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Home North America Cayman Islands 100 Dollars 2010
100 Dollars 2010, Cayman Islands
in Krause book Number: 43a
Signatures: Minister of Finance: Mr. McKeeva Bush, Managing director: Mrs. Cindy Scotland
Serie: Serie D (2010)
Specimen of: 2010
Size (mm): 156 х 66
Printer: TDLR (Thomas de la Rue & Company), London
The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle, or Pacific green turtle, is a large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus Chelonia. Its range extends throughout tropical and subtropical seas around the world, with two distinct populations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The common name comes from the usually green fat found beneath its carapace.
An abbreviation "CIMA" (Cayman islands Monetary Authority). The cornerstones are in all corners.
HM The Queen Elizabeth II.
This portrait of Her Majesty is adapted from a photograph, taken in Sandringham House by Mark Lawrence in 1999. (Peter Symes)
Her Majesty is shown wearing The Grand Duchess Vladimir of Russia's Tiara.
The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara.
No tiara is complete without a fascinating backstory, and this one's even got a daring escape. Made by Bolin, it glittered at the Russian royal court on the head of Grand Duchess Vladimir until the revolution, when it was left behind as the family fled. A British agent and friend smuggled it out of Russia to rejoin the exiled Grand Duchess and her collection. After her death, the tiara was bought from her daughter by Queen Mary. It's worn often today by the Queen with pearl or emerald drops, or occasionally with no drops. The pearl drop option has been the most popular with the Queen in recent years, probably owing to her love of white gowns in the evening and accompanying white jewels.
This tiara was inherited by the Grand Duchess's daughter, the Grand Duchess Helen who subsequently married Prince Nicholas of Greece. Queen Mary bought the tiara from Princess Nicholas in 1921. The tiara has fifteen pearl drops but Princess Mary had fifteen emeralds mounted in such a way that they are interchangeable with the pearls. In this illustration, Her Majesty is wearing the tiara with the pearl drops.
Also on Her Majesty is The Diamond Chandelier Drop Demi-Parure.
A matched set of a necklace and a pair of earrings, this demi-parure is made of diamonds in multiple intricate pendants, each tipped with a pear-shaped diamond drop. Its provenance has not been officially confirmed, but it certainly has the look of a gift from one of the Middle Eastern rulers, and the Queen did wear it during a 1987 state visit from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. (I am using a name that refers to its complicated pendant structure, since the gift is not confirmed).
The Queen has used this set fairly often, even for some official portraits. It is a slightly more grand option than pieces such as the King Khalid Diamond Necklace (very similar, and a confirmed Saudi gift), the Diamond Pear-Shaped Pendant Fringe Necklace, or the King Faisal Diamond Necklace (another confirmed Saudi gift). "From her Majesty's Jewel vault".
The Coat of arms of Cayman islands is centered and on hologram strip.
The Cayman Islands' coat of arms consists of a shield, a crested helm and the motto. Three green stars, representing each of the three inhabited Islands (Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac), are set in the lower two-thirds of the shield. The stars rest on blue and white wavy bands representing the sea. In the top third of the shield, against a red background, is a gold lion passant guardant (walking with the further forepaw raised and the body seen from the side), representing Britain. Above the shield is a green turtle on a coil of rope. Behind the turtle is a gold pineapple.
The turtle represents the Caymans seafaring history,
the rope, its traditional thatch-rope industry,
and the pineapple, its ties with Jamaica.
The islands' motto, "He hath founded it upon the seas", is printed at the bottom of the shield. This line, a verse from Psalm 24 Verse 2, acknowledges the Caymans' Christian heritage, as well as its ties to the sea.
The proposal for a coat of arms was approved by the Legislative Assembly in 1957, and public input was sought on its design. The Royal Warrant assigning "Armorial Ensigns for the Cayman Islands" was approved by Her Majesty's command on 14 May 1958.
Also, centered, is the map of Cayman Islands.
Across all field of banknote, also centered, is The "Cayman Turtler" schooner.
On banknote is the collective image of this type of schooner. While it was not possible to establish exactly - what ship exactly was taken as prototype for engraving. At first I thought that this is SS Goldfield, because in some articles I red that Goldfield was the perfect example of Cayman Turtler schooner. But, I did not found any photos, where The Goldfield was depicted with 2 sails in front, as depicted on banknote. Thats why, that is my personal opinion, I thinking, that as prototype was taken the photo of Cayman Turtler "Wilson".
Until the 1900s, the small craft used were dugout canoes, but in 1904, Captain Daniel Jervis on Cayman Brac designed and built the first catboat, a small, highly maneuverable double-ended boat, that proved ideal for catching turtles. Thereafter, it became the ubiquitous mode of transport in the days before good roads and motor vehicles, transporting goods and people from place to place along the coastlines.
That boat was first Cayman Turtler!
Cayman Islands were discovered by Columbus in 1503, during his last expedition to the West Indies. In those days, on the uninhabited island, a favorite refuge of local pirates, occasionally frequented by Caribbean Indians. At the beginning of the island because of the abundance of turtles in coastal waters are called tortoiseshell, and in 1530 was renamed in Cayman (from the Spanish word caiman - an alligator).
In 1670 the islands became part of the British Empire. The first inhabitants, immigrants from Jamaica, mainly hunted catching turtles. In this they succeeded, almost completely destroying them. Subsequently, the islanders became famous as a skilful shipbuilders.
On Grand Cayman today has a one of a kind Turtle Farm. The institution is under the control of the state and is primarily intended to increase the populations of sea turtles, and for the maintenance of the farm there is a Turtle commercial program - the export of meat and shells of green turtles, and tourists bring a very considerable profit.
Here is what wrote the English biologist, scientist and writer Archie Carr in his book "The Windward Road" in the late 1950s:
"One after another, destroyed the famous turtle breeding grounds. First they disappeared in Bermuda and then on the banks of the Greater Antilles. Soon came to naught and the Bahamas then fishing vessels began to cross the Gulf Stream and ravage the coast of Florida, where in previous years tag for the turtles were a common sight than chicken coops If industrialist Charles Peak in 1886 caught near Sebastian's two thousand five hundred green turtles, the 1895 he was able to get only sixty. And this is where huge herds before green turtles graze impact les broad mouths of the rivers and the eastern coast of the northern part of the peninsula shoals and large herd annually come to breed in the Dry Tortugas.
Only one breeding area found himself in the side, and its dimensions were amazing all the people who have visited there. It was the Cayman Islands. Accumulation of breeding turtles here was so great that supports large turtle fishery America.
The history of this fishing area, its rise and fall, predatory destruction of the female turtle in seasons egg laying, the plight of people who had no other livelihood but persistent and widespread destruction of declining turtle stud, all this is very significant for the human relationship with the environment and its impact on the depletion of natural resources.
Bernard Lewis told us the sad story about the depletion of the area and the penetration of CI manufacturers in other people's gardens. First, fishing vessels hunted just south of Cuba, but soon the herd of turtles have been wiped out, and the industrialists had to find new places. They built larger ships and began to explore for new places of fishing. Soon they discovered huge turtle grazing in the shallows at the Mosquito coast of Nicaragua, about three hundred and fifty miles from the island of Grand Cayman. There were many islands, on which there was fresh water, the sea is shallow with plenty of bars and rocks, and stretched for miles Thalassia testudinum, and the local herd of turtles like the ones that met CI grandfathers captains. It happened a little more than a hundred years ago. and still Cayman industrialists are major exporters of green turtles and shoals Mosquito - most important place of fishing of turtles that come to the US market. The need for fast and more sophisticated fishing vessels has generated great carpenters, shipbuilders, and a shortage of people who know how to manage Su llamas and contributed to the fact that Caymanians become excellent sailors. However, the fishing fleet that once numbered thirty perfectly built schooners now no more than five or six.
In ancient times, the Cayman Islands, settled people, whose whole life depended on the presence of green turtles, and because the animals were in the shallows of the Mosquito if cornered. I do not want to prove that the people of the Cayman Islands will be the ones who cause the green turtle and the last fatal blow. These people, and all the other hunters hunted turtles on pastures, a strike that animals can endure. Turtles are able to withstand the more powerful blows - they are very hardy animals".
Denominations in numerals are in lower left and top right corners. Centered, lower, in words.
Also in numerals are on hologram strip and on right side, in round hologram window.
In top left corner is The Conch shell.
Melongena melongena - common name the Caribbean crown conch, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Melongenidae, the crown conches and their allies. is a medium to large carnivorous gastropod with a low spire, large body whorl, and prominent vertical curved white spines on the shoulder of each whorl that give the species its common name. It has a glossy shell that is brownish-grey to purple with white to yellow-white spiral bands. The columella is thick and white, and the operculum is robust and horny.
Aerial view at financial center in George Town, capital of Cayman islands, located on Big Cayman island.
George Town is a city situated on Grand Cayman island of the Cayman Islands. It serves as the capital of the Cayman Islands, in the British West Indies.
George Town is the heart of the Cayman Islands financial services industry (there are close to 600 Bank and Trust companies in the Cayman Islands). The Caymanian government offices are located in the city.
Remote geographical position of islands hampered their economic development up to the 40s of the twentieth century, when it was open direct flights to the nearest strongholds of civilization - Miami, Houston, Memphis, Jamaica, Atlanta and London.
Today, Grand Cayman is considered the fifth largest financial center after London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The Cayman Islands are not only well-known offshore financial center, but also a popular tourist center with excellent facilities for scuba diving.
In related infrastructure has evolved as increased offshore financial transactions. And now the islands have the most modern facilities of the highest quality connection.
Today, many of the largest companies of the world, including "Arthur Andersen", "Coopers and Lybrand", "Deloitte & Touche", "Ernst & Young", "KPMG Peat Marwick" and "Price Waterhouse" have fully equipped offices on Grand Cayman, and law firms working-class lawyers, perfectly oriented in an international business environment.
Favorable tax laws and strict compliance with the Law on secrecy of bank deposits is actively stimulated the growth of the financial sector. According to the "Confidential Relationships Law" the disclosure of classified information to a third party is a criminal offense. However, the Government of the Cayman Islands has made it clear that confidentiality is incompatible with the secretion of criminals or create the conditions for illegal activities.
In 1984, the US signed an agreement on access to information, if it can serve as a proof of belonging to drug trafficking. Later it signed a comprehensive treaty on mutual legal cooperation ("Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty"), which has recently been ratified and signed into law. It provides assistance in solving all crime, recognized by both sides, but does not deal with the taxation of non-criminals.
Denominations in numerals are in lower left and top right corners. In lower right corner in words.
The signatures on banknote are:
William McKeeva Bush.
William McKeeva Bush, JP OBE (born 20 January 1955) is a Caymanian politician and the former Premier of the Cayman Islands, as well as Minister of Finance. Bush, the leader of the United Democratic Party, is the first elected member for the district of West Bay, and has served seven consecutive terms in the Legislative Assembly of the Cayman Islands representing that constituency. He was removed from his post as Premier in a vote of no confidence following his arrest in December 2012 and was succeeded by Julianna O'Connor-Connolly. Mr. Bush has since been found Not-Guilty of corruption by the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands in 2014 and was acquitted of all charges made against him. He is the country's longest ever serving political figure with service spanning over 30 years.
Mrs. Cindy Scotland.
Cindy Scotland has served as the Managing Director of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority since June 2002. In this role she oversees the implementation of policies to ensure the sound management of the Cayman Islands' currency and the effective supervision of the more than 14,000 regulated entities operating in and from the Cayman Islands. She also has responsibility for the development and maintenance of strong working relationships between CIMA and other international regulatory bodies.
The Cayman Islands dollar has been pegged to the United States dollar at 1 Cayman Islands dollar = 1.2 U.S. dollars since 1 April 1974.


