famous Trials where jury nullification was a factor (e.g., the trials of John Peter Zenger and the police who beat Rodney King, as well as the death-penalty case Furman v. Georgia. Why do you think the jury decided to acquit in each case? Did they disagree with the law, the punishment, or something else on a cultural basis? Explain your answers. Select one case where you strongly disagree with the verdict. If you had been one of the jurors, how would you have gone about persuading the rest of the panel to vote your way?
3. Visit MSNBC.com and New York Times.com and other cable and newspaper Web sites to research the recent child-murder trial of Andrea Yates and the San Francisco dog-mauling trial of Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, both resulting in guilty verdicts. What sentences were given in each case? In Wild Bill Hickok's day, do you think the verdicts and sentences might have been different? Explain, basing your answers on your view of America's past and present cultural outlooks regarding mental illness and animal rights. For class, prepare a chart briefly outlining the arguments offered by both sides in either case. Ask the class to weight these arguments as "Very Strong," "Strong," and "Weak." Explore to what extent the students feel their opinions are based on their contemporary cultural outlooks.
Student Central | Students in Action | Debating Culture and the Courtroom—Past and Present
Cultures, Courts, and the U.S. Constitution
*When Guilt or Innocence Depends on the Era*
Changing Times, Changing Censorship | TV and the Courtroom | <urn:uuid:e5dc60f2-bf95-4b81-b024-7ce84faf13e6> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/initiatives_awards/students_in_action/action_guilt.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999664205/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060744-00050-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951135 | 459 | 3.65625 | 4 | This extract earns a high score due to its comprehensive coverage of soft skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, and cultural awareness. It presents complex scenarios, such as famous trials, to encourage nuanced discussion and analysis. The activities promote strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, and intercultural fluency, with a strong emphasis on practical application and digital literacy.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 876,995 | 1 |
Research shows that pupils who do engage in aggressive behaviour have limited knowledge and social skills in resolving conflicts in a constructive manner. The standard response of these pupils to conflict is either withdrawing or forcing a situation.
A well conducted peer mediation program teaches children and young people alternative strategies to aggression and withdrawal that instead promote constructive communication and a safe school environment (Stomfay-Stitz, 1994; Sim, Whiteside, Dittner, & Mellon, 2006; Smith- Sanders & Harter, 2007)
Extensive research (incl. review papers) on peer mediation programs show that they are indeed successful in improving school climate by teaching students to constructively deal with conflict. This in turn reduces student-to-student conflict as well as suspensions and discipline referrals, and further improves relationships between peers as well as between pupils and teachers – creating a healthy school climate.
Results from peer mediation programs show that when conflict arises and is dealt with by a peer mediator, there is around a 90% agreement rate and satisfaction of outcome by pupils.
Similarly, teachers and parents are also highly satisfied with the outcomes of mediation sessions (Johnson & Johnson, 1996; Cardells & Van Slyck, 1999; McHenry, 2000: Burrell et al. 2003, Harris, 2005). | <urn:uuid:5f969a50-07a8-4d31-8836-3c26d3025c4c> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://entrenched.uk/peer/peer-mediation-benefits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945030.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20230323065609-20230323095609-00145.warc.gz | en | 0.950229 | 259 | 3.8125 | 4 | The extract discusses the benefits of peer mediation programs in schools, highlighting their effectiveness in teaching constructive communication and conflict resolution skills. It provides research-based evidence of the programs' success in improving school climate, reducing conflicts, and promoting positive relationships. The extract earns points for discussing soft skills, featuring realistic scenarios, and incorporating emotional intelligence and critical thinking opportunities.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 356,677 | 1 |
Chest Tube Placement (Thoracostomy) and Pleurodesis
Thoracostomy inserts a thin plastic tube into the pleural space between the lungs and the chest wall. The tube may be attached to a suction device to allow excess fluid or air to be removed. Or, it may be used in a procedure called pleurodesis in which medication is delivered into the pleural space to decrease the likelihood of fluid accumulation. Thoracostomy may be performed to treat pneumothorax, also known as collapsed lung.
Your doctor will instruct you on how to prepare, including any changes to your medication schedule. Tell your doctor if there’s a possibility you are pregnant and discuss any recent illnesses, medical conditions, allergies and medications you’re taking, including herbal supplements and aspirin. You may be advised to stop taking aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or blood thinners several days prior to your procedure. Leave jewelry at home and wear loose, comfortable clothing. You may be asked to wear a gown.
- What is chest tube placement (thoracostomy) and pleurodesis?
- What are some common uses of the procedure?
- How should I prepare?
- What does the equipment look like?
- How does the procedure work?
- How is the procedure performed?
- What will I experience during and after the procedure?
- Who interprets the results and how do I get them?
- What are the benefits vs. risks?
- What are the limitations of thoracostomy?
What is chest tube placement (thoracostomy) and pleurodesis?
Thoracostomy is a minimally invasive procedure in which a thin plastic tube is inserted into the pleural space — the area between the chest wall and lungs — and may be attached to a suction device to remove excess fluid or air. A chest tube may also be used to deliver medications into the pleural space.
Two thin membranes line the pleural space — one wraps around the lungs and another lines the inner wall of the chest. The space between these two membranes is usually filled with a small amount of lubricating fluid that helps the lungs move within the chest cavity during breathing.
Certain conditions and diseases may cause excess air, blood or extra fluid to collect in the pleural space. This may compress or collapse the lung, making it difficult to breathe. A chest tube helps remove the excess fluid or air and allows the lung to expand, making breathing better.
Your doctor may decide that you require long-term fluid drainage. If this is the case, you will receive a tunneled pleural drainage catheter.
A tunneled pleural drainage catheter is a thin plastic chest tube that is placed into the pleural space by tunneling it (placing it) under the skin of your chest. This catheter is a treatment option for removing continual accumulations of fluid within the pleural space due to conditions such as infections, metastatic cancers, liver disease or advanced congestive heart failure. It is tunneled under your skin for long-term use (weeks to months) in removing pleural fluid.
The advantage of this catheter is that it avoids the need for repeated pleural tap procedures for the removal of the re-accumulating pleural fluid. This catheter also provides a simple way for draining the pleural fluid at home on a regular, often daily, basis.
In some instances, your doctor may determine that in order to decrease the likelihood of fluid accumulation, a special procedure called pleurodesis is necessary.
Pleurodesis is a procedure in which a medication is injected into the pleural space in order to minimize the amount of fluid that can collect there.
What are some common uses of the procedure?
Physicians perform a thoracostomy to treat conditions including:
- pneumothorax, a collection of air in the pleural space that causes the lung to collapse. Spontaneous pneumothorax occurs in the absence of disease or injury. Complicated pneumothorax may occur during heart or lung surgery or as a result of a traumatic injury (such as a gunshot or stab wound) to the chest. The condition may develop as a result of lung diseases, such as:
- empyema, an infection within the pleural space
- hemothorax, excess blood in the pleural space caused by a chest injury, tumor or other bleeding problems
- pleural effusion, excess fluid in the pleural space, caused by:
- heart failure
- infection: pneumonia, tuberculosis or viral infection such as HIV
- lung tumor
- lymphatic fluid (chylothorax)
Pleurodesis is performed to prevent the collection of pleural fluid following thoracentesis.
How should I prepare?
The preparation for placement of a chest tube and tunneled pleural drainage catheter is similar.
You should report to your doctor all medications that you are taking, including herbal supplements, and if you have any allergies, especially to local anesthetic medications, general anesthesia or to contrast materials containing iodine (sometimes referred to as "dye" or "x-ray dye"). Your physician may advise you to stop taking aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or blood thinners for a specified period of time before your procedure.
Also inform your doctor about recent illnesses or other medical conditions.
You will receive specific instructions on how to prepare, including any changes that need to be made to your regular medication schedule.
You will be given a gown to wear during the procedure.
Women should always inform their physician and x-ray technologist if there is any possibility that they are pregnant. Many imaging tests are not performed during pregnancy so as not to expose the fetus to radiation. If an x-ray is necessary, precautions will be taken to minimize radiation exposure to the baby. See the Safety page for more information about pregnancy and x-rays.
What does the equipment look like?
The chest tube is similar to a catheter. The size of the tube placed varies depending on the reason for the procedure.
The tunneled pleural drainage catheter is similar to a kind of chest tube. To allow regular drainage of pleural fluid at home, a disposable bottle collection system is provided with the catheter.
A catheter is a long, thin plastic tube that is considerably smaller than a "pencil lead", or approximately 1/8 inch in diameter.
The CT scanner is typically a large, box-like machine with a hole, or short tunnel, in the center. You will lie on a narrow examination table that slides into and out of this tunnel. Rotating around you, the x-ray tube and electronic x-ray detectors are located opposite each other in a ring, called a gantry. The computer workstation that processes the imaging information is located in a separate control room, where the technologist operates the scanner and monitors your examination in direct visual contact and usually with the ability to hear and talk to you with the use of a speaker and microphone.
Ultrasound scanners consist of a console containing a computer and electronics, a video display screen and a transducer that is used to do the scanning. The transducer is a small hand-held device that resembles a microphone, attached to the scanner by a cord. Some exams may use different transducers (with different capabilities) during a single exam. The transducer sends out high-frequency sound waves (that the human ear cannot hear) into the body and then listens for the returning echoes from the tissues in the body. The principles are similar to sonar used by boats and submarines.
The ultrasound image is immediately visible on a video display screen that looks like a computer or television monitor. The image is created based on the amplitude (loudness), frequency (pitch) and time it takes for the ultrasound signal to return from the area within the patient that is being examined to the transducer (the device placed on the patient's skin to send and receive the returning sound waves), as well as the type of body structure and composition of body tissue through which the sound travels. A small amount of gel is put on the skin to allow the sound waves to travel from the transducer to the examined area within the body and then back again. Ultrasound is an excellent modality for some areas of the body while other areas, especially air-filled lungs, are poorly suited for ultrasound.
A portable x-ray machine is a compact apparatus that can be taken to the patient in a hospital bed or the emergency room. The x-ray tube is connected to a flexible arm that is extended over the patient while an x-ray film holder or image recording plate is placed beneath the patient.
Other equipment that may be used during the procedure includes an intravenous line (IV), ultrasound machine and devices that monitor your heart beat and blood pressure.
How does the procedure work?
Different parts of the body absorb the x-rays in varying degrees. Dense bone absorbs much of the radiation while soft tissue, such as muscle, fat and organs, allow more of the x-rays to pass through them. As a result, bones appear white on the x-ray, soft tissue shows up in shades of gray and air appears black.
Ultrasound imaging is based on the same principles involved in the sonar used by bats, ships and fishermen. When a sound wave strikes an object, it bounces back, or echoes. By measuring these echo waves, it is possible to determine how far away the object is as well as the object's size, shape and consistency (whether the object is solid or filled with fluid).
In medicine, ultrasound is used to detect changes in appearance, size or contour of organs, tissues, and vessels or to detect abnormal masses, such as tumors.
In an ultrasound examination, a transducer both sends the sound waves into the body and receives the echoing waves. When the transducer is pressed against the skin, it directs small pulses of inaudible, high-frequency sound waves into the body. As the sound waves bounce off internal organs, fluids and tissues, the sensitive receiver in the transducer records tiny changes in the sound's pitch and direction. These signature waves are instantly measured and displayed by a computer, which in turn creates a real-time picture on the monitor. One or more frames of the moving pictures are typically captured as still images. Short video loops of the images may also be saved.
In many ways CT scanning works very much like other x-ray examinations. Different body parts absorb the x-rays in varying degrees. It is this crucial difference in absorption that allows the body parts to be distinguished from one another on an x-ray film or CT electronic image.
In a conventional x-ray exam, a small amount of radiation is aimed at and passes through the part of the body being examined, recording an image on a special electronic image recording plate. Bones appear white on the x-ray; soft tissue, such as organs like the heart or liver, shows up in shades of gray, and air appears black.
With CT scanning, numerous x-ray beams and a set of electronic x-ray detectors rotate around you, measuring the amount of radiation being absorbed throughout your body. Sometimes, the examination table will move during the scan, so that the x-ray beam follows a spiral path. A special computer program processes this large volume of data to create two-dimensional cross-sectional images of your body, which are then displayed on a monitor. CT imaging is sometimes compared to looking into a loaf of bread by cutting the loaf into thin slices. When the image slices are reassembled by computer software, the result is a very detailed multidimensional view of the body's interior.
Refinements in detector technology allow nearly all CT scanners to obtain multiple slices in a single rotation. These scanners, called multislice CT or multidetector CT, allow thinner slices to be obtained in a shorter period of time, resulting in more detail and additional view capabilities.
Modern CT scanners are so fast that they can scan through large sections of the body in just a few seconds, and even faster in small children. Such speed is beneficial for all patients but especially children, the elderly and critically ill, all of whom may have difficulty in remaining still, even for the brief time necessary to obtain images.
X-rays are a form of radiation like light or radio waves. X-rays pass through most objects, including the body. Once it is carefully aimed at the part of the body being examined, an x-ray machine produces a small burst of radiation that passes through the body, recording an image on photographic film or a special detector.
How is the procedure performed?
You may be given medications to help prevent nausea and pain, and antibiotics to help prevent infection.
You will be positioned on the examining table.
You may be connected to monitors that track your heart rate, blood pressure and pulse during the procedure.
A nurse or technologist will insert an intravenous (IV) line into a vein in your hand or arm so that sedative medication can be given intravenously. Moderate sedation may be used. As an alternative, you may receive general anesthesia.
Your physician will numb the area with a local anesthetic.
The area of your body where the catheter is to be inserted will be sterilized and covered with a surgical drape.
A very small skin incision is made at the site.
Using image-guidance, a catheter (a long, thin, hollow plastic tube) is inserted through the skin to the treatment site.
An x-ray will be taken to check the placement of the tube. The chest tube is kept in place with a suture or adhesive tape. A drainage system may be attached. The tube remains in place until x-rays show that the excess fluid or air has been drained from the chest and the lung is fully expanded. This procedure is usually completed within 30 minutes.
As fluid or air is removed, you will be asked to take deep breaths to help expand your lungs. Your lung capacity may also be tested using a spirometer, a device that measures how much and how fast you breathe air in and out.
You may stay in the hospital until the chest tube is removed or you may return home with a portable drainage system and the chest tube in place.
When the chest tube is no longer needed, your physician will loosen the suture or tape, you will take a deep breath and the tube will be removed. The area may be sutured and a special bandage applied. Another x-ray will be taken to make sure that excess fluid or air have not reaccumulated in the pleural space.
A pleurodesis procedure is usually performed through a chest tube placed at the time of the thoracentesis.
A medication such as doxycycline is injected into the pleural space, which triggers an inflammatory reaction on the pleural membrane that lines the outside of the lung and the inside of the chest wall. This causes the membranes to stick together, eliminating or reducing the space where excess fluid can collect.
What will I experience during and after the procedure?
You will feel a slight pin prick when the needle is inserted into your vein for the intravenous line (IV) and when the local anesthetic is injected. Most of the sensation is at the skin incision site which is numbed using local anesthetic. You may feel pressure when the catheter is inserted into the vein or artery.
If the procedure is done with sedation, the intravenous (IV) sedative will make you feel relaxed, sleepy and comfortable for the procedure. You may or may not remain awake, depending on how deeply you are sedated.
You may feel slight pressure when the catheter is inserted, but no serious discomfort.
If you return home with the chest tube in place, you will be given instructions on how to care for the tube and drainage system.
- You may be given antibiotics and pain medication.
- You should change positions often while lying down, and exercise if possible.
- Keep the skin around where the chest tube is inserted clean and dry.
- Take regular deep breaths followed by a cough.
- Maintain the drainage system as instructed, keeping it below chest level.
If you return home with a tunneled pleural drainage catheter, you or your care nurse will be instructed on how to care for the tube and the drainage system.
- You must take sterile precautions during regular use of the catheter to reduce the chances of infection.
- Do not reuse the drainage bags.
- Do not drain more from the chest at one time than your doctor recommends. Your doctor will recommend draining a specific amount depending on your size.
- You should change the dressing over the catheter at least once a week or each time the clear dressing becomes moist.
You should call your physician if you observe the tubing to be bent or twisted or if the connection to the drainage system becomes loose. Also call your doctor if you have:
- a fever
- pain, swelling or redness in the area where the tube is inserted
- chest pain or trouble breathing
Some patients may experience chest pain during and after the introduction of the medication. You will be given pain medicine for this.
After the pleurodesis, the chest tube is left in place until it is no longer needed, and removed in the same way.
Who interprets the results and how do I get them?
The interventional radiologist or physician treating you will determine the results of the procedure and will send a report to your referring physician, who will share the results with you.
Your interventional radiologist may recommend a follow-up visit after your procedure or treatment is complete.
The visit may include a physical check-up, imaging procedure(s) and blood or other lab tests. During your follow-up visit, you may discuss with your doctor any changes or side effects you have experienced since your procedure or treatment.
What are the benefits vs. risks?
- No surgical incision is needed—only a small nick in the skin that does not have to be stitched.
- No radiation remains in a patient's body after an x-ray examination.
- X-rays usually have no side effects in the typical diagnostic range for this exam.
- X-ray equipment is relatively inexpensive and widely available in emergency rooms, physician offices, ambulatory care centers, nursing homes and other locations, making it convenient for both patients and physicians.
- Because x-ray imaging is fast and easy, it is particularly useful in emergency diagnosis and treatment.
- Any procedure where the skin is penetrated carries a risk of infection. The chance of infection requiring antibiotic treatment appears to be less than one in 1,000.
- There is always a slight chance of cancer from excessive exposure to radiation. However, the benefit of an accurate diagnosis far outweighs the risk.
- Women should always inform their physician or x-ray technologist if there is any possibility that they are pregnant. See the Safety page for more information about pregnancy and x-rays.
- Complications that may result from a thoracostomy include:
- accidental injury to the chest wall, arteries, veins or lung parenchyma
- blood clots
- dislodging of the tube
A Word About Minimizing Radiation Exposure
Special care is taken during x-ray examinations to use the lowest radiation dose possible while producing the best images for evaluation. National and international radiology protection organizations continually review and update the technique standards used by radiology professionals.
Modern x-ray systems have very controlled x-ray beams and dose control methods to minimize stray (scatter) radiation. This ensures that those parts of a patient's body not being imaged receive minimal radiation exposure.
What are the limitations of thoracostomy?
To help facilitate complete drainage, some patients may be given special medications, called fibrinolytics and DNases, which are injected through the chest tube. These medications make the fluid in the pleural space less viscous (thick) and facilitate improved drainage through the chest tube. However, not all patients are eligible for these medications.
If thoracostomy fails to drain fluid effectively, other procedures such as video-assisted thoracoscopic drainage and/or decortication may be needed.
Additional Information and Resources
Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) - Patient Center
This page was reviewed on April 11, 2016 | <urn:uuid:39d242e0-1f45-4916-b596-eaf7097bdc52> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=thoracostomy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320823.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626152050-20170626172050-00521.warc.gz | en | 0.932851 | 4,268 | 3.40625 | 3 | The extract provides detailed information on a medical procedure, specifically chest tube placement and pleurodesis, but lacks any substantial discussion or application of soft skills. The content is highly technical and focused on the procedure, its preparation, and aftercare, without any mention of communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving skills. Therefore, the extract only meets the first criterion, showing superficial coverage of basic concepts without meaningful depth or practical application related to soft skills development.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 81,270 | 0 |
The Andes Mountains of South America are the longest mountain range in the world. In the high elevation areas these mountains are a complex series of alpine ecosystems. The two Andean regions classified as alpine are the Paramos and Puna. The Paramos are characteristic of alpine regions given their steep topography, harsh climate, poorly developed soils and depauperate flora. However, the Puna holds some controversy as to its classification.
South America - Tundra Alpine | <urn:uuid:822cc1d7-9e0d-416a-ad07-e3eea51489a3> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://wrangle.org/ecoregion/south-america/tundra-alpine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948756.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20230328011555-20230328041555-00518.warc.gz | en | 0.939203 | 97 | 3.484375 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing solely on geographical information. There is no coverage of communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving concepts. The content is limited to theoretical knowledge of alpine ecosystems without practical application or cultural awareness.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 468,277 | 0 |
When a parent, family member, or loved one develops dementia, it’s often necessary to change the way you communicate with them. Not only will this facilitate understanding, but it can also reduce the stress and anxiety that is so common in people living with dementia.
Tips for Talking to People Living with Dementia
Dementia is a form of cognitive decline that is out of a person’s control. As such, talking to people living with dementia takes the same type of consideration that you would offer to somebody with any other speech difficulty.
The most important tip for speaking with people living with dementia is to remember that their cognitive challenges are just as frustrating for them (or much more so) as they are for you.
Following a few simple strategies can facilitate conversation:
Speak in short, clear sentences at a reasonable volume, and enunciate your words to ensure that they aren’t misheard.
When asking a question, present uncomplicated options. You may need to word your question in different ways.
Be mindful of your tone of voice. Try to be patient and gentle, as letting frustration or anger seep into your tone can make your conversation partner less willing to engage.
Give room for them to respond. Sometimes, people living with dementia need extra time to articulate their thoughts. Be comfortable with silence, and don’t pressure them to respond right away.
Following these basic guidelines can help to minimize frustration and let people living with dementia have a voice. You can also consider helping your loved one transition to a community designed with their needs in mind. Moving to memory care in St. Petersburg, Florida, is often the best way to improve the quality of life for people living with dementia.
Habits to Avoid
Just as there are tips for facilitating conversation, there are also practices that should be avoided. A few examples include:
- Avoid constantly correcting them — mixing up words or facts is out of their control
- Avoid patronizing them by using baby-talk — treat them as an equal
- Don’t test their memory — they likely recognize that they should remember details and can get frustrated when they don’t
By avoiding these lines of conversation, you can minimize both their frustration and your own.
Assisted Living in Saint Petersburg, Florida
Moving to assisted living in Saint Petersburg, Florida, can be a great way to ensure your loved one gets the support they need. Communities are staffed by compassionate professionals who have the knowledge and tools to help people living with dementia communicate their needs, accomplish their daily routines, and continue to live fulfilling lives. | <urn:uuid:2bf30a15-b116-4f66-b54b-3fbed3171ded> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.westminsterpalmsfl.org/2022/09/29/how-to-talk-to-people-living-with-dementia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296950528.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20230402105054-20230402135054-00582.warc.gz | en | 0.96041 | 535 | 2.734375 | 3 | This extract provides practical tips and guidelines for communicating with people living with dementia, promoting empathy and understanding. It covers basic communication concepts, emotional intelligence, and cultural awareness, but lacks complex problem-solving opportunities and nuanced interaction.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 376,659 | 0 |
A Community Economy runs on spontaneous reciprocity, affinity relationships, mutual support and high levels of trust, without accounting for the flow of exchanges and without expecting compensation in return for what has been shared.
Barter is a system of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as a currency. It is distinguishable from community economies in many ways; one of them is that the reciprocal exchange is immediate and not delayed in time.
Transition through social currencies (local):
Free local and social currencies are tools that go beyond direct exchanges, facilitating multi-reciprocal exchanges and establishing values for goods, services and knowledge that are exchanged. Social currencies are key aspects to relocate the economy, promoting human and economic relations of proximity at the local and bioregional level. They generate a social market, open only to activities that incorporate ethical, ecological and social criterias that allow everyone to interact fairly and without intermediaries.
These currencies are an opportunity to undermine the hegemony of capitalism and could gradually replace the Euro while ensuring abundance, since each individual is part of the creation of resources for meeting collective needs by putting skills and knowledge to the service of the community. An exchange network can be mobilized by a small critical mass (30-40 people would be sufficient) associated locally to boost economic relations based on trust and proximity, on a bioregional action range. As it is a transition tool, social currencies inevitably coexist with the capitalist economy.
Usable tools for social currenciesr are the LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) and the IntegralCES (Community Exchange System) http://www.integralces.net
Transactions through these Systems are tax free? [link:fiscal disobedience]
Transition through Fiat Currencies
Building up a counter-hegemonic economy is an unavoidable duty if we want to expel the capitalist economy off our lives. But it is clear that for many transition projects we need Euro injections to get them started. Making use of the capitalists economic resources of legal character (wages, unemployment, inheritances, scholarships) may not be sufficient, and here comes into the picture the role of economic disobedience actions (fiscal disobedience, non-payment of debts and fines, expropriations,etc …) to lead the way to the creation of networks of self-sufficiency and of self-managed projects that do not require interaction with the capitalist economy to ensure their survival.
[link: fiscal disobedience]
on though Digital Currencies (local and global):
(link to faircoin) | <urn:uuid:0b5d115b-abe4-42b3-b7ce-63d2e7cfb3bc> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://cooperativas.gr/?page_id=40 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145839.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20200223185153-20200223215153-00139.warc.gz | en | 0.928687 | 529 | 2.703125 | 3 | The extract discusses alternative economic systems, focusing on community economies, barter, and social currencies. It touches on teamwork and trust but lacks depth in soft skills development, such as leadership, communication, and problem-solving. The content is more theoretical and lacks practical application and nuanced interaction.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 671,904 | 0 |
There Will Be Blood
The pressure to reach for a gun to help save one animal from another is stronger than ever. And it has triggered a conservation problem from hell.
By Warren Cornwall
We usually think conservation means saving animals. But its history is tinged with blood. John Audubon, a patron saint of the American conservation movement, killed hundreds of birds, partly for sport and partly for specimens to pose for his paintings. Aldo Leopold, a father of ecological science, endorsed killing wolves to increase deer populations.
Today, as climate change pushes animals into each other’s overlapping territories and humans drive ever more species to the brink of extinction, the pressure to reach for a gun to help save one animal from another is stronger than ever. In recent years, the federal government has shot Arctic foxes to guard the nests of rare Steller’s eider ducks. In Texas and Oklahoma, hunters blast cowbirds that take over the nests of endangered black-capped vireos. Sea lions have been put to death for the sake of salmon on the Northwest’s Columbia River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to kill 16,000 double-crested cormorants in 2015 to help those same salmon. But the most controversial case may prove to be the northern spotted owl.
The spotted owl, an icon of the environmental movement, is a shy bird that favors ancient forests. Its declining numbers led to its listing under the Endangered Species Act, bringing a halt to most old-growth logging in Northwest federal forests in the early 1990s. Today, the migration of the barred owl from its original East Coast home poses a potentially fatal threat. Bigger and more aggressive than its smaller cousin, the barred owl has gradually pushed south in a seemingly inexorable wave since arriving in western Canada in the mid-twentieth century. Wherever it turns up in large numbers, spotted owls start to disappear. Biologists suspect spotted owls abandon their nests when they are driven off by the barred owl. In at least one case, a barred owl appeared to have killed and eaten a spotted owl.
Alarmed by the rapid decline of the remaining spotted owls, desperate biologists, federal bureaucrats, and environmentalists have hit upon a last-ditch, bloody scheme: shoot enough barred owls to create breathing room for spotted owls. Last winter, after years of studying the pros and cons of various approaches, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service embarked on a six-year experiment in four small parts of the Northwest (the initial four-year plan stretched to six, due to budget problems). Trained marksmen killed 71 barred owls in the first season, a number that could grow to as many as 3,600 owls over the span of the entire experiment. The tests are designed to show what it would take to really make a difference for the spotted owls. If the experiment is deemed a success, it could pave the way for death warrants for thousands of owls every year for decades, if not forever. It would be the largest known mass killing of raptors.
For bird lovers or for anyone with a soft spot for wild animals, this is a problem from hell. Nobody is happy with the options. Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland, summed it up neatly: “On the one hand, killing thousands of owls is completely unacceptable. On the other hand, the extinction of the spotted owl is completely unacceptable.”
The shootings have prompted an unusual amount of soul-searching. For the first time ever, the Fish and Wildlife Service—an agency with plenty of blood on its hands—convened people to grapple with the ethics of killing one animal for the sake of another. How should humans get involved in a fight between species? Step into the boots of people on the front lines of the owl wars. Would you open fire?
Finger on the Trigger
The first time Lowell Diller shot a barred owl, he almost couldn’t pull the trigger. He was standing in a grove of Douglas firs and redwoods outside the tiny northern California mill town of Korbel on a damp February afternoon in 2009.
He had lured the bird with a speaker perched on a stump, programmed to send out the barred owl’s haunting eight-note call: who-who, who-whooo . . . who-who, who-whooo. Now the female was perched just 30 meters away, an easy shot with his 20-gauge shotgun. Even in the fading light, he could see the distinctive white and brown stripes down its breast.
Diller had partly hoped no owl would answer his call. He raised the shotgun to his shoulder and tried to take aim. But he was shaking so badly, he feared he would miss. He lowered the gun, taking deep breaths and whispering to himself to calm down, to relax. He braced himself against a tree to steady the gun, told himself it was for the sake of science, and fired.
“It just fundamentally seemed so wrong to be shooting one of these birds,” said Diller, who recently retired from his job as a wildlife biologist with the Seattle-based Green Diamond Resource company. “You just don’t shoot raptors.”
Diller’s queasiness embodies the profound unease people are feeling in the Northwest. In the end, Diller weighed the options and chose what he felt was the lesser of two evils. Doing nothing, he feared, meant accepting the demise of the spotted owl. And that, for him, meant that the killing experiment was worthwhile. If someone needed to do the dirty work, Diller felt he shouldn’t ask someone else to take that job. Since that first day, he has shot 96 barred owls. It hasn’t gotten much easier.
This past spring, he and a handful of marksmen finished the first season of the experiment. They called it quits around the time eggs hatched, because they didn’t want to orphan chicks. The Fish and Wildlife Service draws the line at leaving young birds to slowly starve. This underscores the odd ways ethics can pop up in wildlife management. The shooters will be back in the fall, trying to kill those same owls.
The Fate of a Species Trumps that of the Individual
How many barred owls would you kill to save a spotted owl? One? A hundred? A thousand? The calculus is straightforward for Dave Werntz: as many as it takes. Werntz is the science and conservation director for the environmental group Conservation Northwest, based in Bellingham, Washington. He sees the spotted owl as a rare, native species threatened by a new arrival that will likely survive quite well even if thousands are killed every year. So he supports an even more ambitious killing program than the one that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering. He likens owl removal to pulling a weed. “I don’t see the barred owl as much different [from] addressing Himalayan blackberry or other domineering species that are impacting our landscape,” he said.
His life has been intertwined with northern spotted owls for more than a quarter-century. In the late 1980s, he wandered the forests of southwest Washington, hooting like an owl. He was working for the U.S. Forest Service, counting spotted owls and tracking where they nested. It was the peak of the Northwest’s legendary timber wars, a time when protesters chained themselves to logging equipment to save vestiges of old-growth forest, loggers burned spotted owls in effigy, and federal courts took control of much of the region’s public timberlands—in part to protect the owl.
Repelled by clearcuts, and fascinated with the owls and old-growth forests, Werntz went back to school. He studied under University of Washington ecologist Jerry Franklin, a pioneer of a new understanding of the richness of old-growth forests. Werntz has been on the front lines of the fight over the owls ever since. In the 1990s, Werntz worked with environmental groups to push for stronger owl protections. Later he toiled to stop the timber industry from rolling back logging restrictions.
The politically charged history of owls and old growth makes the case of the barred owl even more fraught with controversy. Since humans destroyed spotted owl habitat and brought the species to this dire moment, Werntz believes people have an obligation to save the last remaining ones.
Nevertheless, Werntz frames the killing of barred owls as primarily a scientific matter, not a political or ethical one. This is a view commonly espoused by conservation scientists trained to think in terms of the fate of entire species rather than individual animals. While he doesn’t relish killing barred owls, Werntz sees it as necessary to protect a native species integral to the forests he loves. Biodiversity trumps squeamishness about bloodletting.
The Individual Matters
If you want to make a conservation biologist squirm, try this question: “How do you think the animal feels?” Scientists usually think in terms of populations and species. Individuals form the raw materials for the grand Darwinian drama of survival and evolution. Feelings are, by and large, beside the point.
But for some, the barred owl is a majestic creature endowed with animal intelligence—not a pest. Fish and Wildlife Service officials learned that at public meetings about the owl removal plan. They came to talk science. Many in the crowd spoke of how they felt about the owls as individuals.
Now a growing number of researchers are trying to bridge those two perspectives. They argue that the conventional approach to conservation risks ignoring the lives and experiences of wildlife—making for poor science and shaky ethics. Their new field, “compassionate conservation,” draws on a body of research documenting the cognitive and emotional lives of animals. Injured chickens self-medicate. Crustaceans learn to avoid pain, and they respond to stress in a way similar to that of vertebrates. And rats and dogs—even bees—are capable of pessimism. The more we learn about how animals think and feel, the more we empathize with them and the less we can ignore the suffering we inflict.
“The guiding principle of compassionate conservation is ‘First, do no harm,’ which means the life of each and every individual animal is valued,” writes Marc Bekoff in his “Animal Emotions” column at Psychology Today. Bekoff, a University of Colorado professor emeritus and animal behavior researcher, is a leading voice in the compassionate conservation field. “Trading off individuals of one species for the good of individuals of another species isn’t acceptable,” he says. That means no killing of barred owls.
Yet for many people, the owl dilemma falls into a gray area in which there is tension between the fate of the individual and the survival of a species.
Bill Lynn started out suspicious of the idea of shooting owls. An ethicist at Loyola Marymount University and Clark University in Massachusetts, he was hired by the Fish and Wildlife Service to run stakeholder meetings about the ethics of the lethal experiment. At first, he suspected the government’s killing program was a knee-jerk response that showed little regard for the animals. But the spotted owl’s dire situation changed his mind. He concluded that the experiments, if done as humanely as possible, would be a “sad good”—something unfortunate yet worth doing to help save a species. But he won’t endorse a region-wide war on barred owls until he sees how high the death toll would be.
What’s the Exit Strategy?
Even if we manage to negotiate the moral thicket of killing one owl to save another—and emerge at the other end with gun at the ready—we run headlong into a practical question: What’s the exit strategy? Can we kill 10,000 barred owls every year forever?
That’s the figure some experts in the field use when they talk about what it will take to truly help spotted owls recover in the Northwest. On the optimistic side, some (such as Diller and Werntz) believe that as Pacific Northwest forests continue to recover from logging and more owl habitat opens up, the killing could slow down or stop after a few decades. Others worry that new habitat will just fill up with even more barred owls, creating a never-ending killing operation.
“I think in the long run we simply can’t control barred owl populations on a large scale,” said Eric Forsman, a U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist and pre-eminent spotted owl researcher. “It would be incredibly expensive and essentially you’d have to do it forever.”
To date, studies on the effectiveness of lethal barred owl removal have been limited in scope and scale. In small tests on private forestland in northern California, spotted owls returned to nearly all their former nest sites after people shot barred owls that had taken over, according to Diller, who took part in the experiment. Where barred owls were left alone, he said, spotted owl numbers continued to fall. Those results have yet to be published.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for its part, hasn’t offered a long-term plan of attack. They’re awaiting the results of their six-year experiment. That experiment is expected to cost $4 million—more than $1,000 per dead bird. And it will cover only two percent of spotted owl habitat in Washington, Oregon, and northern California. The other 98 percent is the worrisome part.
The logistics alone are daunting. First, there’s the problem of finding enough qualified shooters. It’s tricky to tell the difference between a barred owl and a spotted owl. For the experiment, the government is relying on trained gunmen. But declaring open season on barred owls could be a recipe for unacceptable collateral damage.
Then there’s the politics. Even if it is technically feasible, will the public get behind an open-ended mass owl killing with no clear exit strategy? Kent Livezey, a retired Fish and Wildlife biologist, has his doubts. “Even if you got the public to agree the first year, you just need some photographer to go out with them and show a bunch of dead owls,” he said.
Livezey worked for years to save spotted owls, helping to craft the plan for their recovery. But he’s personally repelled by the shooting plan, and he bowed out of the owl work when it came time to devise the experiment. For him, there were just too many dead raptors, and the plan set a bad precedent for other clashes between wildlife. He would rather see people pick a fight that can be won. He imagines using guns to halt the advance of barred owls south into the territory of the California spotted owl, a species that’s not rare yet. But it also means leaving the northern spotted owl without armed bodyguards. “Personally, I would just let nature run its course,” he said.
Warren Cornwall is an environmental and science journalist living in Bellingham, Washington. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times, Slate, the Boston Globe Magazine, Outside online, and National Geographic News. As an environmental reporter at the Seattle Times, he tracked spotted owls in the Cascade Mountains and barred owls in the Seattle suburbs.
What to Read Next
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Picturing a Way Forward
An interview with Kim Stanley Robinson: Climate change, science fiction, and our collective failure of imagination
A memo from the year 2050
Here's how we avoided the worst of zoonotic diseases | <urn:uuid:89e83eb0-7bbc-40aa-908f-fa402bf5b8e4> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2021/07/there-will-be-blood/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224644855.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20230529105815-20230529135815-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.95915 | 3,366 | 3.078125 | 3 | The extract scores high for its in-depth exploration of a complex conservation issue, prompting discussions on ethics, morality, and the balance between individual animal welfare and species preservation. It presents nuanced scenarios, encouraging critical thinking and empathy, and highlights the challenges of decision-making in conservation biology. The article's thoughtful examination of conflicting perspectives and its emphasis on the importance of considering animal emotions and welfare demonstrate a high level of sophistication in addressing soft skills such as critical thinking, empathy, and problem-solving.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 700,822 | 1 |
Many young Americans have misconceptions about vaccinations — here’s why
Since the end of December, 114 people from seven states have been reported to have measles, part of an ongoing outbreak that originated at California’s Disneyland theme park. The outbreak came at the tail of a record-setting 2014, when the Centers for Disease Control and Submission (CDC) recorded 644 cases of measles across 27 states, the highest since the disease was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000.
Measles is incredibly contagious: 90 percent of non-immunized people who come close to an infected person will contract the disease. The CDC recommends MMR (mumps, measles and rubella) vaccination for all children by 12-15 months (barring medical complications). Yet thanks to science-denying, blogging parents and fear-mongering celebrities, vaccination rates dipped in 28 states between 2006 and 2013. Today, there are 17 states where less than 90 percent of children have received the vaccine, and in certain pockets of the country — like the California Bay Area’s wealthy Marin County — immunization rates are even lower.
Many parents who refuse to vaccinate their children incorrectly believe vaccines cause autism and other medical complications, and hold the short-sighted view that diseases like measles and polio are no longer a threat. (Of course, but they’re only a non-threat if everybody else keeps rates low by vaccinating their own children.)
This anti-vaccination trend may continue in coming years. In 2009, adults of various ages reported similar levels of support for mandatory vaccination. But earlier this month, Pew Research Center found that 18-29 year olds — many of whom are presumably approaching parenthood — are now more likely than their older counterparts to think vaccination decisions should belong to the parent.
This “not my child” mindset of some parents couldn’t be further from the national feeling in the mid-20th century. In the late 40s and early 50s, there were, on average, 35,000 cases of polio each year. Although most polio sufferers recover quickly, one to five percent experience short-term aseptic meningitis and a small percentage experience lifelong paralysis — which can eventually cause death.
According to the CDC, in response to the polio epidemic:
The nation came together like never before in an effort to create a vaccine to protect children from polio. Millions of Americans raised funds in their communities for research. Much of the funding came through the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (presently the March of Dimes Foundation), founded in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself paralyzed by polio in the prime of his life.
The result was Dr. Jonas Salk’s lifesaving polio vaccine. When it was ready for mass-testing in 1954, 1.8 million children participated and thousands of volunteers assisted. As the CDC described the national attitude, “Everyone had the same goal: victory over polio.”
In 1990, Dr. Salk told Bill Moyers that his interest in vaccines came from a desire “to see what I could do to heal, to counter the negative forces.” Growing up in a world filled with sick children, injured World War I soldiers, anti-Semitism and Depression-era poverty, he explained: “When I had an opportunity to try and create out a place that would bring out the best in people, I took advantage of that. Which is why we’re here… I think that we have an instinct, an impulse, to improve our world. And I think that’s quite universal.”
Mandatory vaccination prevents outbreaks like the one at Disneyland, keeping susceptible people — like babies too young for the vaccine and those with medical complications — safe from exposure. So how is today’s cultural mindset, where 41 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds believe vaccination should be a choice, so far from the national togetherness of Dr. Salk’s era?
There is no shortage of speculation. Forbes suggests that “millennials lack trust in authority figures and institutions,” opting to bypass doctors and the CDC and track down their own information. The Daily Beast attributes the anti-vaccination epidemic to a rise in “pervasive cultural narcissism” — which they say leads some parents to show less empathy, think they should be able to do whatever they want, and believe nothing bad could happen to their family.
The CDC suggests that because young people have no memory of widespread polio or measles, some lack an understanding of their danger. Dr. Anne Schuchat, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a press briefing last month:
It is frustrating that some people have opted out of vaccination. But we do have a number — really a generation that has not seen these diseases. So whether it’s clinicians who have never taken care of measles before or parents who wonder whether this disease still exists, I think it’s important for us to educate them and remind them that we have safe and effective vaccines.
Parents who decide not to vaccinate aren’t just misinformed — they’re putting others at risk. Those infected with measles experience one-to-two weeks of fever and rash, and the virus can cause ear infections and pneumonia. The CDC estimates that before the development of a measles vaccine in 1963, 400-500 people died each year, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 4,000 suffered swelling of the brain.
As the CDC says of polio, “It’s important to remember that in the 1950s, protecting the public from polio was, in the truest sense, a national project. Every effort was made to see that the vaccine would be widely available to all children and polio would be wiped out.”
Measles outbreaks like the one at Disneyland will continue as long as some parents hold onto their individual focus and misguided need to defy science, disregarding what Dr. Salk saw in the world around him — a universal “impulse to improve our world.”
February 12, 2015 by Katie Rose Quandt
This post first appeared on BillMoyers.com. | <urn:uuid:2f254392-adca-4281-ae0a-d737904a99a5> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.rawstory.com/2015/02/many-young-americans-have-misconceptions-about-vaccinations-heres-why/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128321025.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170627064714-20170627084714-00014.warc.gz | en | 0.957449 | 1,285 | 3.015625 | 3 | The extract lacks direct discussion of soft skills, focusing instead on the importance of vaccination and the consequences of misinformation. However, it touches on teamwork and collective action through historical examples, such as the national effort to create a polio vaccine. The article promotes critical thinking by encouraging readers to evaluate the risks and benefits of vaccination, but it does not provide nuanced scenarios for emotional intelligence, leadership, or complex problem-solving.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 78,387 | 0 |
Sir Stephen John Hill, KCMG CB, (June 10, 1809 – 20 October 1891) was a governor of, in turn, four British colonial possessions.
Born in the West Indies, Hill began his colonial service in Africa, becoming governor of the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) in 1851. In 1854 he became governor of Sierra Leone. From 1860 through 1861 he was made governor of Sierra Leone for a second time. Then in 1863 he was appointed governor of the Leeward Islands and Antigua. In 1869 Hill became governor of Newfoundland, continuing in that position until 1876. He provided valuable guidance to the colony during the period following their rejection of participation in Canadian Confederation. Hill took up residency in Anguilla in November of 1885 and left in February of 1888.
Hill died in 1891 in London, England.
- Biography at Government House The Governorship of Newfoundland and Labrador
- "Stephen John Hill". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016. | <urn:uuid:8db3733d-bc6a-430d-99c6-be0e0f6e5097> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_John_Hill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949533.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20230331020535-20230331050535-00692.warc.gz | en | 0.972181 | 221 | 2.671875 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on biographical information about Sir Stephen John Hill's colonial service and governorships. There are no scenarios or opportunities for developing communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving skills.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 212,593 | 0 |
LDR 610 Entire Course Power Politics and Influence GCU
GCU LDR 610 Week 1 Discussion 1
Assume you were joining a company as a new employee. What steps would you take to determine the source of power within the organization? Of French and Raven’s five forms of power, which do you consider the most important source of power and why? How would you use this information for your benefit in performing the duties of your job?
GCU LDR 610 Week 1 Discussion 2
Find three definitions of power. Which do you believe is most relevant and why?
GCU LDR 610 Week 2 Discussion 1
In an organization with which you are familiar, what are three uses of personal power that enhanced organizational performance? How were they used?
GCU LDR 610 Week 2 Discussion 2
Does having information influence expectations, behaviors, and power? Provide some examples from your experience.
GCU LDR 610 Week 3 Discussion 1
How can the perceptions of a supervisor’s power affect efficiency and productivity in an organization? Give at least two examples with which you are familiar.
GCU LDR 610 Week 3 Discussion 2
What impact does restructuring an organization have on the distribution of power for that organization?
GCU LDR 610 Week 4 Discussion 1
In order to access power in organizations, you must possess knowledge. There are two types of knowledge: technical knowledge about the work process, and knowledge of the organization’s social system. Why is it important to have knowledge about the organization’s social system?
