The peelings are treatments that allow an accelerated renewal of the superficial and middle layers of the skin, achieving in most cases a rejuvenation and improvement of the skin imperfections. In almost all of them, there is a peeling, reddening and tightening sensation of the skin that varies according to the nature and characteristics of the patient's skin.
Anti-aging peeling of glycolic acid of last generation.


text:
<?php
/**
 * AuthenticationAuthenticationMethodInformationTest
 *
 * PHP version 5
 *
 * @category Class
 * @package  Alfaview
 * @author   Swagger Codegen team
 * @link     https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-codegen
 */

/**
 * authService/authenticationService.proto
 *
 * No description provided (generated by Swagger Codegen https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-codegen)
 *
 * OpenAPI spec version: version not set
 *
 * Generated by: https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-codegen.git
 * Swagger Codegen version: 2.4.14
 */

/**
 * NOTE: This class is auto generated by the swagger code generator program.
 * https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-codegen
 * Please update the test case below to test the model.
 */

namespace Alfaview;

use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;

/**
 * AuthenticationAuthenticationMethodInformationTest Class Doc Comment
 *
 * @category    Class
 * @description AuthenticationAuthenticationMethodInformation
 * @package     Alfaview
 * @author      Swagger Codegen team
 * @link        https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-codegen
 */
class AuthenticationAuthenticationMethodInformationTest extends TestCase
{

    /**
     * Setup before running any test case
     */
    public static function setUpBeforeClass(): void
    {
    }

    /**
     * Setup before running each test case
     */
    public function setUp(): void
    {
    }

    /**
     * Clean up after running each test case
     */
    public function tearDown(): void
    {
    }

    /**
     * Clean up after running all test cases
     */
    public static function tearDownAfterClass(): void
    {
    }

    /**
     * Test "AuthenticationAuthenticationMethodInformation"
     */
    public function testAuthenticationAuthenticationMethodInformation()
    {
    }

    /**
     * Test attribute "type"
     */
    public function testPropertyType()
    {
    }

    /**
     * Test attribute "principal"
     */
    public function testPropertyPrincipal()
    {
    }

    /**
     * Test attribute "company_id"
     */
    public function testPropertyCompanyId()
    {
    }

    /**
     * Test attribute "user_id"
     */
    public function testPropertyUserId()
    {
    }

    /**
     * Test attribute "permissions"
     */
    public function testPropertyPermissions()
    {
    }

    /**
     * Test attribute "account_status"
     */
    public function testPropertyAccountStatus()
    {
    }

    /**
     * Test attribute "metadata"
     */
    public function testPropertyMetadata()
    {
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
#kosovo
OSCE Conference on Missing and Murdered Journalists in Kosovo
Event: Conference on Missing and Murdered Journalists in Kosovo Location: Hotel Swiss Diamond, Prishtinë/Priština Date/Time: 5 December 2019, 09:30 09:30 – 10:00 Coffee & Registration of Participants 10:00 – 10:45 Opening Remarks  Ambassador Jan Braathu, Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo  Gentiana Begolli-Pustina, Chairperson of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo  Budimir Ničić, Chairperson of the Association of Journalists of Serbia registered in Kosovo 10:45 – 12:00 I panel: Accounts of Families and Colleagues For two decades, families and friends of murdered and missing journalists in Kosovo have been trying to find out the truth: who…
Event: Conference on Missing and Murdered Journalists in Kosovo Location: Restaurant Etno Kuča, Gračanica/Graçanicë Date/Time: 4 December 2019, 09:00 09:00 – 09:30 Coffee & Registration of Participants 09:30 – 10:15 Opening Remarks • Ambassador Jan Braathu, Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo • Budimir Ničić, Chairperson of the Association of Journalists of Serbia registered in Kosovo • Gentiana Begolli-Pustina, Chairperson of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo 10:15 – 11.30 I panel: Accounts of Families and Colleagues For two decades, families and friends of murdered and missing journalists in Kosovo have been trying to find out the truth: who…
Serbia: Commission to solve wartime journalists' murders expanded
Over 40 journalists have disappeared or been killed in the territory of Serbia since the break of former Yugoslavia in 1992, but only few investigations were concluded, even with interference and support from international organisations. The Commission for the Investigation of Murders of Journalists in Serbia has been working in solving the cases since 2012. The decision to expand its capabilities and resources to further the fight against impunity for murders of journalists was announced by the president of the Commission Veran Matic, on 2 August. The scope now is set to include murders of journalists on the territories of Kosovo and…
Kosovo: Advanced draft law to protect whistleblowers adopted
While the European Union is currently discussing the details to better protect whistleblowers at the EU level, Kosovo steps out introducing one of the most advanced laws in Europe to protect whistleblowers. Government of Kosovo has passed the draft law to the General Assembly for adoption on 14 June this year. The General Assembly will be voting on adoption in autumn this year. Being one of the top countries in struggle against corruption, as reported by the Freedom House, the aim of this legislation is to safeguard the possibility to inform and report wrongdoings inside the companies while ensuring the possibility to…
Freedom of expression deteriorates in EU candidate countries, shows EU progress reports
The European Commission published on 17 April 2018 its annual Enlargement Package, including the country reports (formerly known as "progress reports"), assessing the implementation of the European Union's enlargement policy regarding the accession process of the Western Balkans and Turkey. These country reports shows alarmingly precarious working conditions of journalists as the level of press freedom deteriorates further. In four countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia) no progress has been achieved in the area of press freedom. Issues of attacks on journalists, defamation cases media ownership, lack of funding of the public service broadcasters and self-censorship prevail. Some of…
Serbian journalists attacked by police in Kosovo
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its Serbian affiliate, the Journalists' Union of Serbia (SINOS), the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) and the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) in condemning the attacks on Serbian cameraman Vladimir Milic as well as journalists Dragana Zecevic and Radmila Komazec on 26 March 2018 in Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo. They were covering a meeting of the local community about the Kosovo dialogue in the Mitrovica Community Centre. The level of violence was very high as shown in this reportage. Milic, who works for the public television Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), was reportedly attacked by Kosovar policemen who…
Incentivising media rights and plurality by supporting good practices in Western Balkans and Turkey
"How to improve the precarious state of journalism in South East Europe and Turkey" was the topic of a press conference held by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) on 14th November 2017 at the Press Club Brussels. The press conference took place in the framework of the EFJ project, Building Trust in Media in South East Europe and Turkey – a project supported financially by UNESCO and the European Union. Andris Kesteris, principal advisor at DG for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR) at the European Commission and Tarja Turtia, UNESCO Programme Specialist, attended the event to hear representatives of…
Attacks and pressures on journalists in Slavonski Brod (Croatia), Skopje (Macedonia) and Partes (Kosovo)
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is joining the call of the Western Balkan's Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists' Safety in condemning the attacks and pressures on journalists, which happened in the last few days in Slavonski Brod (Croatia), Skopje (Macedonia) and Partes (Kosovo) : On Wednesday, August 23, journalists Visnja Ruzojcic from HRT and Aleksandra Primorac from the portal SBplus were physically attacked in Slavonski Brod. According to the reports of the SBplus portal, the journalists Primorac and Ruzojcic reported on the shooting, which happened during the previous night and in which one citizen was seriously injured.…
Investigative journalist physically attacked in Kosovo
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate the Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AJK) in condemning the physical attack against investigative journalist Parim Olluri in Pristina on 16 August 2017. Parim Olluri, who is also the executive director of Insajderi.com portal, was attacked by three unknown men while he was going home with his partner around 10 at night. The attack happened in front of his apartment in Bajram Kelmendi street in Pristina. Olluri was beaten up causing light injuries. His partner was not harmed but lost consciousness as a result of the attack. Both were taken to the hospital for…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Google ALLO APP is the best messaging app ever. ALLO is the best messaging app designed by Google for making your conversation easier and expressive.
Download Google Allo and Get the Agen Domino For Free!


I've tortured a lot of my friends with the recommendation to try Quartz, the app that gives you the news with a messaging UI. It really gives you a view (among other apps, like WeChat) of how the messaging UI will come to be a major factor for many, many use cases.
This article isn't about that, though. Today on Quartz, there was a long-ish article indicating that Amazon is hiring more MBAs than any other tech company. According to the article, Amazon hired more than twice the number of MBAs as Microsoft (#2 in tech hiring of MBAs) and even more than McKinsey at some schools. This is significant for three reasons.
One, as Fred Wilson pointed out in his blog this weekend, business model innovation is at least as (or maybe more) important than technology innovation — "new business models are even more disruptive than new technologies" he writes. As a lawyer by training, I've been trying to make this point for years — partly to make lawyers seem as relevant to building companies as engineers! But MBAs fill the bill, too.
Second, because "Amazon teams run like small startups," Amazon's MBA hires are in effect learning rapidly how to found and run startups. Tenure at Amazon is a barbell by most accounts. Some people love it and become lifers while others treat it like extended (but kinda miserable) graduate school where they learn a TON but can't wait to get out. No one denies that it delivers top notch experience. So, this huge influx of MBA talent, running a startup (or a series of start ups) inside Amazon, will undoubtedly fall into these two categories, as well, which means some of them will leave — and gee, what will they do? Go work for another big company that isn't as intensively innovative? Probably not.
Finally, we've long recognized that we don't have as many great startups in Seattle as we "should have." While Seattle is chronically short of engineers (isn't everyone), we have more than anyone else (and many of them are at Amazon — see barbell comment above), so the technical talent is here. My thesis has been that we don't have enough entrepreneurs. The reason I'm so excited is that I now think (please, please, please be right) that the MBAs that Amazon is bringing to Seattle will meet some nice engineering talent, fall in love with the Pike Place Market and the mountains and seed a never-before-seen-in-Seattle field of ambitious, home-run-seeking startups.
P.S. Please stop the rain. That might scare off some of these shiny new MBAs.
Heather Redman is an executive at Indix Corporation, and an angel and early stage fund investor and board member. Her civic involvement includes serving on the boards of the WTIA, the Seattle Chamber, Forterra and the Finance Committee of the Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy.