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Aro - Album Review: Manu
29 Nov 2018 // A review by Corinne Rutherford
Aro; the husband and wife team made up of Charles and Emily Looker, will be releasing their debut album titled Manu (bird) in February 2019. This ten-track album is a bilingual Te Reo Maori and English native bird inspired project. It is, in short, delightful.
Having met Charles and Emily and seen Aro play live, when I listened to this album my first thought was this is the perfect fit for them. Combining Charles (Ngapuhi) first learnt language of Te Reo with English, this album captures the fun and cheeky essence of the couple whilst also telling stories inspired by native bird song.
It all started with the song of a Tui and evolved into a magical album of storytelling inspired by nature.
The captivating and hauntingly beautiful sound of taonga puoro played by Shane Mclean can be heard weaving its magical sound throughout the album. The duo effortlessly moves between Te Reo and the English languages creating a fresh sound "through songs that are memorable with words that are encouraging and fun to sing". This is a sound which should appeal to the target audience of a younger crowd "this uniquely 'Kiwi' album can help young people feel proud of who they are".
These are catchy songs which incorporate the personality of each bird. Each one of the birds which are featured on this album is distinctive to New Zealand. The melodies and rhythms of these native birds can be heard clearly coming through in each track. The couple's voices complementing one another, creating layers of vocal harmonies on top of each other. "Engaging narrative and vivacious lyrics "The essence of the native birds of Aotearoa has been captured in the narrative of each song through vocal hooks, Maori rhythms, chants and expressive instrumentation".
As I type this there is a Tui singing to me from the tree outside. Possibly one of the most beautiful sounds you can hope to hear.
Also, as I am in the process of collating my thoughts about Manu, I came across Aro's interview by Lora (also of Muzic.net.nz). I loved what Charles had to say in the very last line "Making this album has been like making a waka that you don't know what it could do until you put it out to sea"
This is lively and cheerful yet at the same time inspiring and engaging. I was completely captivated by the stories told through the birds and I very much look forward to seeing Aro perform this album live.
This is currently my go-to album to take a break from the world and let the music wash over me. I heard the love which went into making Manu, filter through the music.
Aro suits this couple perfectly 'Aro mai, Aro atu, Aroha' To face, to be faced, to love.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ ( 5 / 5 )
About Aro
'Aro mai, Aro atu, aroha'
To face, to be faced, to love.
Aro are a blend of stories in song expressing the people, the culture and the land of Aotearoa.
Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Aro
Type: Album
Van Jams
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