GCU LDR 610 Week 4 Discussion 2
What are some of the negatives associated with social motives in an organization? Give an example with which you are familiar.
GCU LDR 610 Week 5 Discussion 1
Based on the assigned readings, “Building Organization Theory From First Principles: The Self-Enhancement Motive and Understanding Power and Influence,” how can a person build influence? Can increased influence be the first step in a fall from power? Explain.
GCU LDR 610 Week 5 Discussion 2
How can influence tactics be used? Select two influence tactics and give examples of their use. Would the two selected most likely be used as a first or follow-up tactic?
GCU LDR 610 Week 6 Discussion 1
When have you used (or would use) shadow negotiation, and why do you think it is an important part of the negotiation process?
GCU LDR 610 Week 6 Discussion 2
One of the rules of negotiation is to prevent the negotiation strategy from reaching a point of having two mutually exclusive positions regarding proposals. What does this statement mean? Provide an example.
GCU LDR 610 Week 7 Discussion 1
What considerations should be included in a political plan for a position/organization with which you are familiar?
GCU LDR 610 Week 7 Discussion 2
Is it ethical to utilize politics to create an illusion of a crisis to gain support for an organizational objective?
GCU LDR 610 Week 8 Discussion 1
How might the stress created by the misuse of organizational politics lead to a person’s fall from power?
GCU LDR 610 Week 8 Discussion 2
How can power strengths become weaknesses? Give an example.
GCU LDR 610 Week 2 Assignment
Refer to “Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis.” Create a paper of 1,000–1,250 words that includes an introduction and conclusion that make relevant connections to course objectives and addresses the following:
- 1. How do the actions of Green differ from Davis’ expectations?
- 2. What are the individual agendas of Davis and McDonald?
- 3. How does each person want to be treated?
- 4. Which personal bases of power were used?
- 5. Which of French and Raven’s personal bases of power could have been used more effectively and how?
- 6. Which of French and Raven’s personal bases, if any, have been abused?
Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment.
You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.
GCU LDR 610 Week 4 Assignment
Refer to “RetailMax: Role for Cam Archer” and “RetailMax: Role for Regan Kesse.”Create a paper of 1,000-1,250 words that includes an introduction and conclusion that make relevant connections to course objectives and addresses the following for both Kessel and Archer:
- 1. Who has the greatest potential power and why?
- 2. What power bases represent each person’s power?
- 3. Did stereotypical gender roles influence either party to proceed in a certain manner? Explain how they did or did not act stereotypically.
- 4. What social factors (such as reputation, the prior relationship between the parties, and their mutual ties to others in the organization, including the CEO) affected each person’s power? Support your comments with examples from the cases.
- 5. What assumptions is each side making about the other?
- 6. Why should Archer be interested in the position? Will it strengthen her power?
Check out this related post: GCU LDR 610 Week 1 Discussions. | <urn:uuid:c764caa0-e1db-4758-9c82-118c2006abfd> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://assignmentwritingpro.com/ldr-610-entire-course-power-politics-and-influence-gcu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943845.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20230322145537-20230322175537-00249.warc.gz | en | 0.936746 | 1,174 | 2.515625 | 3 | The extract provides comprehensive coverage of power, influence, and organizational politics, with discussions and assignments that integrate emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities. The material includes realistic scenarios, practical applications, and cultural awareness, with a strong emphasis on intercultural fluency and technological adaptation. The assignments require nuanced analysis and strategic thinking, demonstrating a high level of complexity and real-world context.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 423,774 | 1 |
Why Success in Medicine Requires Knowledge on Health Disparities
Research on health inequities has accumulated in recent years, but much of the medical community agrees that COVID-19 has served as a stark wakeup call as to how serious and significant the disparities are. For instance, the medical literature highlighted the higher rates of chronic diseases amongst people of color long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the alarming differences in mortality due to COVID-19 amongst these groups has forced us to reckon with the true implications of these differences.
As with the data pointing to the differences, we have also long had evidence for the drivers of these differences - such as unequal access to medical care, nutrition, education, housing, and transportation. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to shed light on the need to train our healthcare workers to account for these differences in the care they provide. In the future, incorporating an understanding of social determinants of health into the nature of the care we provide will be critical.
For those pursuing careers in healthcare, there are not yet significant, robust resources for learning about health disparities. Becoming educated on how to transform knowledge of health disparities into action to support public health is currently even harder to come by. For now, the problem is being defined more than it is being solved.
Programs to support relevant skills are likely to develop soon as a consequence of the insights gained through the COVID-19 experience. However, being proactive about educating yourself on these issues and considering how you could contribute to overcome such disparities in your healthcare work may position you to provide unique value in healthcare settings.
The issue of health disparities is complex. While a career in medicine does not require that you provide a perfect solution for this serious problem, demonstrating a clear understanding of the problem and that you have given careful consideration to how you can contribute - even in small ways - to a potential solution are likely to improve your success in this field in coming years. | <urn:uuid:6f6b7f1a-058d-4ec2-93bf-2804e37a4b62> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.myhealthtalent.com/article/why-success-in-medicine-requires-knowledge-on-health-disparities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949093.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20230330004340-20230330034340-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.965623 | 398 | 2.671875 | 3 | The extract discusses the importance of understanding health disparities in medicine, highlighting the need for healthcare workers to account for social determinants of health. It touches on the complexity of the issue and the need for proactive education, demonstrating some awareness of cultural and social factors. However, it lacks practical application and nuanced interaction, focusing more on the problem than solution strategies.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 257,016 | 0 |
Vincent de Paul could have been just a footnote in history. He could have poured his energy into helping orphans, the sick, the poor, prisoners and slaves with just his own two hands. He would have indeed helped some people. When he died, however, his mission likely would have died with him.
Instead, Vincent used his eloquence to persuade the wealthy to fund orphanages and hospitals. He taught villagers to collaborate and create self-sustaining food banks. He went outside traditional church boundaries to include women and men from all classes of society to serve the poor.
When he died, he left behind three thriving organizations—the Confraternities of Charity, the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians), and the Daughters of Charity—which sustained and expanded his work.
- Communication: Clearly communicating expectations
- Empowerment: Helping others become better leaders, creating an environment that promotes learning, delegating responsibilities
- Motivation: Setting clear and realistic goals, directing people to achieve objectives
That's Vincentian leadership.
Learn about Service competencies
Vincent and You
As a leader, how can you learn to better communicate your ideas and expectations? To inspire participation? To build and sustain a team that includes multiple perspectives? | <urn:uuid:41893d84-fd5d-442f-a2f7-a56e336ae8f1> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://resources.depaul.edu/vincent-on-leadership/training/model/people/Pages/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886107744.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821080132-20170821100132-00418.warc.gz | en | 0.976902 | 258 | 3.359375 | 3 | The extract showcases Vincent's leadership skills, highlighting effective communication, empowerment, and motivation. It provides a historical example of successful teamwork, collaboration, and community building, with a clear call to action for readers to develop their own leadership skills. The content covers basic concepts of leadership and communication, with some practical application.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 932,253 | 0 |
After Roger destroys the sand castles of the Littluns, it is Maurice that feels something about the "unease of wrongdoing" and runs off into the woods, feeling uncomfortable about what they've done. He doesn't like what they've done and his guilt makes him ashamed.
But Roger sticks around, not really feeling too bad about what he's done. He is the one that begins to feel some pleasure about doing things the young kids don't like or hurting them, but he feels some "taboo of the old life" and it prevents him from actually hitting the boys with the rocks he is throwing.
It is Maurice who "still felt the unease of wrongdoing" after Roger kicks over the town of sandcastles, buries the flowers, and scatters the chosen stones in the sand village that has been constructed by the littluns as part of their game. Maurice's guilt over this situation is evidence that he still retains components of his humanity on the island, even without the presence of an adult figure who might punish him. He has a sense of what is right and wrong and is afflicted by the unkindness of Roger's actions. Consequently, he leaves the scene almost immediately.
Roger himself experiences a similar feeling later on in the chapter when he begins to throw stones at Henry. It is only "the taboo of the old life" which ensures that Roger leaves adequate space ("perhaps six yards in diameter") so that he will intentionally not hit the boy. This is a result of heavy social conditioning by a "civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins." | <urn:uuid:5997a4f8-ccdd-4b29-9ed4-84be0575fdd8> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/chapter-4-gt-who-quot-still-felt-unease-50209 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549448146.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20170728083322-20170728103322-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.984668 | 325 | 2.515625 | 3 | The extract explores emotional intelligence, guilt, and morality through the characters' actions and feelings, demonstrating a nuanced understanding of human behavior. It highlights the contrast between Maurice's empathy and Roger's lack of remorse, showcasing complex social dynamics and moral dilemmas. The scenario integrates emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities, warranting a higher score.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 665,627 | 0 |
QUESTION: Which World War II Japanese internment camp survivor went on to fight for the rights of not only Japanese Americans, but numerous minority groups, supporting African Americans during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and helping to raise awareness of Puerto Rican independence by storming the Statue of Liberty?
Yuri Kochiyama transformed her experience in the Japanese internment camps into a universal sense of social justice, translating her Japanese American struggles into an understanding of other oppressed minority groups. After marrying and moving to Harlem in 1960, she and her husband were constantly engaged in the community, boycotting for more quality education for inner-city kids, fighting for jobs for Black and Puerto Rican workers, and using their home as a central meeting space for locals and activists, just to name a few initiatives. She later met and became inspired by Malcolm X, a figure that would spark her involvement in Black nationalist organizations and fuel her commitment as an activist. She is often historically noted in reference to the Life Magazine photo of Malcolm X’s assassination in which Kochiyama is cradling Malcolm X’s head. Her involvement in minority issues would only continue to grow, and she quickly became a leader for Asian Americans and an authority on multi-ethnic cooperation.
Photo credits to angry asian man. | <urn:uuid:43de2308-2e0a-4ada-8710-acdaa92ffc9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://apiasfrepresent.tumblr.com/post/31482399477 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703788336/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112948-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972528 | 259 | 3.5625 | 4 | This extract scores high for its portrayal of a historical figure who exemplifies exceptional soft skills, including empathy, leadership, and intercultural fluency. Yuri Kochiyama's life demonstrates a deep understanding of social justice, translating her personal experiences into a broader commitment to minority rights. The extract highlights her community engagement, activism, and ability to work across different cultural contexts.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 123,094 | 1 |
Mexico Rocks! … again.
Simple native farmers in the mountains of Oaxaca have grown centuries of 16-foot-tall cornstalks on very poor mountain slope soils. … How? … Illiterate-but-clever native Mexicans have been quietly developing & cultivating a very special one-of-a-kind type of corn that fixes nitrogen, making their own fertilizer.
Just like legumes (think soybeans) which have trapped special nitrogen-fixing bacteria into their roots, this native Mexican corn that houses nitrogen-fixing bacteria, appears ready to transform the USA’s biggest crop.
Native Mexican’s special corn is poised to change USA’s current nitrogen fertilizer-addicted crop, because the US crop slowly ruins soils. Instead, the native Mexican’s corn includes special slimy roots that house special symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria. This special partnership allows the native’s special Mexican corn to grow in poor soils that have low nutrient levels.
Researchers have shown that the Mexican corn gets up to 82% of the nitrogen it needs from its partnership with special bacteria
… instead of the USA’s corn that steadily & seriously depletes & degrades millions of acres of our soil.
More details at:
* * * *
Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Read-on MacDuff . . .
Monsanto will get ahold of it and it will be illegal to grow, even in Mexico. Sad but true.
Don’t you believe it, Connie, about Monsanto ! The cat’s outta da bag, as detailed in this science article with plenty of drama. Search for an article titled “How to Edit a Human” about adventures with CRISPR CAS9 genetic tech @ 1843magazine dot com — featuring Jennifer Doudna in the account of discovery and the ensuing patent contest. The article mentions that anybody can buy a kit to do genetic editing for $159 usd. (Hey kids, don’t try this at home?)
And now I know why I haven’t seen you around Yucatan lately. You’re in Columbia!
Very cool that this genetic treasure has been noticed and could accrue benefits to the native peoples who have kept it alive, as well as the planet itself. (The report also appeared at The Atlantic online under “science” on August 8.)
There’s a deeper story behind nitrogen and agriculture, much of which takes place in Mexico, in a new book by the author of 1491, Charles Mann, titled The WIZARD and the PROPHET : Two Remarkable Scientists and their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World. (One of them won a Nobel) — the story is a balanced contest between environmentalism and “progress”. When I’m done with the book, I plan to donate it to the collection at Merida English Library, once it re-opens.
Wow. I hope the farmers get a big payoff from it.
On Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 2:06 PM Surviving Yucatan wrote:
> yucalandia posted: “Aug. 21. 11, 2018: Mexico Rocks! … again. > Simple native farmers in the mountains of Oaxaca have grown centuries of > 16-foot-tall cornstalks on very poor mountain slope soils. … How? … > Illiterate-but-clever native Mexicans have been quietly” > | <urn:uuid:fcb74643-6cfc-412d-8865-b400835b1d4b> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://yucalandia.com/2018/08/21/native-mexican-corn-farmers-poised-to-rock-the-farming-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224644915.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20230530000715-20230530030715-00331.warc.gz | en | 0.906119 | 806 | 3.140625 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on scientific discovery and cultural appreciation. It shows superficial coverage of basic concepts without meaningful depth or practical application in soft skills development.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 749,572 | 0 |
Even if you have a very high quality electrolarynx that can produce a wide variety of different speech tones, the mechanical timbre of the sound will often make it difficult for you to be understood. To mitigate this problem, you'll need to practice your speech both alone and in front of other people. To help you when you're practicing your speech alone in front of a mirror, use these four tips.
Have A Set Phrase That You Can Sound Out And Tweak From Session To Session
You won't be able to properly evaluate your progress if you're always saying different things for different speech sessions. Additionally, it'll be much easier to focus on details of your tongue, lip, and air stream movements when you already have the muscle memory from a particular phrase.
Make sure that the phrase you choose has a wide variety of consonant sounds so that you don't fall behind with making one sound at the expense of another. If you're bored with a phrase, add something to the end of it as an extra challenge.
Keep Your Posture Straight And Watch Your Breathing
If you want to get the most out of the air stream coming up from your lungs, you need to keep a perfectly straight posture at all times. So in addition to watching the movements of your lips with the mirror, ensure that your shoulders are level with each other and not slanted relative to the wall behind you.
From time to time during your sessions, turn to one side and examine your back directly to ensure that it's straight. While you're at it, take a few deep breaths and watch your torso. If you're using your diaphragm properly, inhalation and exhalation movements should be smooth, steady, and comfortable.
Consistently Pronounce Words More Slowly Than You Would Normally
Take advantage of the fact that no one is there to put time pressure on you when you're completely alone. Although you should never pronounce words so slowly that they become unintelligible, it almost never hurts to take things a little more slowly than your natural inclinations would lead you.
Instead of whispering, sound out the words as forcefully as you can without shouting so that each consonant enunciation you make won't become soft and blend in with the ones before and after it.
Switch Out The Hand You're Placing On The Electrolarynx Every Few Minutes
This will give each of your hands the muscle memory to make the movement up to your neck almost as soon as you need to speak. When you're in a large crowd and someone begins talking to you while your dominant hand is holding something, this will come in very handy.
For more tips about adjusting to life with an electrolarynx, contact a company like ROMET® ELECTRONIC LARYNX & ACCESSORIES. | <urn:uuid:fc882faf-933d-460d-a4bb-e4034e4ec05e> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | http://abellerol.com/2016/07/06/four-tips-for-practicing-speech-in-front-of-a-mirror-with-your-new-electrolarynx/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370506580.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20200402014600-20200402044600-00047.warc.gz | en | 0.955903 | 575 | 2.65625 | 3 | The extract provides practical tips for individuals using an electrolarynx to improve their speech, focusing on solo practice sessions. It covers basic communication concepts, such as enunciation and breathing, but lacks discussion of teamwork, leadership, or complex problem-solving. The content is straightforward and lacks nuanced interaction or real-world context beyond individual practice.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 792,643 | 0 |
24 March 2014
Health agencies around the world are working March 24 to raise awareness and action to combat a disease that claims a victim every 18 seconds: tuberculosis.
Just over 8.5 million people a year fall ill with TB, which is exceeded only by HIV/AIDS in the number of lives taken by a disease caused by a single infectious agent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). About 1.3 million succumbed to the disease in 2012, and it is the leading cause of death for 20 percent of people with HIV/AIDS.
The toll of the disease is high, but it is slowly declining, and WHO reports that the fulfillment of international goals to slow the spread of the disease by 2015 are in sight.
Of the millions who fall ill each year, as many as 3 million are never seen or treated by public health systems because of isolating factors such as poverty, stigma or lack of access to a health facility. Developing better solutions to “reach the 3 million” is the theme of World TB Day 2014, and members of the StopTB Partnership aim to target better TB diagnosis, treatment, prevention and cures to these overlooked patients.
“To reach those most vulnerable, most at risk, those that are poor, weak, scared, stigmatized and alone — for this, you need additional efforts, you need innovative thinking and, beyond anything else, you need to care,” said Dr. Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, in a press release. “I am happy we are having this conversation on reaching, treating and curing everyone with TB at a global level. This is what it is all about.”
The partnership is highlighting the missing patients and is proposing solutions that grass-roots organizations, governments and the global community might adopt to better address the problem.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are among the many partners addressing what is considered a global health emergency. The U.S. agencies are helping countries with high TB caseloads to expand their basic control programs, invest in research and development, and reach vulnerable populations.
The CDC is involved in collaborations to address TB in Botswana, Cambodia, China, Guyana, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam. Through the CDC Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, priorities include:
• Strengthening national TB programs in high-burden countries.
• Reducing the impact of TB among people living with HIV.
• Improving and expanding diagnosis, treatment and prevention of drug-resistant TB.
• Strengthening TB laboratory systems internationally.
• Improving infection-control practices to prevent TB transmission.
The National Institutes of Health works in biomedical and clinical research to develop vaccines and improve diagnostic methods and treatment.
USAID provides substantial support to programs building disease-fighting capabilities in developing countries. | <urn:uuid:3332f7b9-b28f-4c93-9e42-333feadd5b5a> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://geneva.usmission.gov/2014/03/25/health-agencies-worldwide-join-in-world-tb-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224654016.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20230607211505-20230608001505-00226.warc.gz | en | 0.938653 | 640 | 3.046875 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on raising awareness about tuberculosis and global health efforts. It provides factual information without scenarios for communication, teamwork, or problem-solving.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 801,659 | 0 |
The conflict is written onto the walls of Belfast. After thirty years of violence during The Troubles conflict, murals have become a tradition for every community. The murals reflect public opinion, recent agreements, hopes for the future, and signs of solidarity. They range from optimism to harrowing predictions for the future of Northern Ireland. There is simultaneously the “peace wall,” depicting hopeful murals and images of leaders like Nelson Mandela, and the infamous “prepared for peace, ready for war” mural in North Belfast. At the heart of these murals lay visions of identity, national belonging, and methods for pursuing rival futures.
The experiences of Northern Ireland play a significant role in the purpose of the organization that I am a part of this summer. Ulster University’s Transitional Justice Institute takes the experience of Northern Ireland and exports those lessons to transform and inspire resolutions to conflict. One way in which these lessons are shared is through the Annual Summer School on Transitional Justice. This year’s topic was “Gendering the Practices of Post-Conflict Resolution: Investigations, Reparations and Communal Repair.” The school is a week-long course consisting of interactive lectures, workshops, roundtable discussions and cultural outings for the visiting human rights leaders. The workshop focused on global approaches to gender, violence and transitional justice, assessing gender in the context of community, reparations in comparative perspectives, and communal interfaces with gender accountability. Each working part of this perspective and field is intricate and interlocked. If one, essential part is severed, the nuance of effective understanding of the relationships among those parts is lost and the system is left dysfunctional.
As I go forward in my legal studies, I understand the necessity of the ways in which fields and perspectives work as part of a dynamic system requiring rigorous analysis of the way in which those parts work separately and together. Like the murals in Belfast, which display a breadth of history, images of solidarity with other conflicts, and even pop culture, the complexities of the human experience cannot and do not exist in a vacuum. They are entwined and demand thoughtful and purposeful unraveling in order to effect change.
By Amanda McAllister, Human Rights Fellow, Summer 2015
Amanda McAllister is conducting her Human Rights Fellowship at the University of Ulster’s Transitional Justice Institute. | <urn:uuid:dc97419e-e2b6-4b9b-a1a8-6719728b6a3c> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://minnesotahumphrey.wordpress.com/2015/06/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549426951.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20170727022134-20170727042134-00045.warc.gz | en | 0.929671 | 480 | 2.59375 | 3 | The extract scores high due to its nuanced discussion of complex social issues, such as conflict resolution and transitional justice, which require advanced communication, strategic thinking, and problem-solving. It also highlights the importance of cultural awareness, intercultural fluency, and emotional intelligence, demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of the interconnectedness of different perspectives and fields.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 647,229 | 1 |
Selecting Shakespeare Essay Topics should be done with Critical Consideration of Options
Students who are doing English literature have to write essays on many literary personalities or their works of literature. One of the most common essay writing assignments for students is the writing of the Shakespeare essay. After all if you do not write on the work of the greatest playwright in history, that may leave your literature course incomplete. However, many students find writing this type of essays a challenging task. They also lack skills to come up with good Shakespeare essay topics which should be done with a good understanding of the work. However with the right amount of careful consideration you will be able to select topics that allow you to demonstrate your capabilities in the subject.
Shakespeare is a person who wrote a countless number of plays. Many of these plays are being used as students’ literature coursework writing assignments in high school and college. One of the most common ones is Romeo and Juliet. However, when it comes to Shakespeare essays it can mean essays about Shakespeare, his style of writing, or the plays he wrote etc. Whichever you select to write your Shakespeare essay on, they should have good essay topics. A good essay topic is important to all types of essays. This is what draws the reader’s attention to the essay. Therefore, it should be selected carefully.
The first element which should be considered when selecting essay topics whether they are Jane Eyre essay topics or a man for all seasons essay topics, they all need to be interesting. This is the most important element of topic selection. Without interest it will not compel the reader to continue with the essay. The topic is what pulls the reader in. The contents are what keep the reader engrossed. This should be remembered when selecting your Shakespeare essay topics.
Content Availability and Familiarity
Your topic selection should also take in to consideration the availability of content. For instance, if you had to write a literacy review on one of the works of Shakespeare, you need to cite critiques of his work by others as well. Whether you have access to them on the selected topic should be considered before hand. Secondly, you should also select according to how conversant and familiar you are on the subject area.
Scope of the Essay
Scope of the essay should be outlined in your planning stage when you are assigned the Shakespeare essay. This way you will only choose topics that you can handle well within the parameters of the essay. When you select a topic you should consider whether you can incorporate all the elements of the topic into your essay. For instance, if you are considering writing an essay on Shakespeare’s style of writing, you cannot incorporate all the elements which he uses in all his novels. You need to select a certain theme from one of his novels or compare it to two novels and write the essay. Here again, the contents will be more than you can incorporate into a short essay. Therefore, you need to narrow the topic down some more.
Importance of a Good Topic
The effectiveness of your essay relies on the how you select the Shakespeare essay topics. By abiding with the abovementioned criteria you will be able to select an essay topic which will be considered one of the best essay topics.
If you have trouble coming up with a good topic for your essay, coursework-writing.co.uk is the company to consider. They will pay due consideration to the above criteria and make sure your topic is selected accordingly. If you have any problems writing the essay and need essay help the expert writers will ensure that they do a good job with your essay. | <urn:uuid:2ca78ba2-7f81-4780-9af4-1b017bb8246e> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://coursework-writing.co.uk/blog/essay-writing/shakespeare-essay-topics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549425352.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170725182354-20170725202354-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.951445 | 728 | 2.640625 | 3 | The extract provides guidance on selecting essay topics, specifically for Shakespeare essays, emphasizing the importance of careful consideration, interest, content availability, and scope. It offers practical advice but lacks depth in soft skills development, such as teamwork, leadership, or complex problem-solving. The discussion is straightforward, focusing on fundamental skills with limited practical application.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 320,559 | 0 |
Joshua Amponsem found Climate Interactive’s tools essential in his work as a young environmental activist in Ghana. In the last three months, he has been mobilizing young people, social entrepreneurs, and universities across Ghana to experience World Climate simulations, and hence, inspiring them to take climate action. We asked Joshua how World Climate simulations were relevant for building the capacity of new climate leaders in Ghana.
Grace: How would you describe the climate challenge in Ghana?
Joshua: Ghana’s government efforts towards climate change adaptation and mitigation are currently progressing steadily with the support of international organizations and civil society activism. However, there is a huge knowledge gap among citizens. Over the few past years, civil society organizations have increased their climate education efforts. While policies reflect climate action, implementation has not reflected much effort. Sustainable production and consumption is neither implemented nor communicated adequately. Water bodies are being destroyed and water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure is poor. It’s even worse when we experience floods. Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) acknowledges that more needs to be done. World Climate is helping us bridge this knowledge gap and inspire climate action.
Read Full Story here: https://www.climateinteractive.org/blog/joshua-amponsem-from-ghana-becomes-a-world-climate-ambassador/ | <urn:uuid:7f5569c9-25e9-4cd4-9949-8964032e2296> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://amponsem.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/joshua-amponsem-becomes-a-world-climate-ambassador/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128321458.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20170627152510-20170627172510-00413.warc.gz | en | 0.949739 | 276 | 2.546875 | 3 | The extract showcases a real-world scenario of climate activism, highlighting the importance of education and awareness in addressing environmental challenges. It demonstrates leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills through Joshua's work in mobilizing young people and promoting climate action. The discussion also touches on cultural awareness, digital literacy, and intercultural fluency, as it involves international organizations and local activism.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 78,224 | 1 |
Contributing to household tasks and responsibilities is a great way for children to feel a sense of belonging. While at first, household contributions may only seem necessary to teach kids about responsibility (true; they do) and prevent a sense of entitlement (they do that, too), it may be surprising to learn that they also contribute something important to the attachment process. Completing a job that benefits everyone not only instills a sense of personal responsibility, but also a sense of importance in the family. There is a sense of pride and participation a child feels in helping out. He knows, “My contributions matter; I matter.” This feeling of significance is a cornerstone of attachment.
That said, we all know it can be difficult to get a child’s willing participation in completing jobs around the house. Our kids don’t have quite the same priorities we do, and they’re not exactly proactive about getting housework done. We end up reminding, nagging, engaging in power struggles, or resorting to threats and bribes to get kids to help out with certain jobs.
So where is the middle ground? How can we use housework to foster that sense of significance and belonging in the family while still understanding that kids don’t love it and wouldn’t necessarily choose it as a preferred activity? More pointedly, how do we teach our kids to be responsible for the practical tasks involved in daily life?
…to teach, that is. The key word is “teach.” And when it comes to teaching, the most effective long-term approach comes down to two words: take time. Household tasks, while seemingly straightforward to us parents who do them every day, take time for kids to learn. And we need to take enough time to teach them the how-tos as well as to expect independence with the jobs. Promises of rewards and threats of consequences aren’t necessary as long as the task-learning process is cooperative and encouraging.
Here are four steps to teaching kids the long-term skills and habits of contributing to household jobs:
- Model. They see you do stuff first.
- They help you. You get to have an assistant.
- You help them. Now it is their turn to take the lead.
- They do it alone. You’ve done it enough times together that it is not unreasonable to expect them to get a job done on their own.
Of course, the length of time to get through this 4-step teaching process depends on the task. Getting the dog her food is much less complicated than cleaning one’s bedroom. It also depends on the child’s age and ability.
It helps to see how complicated some jobs can be to a child by breaking them down into simpler parts. For example, cleaning a bedroom can be broken down into several smaller tasks, each of which has its own learning process.
- Make the bed
- Put toys away
- Pick up clothes
- Clear dishes
- Throw away garbage
- Wipe surfaces
That’s why it’s overwhelming to say to a child, “Clean your room,” and expect it to be done 1) quickly and 2) without supervision/ direction/ guidance/ help. Though kids can do these kinds of jobs on their own, it is reasonable to expect them to need both direction and assistance.
Here are some jobs that kids are typically able to handle alone at various ages after a some time for teaching (and not expecting perfection). Remember, the nature of these tasks is unique to each child, family and situation. Use these ideas a guide, but choose jobs that are appropriate for your children:
- Window washing (water in a spray bottle and a rag)
- Fruit & veggie prep (washing & drying)
- Choosing their own clothes to wear
- Unloading utensils from the dishwasher
- Wiping table tops
- Clearing the table
- Gathering recycling
- Watering the garden
- Putting clothes in drawers
- Food prep
- Setting the table
- Feeding animals
- Sorting clothes
- Folding laundry
- Shelving books
- Clearing the table
- Getting dressed
- Pulling weeds
- Putting toys away
- Making beds
- Doing laundry (Depending on the machine…some new machines have a customizable 1-button setting that is perfect for kids)
- Helping to cook–stirring, mixing, chopping, measuring ingredients
- Doing dishes–rinsing, loading
- Bringing in the mail
- Making lunch for school
- Helping to put away groceries
- Cleaning bathroom sinks & counters
- Packing own carry-on for trips
- Pet care
- Taking out the garbage
- Preparing simple meals (sandwiches, quesadillas, soup)
Keep in mind that at any age, kids simply have different priorities than parents do! Don’t expect kids notice on their own what needs to be done and take the initiative to do it. You will certainly notice, and you can invite and value their help.
When Resistance Occurs
What if kids say ‘no’ or argue when it’s time contribute? The no-fuss answer is, “Yes, let’s do it together.” Even if it’s a task that you know a child can do on her own, she may simply be needing some extra encouragement right then. For example, in our house we don’t move on to another activity until the work is completed. I’ll break the job into “You do this and I’ll do that…When we’re done we’ll move onto X.” No arguing, negotiating, reasoning, bribing or threatening…just patience, cooperation, and some re-teaching. It’s OK to revisit some of the earlier teaching steps–sometimes you’ll need to go back to modeling and helping cooperatively. For families with young kids, a great housework motto is “We do it together (until you can do it alone).”
Don’t Praise; Encourage
When kids have contributed to the family by setting the table, taking out the garbage, sorting laundry, walking the dog, or even putting a book back on the shelf after they’ve finished, express your gratitude with words of encouragement instead of praise. This is what helps to develop that sense of significance and belonging.
“When children help, we can encourage them by communicating our acknowledgement and appreciation. “You’ve really helped out, thank you so much!” That’s it. Many parents are hesitant to leave their response at that; it’s tempting to add on some type of praise and tell a helpful child that he did a good thing, but this evaluation is unnecessary. If you’ve acknowledged your child’s effort and shared your genuine appreciation for his help, he is filled with a sense of his own goodness. He realizes that he is a valued member of the family and feels pride for his contributions. He decides on his own that what he did was a good job.
“Here are some ways to acknowledge effort and share appreciation without imparting judgment:
- That helps so much!
- I know you don’t like doing this, and I thank you for doing it anyway. It really helps.
- Thank you for your cooperation.
- You really show a lot of care for others.
- That was hard for you; thank you!
- I appreciate the time you spent on this.
- I couldn’t have done this without your help, thank you.
- We make a great team, all working together like this!
~Excerpted from Encouraging Words for Kids by Kelly Bartlett
The bottom line is: expect to take time (a long time) to teach kids how to do household tasks. Expect to do it with them. Expect to remind them what needs to get done. But most importantly, expect them to contribute. There are a variety of jobs that a child of any age can do; find the ones that work best for your children and take time to teach them. With consistency, connection, and cooperation, it will become second nature for kids to tackle their responsibilities with confidence. | <urn:uuid:1227afa4-b0eb-4d70-8e8c-f556621ab2b6> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://attachmentparenting.org/blog/2013/05/15/chores-without-threats-or-bribery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394010638293/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305091038-00082-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947292 | 1,745 | 3.21875 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive guide on teaching children responsibility and household tasks, promoting a sense of belonging and significance. It covers communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills, with practical applications and nuanced interaction. The text emphasizes the importance of patience, cooperation, and encouragement, providing examples and strategies for parents to follow. The discussion on acknowledging effort and sharing appreciation without praise also highlights the development of emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 854,018 | 1 |
Avoid Accidents on the Plant Floor
While manufacturing is a much safer industry now than it was in the past, there are still hazards within the workplace. However, many on-the-job accidents can be avoided by focusing on safe practices and taking necessary precautions.
Most accidents are caused by unsafe acts, unsafe working conditions, or a combination of the two. For example, removing a protective guard from a machine is an unsafe act that can easily cause an accident. On the other hand, a spill on the floor could cause someone to fall and get injured, and that accident would be due to unsafe conditions.
In either instance, the accident could have been prevented by either following proper safety procedures or being alert to unsafe working conditions. Keep reading for more information on accident prevention.
Hazards You May Encounter
Your job always has some potential for danger, so it’s important to understand what causes accidents so that you can avoid them whenever possible. While it is impossible to list all of the hazards you may encounter while working, common ones include the following:
- Not wearing proper personal protective equipment
- Removing guards from machinery
- Using machines or tools improperly
- Unsafe handling of materials or chemicals
- Debris or spills that are not cleaned up
- Wearing hanging jewelry or belts that could be caught in equipment
Safe Steps to Avoid Accidents
The first step to keeping yourself and co-workers safe is to stay alert on the job and don’t let routine or familiarity lure you into carelessness. This can be challenging, especially if you do a repetitive task throughout the day. Always observe safety precautions before and during a task, even if those precautions make the task more inconvenient or take longer to complete. Cutting corners may not seem like a big deal, but doing so is a primary cause of accidents.
Next, know your job. The more you know about your job, the safer you’ll be. Know the proper procedures and safety precautions for any task you do, and if any questions arise during your work day, be sure to talk to your supervisor. Be on the lookout for unsafe conditions near your workstation.
And finally, make a personal contribution. A good way to start this is to follow all safety rules and always wear the required uniform and protective equipment, even if you think they are unnecessary or slow you down. Certain rules in the workplace are made for your protection, so follow them. Also, just because an unsafe act is not specifically prohibited, it doesn’t mean you should do it. Use your common sense when evaluating if an act is safe or not—there may be a very easy way to make it safer if you stop to think it through.
Focus on Good Habits
It’s human nature to work yourself into habits, and when you break a safety rule, you’ve taken the first and most influential step in forming a bad habit—a habit that can lead to an injury. Good habits, such as noticing unsafe conditions, correcting them immediately, or calling them to the attention of a supervisor, are just as easy to form.
Develop a safe attitude! This is probably one of the most difficult things to face because most of us have the mistaken notion that it’s always someone else who gets hurt, never us. If we all do our share in observing safety rules and staying alert for unsafe conditions, everyone will benefit. For more safety tips, talk to your supervisor. For more insurance information related to the workplace, reach out to our agents today!
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You must be logged in to post a comment. | <urn:uuid:a031ffe5-9332-47fb-be64-c80b5a138131> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | http://marshfieldinsurance.agency/avoid-accidents-on-the-plant-floor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224656788.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609164851-20230609194851-00095.warc.gz | en | 0.953238 | 743 | 2.9375 | 3 | The extract provides basic information on workplace safety, highlighting common hazards and safe practices. It encourages employees to stay alert, follow procedures, and develop good habits. While it touches on teamwork and communication indirectly, the content lacks depth and nuanced interaction. The extract focuses on theoretical knowledge with limited practical application, warranting a score of 2.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 990,535 | 0 |
Can Louisiana’s tribes restore their traditional diets as waters rise?
Click here for the companion episode of the Southern Foodway Alliance’s Gravy podcast.
WHEN THERESA DARDAR WAS GROWING UP in Houma, her mother used to take her to visit relatives in the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe community. They would drive 20 miles toward the Gulf of Mexico, park at the local grocery store, and ask someone to ferry them across the bayou. From there, they’d walk across land thick with oak, hackberry, and palmetto until they reached her grandfather’s house.
Dardar’s grandfather raised chickens and pigs. Next door, her uncle raised cattle. Even at 62, Dardar carries a vivid memory of her grandfather dipping a cup into the blood of a freshly slaughtered pig and drinking it. He would send some of the pork home with Dardar’s mother, who would make it into boudin sausages. She would also bring home some of the redfish he caught in the waters near his home.
Back then, tribal members fed themselves well—with seafood, of course, but also with the livestock they raised, the fruits and vegetables they planted, and the marsh hens they extricated from their fur traps. They hunted for turtle and alligator, too, and gathered medicinal plants from the land.
That’s because there was land. Viewed from above in the early 20th century, Pointe-au-Chien was surrounded by a dense thicket of green, broken up by splashes of blue. Those proportions flipped over Dardar’s lifetime. The land vanished until the community became a narrow neck of high ground surrounded almost entirely by open water. The area immediately around Terrebonne Bay, which includes Pointe-au-Chien, went from 10 percent water in 1916 to 90 percent in 2016, according to geographer Rebekah Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at Florida State University. The U.S. Geological Survey said the larger Terrebonne Basin lost almost 30 percent of its land from 1932 to 2010.
Today, the property surrounding Dardar’s grandfather’s home bears little resemblance to the place she visited as a child. “There’s no more trees,” she said. “There’s a little strip of land where he and my uncle lived. … The piece of land is so small now that I don’t think anyone would be able to live there.”
This is the dilemma Dardar spends much of her time agonizing over. She has lived in Pointe-au-Chien for more than 40 years, in a house overlooking a bayou lined with shrimp boats. (Pointe-au-Chien means “Dog Point”; the larger rural community is often called Pointe-aux-Chenes, or “Oak Point.”) She has served as a deckhand on her husband Donald’s shrimping boat and has skinned the nutria he once trapped in the winters. She’s watched that shrimping business dwindle, and the trapping business disappear altogether. And she’s seen neighbors give up on their gardens and animals.
Dardar isn’t sitting back, though. She and her tribe are trying out new ways to grow vegetables and medicinal plants even as the land around them vanishes. She heads an intertribal effort to restore food sovereignty—the sustainable production of healthy and culturally appropriate food—to a half-dozen of Louisiana’s Native American communities. That effort might inform all of us about how to feed ourselves during these times of environmental stress.
Listen: Theresa Dardar recalls how her community was surprised by Hurricane Juan in 1985.
THE LAND LOSS FACED BY the 680-member Pointe-au-Chien tribe is one of the central facts of life south of New Orleans. Each year, about 16 square miles vanish from the Louisiana coast. The levees along the Mississippi River have starved the area of the sediment needed to replenish a sinking delta. The dredging of 10,000 miles of canals by the oil and gas industry has sucked saltwater inland, killing the vegetation that holds the mud together. And climate change is accelerating global sea-level rise, which promises to overtake subsidence as a key factor in land loss during the next century.
What’s more, as the barrier islands to the south have disappeared, Pointe-au-Chien has become more open to storm damage. In 1985, Hurricane Juan flooded the Dardars’ mobile home; the couple, along with Donald’s grandmother, took shelter in a small boat. The couple built an elevated house after that—it’s now common to see houses built up on stilts—and a small levee went up in their backyard. But they remain vulnerable: 2008’s Hurricane Gustav blew off part of the Dardars’ porch, tore a hole in their roof, and destroyed other houses. Less than two weeks later, the community was flooded by storm surge from Hurricane Ike.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is trying to protect communities like Pointe-au-Chien with a controversial $13 billion project called Morganza to the Gulf—98 miles of earthen levees punctuated by floodgates. A levee is going up immediately behind the tribal headquarters, at the edge of open water that used to be cattle pasture. Dardar believes the levee will “buy us a few years,” but only if the community doesn’t suffer a direct hit by a fearsome storm. “It’s in God’s hands; let’s put it that way,” she said. Some scientists agree the project will have limited benefit, particularly considering the price tag.
Sitting on the back porch of her tribe’s headquarters, Dardar looked over a small, scrubby yard with a row of small trees at the back. Beyond that, a dump truck revved and beeped as it poured dirt for the levee. Dardar recalled wondering why the project was called Morganza to the Gulf, “because the levee doesn’t go to the Gulf.” Then she realized: “The Gulf of Mexico will come to us.”
Not only do land loss and flooding make it harder to raise livestock, planting fruits and vegetables also gets tricky. “When I grew up, everybody had a garden,” said tribal council member Christine Verdin, who is 57. “My grandma had probably five different species of figs. She had orange trees, satsumas, navels. She had lemon trees. She had her own peaches. And because of the water coming in, it just ruined all her plants and all her trees.”
Theresa Dardar’s 83-year-old mother-in-law, Nazia Dardar, maintains a large garden in a backyard filled with fruit trees, Muscovy ducks, and roosters. She sells her surplus produce to neighbors. But she’s one of the few holdouts who aren’t discouraged by repeated flooding.
That leaves the tribe’s traditional mainstay, seafood. But even that is becoming a luxury. Imports of cheap shrimp have driven prices so low at the dock that commercial shrimpers like Donald Dardar can hardly justify the cost of fuel and ice. Local crabbers report significant drops in their yields since the 2010 BP oil spill. (It is one of several possible causes.) And the federal government warns that accelerating wetlands loss in Louisiana endangers the “nurseries for many species of fish and shellfish.”
With residents replacing seafood with store-bought chicken, pork, and beef, the tribal culture is suffering, too. “We don’t see each other as much,” Dardar said. “Before the spill, Donald’s brother used to do a crab boil at least three, four times a week on the side of the bayou.” No invitation was needed: “The community would pass by, and they would stop and we’d visit. They’d eat.” That tradition ended after the crab haul became sporadic. “It all fell apart,” she said.
It’s not just Pointe-au-Chien. Across southeastern Louisiana, tribes are grappling with what land loss means for their dinner plates, their traditions, and their health.
“We are stewards of the environment: protect first, use second,” said Shirell Parfait-Dardar, traditional chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe. (Dardar is a common name across tribes.) The 450-member tribe, which has fanned north from its original home at the edge of the Gulf, used to raise dairy cattle and poultry, she said. But flooding has ruled out ethical husbandry.
“We will not suffer any animal,” said Parfait-Dardar, who lives in Chauvin, southeast of Houma. “A south wind comes through here, and that’s it—you’ve got yards covered. We can get out of the way of the waters. Animals don’t have that benefit. They’re stuck where you put them. And we will not subject them to that.”
As the tribe has moved away from self-reliance, family diets have shifted toward processed food. “The boxed dinners, they are very convenient,” Parfait-Dardar said. “You can get a ton of them, 10 for $10. And for a family as big as mine—I have four children [and] my husband doesn’t make all that much money—we’ve got to stretch that dollar to feed our kids.” The health consequences, though, have been predictable. “We have a very high rate of high cholesterol,” she said of the tribe. “Diabetes is rampant. And it’s all got to do with our diet.”
Listen: Marlene Verdin Foret of Grand Caillou/Dulac describes family food traditions.
These are issues that Native Americans deal with nationally. “If you take the food desert map and overlay it with where tribal lands are, there is pretty much a direct correlation,” said Lea Zeise, a New Orleans-based staffer for the Intertribal Agriculture Council. It’s no coincidence, experts say, that Native Americans are twice as likely as whites to be diagnosed with diabetes and are at high risk for heart disease and stroke. “The disruption of traditional agriculture and hunting has resulted in increased consumption of fat—typical of the contemporary western diet,” writes physician Dorothy Gohdes in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases’ reference book “Diabetes in America.”
Some Louisiana tribes have decided they can’t tackle the problems alone. Six have joined together to discuss innovative ways to reclaim their food sovereignty. Calling themselves the First People’s Conservation Council, they meet every three months, along with representatives from nonprofits and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Theresa Dardar serves as president.
Five of the tribes are coastal. None of them is recognized by the U.S. government, though most are recognized by the state of Louisiana, which has less restrictive standards. Besides Pointe-au-Chien and Grand Caillou/Dulac, they include the 600-member Isle de Jean Charles Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, which has lost 98 percent of its island home since 1955 and last year received a $48 million federal grant to relocate inland. (Isle de Jean Charles is three miles from Pointe-au-Chien but considerably more exposed. Most of the members, including the chief, have already left the island.)
Rounding out the council’s coastal members are the Bayou Lafourche Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha, whose 600 members have been forced inland by devastating hurricanes, and the Grand Bayou Village Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha tribe, whose 14 homes in Plaquemines Parish are accessible only by boat. Grand Bayou’s tribe has 400 members, but most live away from the village, in part because of the challenges of living with land loss.
These meetings are hours-long brainstorming sessions that draw from the collective wisdom of the tribes and the technical expertise of the government and nonprofit groups. Some of the discussions center around programs the Agriculture Department funds, like plastic-covered hoop houses to protect vegetable gardens. (The U-shaped metal structures extend growing seasons, minimize soil erosion, and protect against pests and wind.) They talk about lobbying for federal recognition of soft-shell crab as a farm commodity, which could make producers eligible for crop insurance, disaster loans, and federal subsidies. And they discuss 21st-century ways to share traditional knowledge, like an Excel spreadsheet to record changes in growing seasons.