text:
<?php

/*
 * To change this license header, choose License Headers in Project Properties.
 * To change this template file, choose Tools | Templates
 * and open the template in the editor.
 */

/**
 * Description of DoctrineEntityListenerPass
 *
 * @author Raziel Valle Miranda <raziel.valle@fractaliasoftware.com>
 */

namespace Raziel\TestBundle\DependencyInjection\Compiler;

use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Compiler\CompilerPassInterface;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerBuilder;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Reference;

class DoctrineEntityListenerPass implements CompilerPassInterface
{

    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function process(ContainerBuilder $container)
    {
        $ems = $container->getParameter('doctrine.entity_managers');
        foreach ($ems as $name => $em)
        {
            $container->getDefinition(sprintf('doctrine.orm.%s_configuration', $name))
                ->addMethodCall('setEntityListenerResolver', [new Reference('raziel.entity_listener_resolver')])
            ;
        }
        $definition = $container->getDefinition('raziel.entity_listener_resolver');
        $services = $container->findTaggedServiceIds('doctrine.entity_listener');

        foreach ($services as $service => $attributes)
        {
            $definition->addMethodCall(
                'addMapping', [$container->getDefinition($service)->getClass(), $service]
            );
        }
    }

}


It is Anjelik Bail Bonds mission to get you released from custody as quickly as possible and rejoin your family. We ensure that our professional and courteous staff make your bail experience is an easy process to navigate through understand. Anjelik Anjelik offers nothing less than dependable and professional customer service from our staff and management while guiding you through each step of the bail bond process. Our experience and knowledge of the criminal justice system will help you gain your freedom.
Hello people please,be careful!!!!!!! Make sure check the bond amount. Make sure you call prison records department for amounts. Reasons ,because your money will not be returned to you if you over pay!!!!!!! I had to learn the hard way.The bondsman will bail out quickly ,but if you over pay,you will not be refunded. ..!!!!
Thanks to God Almighty I'm free at last!!!!!!
Mrs. McCoy is absolutely a blessing, she provides swift service with great customer care...Anjelik Bail Bonds a Great choice in your time of need.
Thanks for you're services you provided to me. You really help take the stress of dealing with it all. I'm so glad I decided to call the device was very professional I will definitely use you again. Thanks!
Anjelik Bail Bonds is a really good fast and convenient place to bond a family member or a friend out of prison they have very flexible payment plans it's a great place of business!!
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My experience with Anjelik Bails Bonds was AMAZING. When I made the call they were there to assist me at that moment. I felt they actually care. There customer service exceeded any other previous bail bonds company I have dealt with. With Anjelik the service was fast and they represent professionalism well. The payment plans are wonderful and the company actually work with you. Thanks Anjelik!


text:
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Service Voice Channel available
Effective November 1, 2021, a new voice channel for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service is available as a new entitlement offer and a combined offer with Dynamics 365 Customer Service. This new voice channel is built on Microsoft Azure Communication Services and is licensed as Volume License (VL) or via the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program through SCHNEIDER IT MANAGEMENT.
The addition of this channel gives businesses the scale and reliability of the calling platform that powers Microsoft Teams. With native voice, businesses receive end-to-end omnichannel experiences within a single solution, ensuring consistent, personalized, and connected support across all channels.
With this solution being built on Microsoft's own infrastructure, added benefits are available right out of the box that enable organizations to:
Simplify their solution
Get instant visibility into trends across all channels
Leverage AI to resolve issues faster
Streamline self-service capabilities
Intelligent routing for voice
Create true omnichannel experiences
For an explanatory video, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6t1Yz-60ic.
For the announcement, please visit: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2020/09/23/new-voice-channel-streamlines-omnichannel-customer-experiences/.
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There are lots and lots of books about writing.
Good ones, too, like Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, and Stephen King's On Writing. And glancing over at my bookcase, I could list a dozen more. But I don't know whether any of them would have yellow highlighter markings on every page like Steven James' Story Trumps Structure.
It's just that every page–every single page–has a gem that I need to remember, a sentence or two that I feel would be better written on a poster and stuck up on the bulletin board above my desk. But I don't have time or room to make that many posters. So I highlight and re-read and question myself and my story as I work through each chapter, hoping that all the good writing stuff is sinking in and will show up in this latest manuscript.
To be honest, Steven James doesn't need my recommendation. But you might. And so I couldn't wait another day to tell you about Story Trumps Structure, even though I haven't finished it.
Well, you'd be behind, too, if you had to stop and highlight every other line in the book.
Welllllll, it just so happens that I DO have a book in me! It also happens that I value any writing book you recommend, too. So I'm thinking I might have to look this one up over the weekend. The last writing book that was recommended to me (by Lisa) was Stephen King's, and even though it took me a while to find a copy and read it, it was well worth it. I'll try and move a little faster this time!
Seriously, it looks like a good one. I'll have to check it out.
I have been a rule breaker from the very beginning and I shared that info at a panel presentation that I participated in years ago. It's paid off.
Not that you need it, Suzanne, but I think you'll like it!


text:
Q: Can't seem to apply classList.toggle in a loop I'm currently trying to switch between images. I have a couple of images stacked on top of each other and initially all of them have a   display:none;. I want when I click a button a random image to appear on the screen. Selected every picture with querySelectorAll, made a random number generator and my goal was to iterate through them, and the number which is picked at the moment would signify which picture I was going to make visible. The problem is that in the console I can see that it's trying to toggle the class but nothing happens
Code for reference:
var button = document.querySelector(".btn-roll");

button.addEventListener("click", function() {
  var images = document.querySelectorAll(".dice");
  for (var i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
  var number =  Math.floor((Math.random() * 6) + 0);
  }

  for(var i = 0; i < images.length; i++) {
    images[number].classList.toggle("Appear");
  }
})

CSS for reference:
.dice {
  position: absolute;
  left: 50%;
  top: 178px;
  transform: translateX(-50%);
  height: 100px;
  box-shadow: 0px 10px 60px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10);
  display: none;
}

.Appear {
  display:block;
}

Additionally if there's something wrong with my for loop I tried adding all the images in an array and iterating through it as well, with no success as well.

A: A few things to fix:

*

*number is not defined before it is used

*You are calculating number 6 times, only needs to happen once.

*You are calling toggle but not telling it if it should toggle off or on (Does not work in IE11)

*You are always just toggeling number and not the entire list.

var button = document.querySelector(".btn-roll");

button.addEventListener("click", function() {
  var images = document.querySelectorAll(".dice");
  var number =  Math.floor((Math.random() * 6) + 0);

  for(var i = 0; i < images.length; i++) {
    images[i].classList.toggle("Appear", i === number);
  }
})
.dice {
  position: absolute;
  left: 50%;
  top: 178px;
  transform: translateX(-50%);
  height: 100px;
  box-shadow: 0px 10px 60px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.10);
  display: none;
}