* Deploying the current Production accepted build (15.12.2) to the Global Gateway service group.
* Tuesday 6/26/2018, scheduled from 9:00pm -et through 11:00pm.
* Due to dependencies in other platform services, the Global Gateways are the last service hosts to be upgraded; 15.12.2 was successfully deployed to all environments, and now it's time to proceed with the Global Gateways.
This scheduled maintenance affected: Voice / Messaging API's (Inbound Voice US, Outbound Voice US, Inbound SMS US, Outbound SMS US, Transcription, api.tropo.com (Tokens)).
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There's not a way on earth digital migration was going to be delayed. Well connected financiers in the last election already have digital TV merchandise and equipment rotting in go-downs. And they had to upload their gadgets by all means necessary.
Digital migration if well managed has a potential to stimulate the economy because consumer spending will definitely go up in the next few months! as people scramble for digital upgrade equipment. However in the interim period the days when pple watched news in a neighbor's house will be here, for those who cant afford digital equipment immediately.
But it saddens me that this migration has been mismanaged to line up the pockets of a select few individuals from one side of the government. The poorly connected folks confided in this writer that they have trouble clearing their digital goods from the port of Mombasa.
And so it does appear that this govt, instead of creating new millionaires will continue to enrich the existing 2% of Kenyans top-de la creme while the bottom of the pyramid continues to sacrifice Christmas cash to buy gadgets supplied by some of the TNA allied capitalists. Its kind of a ponzi Pyramid scheme where the poor are conned within the law. Am for Capitalism but not in the structure that Jubilee wants to re-engineer it into what JM Kariuki called a nation of 10 millionaires and 40 million beggars.
I don't mean Kenya shouldn't go digital, but dialogue with stakeholders should have been carried out to a logical conclusion, not a dictatorial decrees and arbitrary unilateral setting of a date as Kenyans have recently gotten accustomed to.
And this is scary considering that there's conflict of interest especially when K24 has sycophantic coverage that makes it sound state-owned media alongside KBC. Its a quasi-state owned media house that advances the interests of the state. So with all media houses frustrated and given false promises of a delay, they feel tricked, because they were lied to, only for them to realize the very last minute that Jubilee wont postpone the migration.
The result is that K24 has now moved from the low tire media house to the the most watched TV station, because of the switch off by KTN, NTV, and Citizen. A few days of switch off by the big 3 is a long time for the public to be fed with state sanctioned propaganda, without a corroborated perspective from the more "credible" channels(Big 3).
Kenyans, thanks to the Jubilee dictatorship will experience how it feels to be in North Korea as they will only watch the propaganda s spewed by state owned KBC and the President's family owned K24. The media(just like the dairy industry) in Kenya will be killed partly because of conflict of interest by Jubilee top leadership.
Jubilee is a thankless coalition which is fighting the same people who rushed to call their candidate President elect, even before all votes had been counted. The same people who after doing their own parallel tallying in 2013, know who won in March 2013 or whether the first round didn't produce a winner, but are yet to publish. And they will continue being silenced until they give guarantees that they will never shed light about their own version of 2013 election result numbers.