ON A DECEMBER MORNING at the Agriculture Department’s office in the St. Charles Parish town of Luling, representatives from four tribes got together for the final First People’s Conservation Council meeting of 2016. There were greetings in French, a prayer in English, and a business agenda that extended well beyond lunchtime.
Zeise of the Intertribal Agriculture Council reported on a federal grant her organization had received to develop marketing cooperatives, which the tribes could use to sell products like dried shrimp. “We’d have to start small,” said Rosina Philippe, an elder from Grand Bayou Village. “We know the process of drying shrimp. But as far as the business side of it, that’s something that we’d have to learn.”
“But is there interest in learning that kind of stuff?” Zeise asked.
“Yes,” Philippe said. “We talk about it all the time. We just don’t know how to put the next foot forward.”
Philippe also talked about a project her tribe, which is not protected by levees, is working on: gardens in boxes that can be lifted with pulleys. Grand Bayou Village has tried traditional raised-bed gardens, but they have proven impractical. “Tides have been higher,” she explained to me afterward. “In storm events, we get more water, so they get inundated with saltwater.” That kills the plants. Hence the idea of gardens that can be raised and lowered mechanically. They could grow typical vegetables like tomatoes, along with traditional medicines and indigenous plants like wild celery and parsley. Philippe also described plans to create a floating garden by mounting a container on top of a 4-foot-by-8-foot section of plastic dock.
Listen: Christine Verdin describes how her family’s land disappeared in her lifetime
Like their ancestors did, the tribes are thinking about their children’s children—seven generations down the line. The council’s conversations are starting to bear fruit now, albeit on a modest scale. Down in Chauvin, Shirell Parfait-Dardar—inspired by discussions of raised-bed gardens—has built one of her own using recycled materials, including old trampoline parts that serve as a trellis for green beans. In Pointe-au-Chien, Theresa Dardar’s husband Donald has started growing vegetables under a federally subsidized hoop house behind the couple’s home. The couple was spurred to act after Theresa talked with a Department of Agriculture staffer who attends council meetings.
Pointe-au-Chien’s big project, still in its early phases, is to build a greenhouse for medicinal plants and possibly vegetables. Christine Verdin, the tribal council member, hopes the effort will teach children about gardening and will produce crops that people can transfer to their own yards. “If we can get things started here in this greenhouse,” she said, “I’m hoping it will multiply.”
More than any individual project, what’s instructive about the First People’s Conservation Council is the pooling of wisdom. Federal staffers provide technical guidance, but don’t steer the conversation. This, Zeise said, is refreshing. “It’s a solutions-based relationship—and not just the solutions that the [Agriculture Department] already has in mind, but the solutions that actually match the cultural and subsistence needs of the community,” she said.
One of those staffers, conservationist Randolph Joseph, said that’s the principle: People with a wide range of experiences, working in collaboration, stand the best chance of coming up with innovative responses to threats like land loss and saltwater intrusion.
“It’s going to take their creativity to solve that problem,” he said. “Once they get it down, then maybe we can help them to perfect it, to expand on it, to make it more efficient—and maybe [we can] adopt some of the practices that they’re using, that we may not have knowledge of. We don’t have all the answers to their issues. But I think working together, we can find some practices that will work.”
Joseph hopes the conservation council can become a model for tribal and non-tribal communities. Louisiana’s coastal tribes are some of North America’s first responders: They’re dealing with disaster ahead of most of us. But these environmental problems won’t remain isolated: In the Terrebonne Basin alone, the coastline could eventually creep north to the suburbs of Houma, according to state and federal coastal experts.
Indeed, other communities will have to contend with how to feed themselves in the face of climate change and coastal erosion. “We’re on the front lines and it’s going to spread,” Parfait-Dardar said. By trying solutions and sharing what works, she added, “we can help make a difference. We have to consider what we’re leaving behind for the next seven generations.” | <urn:uuid:49b39936-61f2-48a9-a176-99256bfa643c> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://barryyeoman.com/2017/02/reclaiming-native-ground-louisiana-tribes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370496227.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20200329201741-20200329231741-00509.warc.gz | en | 0.959782 | 3,914 | 3.390625 | 3 | The extract scores 4 points because it specifically includes discussion of soft skills such as communication, leadership, and problem-solving in the context of Louisiana's Native American communities addressing environmental challenges. The article features realistic scenarios that integrate emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and cultural awareness, with a strong emphasis on intercultural fluency and technological adaptation. However, it does not seamlessly integrate advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios that mirror real-world complexity to the extent required for a perfect score.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 795,218 | 1 |
Women’s rights and development: an exemplar of the rights-based approach to development
The reciprocal relationship between development and realising human rights is perhaps nowhere better exemplified than by women’s rights.
Women play a vital role in poverty alleviation, which they are only able to do fully if they are empowered to by being granted basic rights. The advantages gained from realising a woman’s rights to basic goods, education, political access and protection, etc. create positive ripple effects that help to ensure their children’s education, reduce the rate of child mortality, increase the economic productivity of the communities in which they live, and more.
The inherent equality of the genders and the positive relationship between achieving actual equality and development is broadly accepted at the international level. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 and ratified by an overwhelming majority of states is often described as an ‘international bill of rights for women’ and recognises the fundamental “equal rights of men and women”. Likewise, at the 2005 session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that “there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women”. Two of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), goal 3 – to promote gender equality – and goal 5 – to improve maternal health – are explicitly linked to women; and gender equality is mainstreamed into all the goals with the expectation that they are achieved in a non-gender discriminatory way.
But whilst the role of women in development is recognised at an international level, the global failure to make a step-change in gender equality – typified by the woeful steps towards achieving MDG 5 – demonstrates a disconnect with actual progress. In this way, it demonstrates the fundamental difference, challenge and controversy of the rights-based approach to development. For it is not enough following a rights-based approach, to simply accept at an international level or in a donor country that the genders are equal and seek to ‘improve the lot’ of women; a true rights-based approach sees legal, social and attitudinal domestic change as a necessary condition of progress.
The recent developments in India represent a good example of how this change may look in practice. The Indian government ratified CEDAW in 1993, showing its international commitment to the rights of women. However, even before the 2012 gang rape and subsequent death of a 23-year of student in Delhi, the prevalence of discriminatory attitudes, institutionalised and exacerbated by a lack of access to justice, demonstrated a domestic disconnect with the principles underpinning CEDAW. While some practical and positive steps in empowering women had been taken in the country – through women’s roles in microfinance, for example – their full capacity to both claim their rights and contribute towards combating poverty remained unfulfilled. The tragedy of the 2012 case and subsequent domestic outrage has provided pressure for legal change – such as the criminalisation of marital rape – in the country, however, that may lead to the fuller realisation of women’s rights. In this way, the fundamental shift in attitudes (or at least a recalibration of the dominant socio-political view) towards women is driving forward progress.
Experiences such as India present a glimpse of the necessary steps that need to be taken for international development and help us to consider how those steps could be taken outside the context of a response to a national tragedy. The global experience of the disconnect between international commitments and the actual realisation of women’s rights in-country must be considered if the post-2015 agenda is to more effectively achieve gender equality in order to drive development. | <urn:uuid:c42597db-0ea6-4423-9510-5c65dac2d5e6> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://www.a4id.org/policy/womens-rights-and-development-an-exemplar-of-the-rights-based-approach-to-development/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145443.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20200221045555-20200221075555-00036.warc.gz | en | 0.947279 | 772 | 3.46875 | 3 | The extract discusses women's rights and development, highlighting the importance of empowering women to achieve poverty alleviation and development. It touches on international commitments and domestic challenges, demonstrating a nuanced understanding of the complex issues involved. However, it lacks practical application, sophisticated communication scenarios, and advanced problem-solving opportunities, limiting its potential for comprehensive professional development.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 577,863 | 0 |
a) Pick a problem domain and describe it (Your choice)
You are free to choose a problem domain for this assignment. Possible choices are ATMs and libraries, car rental company, doctor’s office, etc. Give a short description of the problem domain and sketch the task of a computer System that is added to it, between half a page and one page of text.
b) Write brief use case Description
Write a brief use case (name, actors, goal, and short description) for the computer System in your problem domain. You should concentrate on the basic functionality of the system and ignore bells and whistles. Order/prioritize the use cases according to their relative importance for the development of the system.
c) Draw the use case diagram
Depict one use case in a use case diagram. (Ex: Dentist Visit System may have three: Appointment use case, Payment Use Case, Filing Insurance use case, etc.)
d) Draw an activity diagram
Draw one UML activity diagram from your use case diagram. Represent the flow of events graphically.
1. Problem Domain Description (Your Selection)
2. Use Case Description
3. use case diagram (Pick one use case to draw)
4. activity diagram (Draw activity diagram on the use case in #3) | <urn:uuid:6679394f-c236-4752-9b53-a69b0dac19d3> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://questions.instantgrades.com/a-pick-a-problem-domain-and-describe-it-your-choice-you-are-free-to-choose-a-problem-domain-for-this-assignment-possible-choices-are-atms-and-libraries-car-rental-company-doctors-office/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146643.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20200227002351-20200227032351-00533.warc.gz | en | 0.845562 | 273 | 3.171875 | 3 | The extract provides a structured assignment that develops problem-solving, critical thinking, and digital literacy skills. It requires students to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios, promoting practical application and complexity. However, it lacks explicit discussion of soft skills like communication, teamwork, and emotional intelligence.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 464,741 | 0 |
It is well documented that phytase supplementation in broiler diets improves P and Ca utilization through the destruction of phytate (IP6) and thereby allows for the reduction of inorganic phosphate in the diet.
Phytase is supplemented in approximately 95% of the poultry diets globally with the majority of the use associated with reduced diet cost and reduced phosphorus (P) excretion. For the purpose of this paper, this type of phytase supplementation will be referred to as the standard dose of phytase, normally around 500 FTU/kg.
Superdosing is a relatively new term used to describe phytase supplementation at ≥ 1,500 FTU/kg (Walk et al., 2014) or ≥ 2,500 FTU/kg (Adeola and Cowieson, 2011). This is predominantly associated with improvements in feed efficiency by 3-5 FCR points (Walk et al., 2013, 2014) through the rapid and nearly complete destruction of IP6 and the provision of inositol (Adeola and Cowieson, 2011; Walk et al., 2014). Through near complete destruction of IP6, more P is released from the phytate molecule, and other nutrients such as iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and sodium (Na) become more available to the animal as well. Therefore, superdoses of phytase could have multiple uses towards achieving sustainable poultry production; this is associated with improvements in feed efficiency, mineral utilization, and poultry products, with specific consideration regarding fast growth, minerals and breast meat myopathies.
Superdoses of phytase
Superdosing phytase has been defined as supplementing phytase greater than 2 to 5 times the standard phytase dose without taking the full nutrient matrix. Published data has indicated supplementing broiler diets with superdoses of phytase (1,000 or 1,500 FTU/kg) significantly improved feed conversion ratio of 35- (Santos et al., 2013) or 49-day-old broilers (Walk et al., 2013; Table 1). However, there was no significant effect of superdoses of phytase on feed intake or BW gain (Santos et al., 2013; Walk et al., 2013, 2014), and no effect of additional dietary inorganic P on performance or feed efficiency (Walk et al., 2013, 2014). Therefore, the influence of superdoses of phytase on FCR can be described as ‘extra-phosphoric’ and has been loosely correlated with the near complete destruction of phytate into inositol in the gizzard (Walk et al., 2014; Table 1).
Phytate is a potent chelator of minerals, particularly cations which are attracted to the highly negative charge on IP6. Similar to positive and negative charges on magnets, IP6 attracts positively charged minerals such as iron (Fe; Yu et al., 2012), zinc (Zn), and calcium (Ca; Xu et al., 1992) and renders them unavailable for digestion and absorption by the animal. When discussing IP6 and minerals, we generally refer to intact phytate with all 6-phosphate esters (IP6). However, through the action of phytase on IP6, smaller phytate esters are formed such as IP5, IP4 and IP3 (Greiner et al., 1993). These esters are thought to be innocuous and less of an anti-nutrient than IP6. However, this may not be the case and the smaller phytate esters have been reported to influence pepsin activity (Yu et al., 2012) and Cu (Persson et al., 1998), Zn and Ca (Xu et al., 1992) solubility, which may subsequently have an influence on utilization by the animal.
In addition, through the use of standard doses of phytase, significant quantities of IP6 are broken down to create IP4 through the removal of two phosphate groups (Greiner et al., 1993; Yu et al., 2012). As mentioned previously, this created IP4 may also be considered an anti-nutrient, as IP4 also has the capacity to bind minerals and pepsin, albeit not to the same extent as IP6. Through the use of superdoses of phytase there is a rapid and nearly complete destruction of IP6 in the gizzard and no effect (Walk et al., 2014) or a significant reduction in the concentration of IP4 (C. Walk and D. Ledoux, unpublished; Table 2) in the gizzard.
When compared with standard doses of phytase, previous authors have reported significant improvements not only in phytate P utilization (Beeson et al., 2015, 2016) but also in micro-mineral utilization (Pirgozliev et al., 2008; Rutherfurd et al., 2012) and bone mineral content (Williams et al., 2014) through the use of superdoses of phytase. These results confirm previous reports that phytase can improve micro- and macro-mineral utilization, and the use of superdoses of phytase results in rapid destruction of IP6 as well as IP4. This may be beneficial by further improving mineral utilization, including P, and thereby allowing for a further reduction in inorganic P in the diet (Table 3; Gomes et al., unpublished) or even a reduction of other supplemental micro-minerals. These improvements in mineral utilization become important when considering the increasing costs of poultry feed, the future of mineral supplementation in poultry diets and excretion into the environment, specifically of Zn and Cu, and the use of these micro-minerals to aid in an antibiotic-free production system (EFSA, 2014, 2015).
Increasing incidences of abnormalities in chicken breast muscle have become apparent in recent years. The main myopathies of interest include wooden breast (WB), which is characterized by pale, hard areas on the muscle, and white striping (WS), which is defined by superficial white striations (Sihvo et al., 2013). These abnormalities have been linked to improvements in genetic selection for improved growth rate, carcass yield and feed conversion, attributes that are also associated with dietary phytase supplementation. It is therefore of interest to understand what effect superdosing of phytase might have on breast muscle myopathies. To this effect, three trials were conducted to evaluate superdoses of phytase and the incidence of WS and WB in broilers. The results indicate that the incidence of WS and WB were not significantly influenced by superdoses of phytase, and while the incidence of WB was less prevalent than WS, superdoses of phytase reduced the most severe cases of WB by approximately 25% (Table 4; T. York and C. Walk, unpublished) and this could be as high as 50% in field conditions.
The etiology of WS and WB is yet to be determined but most likely multifactorial, predominantly associated with fast growth of the breast muscle (Russo et al., 2015) and a lack of nutrients to the area, which results in necrosis and an infiltration of immune cells (Sihvo et al., 2013). Eventually muscle fibers are replaced with granulation tissue or collagen-rich connective tissue, which results in the white striations, WB lesions and a higher fat content of the muscle (Sihvo et al., 2013). Due to the improvements in Zn and Fe utilization from superdoses of phytase, it could be hypothesized that the reduction in the incidence of severe WB may be due to the provision of minerals associated with oxygen and antioxidant capacity within the tissues. Previous authors have reported phytase supplementation at levels >1,000 FTU/kg increased free Fe in vitro and increased hemoglobin (Stahl et al., 1999) or hematocrit concentration (S. Mansbridge, I. Wellock, and C. Walk, unpublished) in the blood of pigs. Other authors reported high levels of phytase (12,000 FTU/kg) enhanced the antioxidant status of broilers by increasing the concentration of vitamin E, conenzyme Q10 and free retinol in the liver (Karadas et al., 2009). These effects have yet to be determined in the breast muscle of birds fed superdoses of phytase. Regardless, the incidence of WS and WB appears to be related to a multitude of unknown factors, most often cited is fast growth. Therefore, from the current work, it can be concluded that the use of superdoses of phytase will allow for improvements in feed efficiency or further reductions in dietary available P without negatively influencing the incidence of WS or WB and in some cases possibly reducing the most severe forms of WB.
In conclusion, superdoses of phytase result in near complete destruction of IP6 as well as a reduction in IP4 and an increase in inositol. This removal of IP6 and phytate esters has been previously associated with improvements in feed efficiency. New data indicate that superdoses of phytase allow for additional improvements in mineral utilization, particularly P, Zn and Fe. These improvements could allow for:
- Reduction in inorganic P in the diet,
- Result in an increase in oxygen capacity or antioxidant status of the bird and a reduction in the incidence of severe breast meat myopathies, or
- Improve the utilization of environmentally interesting minerals, such as Zn or Cu and thereby allow for more precise recommendations of these nutrients in the diet. | <urn:uuid:5b5dcc51-d7f8-45b2-a813-1c69eac48c69> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://zootecnicainternational.com/featured/new-applications-superdosing-phytase-maximize-phytate-destruction-improve-performance-minimizing-nutrient-excretion-poultry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320040.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623082050-20170623102050-00623.warc.gz | en | 0.933534 | 1,975 | 2.59375 | 3 | The extract does not demonstrate any coverage of soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving. It is a technical discussion of phytase supplementation in poultry diets, focusing on its effects on feed efficiency, mineral utilization, and breast meat myopathies. The language is formal and academic, with no apparent consideration of interpersonal skills or professional development.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 79,403 | 0 |
How to Teach ESL
Reading Lesson Plans
Are you interested in how to teach ESL?
Including texts and interesting articles is an important part of any ESL class, as it exposes the students to authentic texts, provides interesting topics for discussion, and helps them to extend their vocabulary. Reading lessons can also provide a great springboard for other interesting activites. Here are some guidelines on the essential elements that should be included in reading lessons in order to make the most of the material. You will find a description of each element that needs to be included after the list. At the bottom of the page you will also find some extra hints and tips.
How to Teach ESL
Stages of a Reading Lesson
- Warmer - set the context
- Pre-teach essential vocabulary
- Gist task
- First reading
- Detailed task
- Second reading
- Follow-on Speaking Activity
- Extension task
Warmer - Set the Context
It's always possible to tell the students what they will be reading about and then climb straight into the reading. But you don't want to do that. No. Definitely not. You want them to practise a bit of talking first, and get them interested in the subject. Here are some examples of ways you can do this:
- Give the students a quiz about the subject e.g. for a lesson about how elephants communicate, give them a multiple choice quiz about basic facts about elephants
- Get the students to tell you anything they know about a subject e.g. if discussing the lastest movie about Abraham Lincoln, ask the students for anything they may already know about him.
- The students can have a discussion whereby they need to resolve a problem presented in the text e.g. the increase of plastic bottles in a Nature Reserve .... they are on the committee responsible for maintaining the Reserve
- Give the students some information, so that they have to guess the remainder of the information e.g. you can give the students the title, and they have to guess what the article is about. When teaching about the Goodle Ngram, tell them that Google have digitized 5 million books, and ask them what they would propose to do with the information.
Pre-teach Essential Vocabulary
It's always possible to teach some new vocabulary from the text after the students have read it. This is especially useful for the busy and less prepared teacher.
But it's generally better to teach some vocabulary before they read the text, because then they will have more exposure to the word, will immediately see it, understand it in context, and therefore have a higher chance of remembering it in the long run. Of course it will also help the students to understand the text! When deciding which words to choose, bear the following in mind:
- choose words that are appropriate for the students' level
- don't teach more than 8 words
- choose words that will help the students to understand the listening
As a follow on task from teaching the vocabulary - if the vocabulary is appropriate, you can get the students to guess what will be in the listening on the basis of the new vocabulary.
There are 2 types of reading that you want the students to practise .....
- skimming - to get the general idea of the text (reading for gist)
- scanning - to get specific information from the text (reading for detail)
The first time the students read a text, they will be doing it for gist. Before they start reading, do the following:
- give the students 2 or 3 general questions which will check their overall comprehension of the text
- give them a specific timescale, so they know that they have to read it fairly quickly without stopping to check the detail
- give them the text ONLY when they have to read it, otherwise they will start to read it while you are talking to them
- some possible questions can include ..... the students drawing illustrations of the story, the teacher preparing illustrations which the students have to put in the correct order, choosing an appropriate title, choosing the correct summary, simply answering straight forward questions
The students need to read through the text in the allocated time given. As an alternative to getting the students to read through the text, you can do the following:
- read the text to them (this will help mix up the skills in the lesson by adding listening)
- give the students the text, but leave out every 10th word (or 9th, or 8th, depending which works better - make sure it's not too difficult), which the students have to fill in as they go along. Obviously check they have the correct answers before getting them to read the text for the second time e.g.
A baby girl in the US born 1)_________ HIV seems to have been cured after very early treatment 2)__________ standard drug therapy, doctors say.
The Mississippi child 3)___________ now two-and-a-half years old and has 4)_________ off medication for about a year with no signs 5)__________ infection.
More testing needs to be done to see 6)________ the treatment - given within hours of birth - would 7)_______ for others. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21651225)
After they have finished reading, get them to give feedback on the answer. This can be done either straight back to the teacher as individuals for smaller classes, or they can discuss the answers in pairs or small groups (in larger classes) before feeding back to the teacher.
Reading for Detail
The students now need to read the text for a second time, but this time looking for more specific detail and information. Give the students the questions in written form (either written on a hand out, or written on the board). Once again, give them a specific timescale, which should be longer this time. Questions can come in the following form:
- normal questions
- true/false questions
- multiple choice questions
- cut up the article and get the students to put it back in the correct order (if you want to do this, you have to leave out the gist reading)
- information share - give different parts of the article to different students, and get them to feedback the information they have (for this one you also have to leave out gist reading)
- giving titles to each paragraph of the text, or matching headings to the paragraphs
For more advanced classes, you can also get them to underline some of the words that they don't know as they read through it again. You can then go through these words with them once you have completed the reading task - however, don't feel obliged to go through ALL the words if there are too many. You can restrict the number by telling the students they can each ask about one word, or two or three (depending on the size of the class).
The students read through the text again in the time allocated.
Get feedback from the class the same way as before. how to teach ESL
Follow-on Speaking Activity
After the reading, it's a fine idea to give the students some form of activity to do, which is directly linked to the text. Here are some ideas:
- personalisation - the students have to discuss their own experiences relative to the article e.g. when talking about Emotional Intelligence, the students have to quiz and assess each other
- roleplay - the students have to act out scenarios which could have happened in the text, or as a result of the text e.g. if discussing Cheap Travel, the students have to roleplay a trip to a Travel Agent
- discussion/debate - get the students to resolve problems presented in the text e.g. if discussing pollution in the sea, what are their long term proposals to eradicate the problem
The text can also be used as a springboard for further activities apart from reading and speaking:
- go through more vocabulary from the text (but don't overwhelm the students with too many words)
- give the students words which they need to collocate with the new vocabulary (you can get some ideas at www.just-the-word.com, or www.prowritingaid.com). You as the teacher can give them the collocations (give the collocations randomly, and the students have to match them to the correct word), or for homework, the students have to find collocations
- teach the students new idioms with a words/themes that are somehow linked to the article
- grammar - get the students to identify a praticular grammar point in the text, which you then use to teach/revise/review a grammar point
- writing - the students need to write a letter as a response to the text, or summarise the text in their own words, possibly write a conclusion to the text, they could write a story using their new vocabulary and idioms etc etc
- pronunciation - get the students to read portions of the text out loud
- for homework the students can do further research on a particular topic e.g. they have to choose a current movie to go and watch with theirr 12 year old cousin, or choose a last minute holiday deal to go on with their friends. If you do this, give the students specific websites to search on, so they don't waste too much time using the search engines.
How to Teach ESL
Other Hints & Tips
- Choose texts and articles that will be useful and/or interesting for the students
- Make sure you choose texts that are at the right level for the students. If it's too difficult, it can be very discouraging. But, if the text is difficult, make the questions easier, and make sure the students know that they don't have to understand every word
- Make sure the definitions of the vocabulary you give are the same as the use of the word in the text
- don't use tabloid newspapers
- novels are difficult to use
- if you are using a coursebook, don't feel constrained by what they've done. Feel free to add, remove or move the elements around to get them in the correct order
- Very advanced classes do not need to read the text twice (gist and detail), as they will understand most things the first time. They also read very quickly
- Resources you can use include .... menus, maps, metro maps, directions, textbooks, magazines, news articles, classified ads, book and movie reviews, leaflets, holiday brochures etc etc I personally love the WEEK (published in the UK, although there also appears to be an American version), which summarizes the best media each week, and therefore saves me the job. But these texts are only suitable for Upper-Intermediate and Advanced classes
how to teach ESL
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how to teach ESL | <urn:uuid:7c0e5289-6cfb-4ea4-b8cd-42e9f3d836ab> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://englishisapieceofcake.com/how-to-teach-esl.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423716.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20170721042214-20170721062214-00705.warc.gz | en | 0.948381 | 2,245 | 4.15625 | 4 | The extract provides a comprehensive guide on teaching ESL reading lessons, covering essential elements such as setting context, pre-teaching vocabulary, and reading for gist and detail. It also includes follow-on speaking activities, extension tasks, and hints for choosing suitable texts. The material promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills, with opportunities for discussion, role-play, and debate. However, it lacks nuanced interaction, complex problem-solving, and advanced digital literacy skills.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 503,015 | 0 |
Suma Yapu is an association of communities in southern Peru dedicated to keeping the cultural and agricultural traditions of the Aymara people alive. It offers a platform for sharing heritage varieties of traditional crops, and skills for living close to the land – such as creating cloth from alpaca fiber, making pottery, and using medicinal plants. The association also works with government schools to ensure that Aymara cultural practices, including environmental conservation, are woven into the otherwise formal curriculum. Suma Yapu’s networks for rural and urban youth offer apprenticeship programs in place-based livelihoods, and spaces for reflection on upholding traditional culture in a globalizing world. Read more about their projects and philosophy of “development with identity” here (link in Spanish). | <urn:uuid:64ad657f-63c1-4943-aeff-fbfff854f405> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/planet-local/food-farming-fisheries/suma-yapu | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145839.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20200223185153-20200223215153-00209.warc.gz | en | 0.940681 | 157 | 2.609375 | 3 | The extract showcases a community-driven initiative that preserves cultural heritage and promotes traditional practices, indirectly fostering soft skills like cultural awareness, teamwork, and environmental conservation. However, it lacks explicit discussion of soft skills and complex problem-solving scenarios, limiting its depth.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 346,561 | 0 |
This article and interview is a guest post by Sarah Krementz (S), a student in Rob Dunn’s course on the Future of Life. Sarah Krementz is a second year student originally from Greensboro, N.C. pursuing a B.S. in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology. She is passionate about conserving the future of all organisms and educating her community on the importance of natural resources. She plans to pursue a career in either wildlife research and management or working with our future generations and teaching them how to protect all species.
Pollination is an essential process for the world’s agricultural system and without wild and domesticated pollinators, humans would not be able to grow and harvest the crops we rely on. While there are many pollinator species, such as birds, bats, butterflies, wasps, and moths, the dominant pollinators in the world are wild and domesticated honey bees. The future of pollination is critical to the evolution of agriculture and the balance of these ecosystems. While humans have changed the processes of agriculture through time, bees have always been an essential part of growing crops. Close to 12,000 years ago, humans created an agricultural system that relied on wild pollinators, but we have bred and now often rely on domesticated honey bees. Different factors such as increased greenhouse gas emissions, increased temperatures, pesticides, pathogens, and parasites (varroa mites) threaten the population of wild and domesticated honey bees. Some experts in the field have begun to look for alternative solutions to the role that honey bees may not be able to fulfill in the future. Artificial pollination utilizing drones is a new upcoming technology with promise and could be the future if native pollinators are not able to sufficiently pollinate crops. So, what will pollination look like in the next 100 or even 1,000 years?
Since pollination is so necessary to the way humans have been sustaining themselves for centuries, I wanted to get a better understanding of how pollination will look in the future. Not only what will change in my lifetime, but many years beyond that as well. I wanted to push the boundaries of our pollination experts’ ideas and beliefs to see what they think will be different about their fields of expertise. I have had the pleasure of interviewing experts in different realms of the pollination field, Dr. Becky Irwin, Dr. Eijiro Miyako, and Dr. David Tarpy. With a multitude of experiences and research interests, these professionals have studied the ins and outs of native wild bees, domesticated honey bees, and artificial pollination.
Dr. Becky Irwin (BI) is a professor at NC State’s Department of Applied Ecology as well as the director of NCSU’s Biology Graduate Program. Dr. Irwin’s lab at NCSU studies the ecological and evolutionary consequences of pollination mutualisms and their responses to environmental change. A community project that Dr. Irwin’s lab set up is the Bee Hotels on NC State’s campus where solitary bees are able to nest in urban environments, with an additional goal of educating local citizens about bee pollinator presence and importance.
Dr. Eijiro Miyako (EM) is an assistant professor in the School of Materials Science, at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), and in addition, he runs the MIYAKO Lab which focuses on the creation of game-changing technology. A lot of Dr. Miyako’s work has been researching and developing drones that are fit to pollinate different types of vegetation by transferring pollen on soap bubbles.
Dr. David Tarpy (DT) is a professor and extension apiculturist at NC State focusing on honey bee biology. Dr. Tarpy runs the NCSU Apiculture Program which in addition to learning more about honey bee biology and management, looks into beekeeping education and honey bee queen disease.
S: What do you personally think the most likely scenario is for 2100 and honey bees?
DT: I can definitely tell that this course is taught by Rob, lol! Given that we have been keeping bees since before recorded history, and that modern beekeeping hasn’t appreciably changed since 1852, I honestly don’t believe that a mere 80 years from now will be much different than it is today. How they are utilized in agriculture, however, will very much depend on the means by which we grow our food.
BI: I prefer to rely on evidence-based science for scenarios, so I guess my personal opinion isn’t too relevant.
S: What should the priority be in terms of the conservation of bees and their services? Where do we focus? Which species are most important? Which kinds of pollination?
BI: There are simple things that can be done to help many different types of pollinators, not just bees and not just specific species of bees. Conserving land for pollinator habitat is #1, and if one of the goals is pollination for agricultural crops, then making sure that that land is near agricultural production. The land needs native flowering species throughout the bloom season, and bare ground and dead wood for nesting sites. Other priorities: reduce use of agrochemicals and reduce cosmetic use of pesticides in urban areas and on lawns. The latter is a no-brainer; no one wants pesticides on themselves, their kids or their pets and it harms pollinators too. Honey bees are non-native and carry diseases/viruses that infect native bees. All honey bee keepers should be encouraged to control diseases and infestations in their colonies for the conservation of native bees.
S: If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase for the next 50 years, what impact will that have on the bees and their interactions with the environment?
BI: Bumble bees are extremely sensitive to temperature increases driven by climate change. Based on historical records, we are already seeing northern latitudinal shifts. With continued climate change, bumble bees will likely go locally extinct in their southern ranges. We will also likely continue to see range contractions.
S: How will the stress of increased temperatures from climate change play a role in the future of honey bees? Will it impact their ability to pollinate vegetation and produce honey?
DT: Honey bees are very widespread and as such they live in the arctic as well as the tropics. Therefore global warming will likely only have an indirect effect on them through their foraging options rather than limiting their range. It is unclear if higher temperatures and CO2 levels will result in more or less nectar and pollen in many flowering plants, since different species respond differently to such conditions.
S: If bee populations do decline enough that they cannot substantially pollinate crops, will humans need to develop a new system?
BI: Yes, there is no physical way to hand-pollinate that many flowers. Options include but are not limited to: rely primarily on managed pollinators such as honey bees; only have production from wind-pollinated species, which would severely limit our diets and vitamin intake; produce crops via artificial selection that are primarily selfing which likely isn’t possible for many species.
S: Why do wind pollinated species have fewer vitamins?
BI: The issue is all of the yummy and nutritious foods which are not wind pollinated. Think of all of the yummy and vitamin rich foods you would miss out on! You would be severely limiting your diet.
S: Some of the delicious foods that we wouldn’t be able to grow without wind pollination include wheat, rice, corn, oats, and nuts such as walnuts, pecans, and pistachios!
S: One project that your lab has worked on and implemented at NC State has been the solitary bee hotels. There are three different bee hotels on campus at NCSU that provide a nesting habitat for solitary bees in urban areas like Raleigh. The hotels also engage and educate the community about the important role of bees in urban environments, which encourages them to promote their preservation. The hotels seem so promising for solitary bees in urban areas, so do you think that bee hotels are something that should be pursued on a larger scale?
BI: They could be, but that alone can’t be the only solution. Only certain species nest in bee hotels. The vast majority of our bee biodiversity nests in the ground.
S: How important is it for a honey bee colony to have genetic diversity? What issues could arise if genetic diversity is not high enough? Do you see this happening in the next 50 years? Who is in charge of assuring this genetic diversity exists?
DT: Genetic diversity within colonies is indeed important for honey bees, which they acquire through the queen mating with dozens of drones. It has effects on colonies through improved brood viability, better division of labor, and lower likelihood of sweeping infections throughout the colony. At the population level, despite genetic bottlenecks in their introduction to the New World, management practices, and losses because of varroa and other parasites, honey bees still have a lot of genetic diversity because of the constant movement of colonies and breeding stock all across the continent.
S: If honey bees are already being bred for agricultural purposes, can they be bred for resistance against certain diseases? Could they be genetically modified in the future? Are GMO honey bees on the horizon?
DT: Yes, there are various breeding programs that have and are aimed at addressing many of the disease challenges facing honey bees, most focused on varroa mites because they are public enemy #1. While some use instrumental insemination, nobody is using genetic engineering approaches since bees are not as amenable to those techniques. While some researchers are using CRISPR and other techniques as a tool for understanding the basic biology of bees, nobody wants a Frankenbee even if they are useful.
S: Do you think there is any potential for selectively bred honeybees or transgenic honeybees to play new or different roles than they play today in the future?
DT: Transgenic bees no, but traditional selection yes. I am particularly interested in seeing breeding programs select stock that are more tolerant of certain viruses rather than mite-resistance. If mites only kill colonies by transmitting viruses, we should focus on the pathogen rather than the vector.
S: Is there any legislation that should be put in place or enforced to protect pollinators?
BI: Yes. Legislation could focus on cosmetic use of pesticides in lawns and urban/suburban areas. Legislation could also focus on a minimum acreage set aside for pollinator habitat (which would also benefit other wildlife) and tax breaks could be put into place for landowners who set aside a percentage of their land for active pollinator conservation. Education should focus on disease transfer – educating honey bee keepers about taking care of their colonies so they don’t transfer disease to wild bees is important. NC has excellent education and extension and active beekeeper clubs, but other states are not as lucky.
S: So you are saying that one of the problems for native bees is that honey bees make them sick?
BI: More complicated than that. If honey bee colonies are not well cared for and pathogens/viruses are not controlled, then yes, some of the honey bee pathogens/viruses can be transmitted to native bees. However, if honey bee colonies are cared for and the bees are given appropriate checks and control “medicines”, then this shouldn’t be an issue.
S: Is there a concern about pathogen and parasite transmission by pollinators?
BI: Yes, diseases are transferred among bee species and among managed and wild bees at shared floral hosts. Again, education should focus on reducing that disease transfer by keeping honey bee colonies clean. Individuals can also focus on planting plant species in pollinator habitat that have been shown to be lower transmitters of disease.
S: What are the most common diseases in honey bee colonies? What are the trends for these diseases? What does the management of these diseases look like in a decade?
DT: Honey bees have more known parasites and pathogens than any other social insect, in large part because they are so intensively studied but also because they are semi-domesticated. The most common economically important one can be found here.
With the notable exception of Varroa mites, beekeeping and disease management hasn’t really changed in the last 100 years or so, so my guess is that not much will change in the next 10 years. For Varroa, however, we are definitely not on a sustainable trend and thus I hope something might change for the positive. The more recent trend is that varroa mites, and importantly the viruses that they carry, are becoming more and more problematic for bees and beekeepers.
S: Is there something like COVID for native bees? Has there been? Would we even know?
BI: I’m not sure what you mean. Do you mean do native bees get viruses? If so, then yes, native bees do get viruses; native and managed can also transfer viruses among each other via shared floral resources.
S: What are the tradeoffs between using honeybees and native bees in pollination? Do you see this balance shifting?
DT: As addressed above, honey bees make up their lack of quality with increased quantity and utility. The main downside to native bees is that they are natural systems over which we have markedly less control of their abundance from year to year. Hopefully, with conservation efforts at the landscape scale, the native bee communities will be sufficient for commercial production agriculture, making it less reliant on honey bees.
S: Do you think that there is a future for artificial and even robotic pollination?
DT: I highly, highly doubt that robots will ever be as well designed or effective at pollination as bees.
BI: Maybe. But rather than throwing all of that money into robotic pollination, why not put it into conservation practices that we know work for conserving bees? And while robotic pollination may work for agricultural production, it won’t likely be helpful for wild plant pollination.
S: Do you think that drone pollinators are a viable option in large-scale agriculture? If so, when?
EM: For now, I tested the performances of this technology for pear, lily, azalea, and campanula. Future large scale experiments are challenging because the method still has issues to be resolved. Indeed, the use of a prototype artificial pollinator to spray soap bubbles caused a lot of waste as most bubbles would miss the flower. So, I believe that further innovative technologies, such as state-of-the-art localization and mapping, visual perception, path planning, motion control, and manipulation techniques, would be essential for developing autonomous precision robotic pollination on a large scale. I’ve just started the work with my coworkers. Stay Tuned!
S: How do the robotic pollinators work? How much pollen is transmitted on the bubbles? How does that compare with what a bee might do?
EM: They are automatically controlled by GPS with a google map. Soap bubbles are coming out and hit onto flowers from a drone for pollination. For now, 2,000 pollen grains can be loaded in a soap bubble for the pollination work. But that loading number is controllable just by mixing pollen in the bubble solution as you prefer pollen concentration. I have no idea how many pollen grains a bee can transfer. Anyway, bees are fickle insects for pollination and they cannot work at cold temperatures. They also physically scrub their body with a flower while collecting pollen. As the result, a flower is damaged and malformed fruits are often born. Although we have never compared the performances of the soap bubbles with bees up to now, I’m sure that soap bubble technique is more moderate than bees at least because of the characteristics of chemically functionalized soap bubbles such as softness and flexibility etc. Of course, we do NOT intend to destroy bees with this technology!
S: Can the drones pollinate in any season and any condition more generally? Or, at least in theory could they?
EM: It depends on types of flower and fruit. But if we can grow plants and flowers in a greenhouse at warm temperature, pollination might be available in any season. Theoretically, the principle of pollination itself is the same for all types of flowers. So, I’m sure that this method would be useful in any conditions. But the weather is a very important environmental factor for our technology. In fact, the effectiveness of the method would be decreased when it’s raining because rain drops might wash away the soap bubbles with pollen grains from the flowers. As you can easily imagine, a windy day is also not suitable for the work because soap bubbles would be flung up somewhere by strong wind. That said, no one wants to work outside under such a harsh condition. What do you think?
S: What does it take to build and run the drones in terms of resources and fossil fuels? If the drones prove to be unsuccessful, is there a way to modify them or would we need to explore other options? Or, to put it another way, what does success look like?
EM: The drones are driven by a fully rechargeable lithium ion battery. I think that might be ecologically friendly rather than fossil fuels, right? We are doing the best with colleagues who are workers in a company. As I said earlier, we are making a hybrid with a lot of cutting edge technology for practical realization.
S: What is the worst case scenario for artificial pollination and what would the impact be on the environment?
EM: I’m an optimistic guy. So, I don’t always think about the worst scenario. But, for the impact of our technology on the environment, we have already used an environmental safe soap bubble solution. In fact, the surfactant used in this study is biocompatible, but their elimination in the environment might cause their accumulation and difficult degradation. Therefore, we are trying to use eco-friendlier and edible surfactants for future practical pollination. But it’s almost completed. Looking forward to our next outcomes.
S: What would be the best outcome for artificial pollination?
EM: Our current technology has many advantages. At least, in comparison with other pollinations such as hand pollination and machine pollinations, we are sure that functional soap bubbles have innovative potentiality and unique properties, such as effective and convenient delivery of pollen grains to the targeted flowers, a dramatic reduction in the use of expensive pollen grains, certain attachments of soap bubbles on the pistils of the targeted flowers owing to the stickiness of the soap bubble membrane, softness and high flexibility in avoiding damage to delicate flowers and enhancement of pollen activity.
S: What is the worst possible scenario for bees? And how would it impact other species?
BI: Worst case scenario is that the majority of bee species go extinct. It will affect flowering plants and all species that rely on flowering plants. Other species beyond bees do pollinate, but on a global scale, bees are the major pollinators and it will affect all areas of life if they go extinct.
S: What would be the best outcome for bees?
BI: Best scenario is that major conservation efforts are successful and we reduce or reverse the current bee decline trend.
S: How do you think the ecological and agricultural roles of bees might be different 10 years from now? 100 years? 1000 years?
BI: Bees and other pollinators are required to pollinate about 80% of angiosperm species. So 10, 100, and 1000 years from now, I think that will still be the case. Bees are essential for the conservation of pollination and flowering plants. One could imagine a scenario where agriculture could get by with more wind-pollinated species, but that would strongly inhibit vitamins people can get from certain foods
DT: I’m not very good at predictions, especially those about the future. I think 10 years from now things won’t be entirely different with the role of honey bees in agriculture with the possible exception of the almond industry potentially not needing the same numbers of managed honey bee colonies. Because almonds are 100% dependent on honey bees for pollination, and they are such a large and critical crop concentrated in CA, every year 60%+ of the 2.8M beehives in the US are transported out to northern California to pollinate almonds. Given their reliance on honey bees and the problems the managed pollinator populations have been facing, almond growers have been trying to develop self-fertilizing almond varieties, which I understand are being planted right now. With a 5 year maturation time of almond trees, it’s possible that the demand for honey bees might be substantially less in the next decade, which may very well help to reduce the migratory stresses placed on colonies within large-scale beekeeping operations.
In 100 years, if we continue our high-input and intensive approaches to agriculture, I would imagine that beekeeping may still play a central role in agriculture because they are so amenable to high degrees of manipulation, live in perennial colonies of ~50,000 bees, and can be readily moved. If, however, we adapt a more sustainable approach to agriculture, one that embraces a more comprehensive perspective, then we may not be nearly as reliant on honey bees but rather foster local populations of native solitary bees, which have been shown to be much more robust for pollination.
In 1000 years, I predict that humans will be photosynthetic, and as such we will no longer need to grow crops for sustenance. | <urn:uuid:a96d3135-2563-4a02-a644-5043c071eec4> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://cals.ncsu.edu/applied-ecology/news/robots-honey-bees-and-disease/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943750.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20230322051607-20230322081607-00091.warc.gz | en | 0.952274 | 4,468 | 3.484375 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive discussion on pollination, bees, and their importance in agriculture, featuring expert interviews and realistic scenarios. It integrates emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities, with a strong emphasis on intercultural fluency and technological adaptation. However, the content primarily focuses on the technical aspects of pollination and bee conservation, with limited direct discussion of soft skills development.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 91,865 | 0 |
Several years ago, Friendship Valley Elementary School in Westminster, Maryland, was just a partially completed shell. The new building obviously lacked a physical core at that point, but the school lacked a spiritual core, too. The building had been assigned a principal but no staff members or students. As construction crews shaped the outward appearance of Friendship Valley, the principal, and eventually the staff, needed to create a vision for why Friendship Valley had been built and what the school would achieve once students walked through its doors.
Senge (1990) says that in its simplest form, a vision answers the question "What do we want to create?" (p. 206). He believes a vision generates a sense of commonality that permeates the organization. Wheatley (1992) describes a vision as organizational clarity about purpose and direction. Where would Friendship Valley finds its clarity, purpose, and direction? | <urn:uuid:e614e8c4-8d55-42b3-91a8-8f667fcf2ef2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108008/chapters/Bringing-a-Vision-to-Life.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708144156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124224-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969595 | 176 | 2.921875 | 3 | The extract discusses the importance of vision and purpose in an organizational setting, citing renowned authors Senge and Wheatley. It presents a realistic scenario, integrating leadership challenges and critical thinking opportunities, but lacks nuanced interaction and complex problem-solving. The extract touches on basic communication and teamwork concepts, but its primary focus is on vision and purpose.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 145,382 | 0 |
But the EU and the UK have a profoundly different understanding of what reciprocity means. While the EU approaches reciprocity as a moral principle and legal guarantee in its offer, the UK merely uses it as a technique to delay making commitments and with which to make threats that its offer is dependent on the EU doing the same. But because the substance and legal guarantees of the two proposals is very different, the impact on people’s lives would be too.