.Appear {
  display:block;
}
<button class="btn-roll">Roll</button>

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2

3

4

5

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Category Archives: Beaches & Coasts
Truly original. Lived nearly 12 full years at Nixie's Vale.
The best partner in local adventures a gal could ask for. Probably a Purina model in Arkansas, 2008. After her brief modeling career ended in disaster, she and her heinous sister were found in Hot Springs on the side of a highway. In a twist of fate, she ended up in Maine, and I adopted her in August 2009, a few months after moving to Nixie's Vale. She saved lives, stole hearts and cured children's cynophobia. The local code enforcement officer declared her an "exception to the 'no dogs' rule," at the lake beach but she preferred the ocean, river and marshes. Sometimes she disappeared for hours and came back from the Bog of Eternal Stench (or Fern Gully) with black stockings and a story. In her youth, she dated a neighborhood pit bull with a bad reputation and loyally sat by his side even when he sat in the middle of the busy road. A shady past. Then she fell for a German Shepherd next door named Trooper, and she'd just let him into the house, and I'd come down to find them sitting side by side on the couch– no other people present, and she'd look over and tell him, "Yeah my Mom said."
She's my little Force of Nature – some of our adventures in Maine
My little river empress, Sophie-Bea, in mid-coast Maine, 2020
An unusual mix, she balanced her occupations between shoreline assessment, detective, and Head Rodent Terminator. In her spare time, she liked stealing index cards, collecting cans, and digging a trench beside the deck to relax and daydream. On rainy days, we still went outside (she wore a raincoat, reluctantly) or we'd stay inside, and she'd camp out on her bed (or the sofa with me) while I worked. If we were in the car, she rocked out to Pearl Jam with me.
She was, after all, my little Force of Nature.
From 2009-2013, she assisted in visiting wetlands throughout Maine, especially salt marshes, freshwater marshes, seeps, forested wetlands, land trust preserves, coastal reserves, coastal wetlands including eelgrass meadows and riverine / estuarine wetlands to pose as a model, or assist in capturing the beauty of Maine wetlands for the newsletters, formerly known as "Wetland Breaking News" and "Wetland News" for the nonprofit organization, ASWM with its HQ based in Maine. She had many admirers and fans.
She liked to steal index cards. Here, she studied gothic symbolism.
As a shoreline assessment specialist, she conducted inventories on crabs, assessing whether they were alive or dead, and ate the dead ones. Sophie-Bea cultivated an interdisciplinary skill set over the years: she assisted in several phytoplankton tows in Feb-March 2018 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine; she assisted in a seaweed identification and macroalgae collection project (Southern Maine Community College, April-May 2018) especially at Kettle Cove State Park, Fort Williams State Park, and Two Lights State Park, where she assisted in sniffing seaweed and pulling rockweed away from rocks to identify a) crabs, b) red algaes, and c) periwinkles. Her love for the shoreline, careful footwork in deeper tide pools, and enthusiastic wading into the surf at Fort Williams Park (where dogs are allowed on the beach) were just a bonus.
At Fort Williams Park, the dog park— she told everyone she was a former circus performer who could jump through fire, survive thrombocytopenia and that one time she jacked deer—– and two HUGE St. Bernard Husky mixes, Tag and the Warden, became her bodyguards for three weeks after that unfortunate incident with a gang of standard poodles in the "leashless and lawless" section of the park. She'd walk between the two large St. Bernard Huskies like Lady Gaga with her bodyguards. But she was really Elizabeth Taylor in the form of a dachshund-pointer.
I loved her madly.
She fought a valiant battle with heart disease and congestive heart failure for over two years. But that did not stop her from living out wild mini adventures at least while on a 50′ cloth training leash and usually just in her back yard last summer and fall.
Theme Song lyrics: "Damn! I wish I was your guard dog." and from Pearl Jam's "Force of Nature," "Understand She's a Force of Nature / Contraband hiding deep inside her soul."
Posted in Beaches & Coasts, Literary ecology, Maine, natural history, Nature, Rescue Dogs, Travel & Adventure, Wetlands
Tagged dachshund, Fort Williams, Kettle Cove State Park, macroalgae collection, Maine seaweed, Mary Wollstonecraft, Pearl Jam, pet obit, pointer mix, pointer-dachshund, rescue dog, romantic ecology, seaweed, Southern Maine Community College, Two Lights, wetland dog
Lately I've been thinking about glaciers. I re-watched "Chasing Ice," which is a fascinating documentary film with the first large-scale ground survey of glaciers, directed by Jeff Orlowski and led by photographer James Balog. I'm sure you've seen Balog's incredible documentary films on PBS/NOVA if not "Chasing Ice" or his photography in National Geographic.
Thinking of glaciers as "social spaces" allows us to consider the effects of climate change on the cryosphere—the frozen layers of the Earth, including glaciers and permafrost, from a variety of perspectives. We can examine glaciers as "social spaces" by exploring the ethnography of oral history traditions in the Yukon Territory, the socio-economic impacts, such as the melting of the cryosphere, in those 'social spaces' in Alaska, as another example. Additionally, we can explore glaciers as social spaces in literary ecology and contemporary music. How do glaciers "listen?" I explore a few ways below.
The senior women of the Saint Elias Mountain region of the southern Yukon Territory (Canada) relayed complex natural and social histories to anthropologist Julie Cruikshank when she did ethnographic research recording the life stories of Athapaskan and Tlingit elders. Her book, Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination was published in 2005 (Paperback edition, 2010) but I think it's still highly relevant. She found that the elders, "grounded precise social histories of twentieth-century life within a scaffolding of much older narratives. [They drew] on established long narrative conventions to reflect on complex life circumstances. In the words [of one elder] Angela Sidney, ancient narratives had helped her to 'live life like a story.'" (Cruikshank, 2005) Cruikshank, while living with the elders, "heard narratives about glacial caves inhabited by intemperate beings that might emerge unexpectedly: and others that depicted glaciers as living and responsive themselves. Stories dramatized […] bursting of ice-dammed lakes into river valleys, and […] told stories of travel […] sometimes crossing crevasse-ridden glaciers on foot and sometimes piloting hand-hewn cottonwood boats beneath glacial bridges…" (Cruikshank, 2005) They told stories of strangers called "cloud people." (Cruikshank, 2005) The women's stories depicted a "winter world" that crossed economic borders, of coastal Tlingit traders, and the shifting power relations described by economic historian Howard Innis on the 19th century market for furs, gold, cod and timber. (Cruikshank, 2005) Cruikshank's writing is wonderfully evocative of the culture and arctic wonder.
Glaciers, according to the stories, radiate heat and energy. They're alive. Cruikshank pores into the Athapaskan elders' stories like a glaciologist drills an ice core, studying its layers, noting the environmental, geophysical changes in a glacier—which tells a social story, since glaciers are part of the Athapaskan and Tlingit life stories. The Little Ice Age (1550-1850) is within reach of the memories of Athapaskan and Tlingit elders; some of their stories are memory and some, myth. After the Little Ice Age, the glaciers receded enough to make coastal lands accessible to Eyak, Tlingit, and Athapaskan nations to converge. Stories map the geography and human ecology of the glaciers and the ecological and social corridors connecting glaciers. Through the study of oral histories, we can glean that "glaciers present some navigational, spiritual, and intellectual challenges of a sentient "land that listens." (Cruikshank, 2005) This is what is known as sentient ecology. (Ingold, 2000) This is what the elders explained to Cruikshank when they told her stories about glaciers listening and responding.
Similarly, a human ecologist could study the environmental changes, such as those impacts from global climate change on glaciers and permafrost, two related ecosystems, and their ecological place in our world—both as social spaces and quintessential geophysical, temporal yardsticks with which we measure global environmental change. These stories, from oral tradition, captured local traditional knowledge of the Saint Elias Mountain region of southern Yukon, and other parts of Canada, and the stories themselves seemed to shift and transform infinitesimally much like the glaciers. One of the elders, Annie Ned, told stories of "caribou 'blackening the ice' on nearby lakes early in the (20th) century." (Cruikshank, 2005) When Cruikshank and Shelia Greer prepared a report on the region's oral history for the Archaeological Survey of Canada, Ned's story about the caribou became important in another context: "Scientists reporting discoveries of ancient tools and caribou droppings melting from a high alpine ice patch above [Ned's] trapline cited her oral account in their initial scientific paper on prehistoric caribou." (Cruikshank, 2005) Thus, the oral histories were not solely cultural translations and transcriptions of the women's life stories; the stories were also part of a larger natural history of the region. Also, the issue of personhood comes into play: these women tell stories that "summon up a moral system that includes relationships with non-humans – animals and also features of the landscape, like glaciers – that share characteristics of personhood." (Cruikshank, 2005) I am intrigued by the idea of personhood, the Rights of Nature movement, and an old idea—perhaps ancient, and pan-human, of connecting with land and water—the way headwater streams braid and combine to form a stream, intermittent or ephemeral—after storms, and each stream tells a story as it carves through sediment in the streambed. Similarly, anthropologists and human ecologists study the layers of permafrost, or analyze the many ways to tell a story about navigating a crevice in a glacier—the successful and failed rescue attempts, in order to discover the human dimensions of that glacial ecology. Literary ecologists seek to find meaning in the stories of the ways in which people interact with the natural world, including glaciers.
In Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein (1818), she begins and ends the famous story about the mad-scientist, Victor Frankenstein, a graduate student from Geneva, and his creation, a Monster, comprised of human parts reanimated by electricity—on a glacier in the Arctic. At the start of the novel, a ship captain writes to his sister about encountering a strange man, crossing the ice on a sled, totally bereft but driven by a vengeance to confront his creation, the Monster, who fled to the "Land of Mist and Snow," the glacial Alps, because he wanted a refuge from the cruelty of mankind. At the end of the novel, the reader rejoins Victor and the Monster, as they have one final showdown on the glacier. In Shelley's real life, she and her fiancé Percy B. Shelley, had traveled through the region of Mont Blanc, home to Mer de Glace, the second largest glacier in the Alps in 1816. Later, while pregnant, Shelley writes the novel, the plot of which takes her heroes to Mer de Glace, that glacier. "Until the eighteenth century, the Alps were believed to be infested with devils, monsters and dragons. By setting her story of Victor Frankenstein and his Monster at Mer de Glace, Shelley links Victor's activities with those of mountaineering scientists like Horace Benedict de Sausure." (Nardin, 2006) Why set a story on a glacier? Her 19th century readers most likely shared her interest in alpine mountaineering, science and exploration. (Mary Shelley was an explorer herself; she had the moon in Sagittarius, a sign associated with wide open spaces, exploration of great frontiers and the outdoors. She was well-traveled even before she met Percy, and then they traveled Europe together. The astrological piece is my own theory.) In their travels, Percy and Mary stopped at inns along the way, and heard German stories, including a strange tale about a 17th century alchemist who had lived at Frankenstein Castle. (Sampson, 2018)
In studying Romanticism, and in particular the work of Mary Shelley, I would argue that she pushed the borders of what it meant to be human, and the limits of our imagination surrounding consciousness and creation. Her two heroes, the Monster and his creator, Victor, are both intellectual, Miltonic philosophers; the epistolary structure of the novel has several characters communicate via letters; but the Monster, by contrast, writes in a journal. After failed attempts to socialize, he took refuge in the forest, along the river, and in the Alps at Mer de Glace. At Mont Blanc, he built himself a house, an ice cave within the glacier, and that became his home. He desired a mate and implored Victor to supply him a female counterpart, who the Monster planned to live out his (immortal) days, at Mont Blanc on Mer de Glace. I wish I had a cool photo of Mer de Glace–but I haven't traveled there–but a quick Google Images search yields lots of incredible photo results! Have you been there? Leave a comment and let me know what it was like!
I am currently reading Mary Shelley's travel journal, which includes her experiences traveling through the Mer de Glace area (I think she and Percy saw it from a distance).
Last year, I began to analyze Shelley's use of water and wetland metaphors throughout her novel as part of my graduate work in literary ecology. It's intriguing that she creates this social space on the glacier—instead of within a city, or along a river, or in a forest—other places where the Monster hides and takes refuge throughout the story. The Monster feels safe in the harsh environs of the glacier. Unlike a man, the Monster is not vulnerable to the cold, strong winds, snow and ice. Other scholars, researchers, poets and writers have shared this fascination with Shelley's use of the glacier, Mer de Glace, as a social space in Frankenstein. I am analyzing this as a part of my literary ecology of works by Romantic women writers–and still have a long way to go to read and digest what scholars have already discovered.