For decades, many astronomers believed in a cookie-cutter universe. Orderly, well-behaved, predictable. The mold for galaxies, the large systems where stars and planets reside, came in two shapes: spirals and ellipticals. They were "island universes" that evolved in "splendid isolation" just a few million years after the Big Bang. To these astronomers, colliding galaxies were merely an oddity, an anomaly.
But there was a group of astronomers who had a less kind view of the universe. They believed that the universe was a violent place, full of collisions, cannibalism, and mergers. Galaxies, they proposed, may not have been created in cookie-cutter fashion early in the universe. Maybe collisions between spirals spawned ellipticals.
The debate over the role colliding galaxies play in galaxy evolution has continued for decades. In the 1940's, just a few years after American astronomer Edwin Hubble defined galaxy shapes, Swedish astronomer Erik Holmberg wondered what would happen if a couple of galaxies encountered one another. So he constructed an analog computer using about 200 light bulbs to simulate galaxy encounters. Based on this seemingly primitive computer simulation, Holmberg concluded that some galaxies may indeed collide, inducing tides or distortions that rob them of energy, thus causing them to slow down and eventually merge into a single galaxy. The Swedish astronomer's computer simulations also foreshadowed the important role that computers would play in studying galaxy interactions.
Colliding galaxies make a "perfect ten"
Two gravitationally interacting galaxies, known as Arp 147, appear to form the number 10 by virtue of their orientations.
The astronomical community largely ignored Holmberg's work. The snubbing, however, didn't stop some astronomers from pursuing these enigmatic galaxies. Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky at the California Institute of Technology was the first to systematically photograph interacting galaxies in the 1950's. He noticed wispy tails in these galaxies that were similar to those that Holmberg had discovered in his simulations, and concluded that they must stem from gravitational interaction. Zwicky also guessed that these tails must consist of stars.
Still, most astronomers paid little attention to the subject of colliding galaxies, mainly because they believed that the chance of galaxy encounters was relatively small. They didn't understand that galaxies, like stars, often orbit in double and multiple systems, creating a dense environment where collisions are more likely. Some astronomers proposed that the wispy tails were the remnants of gigantic explosions.
Many astronomers believed, as Hubble did, that most galaxies were orderly and symmetrical. Astronomer Allan Sandage emphasized those galaxies in his 1961 book "The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies." He also was among a group of astronomers who proposed that the blobby ellipticals were formed before the disk-shaped spirals.
But astronomer Halton Arp believed in a different kind of universe, one filled with violence. In 1966 he published a catalogue of 338 interesting systems called the "Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies." Arp was convinced that colliding galaxies were more than just oddball systems: He was the first to suggest that these galaxies could form stars in bursts.
Colliding galaxy research received a boost in the late 1960's when scientists made significant improvements in computer technology. Faster, more powerful computers meant more sophisticated simulations of galaxy interactions, which could furnish astronomers with details about these collisions.
Soon after, several astronomers using computer simulations to study colliding galaxies published scientific papers on their work. The paper with the most-developed theory was written in 1972 by the Toomre brothers, Alar and Juri. Instead of plugging in a couple of generic interacting galaxies into their computer to see the results, they also chose four well-known colliding spiral galaxies, including M51 and the Antennae. They wanted to know whether their computer results would match observational evidence. The brothers discovered that they did. Their models showed that galaxy collisions cause strong gravitational interactions, which produce features similar to the bridges and tails of dust and stars found in many of the galaxies in Arp's atlas of galaxies.
After colliding, these galaxies slow down and are drawn closer together until they eventually merge. The offspring of these mergers are star piles resembling elliptical galaxies. There must have been many more mergers in the past when the universe was younger and denser. Alar Toomre, in his classic 1977 paper, estimated that about 10 percent of all galaxies should be merger remnants, a percentage that roughly matches the number of ellipticals observed in the universe. Their conclusion was a salvo shot at a popular theory that ellipticals came before spirals.
The Toomres also were among the first astronomers to suggest that debris stirred up from galaxy interactions could provide fuel for black holes, which power quasars. They penned the phrases "stoking the furnace" and "feeding the monster," descriptions that are now indelibly linked with black holes and quasars.
Although astronomers debated the Toomres' work, they began to take the study of colliding galaxies more seriously. But they still had objections. Among them was this puzzle: spirals are full of gas, but contain relatively few globular clusters (dense spherical clusters of about 100,000 stars). Ellipticals, on the other hand, contain very little gas but possess many globular clusters. How, then, can two merging spiral galaxies produce an elliptical? It's almost like saying 2 plus 2 equals 8. Our Milky Way galaxy, a spiral, has about 150 globular clusters while an elliptical with the same brightness would contain about 600 globulars.
These dissenting astronomers did not consider the important role that gas plays in mergers. Most mergers involve gas being compressed, which triggers intense star formation. Perhaps this burst of star formation could produce new globular clusters?
Astronomers studying colliding galaxies hoped that a new infrared satellite would provide some clues. They weren't disappointed. The satellite, called the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), was launched in 1983 to take an infrared survey of the sky. This survey revealed that the most luminous galaxies in the infrared part of the spectrum were always colliding galaxies, illuminated by dust surrounding a burst of infant stars. The images provided evidence that interacting galaxies showed signs of unusually vigorous star formation, a theory that originally had been proposed by Zwicky and Arp.
When two galaxies collide, their interstellar gas is compressed into thick clouds. These clouds of gas collapse even more under gravity's intense force to form new stars. The resulting star burst uses up nearly all of the interstellar gas and expels most of the remaining gas through supernovae explosions, leaving a gas-poor system similar to that of an elliptical galaxy.
Some astronomers believed this intense star formation might produce globular clusters. These clusters would shine with the blue light of hot stars. Other astronomers, however, argued that there was no such evidence for young globular clusters. They contended that globular clusters, such as the ones in our Milky Way, are old. But astronomer Francois Schweizer of the Carnegie Institution of Washington disagreed. Schweizer had teamed up with Alar Toomre to probe several interacting galaxies. In 1982 Schweizer studied the interacting galaxy NGC 7252 (the Atoms for Peace galaxy) using ground-based telescopes and observed six bluish knots of light near the galactic nucleus. He interpreted these knots as young star clusters formed during the merger. He and other astronomers (e.g. Keith Ashman at the Space Telescope Science Institute and Steve Zepf at Johns Hopkins University) suggested that the formation of young globular clusters by colliding spirals might explain why ellipticals have so many globular clusters.
But Schweizer and other astronomers couldn't provide solid evidence for the existence of new star clusters in interacting galaxies. Ground-based telescopes didn't have the resolution to completely define these clusters. Enter the Hubble Space Telescope, with its high-resolution capabilities and its great location above the Earth's atmosphere. In the Antennae, for example, one giant star- forming knot from a ground-based telescope often turns into 10 to 12 star clusters through the eyes of the Hubble telescope, each with the size of a normal globular cluster.
Even a Hubble telescope without corrective vision found plenty of young star clusters. Peering into the core of the interacting galaxy NGC 1275, the Hubble telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera found in 1992 what astronomer Jon Holtzman of Lowell Observatory described as 50 young clusters less than several hundred million years old. He concluded that the clusters were spawned by a merger.
In 1993 a team of astronomers, including Schweizer of Carnegie and led by Brad Whitmore of the Space Telescope Science Institute, provided conclusive evidence that mergers produce new star clusters. Using the Hubble telescope, the team identified 40 young clusters, mostly between 50 and 500 million years old, near the center of NGC 7252.
Since then, Whitmore and Schweizer and their collaborators, Miller of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Fall and Leitherer of the Space Telescope Science Institute, have continued to probe colliding galaxies. The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 with its corrective vision has penetrated more than 10 times deeper into the heart of colliding galaxies than earlier observations. Recent observations of NGC 7252, for example, have revealed more than 500 star clusters, compared with only 40 in 1993.
Whitmore now believes he can tell how long ago these collisions occurred by measuring the colors and brightness of young globular clusters. These clusters, many astronomers agree, may play an essential role in understanding how galaxies evolve.
From oddball galaxies to galaxy building blocks: the part colliding galaxies play in galaxy evolution has changed dramatically over the decades.
"Tales of ... A history of colliding galaxies: From oddballs to galaxy building blocks" explains how scientists determined the role of colliding galaxies in the story of galaxy evolution. The story begins with an early attempt to model galaxy interactions and concludes with using the Hubble Space Telescope to find young clusters of stars.
An engagement activity. Have students read the selection. Ask them to describe how scientists discovered the role colliding galaxies play in galaxy evolution.
An inquiry tool. Propose a question, such as, "How do colliding galaxies contribute to the growth of galaxies?" Have students read the selection and write down as many questions as they can about the information in the text.
A source of information. Students can describe how the view of colliding galaxies as key players in galaxy evolution has changed over the years.
HubbleSite press release images of interacting galaxies: "Cosmic Collisions Galore!"