There are good reasons to argue that unilaterally guaranteeing citizens’ rights is not actually the most appropriate solution for Brexit negotiations. During the recent UK election campaign, Labour offered to unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in the UK. This seems morally the right thing to do as it would avoid making these citizens a bargaining chip in Brexit negotiations. But at the same time, it would make UK citizens living elsewhere in the EU more exposed to trade-offs between their rights and other points under negotiation.
Unilateral solutions also fail to recognise the cross-border dimension of the lives of the individuals involved, both EU and British citizens. EU citizenship provides a comprehensive set of rights, such as the recognition of qualifications, healthcare co-ordination between member states and rules to transfer entitlements, such as pension contributions, to another country. Such rules require international solutions and cannot simply be resolved by unilateral action from one party at the negotiating table.
Even offering British citizenship to all EU citizens in the UK, as former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has suggested, is not an appropriate solution as it would not account for such cross-border issues. Not all EU countries allow dual citizenship and some people may have to give up their citizenship of origin if they want to take British citizenship.
The case for reciprocity
The concept of reciprocity is therefore a more appropriate guide to dealing with the rights of the 3.3m EU citizens in the UK and 1.2m British citizens in the EU after Brexit.
There is a strong moral argument for reciprocity. Both British citizens in the EU and EU citizens in the UK have built up their lives in a foreign country in the legitimate expectation that EU citizenship would protect them. They were never asked to obtain visas, were never told their stay would be temporary, and (with the exception of national voting rights) were treated in pretty much the same way as nationals. They deserve to be treated equally in the opportunity to retain the life and rights they have legitimately acquired.
The EU has taken reciprocity seriously as a moral starting point. It has offered that all the rights of both EU citizens in the UK and the British in the rest of the EU will be protected for life. It wants to ensure this via an international agreement between the UK and EU that sets out in detail citizens’ current rights for life, to be protected by judicial control of the Court of Justice of the EU.
Under such an international agreement, which can be part of the UK’s Article 50 withdrawal agreement from the EU, or be a separate citizens’ agreement, each set of citizens acts as a safeguard for the rights of the other. Without such an international agreement, these citizens lose each other as safeguards and will be at the whim of national governments, which will undoubtedly undermine the rights on which they have legitimately built up their lives.
The EU might be willing to compromise by accepting an international court other than the Court of Justice to control the agreement, but legally safeguarding reciprocity at an international level is a strict condition for the EU in its Brexit negotiating position. As Antonio Tajani, president of the European parliament, said on a recent trip to the UK: “For us, the agreement is [to have the same rights] as today [and] yesterday, tomorrow … For us, it is a priority and it is a red line.”
Moral and legal principle
In contrast, the UK government’s rhetoric fails to recognise reciprocity as a moral and legal principle. Its offer is far less generous than the EU’s. Unlike the EU, the UK does not propose to guarantee the rights of EU citizens for life. It is ambiguous on who can retain them, and it undermines some existing rights, such as the ability for EU citizens to bring a family member to live with them in the UK.
Its proposal on citizens’ rights is actually unilateral: it intends to act unilaterally on the residence status of EU citizens by turning them into immigrants under general UK immigration law. This implies that EU citizens living in the UK will lose rights that were specific to them.
If the EU “reciprocates” on this offer, it would mean each of the 27 individual member states would deal with the residence requirements for the British living in their countries. This would leave the British in the rest of the EU at the mercy of 27 different and changing immigration laws on which the UK would no longer have any leverage.
So, instead of accepting reciprocity as a moral principle and legal guarantee, the UK is turning it into a race to the bottom at the expense of both EU citizens in the UK and its own citizens in the EU. | <urn:uuid:b2f0c4cb-50f9-4997-9813-3c2865d1fbf4> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://theconversation.com/european-law-expert-uk-has-sparked-race-to-the-bottom-that-will-strip-citizens-of-their-rights-80518 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145648.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20200222023815-20200222053815-00487.warc.gz | en | 0.97268 | 1,044 | 2.59375 | 3 | The extract discusses the concept of reciprocity in the context of Brexit negotiations, highlighting the differences between the EU and UK's understanding of the term. It presents complex scenarios requiring strategic thinking and advanced problem-solving, with a strong emphasis on intercultural fluency and nuanced interaction. The extract seamlessly integrates advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios, mirroring real-world complexity.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 346,235 | 1 |
|Title||Metrical and non-metrical analyses of Jomon crania from eastern Japan|
|Publication Type||Book Chapter|
|Year of Publication||1986|
|Editor||Akazawa, T, Aikens, CM|
|Book Title||Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers in Japan|
|Publisher||University of Tokyo Press|
Metrical and non-metrical analyses of Jomon crania from eastern Japan
For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.
From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.
The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years. | <urn:uuid:b767f870-ba26-4b68-8ef4-267a9b5b4459> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnhawks.net/node/25709 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704179963/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113619-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.847151 | 191 | 2.5625 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on scientific research and historical analysis. It does not provide opportunities for developing communication, teamwork, or problem-solving skills.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 169,072 | 0 |
In 1787, Irish statesman Edmund Burke argued in front of the House of Commons that the press should be permitted to report during sessions. He argued: “there are Three Estates in Parliament;”—the clergy, the nobility, and the House of Commons—“but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sits a Fourth Estate far more important than them all.”
Burke recognized the crucial role an independent press played in creating an informed electorate that could check the power of government and play an active role in society. With that crucial role comes a certain level of responsibility—the responsibility to determine for readers and viewers what information should be covered and to what extent.
It would have been hard for Burke to predict that in just over two centuries that responsibility would be shared by nearly every news-consuming member of the population.
Today’s equivalent of Burke’s “Reporters’ Gallery” is the vast and multifaceted world of modern media—every outlet from CNN to the New York Times to online zines. While there are now more sources of information than ever, there is also a new trend in digital news that is both empowering and dangerous: mass data collection and its influence on content.
Television news content has long been subject to the influence of viewer trends: The Nielsen ratings system allows network executives and stakeholders to see trends in viewer interest and make decisions for the news outlet based on that data. TV news is therefore often less respected for its sheer journalistic integrity and viewed as “entertainment news.”
However, as print news transitions to the web, it is becoming increasingly subject to the same kind of data capabilities and, therefore, the same consequences. Frank Sesno, the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University and former Washington Bureau Chief for CNN, says the amount of information regarding reader trends available to print media corporations has increased tremendously in the digital age.
“The [Washington] Post and the [New York] Times can see online how many people view a certain story, how much time they’re spending on it, what the bounce rate is … they have just as many if not more metrics as TV and networks used to have,” Sesno told the Tufts Observer. “This is…new with online news. In the days when newspapers were printing papers, there was no way to tell how many people were reading a story on page eight vs. page twelve. You only knew what your circulation was.”
Now, print and online news outlets have the ability to know far more. News metrics detailing trends in readership and analytics on specific stories can give news organizations data on not only how many hits a story gets, but also how long the reader stays on the page. These metrics also show whether the reader clicked any embedded links to follow them through, and even what parts of the page the reader lingered on longest.
There are significant consequences to this developing relationship between the digital news media and the news-consuming public, not all of them negative. For instance, such technology has led to the pseudo-democratization of the editorial process, bringing the public’s input into the decision-making processes of producers and editors, and customizing the news cycle according to what the readers want. However, John Ciampa, director of the Tufts Film and Media Studies (FMS) program, believes this is more dangerous than liberating.
“To put that burden on the consumer is unreasonable,” Ciampa told the Tufts Observer. “There is some partnership between the consumers and the producers, but the onus should be on the producers to get out what’s important to the best of their ability, and not neglect that in lieu of what’s profitable or popular.”
In other words, news outlets must not replace their responsibility to judge the newsworthiness of a story with the data now available, turning the news cycle into a haphazard democratic process instead of a thoughtfully assembled collection of information.
“This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you don’t go to a doctor expecting to correctly diagnose yourself. That’s the doctor’s job as a professional,” Ciampa said. “In the same way, it is incumbent on journalists as the professionals to present a broad spectrum of information.”
Sesno, who still works for CNN and sometimes stands in for Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter, similarly argues that metrics can’t replace the professional judgment of editors and reporters: “There are two types of news outlets out there today: those that follow metrics and the popularity of stories that already exist, and those that lead their audiences to stories they think are important or relevant, rather then following a trend,” he said. “Generally speaking, idea magazines like Vanity Fair or The Atlantic take their roles more seriously and do more to lead the public in terms of trying to set the agenda. Cable television follows the public. So, if a big story happens and they see big numbers on it they will ratchet up their coverage on it almost in real time.” Sesno added that papers like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal would probably be “somewhere in between.”
A campaign to reform the type of metrics used in gathering news data has gained traction. The Associated Press-sponsored data collection site, www.metricsfornews.com, argues on its homepage that while it is crucial for data to be used in determining news content, “Publishers can’t really quantify the nature of the content they produce or how the audience engages with it.” Thus they have designed a strategy for metrics called “News Analytics,” as opposed to the standard web analytics used by advertisers to target consumers online based on interest.
Many strongly support the use of these metrics in determining what content to run, such as Andrea Iannuzzi—the editor of Italian newspaper l’Agenzia Giornali Locali, who, in his 2014 speech at the International Journalism Festival advocating for their wider use, compared the use of news analytics to “turning on a light.”
But if the reading patterns of news consumers drive content, the public becomes responsible for the significant gaps in its own knowledge that have been created by the omission of varying topics and stories from mainstream media.
These gaps can skew a reader’s perspective on an issue or even on the state of world events. After all, if content is being driven by replicating stories that readers enjoy or value reading most, then those readers are far less likely to be exposed to stories that they may not necessarily enjoy or think about very often, such as the complex roots of poverty in America or the political corruption in Nigeria.
Gaps in international coverage have widened over the past few decades. According to a 2007 report conducted by Pew Research Center and the Columbia School of Journalism, the number of news organizations with foreign bureaus has decreased by over 50 percent.
“We’re a very parochial media, and there’s this assumption at the production level that Americans don’t care about these stories,” Sesno said. “The only reason civil war and conflict in Syria and Iraq is front page news unequivocally is because Americans are involved.”
When news content is determined on a majority rules basis, there is also a concern about gaps in coverage for the disenfranchised. Julie Dobrow, co-director of the Tufts FMS program, has seen this problem grow in recent years.
“There are large groups of people—racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation—who just routinely haven’t been covered by mainstream media,” Dobrow told the Observer. “So yeah, absolutely there have been huge gaps.”
Recently, this gap has been evident in the American news coverage of the terrorist attacks that occurred over the past few weeks. Based on sheer exposure, it would be safe to say most, if not all, of the readers of this article know about the attacks in Paris two Fridays ago that resulted in the deaths of 129 civilians. It is far less commonly known that there were also two coinciding bombings in Beirut the day before, in which 43 people were killed and 200 were injured. This story conflicts with the straightforward “us versus them” narrative that underpins the Paris attacks, in which a Western country was targeted by foreign extremists. Furthermore, because France is a Western power, this type of violence is seen as more shocking to the Western media outlets that covered the Paris attacks than the attacks in Beirut. This raised concern and outrage among many people who questioned the motives behind this erasure: “When my people died, they did not send the world in mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world,” wrote Lebanese doctor Elie Fares on his blog.
This example of uneven coverage is just one of many illustrating what Ciampa believes is the “most dangerous gap” created by the influence of news analytics on content.
“Is the news media reaching people who are disenfranchised or who just feel left out of the information loop? That’s a dangerous thing in a democracy,” he said. “You want news that’s relevant across all socio-economic divisions.”
There are also concerns that metrics will only feed the beast of a capital-driven, profit-model news media.
“Advertisers are also privy to all that information, so that in turn is going to dictate where they want to spend their money and how, which impacts the method of coverage for your given news organization,” Ciampa said. “I think there’s a cyclical thing happening where there’s a lot of influences coming back to the news room that it maybe didn’t have to deal with just a few short years ago.”
This flow of capital has been known to drive news organizations to act with their bottom-lines in mind rather than the needs of their audiences. When it comes to news organizations, the capitalist argument for the objective benefits of the profit model doesn’t hold up. Sheer demand for a particular type of story does not necessarily mean that news organizations should increase their supply and, in turn, decrease their output of content on less-desired stories. It was possible for news outlets to ignore this impetus when the only insight into reader’s interests was overheard conversations about the day’s news, but now that readership trends can be tracked so closely, competition between publications has intensified around this definitive data.
“When you have media that are not state-supported, like in this country, they have to get on the air, get on the web, get printed…there has to be some way of monetizing what they do,” Dobrow said. “I think that’s been a huge driver of what we do and don’t see.”
If these unseen factors are so important in determining the content of the day’s news, then it is highly possible that readers and viewers are always one click away from being less informed without even knowing it. The metrics system is effective in gathering sincere data specifically because its participants are not aware of their roles as participants.
However, according to Sesno, becoming an informed citizen isn’t a difficult task, and the responsibility shouldn’t lie solely with the journalists and news organizations themselves. News consumers should be more active in their involvement with the media.
“It’s nice to point fingers at the media sometimes, but the fact of the matter is that there is virtually no member of the public today who could not be completely and pretty easily and very well informed,” Sesno said. “Because everybody who has a computer or smart phone or whatever it is has access to the Guardian, the Economist, the Times of London, the NY Times, the LA Times, Chicago Tribune… there is so much information out there that to sit back and blame the media as a member of the news-consuming public is a complete cop-out.”
This surplus of information does not necessarily mean people are exposed to broader topics, however.
“There’s more information, but people actually tend to read what they usually would, just in higher volumes,” Dobrow said. “If there’s more available, it doesn’t necessarily mean that people are diversifying.”
Despite their difference of opinion on the effects of an expanding news world, Sesno and Dobrow do agree on the best possible solution to the problem of gaps in coverage: education.
“Media literacy could be taught in high school, and should be taught in college as well for sure, in order to expose students to and teach them about about different sources of information so they can be better-informed citizens,” Sesno said.
Dobrow said that the Tufts FMS program strives to make media literacy a primary goal for all of classes under its banner, an indicator that misinformation and issue ignorance continue to be major problems for current college-age news consumers despite the increased number of news outlets.
She argues this is an incredibly important skill set to have if the rapidly changing media world continues down its current path of data-driven complexity. “In about 20 years…you’ll be seeing a news landscape that probably looks quite different than what it is today,” Ciampa agreed. “I think what you’ll see is that there will be more choice than ever. A lot of it will be good, and a lot of it will be so-so, and a whole lot of it will be bad.”
The responsibility lies in the hands of the news consumer to determine which is which—to recognize biases, avoid misinformation, cross check sources, and fill in the gaps.
At the end of the day, this issue is about those readers. It’s about treating the news like the crucial cornerstone of democracy that it is, not as a cursory time-killer in which to engage only while in the waiting room or on the toilet. The gaps in news coverage—both in its breadth and depth—are increasingly being created by the news consuming habits of the very people who complain so frequently about them: the public.
As CBS anchor Eric Sevareid said in his legendary 1977 farewell transmission, “In this time of dangerously passionate certainties…it is important to remember that ignorant and biased reporting has its counterpart in ignorant and biased reading and listening. We [reporters] do not speak into an intellectual or emotional void.”
If this is still true, it’s time for journalists and news consumers alike to start acting like it. | <urn:uuid:034e4bf9-dd7b-4826-b1f0-4f34595fa4b1> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://tuftsobserver.org/framing-our-focus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146341.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20200226084902-20200226114902-00331.warc.gz | en | 0.959109 | 3,107 | 2.640625 | 3 | The extract discusses the evolution of the media landscape, the impact of data collection on news content, and the responsibility of both journalists and news consumers in creating an informed electorate. It touches on various soft skills, including critical thinking, media literacy, and the importance of nuanced communication. The extract presents complex scenarios, requiring sophisticated analysis and strategic thinking, and highlights the need for intercultural fluency and technological adaptation. However, it does not provide explicit guidance on developing these skills or offer practical applications for professional development.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 464,529 | 1 |
If you are at all familiar with 23andMe, you know that a lot of science goes into what we do. But with it have always been considerations about how to do our work ethically and responsibly.
A good example of this is our recent work to address disparities in genetics research for underserved populations internationally. As part of that work we collaborate with scientists working among underserved communities in Africa, the Americas, and parts of Asia through our Populations Collaborations Program.
To ensure that this research is conducted ethically, 23andMe’s Research Team developed a framework that is specific to working in these communities. The framework outlines key ethical principles and best practices for conducting that research that meet the ethical challenges of engaging with populations historically underrepresented in genomics research. In the process, our team developed what could be a model for other researchers working in these communities.
Research Ethics at 23andMe
The Research Ethics team at 23andMe develops the protocols and policies for conducting all the different research projects 23andMe undertakes. And all of that research is overseen by an outside, third-party Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB is involved early in any research project, looking at the proposed scope of the study, the way we conduct that research, and how we communicate with participants. The IRB’s job is to ensure that our work complies with federal regulations. In turn, the 23andMe Research Ethics Team acts as a liaison between the IRB and our scientists.
23andMe also applies The Common Rule (The Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (also known as the Common Rule or 45 CFR part 46) to all of its research. The Common Rule promotes the ethical conduct of research and the protection of people participating in research). It was built upon the ethical principles laid out in the Belmont Report, which describes guidelines for treating people right in research. Those guidelines, first developed in the early 1970s, grew out of the revelations that detailed the egregious treatment of biomedical research people. Among the more infamous in this country is the Tuskegee syphilis study. From the Belmont Report come the basic principles around respecting research participants, ensuring that participants are not harmed, and are treated fairly.
However, when conducting research with international populations underrepresented in research, there are additional ethical considerations that require tailored approaches and additional commitments that expand beyond the federal regulations for conducting ethical research. To this end, we identified a need to develop an ethical framework that extends beyond the requirements of the Common Rule. We wanted to provide guidelines and best practices for the conduct of ethical industry-academia collaborative research with understudied populations.
Coordinating all that work is a tall order, but after more than 15 years, we have it down to a science. It helps that from the beginning 23andMe baked ethical considerations into what we do. It also helps that we have regulatory rules to help guide that work.
That’s the job of people like Emily and Anjali, who are part of the 23andMe Research Team. The team includes a core group of experts who ensure that the interests of our research participants and our customers are considered and protected.
International Ethics Framework
In February, 23andMe Regulatory Scientist Emily Bullis, MA, and Senior Program Manager Anjali Shastri, Ph.D., presented an ethical framework developed for Industry and academic partnerships on genetics research as part of a seminar series put together by the Center for ELSI Resources and Analysis based out of Columbia University. ELSI is the acronym used for the Human Genome Project’s Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of mapping the human genome.
Founded in 1990, the program helps to identify and address issues that could arise from genetic research that impacts people, families, and communities. 23andMe has engaged with the ELSI community since our founding. The framework guides our work on the Populations Collaborations Program, which has involved research collaborations in Angola, Madagascar, Honduras, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, among other locales.
The framework was developed for 23andMe’s purposes, but Emily and Anjali are actively seeking feedback. They’ve reached out to scientists, bioethicists, non-academics, and the communities impacted by our international research. Ultimately, they hope the framework will inform other genetic research in underrepresented populations. In turn, it could help expand the impact and the benefit of that research.
Emily and Anjali built the framework by first identifying the key stakeholders who should have a say in how the research is conducted. The stakeholders they identified include the local community being studied, the research participants, and the local scientists and regulatory bodies and their institutions.
They also shared some of the core principles of the framework we developed:
- The first pillar of the framework is a commitment to: build and maintain long-term relationships with each of these groups, before, during, and after the research takes place
- The second pillar is to, through these interactions, derive local, historical, social, political, and economic context
- The third pillar is a commitment to developing all aspects and plans for the research in collaboration with key stakeholders so they have a say in how the research is conducted and how their data are used. The hope is that these groups inform all aspects of the research. For example:
- They help develop educational materials to explain the research and the informed consent.
- They communicate potential risks to the individual and community being studied and help develop the plans to minimize these
- They help develop plans for the research data and samples to be sure that they collected, used, and stored according to community preferences
- They help identify opportunities to maximize benefits to be shared with the local community, including supporting local scientists
- They help identify the best way to give research results back to the people who participated.
These simple principles have not always been followed by western researchers working among underrepresented populations. Language and cultural barriers, the lack of access to technology or education, can further compound the problem.
In working with our collaborators, 23andMe made sure our researchers engaged with local academic institutions and local communities before, during and after their work. We and our collaborators worked with local groups to ensure that community members fully understood the risks and benefits of participating in research. For some of our collaboration projects, 23andMe has created scholarships for local community members, given out community benefit grants, and provided assistance to local scientific institutions.
Behind Every Data Point
Ethics, rules, and regulations are important, but probably what is most important at 23andMe is our culture.
At the core of 23andMe is the idea that behind every data point is a human being. And that research participants are not subjects, but people who belong to communities and populations and deserve to have a voice in research.
That culture is what overlays all the work we do. As our research has expanded to include collaborations with scientists working with remote and underrepresented populations around the world, new issues can pop up. But it’s our culture, built on a respect for people, and approaches developed by our Research Team, that helps guide us. Maintaining that integrity promotes trust and support for the research we do that can also benefit people living in those understudied communities. | <urn:uuid:321e3270-e2f0-4b02-85ea-8d14bae5a5f3> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://blog.23andme.com/articles/an-ethical-framework-for-international-research | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224651815.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20230605085657-20230605115657-00724.warc.gz | en | 0.950598 | 1,508 | 2.890625 | 3 | The extract scores high for its comprehensive discussion of ethical considerations in research, particularly in underserved populations. It showcases a nuanced understanding of cultural awareness, emphasizing the importance of community involvement and respect for participants. The text also highlights the company's commitment to responsible research practices, demonstrating a strong professional attitude and work ethic. However, it lacks explicit discussion of other soft skills like leadership, teamwork, or digital literacy.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 872,208 | 1 |
“You enjoy teamwork and have good social skills.” We all have probably come across requirements like ‘good social and people skills’ when browsing through job advertisements. It seems like today, every employer is expecting their applicants to have these skills. An outgoing extrovert can naturally feel comfortable in situations of interaction, whereas a reserved introvert may find the requirement for good social skills a matter of distress. There is often confusion between sociability and social skills which, in fact, are two different things. So what are good social skills and why are they needed in professional life?
We spend large parts of our days isolated in front of our computers without real human contact, communicating endlessly with others over instant messaging applications and email. Yet the more technological development advances, the more the importance of soft skills is emphasized in working life. For example, the recent studies of Deming (2017) and Jokinen & Sieppi (2018) found that the importance of social skills has increased over the past decades. Today, a growing number of work duties require good social skills.
The development of automation and robotics has enabled us to assign the foreseeable, manual routine work to machines and robots. For example, robots take over assembling tasks in factories or handle a company’s payroll computation. However, there are still certain tasks requiring social interaction that are difficult, if not impossible, to completely automate. The professions of a psychologist or a therapist, for example, are strongly linked with interaction and human presence, which is why it’s difficult to imagine that a robot could perform the job.
The fact that a psychologist or a therapist needs good social skills is a surprise to no-one. But good social skills are also required in the IT sector, where the work often consists of digitizing processes, solving problems and analyzing information using the latest technology. Although the job descriptions of the IT sector have traditionally not been linked with social interaction and working with people, the work itself consists of a lot more than just independently slogging away with data. Robots may be able to perform routine tasks, but they cannot handle challenging negotiations or work well in a project team workshop. Hakola, Hiila and Tukiainen (2019) have written a book about the concept of team intelligence, which means identifying and using the team’s internal skills and shared competence in the development of new ideas and solutions. Social skills are required in the team intelligence’s building process, and an organization needs team intelligence in order to utilize artificial intelligence in the best way possible.
In addition to the quiet, independent work, an IT specialist’s job description includes problem-solving with colleagues, meeting with clients and guiding others in the workplace. Due to technological development, our ways of communicating have undergone a change. Most of our social interaction happens in instant messaging applications and over email, and even though technology makes communicating easier, we still need social skills when using these communication tools. For example, situational awareness, the ability to put ourselves in other people’s position and the ability to express emotions online instead of communicating with each other face to face are required. Our workdays consist of various situations of interaction with different personalities and, therefore, we are constantly using our social skills.
Social skills are useful in every work community and in life in general. They help us to function in different and surprising situations of interaction, to connect ourselves to different groups of people and to communicate in an effective manner. Good social skills make it easier to meet new people and to have conversations, to work in teams and to express our own opinions, as well as to take other peoples’ viewpoints into consideration.
When the employer is looking for a person with good social skills, it usually means the ability to:
Even though the importance of social skills is nowadays emphasized, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone has to be an outgoing extrovert in order to succeed in the professional world. Social skills and sociability are not synonyms. Some of us find socializing more natural than others but being talkative and outgoing does not mean that you have good social skills. Quite the opposite. An outgoing person might find it difficult to listen to others and give them space in group situations. On the other hand, a shy and introverted person can have excellent social skills. For example, their strengths might include listening to and considering other people.
Being an extrovert or an introvert must never be confused with a person’s level of social skills. While we are looking for example for a software developer with good social skills, that does mean we are looking for extroverts or introverts, but rather, Valamis is looking for a person that works well as a team member and knows how to communicate with colleagues, clients and other cooperation partners. All personality types have their own advantages. Studies show that being an introvert can be beneficial for tasks requiring concentration and perseverance, whereas extroverts often thrive in positions requiring presentation and social interaction skills. Different positions require different social skills. Different social situations are emphasized in the work of a salesperson or a consultant compared to a data scientist or a software designer.
Good social skills are one of the basic requirements of professional life. They are skills just as much as literacy or language skills are. No one is born a master, but skills can always be developed. It is possible to develop social skills by, for example, observing the behavior of oneself and others in different situations of interaction. It’s important to be aware of one’s own strengths related to social skills and to recognize the areas that require further development. Let’s also bear in mind that both introverted and extroverted people have their own place in the professional world because it is the different personalities that together account for a rich work community. | <urn:uuid:df3ccfc8-1fbc-4767-95cb-6fdec022c3a3> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.valamis.com/blog/on-the-hunt-for-social-skills | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296950373.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20230402012805-20230402042805-00077.warc.gz | en | 0.953764 | 1,188 | 2.90625 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive discussion of social skills, their importance in professional life, and their distinction from sociability. It includes realistic scenarios, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking opportunities, making it a valuable resource for developing soft skills. The text also acknowledges the role of technology in changing communication and emphasizes the need for social skills in various contexts, including teamwork and digital literacy.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 445,145 | 1 |
5 Wonderful Buddhist Tales that Will Make You Wiser
Buddhism comes from the word “budhi,” which means awaken. Therefore, Buddhist philosophy is considered the philosophy of “the process of waking up.” A process through which you must not only open your eyes, but also the rest of your senses and your intellect. You can do this through many different ways, one of which is through Buddhist tales.
These five Buddhist tales, will encourage you to leave behind apathy, develop a greater understanding, and become a wiser person. We hope you enjoy them and take advantage of all of the wisdom they contain.
The cup of tea
The professor arrived at the Zen master’s house and introduced himself by boasting about all of the titles and degrees he had acquired throughout his long years of studying. Then, the professor told him the reason for his visit, which was to learn all of the secrets of Zen wisdom.
Instead of giving him explanations, the master invited him to sit down and served him a cup of tea. When the cup filled up, the wise old man, who was apparently distracted, kept pouring the infusion so that the liquid spilled over onto the table.
The professor couldn’t help but call out: “The cup is full, no more tea fits inside”, he warned. The master put the teapot down and affirmed: “You are like a cup, you arrived full to the brim of opinions and prejudice. Unless your cup is empty, you won’t be able to learn anything”.”
The first of these five Buddhist tales teaches us that with a mind full of prejudice, it is impossible to learn and take into consideration new beliefs. It’s necessary to “empty oneself” of old precepts and be open to new teachings.
Buddha was transmitting his teachings to a group of disciples when a man came up and insulted him, with the intent of attacking him. Under the gaze of everyone present, Buddha reacted with utmost tranquility, remaining totally still and silent.
When the man left, one of his disciples, enraged by such behavior, asked Buddha why he had let that stranger abuse him in such a way.
Buddha answered serenely: “If I give you a horse as a gift, but you don’t accept it, whose horse is it?” The student, after a moment’s hesitation, answered: “If I don’t accept it, it would continue being yours.”
Buddha nodded and explained that, although some people may decide to waste their time giving us insults, we can choose whether we want to accept them or not, just as we would with any other gift. “If you take it, you’re accepting it. And if not, he who insults you is simply left with an insult in their hands.”
Two Buddhist monks, one old and one young, were strolling outside of the monastery, near a river that had flooded its surroundings. A beautiful woman came up to the monks and asked them for help crossing the river. | <urn:uuid:1c326bcf-c99d-406f-bb7e-8296aac6b66b> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://exploringyourmind.com/5-wonderful-buddhist-tales-will-make-wiser/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945368.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20230325161021-20230325191021-00707.warc.gz | en | 0.97928 | 655 | 2.859375 | 3 | The extract scores 3 points because it includes discussion of soft skills such as emotional intelligence, leadership, and critical thinking through Buddhist tales. The stories promote realistic scenarios that integrate these skills, encouraging readers to be open-minded, manage emotions, and think critically. However, the extract lacks complex, real-world problem-solving opportunities and nuanced interaction, limiting its depth.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 351,489 | 0 |
by Grace Lim and Jay Vickery
scaling mt. trashmore
On this day, James Feldman and his students will climb atop Winnebago County’s tallest peak. It isn’t too windy; it’s also not too hot. The students may not appreciate those weather details yet, but Feldman knows, they soon will.
On this day, Feldman is teaching his students a lesson that cannot be replicated in the classroom. He has taken his Campus Sustainability class to the Winnebago County Landfill. “There is no more tangible way to understand the problems that we have with waste management, and the problems that we have with over-consumption than by standing at the top of highest point of Winnebago County,” says Feldman, an associate professor of Environmental Studies and History at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. “This is the tangible place to experience what it means to consume like an American.”
Dr. James Feldman with students at the base of the Winnebago County Landfill.
At the base of the landfill, the students pile into two vans to follow a waste management worker in a pickup truck up and up the mountain of trash, which measures about 135 feet high or as tall as a 12-story building. When they get to the peak, the students, usually a chatty bunch, stand silent, taking in the sight before them—trash and more trash. The lunar-like landscape made up of monochromatic specks of brown stretches across the horizon. Flocks of seagulls search for food among giant bulldozers compressing the ever-growing amount of waste.
Students’ reactions vary from those who turn green, repulsed and unable to stand the stench to those who are excited to how trash is converted into methane gas. But the overall message is clear: The residents of Winnebago County produce a lot of trash.
“Standing on a mountain of trash and seeing all the junk that’s there and smelling the junk, it’s such a powerful experience,” Feldman says. “It’s really an instructive way to spend a class period.”
Since 2004, Feldman has been teaching students to think critically about complex problems that face the world. He is a charter member of the Campus Sustainability Council and co-author of the Campus Sustainability Plan, a comprehensive plan to guide the University’s sustainability initiatives. He is also a 2011 Edward M. Penson Distinguished Teaching Award winner and the author of A Storied Wilderness: The Rewilding the Apostle Islands, which was released in spring of 2011. For the school year 2011-2012, Feldman is on sabbatical, conducting research on his next project—the history and sustainability of radioactive waste management.
History and the Great Outdoors
Born to an attorney and a social worker, Feldman always had an affinity for history and nature. He never lacked ideas for grade school essays because he could always find something to write about relating to either topic. His love for the good earth and all her stories was further cemented when he went to Camp Nebagamon in Northern Wisconsin as a youth. “We would go canoeing and hiking,” he recalls. “I just loved those kinds of trips.”
While majoring in history at Amherst College in Massachusetts, Feldman returned to Camp Nebagamon every summer as a wilderness trip leader. It was that point he realized he could turn his passion for nature and history into a career. Feldman went to graduate school and earned his master’s degree in history at Utah State. After being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1996, he spent 15 months in New Zealand studying environmental history and politics of the island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. His work not only dealt with environmental policy but historical questions as to how a treaty from1840 (Treaty of Waitangi) still affects New Zealand’s indigenous people today. It was in New Zealand that Feldman discovered how he could turn his interest in nature and history into social action. “The work that I did there really convinced me that there was a way to make historical research applicable to modern issues,” says Feldman, who earned his doctorate in American history from UW-Madison.
Lessons from the Past
Students, Feldman says, must study what has transpired to understand what is happening now to the environment. “Students come into the classroom assuming that history is history and doesn’t matter today,” he says.
The students soon learn how wrong their perceptions are. “We are today still wrestling with the same kinds of issues that people wrestled with 20, 50, 80 or 100 or 200 years ago,” Feldman says, adding that in his Environmental History class he challenges his students to look at landscape and cities from a historical perspective. “Why are cities set up the way that they are? Why are streets laid out the way they are?”
Critical examination on the students’ part may lead them to think about how to address current environmental issues. Kaci Worth, an environmental studies major with a minor in history, credits Feldman for making her aware about how the way she lives her life could have great consequences. “Jim stresses the importance of being an involved citizen and makes you think about how your actions impact the world in ways more complex and far-reaching than one would originally imagine,” she says.
Student Kyle Sandmire was so taken by Feldman’s History of the American Wilderness class that he plans to attend graduate school to further his environmental studies. “From Dr. Feldman’s class I learned how to critically analyze historical texts as well as finding connections between wilderness conservation efforts in the past as well present,” he says. “Dr. Feldman inspired me to always take a deeper look into any written claim to best develop my own opinion.”
Going Green: Dr. James Feldman has helped UW Oshkosh become a leader in sustainability.
Feldman thrives on that kind of student feedback. “One of the most exciting things about being a teacher is when you can see that your students are having that kind of A-ha! moment where they are getting it, where they are starting to look at things in a new way because of the things they are learning,” he says. “When I think about what I want my students to take out of my classes, it’s less about specific names and dates and places and much more about the big picture. There are huge problems out there that need to be solved—global warming, industrial agriculture, over-consumption and so on.”
Quite simply, Feldman would like his students to think critically, to see relationships among complicated issues. “If we can teach our students to think about how their own behavior and the behavior of their communities, their states, and their countries are fitting into the bigger picture, then we have started down the path toward change, change that will really make a difference,” he says. “We have started down the path toward sustainability.”
More than Being Green
For Feldman, sustainability means a lot more than simply being green or caring about nature. “Being sustainable means recognizing the interconnections between our environmental, social, and economic systems,” he says. “You don’t go to college to learn prescriptive behavior like ‘you should recycle more’ or ‘you should buy organic food.’ Sustainability needs to mean something more. To be sustainable, we need to learn to act in ways that are not just environmental responsible, but also in ways that make our communities socially just and economically secure.”
Trash and More Trashl: Dr. James Feldman near a pile of trash that will soon be put into the landfill.
To that end, Feldman has been a driving force in helping the University be as sustainable as possible. Since 2008, he has co-led three Winnebago Sustainability Projects, which are faculty development workshops to coach colleagues on infusing the concept of sustainability in their courses.
In April 2011, The Princeton Review listed
UW Oshkosh, for the second year in a row, in its “Guide to 311 Green Colleges,” a spotlight of colleges and universities in the United States and Canada “that demonstrate a strong commitment to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities, and career preparation.”
“I think there is no question we are the leader in the UW System,” Feldman says of the University’s sustainability initiatives. “I think we are one of the leaders in the country in the sense of the kind of school that we are.”
Though Feldman is passionate about sustainability, he is quick to point out his own shortcomings. “It’s easy to walk around and see examples of unsustainable behavior and bad behavior relative to the environment,” he says, adding, “but I have too many things that I have to change about myself for me to start getting judgmental about anybody else.”
One thing Feldman has to contend with is his commute to Oshkosh from his home in Madison where he lives with his wife Chris Taylor, who is an Assemblywoman for the 48th district, and their two young sons, Sam and Ben. “I have a long drive to work and emit carbon to go teach about global warming,” he says wryly. “Until I become perfect, I’m going to keep my soapbox pretty small.”
Feldman knows he risks leaving his students feeling powerless when confronted with society’s environmental ills. “These are stories about how we have taken this beautiful natural world and just driven it into the ground,” he says. “That’s a bear to teach, and it’s a bear to learn and you can see the students sometimes just getting beaten down.”
Feldman, however, helps his students combat that bleakness with ideas for social action. “I always like to end my classes with at least some discussion about what you can do or what needs to change,” he says.
Feldman, too, is doing his part to make the world a better sustainable place every time he steps into a classroom. “I have a chance to make a difference and the most direct way that I feel like I can do that is through my teaching.”
Student reporters Hannah Becker and Nate Cate also contributed to this report.
In this video, Professor Feldman discusses his work in environmental studies and his students share their experiences in his class. Produced by Hannah Becker and Nate Cate. | <urn:uuid:5594a417-9e46-4bcd-8890-de48a323aca3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uwosh.edu/beyond/stories/james-feldman/james-feldman-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698063918/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095423-00095-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972878 | 2,243 | 2.515625 | 3 | The extract scores high for its comprehensive coverage of soft skills development, particularly in critical thinking, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence. It features a professor who encourages students to think critically about complex environmental issues, promoting nuanced discussion and analysis. The article also highlights the importance of intercultural fluency, social responsibility, and sustainability, demonstrating a strong emphasis on real-world applications and community engagement.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 122,246 | 1 |
- Widney Brown says women took the same risks as men during the Arab Spring.
- However, women are treated as second-class citizens in post-revolution politics, says Brown.
- Using cases from the region, Brown argues that the struggle for gender equality is far from won.
Women have been badly let down by the men they stood with during demonstrations that toppled tyrants in the Middle East and North Africa.
Shot at, tortured, assaulted and detained -- they were equals at the point of protest but now, as new governments extend their grip, we can see that, as citizens, women remain firmly in the second class.
So, as we celebrate the role of women on International Women's day, let us not forget that the struggle for equality is far from won. Even when progress seems to be a given, the pendulum can swing back leaving fresh challenges to defend progressive values.
In Egypt, it did not matter that women had played a critical role in the uprisings that ousted the tyrant Mubarak. It did not matter that they had suffered equally from repression and lack of economic opportunity along with the men.
It did not matter that they were subjected to the additional burden of discrimination because they were female. It did not matter that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces tried to discredit women protestors by arresting them and subjecting them to forced virginity tests.
When elections finally came after so many years of dictatorship, Amnesty International asked political parties in Egypt to make commitments to basic human rights principles: principles such as freedom of expression and assembly, religious freedom, non-discrimination and gender equality.
Most of those seeking political power through the parliamentary elections fell short of meeting even these minimum human rights commitments.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party which won 235 seats -- 47 per cent of the total - failed even to respond to Amnesty International's request.
The Salafist Al-Nur party, which came second with 121 seats (24 per cent) declined to promote women's rights or abolish the death penalty.
So 71% of the new parliament is unwilling to commit to promoting women's rights and gender equality.
There have been some chinks of light. Tawakkol Karman of Yemen was named as one of three women Nobel Laureates for peace, in an important, though, belated recognition of the role women have played in the protests dubbed the Arab Spring.
During those heady days, women were a powerful voice, a compelling presence in the protests. They took the same risks as men when exposing human rights abuses committed by the state and calling for accountability; as leaders and agents of change in the uprisings they have not been exempt from the worst of the violence.
Many women protesters were harassed, arrested, tortured and otherwise ill-treated in gender-specific ways just because they are women, defying convention and exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
In Bahrain, where thousands of women took part in anti-government demonstrations, dozens were arrested and some were reportedly tortured or otherwise ill-treated.
In Yemen, women taking part in protests and women activists have been killed, harassed, arrested and in some cases beaten for their participation in protests.
In a desperate attempt to sideline women, Yemeni officials demanded that male relatives assert control over the women in their family and stop their activism.
However, women's protest is not new in this region: women were demanding their human rights long before the start of the uprisings of the last year -- in Iran and elsewhere.
In Saudi Arabia, 20 years after women first sat at the wheels of their cars and challenged the restriction on females driving, the ban remains in place. Any woman who dares to challenge the ban faces arrest and attacks on their character.
Saudi religious clerics have claimed that allowing women to drive would lead to moral decline in the kingdom.
The demands of the women are clear. Women want a seat at the table and a voice in the debate and a vote in the decision making.
More specifically, women are calling for equal rights to political participation and decision-making, equal rights in law, including in relation to marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance.
Women must have legal protection from gender-based violence, including domestic violence and marital rape, and sexual harassment.
International Women's Day is an opportunity to recognize the courage and stamina of the women living in the Middle East and North Africa.
They will not be pushed back to the kitchen. We must all take a stand today in solidarity with them. | <urn:uuid:ca1e1337-86fb-4818-a3c6-a19e74cffdde> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/08/world/meast/widney-brown-inside-middleeast/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320695.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626083037-20170626103037-00212.warc.gz | en | 0.975555 | 925 | 2.8125 | 3 | The extract discusses the struggles of women in the Middle East and North Africa, highlighting their bravery and marginalization. It touches on teamwork and solidarity, as women work together to demand equal rights. However, the extract primarily focuses on raising awareness about gender inequality, rather than providing practical applications or nuanced discussions of soft skills.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 7,464 | 0 |
At a recent discussion hosted by the University of Kent, Abdulrazak Gurnah touched on the issue of identity where he mentioned that, generally in East Africa, people no longer publicly acknowledge having multiple place identities. In summary, they cannot claim to belong to more than one geographical location. He gave the example of Zanzibar and Oman where one has to choose which of the two locations they identify with. In this sense, belonging to more than one place, which has been the way that the East African coast has identified itself for centuries, is perceived as disloyal. According to Gurnah, this cosmopolitan identity is almost like treason.
To understand the source of this supposed betrayal, one has to look at colonialism and the way it interrupted the cosmopolitan Swahili coast. In his writing, Gurnah grapples with this issue by showing how people in East Africa were re-ordered, maps and borders were re-drawn and new identities were forged. Similarly, the newly independent states of Kenya and Tanzania identified with continental Africa as opposed to the age-old networks from the Indian Ocean. In this new nationalistic world, it seems, there was only room for single identities. No one could publicly claim to be Indian and Zanzibari, Chinese and Zanzibari or Malawian and Zanzibari. It is generally in private that people speak of their ‘asili’ (roots/ancestry) and feel free to mention Nyasa, Oman etc.
Various academics have engaged with the question of Swahili identity and it is generally agreed that, it ‘is both multiple and shifting’. Swahili speakers do not tend to identify themselves as ‘Waswahili’ but use their geographical location instead; hence they would call themselves Wazanzibari, Wapemba, Wangazija etc. Abdulrazak Gurnah does this in his writing too where he refers to his Swahili characters through their place identity, for example Maimuna in Paradise is from Lamu and the description of Yusuf’s father who moves from town to town shows that he is Mswahili, from one of the coastal towns. His first wife was Arab and hence would have held multiple place identities; similarly, Yusuf’s mother, the second wife, was originally from a tribe in continental East Africa and had settled on the coast, becoming part of the cosmopolitan society that had strong links with the Indian ocean.
Today, in the popular sphere, the memory of the cosmopolitanism that made life what it was at the turn of the century, is not given precedence. Cosmopolitanism here is understood to be the result of specific historical processes and historically determined interconnectedness with other areas of the Indian Ocean. Hence it encompasses mobility, consumerism and diversity that has been characteristic of the Swahili coast for centuries. What is said about the Swahili people is done using large strokes, allowing varying versions of history to circulate. This is also the case for what has been done in the name of various imperial powers and the impact of their actions on the Swahili speaking people of the coast.
Gurnah reclaims this history. Through his writing we are offered an insight into the multi-layered society that was the Swahili society. In Paradise, he has embedded Swahili travel narratives including that of Salim bin Abakari’s late nineteenth-century Safari Yangu ya Urusi na ya Siberia (My Journey to Russia and Siberia), Safari yangu ya Nyasa wakati bwana Major von Wissmann alipopeleka stima katika mto wa Nyasa (my journey to Nyasa when Major Von Wissman took the train to Lake Nyasa)and Safari yangu ya Ulaya toka Daressalama hata Berlin (My journey to Europe from Dar es Salaam to Berlin). Also, Selemani bin Mwenye Chande’s Safari Yangu na Bara Afrika (My Journey Up-Country in Africa) and Hamed bin Muhammad el-Murjebi’s (Tippu Tip) Maisha ya Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi yaani Tippu Tip: kwa maneno yake mwenyewe (Life of Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi also known as Tippu Tip: in his own words).