I wrote a Mary Shelley tribute poem, "The Bride of Frankenstein's Monster, On the Eve of Her Wedding," published last summer on Boned literary magazine's site; my poem revisited the idea of the Monster, having his wish granted for a mate, and is about to return to the glacier. I wrote the poem from her perspective, while she is preparing for a life in the "Land of Mist and Snow." This is one way that I have explored Shelley's novel from an ecofeminist perspective. For the bicentenary of Frankenstein, poet and scholar Fiona Sampson published the biography, In Search of Mary Shelley: the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein (2018). I loved this biography!! She writes, "Mary has 'gone missing' from literary history; she has faded to white like Frankenstein's creature who 'goes out, alone again, onto the Arctic ice to die.'" (Hewett, 2018) The iconic profile of the Monster, loping out across the ice, has haunted my imagination since I first read Frankenstein at seventeen, while my family lived in a historic, haunted house in Maine.
I have been having fun playing with this "Literary Witches" deck of cards, by Katy Horan and Taisia Kitaiskaia, who created a clever way of translating mini biographies on each card of women writers from all sorts of genres and all sorts of periods of literature–from all over the world. Perfect activity for International Women's Day and Women's History Month! I like to use the cards for inspiration. And yes, Mary Shelley is in this cute deck. The idea is that each of these writers created "magic" through their literary works. (None are suggested to have been "witches" here–it's just a clever metaphor.)
Part of Shelley's genius was her way of weaving together Enlightenment and Romanticism-era science, the including the invention of electricity and the Linnaean classification system, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft's botany and natural history articles, as well as Shelley's own explorations with Percy, sometimes with a toddler in tow, endowed her with additional "tools" of her trade. Her novel brought glaciers to life for readers with her first-hand observations; she enlivened Mer de Glace into an imaginary landscape accessible to her readers. Today's literary ecologists are re-examining works in Romanticism (and later periods) to extrapolate Romantic ecology, "dark ecology" and the EcoGothic—related themes that frame how we continue to think about the environment today. Industrialization occurred at the time when Romantic ecology was born—the onset, as many scholars believe, of the modern environmental movement. Is it still relevant? There are some literary ecologists who believe we are still in a Romantic treatment of nature. Paul Kingsnorth and Tim Morton, two ecology writers who promote the idea of a "dark ecology," are examples of those who believe the age of Romantic ecology may never have ended. We continue to be awed by glaciers—their melting, their sublime power, even, on a smaller scale, glacial erratics—geologic memories of prehistoric, ancient glaciers.
In socio-economic terms, we can analyze the social space of a glacier, and related ecosystems, such as permafrost, and the effects of climate change on that 'social space,' for instance, in Alaska, where communities have already been seeing socio-economic impacts of climate change. These impacts include the need for relocating and replacing infrastructure that's been damaged, lost or threatened by permafrost thawing. Permafrost is a frozen, arctic wetland type; specific grasses, lichens and shrubs are frozen in water most of the year, in some places, frozen year-round (thus the name permafrost) creating a carpet-like vegetation. Thinning, melting permafrost can be found at Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve in south central Alaska. Glacial melting has caused increased large landslides in the national park. In 2015, 180 million tons of loose rock fell into the Taan Fjord causing a huge tsunami-like swell that flattened forests. "Tsunamis of some sort triggered by landslides in bays or lakes are fairly common, but it's rare that they're this extreme," according to Brentwood Higman, author of a study on tsunamis in the Taan Fjord, Alaska. (2018) Melting permafrost is also allowing archaeologists ways of uncovering evidence of human and animal use of the cryosphere—with brown ice layers revealing evidence of caribou use, such as illustrated by the senior women of the Saint Elias Mountain region whose stories Cruikshank recorded and transcribed—detailing their ancestral memories of the "browning ice" phenomenon associated with caribou use. Additionally, archaeology of melting glaciers provides newer access to human artifacts such as wood arrow shafts, darts made of antlers, and birch bark basket fragments found in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. (Dixon, et al. 2005) This is, I think, further evidence of the value of oral histories in adding historic context and narrative basis behind newer findings during archaeological research projects made possible in part by glacial melting and permafrost thinning in that region.
In a 2018 study on the economic effects of climate change in Alaska—pertaining to changes to glacial ecology, including permafrost melting, "five certain large effects can be quantified, […] to impose an annual net cost of $340-700 million of Alaska's GDP." (Berman and Schmidt, 2019) These large effects include the melting and thawing of the cryosphere—notably glaciers and permafrost. "Glacial melt affects availability of phosphorus, iron and organic carbon to terrestrial and marine organisms." (Berman and Schmidt, 2019) "Melting glaciers will increase the role of seasonal precipitation patterns in determining hydroelectric capacity." (Berman and Schmidt, 2019) The melting of the cryosphere affects several industries in Alaska and 'social spaces' including fishing, forestry, energy demand, tourism and recreation, agriculture, marine and coastal shipping, as well as public infrastructure. (Berman and Schmidt, 2019) For native Alaskans, the effects of climate change on the cryosphere include impacts to subsistence living: "harvest cycles, changes in important food sources, loss of some locations used for fishing and waterfowl hunting," are among the changes affecting those social spaces. (Berman and Schmidt, 2019) The largest effects are directly caused by melting glaciers and permafrost in western and northern Alaska. (Berman and Schmidt, 2019) There are far more examples, but these are just two significant ones that quantify the effects of climate change on the cryosphere—and that as a "social space."
Glaciers are weighed in gigatons. Pearl Jam, my soul (read: more than favorite, since 1992) band, is an environmental activist band. Pearl Jam's new album, Gigaton, features the close-up image of a glacier on its cover, (at left) and while it's not out yet, I will be surprised if there isn't a song about glaciers, or something environmentally-conscious. (I will post a review once the album comes out March 27th.) I love their new song from this album, "Dance of the Clairvoyants." Pearl Jam has, in the past, taken inspiration from environmental issues like coastal wetlands, hurricanes, and ocean conservation and incorporated those into their music and activism. They create a social space for environmental activism through their music, their Surfrider Foundation, and their concerts. That's another way of exploring a glacier as a social space. Set it to music.
Berman, Matthew and Jennifer Schmidt. "Economic Effects of Climate Change in Alaska." Weather, Climate and Society. April 2019
Cruikshank, Julie. Constructing Life Stories: Glaciers as Social Spaces, from Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination. 2005
Dixon, E. James, William Manley and Craig Lee. "The emerging archaeology of glaciers and ice patches: examples from Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve." American Antiquity. Vol. 70, Issue 1. Jan. 2005
Hewett, Rachel. "In Search of Mary Shelley Fiona Sampson Review." The Guardian. Jan 2018
Ingold, Tim. The Perception on the Environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. 2000
"Mountain Waves: Glacial melt is increasing land instability in mountainous regions, with huge tsunamis rising in frequency as a result." Geographical. Vol. 90, Issue 11. Nov. 2018
Nardin, Jane. "A Meeting on Mer de Glace: Frankenstein and the History of Alpine Mountaineering." Women's Writing. Vol. 6. 1999
Sampson, Fiona. In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein. 2018
Posted in anthropology, Art & Lit, Astrology, Beaches & Coasts, Books, Climate Change, Conservation & Restoration, EcoFeminism, Ecology, Education & Training, Environmental Issues, Glaciers, Interdisciplinary, Literary ecology, Maine, natural history, permafrost, TEK, Uncategorized, Writing & Editing
Tagged Adult Education, Ann Radcliffe, Chasing Ice, Climate Change Effects, Dark ecology, ecocriticism, EcoFeminism, EcoGothic, Fiona Sampson, Frankenstein, Glaciers, International Womens Day, Julie Cruikshank, Literary ecology, Literary Women, Local knowledge, Mary Shelley, Melting permafrost, Mer de Glace, Pearl Jam, permafrost, romantic ecology, Romanticism, social space, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Women's History Month
Climate Change, Wetlands & Mitigation: A Workshop at Stetson University
Posted on November 20, 2013 | Leave a comment
Last week I traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida for the first time and walked along the beach in the dark. Moonlight sparkled on the waves, which I couldn't see because it was pitch-black. The strange sound of chirping birds at my feet caught me off guard because I couldn't see them; I spun around shining the Assistive Light app on my smartphone to light my path through the dark sand.
Ed Thomas spoke about climate change adaptation and flood mitigation in a wetlands context
The Environmental Law Institute partnered with Stetson University College of Law to hold a workshop on the legal and scientific responses to a Supreme Court case known as Koontz. Nearly 70 people attended the workshop. For a local radio coverage of the workshop, click here. I posted live Tweets for @ELI_Wetlands throughout the workshop, while the speakers, including renown wetlands ecologist, Dr. William Mitsch, Director of the Everglades Wetlands Research Park in Florida, and Ed Thomas, President of the National Hazard Mitigation Association, led the discussion. Royal Gardner, a professor of environmental law at Stetson and author of the book, Lawyers, Swamps and Money, framed the issues. (I'm reading his book now, thanks to Ed!) A series of panel discussions rounded out the day, ending with a pool-side reception, where the conversation about wetlands continued. It was a lively discussion enriched by student and audience participation during the small group break-out sessions. In my group, a number of participants discussed the NGO perspective of wetlands implications of the Koontz case. For more information about the Koontz case, see this SCOTUS blog post. (Supreme Court blog)
Posted in Beaches & Coasts, Climate Change, Ecology, Environmental law, Water policy, Wetlands
Tagged climate change adaptation, environmental law, Everglades, hazard mitigation, Koontz, Leah Stetson, Stetson Law, wetlands
Healthy Waters Coalition – What's on Our Minds, In Our Hearts
At my Healthy Waters Coalition meeting tonight, where we discussed the value of accurate, balanced information about oil spill prevention, I accidentally spilled pink lemonade across the agenda. (From now on, the incident will be remembered as the "pink spill," and it can be added to a long list of funny things I have done while leading coalition meetings.) I began to think about what's really motivating our efforts to inform and educate Sebago Lakes Region citizens and local businesses about watershed issues.
We are a water-based economy here in this part of southern Maine. Boat rentals and recreation-based businesses, real estate and restaurants, florists and landscaping contractors, summer camps for children and accommodations (think: Inn by the Pond), not to mention waterfront property in towns–and property taxes paid to Towns–all bring in millions of dollars in annual revenue for the Sebago Lakes Region. The State of Maine tracks the annual revenue for freshwater fishing and accommodations for several Lakes Region towns. Wetlands are valued for their ecological services, too, and that translates to dollars. Real dollars. Wetlands attenuate flooding and aid in filtering waters to provide good water quality in our groundwater, which produces the drinking water for those who have private wells. All of the headwater streams (94-100% of streams) in the region are located in Source Water Protection Areas (SPAs), meaning that they directly feed into a public drinking water system. In our region, that system is Sebago Lake, which is so clean, it's exempt from the federal filtration requirement, an expensive option if ever it were to become necessary for the Portland Water District to put in place.
I want to reach out to other groups engaged in an open dialogue about the possible transportation of oil sands through New England and the importance of protecting our local watersheds, local economy–as the two are interconnected. While the HWC already has members in 8 Lakes Region towns, representatives from local government boards and committees, watershed organizations, local businesses and other interests, such as Saint Joseph's College, and we have partnered with some fantastic environmental and conservation-oriented nonprofit organizations already, I'd like to connect the Healthy Waters Coalition with a broader network. I'm interested in connecting with folks at ConservAmerica, town and city revitalization committees, regional Chambers of Commerce, and the business community. We have so much invested in our waters. While pondering this, I scribbled some thoughts and turned it into this info-graphic (below). I like how it came out. Let me know what you think.
Posted in Beaches & Coasts, Birds and Wildlife, Conservation & Restoration, Eco Living, Ecology, Education & Training, Environmental Issues, Fishing & Recreation, Healthy Waters, Lakes, Maine, Nature, Oil Spills, Streams, Streams and Rivers, Water quality, Water Resources, Wetlands
Tagged ConservAmerica, green business, Healthy Waters, Healthy Waters Coalition, lake living, Maine lakes, Maine ponds, Portland Water District, Sebago Lake, water quality, watershed
The State(s) of Sea Level Rise Science
Peaks Island, Maine
In early April, I read an issue of a Peaks Island, Maine newspaper. On the front page, a story's headline caught my eye: "Sea level rise not caused by climate change, scientists confirm." At first I assumed it was an April Fool's joke, but the date was not April 1st. Then I got upset. I read. It seems that the journalist had (mis)interpreted a report on sea levels in Casco Bay that affirmed the sea level has risen for much longer than most people have known about global climate change. In fact, the State of Maine has over 100 years worth of sea level rise data because the City of Portland has tracked sea level in Portland harbor since 1901. That's valuable data. The University of Southern Maine has conducted a series of studies on sea level rise, sustainability and the economics involved with planning for adaptation. According to the Environmental Finance Center at the Muskie School (USM), "at least 100 coastal New England towns will be impacted by sea level rise and increased storm surge from climate change." Read about their COAST and Climate Ready Estuary projects here.