As I have remarked previously, the Australians are mad about their coffee – and are willing to pay quite handsomely for it. But what about their lunch? Are they just as mad when it comes to food?
…getting back to my point. In the Netherlands, a lot of people make themselves bread at home and take it to work to eat. The cantina at the office also heavily favours this staple, by allowing you to by single slices of said brad and two slices of cheese or salami or similar wrapped in plastic foil. And if you want to go for something warm, you can have some ready-made soup or maybe a sausage roll. All in all, not very inspiring.
But how does this compare to Australia? What's the "norm" here?
A quick peek into the fridge reveals all sorts of brought-from-home lunch waiting for 12:00h.
Well, as far as I can tell from my colleagues, there is no real norm. I work in an office with a high number of expats and emigrants that have their cultural roots outside of Oz. An, as varied as their backgrounds, as varied are the eating habbits. Quite a few of them bring their own lunch in boxes and use the microwave to heat things up. I see a lot of rice dishes, with the occasional pasta mixed in.
Sushi rolls are a big thing here. You can eat them with your hands and on the go.
But even for those that get their lunch from one of the eateries outside of the office – and spend the about AU$ 10,- for it – the options available are quite varied. Just in our building alone we have a Taiwanese place that makes pho (a soup), a sushi place, a bakery, a place where you can make your own salads and a cup-cake shop. (Granted, the last one is not really lunch. But if you have a sweet tooth, the place is perfect.) Across the street you can get some really nice, warm dishes (like shepherds pie or creamy pasta) and just a few meters away is a Subway and a McDonalds.
Lasagne with salad. One of the many choices available just around the corner.
Stew on rice. Another yummy choice.
The only common denominator that I could discern is that the bread culture that we have in Germany the Netherlands, where at least one meal of the day is bread with some sort of topping, is not as evident here. Neither for lunch nor for dinner. That probably also explains the absence of the big cheese and sausage sections that you can find in Dutch and German supermarkets.
Na ja, ich tät schon gerne ein Stück wirkliches Brot essen wollen. So mit Käse oder Salami drauf. Dann eben bei Eurem nächsten Deutschland-Besuch in ein paar Jahren.
Ach so, wir haben ein australisches Kochbuch — noch ziemlich ungelesen.
Lasst Euch Euer selbst gebackenes Brot schmecken, am besten mit Butter, einfach so. Und wenn es gar nicht anders geht, dann eben mit Pinderkas und Schokoladehagel.


The Colors were Dusty Durango, Soft Sude, Lavender Lace & Always Artichoke. I decided to make my first Digital project for the challenge.. And whew it was a challenge. I'm a Photoshop Girl and I need to get the hang of this program.. There is so much you can do with it. You can jump right in and start creating with the pre-made templates which is great!!
This was a pre-made template that I changed the colors and added some of my own embellishments. Super Cool!!
Thanks for playing along Lisa... Great card!