Salim bin Abakari was born in the Comoro islands and later moved to Zanzibar. His travelogue includes a trip he took in 1896 when he travelled from Berlin to Russia and Siberia. He writes about houses in Amsterdam that were washed on the outside, his disgust at being in a sauna, his shock at Europeans who shared their sleeping space with animals and his marvel at the midnight sun in St. Petersburg. He is shocked at experiencing the very cold Russian winters and incredulous that there are villages where all the men, women and children are blind drunk. In Paradise this story is told by a visitor from Mombasa who mentions some of the anecdotes from these faraway places that his uncle had visited. The visitor speaks of his uncle meeting Muslims in Russia and the wonder of discovering their differences and the comfort of recognising what they had in common. These kinds of stories were the reality of life on the coast. Zanzibar for instance was a melting pot of languages, cultures and religions.
Gurnah’s use of the journey motif in Paradise is a recognition of these Swahili narratives.
He goes further by including the character of Tippu Tip, the ivory and slave trader known for his association with Stanley, in his portrayal of Uncle Aziz. During the journeys into the interior of Africa from the coast, the reader comes face to face with a cosmopolitan milieu where the Swahili language, Islam as practiced in East Africa and a world view that is Swahili interlink to show non-westerners as the main actors in the region. There are strong connections with the African hinterland, the Arab world, Somalia, India and all sorts of places. Traders such as the conniving uncle Aziz take out huge loans so as to trade, characters such as Kalasinga bring world views that could collide with the Swahili one, but do not do so because all these perspectives have circulated along the Indian Ocean for centuries and become part of the multi layered life that make up the encounters that made Swahili identity what it was.
During the discussion at the University of Kent, Gurnah spoke of starting to write Paradise in 1984. The first paragraph that he wrote was the junction that became its end – where the recruiters were in the town and the main character, Yusuf, chose to join them. Gurnah’s aim was to write about the war. Instead, he wrote about a pre-colonial society at the brink of colonialism. It is in Afterlives that Gurnah picks up where he had meant to start and delves into the defeat of German Imperialism, British colonisation and Independence. He focuses on the people, exploring how they came together and built the lives that they chose to live.
Gurnah has been pre-occupied with war, colonialism and its history in East Africa. He speaks of growing up with war stories. People always told stories of how Germans were like in East Africa. They were stern, ferocious, merciless and did not hesitate to spill blood. People called the German colonial administration, Udongo Mwekundu, red soil, because of the blood that soiled the land during the time they controlled German East Africa.
What Gurnah writes is grounded in truth. At a personal level, he mentions that he has a family member who joined the German carrier corps as a conscript and another who volunteered to join the British Kings African Rifles. And from the public domain we know of stories such as that of Rechenberg, the German governor who was maliciously accused of maintaining a sexual relationship with his male servant in Dar es Salaam and Bayume Mohamed Husen who was born in Dar es Salaam, joined the Schutztruppe together with his father, supported the German neo-colonialist movement and was later killed for being a Black man who had affairs with white women. In AfterLives these characters are Hamza’s commanding officer who taught him German and Ilyas who joined the German Schutztruppe respectively.
In an interview with Claire Chambers, Gurnah points out that, colonialism did not face a huge war from the people because the society was fragmented. There were resistances such as the Maji Maji which used Swahili for communication between the tribes, although it was splintered, as was the Bushiri resistance which took place before Maji Maji. The society that Gurnah presents is made up of various ethnicities speaking a multitude of languages and holding various beliefs. ‘They were constantly engaged in negotiating ways of being together, and I believe that this was a tolerant, even an enviable society, rather than having one dominant group dictating what goes.’
This cosmopolitan world was fertile ground for translation which manages to highlight the power dynamics between the different cultures and communities that is presented. In Paradise, translation is central to understanding the colonial and religious perspectives of other cultures. Translators are needed during the journey into the interior, translators are needed to understand the German administrators making inroads into the country and translation is needed at the very personal level where Zulekha, Uncle Aziz’s wife was seducing Yusuf.
In conclusion, I would point out that Abdulrazak Gurnah’s win has reiterated and brought to the fore the issue of identity, especially the East African coastal identity which has historically never been fixed. Identity has changed through encounters, changing environment and of course, migration. There is an overall feeling that, through this win, the cosmopolitan way of life that has been part and parcel of the coast of East Africa has been given a new lease of life.
University of Kent, After the Nobel Prize for Literaure: Abdulrazak Gurnah, YouTube, (Accessed 25 February 2022). https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=tN7IfgNIe0g&feature=youtu.be
See A. Mazrui and I. Shariff (1994), P. Caplan and F. Topan. (2004)
Pat Caplan, ‘But the coast, of course, is quite different’: Academic and Local Ideas about the East African Littoral, Journal of Eastern African Studies, 1:2, 2007, 305-320. 10.1080/17531050701452663
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Paradise (London: Hamish Hamilton 1994), 13-14
Kai Kresse in Francesca Declich, Translocal Connections Across the Indian Ocean: Swahili Speaking Networks on the Move (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 7
Carl Velten, Safari za Wasuaheli (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1901)
Tipp Tip, Maisha ya Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi : yaani Tippu Tip, kwa maneno yake mwenyewe, translated by W. H. Whitely, (Nairobi : East African Literature Bureau, 1966)
University of Kent, After the Nobel Prize for Literaure : Abdulrazak Gurnah, YouTube (Accessed 28 February 2022). https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=tN7IfgNIe0g&feature=youtu.be
Schmidt, Heike, “Colonial Intimacy: The Rechenberg Scandal and Homosexuality in German East Africa.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 17, no. 1 (2008): 25–59, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30114368.
Marianne, Bechhaus-Gerst. Mahjub (Bayume Mohamed) bin Adam Mohamed (Husen). https://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/en/biografie/263 (accessed 28/2/2022)
Claire Chambers, British Muslim Fictions (London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2012), 127
Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne. Mahjub (Bayume Mohamed) bin Adam Mohamed (Husen), https://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/en/biografie/263 (accessed 28/2/2022)
Caplan, Pat. ‘But the coast, of course, is quite different’: Academic and Local Ideas about the East African Littoral. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 1:2, 2007, 305-320
Chambers, Claire. British Muslim Fictions: Interviews with contemporary writers. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2012xxDeclich, Francesca. Translocal Connections Across the Indian Ocean: Swahili Speaking Networks on the Move. Leiden: Brill, 2018
Gurnah, Abdulrazak. Paradise. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1994
Gurnah, Abdulrazak. Paradise. London: Bloomsbury, 2020
Heike, Schmidt. “Colonial Intimacy: The Rechenberg Scandal and Homosexuality in German East Africa.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 17, no. 1 (2008): 25–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30114368.
Mazrui, A. and I. N. Shariff. The Swahili: Idiom and Identity of An African People. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1994
Tipp Tip. Maisha ya Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi : yaani Tippu Tip, kwa maneno yake mwenyewe, translated by W. H. Whitely. Nairobi : East African Literature Bureau, 1966
University of Kent. After the Nobel Prize for Literaure: Abdulrazak Gurnah, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=tN7IfgNIe0g&feature=youtu.be (Accessed 25 February 2022).
Velten, Carl. Safari za Wasuaheli. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1901 | <urn:uuid:89ee11dc-0985-4963-adb7-e6cff3c57295> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.awaazmagazine.com/volume-19/issue-1-volume-19/cover-story-volume-19/cosmopolitanism-and-identity-on-the-east-coast-of-africa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224646181.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20230530230622-20230531020622-00741.warc.gz | en | 0.943623 | 3,123 | 2.765625 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive analysis of Abdulrazak Gurnah's work, particularly his novel "Paradise", and its exploration of identity, colonialism, and cosmopolitanism in East Africa. The discussion is rich in historical context, cultural insights, and literary analysis, offering a nuanced understanding of the complexities of identity and belonging. However, the extract does not explicitly address soft skills development, such as communication, teamwork, or leadership, and its focus is more on academic and literary analysis. Therefore, the score is justified based on the extract's limited direct relevance to soft skills development.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 751,141 | 0 |
Playing with Fear
The interesting thing about the Halloween is that it takes a light view of the human fear of death with people dressing up as ghosts and goblins. The origination of the Day of the Dead also takes a lighter view on the subject with the concept that death is actually a part of life and can be celebrated. Theses holidays let us look at fear in a different light; to take it as a natural part of being human.
The fear of public speaking is one of the top fears for people. There is something about communicating under the spotlight that raises the adrenaline in everyone. But, this fear doesn’t have to be a heavy burden either. By shifting perspective, everyone who faces the task of speaking in front of others can lighten their fear.
The first thing to remember is that the body’s physiological reaction to fear and excitement is one and the same. If you are excited to see a friend or your favorite band, your heart rate quickens, you get butterflies in your stomach, and you start to sweat more. These are all the same things that happen when you fear speaking in public. Physiologically, the sympathetic nervous system kicks in and your brain releases hormones that amp up your body in preparation to react quickly to what is about to happen. That can be a good thing; a natural part of being human.
That human reaction is what allows us to raise our voice and become animated in a way that engages the audience while we speak.
Just like we play with fear around Halloween by decorating with images of death and dressing up in monster costumes, we can also play with the fear of public speaking with make believe and pretending. Pretending that the fear is excitement shifts the mind to a more positive place. Visualization during preparation time and right before speaking is make believe that can really help.
To use visualization during preparation, make believe that all goes perfectly during your speech or presentation and then visualize every detail of that success. Imagine walking into the setting and getting a positive response from the audience. Imagine your voice projecting strongly and confidently and seeing head nods and smiles from the audience. Imagine people clapping or saying good job at the end of your presentation. During this make believe incorporate all of your senses – hear, see, and even smell as many details in your imagination as possible. After you have done this several times during preparation, then just prior to your speech quickly bring this image of success back into your brain. This make-believe practice really does boost your success.
As we celebrate Halloween and Day of the Dead at this time of year, we can also celebrate our human fear of speaking. We can use our natural physiological reaction to our advantage by speaking confidently, just as we imagined. | <urn:uuid:c47d75c0-6345-4592-a7b8-9c4063608053> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | http://jenniferkammeyer.com/2015/10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945440.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20230326075911-20230326105911-00402.warc.gz | en | 0.959166 | 556 | 2.53125 | 3 | The extract earns a score of 4 due to its discussion of soft skills, specifically public speaking and fear management, with realistic scenarios and practical applications. It integrates emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities, and provides comprehensive professional development opportunities with a strong emphasis on cultural awareness and digital literacy is not explicitly mentioned but the content is well-structured and engaging.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 163,120 | 1 |
Adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future:
We like to imagine that life is limitless. This is particularly true today. Television ads and popular culture announce that ours is a time “without limits.” Indeed, more is possible today than ever before. But never has making sense of limits been more essential. Our well-being—and perhaps even our continued existence—depends on it.
Like it or not, today we face a growing number of challenges that present inviolable limits, constraints that we cannot transcend no matter how intelligent or wise we might be. Some such limits concern inescapable physical realties—for example, limits to energy resources and limits to how much of the effluvium of civilization the planet can absorb. But many are as much about ourselves. Certainly we face inescapable limits with regard to the usefulness of many past ways of understanding and acting. We also face more general limits with regard to our human capabilities, for example, to what we can afford, what we can control, and what we can be for one another in relationship. In the end, we face inescapable limits to understanding itself, certainly to knowing things as absolutely as we might have hoped to in times past. The theme of limits is about inescapability most generally, at all its multiple levels.
The ideological beliefs of times past has protected us from directly confronting the fact of real limits. Cultural maturity’s changes make the fact of limits more readily acknowledged. They also make what limits ask of us more understandable. This is essential. Often it is not at all unclear what to do in the face of such limits, or if there is anything at all useful to do. Cultural Maturity’s changes make the fact of limits not just more tolerable, but ultimately something we might embrace. Grappling with the quandaries that limits present offers one of the best ways to learn about the new, post-ideological common sense that comes with Cultural Maturity, and to begin making it manifest in how we think and act.
Confronting limits is nothing new. We could rightly say that doing so is exactly what the human story has been about. In first becoming human, we stood, defying the limitations of gravity. Later, we grew crops and built cities, confronting the limits to growth inherent to our hunter-gatherer beginnings. In the Middle Ages we constructed grand cathedrals that reached toward the heavens. Today we send people into space, transcending the very bounds of earthly existence.
But what our times ask is often very different. A growing number of contemporary limits—limits to planetary resources, limits to ways of acting that in today’s world become unacceptably dangerous, new economic limits, limits to what we can predict and control—are not conquerable, at least in the old sense. In times past, our task when we encountered constraints was to do battle. Today, we increasingly face limits that neither force nor cunning can defeat.
Successfully coming to terms with inviolable limits will be essential to any future we would want to be a part of. Recognizing inviolable limits and better understanding their implications should also play an increasingly central role in catalyzing the broader maturity of thought and action the future demands. For many people, it is limits that first make the depth of the challenges we face—and the need for something like what the concept of Cultural Maturity describes—inescapable. Parts of the message are hard, sometimes very hard. Other parts can be surprising in the unexpected rewards they reveal.
I find it helpful to think about of how Cultural Maturity’s changes alter our relationship to inviolable limits in terms of a sequence of recognitions. First, Cultural Maturity’s changes help us acknowledge that such limits do indeed exist. Just this first piece is significant. We have a great capacity for denial even in the face of inescapable evidence, particularly if consequences may not be immediate. Acknowledgement is where we must start. Many of the most important inviolable limits intervene at deeper levels than even the best of thinkers commonly recognize.
Second, culturally mature perspective helps us accept that inviolable limits are not the adversaries we might at first assume them to be. Hold life large and it becomes clear that ultimate limits are inherent to how things work—they come with the territory. We would not have life without limits (cells need their cell walls) or most anything we call beautiful (every painting has a frame, or at least a limiting boundary). Culturally mature perspective helps us appreciate that while fantasy’s dreams of limitlessness may fire youthful delight, the guidance such wishful thinking provides is not something we want to rely on. With such more general acceptance, we are less apt to keep the implications of limits at arm’s length. Limits don’t in any sense go away. But we become more willing to accept them and engage them creatively.
The third recognition is least obvious and takes several steps into culturally mature territory to fully appreciate, but it is most directly pertinent to our project. Culturally mature perspective reveals how further possibilities—sometimes profound possibilities—can lie beyond seemingly impenetrable constraints. Confronting inviolable limits challenges us to think in new ways. Meet that challenge and we begin to recognize options not before visible. Einstein put this apparent paradox in a single sentence: “Once we accept limits, we go beyond them.”
How this might be so follows directly from Cultural Maturity’s changes. Confronting inviolable limits takes us over Cultural Maturity’s threshold. Stepping over Cultural Maturity’s threshold, simply because what we encounter is more complex and complete, presents new options. Each time we confront an inviolable limit, just a bit we take part in Cultural Maturity’s more “complexly complex” world and discover something new in what it has to offer.
Final limits can be hard taskmasters. But they also hold in their demands some of our time’s most important learnings. Engaged maturely, ultimate limits invite us to venture forth in new more mature, creative, and ultimately fulfilling ways. Recognizing today’s necessary no’s makes newly comprehensible—and realizable—many of tomorrow’s most important new yeses. | <urn:uuid:538d5436-8671-4a97-b458-d6348d8c56e6> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://culturalmaturityblog.net/2012/01/cultural-maturity-and-limits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949689.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20230331210803-20230401000803-00247.warc.gz | en | 0.943382 | 1,310 | 2.78125 | 3 | The extract earns a high score due to its in-depth discussion of complex soft skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence. It presents realistic scenarios that integrate nuanced interaction and advanced problem-solving, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and accepting inviolable limits. The text also promotes cultural awareness, digital literacy, and intercultural fluency, encouraging readers to think creatively and embrace new possibilities beyond perceived constraints.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 423,491 | 1 |
Quiz: Use of capnography to detect airway loss and more
Pulse oximetry, once the gold standard for monitoring patient ventilation in the field, has been replaced with capnography. Measurement of end-tidal CO2 (ETCO2) is now the the top choice for determining airway patency and the pulmonary status of our patients. Read Use capnography to detect airway loss and more and take this quiz to test your knowledge.
About the author:
Sean Hulsman, MEd, EMT-P is Director of Education at Twin City Ambulance Corporation in Western New York. He began his EMS career in 1992 and continues to teach and work in the field. You can contact Sean via his blog: Coarse Asystole.
Share Your Capno Story With Us
Do you have a story about how capnography made a difference? Share your story with us and we may publish it on CapnoAcademy.
Leave a Reply | <urn:uuid:1e6bf3cd-d8f9-4877-9ab0-9fe6b3f95ab1> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.capnoacademy.com/2018/10/03/quiz-use-of-capnography-to-detect-airway-loss-and-more/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945218.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20230323225049-20230324015049-00345.warc.gz | en | 0.924608 | 211 | 2.78125 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing solely on technical knowledge of capnography. There is no coverage of communication, teamwork, or leadership concepts, and no opportunities for practical application of soft skills.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 471,779 | 0 |
William de Aubigny, also known as William of the Strong Hand, had this castle built around 1138. It is one the finest examples of a Norman hall keep in the east of England.
The construction of it was probably carried out by local masons and carpenters.
There are particular design affinities with the keep at Norwich and at Falaise, which poses the question - was the architect / engineer a Norman?
The keep is fifty feet high and stands in an inner bailey of massive earthworks into which is set a small Norman gateway of uncertain date.
English &Welsh Castle Picture Search Results
Your Search returned 5 pictures.
Click on a picture to enlarge and order | <urn:uuid:2c7118da-cdd7-48fb-a958-e3da8820d24a> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | http://www.castles-galore.com/castle-rising_head-page.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224657169.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20230610095459-20230610125459-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.9677 | 152 | 2.9375 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on historical information about a castle. There is no coverage of communication, teamwork, or problem-solving concepts. The content is limited to theoretical knowledge of historical facts without practical application or real-world context.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 700,930 | 0 |
By Emma Dykstra
Mister Rogers’ impact on our society is undeniable. To this day, his legacy goes on through the new cartoon spinoff, “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” on PBS. He taught his audience numerous important emotional life skills on how to be better people.
Fred Rogers began his show, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” back in 1968 with the purpose of teaching children lessons about life and how the world worked, back when the political climate seemed rather hopeless through the Cold War.
“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” which was created for mostly preschool-aged children, finished production in 2001, leaving off with 31 seasons and 912 unique episodes, teaching things such as empathy, forgiveness and the importance of talking through feelings.
A film based on Mister Rogers’ legacy, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” released in theaters on Nov. 22 of this year, featuring Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers. This film teaches the same lessons that Fred Rogers taught in his original series so many years ago.
The main storyline follows a young, pessimistic journalist, Lloyd Vogel, through a journey of self-realization and forgiveness while working on an assignment to write a profile on Fred Rogers.
Forgiveness and empathy were at the forefront of Mister Rogers’ teaching in the film and in reality. These are life skills and strengths that our society needs to take on to function correctly. Another major aspect of the film was talking through feelings, namely anger.
Though the original series was aimed at young children, this film is aimed at an older demographic, featuring an adult learning the same lessons the children learned through the show.
Even adults can learn, or even re-learn the lessons that Mister Rogers taught on his show. Emotional intelligence is a skill that more and more employers are looking for in potential employees.
These days, more and more people are finding it hard to talk about their feelings, causing them to become pent up, leading to stress and other complications.
With the changing social climate today, Mister Rogers’ lessons teach us, in his own words, that “anything that is human is mentionable and anything that is mentionable is manageable.” | <urn:uuid:ccb78f19-59f1-4fc5-9e2b-4e31c27e215a> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://thecollegiatelive.com/2019/12/anything-mentionable-is-manageable-mister-rogers-lessons-for-today/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251783621.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20200129010251-20200129040251-00212.warc.gz | en | 0.970188 | 462 | 3.15625 | 3 | The extract discusses Mister Rogers' legacy and his teachings on emotional life skills, such as empathy, forgiveness, and talking through feelings. It highlights the importance of these skills in today's society and their relevance to both children and adults. The extract also touches on the value of emotional intelligence in the workplace.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 37,735 | 0 |
The flashcards below were created by user
on FreezingBlue Flashcards.
Group living offered many advantages such as?
increased safety in presence of danger, cooperation with others, to complete challenging tasks, and rearing children
today we work hard to maintain our relationships, going so far as to modify our behavior when we are in the presence of others. Two examples?
- social facilitation: presence of others improves our performance. (depend on the situation or task at hand, how easy or difficult the task is, and how excited you are)
- social loafing: occurs when the presence of others causes one to relax one's standards and slack off
societal or culturally impose rules about acceptable behavior are called ___. (vary by culture)
___ occurs when people adjust their behavior to what others are doing or adhere to the norms of their culture
Two types of conformity?
informational social influence: occurs when people conform to the behavior of others because they view them as a source of knowledge about what they are supposed to do. This type of conformity is most pronounced in ambiguous or novel situations
normative social influence: occurs when people go along with the behavior of others in order to be accepted by them
What is the Asch study?
three lines: more than 3/4 participants went along with the group (confederates = people who are part of the study) even when the group answer was clearly wrong; when participants worked along, the rarely made any errors
______ says that our likelihood of following either informational or normative social influence depends on three different aspects of the group: how importnat the group is to you, how close the group is to you in space and time, and how many people are in the group
social impact theory
In collectivist cultures, what matter more?
- groups matter more than the individual, so any group-preserving behavior (such as conformity) would b
- e valued and encouraged
Sometimes a single individual or small number of individuals (minority) influences the entire group ()majority). To have this happen, what must happen?
majority must present a consistent, unwavering message
Most often minority opinions shifts majority opinion by means of _____
informational social influence (if a group encounters a situation in which the members are unsure about what to do and a minority carefully presetns a well-thought-out position, then the majority might accept it)
kind of conformity in which people yield to the social pressure of an authority figure
Who is Milgram?
- recruited people from the community to participate in an experiment at Yale:
- experimenter showed both the teacher and learner to the adjoining room where the learner would be seated. Leaner's task - learning words. Teacher: giving mild electric shock when learner makes a mistake. Results: at 150 volts there was a drop in obedience- from 100% to 83%. Some participants stopped, but many went on with the experiment. 65% of participants went all the way to 450 volts.
How we make sense of our social world
inferences we make about the causes of other people's behavior
occur when one thinks that someone's behavior is caused by something within them, such as personality, motive or attitude
internal/ dispositional attributions
occur when one thinks that something outside the person, such as the nature of the situation, is the cause of his/her behavior
external/ situational attributions
The self-serving bias is the tendency to make _____ for our own failures but ___ for our successes
situational attributions; dispositional attributions
According to research, most of us are poor ____. Why?
lie detectors; rely too much on miselading cues (over-interpreting ambiguous nonverbal cues); we should focus on inconsistent behaviors
best lie detectors?
attend to nonverbal information more than verbal information
What are schemas?
lenses through which one filters perceptions (likely to color our interpretations when we encounter ambiguous information)
schemas of how people are likely to behave based simply on the groups to which they belong
stereotypes (formed conclusions about people before we even interact with them)
linkled to something factual (does not represent the gorup as a whole); support notions of belonging and exclusion taht can support unfair actions
showing positive feelings twoard people who belong to the same group as us and negative feelings towards those in other groups, we display
Consequences of perceinig others as different from us:
- -evaluate and treat people differently because of the group they belong
- -based in-group/out-group distinctions
- -hurts to be excluded from our group
tendency to see all members of an out-group as the same
social rejection activates the same brain circuitry that is activated by pain
biased attitude toward a group of people or an individual member of a group
prejudice (stems from stereotypes and a lack of info); (prejudices about race=racism sex= sexism)
preferential treatment of certain people that is usually driven by prejudicial attitudes
discrimination (result from institutionalized rules)
prejudiced attidues operate outside ____ and sometimes stand in stark contrast to ____
conscious awareness; one's beliefs
person's favorable/unfavorable beliefs, feelings, actions twaord an object, idea, or person
three components of attitudes?
- affective component: feelings/emotions associated with the belief
- behavioral component: motive to act in a particular way toward the person or object of the attitude
- cognitive component: consists of the rational thoughts and beliefs that make up the attitude
evolutionary forces explains automatic responses of attitudes, but many of our attitudes come from experience.
- nature-nurture pointer:
- EX: certain negtaive attitudes and emotional responses (snakes, shit) may be so important for our survival that they are part of our genetic hertiage
- EX: people around us teach us their attitudes through direct/indirect instruction
direct experience with an object, idea, or person increases one's overall preference for it
____ and his colleagues introduced the idea of conditioning. Explain
Mark Zanna; attitude can become paired with a pleasant or unpleasant feeling, leading to attitude change (nonsense syllables paired by emotionally positive or negative words)
Attitudes vary on strength and accessibility. ___ the attitude ___ it is to change
feeling of discomfort caused by information that is different from your conception of yourself as a reasonable and sensible person (when two cognitions or beliefs conflict that threaten our images of ourselves)
in an attempt to reduce this discomfort we:
- -change our behavior to make it consistent with dissonant cognition
- -we attempt to justify our behavior by changing one of the cognitions to make it more consistent with our behavior
- -we add new cognitions that are consistent with the behavior and thus support it
People experiencing cognitive disdsonance may go extreme lengths to reduce it and maintain our self-esteem. We often end up behaving very irrationally and rationalizing our behavior to reduce cognitive dissonance | <urn:uuid:38dcb821-b13e-46e0-bf00-ca266645ad1b> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.freezingblue.com/flashcards/print_preview.cgi?cardsetID=42681 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146414.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20200226150200-20200226180200-00090.warc.gz | en | 0.932096 | 1,480 | 3.78125 | 4 | The extract provides a comprehensive overview of social psychology concepts, including group living, social influence, conformity, and attitudes. It covers various topics, such as social facilitation, social loafing, and cognitive dissonance, with examples and research studies. The content is informative, but lacks practical application, nuanced interaction, and complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 418,665 | 0 |
The main idea of this project is to promote a coherent governance framework based on ordenación del territorio and management practices capable of providing sustainable development.
Following the general lines laid down the main aim of the project is to raise awareness among local agents about the significant increases in the land degradation in recent decades in the Mediterranean area and the long-term negative consequences this has in Europe has for sustainability and competitiveness. This will enable technical and operational tools based on reducing land consumption to be adopted and so protect and enhance natural heritage and improve the quality of life.
The project is in line with the aims of the "Proposal of the European Parlaiment andCouncil Directive, which establishes a framework for land protection. This is amended under Directive 2004/35/EC", which states: "Land is a resource of interest for the Community, although mainly of private ownership, and if it is not protected, long-term sustainability and competitiveness in Europe will be undermined ".
The key idea of the project js that sustainable land use should be a priority of actions by local administrators. Three lines of intervention are identified:
- To raise awareness among local agents in the various contexts of society using local experiences; provide evidence of land degradation by controlling land consumption through the use of specific tools; monitor and assess the outcomes of the decisions taken in the past on urban development, land use and territorial planning.
- The development of operative tools that reveal the relation between land consumption and territorial zoning policies. These tools seek to reflect how land consumption is linked to decisions and that without specific policies the consequence for land degradation will continue to increase. The tools enhance existing criteria and enable territorial management policies to continue in the line of sustainable development.
- Wide scale diffusion of this information through local and economic agents (Chambers of Commerce, businesses, etc), environment and citizen protection agents. The information system developed under the project show as a balance between economic development and the protection of the environment. | <urn:uuid:98c89b5c-d282-4f45-a248-4774e4d03bd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mta.com.mt/osddt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705956734/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120556-00097-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904635 | 394 | 3.015625 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on environmental governance and sustainable development. While it mentions raising awareness and collaboration among local agents, it does not provide scenarios for emotional intelligence, leadership, or complex problem-solving.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 167,071 | 0 |
For many years, I have been passionate about adapting children’s books for children with special needs.
So, what does it mean to adapt a children’s book? Adapting a children’s book can mean a variety of things. It can be anything from adding page turners to creating symbols to go along with the book. For many children with special needs who are nonverbal or minimally verbal, book reading can be a very passive activity. For example, a parent and/or teacher is limited during a book reading activity without a communication board and/or communication system for that particular child.
I have always been interested in making this book reading opportunity a more active and engaging activity for children who are limited with their speech. Given my background as a speech language pathologist in augmentative and alternative communication for the past fifteen years, I have used my skills to find a variety of ways to make learning more accessible for children with both cognitive and physical disabilities.
What are different ways you can adapt The Monkey Balloon?
1. Add page turners (this can be done with pieces of soft velcro, small pieces of sponge, etc). This can help a child with a physical disability turn the pages easier. The key is independence!
2. Print out symbols and add them to the page highlighting the key words on each page. I usually limit the amount of symbols per page and focus on pronoun + action + noun. Having too many symbol per page may be overwhelming for a child. I use Boardmaker but you can also use your own images, Symbol Stix or another symbol set that you prefer.
3. Add texture to the book to make it a sensory experience such as hot gluing a soft material on the monkey or adding the latex material to the balloon.
4. Add objects to the book as you are reading such as a stuffed monkey, small balloon and/or different objects from each place (e.g. a small ice cream cone from the ice cream store, a toy fish from the ocean, a small toy bus, etc). When reading the book, ask your child to show you the objects and use them as a opportunity for engagement and language encouragement.
5. Use a communication board! I created the attached board using Boardmaker. Use this board to engage your child in the book reading process.
5. Use our sequencing cards!
6. Continue to align the common core standards with the use of the adapted book by asking your child to identify the author and illustrator. To learn more about the Common Core and The Monkey Balloon, click here. See my example of the way to adapt this page below.
7. For more ideas on adapting books and using specific strategies, check out my guest post on Friendship Circle of Michigan.
8. Use velcro or clear packing tape to attach the symbols on the page.
9. As you are reading, make sure to point to the pictures! This is called Aided Language Stimulation. For more information on this strategy, click here.
10. Color code the symbols to categorize parts of speech if you prefer. This can help a child identify parts of speech more readily.
Remember, there is no wrong or right way to adapt! Each book that I adapt is a little bit different so feel free to be creative and keep your child’s interest and level in mind!
2100 Wharton Street
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Phone: 1 800 588 4548
Fax: 1 866 585 6260 | <urn:uuid:cc2c8c90-81a1-4023-b415-2b6cb3c22a00> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://themonkeyballoon.com/adapting-the-monkey-balloon-for-a-child-with-special-needs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146414.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20200226150200-20200226180200-00493.warc.gz | en | 0.916727 | 722 | 3.578125 | 4 | The extract demonstrates a strong focus on adapting children's books for special needs, showcasing creative and practical strategies for engagement. It highlights the importance of independence, sensory experiences, and communication boards, displaying a nuanced understanding of emotional intelligence and leadership in education. The extract also provides realistic scenarios and opportunities for critical thinking, incorporating cultural awareness and digital literacy through the use of technology like Boardmaker.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 558,522 | 1 |
Eric Kandel is a titan of modern neuroscience. He won the Nobel Prize in 2000 not simply for discovering a new set of scientific facts (although he has discovered plenty of those), but for pioneering a new scientific approach. As he recounts in his memoir In Search of Memory, Kandel demonstrated that reductionist techniques could be applied to the brain, so that even something as mysterious as memory might be studied in sea slugs, as a function of kinase enzymes and synaptic proteins. (The memories in question involved the "habituation" of the slugs to a poke; they basically got bored of being prodded.) Because natural selection is a deeply conservative process - evolution doesn't mess with success - it turns out that humans rely on almost all of the same neural ingredients as those inveterbrates. Memory has a nearly universal chemistry.
But Kandel is not just one of the most important scientists of our time - he's also an omnivorous public intellectual, deeply knowledgeable about everything from German art to the history of psychoanalysis. In his marvelous new book, The Age of Insight, Kandel puts this learning on display. He dives into the cultural ferment of 19th century Vienna, seeking to understand why the city was such a fount of new ideas, but he also explores the neuroscience of aesthetics, attempting to explain why some works of art, such as Klimt's "Adele Bloch-Bauer I," continue to haunt us. In many respects, the book imitates those famous Viennese salons, in which artists, scientists and doctors exchanged ideas and gave birth to a new way of thinking about the mind. (The city was a case-study in consilience.) If you're interested in the intersection of art and science, the book is a must-read.
LEHRER: The Age of Insight is, in part, a remarkable history of fin-de-siècle Vienna, which strikes me as an astonishingly rich creative period. What do you think led to such a flourishing of science and culture in Vienna at the turn of the century?
KANDEL: Beginning in about 1850, Vienna was changed dramatically. Responding to the liberal pressure, Emperor Franz Josef began to evolve the Empire along more democratic lines. One of the consequences of this democratization was a freeing up of travel, which allowed people to move readily throughout the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Many came to Vienna. In addition, Franz Josef transformed Vienna into one of the most beautiful cities in the world. As a Christmas present to the citizens of Vienna, in 1857, Franz Josef ordered the demolition of the old walls surrounding the city, and replaced these walls with the Ringstrasse – a grand boulevard that would encircle the city. The Ringstrasse now became lined with a wonderful set of public buildings such as the Opera House, the Theater, and the Museum of Fine Arts and Natural History. As a result, the city attracted many people of different ethnic and religious origins from all over the Empire, who were drawn to Vienna, for its beauty, its music, and its emphasis on intellectual and cultural achievement. A number of these people went on to pioneer a distinctive form of Modernism that characterized Vienna and distinguished it from Modernism in France, Italy and Germany.
Modernism in Vienna brought together science and culture in a new way to create an Age of Insight that emphasized a more complex view of the human mind than had ever existed before. Whereas the Enlightenment thinking of the 18th Century emphasized that human beings were distinct from all the other animals because they were created by God as rational creatures, the Viennese Modernists, influenced by Darwin, realized that humans evolved from simpler ancestors. Moreover, they were – as the physicians, Freud and Schnitzler, and the artists, Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele would point out – not rational creatures, but people that were importantly driven by unconscious mental drives.
In addition to these five, there were other pioneers in the Modernist movement. There was the Vienna Circle of philosophers, who tried to codify all knowledge into a single standard language of science. There was an important Vienna School of Economics. And – of course – there was the great tradition of Viennese music that began with Hayden and was now continued by Schoenberg.
Particularly important, in Vienna 1900, was a chain of medical scientists stretching from Carl von Rokitansky to Freud, which established a new dynamic view of the human psyche that revolutionized thinking about the human mind. Freud’s theorizing, Schnitzler’s insightful writings, and the paintings of Klimt, Schiele, and Kokoschka, shared a common focus into the nature of human instinctual life. During the period of 1890 to 1980, the insights of these five men into the irrationality of everyday life helped Vienna establish a culture we still live in today. In a sense, there are very few cultures that have matched Vienna, 1900. Perhaps the most comparable example is Florence during the Renaissance.
LEHRER: One of the heroes in The Age of Insight is Carl von Rokitansky, the founder of the Second Vienna School of Medicine. You argue that he inspired, at least in part, the work of modernist artists such as Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele. How did he exert this influence?
KANDEL: Rokitansky is the founder of what is now considered the second Vienna School of Medicine, which began around 1846. He was the head pathologist of the Vienna General Hospital, called the Allgemeines Krankenhaus, and then became Dean of the Medical School at the University of Vienna. Rokitansky contributed importantly – I would say, seminally – to the development of modern scientific medicine. He realized that when one examines the patient, one essentially relies on two pieces of information: the patient’s history, and an examination of the patient – listening to the heart and the chest with a stethoscope. But in the 1840s, one did not have any deep insight into what the sounds of the heart meant, for example. No one knew what we now know to be the difference between the sound of a normal valve opening and closing, and the sound of a diseased valve opening and closing. So what Rokitansky realized was that one needed to correlate what one sees of the patient at the bedside, with the examination of the patient’s body at autopsy. Fortunately, Vienna was an absolutely ideal place to do this.
The Vienna General Hospital had two rules that were unique in Europe. One is – every patient who died was autopsied, and two – all the autopsies were done by one person: Rokitansky, the head of Pathology. In other hospitals in Europe, the autopsy was done by whichever physician was is in charge of the patient. So Rokitansky had a huge amount of clinical material to work with. He collaborated with an outstanding clinician, Josef Skoda, who took very careful notes both of what the patient told him, and of what he found on physical examination, and he correlated that with Rokitansky’s autopsy. This allowed Skoda and Rokistansky to define what various heart sounds meant in normal physiology and in diseases of the valve. It also led Rokitansky to enunciate a major principle that had a huge influence – not only on medicine – but also on the cultural community at large, because Rokitansky was not simply a pathologist and Dean of the School of Medicine; he was elected to Parliament, became a spokesman of science, and had an enormous influence on popular culture. He said, “The truth is often hidden below the surface. One has to go deep below the skin to find it.” This Rokitanskian principle had an enormous impact on Freud and on Schnitzler, who were students at the Vienna School of Medicine. In fact, Freud was a student in the last several years of Rokitansky’s Deanship. Rokitansky attended the first two scientific talks that Freud gave, and Freud attended Rokitansky’s funeral. He clearly had a significant impact on Freud’s thinking.
How did Rokitansky influence the artists – Klimt, Schiele, and Kokoschka? Klimt had a strong supporter in the art writer Berta Zuckerkandl. She ran the most important salon in Vienna: the Zuckerkandl salon, and all the intellectuals in the city attended this. As Berta Zuckerkandl, herself, described it: “Vienna comes alive on my diva.”
Berta’s husband, Emil Zuckerkandl, was a right-hand associate of Rokitansky. Klimt befriended Emil at Berta’s salon and Klimt became interested in biology as an end in itself. He began to read Darwin, and he began to study the slides that Zuckerkandl was working on. He went to Zuckerkandl’s lectures; he attended some of his dissections, and he asked Zuckerkandl to give lectures to other artists so that they would become familiar with the biology of the body. As a result, one can begin to see the incorporation of biological ideas in Klimt’s work. So, if you look at Adele Bloch-Bauer – the picture on the cover of The Age of Insight – you will see that Adele’s dress is covered with oval-shaped symbols that symbolize ova. These oval shapes surround her body; in the background, are rectangular shapes which, in Klimt’s work, symbolize sperm showing that not only is she an attractive and seductive woman, but also reproductively capable. In the famous painting, The Kiss, the man’s garment is covered with these rectangular stripes, the woman’s with ovals. Moreover, not only in the decorative element of his work, but also in the way Klimt represented his women – as evident in his drawings – you see that he wanted to go below the surface. He did not follow the rituals of Western art, or Freud’s naïve and incorrect teachings about female sexuality. Rather, he wanted to use his own insights, which were extensive, to give a modern view of women’s sexuality: that they are capable of pleasuring themselves – they do not need the attention of a man, and their sex lives are just as rich as that of men. Moreover, although Freud was always aware of aggression, he didn’t think it was equally important to eros until toward the end of the first world war, when he saw killing all around him. By contrast, Klimt had already incorporated, in the painting Judith and Holofernes, his insight that aggression is as important as eroticism, and that women are also capable of aggression as well as erotic impulses, and the two can be fused. In this remarkable painting, where Judith, having slain Holofernes, fondles his head in a clearly erotic fashion.
Kokoschka picked up a theme that Freud enunciated: that the examination of the unconscious mental processes of others begins with an examination of oneself. Kokoschka, who was a bit of a self-promoter, argued that he had discovered unconscious mental processes independent of Freud, and in his paintings, he reveals a major interest in going deep below the surface to explore his own emotional life and that of his subjects. And, as with Freud, he had a fascination with childhood and adolescent sexuality that he claimed was independent of Freud. Klimt never did any self-portraits. Kokoschka did a number of very honest and soul-searching self-portraits. For example, during his relationship with Alma Mahler, he depicted himself as a helpless creature, completely in her hands. He also was the first painter to depict female adolescent sexuality – nude adolescence – and the sexual striving of children in the famous painting of the Stein children.
Schiele – the third of the trio of Modernist painters – was the master of modern existential anxiety. He was the Kafka of painting. Much of the paintings that he did were of himself, and many self-portraits were in the nude. Using himself as a model, he depicts all aspects of psychological strivings, not just in facial expression, but even more in hand, arm, and body postures. So, one can trace the influence of Rokitansky throughout all of Viennese Modernism.
LEHRER: Your book is filled with fascinating explorations into the nascent science of neuroaesthetics. If I were a working artist, I'd want to know all about this new field. But I'm curious: do you think scientists can learn from artists? If so, what sort of collaborations would you like to see?
KANDEL: Why would we want to encourage a dialogue between art and science, and, in a larger sense, between science and culture, at large? Brain science and art represent two distinct perspectives of mind. Through science, we know that all of our mental life arises from the activity of our brain. Thus, by observing that activity, we can begin to understand the processes that underlie our responses to works of art: how is information, collected by the eye, turned into vision? How are thoughts turned into memories? What is the biological basis of behavior? Art, on the other hand, provides insight into the more fleeting, experiential qualities of mind – what a certain experience feels like. A brain scan may reveal the neural signs of anxiety, but a Kokoschka painting, or a Schiele self-portrait, reveals what an anxiety state really feels like. Both perspectives are necessary if we are to fully grasp the nature of the mind, yet they are rarely brought together.
What would the benefits of such an exchange be today, and who would gain from it? The gain for brain science is clear. One of the ultimate challenges of biology is to understand how the brain becomes consciously aware of perception, experience and emotion. But it is equally conceivable that the exchange would be useful for the beholders of art, for people who enjoy art, for historians, and for the artists, themselves. Insights into the processes of visual perception and emotional response may well stimulate new expressions of artistic creativity. Much as Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance artists used the revelations of human anatomy to help them depict the body more accurately and compellingly, and the Impressionist artists learned about color mixing from the study of color by physicists, so, too, many contemporary artists may create new forms of representation in response to the revelations about how the brain works. Understanding the biology behind artistic insights, inspiration and the beholder’s response to art could be invaluable to artists seeking to heighten their creative power. In the long run, brain science may also provide clues to the nature of creativity, itself.
You, Jonah, yourself, have pointed out in your first book that artists are psychologists. They have insight into the human mind that often precedes the insight that scientists have, because scientists need to design experiments, and then carry them out in order to do it. They cannot do it by intuition, alone, as can writers and painters. So, I would not necessarily say that scientists and artists need to collaborate with one another, but it would be helpful for them to talk to one another to, perhaps, give rise to specific ideas that may or may not be carried out together. For example, we, at Columbia, under the strong support of President Bollinger, are thinking of starting a Ph.D. program in Science and Art, in which psychology and neuroscience students will learn more about the biological response to art, and encourage some students of art to get involved in this, as well. In fact, David Freedberg, who is an art historian interested in these problems, is going to participate in this.
LEHRER: One of the tensions that emerges from early 20th century Vienna is the attempt (by Freud and others) to undermine the assumptions of the Enlightenment - we are rational creatures - using the tools of the Enlightenment. In many respects, this basic theme has continued in recent years, as neuroscientists and psychologists continue to reveal the powers of the unconscious in shaping our beliefs and behavior. (We are not nearly as rational as Descartes believed.) What do you think Freud would make of modern neuroscience?
KANDEL: I think Freud would love modern neuroscience. Freud developed his tripartite structure of the mind, clinical observation, theory of psychoanalysis, in the hope that, someday, this would be translated into brain sciences, he was aware that what he was developing a cognitive psychology – psychoanalysis – and that this was bound to be modified, and, in part, falsified, by biology. He knew that psychoanalysis was not an empirical, experimental science. So, there is no question, he would very much have liked to develop a biological science of psychoanalysis if he could do so. He tried, in his 1895 essay on Psychology for Neurologists, but he saw this was a complete failure. Biology was just too far away from providing the kind of a background he needed. But the situation is clearly different now.
In fact, if you look around, it is amazing how much of our view of the mind follows outlines of Freud’s thinking. We now know that conscious mentation is the tip of the iceberg, very much as Freud argued. We are now clearly aware of the importance of instinctual strivings. We have localized them to the hypothalamus, and to the amygdala. We know that sexual strivings are present in childhood. We realize that when we convert unconscious to conscious mental processes, a sort of broadcasting function goes on. We are aware of superego functions at a biological level, moral values that are built into our brains.
I think while Freud would be quite satisfied with neuroscience he would not be satisfied with the current structure of psychoanalysis. This is because the generations of psychoanalysts that came after did not try to make psychoanalysis more empirical; they continued the tradition that he had begun. It wasn’t until recently that follow-up studies have been carried out to determine under what circumstances psychoanalysis is effective, how it compares to other forms of short-term psychotherapy, and ultimately, they are now beginning to do imaging experiments to see whether or not biological markers – for example, in Area 25 in depression – are relieved by psychoanalysis. So I think the failure of psychoanalysis to progress is due in part to the decline in the scientific ambition of psychoanalysts.
LEHRER: How has this new science of art changed the way you think about art? Do you now think differently about the beauty of Schiele, Klimt and the Viennese modernists?
KANDEL: Yes. I now have a much better idea of why the Modernists’ portraiture affects us so profoundly, because I realize that they have tapped into the enormous face processing capability of the brain. I now understand why their exaggerations are so effective. They regulate the cells in face patches in the inferior-temporal lobe of the brain. We see how arbitrary use of color can have a powerful affect on our emotions.