The State of Maine published its climate change action plan in 2004. It identified sea level rise adaptation planning as a necessity. In particular, the Maine Geological Survey conducted several pilot projects that assessed coastal wetland migration. The state's coastal zoning laws and management practices changed several years ago to reflect sea level rise. Read the 2010 report, "People and Nature: Adapting to a Changing Climate, Charting Maine's Course." A great list of collaborators contributed to the development of "People and Nature," including Natural Resources Council of Maine, several state agencies, several cities and Maine Coast Heritage Trust. It's hard to find on the state's website because the State Planning Office's website was moved and merged with those of other departments.
Meanwhile, adaptation planning has moved to the forefront of climate change science in recent years. Sea level rise scientists at NASA, USGS and other agencies engaged in an online chat session about the state of the science for sea level rise and adaptation planning in early April 2013. (You can listen to the discussion after-the-fact.) What I found interesting is that salt marsh ecology and wetlands play such a vital role in our understanding of sea level rise and its implications for coastal systems. Over the past 6 years, I've done some research on sea level rise and learned of sea level rise tools and adaptation planning efforts underway all over the country. A hotspot for sea level rise research is the East coast of the United States, where sea level rise is occurring at a faster rate between Cape Cod and the coast of North Carolina—faster than anywhere else in the world.
Leah Stetson photo
Several other states have begun to plan for sea level rise. Click on the links below to learn more about what states are doing about sea level rise and adapting natural resource management strategies for climate change. In most cases, it's a collaborative effort.
MA: Mass Fish & Game Adaptation Planning MA sea level rise planning maps
MA: Climate Change Adaptation Advisory Committee
NY: New York Sea Level Rise Planning NY Sea Level Rise Task Force Report 2010
CT: Connecticut Climate Change Adaptation Reports
RI: Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council Sea Level Rise Planning
NJ: New Jersey Coastal Management Program Sea Level Rise Planning
NJ: Sea Level Rise in New Jersey, New Jersey Geological Survey Report, 1998
NJ, DE, PA, NY: Delaware River Basin Commission Climate Change Hydrology Report, 2013
DE: Delaware Sea Level Rise Planning & Adaptation
MD: Living Shorelines Program (Chesapeake Bay Trust)
MD: A Sea Level Response Strategy for Maryland (2000)
VA: Planning for Sea Level Rise, Virginia Institute for Marine Science
VA Sea Level Rise Maps
VA: Sea Level Rise Planning at Local Government Level in Virginia
VA: Government Plan for Development of Land Vulnerable to Sea Level Rise
GA: University of Georgia, Sea Grant – Sea Level Rise Planning & Research
FL: Florida's Resilient Coasts: State Policy Framework for Adaptation (PDF)
FL: Multidisciplinary Review of Current Sea Level Rise Research in Florida (University of Florida)
MS & AL: Mississippi and Alabama Sea Grant Consortium – Resilience in Coastal Communities
Gulf of Mexico States: Climate Community of Practice: Sea Level Rise Planning
LA: Coastal Protection & Restoration – Recommendations for Sea Level Rise Planning (Includes Louisiana's 2012 Coastal Master Plan)
CA: California's Climate Change Adaptation Plan for Water Resources (2012)
CA: State Resources on Sea Level Rise and Adaptation Planning
CA: Adapting to Sea Level Rise Report (2012)
CA, OR, WA: Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon and Washington (2012)
OR: A Strategy for Adapting to Impacts of Climate Change on the Oregon Coast (2009)
OR: LiDAR Sea Level Rise Research (NOAA Digital Services)
WA: Addressing Sea Level Rise in Shoreline Master Programs (Guidance) (2007)
WA: Sea Level Rise Assessment: Impacts of Climate Change on the Coast (2007)
AK: Alaska's Melting Permafrost and Melting Sea Ice (national research)
AK: Climate change impacts in Alaska (EPA)
NC: North Carolina Coastal Federation – Sea Level Rise
A note about North Carolina: Several state agencies, including the Departments of Environment & Natural Resources, Transportation and Commerce, all identified threats and risks from sea level rise in 2010. At the time, the state's Governor signed a letter confirming this. Two years later, North Carolina's State Senate passed a law that banned sea level rise adaptation planning based on the current science. The House of Representatives rejected the bill, but a compromised version of the bill called for a new study on sea level rise for North Carolina and a ban on exponential sea level rise predictions in modeling. Read this Scientific American article on NC and sea level rise, and the 2012 USGS study that found increasing sea level rise impacts on the coast between Cape Cod and the Carolinas. See "More unwanted national attention for North Carolina on sea level rise" (2013).
If you're interested in a good summary of sea level rise policy in states, see this 2012 legislative report by Kristin Miller, et. al. (Connecticut General Assembly). It includes an analysis of sea level rise related policy in ten states (Louisiana, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia.)
Update: Check out Nickolay Lamm's Sea Level Rise Images Depict What U.S. Cities Could Look Like In Future (PHOTOS) – click here.
Posted in Beaches & Coasts, Climate Change, Conservation & Restoration, Environmental Issues, GIS, Maine, Marine & Estuarine Life, Science, Sea Level Rise, Sustainability, Tech, Water policy, Water Resources, Wetlands
Tagged adaptation, climate change, coastal wetlands, permafrost, sea level, sea level rise, state sea level rise policy, Strange Wetlands, sustainable cities
The Love Lives of Horseshoe Crabs, Not Cannibals
Amidst the studies on Hurricane Sandy's impacts on coastal communities—which affected the lives of people, most notably—some recent studies have examined the impacts on the lives of a strange ancient creature: horseshoe crabs. Distant relatives of scorpions and spiders, horseshoe crabs are not true crabs, or crustaceans. They've been around for over 1 billion years and lived alongside dinosaurs. See "The Life and Times of the Earliest Horseshoe Crabs," (Rudkin, Royal Ontario Museum). Unlike a scorpion, crab or spider, horseshoe crabs don't bite, sting or pinch. And unlike cannibalistic crustaceans, adult horseshoe crabs do not congregate (except to spawn seasonally), which is possibly a way to avoid large crabs attacking smaller horseshoe crabs—thus, avoiding cannibalistic behavior as a species. (Sekiguchi, Shuster, Jr., 1999) Their anatomy is interesting, as illustrated below.
Each spring, horseshoe crabs spawn along creek-mouth beaches and shoals. They like sandy beaches. Naturally, these coastal areas, rich in wetlands, peat bogs and saltwater marsh, were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. What's more, sea level rise has eroded certain coastal beaches where horseshoe crabs used to spawn, decreasing the habitat suitable for spawning. See Sea Level Rise and the Significance of Marginal Beaches for Horseshoe Crab Spawning (Botton and Loveland, 2011).
In the Delaware Bay, for example, the American Littoral Society, along with the Wetlands Institute, the New Jersey Department of Environment Protection and New Jersey Audubon, have assessed the impacts of Hurricane Sandy on horseshoe crab populations in the Bay. Watch this video of horseshoe crab spawning in Delaware. Read Hurricane Sandy Race To Restore Horseshoe Crab Spawning Grounds (March 2013). Videos depict horseshoe crabs spawning, swimming upside down and righting themselves.
In a joint report by the Wetlands Institute, NJ Audubon Society and NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife ("Damage from Superstorm Sandy to Horseshoe Crab Breeding and Shorebird Stopover Habitat on Delaware Bay," December 2012), wetlands did well overall, despite some "wash over" during storm surges of Hurricane Sandy, according to Lenore Tedesco, Ph.D. Director of Research at the Wetlands Institute. Yet a major finding was a 70% decrease in suitable breeding habitat for horseshoe crabs. In addition, there was about the same amount of increase in unsuitable habitat for horseshoe crab spawning. Specifically, the scientists classified the types of habitat into five categories:
Optimal: undisturbed sand beach;
Suitable: sand beach with only small areas of peat and/or backed by development
Less Suitable: exposed peat in lower/middle intertidal zone;
sand present in upper intertidal;
Avoided habitat: exposed peat or active salt marsh fringing the shoreline;
no sand present
Disturbed due to beach fill, riprap or bulkheading.
(Niles, Tedesco, Sellers, et. al. 2012)
In areas where the habitat is less suitable, with exposed peat, there is less sand for the horseshoe crabs to lay their eggs. The full report includes recommendations for habitat restoration. For more information about post-Sandy restoration recommendations, visit the Wetlands Institute's website here.
Many years ago, I learned that horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) lay at the heart of some medical advances in immunology research. Apparently, horseshoe crab blood and immunology can serve scientists with a model to develop treatments for patients with HIV, AIDS or other immune deficiency disorders. Its "blue blood" contains Limulus Amebocyte Lysate, which allows medical researchers to detect bacterial toxins. In ecological projects, the spawning and genetic diversity of horseshoe crabs is the focus, or the relationship between horseshoe crabs and fisheries. For an overview of various research projects on horseshoe crabs happening in 18 states and two countries, see these project summaries. There's some fascinating research underway.
The Wetland Institute has a number of publications on its website related to horseshoe crab research and conservation. There's also an "Adopt a Horseshoe Crab" program and horseshoe crab census data available from 1999-2009. In May, the Institute holds festival activities, including teaching tank/aquarium talks on saltmarsh ecology, shorebirds and horseshoe crabs. For more information about the Horseshoe Crab Festival in May,click here.
See horseshoe crab counting (Washington Post video, June 2012)
NATURE program on horseshoe crabs (PBS, 2008)
Horseshoe crab documentary (Nick Baker, Science Channel)
For more on horseshoe crab biology and ecology, see this National Park Service webpage and materials developed by the Mid-Atlantic Sea Grant and NOAA joint programs on horseshoe crab research. Finally, check outhttp://horseshoecrab.org/ which houses an online warehouse of information on the biology, conservation and research of horseshoe crabs.
Posted in Beaches & Coasts, Conservation & Restoration, Environmental Issues, Fish, Healthy Waters, Hurricanes & Storms, Marine & Estuarine Life, natural history, Nature, Sea Level Rise, Water Resources, Wetlands
Tagged beach restoration, coastal habitat, Delaware Bay, horseshoe crabs, Strange Wetlands, wetland restoration, Wetlands Institute
Surging Seas and Hybrid Storms
NASA officials nicknamed Hurricane Sandy "Bride of Frankenstorm." Strange behavior patterns—hitting the northeast as a mix of nor'easter blizzard and hurricane conditions created a powerful hybrid storm that affected many communities. In Maine, we felt the storm's most severe impacts the night of the full moon on October 29th. Footage of storm surge on the news looked like the forceful wave action in "Thunder Hole" at Acadia National Park. Throughout New England, New York and New Jersey, many people were still without power when the nor'easter hit this week. Hurricane Sandy's unusual hybrid classification and other factors set a precedent. Coupled with the tides of the full moon, storm surge was more intense, causing more flooding to occur. Are we likely to see and experience powerful hybrid storms like this in the future? What tools are available to predict storm surge?
Forecasters called Hurricane Sandy a "perfect storm." View photos of the storm as seen from space. Last winter Strange Wetlands reported on the Red Cross/Red Crescent'sinvolvement in the IPCC report on the link between extreme weather disasters and climate change. This week Climate Central's Surging Seas tool demonstrated how effects of climate change, including sea level rise and storm surge, made Hurricane Sandy worsethan it might have been otherwise.
Federal agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and NASA have been measuring storm surge for many decades, since the 1960s (see above)—long before most people started talking about sea level rise. According to a NASA presentation on An Analysis of Storm Surge Attenuation using USGS, FEMA and NASA data, there is historical data to support the claim that wetlands significantly reduce storm surge. Wetland scientists in the 1960s asserted that 2.7 miles of wetlands reduced storm surge by 1 foot. More recent data from Hurricane Rita was used to assess the storm impacts to wetlands (such as causing wetland loss) as well as wetlands' role in lessening the effects of storm surge. Therefore wetland losses along the Gulf of Mexico coastline in Louisiana, for instance, and along other areas of coastline on the eastern seaboard, intensified the amount of storm surge during recent hurricanes, such as Hurricane Irene and Sandy. (Fitzpatrick, et. al. 2008) Also see Storm Surge Reduction by Wetlands.
While SLAMM—Sea Level Affecting Marsh Model—may be familiar to you, a tool used in analyzing sea level rise, especially with respect to wetlands, have you heard of SLOSH? Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes, (SLOSH) is a tool used to analyze storm surge. Hurricane Sandy's storm surge was mapped before it made landfall. The SLOSH model was applied to Hurricane Sandy prior to Oct. 29th and it analyzed surges of various levels (2 feet, 3 feet, 4 feet, etc.) At most locations, meteorologists predicted unprecedented levels of surgeusing this tool and other analyses. Tools like SLOSH are only as good as the available data. Future budget cuts threaten data collection tools, such as ocean bouys. Other storm surge analysis tools were used to predict Sandy's surge levels and ultimately, citizens were evacuated in areas where the path of the storm surge was predicted on the maps using those models.
Some useful fact sheets and further reading on the importance of wetlands in preventing storm surge are linked below:
Storm surge & wetlands in Louisiana (NWF fact sheet)
Mitigating Storm Surge with Vegetation & Wetlands (Army Corps of Engineers, 2007)
Analysis of Storm Surge Attenuation & Wetlands (NASA) (2008)