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Home/SHOWBIZ/Meet AFRIMA's youngest-ever nominee, 13-year-old Shanah Manjeru
Meet AFRIMA's youngest-ever nominee, 13-year-old Shanah Manjeru
Shanah Manjeru, an artist from Nairobi, Kenya, is the youngest-ever nominee of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA).
READ ALSO: AFRIMA receives a record number of 8,860 entries for 2021 edition
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The 13-year-old singer was nominated for her song, 'God Will Make a Way'.
She takes over the spot previously held by another Kenyan singer, Nikita Kering at 17 in 2019.
She is contesting in the 'Best Female Artiste in African Inspirational Music' category with Ada Ehi Ft Buchi (Nigeria), Afrie (Uganda), Eden (Cote d'Ivoire), Kamo Mphela (South Africa), Montess (Cameroon), Nata (Sierra Leone), Ruth Asong (Cameroon), Diana Hamilton (Ghana) and Kelly Khumalo (South Africa).
Shanah's singing talent became evident at the age of three.
At age seven, she began to sing officially when her parents put up her first music concert in Ethiopia. In October 2017, at nine years old, Shanah went into professional singing with the release of her debut song, 'Destiny'.
In February 2018, she released her second song, 'We Are One' followed closely in April 2018 with 'Winner' and 'God Will Listen' in December 2018.
In April 2019, Shanah released 'Worship' and 'Worship Symphony'.
Her latest songs are the nominated 'God Will Make a Way' and 'Jesus Loves You' released in August and November 2020 respectively.
The singer won the 'Arts and Culture Award' category in the Annual African Children of The Year Awards 2019, held in
South Africa and was subsequently nominated as an Ambassador of the Stacey Fru Foundation, South Africa.
Shanah's 'Winner' won the 'Song of the Year Award' during Kenya Gospel Music Award 2018.
She has performed at several events, including school events, churches, concerts, children's festivals, birthday parties, weddings and funerals, on TV gospel shows, and during numerous TV and radio interviews. Shanah, who is the last child of her parents plans to become either a doctor, a singer, a dancer, a gymnast, or a teacher.
AFRIMA 2021 is to be held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, Nigeria from Friday, November 19 – Sunday, November 21, 2021.
Preceding the award ceremony is the African Music Business Summit (AMBS), a platform for business networking and interaction among music professionals which will take place on Friday, November 19, 2021at 8.30 am.
AFRIMA Music Fest, an evening of non-stop music concerts with live performances from African music superstars will take place on the same day of November 19 from 6.00 pm.
Sunday, November 21, 2021, comes with glitz from Africa's music superstars, celebrities, and international personalities at
AFRIMA Awards ceremony with Red Carpet at 4.30 pm and main awards at 7.30 pm.
AFRIMA has been regarded as the ultimate celebration and recognition of African talents and creatives globally since 2014.
13-year-old AFRIMA's youngest-ever nominee Shanah Manjeru
NCA wins RTI Case against Media Foundation
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Bullet introduced me to Jesus Christ for the first time – Wendy Shay
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"Three Helicopters For Police In November; 10,000 CCTV Cameras Installed" – President Akufo-Addo
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AIM believes Islam is a source of enlightenment that provides the most perfect solutions to the challenges confronting humanity. It is our belief that the school of the AhlulBayt (as) represents the true and most pristine form of Islam. In light of this worldview, we uphold that a bright future has been promised for humanity, which will be realised by the promised saviour Imam Al-Mahdi (aj).
AIM strives to empower the Shia community and wider Ummah at large. In this respect, AIM disseminates a universal outlook with regards to Islamic thought and practise. We firmly believe that a comprehensive understanding of Islam is the foundation of a strong and self-aware community. At AIM, we thus focus on empowerment through education and critical self-awareness.
The Ummah
The Qur'anic declaration "Surely this Ummah of yours is a single Ummah, and I am your Lord, therefore serve Me" (21:92) informs the Mission's outlook towards the Ummah. AIM views itself as an inseparable part of the collective Islamic Society, and seeks to strengthen these ties of unity and brotherhood. The Mission thus focuses on raising awareness on the situational context of the Ummah, its challenges and aspirations.
Healthy coexistence with different ideologies and faith groups has deep roots in the Islamic tradition. Inspired by this proud heritage, the AIM continually seeks to create opportunities for dialogue and respectful discourse. AIM's orientation fits within the overall objective of fostering a positive and healthy Islamic presence in the different arenas.
During the period of the occultation, one of the most prominent themes is that of shouldering responsibility. In this context, AIM is strongly influenced by this central sense of responsibility, and believes that we shall stand accountable for how we regard the legacy of the Holy Prophet (saw) and his AhlulBayt (as). In preparing for the return of the Mahdi (aj), AIM places emphasis on constructive action guided by sincerity, integrity and the Divine values.


text:
Q: How to stop links from resizing my images? I want my images to be links, but when I put them inside  tags, it shrinks a bit, which I wouldn't like to happen.
My code:

.container{
    display: flex;
    margin-top: 30px;
    justify-content: center;
}

.partner{
    height: 100px;
    display: flex;
    flex: 1;
    justify-content: center;
    float: left;
    width: 25%;
}

.partner img{
    object-fit: contain;
    height: 100px;
    max-height: 100px;
    width: auto;
    max-width: 65% !important;
}

.col-3 {
    flex: 0 0 auto;
    width: 25%;
  }

As you see I currently don't have any styling for a, but I have tried some, display: inline-block; didn't work in any context, and setting all: none; or all: inherit; on a also did nothing.

A: You need to set .partner a to have similar properties as .partner as the a tag wouldn't have properties such as display: flex, then you need to create the same selector as .partner img but inside that a tag, so .partner a img.
I think, in general, the better approach is to put every image inside the a tag, and just disable the linking for the images that do not link to anywhere for less code duplication.

.container {
  display: flex;
  margin-top: 30px;
  justify-content: center;
}

.partner {
  height: 100px;
  display: flex;
  flex: 1;
  justify-content: center;
  float: left;
  width: 25%;
}

.partner img {
  object-fit: contain;
  height: 100px;
  max-height: 100px;
  width: auto;
  max-width: 65% !important;
}

.partner a {
  all: none;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  display: flex;
  flex: 1;
  justify-content: center;
  float: left;
}

.partner a img {
  object-fit: contain;
  height: 100px;
  max-height: 100px;
  width: auto;
  max-width: 65% !important;
}

.col-3 {
  flex: 0 0 auto;
  width: 25%;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Chick'n Bites, crispy pieces of antibiotic-free, hand-breaded chicken breast, served with your choice of dipping sauce, have landed at most U.S. Shacks! Grab 'em as a 6 count or 10 count with either BBQ Sauce or Honey Mustard.
Chick'n Bites are always made fresh to order with all-natural, antibiotic-free whole muscle that is sous-vide cooked for optimum flavor, moisture and texture, making the them extra juicy and tender. Snag Chick'n Bites at most Shacks nationwide (excluding airports, stadiums, ballparks + the Theater District Shack) starting on February 4th, 2019!
Want the goods without the wait? Order ahead online or through the Shack App!