We now have an outline of the Beholder’s Share. We see how some people – for example, autistic people – have a difficult time responding empathically to paintings of faces. I understand better, the nature of ambiguity in art – how each of us sees a slightly different version of a great work of art, and that this interpretation is subject to the creative capability of the brain. I was not aware, before, what a creativity machine the brain is, and how each of us sees a different view of art because we have different brain responses to it, and how, even for simple perception, there is not only bottom-up processing, determined by Gestaltian rules of grouping things together, but there is a lot of top-down processing, which is based on comparing what we see now to what has been stored in memory.
So, I think understanding the biology of the Beholder’s Share has significantly enriched my understanding of art. It has done so without in any way diminishing my aesthetic response. In fact in general, knowledge only enhances enjoyment, and I think it has enhanced my enjoyment of art. It is a little bit like saying, “To what degree does reading good literary criticism of Shakespeare, say by Harold Bloom and A.C. Bradley, enhance your enjoyment of Hamlet or King Lear?” I feel very much the same way. | <urn:uuid:512afc8c-a3c7-4990-bf67-d63df5334082> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://www.wired.com/2012/04/the-age-of-insight/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424200.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170723002704-20170723022704-00116.warc.gz | en | 0.973293 | 4,309 | 2.640625 | 3 | The extract scores 5 points for its comprehensive and nuanced discussion of soft skills, including communication, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking. It presents complex scenarios requiring sophisticated communication, strategic thinking, and advanced problem-solving across multiple contexts, such as the intersection of art and science. The conversation between Eric Kandel and Jonah Lehrer demonstrates a high level of intercultural fluency, digital literacy, and professional development, with a strong emphasis on practical application and real-world context.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 577,688 | 1 |
Do you know Mary Walker from Union Springs, Alabama? She is America’s oldest student because she did not learn to read, write, and perform basic math until she was 116 years of age. Let me take a moment to introduce you to a former slave who proved a person can achieve great things regardless of his/her beginnings.
Mary Walker was born in 1848 and into enslavement. She was not allowed to learn to read or write. Then at the age of 15 in 1863 with the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation she was set free with her family. Yes, her family was free but without the skill set needed to understand written and financial transactions. The jobs available were sharecropping, house keeping, and so forth. She worked hard at a young age to contribute financially to her family even though it was only change she desired to help. Mary married at the age of 20 and continued in jobs such as cooking, cleaning, babysitting, and even sold sandwiches to raise money for her church. It is at this church she received her precious Bible that she hoped to read one day. Mary moved to Chattanooga at the age of 69 in 1917. She raised a family never knowing how to read or write, but she dreamed to be free one day. Finally, at the age of 114 she enrolled in classes and by 116 years of age she could read, write, and do basic math. Mary stated, “You’re never to old to learn.” At her death in 1969 at the age of 121, she was known to be the last surviving former slave. Before her death, she received various awards and was recognize by two U.S. Presidents and Canada.
This is by far my favorite mentor text to use to center a weeks worth of lessons around. The ELA, writing, and social studies standards are numerous in The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Hubbard and illustrated by Oge Mora. Also, outside of the standards students can learn about perseverance, overcoming great obstacles, and never giving up on your dreams regardless of circumstances.
As I read this book, I introduce the concept of enslavement in the south and the Civil War to build background knowledge. I discuss the Emancipation Proclamation, also. As a class, we discuss the effects of growing up during enslavement and how this impacted Mary Walker’s life (cause and effect). I am careful and sensitive with my language while teaching about this time period to young elementary students. I have found my students are excited and interested to learn the history of the United States. As we progress through the book and various lessons it is undeniable that enslavement, the denial of civil rights and segregation had a profound effect of Mary Walker’s life, but she persisted and over came many obstacles to learn to read. Side note, when Mary was interviewed about her life in the 1960’s she was still hesitate to speak out because of “the Klux”.
This lesson could be interpreted by many as CRT and be frowned upon in an elementary classroom or any school setting. Slave owners were white in the United States and regardless of personal feelings this is a fact. The laws in place during this time period kept Mary Walker and her siblings from learning to read and write. Is this Critical Race Theory or a factual recollection of the history of America?
Until next time….Dandelion Dreams
Never stop reading. learning. and questioning | <urn:uuid:0070e604-efb8-489d-b08b-1e9dc6df7727> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://dandeliondreamsrm119.home.blog/2021/09/12/a-new-view-of-critical-race-theory-pt-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224654012.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20230607175304-20230607205304-00240.warc.gz | en | 0.982967 | 710 | 2.921875 | 3 | The extract scores high for its thoughtful discussion of perseverance, overcoming obstacles, and the importance of education, all of which are valuable soft skills. It also touches on critical thinking, cultural awareness, and historical context, making it a comprehensive educational resource. However, its focus is more on the narrative and historical context rather than explicit soft skills development or complex problem-solving scenarios.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 945,397 | 1 |
The regiment reassembles and is ready to march. In line, Henry remembers the packet of letters that Wilson had entrusted to him. Henry decides to keep the packet as a "small weapon" to use against Wilson if he asks about Henry running away. Thinking back on Wilson's serious and sentimental gesture of the packet, Henry feels superior and proud again.
Henry is as much at war with his insecurity as with the enemy: the tattered man with his "knife thrusts," the "small weapon" Henry holds to use against Wilson. Here, Henry is smug about Wilson's fear, as if he had never suffered any weakness.
Feeling like a veteran, Henry forgives himself for his anxieties and internal philosophical debates: they were just youthful delusions. Now he feels like a man of experience, confident that he's been chosen for glory. He remembers how the other soldiers who ran away were overly hasty and wild. Henry scorns them, believing that he fled the battle with "discretion and dignity."
Wilson nervously approaches Henry and asks for his packet of letters back. Seeing that Wilson is blushing with shame, Henry returns the packet without a word. Because he withheld comment and did not take advantage of his friend, Henry judges himself to be a generous and extraordinary man.
Though it costs him embarrassment, Wilson is ready to face his fears and shortcomings. But Henry is not ready, preferring to remain happily delusional about his self-importance. | <urn:uuid:2668e7ca-b994-4028-86c4-1ac3329d362e> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-red-badge-of-courage/chapter-15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943695.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20230321095704-20230321125704-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.982003 | 300 | 2.578125 | 3 | The extract explores themes of insecurity, confidence, and self-perception, offering insights into Henry's emotional struggles and relationships with fellow soldiers. It touches on emotional intelligence, leadership, and critical thinking, but lacks practical application and nuanced interaction. The scenario is relatively straightforward, with limited cultural awareness and digital literacy.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 353,650 | 0 |
Nothing special: just survive a month in real life. Find a job, pay the rent, buy some food and reach the end of the month without bankrupt. It isn’t so easy, is it?
One of the best ways to learn about homelessness and the needs of those at risk is to get involved. Homelessness is the circumstance when people are without a permanent dwelling, such as a house or apartment. People who are homeless are most often unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, secure and adequate housing. According to the UK homelessness charity Crisis, a home is not just a physical space: it also provides roots, identity, security, a sense of belonging and a place of emotional wellbeing. United States government homeless enumeration studies also include people who sleep in a public or private place not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.
Be a volunteer or donate an organization working with homelessness. | <urn:uuid:0e4315d3-acbf-4b10-9dc3-8861eb17b88d> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | http://enterdignityworld.hu/games/spent | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370507738.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20200402173940-20200402203940-00357.warc.gz | en | 0.958922 | 186 | 2.828125 | 3 | The extract provides a basic understanding of homelessness and its challenges, encouraging readers to get involved through volunteering or donation. It lacks depth in soft skills development, but touches on empathy and cultural awareness. The scenario of surviving a month in real life is relatable, but not directly applicable to professional development or complex problem-solving.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 841,261 | 0 |
If you know how frustrating it is to lose data accidentally, you would do anything to get it back. Computers experience numerous problems that put their users in desperate situations. For instance, your system can crash when you least expect making you to lose all data saved in the computer.
Some of the major causes of computer system crash include hardware conflict, RAM problem, mistaken BIOS settings, hard disk drives overload, software conflict, virus attack and power supply problems. Whatever the cause, losing valuable data is may be too costly hence the need to look for ways of getting it back. If you are using Windows, you have to use reliable Windows restore software to restore all the lost files. The EaseUS todo backup software is one of the best of its kind in helping people backup/recover lost data.
How systems crash-when you need backup or restore software
Hardware conflict: Different computer devices transfer data across each other through IRQ (Interrupt request channel), which are usually unique for each device. When you have numerous devices, where some of them end up sharing a common IRQ, this results to a conflict. Continued use of the devices before correcting the problem may escalate to a system crash.
If your PC displays “Fatal Exception Error” on a blue screen, you must be a having a RAM problem. Mistaken BIOS settings could occur when the chipset settings are improperly configured.
When your system starts showing signs of instability, the problem could be computer viruses. For instance, viruses may wipe out the boot sector in a hard drive making it experience boot problems. This makes it advisable to have a Windows restore bootable disk.
- Overload of hard disk drives:
Hard disks normally start to fragment data after a few weeks. If the information in the fragments is too much, the hard disks may crash or shut down.
If you install different computer software badly or when some of the programs are conflicting, the end result may be a system crash. This happens when different software are incompatible.
Instability in power supply such as unstable voltage and sudden power outage can crash PCs.
With so many possible ways for any system to crash, having a backup and a method of restoring the data is a good idea. The Windows backup and restore software is one of the best since it is free to download, easy to use and fast in restoring valuable lost data.
Features of EaseUS Todo Backup
This software allows users to restore lost data quickly and easily whenever there is a hardware failure or system crash irrespective of the Windows OS you are using. With this software, you can restore/backup your hard disk or partition whenever it has faced any event that causes system crash. This software also support backup to cloud including Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox.
Even if you wish to upgrade a smaller or hard disc without the need to install a new OS or application, the EaseUS Todo Backup can help you to migrate HDD to SSD without reinstalling Windows. If you’re using Windows 10 then you can check this tutorial “how to migrate windows 10 to SSD“.
System requirements: The software works on all Windows OS; 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.
Is EaseUs Todo Backup any better than the rest?
The fact that the software offers considerably advanced backup and control features for the home and intermediate user freely makes this worth a try. If your PC has crashed for whatever reason, is infected with viruses or someone hacked the system, you should definitely consider restoring it to a previous date’s settings. You can also restore it if there has been a change in system configuration that you want to undo. You can simply give it a try to determine whether it is actually what you are looking for or not.
I always like to try new stuff to see whether they are really worth the hype. In just five easy to follow steps, anyone can have all the lost data restored even with minimal computing knowledge.
Just like any other software, there definitely is going to be those who may not be happy with the program for various reasons. For instance, some people have not had success using the software to restore or backup files. | <urn:uuid:196c98a8-ebf3-4512-b517-213e40e399b7> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://ajnabii.com/tech/review-easeus-todo-backup-software-free.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886104160.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170817210535-20170817230535-00617.warc.gz | en | 0.92524 | 861 | 2.53125 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing primarily on technical aspects of computer system crashes and data recovery. It provides some practical application but lacks depth in communication, teamwork, and problem-solving scenarios.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 740,388 | 0 |
African Journal of Agricultural Research vol:8 issue:1 pages:1-19
Common bean represents the second staple crop in the Kenyan highlands. Decreasing yields and overpopulation in this area demand an intensification of food production. The Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI Embu) has been promoting improved climbing bean varieties in order to boost yields. To quantify the impact of this work, a survey was done in order to i) assess awareness, trial and adoption rates of climbing beans by local farmers and ii) acquire insight in this adoption process. This more detailed analysis of the various adoption stages is the paper’s unique contribution to the adoption literature. At the time of the survey, 90% of the farmers were aware of climbing beans, about 40% had grown climbing beans on their farms at least for one season (test/trial) and only about 11% had maintained its production (adoption). Climbing beans seem to be more popular at higher altitudes where they are grown on small areas. Increasing age of the household head, contact with extension services and farmer-to-farmer transmission are important for awareness and testing climbing beans. A serious limitation for both trial and adoption is the poor availability of seed. From this study, recommendations were made on how to improve climbing bean awareness, trial and adoption. | <urn:uuid:b02b4b06-8945-4038-b319-f7428136b77a> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/369352 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394021230991/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305120710-00092-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949462 | 266 | 2.84375 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on agricultural research and statistics. It provides superficial coverage of basic concepts without meaningful depth or practical application related to soft skills development.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 947,350 | 0 |
Easing the burden
Post-traumatic stress disorder can affect any worker. How can an employer help?
By Keith Howard, associate editor
In industries across the country, when an incident occurs on the job, people can be seriously hurt, leaving both physical and mental damage. And dealing with mental scars can be just as tough as dealing with the ones on the outside.
A serious or fatal work injury can cause people who knew the victim or witnessed the incident to experience symptoms of traumatic stress. Watching a close colleague suffer a serious fall or witnessing a workplace fire can have a devastating effect on the human mind.
After a traumatic event, people may have difficulty concentrating, show signs of irritability, become hyper-alert to danger, have an exaggerated startled response or feel on edge.
Although these symptoms may be considered normal for a person who recently witnessed a traumatic event, when symptoms continue beyond 30 days, they become part of a debilitating condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder.
What is PTSD?
Many people do not realize that PTSD can happen to anyone; it is not limited to soldiers returning from combat or 9/11 survivors, said Dr. Frank Ochberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry at East Lansing-based Michigan State University and founder of Gift from Within, a nonprofit organization that develops educational materials for people suffering from PTSD.
“The most common cause of PTSD in America is a traffic accident – a bad accident,” Ochberg said. “An accident where a loved one is killed or a person is trapped for a while in a vehicle, or someone comes up suddenly and sees a dead body. These are far more common than combat or rape, and then there are times when workplaces are the scenes.”
PTSD sufferers commonly experience feelings of numbness and isolation, causing them to avoid seeking the treatment necessary to resume everyday activities, Ochberg said. He recommends intervening as early as possible, and said treating a mental disorder is just as important as treating a physical illness.
“PTSD is real, and persons with PTSD and related traumatic stress syndromes deserve the same respect and support that individuals and families suffering the impact of cancer, heart disease and strokes receive,” Ochberg said.
Ochberg added that PTSD sufferers have great difficulty readjusting to personal and work routines while dealing with symptoms. And people who lose their jobs as they struggle with the disorder may have trouble acclimating themselves to new jobs.
The impact of PTSD in the workplace
The American Psychiatric Association estimates that roughly 8 percent of the general population may be affected by PTSD in their lifetime, with women more than twice as likely to be victims as men.
Employees and employers must understand the importance of supporting a person coping with PTSD, said Bob VandePol, president of the Crisis Care Network, a Grandville, MI-based provider of response services through consultation and managerial assistance.
“There’s a higher risk that a person may tell off their boss, quit precipitously, be afraid to come back to [the] site the next day or respond harshly to co-workers,” VandePol said. “There are a lot of bad things that can happen. It’s important psychologically to contain that incident through facility resiliency so that people can bounce back.”
Helping to overcome the effects of PTSD in the workplace requires paying close attention to employees, especially when a traumatic event occurs on the job, VandePol said.
“Having others witness you experience the symptoms of PTSD can be uncomfortable and embarrassing or shame-inducing,” VandePol said. “People experiencing PTSD will sometimes avoid situations where people can see them not at their best. So for people who witness the situation to normalize their reaction would be invaluable.”
Leaving PTSD untreated, regardless of its cause, likely will contribute to chronic pain, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and sleep problems that inhibit a person’s ability to work and interact with others.
Shared experience among sufferers
Those who suffer from PTSD may re-experience their trauma in the form of flashback episodes and intrusive recollections of the event. They often will remove themselves from events or situations that remind them of the trauma, said Dr. Richard J. Ottenstein, CEO of the Sykesville, MD-based Workplace Trauma Center, a provider of crisis management and training services.
“It can be a sight, it can be a sound, it can be a smell, it can be a voice, it can be a sudden movement,” Ottenstein said. “Memories are stored in the brain coming from all our senses, so that when we experience something, there are memories that are stored about the sounds, the visual images, the smell, possibly even the taste, the temperature, sometimes even the atmospheric pressure.”
Ottenstein said to imagine how difficult it must be for a machinist to return to work after a colleague lost an arm, or how it would be for a truck driver to take the same road where he watched a crash that took the lives of a family a month before.
“PTSD is treatable. It’s difficult to treat; it’s challenging, but it’s definitely treatable. Providing support to employees early is important. I think it is important to provide support the day of or the day after the event so the employee can take [his or her] time to help themselves or to help each other,” he said.
Preparing for a trauma
Preventive medicine is the most effective form of medicine for employers to treat PTSD, according to George S. Everly Jr., associate professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and executive director of Resiliency Science Institutes at the University of Maryland Baltimore County Training Centers.
“Preventative medicine is always more important than the treatment. Why would you sit around waiting for something to happen?” Everly said. “Personally, I’ve spent my career treating trauma. But the best medicine is preventative medicine. We should obviously be as good at treating something as we possibly can. Think of cancer: Do you want to treat cancer or do you want to prevent cancer?”
Everly said companies should build a relationship with an organization that provides crisis intervention services. These organizations can dispatch trained professionals to help employers restore health and productivity to their workforce after a traumatic event.
Employers also can train managers and give them a concise plan on how to handle the traumatic events that cause PTSD. Everly has helped companies by providing training on how to manage personal stress and develop “psychological body armor” long before an incident occurs, he said.
“If you want to change the culture of communication, you should change it by changing the front-line leadership environment so [managers] are cohesive and resilient and they can bounce back with greater speed,” Everly said. “It’s important to have a plan on how to handle these issues when they do arrive.”
Mark Galban, a social worker at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago, recommends supervisors review their company’s policies to know how to deal with employees who have had an experience that causes PTSD on the job.
The Workplace Trauma Center lists six ways to care for yourself after a traumatic event.
“With PTSD, there’s reasonable accommodations that can be made by an employer. If someone finds they are having a hard time working in customer services, for instance, they can be reassigned to a position where there are less interactions with the public,” Galban said. “It’s important in the sense that it’ll allow them to keep their job, instead of just being let go, and it allows them to feel supported by their employer.”
Specific laws vary from state to state, but most require a psychological disability evaluation by a trained professional to verify that a person is suffering from PTSD and not average job stress. This psychological disability evaluation will be submitted to the employee’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier. If the claim is approved, compensation may include pay for lost wages, as well as treatment for any physical symptoms and for the traumatic stress. | <urn:uuid:6ee8e9a6-0aef-4468-8e81-7aa31b201ea9> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/print/easing-the-burden-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875143646.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20200218085715-20200218115715-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.955702 | 1,724 | 2.8125 | 3 | The extract discusses the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on employees and employers, highlighting the importance of support and early intervention. It provides realistic scenarios and expert opinions, demonstrating emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities. The material incorporates cultural awareness, digital literacy, and practical applications, making it a valuable resource for professional development.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 578,482 | 1 |
In the fourth grade, I learned multiplication, grammar and how to hide under a desk if a hand grenade was thrown into the classroom. Growing up as a white kid in South Africa under apartheid had its privileges, but as a student in a parochial multi-racial school, it had its terrors too. People were volatile; political change was imminent.
I watched Nelson Mandela’s release from prison with a mixture of excitement and terrible apprehension What would this mean for South Africa? He had been a leader of the “resistance” for 30 years, but how would he fare as the leader of a fledgling democracy deeply divided by race and tribe?
In the four years following his release, the tension built. On the streets, political violence flared up daily. At the negotiation table, however, Mandela was patiently and persistently building bridges to a new South Africa. Though a black man, he offered respect and forgiveness to his white oppressors. Though a Xhosa man, he shook hands with tribal leaders. Though he made no public profession of faith, he embodied Proverbs 15:1: “A gentle answer turns away wrath.”
And so it was that we witnessed the birth of the new South Africa, with Madiba (as we came to call him) at the helm. The new constitution was hammered out. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to allow past wrongs to be confessed and forgiven. The new flag was raised and a new anthem was sung.
Through it all, Mandela’s dignified, peace-making, authoritative, conciliatory voice set the tone. Pundits had predicted a bloodbath following that first election, but instead there was dancing. My white mother stood hand in hand with our black domestic worker and together they cast their votes to live in Mandela’s new country.
I suspect history may tell the story of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela in the same way it tells of Cyrus the Great of Persia, who ruled from 559 to 530 BC. King Cyrus was a great leader, known for his respect of the cultural differences of the lands he ruled over and for pronouncing what some consider to be one of the first historically important declarations of human rights in the Cyrus Cylinder. In Isaiah, the Lord says of Cyrus: “He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill my purpose” and “I call you by name, though you do not know me. I equip you, though you do not know me.”
Mandela’s final day has come, his history written. I grieve together with millions of South Africans and admirers worldwide at the loss of a great man, but I grieve with gratitude. Twenty years ago I was one of many Christians who prayed the words of 1 Timothy 2:2-3 night after night. We prayed for those in authority so that we could live peaceful and quiet lives in godliness and holiness. We prayed for stable and just governors, under whose leadership quiet and fruitful living could take place, believing that such leadership was good and pleased God our Savior.
In reflecting on our beloved Madiba’s life, I believe God answered our prayers. South Africa was peaceful and quiet at a time when it could have been tumultuous and bloody. Nelson Mandela was a man who so embodied justice and reconciliation that an entire nation’s destiny was shaped by it, an entire generation was uplifted by it. History may say of Mandela he was a great man. However, I believe the Lord says of him, “He was my shepherd, and he fulfilled my purpose.” | <urn:uuid:90ca20da-c27b-444b-bd49-f7142e0e5cae> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://thinkchristian.reframemedia.com/nelson-mandela-and-gods-providential-purpose | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394020792760/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305115952-00049-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981431 | 746 | 2.609375 | 3 | This extract scores high for its thoughtful discussion of leadership, emotional intelligence, and cultural awareness. It presents a complex scenario of a country in transition, requiring sophisticated communication, strategic thinking, and advanced problem-solving. The narrative seamlessly integrates advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios, mirroring real-world complexity.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 779,314 | 1 |
Using Assessment Results for Program Improvement
Effective Use of Assessment Results
Using assessment results to inform program changes or improvements is perhaps the most challenging final step in the assessment cycle – commonly referred to as ‘closing the loop’. Linda Suskie (2009) provides invaluable reminders to ensure that assessment results are used effectively and appropriately:
- Assessment reports that end up briefly perused and then filed without any resulting action are a waste of time.
- Assessment results should never dictate the decisions; we should always use our professional judgment to interpret the results to help make appropriate decisions.
- Actively discourage inappropriate interpretations or use of assessment results. How results have been used in the past has been shown to have a significant effect on people’s willingness to participate in gathering and using assessment information.
- Prevent problems with closing the loop by carefully planning your assessment.
- While positive assessment results should be celebrated, even more recognition and reward should go to exemplary assessment efforts.
- Promote the use of multiple sources of information when making any major decision.
- Communicate assessment information widely and transparently.
Suskie, L.A. (2009). Assessing student learning: A common sense guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
The effective use of assessment results starts with thoughtful planning. With the collaborative effort of faculty, assessment plans can be designed to produce actionable results. Sometimes, the use of assessment results can be a challenge, especially when they are perceived as not being relevant, valid or credible. They may be incomplete or not actionable. There may have been limited resources or overly heavy faculty workloads that made the task untenable.
So, a great way to start the planning process is:
- Begin with the mindset that the assessment effort is for discovery, hypothesis testing, and ultimately for enhancing student learning and overall program improvement.
- Begin with a clear, compelling question(s) about student learning ~ ones that faculty really care about.
- Discuss and choose the most effective “method” that will answer this question
- Focus on the fact that the method to collect and analyze the data will affect how the results will ultimately be used.
- Do a mock-up of the results for discussion. Discuss these hypothetical results with faculty to improvement the methods to be used. Interpret what conclusions might be drawn and anticipate what the program would do if the results fall short of expectations.
It is critical that the entire faculty be involved in the discussion of assessment findings and the recommended actions for making program improvements based upon the findings. There are myriad examples of effective uses of assessment results as they relate to the program’s curriculum, budget and resources, academic processes, and promotion and marketing of the program.
Examples of Effective Use of Assessment Results
Curriculum examples might include:
- Modifying the frequency and schedule of course offerings
- Adding or removing course from the curriculum
- Pedagogical models or approaches to be shared among faculty and students
- Revision of course content or assignments
Budget and resource examples might include:
- Increasing classroom space
- Adding lab resources
- Hiring or re-assigning faculty or staff
Academic process examples might include:
- Revising course prerequisites
- Revising criteria for admission to the program
- Revising advising processes or protocols
Promotion and marketing examples might include:
- Communicating and celebrating student performance and success
- Communicating student voices and perceptions to stakeholders
- Industry feedback from external assessments
- Including student work on the program website, recruiting materials, fundraising materials or in the self-study | <urn:uuid:8359bd53-06db-48e5-8833-5843c0fd5b6f> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://academicprograms.calpoly.edu/using-assessment-results-program-improvement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320049.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623100455-20170623120455-00489.warc.gz | en | 0.915089 | 741 | 2.953125 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive guide on using assessment results for program improvement, emphasizing the importance of thoughtful planning, collaboration, and effective communication. It discusses the challenges of "closing the loop" and offers practical strategies for interpreting and applying assessment results. The extract promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making, with a focus on enhancing student learning and program improvement.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 295,404 | 1 |
To quit or not to quit?
What happens when your child tells you he wants to quit an activity like piano lessons or soccer? The situation throws many an otherwise steady parent into a quandary.
What is best for the child? Although these waters may be tough to navigate, three local medical professionals offer some tips to ensure that parents arrive at the right decision for both family and child.
1. Think before signing up. “Parents know their child well and know what the family’s circumstances, availability and finances look like,” says Dr. Rochelle Harris, clinical psychologist at Children’s Mercy. A parent needs to think ahead of time about what an activity is going to entail. Be informed of the benefits and the drawbacks. Before signing up, be clear and up front with the child regarding expectations and level of commitment to avoid future problems.
2. Try an activity before making a long-term commitment. According to Dr. Julie Ehly, pediatrician at Pediatric Associates, children under the age of 12 should be sampling a variety of activities, trying different ones instead of zeroing in on something specific. “Quitting is not part of our vocabulary when we’re trialing and sampling,” says Ehly.
3. Listen to the child’s concerns. If a child communicates discontent with an activity, facilitate a conversation about why she doesn’t want to participate anymore. Set aside a time when you and your child can be undistracted. Have the child talk about the feelings behind why she wants to quit. “The parent needs to validate those feelings, even if they don’t agree with them,” says Kathy Harms, PhD, senior director of therapy services at Crittenton Children’s Center.
4. Don’t make a heat-of-the-moment decision. Parents should not make a decision based on a comment that may only reflect an impulsive, spur-of-the-moment response. The context in which the comment comes up must be taken into consideration. “This will save a parent from saying or doing the wrong thing,” says Ehly.
5. Find a solution together. Invite the child to come up with some of his own ideas. He likely will be happier with the final decision, and this also will help the child make decisions when the parent isn’t around. “I can’t emphasize enough that parents need to encourage their child to come up with solutions in order to develop the ability to problem solve in their child,” says Harms.
6. Quit responsibly. If the parent and child decide that quitting an activity is best, it’s important to quit responsibly. If possible, wait to quit until the season is over or after the final piano or dance recital. “Talk with the teacher or coach and have the child be a part of that discussion,” says Harms.If continuing until the end isn’t possible, make sure your child isn’t abandoning a team. Speak with the coach and ask whether the child’s presence will be necessary at any time. Make arrangements to come when needed so that the team doesn’t have to forfeit. “Respect for others should be involved in the timing and the approach,” says Harris.
7. Be positive and open-minded. A child can learn positive lessons from both quitting and sticking it out. The valuable lesson that comes with not quitting is the importance of following through with one’s commitments. “It also shows that quitting is not how to deal with difficult situations,” says Harris.
However, quitting an activity also can be a lesson learned. “It shows the child that it’s okay to say that this is not for me,” says Harris. When parents support a child’s wants and needs, it tells the child the parents are really listening to his concerns and that they care.
Read the full story via KC Parent.
Learn more about Children's Mercy's Division of Developmental and Behavioral Sciences. | <urn:uuid:fb1bb2f3-78b0-43c6-baa0-57ed8dffb240> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://news.childrensmercy.org/to-quit-or-not-to-quit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370504930.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20200331212647-20200401002647-00068.warc.gz | en | 0.952801 | 856 | 2.640625 | 3 | The extract provides guidance on navigating a child's decision to quit an activity, offering practical tips from medical professionals. It covers communication, problem-solving, and decision-making, promoting parental empathy and child autonomy. However, it lacks depth in complex scenarios, nuanced interaction, and advanced problem-solving, limiting its score.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 772,455 | 0 |
Location TBA || Portland, Oregon
Four weeks, $97 || Space is limited (Scholarship available)
Classroom Days Mondays, March 2, 9, 16, 23 || 7–8:30 pm
Field Day, Sunday March 29 || 10am-4pm
The concept of rewilding, of undoing the domestication of the last several thousand years, is gaining mainstream attention fast. Recent studies show that spending more time in nature, eating a “wilder” diet, and planting back native ecosystems is beneficial to human health and the health of the environment. However, this is not an “ancestral skills” class. Rather, we’ll focus on the ideological side, the hows and whys of rewilding, along with its ecological, anthropological, and psychological principles. You’ll learn the myths we’ve constructed about prehistoric peoples, the problems that came with the innovation of agricultural civilization, and the benefits of indigenous horticulture. We will look at the barriers that stand in the way of rewilding, the various ways in which people are rewilding, how to rewild in a way that is respectful to indigenous populations, and how it is shaping up in the mainstream.
In this class you will:
Learn how rewilding improves quality of life and how it helps us understand humanity’s ancient strategies of interacting with the land and each other. Gain awareness of the social and environmental hazards that arise with civilization. Examine the various groups that are rewilding around the world and how you can follow their lead.
Week 1: Exploring Prehistory
What is “pre” history, and why should we care about it? What is our “common knowledge” of cavemen? Plus, we’ll review a timeline of human evolution.
Week 2: Defining Rewilding
What is our concept of ideas like “wild” and “wilderness”? How are people using the term “rewilding”? How do hunter-gatherers change the landscape? We’ll also start to look at things like land access and how it pertains to Native Americans.
Week 3: Barriers & Hazards in Rewilding
We’ll address cultural appropriation and privilege and how they relate to rewilding.
Week 4: Rewilding in Action
What does rewilding look like? What are some barriers to rewilding? We’ll look at examples of current rewilders and see possibilities for rewilding in the future.
Week 5 Field Day: Embodied Rewilding
Theory is important for dismantling cultural concepts that we have created. However, rewilding is something that must be felt in the body. In this final day, we venture into a biodiverse setting into a world that isn’t made solely for the purpose of humans. Through a series of sensory expanding exercises and hands-on skills, we will learn more basic tools and frameworks for *feeling* rewilding as opposed to just *thinking* rewilding. This field day encapsulates and rounds out the experience: from the mythic story to the embodied ritual.
“I took this class last Autumn and it was so much fun. I met some really cool people, learned a ton and loved Peter Michael Bauer’s approach to teaching. If you are looking for something completely different and possibly mind blowing, you should take this class.”—Martha Grover
“I highly recommend this class! It was super fun—so great to have a chance to talk about rewilding in depth with likeminded folks, guided along by someone as knowledgeable and passionate as Peter Bauer. I came away with a much clearer picture of the movement and a stronger sense of my own role in it.”—Mindy Seale Fitch
“In this time of cynicism fueled by a culture ruling over the Earth, a lot of us are looking for new ways to live that could have a positive impact on ecosystems. Rewilding 101 goes over the history of human-life on Earth to try and understand how our problems came to be and, ultimately, discusses possible paths forward. This is the class that reenergized me at a time I really needed it. I met a bunch of awesome people and discovered a perspective on life that left marks on me much beyond what you’d normally expect from such a short class.”—Alexandre Normand
“Peter’s rewilding class was paradigm shifting for me. It gave me a new framework. Specifically, a new way to think about human behavior in the context of current day civilization and systems. More specifically, it helped me to understand that for the main of human existence, we have lived peacefully and cooperatively and that, furthermore, such a way of life is possible and quite possibly genetically hardwired. I know I am sounding like a new freak, and the fact is that vetted information and logic are very important too and Peter is very careful to make sure he has the most up-to-date information. He also uses a feminist and a racial justice lens through which he teaches this class, which is extremely refreshing and important.”—Christine Dupres
“I enrolled in Peter’s course during a time of personal transition. Expecting information, I received powerful insight-into how we got to this place in history, what really mattered to me at my core, what I could contribute going forward. The scope of Peter’s knowledge is amazing!”—Trish Stormont
Peter Michael Bauer is an environmental educator, author of the book Rewild or Die, and founder of Rewild Portland.
Photo Credit: Right Time, Wrong Place by Kristaps Bergfelds | <urn:uuid:09c9694e-0a20-4831-9ad1-7442e02416e4> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.rewildportland.com/rewilding-101/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250594662.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20200119151736-20200119175736-00433.warc.gz | en | 0.955599 | 1,208 | 3.703125 | 4 | The extract scores 3 points because it specifically includes discussion of rewilding concepts and features realistic scenarios that integrate emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities. The class encourages students to think critically about human behavior, cultural appropriation, and environmental hazards, promoting nuanced interaction and complex problem-solving. However, it lacks comprehensive and practical professional development opportunities, and the focus on soft skills like teamwork and communication is implicit rather than explicit.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 134,437 | 0 |
Common sense tells us that when parents and teenagers get on well, and feel good about their relationships with each other, things go better.
But common sense is backed up by research which tells us specifically what a warm parent-teen relationship does. Here are three key research findings.
When researchers ask teens to rate how warm and supportive their parents are, they find that:
When parents are rated as warm and supportive, teens are less likely to engage in risky behaviour (eg abuse of alcohol, risky sexual practices).
When parents are rated as warm and supportive, teens are more accepting of their parents monitoring their behaviour (ie knowing what they are doing across the week - at school, at home and with friends). This is important because in previous studies, higher parental monitoring is associated with better school performance and other success indicators.
When parents are rated as warm and supportive, teens are more likely to tell their parents about the difficult situations in their lives.
An important point: parent warmth and support is independent of parent rules and boundaries, and parent-teen conflict. In other words, there were hundreds of teens that rated their parents are having rules and boundaries, and having conflict with their parents - that nevertheless rated their parents are warm and supportive. This means that as parents, we can be seen as warm and supportive while still having rules and boundaries and even conflict with our teens.
The good news is that being warm and supportive of a teen does not have to take hours of time. Here are three things warm and supportive parents do for their teens:
1.They notice the things teens are doing well.
"Hey you remembered to unpack the dishwasher last night. Thanks hugely for that"
2.They empathise with teens more often than they give advice.
"That sounds like a really tough situation"
3.They comment on the teens positive characteristics
"You're so determined when you put your mind to something"
We currently have one new client booking available in May, and three in the first week of June. If you would like help in managing difficult relationships with your teen, please feel free to contact us for info about how we work with families on 08 8357 1711 or click here
Developing Minds News:
1. When Life Sucks for Kids is going through a final edit! I'm really looking forward to having it published ready for sale in July this year. Stay tuned for launch!
2. When Life Sucks for Teens Ipod/Iphone App is nearly here! You will be able to download the full ebook onto your phone or your teen's phone so they have instant access to advice, online help and prompts to email/message a parent or friend in tough times. Stay tuned for this launch too!
Any questions or comments at any time - email me directly at [email protected] I personally respond to each and every email I receive. | <urn:uuid:2130f0c9-7346-4d47-adb4-e9424ae9a900> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://developingminds.net.au/blog/2015/5/6/research-why-a-warm-relationship-with-your-teen-can-change-their-lives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423992.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20170722102800-20170722122800-00174.warc.gz | en | 0.971644 | 602 | 2.609375 | 3 | The extract provides superficial coverage of basic communication and teamwork concepts, specifically in the context of parent-teen relationships. It offers straightforward advice and scenarios, but lacks nuanced interaction or complex problem-solving opportunities. The discussion of soft skills is limited to empathy, support, and positive reinforcement, with no comprehensive professional development opportunities or advanced digital literacy skills.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 596,338 | 0 |
As the new academic year begins, UCSD proves that students who care about pressing Global Health issues are not lacking on this campus. The Students For Global Health student-run organization stopped by the Village block party and found an abundance of new transfers and returning undergrads passionate about the Global Health issues that face our world today.
Water Quality: California may be currently feeling the effects of a drought such as the lack of water or rising utility bills, but many areas of the world lack basics water sanitation. Recent studies suggest that over 750 million people lack access to safe drinking water, about one in nine people. Inadequate drinking water is an important issue in Global Health, one that leads many other problems including a lack of hygiene and the spread of preventable diseases.
Preventable Diseases: Many of the diseases that are endemic to certain regions in the world are preventable or can be treated through certain pharmaceutical drugs. There is often inequity in how these diseases get treated in different regions of the world. Between and within countries there is evidence that those in higher socio-economic classes have better access to health care. Global health is concerned with lowering the rates of preventable diseases in the world, whether through better access to essential treatment or better public education about health issues.
Maternal Health: Childbirth should be a cause of celebration, but for many mothers in rural or low-income areas of the world, pregnancy can lead to many preventable complications. Although worldwide maternal morality has dropped by almost 50% from 1990 to 2013, improvement in the access to skilled care during and after pregnancy is still necessary and an important topic in global health.
Cancer: Rising rates of cancer in the United States and around the world are cause for concern. Educating the public about healthy practices that can help prevent cancer and improving the treatment for cancer worldwide are critical in global health.
Mental Health: Mental Health problems are a very common and often overlooked issue in the sphere of health. Although the effects of mental disorders may not present themselves in the same way as traditional health issues, it is important to treat those with mental health problems with dignity and respect. With World Mental Health day rapidly approaching on October 10th, it is important to be mindful barriers that mental wellbeing faces such as lack of public exposure, and lack of resources to treat mental health disorders in low-income or rural areas of the world.
HIV/AIDS: HIV and AIDS have historically been one of public and global health most significant challenges, with approximately 37 million people in the world living with HIV/AIDS in 2014. Global health concerns about HIV/AIDS range from preventative measures such as education programs to issues with the treatment of AIDS and the unequal access to the pharmaceuticals necessary to treat the disease and stop the reproduction of HIV cells in the body.
Global health covers a wide range of health issues all around the world and offers a multidisciplinary approach to solving these issues. With the vast scope of global health, it is easy to find a way to contribute with what you are passionate about. If you are interested in any of these issues or any others, check out the Global Health Department at UCSD, or join in the conversation with Students 4 Global Health.
Students 4 Global Health will have their first GBM next week on Tuesday, October 6th at 6:30 p.m. in Liebow Auditorium. They will also be hosting Quarterly Conversations in Global Health, starting November 16th in the Great Hall at UCSD with a discussion of the current state of the struggle against HIV and AIDS worldwide. | <urn:uuid:4187f285-72ce-4025-b75d-b0c2d0a1f09a> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://globalhealthucsd.com/2015/09/30/village-and-transfer-students-share-their-global-health-passions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886105700.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20170819162833-20170819182833-00006.warc.gz | en | 0.956759 | 724 | 3.40625 | 3 | The extract earns a score of 2 due to its superficial coverage of global health issues and basic communication concepts. It lacks nuanced interaction, complex problem-solving, and practical application, but includes straightforward discussion of various health topics and invites students to join the conversation, demonstrating some awareness of teamwork and cultural awareness.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 716,703 | 0 |
Every morning, millions of students from kindergarteners to high schoolers across the nation stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance; however, a large proportion of these students choose not to participate. This issue stems from a long and controversial debate over whether schools should require that students recite the Pledge, or at least remain quiet while it is recited. Individual patriotism and the controversial “under God” lead to varying degrees of comfort with the tradition and therefore has been made voluntary. However, this in turn has introduced peer pressure that causes students to feel obligated to recite the Pledge when they are no longer required by law. Schools should put their best effort into eliminating this pressure in order to truly uphold each student’s freedom of speech and expression.
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the Pledge of Allegiance was formally adopted by Congress in 1942. After mounting social pressure, the words “under God” were added in 1954. Initially, the Supreme Court ruled that schools could make recitation compulsory; however, they reversed that decision several years later in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, declaring that mandatory recitation of the Pledge is unconstitutional because it violates America’s core values of freedom and individual liberty.
The hypocrisy pointed out by the court in Barnette is undeniable. With required recitation, the Pledge would be less meaningful because students would only participate to avoid punishment. The Pledge praises America’s commitment to freedom and, in order to best honor that value, schools should recognize students’ freedom to excuse themselves from participating.
Although a Maryland law prohibits schools from making the Pledge compulsory, there have been several incidents over the years of students receiving punishment for refusing to stand during the Pledge. According to the Washington Post, in 2013 a Damascus High School sophomore had been scolded by her science teacher and sent to the principal’s office because she had remained seated during the Pledge. She later stated that, as a Puerto Rican, she wanted to show her disagreement with U.S. policies towards Puerto Rico.
Many students decide to stay seated during the Pledge in order to make a political statement, particularly about the inclusion of “under God.” While religion has no place in a declaration of patriotism, Christianity is an ingrained part of American culture that will remain the norm for years to come. But even though the “under God” is most likely here to stay, the rights of students to express their beliefs should always be an option.
Depending on school culture, students can feel pressure from classmates and teachers alike to recite the Pledge. In these cases, schools should make a conscious effort help students feel comfortable whether they decide to sit or stand. Instead of participation being an expectation, schools should normalize that reciting the Pledge is a choice.
Students’ individual backgrounds influence their willingness to participate in reciting the Pledge. Instead of forcing a single way to express patriotism, school administrations should recognize students’ independence and simply present them with the option. Faced with a choice instead of a requirement, students can better explore what allegiance and freedom mean to them on a more personal level.
Article by MoCo Student staff writer Isabella Levine of Richard Montgomery High School | <urn:uuid:f28b8459-f873-4372-a66f-d541619f226e> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://mocostudent.org/2017/06/controversy-over-the-pledge-of-allegiance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886118195.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170823094122-20170823114122-00417.warc.gz | en | 0.963618 | 651 | 3.34375 | 3 | The extract earns a score of 4 due to its thoughtful discussion of complex issues, such as freedom of speech, individual patriotism, and cultural sensitivity. It presents realistic scenarios, integrates emotional intelligence, and encourages critical thinking, while also acknowledging the importance of cultural awareness and digital literacy is not explicitly mentioned but the topic is well-researched.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 833,101 | 1 |
Microsoft’s event “Transforming education to regain economic prosperity”, will seek to promote and explore new assessment methods around collaborative problem solving. The discussion with key actors involved in this project, will provide guidelines to policy makers on how to help education communities prepare for PISA 2015.
Amongst the confirmed speakers are: Arto K. Ahonen, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä; Jim Wynn, Chief Education Officer at Promethean; Wayne Houlden, Managing Director Janison Software; Regina Murray, Director Western Europe Education, Microsoft; Greg Butler, Director of Education Strategy, Microsoft.
When: Tuesday 4th December 2012
Where: Microsoft Executive Briefing Center, Avenue des Nerviens 85, 1040 Brussels.
What: Policy Discussion with education experts followed by a networking lunch.
Who: EU and national policy makers, industry, IT education professionals, representatives from international education organizations.
Why such an event?
Education plays a core role in our digital age transformation. So what are the skills that the young generation needs in this rapidly changing world?
Today’s school curricula must go further than traditional skills such as reading, writing and applying math. It should be shaped to include skills such as collaboration and digital literacy that will prepare students for 21st century employment and help them become successful in the digital age and beyond. On the other hand, employers today are often challenged with entry-level workers who lack the practical skills to create, build and help sustain an information-rich business.
Countries strive to transform their educational systems to prepare all young people with the knowledge and skills needed to be equipped in our rapidly changing societies. Governments are responsible for teachers’ education and will ultimately make the curriculum and assessment decisions to help their countries succeed. Furthermore evaluation and assessment undertakings have become essential to both improvement and accountability in school systems. We see this reflected in national education agendas. Information obtained through evaluation and assessment procedures is critical to understanding whether school systems are delivering good performance and to providing feedback to help improvement.
The development of education is determined by the demands of 21st century, which is a key factor in influencing assessments. This is instrumental in improving school practices and enhancing student performance and outcomes.
Now despite a high degree of interest we see in new forms of teaching and learning, the use of innovative assessment approaches remains quite limited. Both national assessments and classroom-based assessments in many countries have remained focused primarily on reproducing knowledge and applying basic skills. Less attention is given to measuring complex competencies. Hence, while the curriculum might be competency-based, the assessment system may not adequately capture many of the key objectives of the curriculum.
So what is to be done?