The potential of wetlands in reducing storm surge (Ocean Engineering, 2010)
Hurricane Sandy Geospatial Resources (NOAA Digital Coast, 2012)
Posted in Beaches & Coasts, Climate Change, Hurricanes & Storms, Sustainability
Tagged coastal wetlands, Hurricane Sandy, Sandy, sea level rise, storm surge, surge, wetlands
Pond Scum: The Good, the Bad, and the Sludgy
Globs of algae the size of human heads floated around like something out of a B-movie on MST3K. It was unnerving to bump into one of them. I can handle swimming with eels…but I find it creepy to swim with severed head-shaped algae clusters. When I arrived at my little local lakeside beach in southern Maine, I thought I was lucky because no one else was there in 90-degree heat. Then I realized the beach was vacant because of the algal bloom. An algal bloom is a concentration of cyanobacteria. Strange Wetlands covered types of algae blooms, including blue green algae, in an earlier post (2010).
In the Great Lakes region this summer, some communities are seeing algal blooms, including the Eastern parts of Lake Erie. Algal blooms turn the water a bright scummy green. Some of the vegetation washes ashore in clumps, deterring beach goers but not always causing beach closings. However, NOAA has recently issued a prediction that western Lake Erie should see a lesser algal bloom this summer. This is good news.NOAA, partners predict mild harmful algal blooms for western Lake Erie this year. A presentation will be held on algal blooms and the "Lake Erie Dead Zone" by an aquatic biologist in Cleveland Heights on July 25th. For more information about the Lake Erie Dead Zone, visit EPA's webpage. But this year's bloom on Lake Erie is likely to be only one tenth the size of the bloom that occurred last year.
Last year, Lake Erie's harmful algal bloom was visible from space (2011). In fact last year's algae blooms in the Great Lakes were touted as the 'worst since the 1960s,' something akin to the comics of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." The Natural Resources Defense Council presented analysis of Ohio beach closings and algal bloomsand on New York beaches for Lake Ontario and Lake Erie with monitoring data collected in 2011. Full report here.
What's the issue this summer? Not all algae, or "pond scum," is created equal. Some amount of algae is a normal part of the ecosystem but too much of the wrong types are harmful. A Great Lakes native algae called Spirogyra is thriving on the conditions caused by invasive zebra and quagga mussels. The result is a sludge-like mat of green algae that washes up on beaches along Lake Michigan and other lakes. Another green alga, Cladophora, increased because of the zebra mussels, and both types of algae wash ashore in thick mats, which rot, stink and harbor E. Coli, Salmonella and other pathogens. The stench from the beach muck is comparable to manure. See video, "All Washed Up: Lake Michigan's Algae Challenge." For a fact sheet on Harmful Algae Blooms & Muck: What's the Difference (Michigan Sea Grant), click here. For more about the relationship between algae and zebra mussels, see Changes in the benthic algal community and nutrient limitation in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, during the invasion of the zebra mussel (report, 2002).
Another serious factor this summer is drought, which is occurring in a large part of the country. For instance in Wisconsin, the hot weather has caused harmful blue green algae blooms in Lake Winnebago and Tainter/Menomin lakes, where there is a history of blooms, but the harmful algae is also showing up in lakes where it previously did not occur. They are facing a similar problem to that in Lake Michigan with the zebra mussels and Cladophora, warned to be harmful to boaters and swimmers. The US Fish & Wildlife Service has found dead waterfowl, most likely killed by botulism, in Wisconsin lakes this year. For a past FWS report on waterfowl and botulism in the Wisconsin lakes, click here.
Algal blooms are probably not at the top of the list of issues concerning those keeping an eye on the Farm Bill developments—but this is one of the reasons why the Farm Bill's Conservation Title is so crucial to the protection of wetlands and water resources—including the Great Lakes. See Farm Bill Conservation Programs Are 'Essential for Great Lakes Restoration'
Posted in Beaches & Coasts, Climate Change, Conservation & Restoration, Environmental Issues, Healthy Waters, Lakes, Maine, Science, Water quality, Water Resources, Wetlands
Tagged algae blooms, beach closings, Black Lagoon, blue green algae, Lake Erie, Maine lakes
The State of the Gulf Coast Wetlands—Two Years After the B.P. Oil Spill
Since the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010, dolphin strandings have occurred at an unprecedented high level—over 500 stranded dolphins—one indicator that there is still a major problem in the Gulf (NOAA). Another strong indicator is the accelerated rate of coastal wetland loss in the Gulf as direct result from the impacts of the spill. Prior to the 2010 spill, the state of Louisiana already faced significant coastal wetland loss—about the area equivalent to a football field's worth of wetlands every hour. Over 1,000 miles of coastal wetlands were contaminated by the oil spill, and despite restoration efforts, the rate of coastal wetland loss is now made more complex by the spill and clean-up process. Efforts to clean up the oil in the marshes, in some areas, depending on the extent of the contamination, have caused further damage to the wetlands. (NWF) A recent report by the National Wildlife Federation, "A Degraded Gulf of Mexico: Wildlife and Wetlands—Two Years into the Gulf OilDisaster" assesses the impacts to sea turtles, dolphins, pelicans, other wildlife and coastal wetlands affected by the B.P. oil spill.
NOAA announced this month that eight Gulf coast restoration projects will begin this year with $60 million earmarked for the work to create marshes, improve coastal dune habitat, restore oyster beds and reefs, and other projects related to the boat industry. The first phase of the projects will take place in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. There is more information about these restoration projects atwww.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov and www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon
Specific project fact sheets on each restoration project involved in this first phase of the Gulf Coast Restoration, called "Early Restoration," an effort to get the natural resources back to the state prior to the spill, are available on NOAA's website. To learn more about the Gulf Coast Early Restoration efforts underway, go to:http://www.gulfspill
restoration.noaa.gov/
restoration/early-restoration/
As part of the response to the spill two years ago, a number of organizations and agencies have worked hard to address the critical needs of wildlife that depended on the coastal wetlands that were contaminated or destroyed by the spill. For example, a shorebird habitat enhancement project provided alternative habitat in Mississippi for waterfowl. A sea turtle project improved nesting and hatching on the Texas coast.
The Gulf coast's diverse shoreline includes mangroves, cypress swamps, fresh and saltwater marshes and mudflats. What's really at stake here? More than half of the coastal wetlands in the lower 48 states are located on the Gulf coast, which is also where the majority of coastal wetland loss has been occurring. About 40% of these are in Louisiana. (NOAA) There is an important link between the healthy coastal marshes, their ecological role in serving as a nursery for invertebrates and small fish, and the larger fisheries and their health—which in turn, have a big impact on both the economy and well-being of people along the Gulf coast. In a healthy coastal marsh, the wetland soils and vegetation protect the land from storm surge, reduce flooding and improve water quality in the surrounding watershed. In a coastal marsh that has been contaminated by oil, the vegetation dies and the soil no longer has the ability to hold its position; it becomes more likely to erode during storms and even day-to-day tidal activity. Coastal wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate, becoming open ocean.
One would think that cleaning up the oil during the response to the disaster would have solved the problem of contaminated marshes. But it doesn't work that way. The vulnerable wetlands were threatened by the clean-up response methods intended to save them. The tools used to prevent oil from contaminating shorelands, including booms, got stuck in the wetlands. Other techniques used to remove the oil disturbed and killed vegetation and other living things. Oily mats smothered mudflats and sand removal disturbed the beach habitat. These unintended impacts have been monitored and a number of contaminated marsh studies will help the response teams to evaluate these impacts and clean-up methods. For more information, see this Status Update: Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NOAA, April 2012).
Gulf Restoration Network (includes photo slide show): Bird's Eye View: An Earth Day Reflection In Photos Of The Last 2 Years Of The BP Drilling Disaster
Huffington Post blogs and videos of Gulf Oil Spill
Response & Restoration (NOAA) blog
8 Gulf coast restoration projects announced
Environmental Defense Fund blog: ASFPM Agrees: Some Gulf oil spill fines should go to Gulf restoration (Feb. 2012)
For background information on the impact of the oil spill on wetlands and related media over the past two years, visit ASWM's Gulf Oil Spill Impact on Wetlands page I put together.
Posted in Beaches & Coasts, Birds and Wildlife, Conservation & Restoration, Ecology, Environmental Issues, Healthy Waters, Marine & Estuarine Life, Oil Spills, Science, Water policy, Water Resources, Wetlands
Tagged BP oil spill, Gulf oil spill, oil spill clean-up, wetland restoration
Climate Change Films: Sea Level Rise in the Lens
Since Strange Wetlands' post on wetland videos anddocumentaries a few years ago, climate change adaptation and wetlands, including sea level rise and water conservation—have taken center stage in recent films. Some films address climate change adaptation, water resources, sea level rise and/or other impacts of climate change affecting wetlands. Others deal with the stressors on wildlife and natural resources, including wetland habitats. The IMAX documentary film, "To the Arctic," about a family of polar bears and the issues facing wildlife in the Arctic, narrated by Meryl Streep, premiers this spring (2012). Another award-winning film, "The Island President," illuminates the threat of sea level rise to the Maldives, a developing nation of 2000 islands off the coast of India.
The American Museum of Natural History posted a short video on arctic ecosystems in the face of climate change called "The Ecology of Climate Change" earlier this month. The film presents some research on boreal forests from Woods Hole Research Center and University of Florida. Like other recent films, it turns the attention to natural resources and adaptation as opposed to a focus on reducing carbon emissions, which was a more common theme in media a few years ago.
NOAA Climate Services and its Digital Coast webpages have a lot to offer for videos and visual presentations, including a short general video called "Climate Change: Impacts, Solutions and Perceptions" and a number of other climate change videos.
A simple search for "sea level rise" on Youtube lists over 5000 videos, including this USGS video: "Sea level rise, subsidence and wetland loss." A number of videos look at the planning and analysis that went into coastal adaptation management plans in states like Florida such as this 2012 video: Adapting Coastal Communities to Sea-Level Rise: Why Isn't Anybody Doing Anything? And this New York City (Wall Street Journal) video on sea level rise. Some of the Youtube sea level rise videos explore the topic in other areas of the world, such as islands, internationally. For example, a series of short videos look at climate change adaptation in Tanzania.
States working on climate change adaptation plans have presented their analyses in short films to help educate citizens. For example, a Wisconsin's Changing Climate video was produced by the WICCI Climate Working Group, looking at climate impacts in the state of Wisconsin projected to 2055. There are a number of other similar educational videos if you look for them state-by-state, or visit state universities' websites to search for current research projects, which often have videos or short documentaries about the work. Student-made films can be very good, too. A creative example is the Beneath the Waves Film Fest Student Film Winner: "Tropic Cascades" (2012). A Brown University student made a film on Cape Cod salt marsh ecology.
The U.S. Forest Service has compiled a good list of climate change videos and presentations that pertain to impacts to natural resources, including water and fish, forests and carbon and adaptation. For example, a presentation on "Challenges for Conserving and Managing Headwater Aquatic Ecosystems Under a Changing Climate" is available on its website.
ASWM's Climate Change—and specifically the Sea Level Rise Tools webpages—have a number of resources, including USGS's video on "Effects of Sea-Level Rise on Coastal Wetlands in the Mississippi Delta" and this video, "Converging Currents in Climate: Relevant Conservation: Water, Infrastructure and Institutions" by Conservation International (2011). Communicating to the public about climate change is often difficult when the language is constantly changing. See NOAA's video on Communication & Climate Change (2012). Other short films illustrate the dynamics of coastal wetlands protection in the climate change context such as this one on mangrove forests by Wetlands International (2011). The Sea Level Rise Tools section of ASWM's website also points to Coastal Climate Learning Tools (includes videos, wikis, webinars, training, etc.) and a video presentation on "Sea Change: Researchers Use Computer Modeling to Understand Rising Seas and Coastal Risks."
Earlier this winter, Strange Wetlands looked at the link between Red Cross, extreme weather events and climate change. The Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre has a webpage with a number of short films and videos presenting topics ranging from hurricanes and climate change to preparing for climate change and adaptation.
If there are other good (and recent) videos, films or documentaries that I missed on this short list, please leave a comment below with the title and link. Thank you!
Update: November 2012: Chasing Ice, a film capturing the faster-than expected melting of glaciers http://www.chasingice.com/ is a breathtaking documentary and award-winning film. Watch the trailer here: http://www.chasingice.com/
Posted in Art & Lit, Beaches & Coasts, Birds and Wildlife, Climate Change, Films & Movies, Pop Culture, Science, Sea Level Rise, Sustainability
Tagged Chasing Ice, climate change documentary, polar bears, sea level rise, wetland films