If you join the customer experience improvement program, VMware collects data from certain View Connection Server fields. Fields containing sensitive information are made anonymous.
Must the SecureID authentication name match the Active Directory name?
Are clients allowed to bypass the secure tunnel?
Are clients allowed to bypass the PCoIP Secure Gateway?
Should users be automatically logged off when their smart card is removed?
Number of times n protocol (such as PCoIP) sessions have been in existence when a user launches another application. For example, a user launches a fifth application but because all the applications are in the same server farm, only one session is in existence.


The glossary for sound project evaluation reports is organized into six sections corresponding to report components: (1) Executive Summary, (2) Project Description, (3) Evaluation Overview, (4) Design, (5) Analysis Process, and (6) Results & Recommendations.
Quality criteria for report components are also available. The alignment table shows how glossary and criteria entries for report components align to evaluation standards.
Summarizes the purpose of the evaluation, the project goals, implementation, impacts, conclusions, and recommendations.
Describes the evaluated project so that the reader of the report understands the scope of the evaluation and the association between the project's components and its outcomes (e.g., impacts and payoff).
Describes the project's features (e.g., philosophy, rationale, goals, objectives, strategies, activities, procedures, location, duration, resources).
Identifies individuals or groups participating in, affected by, or invested in the project.
Identifies external influences on the project (e.g., the timing of the project relative to other factors or events; organizational/institutional, historical, economic, political, and social conditions; demographic characteristics of project participants).
Describes the purposes and questions driving the evaluation, as well as the credentials of the evaluator and the involvement of stakeholders in the evaluation.
Describes the goals and objectives of the evaluation. These should be focused on identifying the project's strengths and weaknesses as well as accomplishments and challenges, in terms of how well it was implemented (formative evaluation) and/or its success in achieving its intended outcomes (summative evaluation).
This section of the report may also describe additional "goal-free" purposes that involve gathering and inductively analyzing data in order to understand the dimensions of the project that were not anticipated in the setting of goals.
States the questions that will be answered through data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Evaluation questions are developed from the evaluation goals and objectives and state specific information needs. They focus on aspects and outcomes of the project that are important to the stakeholders.
Describes what interests the various stakeholders have had in the evaluation, and what roles they played in it.
Describes strategies and procedures for gathering and analyzing data, as well as procedures employed for the evaluation's periodic review.
sources of the data (e.g., participants, documents).
the sample or samples of participants or other informants that were observed or solicited for information, in order to maximize the generalizability of the findings to the population from which the sample or samples were drawn.
Describes the design and content of the instruments used to collect and analyze data (e.g., survey questionnaires, interview protocols, observation forms, learning assessments).
Describes how the data and other information have been gathered to meet the criteria of validity and reliability. Also describes the frequency, order, and duration of the various data collection activities.
Describes procedures that were undertaken to review the quality of the evaluation being conducted.
descriptions of analyses that identify a pattern of results.
This section also describes results non-interpretively (e.g., without being subject to values, perspectives, and conceptual frameworks).
Describes the qualitative analysis procedures used to compile, analyze, and interpret the data in order to find themes, patterns, and trends.
This is the culminating section of the report. It synthesizes and interprets the data that were collected and analyzed in order to draw conclusions about the project's strengths and weaknesses. This section also contains recommendations for the project and describes how stakeholders have been involved in reviewing the results.
Describes interpretations and conclusions that have been drawn from the data.
Recommendations involve using the conclusions to suggest follow-up actions for the project's continuation as is, improvement, or elimination.
Describes steps taken to get stakeholder feedback on the report; also describes how the report will be used and disseminated.


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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics. 2006. Where to write for vital records.
Design for Health (DFH). 2007. Key Question: Food. Ver. 2.0.
Drewnowski, A. 2004. Obesity and the food environment: Dietary energy density and diet costs. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 27, 3s:154-161.
DFH. 2007. Key Question: Accessibility. Ver. 2.0.
Lanphear, B. P., D. Burgoon, S. W. Rust, S. Eberly, and W. Galke. 1998. Environmental exposures to lead and urban children's blood lead levels. Environmental Research, Section A. 76:120-30.
DFH. 2007.Key Question: Environment and Housing. Ver. 2.0.
Bullard, R., ed. 1996. Unequal protection: Environmental justice and communities of color. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
Mohai, P., and B. Bryant. 1991-92. Race, poverty and the distribution of environmental hazards: Reviewing the evidence. Race, Poverty and the Environment 11 (3&4):24-6.
Bowen, W. 2002. An analytical review of environmental justice research: What do we really know? Environmental Management 29:3-15.
Lanphear, B. P., [insert comma] and K. J. Roghmann. 1997. Pathways of lead exposure in urban children. Environmental Research 74:67-73.
Center for Universal Design, North Carolina State University; IDEA Center, University of Buffalo; and Global Universal Design Educator's Network. 2004. Universal design education online.
Pushkarev, B. S., and J. M. Zupan. 1982. Where transit works: Urban densities for public transportation. Urban Transportation: Perspectives and Prospects. H. S. Levinson and R. A. Weant, eds. Westport, CT: Eno Foundation.
Houston, D., J. Wu, P. Ong, and A. Winer. 2006. Down to the meter: Localized vehicle pollution matters. Access 29:22-7.
DFH. 2007. Planning Information Sheet: Influencing Air Quality with Comprehensive Planning and Ordinances. Ver. 2.0:13.
Perlin, A., K. Sexton and D. Wong. 1999. An examination of race and poverty for populations living near industrial sources of air pollution. Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology 9:29-48.
DFH. 2007. Planning information sheet: Considering environment and housing issues with comprehensive planning and ordinances. Ver. 2.0.
Pastor, M., Jr., J. Sadd, and J. Hipp. 2001. Which came first? Toxic facilities, minority move-in, and environmental justice. Journal of Urban Affairs 23:1-21.
Cummins, S.C., L. McKay, and S. MacIntyre. 2005. McDonald's restaurants and neighborhood deprivation in Scotland and England. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 29, 4:308-301.
Zenk, S., A. Shulz, B. Israel, S. James, S. Bao, et al. 2005. Neighborhood racial composition, neighborhood poverty, and the spatial accessibility of supermarkets in metropolitan Detroit. American Journal of Public Health 95, 4:660-67.
Moore, E. O. 1981. A prison environment's effect on health care service demands.Journal of Environmental Systems 11:17-34.
Block, J. P., R. A. Scribner, and K. B. DeSalvo. 2004. Fast food, race/ethnicity, and income: A geographical analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 27, 3:211-217.
Horowitz, Z., K. A. Colson, P. L. Herbert, and K. Lancaster. 2004. Barriers to buying healthy foods for people with diabetes: Evidence of environmental disparities.American Journal of Public Health 94, 9:1549-54.
Morland, K., S. Wing, and A. Diez Riux. 2002. The contextual effect of the local food environment on residents' diets: The atherosclerosis risk in communities study.American Journal of Public Health 92, 11:1761-67.
DFH. 2007. Planning information sheet: Promoting food access with comprehensive planning and ordinances. Ver. 2.0:4.
Kaufman, J. L., and K. Pothukuchi. 2000. The food system: A stranger to the planning field. Journal of the American Planning Association 66, 2:113-24.
Chung, C., and S. L. Myers. 1999. Do the poor pay more for food? An analysis of grocery store availability and food price disparities. Journal of Consumer Affairs 33, 2:276.
Burdette, H., and R. C. Whitacker. 2003. Neighborhood playgrounds, fast food restaurants, and crime: Relationships to overweight in low-income preschool children. Preventive Medicine 38:57-63.
Sloane, D. 2004. Bad meat and brown bananas. Progressive Planning 158:1, 7-8.
City of Boulder, Colorado. 2005. Boulder Valley comprehensive plan, 44.
DFH 2007. Planning information sheet: Considering promoting accessibility with comprehensive planning and ordinances. Ver. 2.0:6, 13.
City of San Diego, California. 2006. City of San Diego general plan: City of villages.
City of Riverside, California. 2005. Riverside general plan 2025.
Cohen, B. 2002. Community food security assessment toolkit. Prepared by IQ Solutions, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (USDA ERS).
Back to Low Income, Health and Planning
Back to Good Information about Health and Planning