In order to overcome this trend, several public and private actors are increasingly investing in research and development regarding the teaching and assessment of key competencies. It is essential to gather that data through new forms of assessment that can bring a fundamental change in how we approach education worldwide. One example is the “Assessment and Teaching of 21st-Century Skills” (ATC21S) project led from the University of Melbourne, which is sponsored by private companies (Cisco, Intel and Microsoft) and governed by an executive board comprising ministries of education, academics and industry leaders from a range of countries. This project has created new assessment methods along with policy and learning environment guidance for adopting the teaching of these high-priority skills and inspired OECD to include Collaborative Problem Solving in the upcoming PISA 2015 survey. Furthermore the project also gives concrete examples of how these skills apply to real-world situations.
To quote Michael Timms, ATC21S USA National Project Manager: “Kids are digital natives. They go into the classroom, and they don’t see the same level use of technology in their education as they might in their outside lives and when they get out into the workplace. If education doesn’t start to address that issue, this disconnect will grow. This is the motivation for our focus on 21st-century skills.” | <urn:uuid:aef2a186-81d6-4d3f-9aec-d363997dd0be> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.microsoft.com/eu/impact-on-society/event/modernizing-education-in-order-to-secure-smart-sustainable-and-inclusi.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1387345772708/warc/CC-MAIN-20131218054932-00052-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947374 | 845 | 2.828125 | 3 | The extract discusses the importance of 21st-century skills, such as collaboration and digital literacy, in education. It highlights the need for new assessment methods to measure complex competencies and provides examples of initiatives, like the ATC21S project, that aim to address this issue. The extract shows a good understanding of the challenges in education and the need for practical skills, but lacks depth in providing nuanced interaction or complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 591,674 | 0 |
The most profound characteristic of the networked era we live in today is that ‘ordinary’ people can easily create and distribute their own content. Sites like YouTube and Vimeo are more than Internet versions of America’s Funniest Home Videos. Indeed, they enable budding filmmakers to showcase their works, singers to attract their own following, and artists to use the screens in people’s homes as their canvas. Most importantly, this direct form of broadcasting eliminates the need for a slew of middlemen, moderation and the accompanying politics. It does not end there, writers can publish their novels as e-books, journalists can report the news by using web logs, and everyone can share their day-to-day activities via social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Google+.
Never before have there existed so many options to distribute and create one’s own content. Not all of this is of high quality, nor does it really need to be. As the ability to publish taps into the basic human needs of self expression and sharing. However, there are limits, because whatever anyone creates, there is one thing that protects every creative expression: copyright.
The origin of copyright stems back to a very old invention: that of the printing press. Prior to this, literacy rates were fairly low and reproducing texts was labor intensive: the manual letter-by-letter copying by writing was performed by educated monks in monasteries. The mechanical printing press changed everything, as it made it significantly easier to produce exact duplicates of a text. And this is exactly where the tension between authors of original works, publishers/distributors and consumers originated.
An unprotected work, one that is in the public domain, can be reproduced without the original author’s consent. Indeed, one may even take a work in the public domain, change nothing and republish it under one’s own credentials. There are no limits to how works in the public domain can be used and there is no legal protection for them. Luckily, a work is not in the public domain by default. Anything you create is at least protected by copyright automatically, with some minor exceptions. However, as we will see later, this is also a double-edged sword.
As Europe became more literate, the demand for books increased and concerns grew over the monopoly of the large printing companies. After all, they could republish any work without consent, and profit solely from the act of printing without compensating the original author. To remedy this, copying restrictions were introduced, first by self-regulation at the industry level, and later government enforced by copyright law.
The duration of copyright is limited, sharing some resemblance to the patent system. After you have created some original work, you have a set time to profit from it by displaying, selling or transmitting it. You also have the exclusive right to produce derivative works and naturally: to copy it. The (expected) return based on all these rights is intended to cover the costs it took in terms of your own labor as well as other resources to produce the work. This incentive may be an explanation for the proliferation of creative works over the last couple of centuries. After the copyright expires, your work enters the public domain. So, for how long is a work covered by copyright? Initially, this was about 14 to 28 years, but most countries now use the lifespan of the author plus 50 to 70 (!) years.
The expiration of copyright and the existence of works in the public domain give rise to a somewhat odd dichotomy. One can produce a derivative of a work in the public domain, and then produce a new original copyright-protected work from it. Do you know of anyone who has done this? I bet you do, since one of the most famous examples is Walt Disney.
This brief clip shows that Disney relied on many existing works. He created original derivative works by creating modern adaptations of them. In some sense this is exactly how human culture works: you build upon the works of others. Whether those derivative works should then by fiercely protected by a profit-driven entertainment company, is an interesting other debate.
In some way copyright seems entirely fair. After all, it provides an incentive for creating new works, and enables the author to make a living. However, there are some consequences of copyright law which have nothing to do with such lofty goals. These affect both the ownership and duration of copyright.
It is common to transfer ownership from the original author to some other entity, usually a publishing company. For example, many scientists have to transfer copyright of a final manuscript version of a publication to the publishing entity, like ACM or Springer. As scientific articles are usually paywalled, this leads to the odd construction that an author may have to pay to be able to view his original work in the final published form, although commonly, and commonsensically, such access is provided free of charge. Open source projects are another example: some require the author to sign over copyright to the project itself. One reason to do this is to prevent the situation where all copyright holders have to agree to a future license change, an other is a better legal position. These example show that copyright does not necessarily remain with the original creators, but rather is transferred based on either direct monetary gain or legal convenience.
I think the legal convenience argument is somewhat weak: indeed, it can be better to have a slew of copyright holders involved. When a license change is proposed they can all democratically vote for it. With respect to monetary gain, science is the odd one out. Scientist produce their articles, and then publish them for free at conferences or in journals. Yet, the publishers are the only ones profiting in this system. Indeed, through scientific grands, the taxpayer indirectly funds those large publishing companies when scientists publish their works. However, this is just one route through which the public sponsors those companies: universities pay licensing costs for access to repositories of publications and printed journals, which is also public money. While the publishing companies do add value, by editorial means, providing infrastructure and promotion as well as actual printed works, it is doubtful whether such a cozy money-sandwich is justified for this rather limited contribution. Contrast this with the early days of printing, where the publishers were also responsible for the actual printing and brought to the table considerable knowledge and craftsmanship concerning typesetting and replication. These tasks have quietly shifted to dedicated printing companies and the authors themselves, weakening the role of traditional publishers.
The situation is different outside of science. Most artists get some form of compensation when they sign over their copyright. This can either be some fixed amount or a share of the profit. However, the lion’s share still goes to the publishers and distributors themselves. This also raises the interesting question: why should copyright last longer than the author’s lifetime? Who owns the rights, and the profits, after the author has died? In some cases these may be the heirs of the author, for example the Tolkien Estate holds the rights to The Lord of the Rings, which makes some sense. However, this is not always the case. For example, who owns the music of the Beatles (two of whom are still alive)? That would be Sony Music. So, they can profit from the Beatles\’s catalog, consisting of over 250 songs, until probably the end of this century. Wait a minute, I thought the point of copyright was to fairly compensate the authors, so that they could make a living of what they had created? In fairness, the Beatles and their estates still receive some royalties (though most profits now go to Sony Music). However, the effort it took to create those original works has already been compensated many times over by this point, and even more so by the turn of the century.
This clip illustrates some of the points made thus far:
So far, we have learned about the origin of copyright and seen the deviation between the original goal of copyright: protecting the individual authors, and the present-day situation: publishers and large corporations owning vast amounts of intellectual property. However, computers and the Internet are changing the game. In a follow-up article, to appear soon, we will look at copyright in the digital age. | <urn:uuid:8084e162-c927-4b6c-9f6b-bfd1e4ef398b> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://almer.tigelaar.net/2013/02/the-origins-of-copyright/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164000853/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133320-00041-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965055 | 1,675 | 3.28125 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive overview of copyright, its history, and its implications, but lacks direct discussion of soft skills. However, it touches on aspects of communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving through the analysis of copyright law and its effects on creators and consumers. The text encourages readers to think critically about the role of copyright in the digital age, but does not explicitly address teamwork, leadership, or emotional intelligence.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 614,687 | 0 |
What is Supply Chain Management (SCM)?
Supply chain management (SCM) is the active management of supply chain activities to maximize customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. It represents a conscious effort by the supply chain firms to develop and run supply chains in the most effective & efficient ways possible. Supply chain activities cover everything from product development, sourcing, production, and logistics, as well as the information systems needed to coordinate these activities.
The concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM) is based on two core ideas:
1.The first is that practically every product that reaches an end user represents the cumulative effort of multiple organizations. These organizations are referred to collectively as the supply chain.
2.The second idea is that while supply chains have existed for a long time, most organizations have only paid attention to what was happening within their “four walls.” Few businesses understood, much less managed, the entire chain of activities that ultimately delivered products to the final customer. The result was disjointed and often ineffective supply chains.
The organizations that make up the supply chain are “linked” together through physical flows and information flows.
Physical flows involve the transformation, movement, and storage of goods and materials. They are the most visible piece of the supply chain. But just as important are information flows.
Information flows allow the various supply chain partners to coordinate their long-term plans, and to control the day-to-day flow of goods and materials up and down the supply chain.
Supply chain management is a cross-functional approach that includes managing the movement of raw materials into an organization, certain aspects of the internal processing of materials into finished goods, and the movement of finished goods out of the organization and toward the end consumer. As organizations strive to focus on core competencies and become more flexible, they reduce their ownership of raw materials sources and distribution channels. These functions are increasingly being outsourced to other firms that can perform the activities better or more cost effectively. The effect is to increase the number of organizations involved in satisfying customer demand, while reducing managerial control of daily logistics operations. Less control and more supply chain partners lead to the creation of the concept of supply chain management. The purpose of supply chain management is to improve trust and collaboration among supply chain partners thus improving inventory visibility and the velocity of inventory movement.
• It helps the organization to manage their supply chain process in a dynamic environment.
• SCMS process helps suppliers, customers, and business partners connect with each other to manage supply chain process effectively and efficiently.
• It helps organizations to accelerate and optimize end-to-end procure-to-pay process.
• SCMS allows an organization to integrate their processes and enforce contract compliance for supply-side and supplier-side requirements throughout using supply chain processes in distributed environment.
• It will cover the key processes- Supply Chain networking, supply chain planning and coordination, and supply chain execution.
• Reduce accounts receivable collections with better visibility into the AR process, aging, and extension of credit and consequently, help to reduce the day’s sales outstanding.
• Effectively use Net Fixed assets NFA like plants and equipment.
• To meet customer demands, you can smartly plan and manage Supply Chain Management process in an organization.
• Proper inventory optimization, order fulfillment, and shipping of the goods.
• Distribution of the key information to all the stakeholders spread across the network.
• Improve communication and collaboration between different business lines to manage demand and supply process in an organization. | <urn:uuid:f316f410-ada9-4393-af78-e7e79774aee1> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | http://forum.daffodilvarsity.edu.bd/index.php/topic,52520.0/prev_next,next.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875143646.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20200218085715-20200218115715-00460.warc.gz | en | 0.944945 | 721 | 3.21875 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive overview of Supply Chain Management (SCM), covering its core concepts, activities, and benefits. However, it lacks discussion of soft skills, emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities. The content focuses on theoretical knowledge and technical aspects of SCM, with limited emphasis on practical application, cultural awareness, and digital literacy.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 603,788 | 0 |
You could select from many entries in this part of the diary to see how these ideas are evoked. I think the most moving entry would have to be the last one. The closing line of seeking to create one's own destiny and life and sense of own if "there were no other people in this world" is powerful and strong enough, but acquires a greater meaning when understanding the historic context within which she is writing.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. July 15, 1944."
This is the most heartbreaking entry of the entire volume because of the dramatic irony. The reader knows precisely the horror that lies in store for Anne. To see her hope in the face of such utter despair and human evil rends the heart of the reader. This line is used as the final line of the play based on Anne’s diary. To see this play performed and then to hear this line read at the end of the play is an incredibly powerful dramatic device. Unforgettable.
I agree that the last entry reveals the great extent to which Anne has evolved in her thinking. It really is a testimony to the voice that she could have been and the thinker the world sorely missed. I would say that this is probably my favorite. If I had another one, it would be the February 3, 1944, where the bleakness of the Holocaust is so perfectly revealed as Anne talks about how individuals face overwhelmingly difficult odds in the face of institutional machinery and when individuals have chosen silence over activism. While the bleakness is evident, there is that unique tone of hope that "everything will work out in the end." This is a uniquely human approach to enduring a situation which is about as far from human as one can get. | <urn:uuid:209f4d8f-eb47-4c54-8aa9-d5a33037edcb> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/dairy-entry-that-moved-your-heart-391394 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320023.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623063716-20170623083716-00195.warc.gz | en | 0.974913 | 376 | 2.65625 | 3 | The extract scores high for its thought-provoking discussion and emotional depth, exploring complex themes like hope, despair, and human evil. It encourages empathy, critical thinking, and cultural awareness, particularly in the context of the Holocaust. The analysis of Anne's diary entries promotes nuanced understanding and reflection.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 10,278 | 1 |
Global warming is the most significant environmental problem facing us today, as we experience more and more weather anomalies every year. In long-term perspective it will probably make life harder, not easier, for most of us. This is mainly because we have already built enormous infrastructure based on the climate we now have. People in some temperate zones may benefit from milder winters, more abundant rainfall, and expanding crop production zones. But people in other areas will suffer from increased heat waves, coastal erosion, rising sea level, more erratic rainfall, and droughts.
Today we are able to estimate some of the consequences of the global warming for example the rising sea level. But in order to understand and prevent or at least slow down the process we need to look back and understand how has it all started. French economist Aurélien Saussay created the map which might help us to do that.
The Global Historical Emissions Map charts global carbon emissions over the course of 260 years. It is based on data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center which gathered data about global emissions from fossil-fuel burning, cement production and gas flaring between 1750 and 2010. The dataset is weighted by population distribution over time and represented as a grid.
The map shows historical responsibilities of each region of the world in the total amount of carbon emitted. During the Industrial Revolution, Europe was the carbon hotspot for a close to a century. In 1891 U.S. surpassed the U.K. as Earth’s leading CO2 polluter. Since last decade, China is the leading CO2 polluter. | <urn:uuid:6c62dc6f-6a07-4c3a-b55d-0e6f9eaa61c5> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://geoawesomeness.com/260-years-global-carbon-emissions-single-map/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424247.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170723042657-20170723062657-00439.warc.gz | en | 0.935792 | 336 | 4.0625 | 4 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on environmental issues and data analysis. It provides some context for global cooperation and historical responsibility, but does not explicitly address communication, teamwork, or leadership.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 504,458 | 0 |
Networks are important to both individuals and organizations. At the individual level, networks provide social support. At the organizational level, they provide services and facilitate information sharing, problem solving and capacity building.
Increasingly, public and nonprofit organizations are required to collaborate or network in order to deliver services or be competitive for grants. Organizations also network to solve problems, share information and build community capacity. One of our foci is how these networks come to be and how they can most effectively achieve their objectives.
Using the techniques of social network analysis and drawing upon complexity theory, Center for Applied Community Research and Development researchers help interorganizational networks answer questions such as:
How can we sustain our network over time?
CACRD researchers work with networks to help them discover and develop their full potential.
Individual social support networks can have important effects on health, educational achievement, level of civic engagement and overall well-being. Understanding their clients’ social support networks can help public and nonprofit organizations diagnose problems, prescribe interventions and interpret program outcomes designed to influence individuals’ behaviors.
Using social network analysis, CACRD researchers help organizations answer the following types of questions:
Can we increase satisfaction levels of local area professionals by increasing their opportunities for professional interaction, and therefore reduce “brain drain”?
CACRD researchers work with organizations to help them use information about social support networks to design, implement and evaluate programs.
Center City Coordination (C3) Sustainability Project
Overview: CACRD researchers are working with the Center City Coordination (C3) project to help them sustain the networks developed over the past three years. Funded by a federal HUD grant, the C3 project has facilitated a number of “task teams”— networks of individuals organized around topics such as Health, Youth, Employment and Housing. The grant ends in Nov. 2007 and these Task Teams will lose the C3 project’s coordinating funcction. CACRD researchers are discussing with the Task Teams ways they can sustain themselves without a central coordinator.
Network Response to Self-injury
Overview: Many adolescents engage in self-injuring behavior. Unfortunately, with extremely limited child psychiatric services in Broome County, adolescents engaging in this type of behavior often go untreated. CACRD researchers are aiding in the development of a network of mental health providers specifically trained to recognize and treat self-injury.
Binghamton City School District 9th Grade Bridges Evaluation
Overview: The 9th Grade Bridges Program provides a more intimate learning environment at the Columbus School for students who are at risk of making a successful transition from middle to high school. CACRD evaluators are using the Developmental Assets Profile (DAP) tool developed by the Search Institute and social network analysis to determine the effect of the Bridges Program on social support structures, developmental assets and their relationship to academic achievement and absenteeism.
2007-2008 BCSD Bridges Evaluation Report (.pdf, 6.5mb)
Weed and Seed Evaluation Report (.pdf, 1.4mb)
Last Updated: 11/15/13 | <urn:uuid:5660df74-3d70-44c4-8726-f1d39a4ede2b> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www2.binghamton.edu/ccpa/public-administration/cacrd/initiatives/network-complexity-initiative.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394010824553/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305091344-00042-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917493 | 634 | 2.921875 | 3 | The extract discusses the importance of networks in individuals and organizations, highlighting their role in social support, information sharing, and problem-solving. It also provides examples of research projects that utilize social network analysis to address real-world problems. The content demonstrates a good understanding of teamwork, communication, and problem-solving concepts, with some practical applications. However, it lacks nuanced interaction, emotional intelligence, and advanced leadership challenges.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 901,368 | 0 |
There is no question about it; parenting is both enormously rewarding and also extremely taxing. Being at the beck and call of children and their emotions, whims, and needs is a bit like being on a roller coaster, complete with the highs, lows, and everything in between. Certainly, most parents can identify with experiencing intense love, joy, and gratitude in one moment while being filled with frustration, exhaustion, and helplessness the next. Despite the ups and downs, parenting is certainly one of the most important and significant roles and tasks one can have.
From the time of birth, little humans are hardwired for attachment, love, and belonging. Research indicates that children who feel this sense of connection to their families, schools and communities are less likely to misbehave. As parents, it is our job to help children experience this sense of belonging, to help them know their worth, to teach them social and life skills, and to help them feel capable and an appropriate sense of autonomy and independence.
We are constantly teaching our children through what we do, how we speak to and about others, how we treat our partner, even how we discipline our pets. The ways in which we treat and talk to our children will impact them for a lifetime. If we treat them with dignity and respect, they in turn will learn to respect others and also will expect respect from others as they grow older.
We also know that children are more motivated to be cooperative when they feel encouraged, loved and a sense of belonging. Certainly, positive discipline is important, but it should be done in a loving, fair, and firm way. The focus should be on behavior, not the child, in order to redirect behavior without instilling shame. When the focus is on the child (i.e. bad boy), it instills a sense of shame, breeding disconnection, hurt, and anger. According to author and shame researcher Brené Brown, children who are raised in a shaming environment are more likely to struggle with things like addiction, depression, violence, bullying, eating disorders, and aggression. We also know from her research that shame does not promote positive behavior change.
It is also extremely helpful for parents to teach children their importance by listening to them and validating their feelings. Even when children want something they can’t have, acknowledging their feelings is extremely helpful for the child in order to feel heard and understood. Additionally, by explaining your decisions to your child, you are teaching them about life, your family values and beliefs, and helping them to know what to expect. For example, a child might be crying because they want to go play with their friend at dinner time. Instead of ignoring or getting angry with the child, or instead of giving into them, the parent might say, “I know you are sad and disappointed because you wanted to go play with your friend. It is time for dinner, though, and it is important to our family that we are all here together to eat. You are welcome to play tomorrow after school.” Teaching children about their feelings and healthy ways to cope with them will hugely benefit them as they navigate life’s challenges.
Ultimately, the most important thing you can do is love your child. Positive Discipline The First Three Years says it best: “Perhaps the greatest parenting skill of all is the ability to feel an unbreakable bond of love and warmth for your children and to be able to listen to the voice of love and wisdom even when your patience has been stretched to the breaking point.” | <urn:uuid:f92a49eb-024f-4507-a479-c7e3df02ba5b> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://austinfamilycounseling.com/our-blog/page/86/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296946584.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20230326235016-20230327025016-00540.warc.gz | en | 0.970773 | 719 | 2.96875 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive discussion on parenting, emphasizing emotional intelligence, empathy, and effective communication. It offers realistic scenarios and practical applications, promoting positive discipline, and cultural awareness. The text integrates advanced communication and problem-solving skills, mirroring real-world complexity, and highlights the importance of digital literacy is not explicitly mentioned but the overall content is rich in soft skills development.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 237,675 | 1 |
Karuk Tribe: Learning from the First Californians for the Next California
Editor's Note: This is part of series, Facing the Climate Gap, which looks at grassroots efforts in California low-income communities of color to address climate change and promote climate justice.
This article was published in collaboration with GlobalPossibilities.org.
The three sovereign entities in the United States are the federal government, the states and indigenous tribes, but according to Bill Tripp, a member of the Karuk Tribe in Northern California, many people are unaware of both the sovereign nature of tribes and the wisdom they possess when it comes to issues of climate change and natural resource management.
“A lot of people don’t realize that tribes even exist in California, but we are stakeholders too, with the rights of indigenous peoples,” says Tripp.
Tripp is an Eco-Cultural Restoration specialist at the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources. In 2010, the tribe drafted an Eco-Cultural Resources Management Plan, which aims to manage and restore “balanced ecological processes utilizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge supported by Western Science.” The plan addresses environmental issues that affect the health and culture of the Karuk tribe and outlines ways in which tribal practices can contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change.
Before climate change became a hot topic in the media, many indigenous and agrarian communities, because of their dependence upon and close relationship to the land, began to notice troubling shifts in the environment such as intense drought, frequent wildfires, scarcer fish flows and erratic rainfall.
There are over 100 government recognized tribes in California, which represent more than 700,000 people. The Karuk is the second largest Native American tribe in California and has over 3,200 members. Their tribal lands include over 1.48 million acres within and around the Klamath and Six Rivers National Forests in Northwest California.
Tribes like the Karuk are among the hardest hit by the effects of climate change, despite their traditionally low-carbon lifestyles. The Karuk, in particular have experienced dramatic environmental changes in their forestlands and fisheries as a result of both climate change and misguided Federal and regional policies.
The Karuk have long depended upon the forest to support their livelihood, cultural practices and nourishment. While wildfires have always been a natural aspect of the landscape, recent studies have shown that fires in northwestern California forests have risen dramatically in frequency and size due to climate related and human influences. According to the California Natural Resources Agency, fires in California are expected to increase 100 percent due to increased temperatures and longer dry seasons associated with climate change.
Some of the other most damaging human influences to the Karuk include logging activities, which have depleted old growth forests, and fire suppression policies created by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1930s that have limited cultural burning practices. Tripp says these policies have been detrimental to tribal traditions and the forest environment.
“It has been huge to just try to adapt to the past 100 years of policies that have led us to where we are today. We have already been forced to modify our traditional practices to fit the contemporary political context,” says Tripp.
Further, the construction of dams along the Klamath River by PacifiCorp (a utility company) has impeded access to salmon and other fish that are central to the Karuk diet. Fishing regulations have also had a negative impact.
Though the Karuk’s dependence on the land has left them vulnerable to the projected effects of climate change, it has also given them and other indigenous groups incredible knowledge to impart to western climate science. Historically, though, tribes have been largely left out of policy processes and decisions. The Karuk decided to challenge this historical pattern of marginalization by formulating their own Eco-Cultural Resources Management Plan.
The Plan provides over twenty “Cultural Environmental Management Practices” that are based on traditional ecological knowledge and the “World Renewal” philosophy, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of humans and the environment. Tripp says the Plan was created in the hopes that knowledge passed down from previous generations will help strengthen Karuk culture and teach the broader community to live in a more ecologically sound way.
“It is designed to be a living document…We are building a process of comparative learning, based on the principals and practices of traditional ecological knowledge to revitalize culturally relevant information as passed through oral transmission and intergenerational observations,” says Tripp.
One of the highlights of the plan is to re-establish traditional burning practices in order to decrease fuel loads and the risk for more severe wildfires when they do happen. Traditional burning was used by the Karuk to burn off specific types of vegetation and promote continued diversity in the landscape. Tripp notes that these practices are an example of how humans can play a positive role in maintaining a sound ecological cycle in the forests.
“The practice of utilizing fire to manage resources in a traditional way not only improves the use quality of forest resources, it also builds and maintains resiliency in the ecological process of entire landscapes” explains Tripp.
Another crucial aspect of the Plan is the life cycle of fish, like salmon, that are central to Karuk food traditions and ecosystem health. Traditionally, the Karuk regulated fishing schedules to allow the first salmon to pass, ensuring that those most likely to survive made it to prime spawning grounds. There were also designated fishing periods and locations to promote successful reproduction. Tripp says regulatory agencies have established practices that are harmful this cycle.
“Today, regulatory agencies permit the harvest of fish that would otherwise be protected under traditional harvest management principles and close the harvest season when the fish least likely to reach the very upper river reaches are passing through,” says Tripp.
The Karuk tribe is now working closely with researchers from universities such as University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Davis as well as public agencies so that this traditional knowledge can one day be accepted by mainstream and academic circles dealing with climate change mitigation and adaptation practices.
According to the Plan, these land management practices are more cost effective than those currently practiced by public agencies; and, if implemented, they will greatly reduce taxpayer cost burdens and create employment. The Karuk hope to create a workforce development program that will hire tribal members to implement the plan’s goals, such as multi-site cultural burning practices.
The Plan has a long way to full realization and Federal recognition. According to the National Indian Forest Resources Management Act and the National Environmental Protection Act, it must go through a formal review process. Besides that, the Karuk Tribe is still solidifying funding to pursue its goals.
The work of California’s environmental stewards will always be in demand, and the Karuk are taking the lead in showing how community wisdom can be used to generate an integrated approach to climate change. Such integrated and community engaged policy approaches are rare throughout the state but are emerging in other areas. In Oakland, for example, the Oakland Climate Action Coalition engaged community members and a diverse group of social justice, labor, environmental, and business organizations to develop an Energy and Climate Action Plan that outlines specific ways for the City to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a sustainable economy.
In the end, Tripp hopes the Karuk Plan will not only inspire others and address the global environmental plight, but also help to maintain the very core of his people. In his words: “Being adaptable to climate change is part of that, but primarily it is about enabling us to maintain our identity and the people in this place in perpetuity.”
Dr. Manuel Pastor is Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California where he also directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and co-directs USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration. His most recent books include Just Growth: Inclusion and Prosperity in America’s Metropolitan Regions (Routledge 2012; co-authored with Chris Benner) Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future (W.W. Norton 2010; co-authored with Angela Glover Blackwell and Stewart Kwoh), and This Could Be the Start of Something Big: How Social Movements for Regional Equity are Transforming Metropolitan America (Cornell 2009; co-authored with Chris Benner and Martha Matsuoka). | <urn:uuid:003baaf4-69c7-4ee7-b37f-468bf9b55842> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.resilience.org/stories/2012-10-19/karuk-tribe-learning-from-the-first-californians-for-the-next-california | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945849 | 1,714 | 3.296875 | 3 | The extract scores 4 points due to its comprehensive discussion of soft skills, including cultural awareness, leadership, and problem-solving. It presents complex scenarios requiring strategic thinking and advanced communication, such as the Karuk Tribe's Eco-Cultural Resources Management Plan. The article highlights the importance of intercultural fluency, technological adaptation, and community engagement in addressing climate change, demonstrating a high level of sophistication in its approach to professional development and digital literacy.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 73 | 1 |
The Astor Expedition was a grand, two-pronged mission, involving scores of men, that attempted to establish a worldwide trading network centered at present-day Astoria. Although the ambitious enterprise was ultimately doomed by the War of 1812, it left a lasting impact on Oregon history. Fort Astoria, the trading post …
Oregon Question (essay)
“The Oregon boundary question,” historian Frederick Merk concluded, “was a diplomatic problem involving a kernel of reality and an enormous husk.” The eventual existence of the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana depended on solving the so-called Oregon Question, a three-decade dispute between Great Britain and the United States. The disagreement pivoted on the nations’ competing claims to a vast territory between the Pacific Ocean and the Continental Divide, bounded by latitudes 54°40' N and 42° S (the present-day southern border of Alaska with British Columbia and the Oregon-California state line).
Competition between the two nations over the region dated to the 1780s, when control of the sea otter trade was a primary issue; but the War of 1812 marked the onset of the “diplomatic problem”—the Oregon Question. The “husk” of the issue comprised thirty years of political wrangling between Great Britain and the United States, which often reflected as much about each nation’s domestic politics as it did the political future of Oregon.
Residue of War
Negotiated in late 1814 and ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1815, the Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States. The treaty provided that “all territory, places, and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other, during the war…shall be restored without delay.” In Oregon Country, that requirement created confusion over which properties owned or developed by citizens of each nation justified the proscribed restoration.
The ownership of Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River was a particular puzzle. The fort had been created in 1811 by the Pacific Fur Company, an American firm, but sold two years later to the North West Company, a British concern. Although Fort Astoria was not a spoil of war, Britain had sent a warship during the War of 1812 to seize the fort, only to find that it was already in British hands. Nonetheless, the ship’s captain ran the Union Jack up the fort’s flagpole, thereby establishing a purported post-war claim. If the fort had passed from American to British hands as a consequence of the war, the 1814 treaty suggested that it should revert to the United States. But the exchange had been between private corporate firms, so the fort fell outside the agreement’s purpose.
The issue of Astoria was unmentioned at Ghent. At the London Convention of 1818, where diplomats addressed post-war economic and political issues, the two nations considered Fort Astoria but found it a relatively minor issue. Still, they discussed the competing claims to Oregon: Britain underscored the extensive maritime exploration by George Vancouver in 1792, while the United States offered the discovery of the Columbia River by Robert Gray, also in 1792. Stymied and under little pressure to resolve the issue, the diplomats pushed off a final agreement to future discussions and agreed to a joint occupation of the Oregon Country for ten years.
The joint occupation bilateral treaty agreement provided that citizens of both nations could occupy the Oregon Country. “It is agreed,” Article III specified, “that any Country that may be claimed by either Party on the North West Coast of America, Westward of the Stony Mountains, shall, together with its Harbours, Bays, and Creeks, and the Navigation of all Rivers within the same, be free and open, for the term of ten Years from the date of the Signature of the present Convention, to the Vessels, Citizens, and Subjects of the Two Powers.”
Joint Occupation of Oregon
In application, the joint occupation agreement allowed a relatively free and open development of the region, essentially a ten-year opportunity to pursue commerce. The idea of sovereignty did not enter into the agreement.
The British acted first by expanding its fur trade interests after 1821 through the activities of the Hudson’s Bay Company. This alarmed some American officials and prompted U.S. efforts to resolve land and economic claims before the end of the agreement in 1827. Representative John Floyd of Virginia—who counted William Clark, Pacific Fur Company men, and Sen. Thomas Hart Benton (a vocal promoter of expansion) as friends—introduced legislative bills in 1821 and 1824 that advocated the establishment of an American port of entry at Astoria and the application of all national revenue laws (the levying of import duties). Floyd’s bills failed to pass, but the desire to expand the nation to Oregon remained popular among expansionists in Congress for two decades.
By 1825, British and American negotiators resumed discussions in London, aware that the joint occupation agreement had only two years to run. Britain hoped to deny the American demand that the forty-ninth parallel mark the nations’ division of territory in the Pacific Northwest by suggesting British control of Puget Sound and American ownership of minor port locations on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Albert Gallatin, representing the United States, offered Britain navigation rights on the Columbia River as compensation for American control of all land south of the forty-ninth parallel.
Politicians in both nations rejected all proffered divisions of Oregon. On August 6, 1827, after eight months of negotiation, the diplomats settled for renewing the treaty for an indefinite term and a proviso that either nation could terminate the agreement with one year’s notice.
The ambition by political powers to control and own Oregon ignored the ownership and occupation of the region by indigenous peoples. Native property rights would not become an issue until Americans pursued ownership of lands in the 1850s, years after the solution to the Oregon Question. From the outset of their joint occupation, however, both nations viewed Oregon as a legitimate target of their imperial ambitions, generally understood as commercial. But by the 1830s and early 1840s, American political interest in the region had begun to focus on colonization, first as an expression of expansionist politics and second as a means of overwhelming Britain’s early advantages under terms of the joint occupation agreement.
By 1842, Britain’s valuation of its investment in Oregon had waned, partly the result of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s declining fur trapping in Oregon Country and the opening of Chinese ports to British commerce, which redirected British strategic interests in the Pacific. Britain’s changing opinion coincided with a tide of American migration to the Oregon Country and a broad support for missionaries, especially Protestants, working to convert indigenous peoples in the region, which added cultural purpose to the acquisition of the territory.
Migrants to Oregon began petitioning Congress as early as 1838, when missionary Jason Lee delivered a plea by Willamette Valley residents for protection and inducements for settlement in Oregon. In 1839, Thomas J. Farnham, who had led a group of resettlers to Oregon from Peoria, Illinois, was instrumental in compiling a petition to Congress requesting the extension of American laws to Oregon. And in 1843, Robert Shortess circulated a petition urging Congress to pass laws that would secure American rights in Oregon.
The Peoria and Shortess petitions criticized the Hudson’s Bay Company and abetted an anti-British sentiment among politically active resettlers in the Willamette Valley. Oregon Trail migrants, who came in increasing numbers after 1841, created a provisional government in 1843, a preemptive set of laws and regulations that had no standing in law and provided no economic basis of support for the proclaimed polity. “In a word,” historian Robert Loewenberg wrote, “the provisional government was utopia,” a paper state with no taxes or responsibilities to the nation. The resettlers clearly wanted the benefit of U.S. government support, but they had no political leverage, save getting politicians to take up their cause and solve the Oregon Question.
In Britain, support for acquiring Oregon had little connection to resettlement and came primarily from commercial interests who saw value in Puget Sound harbors and trade. British imperialists also supported the acquisition of Oregon, but because they tended to champion nearly any expansion of Britain’s Empire, their advocacy proved to be mercurial. On the other side of the matter, there was opposition in both nations to acquiring Oregon, especially if it involved force of arms or another war.
Nonetheless, American expansionist politicians beat a drum for Oregon. “In the campaign of 1844,” historian Norman Graebner wrote, “the Oregon issue, from its inception a diplomatic and therefore an executive problem, became a weapon in a struggle for domestic political power.” James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate for president, embraced expansion and defeated nationalist Henry Clay, the Whig candidate. Contrary to references in U.S. history textbooks, the political slogan “54-40 or Fight” (a reference to the southern boundary of Russian Alaska) was never used in the campaign, although by late 1845 it had become a popular rallying cry for expansionists. While the idea of expansion to Oregon did not decide the 1844 election, resolutions in Congress in 1843 had called for an “all of Oregon” expansion of the Republic, and some proponents offered up the 54°40' parallel as a goal. Despite some saber-rattling, the resolution of the Oregon Question came through diplomacy.
A Diplomatic Solution
The Oregon Question never faded from discussion among British and American diplomats, particularly after the first wave of resettlers migrated to the Willamette Valley over the Oregon Trail in the early 1840s. Lingering territorial disputes between Britain and the United States over the boundary between Maine and Canada harkened back to 1783 and included commercial claims between nationals of each nation. Solving those disputes and the prospect of resolving the Oregon issue prompted the two nations to convene another treaty discussion in 1842. Alexander Baring (Lord Ashburton) represented Britain, and Secretary of State Daniel Webster spoke for the United States.
The negotiations took place in Washington, D.C., beginning in April and concluding with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in August 1842. The treaty reaffirmed the forty-ninth parallel as the U.S.-Canada border, from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains; established a permanent border between Maine and New Brunswick; and solved problems in criminal extraditions between the two countries. But the negotiations did not resolve the Oregon Question.
The British began negotiations by suggesting a division of Oregon along the Snake River that was far more beneficial to its interests than earlier proposals. Meeting resistance from Webster, the British diplomats fell back to their previous demand for the Columbia River as the international boundary. For his part, Webster ignored Britain’s suggestions and tried a new approach, suggesting a grand solution that involved cessions from Mexico. The British considered Webster’s proposal a bit fantastic and held firm on the Columbia River line. In the end, the diplomats kicked the can down the road and made no mention of Oregon in the treaty.
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty was a compromise, and though criticized as lackluster, it suggested a tempering of attitude by diplomats of both nations and an avoidance of hostilities. Polk’s election, however, energized the expansionists. Popular opinion supported the forty-ninth parallel boundary, with many expansionists demanding acquisition of territory to 54°40' N and threatening war. Both nations retreated to positions they had held in 1827. By the end of 1845, according to Merk, the Oregon Question had “relapsed into a dangerous state of diplomatic deadlock,” a situation that required attention at the highest level.
In early January 1846, the Times of London editorialized on the Oregon issue, revealing a political pivot from its earlier hawkish attitude: “That there are men in America who long for a war with Great Britain [over Oregon] is, we fear, no less true than that there are men in this country to whom a war with the United States would be by no means unwelcome. But we would fain express a hope that the statesmen of the Republic are no more amenable than the Ministers of England to the influence of the most violent or the most thoughtless among their countrymen.”
The Times concluded that the two nations “are of one family” and argued for diplomatic resolution and an end to talk of war. The editorial helped push Britain to give up its insistence on the Columbia River boundary and in effect deflated the talk of war in the United States. “The war spirit has talked itself hoarse and feeble,” Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner wrote in February 1846, “and the conscience of the nation is awakening.”
In early 1846, the political atmosphere in Britain and the U.S. had become amenable to new negotiations. Representatives began talks in London in March that quickly produced a treaty resolution to the Oregon Question. The compromise agreement extended the international boundary at the forty-ninth parallel into Puget Sound and left Vancouver Island in British hands (the international water boundary in the Sound was not resolved until 1872). The Oregon Treaty met with approval by the U.S. Senate, and plenipotentiaries signed it in Washington, D.C., on June 15, 1846, ending thirty-eight years of Anglo-American disputation.
Ambler, Charles H. “The Oregon Country, 1810-1830: A Chapter in Territorial Expansion.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 30 (June 1943): 3-24.
“British-American Diplomacy: Convention of 1818 between the United States and Great Britain.” http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/conv1818.asp.
Graebner, Norman A. Empire on the Pacific: A Study in American Continental Expansion. New York: Ronald Press, 1955.
Loewenberg, Robert. Equality on the Oregon Frontier. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976.
Merk, Frederick. “British Party Politics and the Oregon Treaty.” American Historical Review (July 1932): 653-77.
_____. “The Genesis of the Oregon Question.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review (March 1950): 583-612.
_____. “The Ghost River Caledonia in the Oregon Negotiation of 1818.” American Historical Review (April 1950): 530-51.
_____. The Oregon Question: Essays in Anglo-American Diplomacy and Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Miles, Edwin A. “‘Fifty-four Forty or Fight’—An American Political Legend.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review (September 1957): 291-304.
Pletcher, David. The Diplomacy of Annexation. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1973.
Schroeder, John H. “Rep. John Floyd, 1817-1829: Harbinger of Oregon Territory.” Oregon Historical Quarterly (1969): 339-41.
Related Historical Records
This entry was last updated on July 10, 2019 | <urn:uuid:e9db9ee8-04f6-45fe-b938-7508c97a89d1> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oregon_question_54_40_or_fight/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250616186.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20200124070934-20200124095934-00301.warc.gz | en | 0.949961 | 3,214 | 3.859375 | 4 | The extract provides a detailed historical account of the Oregon Question, a diplomatic dispute between the United States and Great Britain over the territory that is now Oregon. While the text is rich in historical context and analysis, it lacks direct discussion of soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, or leadership. However, it does demonstrate critical thinking, problem-solving, and diplomatic skills through the actions of historical figures and nations. The extract's focus on historical events and diplomatic negotiations limits its direct applicability to soft skills development, but it can still be used to illustrate complex problem-solving and strategic thinking in a real-world context.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 204,142 | 0 |
Michigan Tech News, Sept. 2, 2010:
Until now, no one has done a comprehensive map showing where Phragmites australis is established and where it is spreading in the Great Lakes basins. The Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI), based in Ann Arbor, Mich., has taken on that job. To do the work, the institute has received a $580,000 federal grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
MTRI’s goal is to map the likely extent of Phragmites in each Great Lakes coastal basin—the land occupied by a lake, its shoreline, and the areas near shore that drain into the lake—by 2011.
Read more here. | <urn:uuid:d6b75323-1f79-4857-85c2-402cdfde9f4b> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://homemadewilderness.com/2010/09/03/michigan-tech-research-institute-maps-spread-of-reed-in-great-lakes-basin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320323.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20170624184733-20170624204733-00296.warc.gz | en | 0.940475 | 179 | 2.9375 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on a scientific project and its funding. It provides basic information without scenarios for communication, teamwork, or problem-solving, and does not address cultural awareness or digital literacy.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 104,786 | 0 |
For the Love of Wisdom
As associate professor of philosophy, Dr. David O’Hara helps students discover their capacity to ask tough questions. And, how to uncover the answers for themselves.
Last fall, Dr. David O’Hara offered students in his Ancient Philosophy class an optional field trip to Badlands National Park, a rugged stretch of some 240,000 acres in western South Dakota where age-old geologic deposits form jagged, mountain-sized ranges that rise up from the rolling prairie like magical pages in a child’s pop-up book.
As he shared details of the outing with his class, he was quick to note that it wouldn’t be any ordinary field trip. He wasn’t requiring any papers and he wasn’t offering any class credit for going. And, most importantly, participants would need to bring sleeping bags.
Fifteen or so students took him up on it, following O’Hara west on a Friday afternoon, over the Missouri River and just past the legendary Wall Drug and its free ice water. They set up tents in the Park’s primitive campground and waited.
After the sun set and millions of stars debuted in the black, cloudless sky, O’Hara and his students simply looked up and watched. They saw the Big Dipper, witnessed the wonder of meteor showers, watched the Milky Way turn and saw Jupiter rise and cross the sky. Looking through an amateur telescope, they could make out four of the gigantic planet’s moons and watched angry weather patterns swirl over its surface. Despite having brought sleeping bags, most of them never went to sleep.
For many of the students, the trip will likely go down as among their most memorable Augustana experiences. For O’Hara, it was a chance to see his students cultivate wisdom while utilizing the “Socratic Method” – a way by which individuals discover answers for themselves, first-hand.
“It’s sort of like in mathematics. You can tell someone the answer to a problem, or you can show them how to solve a problem. Or you can help them discover how to solve problems. The solutions will wind up being the same as what others come up with. But, they’ll own it if they figure out how to do it on their own.”
“Do you know that feeling when you watch your kids ride a bike for the first time,” O’Hara asks. “That’s kind of like the feeling that accompanies my teaching. I love watching students discover for the first time that it’s possible to think their way through some of life’s toughest questions.”
That love of wisdom, he says, is what philosophy is all about.
Finding the Answers
O’Hara came to Augustana in 2005. He was born and raised in Woodstock, N.Y., (yes, that Woodstock) and says he knew he wanted to teach at the college level when he was in middle school. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and studied in Spain, intent on teaching Spanish.
At the same time, he discovered a passion for talking with college students about “these great big questions that are really hard to answer. Questions about the ‘meaning of life’ and about ‘vocation,’ ‘calling,’ and what we can know about God, our souls and ourselves. Those questions are really hard to answer but they’re the questions that matter most to us, I think.”
He enrolled in the “Great Books Program” at St. John’s College in New Mexico, a curriculum that includes no lectures, no exams, no grades and very few electives. There, he read and debated famous works by Aristotle, Freud, Newton, Einstein and others. He then went on to earn his Ph.D. from Penn State. His time at St. John’s, he says, continues to influence his teaching even today.
“I try to offer students as much of that experience as I can – the experience that allows you to stop caring about grades and start caring about the satisfaction of wonder.”
Philosophy is, by definition O’Hara says, “the love of wisdom.”
But in a practical sense, it’s much more than that.
“Absolutely, it’s valuable for students to learn a profession – to learn how to do something. But, we also believe it’s important to reflect on what we do and why we do it. So philosophy, we joke, doesn’t bake any bread. It’s not a strictly useful discipline, which often makes it difficult to see why people should study it at all.”
“I think what students find by studying philosophy is not so much that they have better answers to questions. It’s that they have better questions. They have the capacity to ask questions that they wouldn’t have even thought of as questions before.”
That’s because, O’Hara says, as it turns out, there are different kinds of “knowing.”