text:
Magna Carta continues to
underpin our values of
justice 800 years later
King John signing Magna Carta, an illustration from 1864 by James William Edmund Doyle (1822 –1892). He was born in London to Irish parents and was an uncle of Arthur Conan Doyle
In the months to come, I can imagine history falling prey to people who want to claim that our democracy, justice and liberties owe everything to the "Men of 1916." But next month marks a far more significant anniversary when it comes to understanding the political freedoms and the system of justice we enjoy today.
Magna Carta was sealed by King John at Runnymede, near Windsor, 800 years ago on 15 June 1215, and has become the document that inspired the core values of our modern democratic society, including liberty, the rule of law, the separation of powers, parliamentary and constitutional government, taxation by popular consent, the rights of "all free men," trial by jury, due process of law, an independent judiciary and an independent legal profession.
Christ Church Cathedral Dublin is organising a major exhibition to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta
Many of the provisions of Magna Carta are still enshrined in Irish law, and Irish magnates and prelates played a key role in shaping its words and ensuring it was accepted by a despotic king who had engaged in a vengeful war of oppression and attrition in Ireland a few years earlier. However, few people realise that the origins of Magna Carta lie in a major dispute between Church and State at the beginning of the 13th century.
A dispute with the Church
The Royal Courts of Justice, London … Magna Carta laid the foundations for the present legal system on these islands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Stephen Langton was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207 until his death in 1228. The dispute between King John of England and Pope Innocent III following his election was a major factor in the crisis that led to Magna Carta.
Stephen Langton was lecturing in theology at the University of Paris in 1206, when Pope Innocent III called him to Rome to become a cardinal. Hubert Walter, brother of Theobald Fitz Walter, ancestor of the Ormond Butlers, had been Archbishop of Canterbury. When he died in 1205, a dispute broke out between King John and the monks of Canterbury Cathedral about the choice of a new archbishop. Both parties appealed to Rome, and in the presence of the Pope, 16 monks Canterbury, elected Stephen Langton, who was consecrated by Innocent III in 1207.
However, King John disputed the election and declared anyone who recognised the new archbishop was a public enemy. When he expelled the monks of Canterbury, Pope Innocent III placed England under interdict in 1208, and eventually in 1212 he ordered King John's deposition.
The Four Courts, Dublin … the principles derived from Magna Carta include due process and an independent judiciary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
King John yielded to the Pope in May 1213 and in July Archbishop Stephen and his supporters returned from exile to England. His first act was to absolve the King, who promised to repeal unjust laws and respect liberties. However, the king violated his oath almost immediately, and the archbishop became a leading figure in a new struggle against King John.
Archbishop Stephen's leadership and the night of the barons who had captured London finally forced John to accede to Magna Carta on 15 June 1215.
King John quickly became embittered when the terms forced on him, and he appealed to the Pope to have Magna Carta annulled. King John declared that he held his kingdom as a fief of the Pope, and in a twist to events, the Pope declared Magna Carta "illegal, unjust, harmful to royal rights and shameful to the English people," and "null and void of all validity for ever."
Dublin Castle was first built in 1210 during King John's campaign in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Pope excommunicated the barons, but when Archbishop Stephen refused to publish their excommunication he was suspended from all Church offices. He went into exile, and the renewed civil war between John and the barons only came to an end with John's death. He died on 18 October 1216, probably of dysentery, although traditional accounts say he was killed by poisoned ale, poisoned plums, or "a surfeit of peaches."
With his death, all parties rallied to his nine-year-old son, King Henry III, with William Marshall as his Protector. Archbishop Stephen returned to England and continued to work for political liberties and independence of England. In 1223 he again appeared as the leader and spokesman of the barons, who demanded that King Henry confirm Magna Carta.
'Lord of Ireland'
The Upper Castle Yard, Dublin Castle … for centuries the centre of the administration of justice in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
In Magna Carta, King John describes himself as "John, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou."
The 27 bishops and barons who advised him to accede to Magna Carta are named in the preamble. The first two who are named are "Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury," often considered the principal author, and "Henry, Archbishop of Dublin." Henry de Loundres had been Archbishop of Dublin since 1213, but also held vast church interests in his own name in England, including the Deanery of Stafford and the Deanery of Penkridge, which remained outside the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Lichfield. He is buried in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
The other named prelates include the bishops of London, Winchester, Bath and Glastonbury, Lincoln, Worcester, Coventry and Lichfield, Rochester and Norwich, as well as the Master of the Knights Templar in England.
The statue of Justice by John Van Nost (1721) in Dublin Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The barons included William Marshall, Strongbow's son-in-law, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, who built Kilkenny Castle. Under Clause 61, the enforcers of Magna Carta included his son William Marshal the younger, who founded the Dominican Priory or "Black Abbey" in Kilkenny and began building the castles at Ferns and Carlow.
An image of Archbishop Henry de Loundres in Saint Michael's Church, Penkridge, Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Three major concessions that are fundamental to human rights, justice and the rule of law are enshrined in three clauses of Magna Carta:
38, In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.
39, No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.
40, To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
Although copies of the first Magna Carta were sent throughout England, only four original copies survive today: one is in Lincoln Cathedral, one in Salisbury Cathedral, and two in the British Library.
When John died, Magna Carta was confirmed by his infant son, Henry III, and sealed with the seals of the Papal Legate and Strongbow's son-in-law, William Marshall, the Regent.
An Irish version of Magna Carta
The Old Deanery in Penkridge, Staffordshire … Archbishop Henry de Loundres gained vast church property and powers in England, including the Deanery of Penkridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Great Charter of Ireland – also known as the Magna Carta Hiberniae – was issued for Ireland in Bristol on 12 November 1216 and was brought to Ireland on 6 February 1217. In this application of Magna Carta to Ireland, people in Ireland were guaranteed the same rights as people in England.
Ireland is substituted for England, Dublin for London, the Liffey for the Thames and Medway, and Irish Church for the Church of England: "the Irish Church shall be free, and have all her rights entire and her liberties inviolable."
Strongbow's tomb in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin … his son-in-law, William Marshall, played a key role in drafting Magna Carta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
It declares: "The city of Dublin shall have all its ancient liberties and free customs. We further will and grant that all other cities, towns, boroughs and ports shall have their liberties and free customs." It also promises: "There shall be one measure of wine throughout our entire kingdom, and one measure of ale, and one measure of corn, that is to say, the quarter of Dublin."
Magna Carta was issued a third time in its final form England in 1225, and it was confirmed by Edward I in 1297, when it became part of English statute law. The Great Charter of Ireland 1216 (I Henry III) is a retained statute in the Republic of Ireland under the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, s 2.2 (a) Schedule 1.
Defending liberties
Kilkenny Castle … first built by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, one of the Magna Carta barons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The original Magna Carta had 63 clauses. But many of the original clauses were specific to the Middle Ages, dealing with property ownership, the workings of the justice system, and taxes with no modern equivalent. Other clauses included a law banning fish weirs on rivers, the dismissal of specific individual royal servants, and the standardisation of weights and measures no longer in use.
Much of the text was rewritten in 1225, but the surviving original clauses include those defending the liberties and rights of the Church of England, confirming the liberties and customs of London and other towns, and giving all subjects the right to justice and a fair trial.
The clause about justice and a fair trial remains an important legal principle to this day. It enshrines the principle that the law belongs to everyone, not just the powerful, and it is the bedrock of justice and administration of the law to this day.
Westminster is often known as the Mother of Parliaments ... the first parliament sat in 1265, 50 years after Magna Carta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
In 1265 – just 50 years after Magna Carta – the relationship between the promises made by the king and the granting of taxation paved the way for the first sitting of an English Parliament 750 years ago. In the next century, Parliament interpreted Magna Carta as a right to a fair trial for all subjects.
In the Stuart period, and particularly in the English Civil War, Magna Carta was used to restrain the power of monarchs, at a time when monarchs on the continent were supremely powerful, and led indirectly to the execution of King Charles I in 1649.
Mediaeval justice … surviving stocks in the crypt in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Magna Carta strongly influenced the American Bill of Rights in 1791, and the basic principles of Magna Carta are echoed throughout the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Remembering an anniversary
Charles I … his execution in 1649 was possible because of a new enthusiasm for Magna Carta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Many events are marking the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The British Library has brought together the four existing copies of the 1215 manuscript for a special exhibition. The British artist Cornelia Parker has been commissioned to create a new artwork that will be unveiled at the British Library on 15 May 2015 and remain on display until 24 July.
Edward VII's monogram on a pillar box in Dublin … English and Irish legal systems share much in common since the days of Magna Carta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Royal Mint has issued an 800th anniversary £2 coin that shows King John holding Magna Carta in one hand and a large quill in another. However, despite popular images and illustrations, King John never signed Magna Carta. Mediaeval kings never signed their name on legal documents, and instead John used his Great Seal to authenticate the document. But the myth continues.
Later, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, is organising an exhibition to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The cathedral possesses several early 14th century copies of Magna Carta, which were written into the Liber Niger or 'Black Book' created by the mediaeval canons of Christ Church.
The exhibition is expected to explain the context and legacy of Magna Carta, alongside the history of the Liber Niger, and will run with a series of historical lectures, schools and community activities.
King John with Magna Carta in one hand and a quill in the other … the new £2 coin issued by the Royal Mint
Canon Patrick Comerford lectures in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This essay and these photographs were published in May 2015 in the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory).
Labels: castles, Christ Church Cathedral, Church Review, Dublin, Justice, Kilkenny, London, Penkridge, Westminster
Magna Carta continues to underpin our values of ...


Paula says - "This is a beautifully shaped horse head with a wonderful horse dreaming story. It seems as if the horse is remembering an adventure in the mountains with a horse buddy.
With silver overlay, there are two layers of silver - the top layer is a scene, figures, or symbols meticulously cut out and then placed over a solid silver bottom layer.
The bottom layer is the background behind the cutouts and is traditionally darkened (oxidized) for contrast. Navajo silversmiths typically leave the background smooth while Hopi usually etch the background with hashmarks.
The two layers are then "sweated" together - the silver is heated until the two layers meld.


text:
Q: Eigenvalue and Upper Triangular Matrices In Axler's linear algebra chapter 5, he explicitly shows that for a complex vector space $V$ and a linear operator $T$, there exists a choice of basis such that the matrix of the operator with respect to it is upper triangular. Here's the proof sketch:
Use induction on the dimension of $V$, for $T\in L(V)$, let $\lambda$ be an eigenvalue (which must exist for a complex vector space), let $U=\mathrm{im}(T-\lambda I)$. He showed that $U$ is a proper subspace of $V$, and it is invariant under $T$. So $T$ restricted to $U$ is an operator on $U$, by induction hypothesis, there exists basis $(u_1,\dots ,u_m)$ such that the matrix for $T$ restricted to $U$ is upper triangular.
Then extend $U$'s basis to $(u_1,\dots u_m, v_1, \dots, v_n)$ a basis for $V$.
$$Tv_k=(T-\lambda I)v_k + \lambda v_k$$
The expression shows that $Tv_k \in \mathrm{span} (u_1, \dots, u_m, v_1, \dots ,v_k)$ for each $k$. By a theorem proven before, this is equivalent to the matrix of $T$ with respect to this basis being upper triangular.

My question: The above proof only uses the fact that a complex vector space must have an eigenvalue, for a real vector space, if it is given that it has an eigenvalue, would the above construction to show that there exists a basis such that the matrix is upper triangular make sense? If so, does it mean that a real vector space have invariant subspace (of $\mathrm{im}(T)$ ) of different dimensions under $T$? (Since there exists a basis $(v_1,\dots , v_n)$ such that $Tv_1,\dots , Tv_k \in \mathrm{span}(v_1,\dots , v_k)$ for each $k$)

A: In a real vector space, we can't generally guarantee that $T$ will have $n$ eigenvalues.  The real power of the complex case is that as you restrict $T$ to smaller subspaces, we can always find an eigenvalue/eigenvector within that space.
It is notable, however, that real operators can be "almost" upper triangularized (see p. 39 here).  In particular, we note that a real linear operator in $L(V)$ always has an invariant subspace of dimension at most $2$.