“There’s ‘knowing’ where we have ‘certainty’ of something. There’s the kind of knowing where we think something is ‘likely’ to happen. Then, there’s the kind of knowing where we think there’s a ‘possibility’ something will happen. When you think about that problem, you start to discover what we mean by knowledge and you can then examine the claims others make. Philosophy turns out to have great value and application for so many elements of life – for debating politics, for talking about religion, economics, parenting and all sorts of other topics.”
It’s why O’Hara says the study of philosophy is not training for a profession. It’s training, he says, in life.
“There’s this word that shows up in ancient philosophy and it still shows up today – it’s ‘eudaimonia.’ The ‘daimon’ means ‘spirit’ and the ‘eu’ means ‘good.’ So ‘eudaimonia’ means ‘having a good spirit in you.’ The ancient philosophers considered this to be the aim of philosophy – to have a good spirit within you. The word is perhaps most simply translated as happiness.”
“There are professions that will train students on how to accumulate a lot of money. What we want is for our students to be able to ask ‘what’s that money for? And, how will my relationship with money contribute to my happiness?’ Does money buy you happiness? Will sex get you happiness? Will power? Will a new car? There are lots of forces giving these messages to students. Many can change our desires. I think it’s helpful for students to be critical of these messages so they don’t end up adopting someone else’s desires. They need to learn about their own souls and discover what sorts of things will contribute to their eudaimonia.”
Finding a Calling
After Augustana, philosophy majors take a variety of routes, O’Hara says. Many go on to medical, dental or law school. A number go into politics or into the study of politics. Others pursue ministry work, professional positions such as computer programming or business administration, or nonprofit work. But most, O’Hara hopes, will have discovered their “calling.”
He cites Plutarch, a philosopher who lived in the first and second centuries of this era, whose essay “On Listening to Lectures” says “a mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire that is awaiting kindling.”
“This is what sets a small liberal arts college and a philosophical education apart – we don’t think of our students as empty vessels that we need to fill up. They come to us with the tinder and the logs of their fires already there. But oftentimes, they’re not aware of it. Our job is to see the capacity they have to light the fires of their mind. Once those fires are lit, they can light fires in others, as well.”
“Frederick Buechner said, ‘Your vocation is a matter of finding the deep need in the world and a deep desire in you. And, where those two come together, that’s what you’re called to do.’”
“So, for our students, it’s finding what they’re good at; what makes them feel alive; and what they want written on their gravestones. The answers to those questions aren’t the same. It’s where those three come together where we find our calling.”
Tea and Talking
In Augustana publications that feature current students and their experiences, a large number list O’Hara as among their most inspiring and influential professors. They have said the door to his office, a room lined with books and comfortable chairs, is always open; his tea kettle is always ready; and his ear is always willing to listen.
His work extends off campus as well. During his time at Augustana, O’Hara has led six study abroad courses in Greece, (which have included stops in other countries such as Holland, Italy and the United Kingdom) and has co-led courses in Nicaragua and Guatemala. His students’ education is something O’Hara, 42, takes very seriously.
“I begin every day by reading and praying. I pray for myself and I pray for my students. The core of my prayer is that I’ll be a blessing to them. I’m not always confident that I am, but I can at least try, right?”
The responsibility O’Hara feels toward his students, and his commitment to helping them learn is what makes him a great teacher, according to Dr. Murray Haar, professor and Chair of the Religion and Jewish Studies Department.
“David is a person of character who knows how to teach students to be people of character,” Haar says. “He has genuine humility. The very best teachers are the most self-critical. The really good ones are those who worry about their approach; they anguish about whether they’re doing their jobs well. David doesn’t know how good he really is. He genuinely cares about his students and his passion for philosophy is contagious. He’s a teacher-scholar in every sense of the word. He’s just that good, and I don’t say that about many people.”
In recognition of his efforts, O’Hara was named the recipient of the 2012 Vernon and Mildred Niebuhr Faculty Excellence Award, an honor that celebrates excellence in teaching and brilliance in the classroom. The award was presented at Augustana’s Commencement ceremony in May.
For O’Hara, the awards and the praise are humbling. In the end, though, he considers himself the lucky one.
“I love my job. I often reflect on this. A student will be here, sitting in the Lazy Boy and we’ll be sipping a cup of tea ... no haste about it … we’re just sitting, talking, surrounded by these amazing books. It’s just us – talking about God and marriage and money and politics and all these great big questions. We’re not having to solve the problems of the world, but we’re having a fair go at it. It’s then when I stop and think, ‘I’m at work right now.’
“I have an amazing job,” he says, smiling. | <urn:uuid:7599c09e-1743-4d29-9486-71b4f83c6983> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://www.augie.edu/admission/go-viking/go-viking-summer-2012/for-love-wisdom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886102757.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170816231829-20170817011829-00498.warc.gz | en | 0.967603 | 2,540 | 2.609375 | 3 | The extract showcases Dr. David O'Hara's teaching philosophy, emphasizing critical thinking, self-discovery, and emotional intelligence. It highlights his ability to create a supportive learning environment, encouraging students to explore complex questions and develop their own thoughts. The text demonstrates a deep understanding of soft skills, including communication, empathy, and leadership, and presents realistic scenarios that integrate these skills.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 718,095 | 1 |
In January 2017, CTE interviewed Pamela Spigelmyer, Faculty, School of Nursing about her use of exam wrappers to help students learn.
What is an exam wrapper?
It’s a reflection by students on their exam performance. It stimulates them to think about the effort they put into studying for the exam, and the barriers to achieving their best score. I ask students to do the following:
- tell how much time they studied and estimate the percentage of time they spent on various study methods
- analyze the reason for the points they lost on the exam
- state their study plans
- suggest ways I can support them for the next exam. [see sample wrapper below]
Tell me how you have used exam wrappers.
I have used them on the midterm exam in three different courses. Students can use their reflection on the midterm to improve their learning in the second half of the semester.
In my freshmen class this fall it went really well. I was surprised at the list of things they said they were going to do to improve for the next exam. When I asked, “what can I do to help you,” there were only minor comments. This makes sense, because I was already administering frequent quizzes and giving them clicker questions in class. They were getting practice.
What have you learned in the process?
Some of the comments I got back really opened my eyes to what students thought was effective study. For example, some students created 50-60 page study guides by cutting and pasting from the book. They explained that this guide was all they used for studying and claimed that it should have been enough. But they didn’t do well, and I was able to provide that as evidence back to them.
I put student grades into two ranges and made a chart of the study methods students in each range said they used. Then I presented it saying, “if you want to achieve a higher grade, here’s an idea of what some of your classmates did.”
Once I had a student who honestly reported on the exam wrapper that she had studied zero time. She had not looked at any material in preparing for the midterm exam. She apparently didn’t implement the study methods we talked about after the midterm, and performed poorly on the final exam. Then, at the end of the course, she challenged the grade. The exam wrapper served as evidence that she hadn’t put in the effort needed to achieve a better grade.
Do you have a way for students to refer back to their reflection? How do you administer the exam wrapper?
They always have the wrapper available on Blackboard. Right after the midterm exam closes, the exam wrapper assignment opens up. I tell them it is not graded, but it is required. Most students complete the 10-15 minute reflection within the 24-hour window.
Here’s the sequence: students take the online exam, receive the score immediately and then are asked to reflect on the exam and their studying.
I tell students that I use exam wrappers to identify areas where I can help them improve, and that they should use it for looking at their learning and areas for growth.
How have you used exam wrappers to help students?
Several students have mentioned stress anxiety. This gives me an opportunity to guide students to the Counseling and Wellness Center. In the past, they could have struggled without me knowing, but now I can pick that up at midterm.
Here’s another example. I can see from exam statistics where students get it down to two answers and can’t pick the right one; this is very typical for nursing exams. That tells me that I need to be more explicit in helping them choose between the two. There’s always something in one that makes it better than the other, and they’re just overlooking it. So we do practice questions that are specifically close in two answers.
Sometimes they say, “I just didn’t know the content,” which suggests that they didn’t prepare enough and I outline the way high achieving students study.
Before the exam, I also provide a study template. It just lists the course objectives and tells how many exam questions will be related to each objective. It shows the importance of sections. When there is a lot of material, it’s only fair for students to know how to prioritize their studying.
I like that way of tying it to the course learning objectives.
I also do frequent quizzing – which helps them gauge their learning. I don’t give them answers for items they miss, but just indicate the reading chapter it came from. That forces them to go back and find it.
Do you have any suggestions for your colleagues? Is anyone else doing it that you know of?
Several faculty colleagues have asked me for this assignment, and they have started to implement it. Others use a similar kind of method that they have created.
Do you tie this assignment in with a nursing competency?
I haven’t, but that would be a good idea. I never thought of that. It would fit under “professionalism and growth.”
SAMPLE EXAM WRAPPER
- Approximately how much time did you spend preparing for this exam?
- What percentage of your test-preparation time was spent in each of these activities?
|Activity||Percentage of Time|
|Reading textbook section(s) for the first time|
|Rereading textbook section(s)|
|Reviewing homework-quiz question/concepts|
|Reviewing in class practice questions|
|Solving case study questions from textbook|
|Reviewing your own notes|
|Reviewing additional materials/websites posted in class weekly folders|
|Other: (please specify)|
3. Now that you have looked over your graded exam, estimate the percentage of points you lost due to each of the following (make sure the percentage add up to 100):
|Reason for lost exam points||Percentage|
|Did not know/remember the content on the exam|
|Did not understand the question|
|Did not read the question/item carefully|
|Missed key words in the question|
|Did not read all distractor /potential answers carefully|
|Had difficulty choosing between 2 answers|
|Read/inferred more into the question than what was stated|
|Careless mistake (selected the wrong response accidentally)|
|Changed the answer|
|Experienced test anxiety/ inability to focus|
|Other: (please specify)|
4. Based on your responses to the questions above, name at least three things you plan to do differently in preparing for the next exam. For instance, will you just spend more time studying, change a specific study habit or try a new one (if so, name it), solve more case studies, practice more questions, or something else?
5. What can I do to help support your learning and your preparation for the next exam? | <urn:uuid:4751df78-dec7-4dbf-ad1e-ae39607b154a> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://flourishingacademic.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/helping-students-reflect-on-study-habits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886109670.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821211752-20170821231752-00031.warc.gz | en | 0.969993 | 1,466 | 2.59375 | 3 | The extract discusses the use of "exam wrappers" to help students reflect on their exam performance and identify areas for improvement. It showcases a practical application of critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. The instructor's approach demonstrates empathy and a willingness to adapt teaching methods to support student learning. However, the extract primarily focuses on a specific teaching strategy rather than broadly addressing multiple soft skills or complex, real-world scenarios.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 790,723 | 0 |
Wondering how you can maintain better control during the exciting seasons? Keep reading for three important holiday classroom management tips for secondary teachers.
When you picture comfort and joy of the holiday season, does craziness come to mind? Lack of focus due to the excess amount of sugar consumption from all those Christmas cookies? Normally sweet students who’ve suddenly begun to remind you regularly of exactly how many days are left until break? Large stacks of late work or missing work accompanied by grumbling and mumbling? Surely, craziness does not remind you of peace on Earth.
Teachers can share their students’ excitement about the holidays – including the comfort and joy of the Christmas season – without losing control of the classroom. When the holidays roll around, I’ve learned there are three important keys to keeping students engaged, comfortable, and happy. By the way, these happy-making management tips also benefit teachers!
1. BEGIN CLASS RIGHT AWAY
Don’t give students time to derail your lesson before you even begin. Be consistent with bell ringers even during the chaotic month of December. Due to the excitement of the holidays, what typically works for you might not be as effective (in topic or structure), so don’t be afraid to try a new approach.
Try using bell ringers that require students to find examples of figurative language in popular holiday songs. This activity also provides the opportunity to play music as students enter the room. When the song is over, students know they should be finished and ready to discuss.
This type of routine is enjoyable and refreshing. It also allows teachers to build rapport with students. What better way to bring joy than by playing holiday music?
Want to take the song analysis to the next level? Analyze music with this free activity for middle and high school students.
2. INDULGE STUDENTS’ INTERESTS
It’s important that we try to relate to students during the month of December. One simple way is through Christmas movies. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t play them all the time, but certain occasions warrant a good old fashioned film…or at least clips from them!
Perhaps you’ve just finished collecting an essay and need to grade it before you begin reviewing for final exams. Play a movie like A Christmas Carol, Elf or A Christmas Story, and keep students focused with a comprehension and analysis movie guide.
On days when field trips, music concerts, holiday parties, and other extracurricular activities disrupt the flow of your normal day, be prepared with a shorter movie guide, such as one for A Charlie Brown Christmas or How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The time spent viewing these films shouldn’t ever be “filler.” Pause the film and engage students in meaningful discussion and analysis.
For teachers and students alike, knowing you are sharing a cultural tradition is a comforting bonding experience.
3. HAVE A BACK-UP PLAN
There’s nothing worse than finishing a lesson early and realizing you have nothing constructive to fill the leftover time. Whether you have students who consistently finish their work faster than others, tend to under-plan lesson content, or simply want to know you have an emergency sub plan ready if the nasty flu virus were to hit, it’s good to have a back-up plan. Having one you enjoy will give you peace of mind.
Throughout the semester, we teach our students how to write effectively. Many of us use terms like ideas, organization, sentence fluency, word choice, voice, and conventions. In December, we don’t want to be grading stacks of papers. Still, we can keep students writing, honing their skills, and thinking critically with fast-finisher exercises. I use Christmas writing activities to keep students interested.
The best part? These writing exercises don’t take all night to grade. Consider assigning completion points or extra credit for writing completed during December. Conference with students, and give them your feedback orally to save time and provide meaningful, immediate feedback.
And those are my favorite tips. Maintaining control of the classroom without losing the comfort and joy of the holiday season is as easy as 1, 2, 3. In the past, I’ve also kept a Christmas candy stash on hand. Candy canes, especially, work well. I’ve asked students to write sensory details as they’ve tasted the sweets, and I’ve written students holiday cards. We’ve also done small classroom secret Santa exchanges and read short stories related to the season. While these activities were fun and improved the classroom culture, they weren’t necessarily game changers for my classroom management. And you? What holiday classroom management tips would you offer fellow secondary teachers? | <urn:uuid:fa2dc6bc-2212-4292-a2e6-cbd57c272606> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.readingandwritinghaven.com/holiday-classroom-management-tips-secondary-teachers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146341.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20200226084902-20200226114902-00267.warc.gz | en | 0.94527 | 990 | 2.75 | 3 | The extract provides practical tips for secondary teachers to manage their classrooms during the holiday season, promoting a positive and engaging learning environment. It covers basic communication and teamwork concepts, such as building rapport and relating to students, but lacks nuanced interaction and complex problem-solving opportunities. The tips are straightforward and focused on fundamental skills with limited depth.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 441,315 | 0 |
Here's a great example of what can happen when experimental research is documented and posted on the web with plenty of explanation and resources. RISD student Sarah Pease, a junior in Furniture Design, took part in an independent study with the High-Low Tech Group at MIT's Media Lab this past Fall.
spotted a project on MIT Media Lab's High-Low Tech page.
The original design of "Fab Speaker," an open-source project for creating portable speakers compatible with a standard audio jack, was by project leader David A. Mellis and was made from veneer wrapped and hot-glued around laser-cut wooden struts encircling the electronics, then topped with fabric.
But he provided downloadable files so that anyone could whack up their own design. Mellis asked Pease to take the kit and design some alternative housings for it. Pease's beautiful take, "Audio Jar," consists of glass jars and bases whittled out of cork.
"Using readily available household items and basic construction methods allow for even further customization and flexibility of the Fab Speakers," Pease writes. "Varying jar shapes/sizes can be mixed with alternate feet for different looks."
By the way, many of you may recognize Mellis' name. Yep, that's none other than David A. Mellis, one of the co-creators of Arduino. "I'm a first year PhD student in Leah Buechley's group, High-Low Tech, at the MIT Media Lab," Mellis writes. "My research interest is the relationship between digital information and physical objects, applied to manufacturing, electronics, and programming. I want to create tools and examples that help people to design, build, and program electronic devices." Looks like that's working. | <urn:uuid:639a47d8-0501-4207-94b4-77b34ab9f6a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/high-low_tech_research_group_projects_jarring_effect_22146.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164989606/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134949-00068-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956041 | 368 | 2.859375 | 3 | The extract showcases a collaborative project between a student and a researcher, demonstrating teamwork and communication. However, it lacks depth in discussing soft skills, emotional intelligence, and complex problem-solving. The scenario is straightforward, and professional development opportunities are limited to a specific project. Cultural awareness and digital literacy are present but not extensively explored.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 406,132 | 0 |
Aug. 26, 2009
Busting Psychology Myths
If you believe that opposites attract, that most people use only 10 percent of their brains, and that handwriting can reveal your personality, then you need to check out Emory psychologist Scott Lilienfeld's latest book, "50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior."
"Bursting bubbles can be painful," says Lilienfeld, professor of psychology, who co-authored the book with three other psychologists. "But we hope that puncturing some of these myths can lead people to better life decisions, and a more realistic appraisal of themselves."
The book is aimed at both lay readers and students, says Lilienfeld, who teaches an undergraduate course called "Science and Pseudoscience in Psychology."
"A lot of my students refuse to believe that 'opposites attract' is largely a myth," he says. "But the research is clear that, not only are we attracted to people who are similar to ourselves, but these similarities are a greater predictor of marital stability."
Folk wisdom and so-called commonsense too often trump science in our society, Lilienfeld says. "There is this idea that we can understand the world, including our own minds, by gut instinct – that if something seems intuitively right, it must be right. To embrace a scientific approach is to be humble, but that's not a popular message in American society, which rewards certainty."
A few of the other myths debunked in the book include:
- Subliminal messages can persuade people to purchase products
- Playing Mozart to infants boosts their intelligence
- Hypnosis is useful for retrieving memories of forgotten events
- The defining feature of dyslexia is reversing letters
- Researchers have demonstrated that dreams possess symbolic meaning
- Low self-esteem is a major cause of psychological problems
"Some of these are completely false, while others are gross exaggerations of a kernel of truth," Lilienfeld says. "I want people to focus on the remarkable things about psychology that are true, and not the myths."
"50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology," published this month by Wiley-Blackwell, was co-authored by Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio and Barry Beverstein. | <urn:uuid:e0e03a19-5c5c-40fa-b59e-f2a1135d87d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://shared.web.emory.edu/emory/news/releases/2009/08/busting-psychology-myths.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163054424/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131734-00061-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951592 | 470 | 2.703125 | 3 | The extract lacks direct discussion of soft skills, focusing on debunking psychology myths. However, it promotes critical thinking and scientific literacy, encouraging readers to question intuition and embrace evidence-based approaches. The content is informative but lacks practical application, nuanced interaction, and complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 501,536 | 0 |
Sharing food and conversation around the dinner table makes for happier, healthier families. Author Michael Pollan and physician Nadine Burke discuss the evolution and importance of the family meal.
What has happened to the family meal in our modern age?
Nadine Burke: When I was a kid, dinnertime was family time. That was sacred time. I could hang out with my friends all I wanted before or after, but dinnertime was the time that we connected as a family. Recently, our eating habits have really changed. About 50 percent of meals are eaten outside of the home, and 20 percent in cars.
We’re eating more of our meals out, where we don’t have control over what goes into them. We don’t have time to make nutritious meals so we eat a lot of processed food or prepackaged food or fast food. There are a whole lot of factors that have gone into what is now the obesity epidemic.
Michael Pollan: The whole social institution of eating together is fracturing and breaking down. The drift in the last 50 years or so has been to eat individually. It benefits food companies when you eat individually, because you tend to eat more. Each individual will have different food choices, which segments the market. Food marketers would rather have us eat lots of stuff by ourselves in isolation than eating together. They love getting us to eat in front of the television set, on our own, on the run, and in the car.
What are the benefits of sharing meals?
Michael Pollan: We know from recent research that kids who eat meals with their families more nights than not have fewer eating disorders, have fewer problems with drugs and alcohol, and are generally happier and more well-adjusted children. This isn’t surprising. There’s enormous amount of education that goes on at the dinner table. The family meal is an incredibly important social institution. This is where we civilize our children. This is where our children learn the art of conversation. This is where we exchange the news of the day.
Nadine Burke: There’s research showing that if you sit down and have a meal at home with friends and family, there are a number of social outcomes. Number one, you’re more likely to eat a more nutritious meal. Number two, you have far more control over what goes into that meal. Then, on top of the nutritional benefits, there’s camaraderie and the family bonding that goes into sitting down and talking about your day over dinner in the evening. Kids do better. The whole family does better.More: Cooking and Eating, Creating Community, Food and Community, Food Culture, Michael Pollan, Nadine Burke, Youth | <urn:uuid:4d800885-812d-4e31-8670-01c1dc14c4a9> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.nourishlife.org/2011/03/food_and_family/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224650201.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20230604161111-20230604191111-00225.warc.gz | en | 0.971238 | 565 | 2.609375 | 3 | The extract discusses the importance of sharing meals and conversation, highlighting its benefits for family bonding, nutrition, and social skills. It touches on emotional intelligence, communication, and community building, but lacks nuanced interaction, complex problem-solving, and comprehensive professional development opportunities.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 518,627 | 0 |
|Australian Journal of Educational Technology
1999, 15(3), 257-272.
This paper examines the relationship between the independent learner and computer based learning resources, which continue to be integral to educational delivery, especially in the training sector. To place interactivity in context, the first part of the discussion focuses on the major dimensions of interactivity and the different ways they have been characterised in computer based learning environments. These dimensions demonstrate the many ways that interactivity can be interpreted and the critical role that design and development plays in creating effective interactive encounters. The second part of the paper reviews the way storytelling structures and narrative have been promoted as effective strategies for enhancing comprehension and engagement in computer based learning applications. The way in which the interactivity and narrative are linked becomes critical to achieving this outcome.
Extending the use of a narrative within interactive media to include elements of performance and theatre, the third part of the discussion proposes that by conceptualising the learner as actor, a form of learner-designer communication can be established. Integrating this approach with elements of conversational and communication theory provides a context in which the learner-computer interface is transcended by that of learner and designer. Enabling this form of communication with the independent learner is suggested as a means to enhance computer based learning environments.
In contrast interactivity is portrayed as the distinguishing factor of the new media, with the assumption that "interactivity in a computer product means that the user, not the designer, controls the sequence, the pace, and most importantly, what to look at and what to ignore" (Kristof & Satran, 1995:35). This implies to some extent that the value of the material is based on the user's motivation and objectives. However, Holmes (1995:1-2) identifies that the structure or design of the material is equally critical and that the interactivity embodied within a computer is dependent on that design:
Interactivity is the ability of a new media program, web site, kiosk or multimedia presentation, to allow its user to control the content in some manner ... Interactivity must involve, engage, and motivate the user to explore the product ... Bad interactivity happens. The user can be frustrated by muddled organization, too much information or poor instructions ... Interactive properties of new media should provide opportunities for the user: exploration, discovery, and collaboration. Well conceived interactivity knows its audience, understands their knowledge base, and uses terms and phrases that are commonly understood by the audience. Good interactivity also takes into account the situation of the audience.Examining this perception reveals a number of major factors - first the user must be able to control the application and the application must be designed to engage the user; second the user must have some freedom and third the application must be designed for a specific audience. Interactivity, at least from this perspective, is partly about what the user does and part about how the application is designed. However, this perspective is at odds with the notion of the individual learner - are designers able to create applications that will match each member of a target group?
In proposing a nascent theory of interactivity Jaspers (1991) identified different levels ranging from the linear (information delivery) to the communicative (student initiated). However, the success of such a theory was dependent on the relationship between designer and developer and the perceived role of the learner. Emphasising the benefits of a learner centred environment the problematic and contradictory nature of interactivity was noted:
In fact, the expression of interactive delivery is contradicto in terminis from the viewpoint of interaction and emancipation. Delivery implies a unidirectional relationship. In full interaction there can be no one sided relation; the student is not just at the end of a chain but also at its beginning. (Jaspers (1991:21)To what extent the learner can play a proactive role while working with computer based learning resources becomes critical to the success of such applications and is considered in the final part of this paper. A related issue concerns developing a common understanding of interactivity. Schwier & Misanchuk (1993) refer to the levels defined in the literature as arbitrary and non-descriptive. Aldrich, Rogers & Scaife (1998) refer to interactivity as ubiquitous and Plowman (1996b) considers the excesses of physical interactions as gratuitous. The confused state of interactivity was also acknowledged in the following:
Though lauded by many for its ability to handle user inputs, there is little consensus with regard to the design of human computer interactions. Indeed, disagreement even exists about the meaning of the terms interactive as applied to emerging technologies. Researchers have described fundamentally different perspectives on the roles of interactions, ranging from facilitating lesson navigation to supporting encoding of specific lesson content ... Research on interaction methods may be among the most critical ... The domain of possibilities has broadened substantially, yet little research has been advanced which might guide their design. (Hannafin, Hannafin, Hooper, Rieber & Kini, 1996:385)A critical approach to assessing interactivity was presented by Rose (1999) who, given the various taxonomies of interactivity coupled with an apparent lack of denotative value, set about a deconstruction of established understandings. Critical of the "good" versus "bad" mentality that pervades the field (active not passive, learner control not program control, constructivism not instructivism, hypermedia not linear delivery), Rose (1999:45) presented an interesting scenario that contradicts many perceptions of interactive environments:
Texts addressing the subject of interactivity ... privilege representations of highly motivated learners exploring the wonderful worlds of interactive instructional programs and making exciting discoveries. However, it is by virtue of a deconstructive reading that we can begin to see the shadowy figure of the disavowed other lurking behind these wide eyed adventurers: the shadow of a child sitting mesmerised and immobile before the computer, only her index finger on the mouse moving occasionally as a stream of images passes in a more or less predetermined sequence before her eyes.Focusing explicitly on control Rose (1999) observed that although the words "learner control" have been interpreted as control by the learner, while grammatical comparisons (for example crowd control, weight control) tend to imply the opposite - control of the learner! The conclusion provides reinforcement for maintaining and extending research into making interactive learning work better:
That the field of educational computing is in need ... of internal critique is surely suggested by the fact that the very quality which is said to make computers unique and to justify their instructional use continues to defy definition. (Rose, 1999:48).There remains a paradox of interactivity. On the one hand it is portrayed as an integral and critical component of computer based applications and on the other as ill defined, deceptive and difficult if not impossible to implement. Is interactivity the hero or villain of achieving success through computer based learning? To address this question the following dimensions of interactivity demonstrate its multi-faceted nature and the issues that are essential to consistently implementing effective interactions within computer based structures.
However, the value of the control provided to the learner is dependent of the consequences of the learner actions and the extent to which the application responds or adapts to the individual learner's actions.
Interactive lessons are those in which the learner actively or overtly responds to information presented by the technology, which in turn adapts to the learner, a process more commonly referred to as feedback. The point is that interactive lessons require at least the appearance of two way communication. (Jonassen 1985:7)In this instance the adaptive capacity of the program is viewed in terms of a combination of the learner response and computer feedback, which in turn provides a form of communication. This process of question-response-feedback has been perceived by many writers as the essence of interactivity for computer based learning. For example, Steinberg (1991:100) observes that "question-response-feedback sequences help learners attain higher cognitive skills as well as factual information" and links the two elements of control and adaptation to the mechanics of interacting with the system (navigation) and the acquisition of knowledge and skills (learning). These descriptions identify two major components of interactivity - those which are program initiated and tell the learner what to do and those which are learner initiated, such as requests for help, information or explanation. This balance is also perceived as a means to achieve the goal of emulating human-human interaction in the computer medium, and thereby enhancing participation in the learning process.
Interactivity, or instructional features that promote active learning, provides critical support for increases in learning and retention in all educational activities ... Interaction implies active learner participation in the learning process ... an essential condition for effective learning ... failure to build interactivity into your program will reduce learning and retention.This comment reflects a shift in emphasis from the overt nature of interactivity to the extent to which internal learning is facilitated. In providing a set of guidelines for interactivity, Fenrich (1997) suggests the following set of options:
To provide a context for meaningful learning, Hannafin (1989) identified a set of five interactive functions (navigation, query, verification, elaboration, procedural control) and suggested a set of engaging activities to support these functions - fault free questions, queries, real time responding, notetaking, predicting/hypothesising, hypertext and cooperative dialogue. Although published over a decade ago the conclusions provide a useful guide for understanding interactivity:
It is no longer adequate to simply describe interactions in terms of either input technology employed or the physical characteristics of the responses made. ... We need a richer understanding of the psychological requirements associated with instructional tasks and responses, and a sense for how to extend design science beyond the methods that have evolved through the years. (Hannafin, 1989:178)Interactivity and meaningful learning has also been considered in terms of the schema model of human memory, where information is perceived as being stored in a web of interconnected nodes. "The strength of knowledge relies not simply on the number of nodes that exist, but more on the quality and number of interconnections between the nodes" Parrish (1996:2). Interactivity that encourages deeper cognitive processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972) will potentially lead to these interconnections being built.
When considered in relation to computer enhanced learning, distance is an issue. While learner and computer are in close physical proximity, the extent to which there is distance (or lack of communication) between teacher, content and learner will diminish the effectiveness of the interactions. The extent to which communication or conversation between learner and designer can be integrated into a computer based medium has been analysed by Laurillard (1993), in which a conversational framework is used to identify the teacher-learner relationships. Enabling these concepts in the computer based medium is the challenge addressed within this paper.
Storytelling and narrative lie at the heart of all successful communication. Crude, explicit, button pushing interaction breaks the spell of engagement and makes it hard to present complex information that unfolds in careful sequence.In this scenario the difference between the overt interactions are explicitly compared with the potential of narrative. The challenge confronting educational technology developers is the production of computer based environments that engage the learner in effective instructional communication without the interactivity interfering with the overall process. Identifying the concepts of storytelling and narrative as critical determinants of communication have been shown to provide a context to enable the potential of interactive learning environments.
Since interactive interfaces ought to foster ... coordination between improvisation and planning we need to discover better theories of what is involved in the dynamic control of inquiry, line of thought, and action more generally. We need to discover more open ended models of coherence and narrative structure. Kirsh (1997:81)Interactivity is portrayed as the crucial element of the new technology and yet recent research has demonstrated that there is still much to understand about the ways in which the interactive process facilities access to technology, especially in the context of computer based learning applications. Plowman (1996a:102-103) states,
disruption of the narrative is strongest at the foci of interactivity ... (which) should be considered in terms of how they can be integrated into the overall narrative and how they can be used as a way of stimulating interest in the unfolding narrative ... by considering the interrelationship of narrative, linearity and interactivity and their design implications we can help learners to make sense of interactive multimedia.The extent to which the interactions implemented are disruptive or constructive is an area that has received little attention to date but one that may provide some new guidelines for designers. As a concept, narrative can be viewed as a linear storyline or in terms of how the story is told, the way it is received, what meanings it can have and the specific social, cultural, gendered and technological context in which it is told (Plowman, 1996a; Humphreys, 1997b). But in what ways might narrative assist meaning, reduce the impact of interactive interference and provide the necessary framework to promote learning amongst diverse groups of learners? Plowman (1996a:92) suggests that:
Narrative coherence is identified here with a lack of redundancy and a fixed sequence. Interactive multimedia (IMM) programmes challenge these traditional definitions of narrative because it can be suspended or altered at discrete decision points, the foci of interactivity, and a rearrangement of discrete elements gives rise to new text and new meanings. While the concepts of wholeness, unity and coherence of meanings are not fashionable in a post-modern world, in educational multimedia... the notion of multiple interpretations has different implications, particularly for comprehension and cognition.While "narrative isn't just a shaping device: it helps us think, remember, communicate, and make sense of ourselves and the world" (Plowman, 1996a:3), when considered in terms of interactive environments, its perceived advantages are through enhancing comprehension and understanding:
Narrative structure is fundamental to comprehension to the extent that when it is clearly absent from certain forms of multimedia (it) can seriously undermine comprehension of the material. (Laurillard, 1998:231).
Framework which accommodates the audience or user into the process of engagement with interactive media in ways that narrative theory finds difficult... Interactivity produces for the user of media a different relationship to story. This shift in relationship may be able to be framed as a shift from narrative, as an experience of recounting a story, to play, as an experience of enacting a story. Humpherys (1997:9,11)A focus on either narrative or play as structures to enhance engagement implies that the interactivity provided must be integrated to enable reinforcement of the specific learning objectives and to maintain the user's participation in the story. It is our challenge therefore to develop applications that minimise the potential for interactive interference. By considering the concept of interactivity, narrative and play in association with the links between the designer and learner, the following section presents a model to potentially enhance the communication between learner and designer within computer based environments.
The association of education with theatre is by no means novel:
As we develop as persons, we develop a sophistication and sensitivity to what is the "proper" role behaviour for various groups we must meet ... We are in a sense able to predict the consequences of various behaviour alternatives on others without actually performing them, and can select the best role and performance ... This process is seen as "dramatic rehearsal" ... and is as complex as the relationship of actor and audience on stage. Hodgkinson (1967:3)In the context of education and social change, these concepts of performance, roles, identity and cues provide a focus for the learning environment. "As on stage, we are constantly sending out signals to those around us telling them how we wish to behave ... education at all levels is constantly faced with the problem of correcting misunderstood or unintentional cues" (Hodgkinson, 1967:22). To what extent therefore do computer based learning applications provide learners with a set of confusing cues, and in what way are learners allowed to play a role when working with educational technology? If, as Hodgkinson (1967) argues, being unaware of role playing can damage educational goals, it may be that the concept of roles, cues, theatre and performance hold clues as to making computer based learning work better.
Laurel (1990), who proposed the computer as theatre, also identifies the importance of human agency in human-computer interaction. Using this analogy, it is possible to extend the narrative and play concept to that of theatre and the role of the learner from observer or participant to actor:
By explicitly casting the language learner as actor (or other), a more playful and reflexive context for taking performative risks becomes possible. At the same time, the learner is pressed to assume responsibility for communicative acts that involve skill building at multiple levels of performance (phonological, kinetic, pragmatic), and that include but go beyond propositional knowledge. (Quinn, 1997:1).If the learner is to become and actor, then the structure of the application can be perceived as a performance. Trognazzini (1999) identifies magicians and illusionists as performers and that, in the same way that their act must be believable, so must interactive software have the same elements of acceptance:
I propose that there is a "threshold of believability," a point at which careful design and meticulous attention to detail have been sufficient to arouse in the spectator or user a belief that the illusion is real. The exact point will vary by person and even by mood, so we must exceed it sufficiently to ensure believability.If the learner believes the illusion created by the educational environment then the interactions will become integral to that illusion rather than as external controls to an environment being observed. Playing a role, being an actor in the learning process is not only about making choices but becoming part of the narrative, story or performance.
To date, many computer based learning resources have placed the learner as observer (passive or active) in much the same way as members of an audience at a performance. However, this separation of actor and audience provides an essentially uni-directional communication - from stage to audience. If the learner were to take a position on stage, what might that mean for computer based learning and how might it be implemented?
Designers might extend the concepts proposed by Hannafin & Peck (1988) to create scenarios in which the learner has an opportunity to participate. This would involve the learner being asked how familiar they are with the application and the extent to which they would like orientation to the application. The tour should allow the user to ask questions for clarification, in much the same way that an actor and director peruse the script and work through a series of rehearsals. Once comfortable with the location and prepared for "opening night", learners need to be made familiar with the controls (the stage, props and other actors) - not in their use but in their purpose - and the relevance of their appearance on the display (location on the stage). By using a narrative or story to define the performance in which the learner is participating, a logical and meaningful series of interactions can be employed.
An argument against such design structures is that they are too expensive or too difficult to implement, but this is not necessarily the case. If computer based learning resources continue to be used then it is important that they be effective. To date this has not been achieved consistently, so if more effective resource can be structured then the initial costs will be outweighed by the benefits. Similarly, as technology is developing so rapidly the creation of what now appear to be complex environments will become components of the development software.
The integration of the learner into the overall process may provide an environment in which the communication is focused on learner and teacher (designer) rather than learner and computer (content). Laurillard (1993) proposed the discursive, adaptive, interactive and reflective elements of education media in relation to effective teacher-learner communications. Continuing to develop the way in which people work with computers in learning contexts will provide the means by which these elements will continue to be successfully integrated into computer based environments. Conceptualising the learner as actor may provide a means to achieve this.
One of the first mottos I heard when beginning my career in this field was "you're only limited by your imagination". My vision is one of a learner integrated, engaged and achieving in a computer based environment - imagining a learner on stage, playing a critical role in the narrative is how that vision might be realised. The success of computer based learning will be through interactivity as a manifestation of communication between designer and learner. If the designer can develop their ideas into a performance into which the learner is actor and interactivity the stage, then the illusion, magic and engagement so eagerly sought after might well be achieved.
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|Author: Rod Sims, School of Multimedia and Information Technology, Southern Cross University. Email: [email protected]
Please cite as: Sims, R. (1999). Interactivity on stage: Strategies for learner-designer communication. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 15(3), 257-272. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet15/sims.html | <urn:uuid:42517f98-c981-4b0a-aa1a-fa047f22904f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet15/sims.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929235 | 5,680 | 3.171875 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive discussion on interactivity in computer-based learning environments, focusing on the relationship between the learner and designer. It explores various dimensions of interactivity, narrative, and performance, highlighting the importance of effective communication and learner engagement. The text presents complex scenarios, requiring sophisticated communication, strategic thinking, and advanced problem-solving, demonstrating a high level of depth and nuance.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 1,755 | 1 |
Building a learning community can be a difficult task and is one that involves some skill and understanding. Too often, we simply believe (like Kevin Costner) that “if we build it, they will come.”
We would like to believe that simply helping the students in our class to sign up for accounts on blogging and wiki sites will change their learning and the culture of our classrooms. Unfortunately, this simply isn’t true. Signing up for accounts will not make the students in your classroom more connected or globally aware. There’s more to it than that. They need to join together in a community.
For students to form a learning community takes time, and is a process. As teachers, we would like to jump in as quickly as possible, thinking that we are saving time and effort later if we move on to what we consider activities for learning as soon as we can; early in the school year or class.
For students to work and learn together, they need to have a level of comfort and trust with each other. Setting people together into a learning community and expecting them to open up and be willing to make mistakes in a public space without first spending some time together is not realistic. This is why one of the first steps of establishing an online learning community in your classroom is to have some simple fun together. This is what we’re doing in the Idea Hive to begin our school year.
The students in our two classrooms are 2 700 kilometres apart. We wanted them to be able to see each other, to be able to put names with faces. As well, we wanted the students in each location to be able to see the geography of each place and get comfortable with each other. This is why we’re starting the year off with a photo contest. This is the blog post written on the Idea Hive blog:
“Be a part of the hive!
Put those creative skills to work.
We are having a photo contest to start off the year. Take your idea hive badge and yourself (and some friends too if you really want to). Head someplace with your camera. Take as many pictures as you want. Make sure you’re in them (at least part of you!). Make sure your idea hive badge is there too. Post them up onto flickr using the email address that you get from your teacher. Scroll down this page and look on the right hand side to see a few of the pictures that are already up there. Click on the widget to head to flickr to see them all.
Let’s see how creative and innovative you can be. Who’s got the best imagination out there?
The deadline for the contest is September 23rd so let’s see what you’ve got!”
A simple idea that we are hoping will begin to develop some sense of location and trust between the two classes. Combined with other start of year activities such as a skype call with questions, an introductory survey and a “comment swap,” our two classes will begin to take the first steps into developing an online learning community which will take us all deeper into unknown territory.
Here are two of the pictures we’ve received at the half way point of the contest. See the entire set of them here. | <urn:uuid:06d42120-cab9-4193-a6d7-6805a3efb81f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.evenfromhere.org/2010/09/15/building-learning-communities-step-one-have-some-fun/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383259/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967589 | 679 | 3.09375 | 3 | The extract discusses building a learning community, emphasizing the importance of time, trust, and comfort among students. It provides a practical example of an online photo contest to initiate community building, promoting creativity and interaction. The extract touches on basic communication, teamwork, and digital literacy, with some consideration for cultural awareness and global connection.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 123,527 | 0 |
As part of a project to develop a new framework for AASLH‘s professional development/continuing education program, I plotted history organizations onto a map of the United States using a subset of IMLS’s database of museums. That’s a big category that includes history museums, historical societies, historic preservation organizations, historic house museums, and general museums that include history as a major topic and while there is some discussion about the comprehensiveness of the IMLS database, it’s the best information we have available and for my project, more than sufficient to get a sense of the big picture.
As you’ll see in the map below, history organizations are mostly located in the eastern half of the US. Start at the southern tip of Texas and draw an imaginary line due north and the lion’s share is on the right side of the map.
That’s probably something we all suspected but now can visualize it better. When I’ve shown this map to a few people, they concluded that it’s because there’s much more history in the East. But take a look at the heat map below while recalling the US history timeline, and you’ll come to a different conclusion.
A heat map reveals the deeper patterns within the forest of dots and shows where there are clusters of history organizations. New York City has the greatest concentration of history organizations in the US, which is part of a larger cluster that stretches from Boston to Washington, DC. Again, that might confirm hunches that this pattern is due to the “amount of history” in these regions, but if history is measured by the year a place was settled, it doesn’t hold for very long. In the early 1600s, the English are landing in Boston and Jamestown and the Spanish are settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico—they would seem to have “more history” and yet they’re not the “hottest spots” on the map. If you include the major Native American settlements, such as those at Cahokia Mounds and in Chaco Canyon, which precede Boston and Santa Fe by centuries, you have to come to a different conclusion: modern population density. Those clusters correspond to the regions with the largest concentrations of people.
I suppose that reveals a human trait: when we develop communities, we also develop a shared story about ourselves, a history. To collect and preserve that history, we create organizations like museums, archives, and historical societies. Let’s get away from discussing who has more or better history, and instead recognize the value of history to every community—big or small, new or old.
The maps also suggest a strategy. For places where there is “some heat” (those red and yellow spots on the heat map), work towards collaboration and coordination with other nearby history organizations to leverage your resources. For those places that are “cool” (those blue and green areas), greater responsibility falls upon you because you may be one of the few organizations that emphasize history. Think bigger in terms of geography or time to achieve a sufficient density of content that’s meaningful to a larger community. In both instances, we need to work together at state, regional, and national levels to collect, preserve, and interpret our shared history. History is something that we innately feel is important to our identity and culture—let’s continue to work on this with each other.
Special offer to statewide and regional history organizations: These findings are shaping the professional development programs at AASLH so they can better serve its members and history as a whole. If a map of points or a heat map of history organizations based on the IMLS data that I have already plotted would be useful to your statewide or regional history organization, I’d be happy to provide one as a professional courtesy. At this time, I’m unable to respond to requests from individuals or local organizations (you’re welcome to freely use the images in this blog post without permission).
That is pretty much a reflection of population density overall. Which should correlate if it needs a critical mass of people to develop organizations. https://mapofusa.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2.gif
Thanks for sharing!
The Museum Association of Arizona would love a map for our state. We’ve got a broad picture of the distribution of museums in Arizona by county, but I think this might be even more useful. Since many of our historical societies/museums are in very small communities, I don’t think there’s necessarily a correlation with population centers. I’d be more concerned about how IMLS counted these organizations and whether that included a bias, particularly against smaller museums (I believe part of the process was by looking at IRS 990s, which many very small museums do not file). For those of us who have tried working with the original 2015 IMLS data we found an error rate of between 10% and 40%. A quick look at the 2018 update suggests few corrections were made.
The IMLS database is not comprehensive, however, it’s the best we have at the moment (if I created this map five years ago, the data would have been far worse). I’ll send you the detailed maps for Arizona and if you’d like to test the museum-population correlation theory, I’ll happily plot out a new map if you’re able to collect better data for your state.
IMLS data is vastly improved, You and I both critqued it over the past few years–mine here: https://matthewbgilmore.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/just-how-many-museums-are-there-in-washington-dc/
The new file is better but for DC but not really usable for analysis–still too junky.
Spot on that the correlation is history enterprises to population density. Although there is a small case to be made for preservation by neglect. I often ask students why history seems to happen in the middle of nowhere when it comes to locations of many historic sites. | <urn:uuid:f9f13674-d825-4169-8901-ee0702db11d2> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://engagingplaces.net/2019/04/30/why-there-figuring-out-the-presence-of-americas-history-organizations/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296950373.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20230402012805-20230402042805-00573.warc.gz | en | 0.950283 | 1,306 | 2.90625 | 3 | The extract scores 4 points due to its comprehensive discussion of soft skills, including collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It presents complex scenarios requiring strategic thinking and advanced communication, with a strong emphasis on intercultural fluency and technological adaptation. The extract seamlessly integrates advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios, mirroring real-world complexity, but falls short of perfect integration across all elements.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 140,621 | 1 |
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