Reblogged from the Feminist Book Club blog.
Tonight we discussed a book by one of my favourite authors, Margaret Atwood. The book was The Handmaid's Tale, and re-reading it thirteen years later has not changed my opinion that this is a fantastic read.
This is a story about women, about their roles in society both now, in the past and in the future. Offred is the protangonist and she tells her story slowly, and in snatches as if painfully remembering her past, whilst attempting to reconcile her existence in the ultimate patriarchal society.
Unwomen, women who cannot conceive or have been deported to the colonies.
There is also an underground set of women that work in a black market club, Jezebels.
Women are used to police and control each other in a society created by men, and the women in it have little agency or autonomy.
Atwood draws you in with Offred's remembrances of her life in the state of Gilead before becoming a handmaid; a life that is remarkably similar to our lives now. She went to university, she had a child and partner, she was able to walk down the street and leave her state. In comparison, her life as a handmaid allocated to a Commander and his wife, is restrictive to say the least. Her whole function is to reproduce, without serving this function she will die in the toxic colonies. As the reader, I really wanted to know how this possibly could have happened in a society so similar to our own. So you keep reading Offred's account, which is full of rich detail about her mundane, daily life and slowly, it is revealed how women's right's disappeared virtually over night. Atwood paints Offred as a sensualist, she enjoys the feel of air and water on her skin; the scent and sight of flowers and freshly baked bread or of Nick sweating as he cleans the Commanders car. Or maybe she enjoys these things because all other pleasure's have been denied to her.
Women's reproductive function is of utmost importance in Atwood's Giledean world, yet this it is controlled with a set of rules and regulations for who can procreate and how. This is explained because of low population levels, however, more tellingly, there is religious justification for the reproductive control of women and religious language and imagery permeates the book throughout. The references to Angels; the justification for the different sexual appetites of men and women ' God made them that way but He did not make you that way…Its up to you to set the boundaries. Later you will be thanked' ; and the white and blue uniforms of the Wives, in comparison to the red of the Handmaids. This is a new form of conservative Christianity where priests are hung, along with those accused of 'gender treachery'.
In one chapter, there is a description of the fate of doctors that perform abortions; drawing a link with contemporary America and the Christian right's attack on abortion clinics and those that work in these places. It is these links with our present that makes this tale so chilling and yet so realistic.
We recognise the methods of control and the justifications given for them.
The Handmaid's Tale was written in 1985 whilst Atwood was living in Berlin, before the fall of the wall. Both America and the UK had elected conservative governments and there was an increase in Christian fundamentalism in the US. There were fears that the gains won by 1970s feminism could be undone. The Handmaid's Tale was not intended as critique of women in Islamic states, however to what degree are there contemporary parallels with the religious justification of the removal of women's rights in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries?
Some may read The Handmaid's Tale as a story of the resilience of women. Offred mentally attempts to keep her own identity even though her name, child, family, money and education have all been stripped of her. There is a secret society of women that pass information to each other. Throughout all her harrowing experiences and uncertain end, she remains in my mind as a whole, sensual woman.
« Resilience- how to keep on bouncing back.


Here at Absolutely Fit, we understand that a 'one size fits all' approach to exercise and fitness coaching simply doesn't work for each client, and as a consequence, bespoke coaching is at the heart of what we do. This, coupled with bespoke nutrition from our team of academics and scientists ensures that at Absolutely Fit we get results, empower clients by imparting knowledge that will help them manage their own transformations, and ensures the transformations aren't simply skin deep.
As males, we all come in different shapes and sizes, and furthermore, aspire to look different shapes and sizes. That is why here at Absolutely Fit we tailor training to your goals and ambitions.
For that 'beach body' look, the greatest gains are to be achieved not simply through an increase in muscle mass, but an increase in muscle definition, otherwise termed a reduction in body fat mass. The literature to date identifies fat mass reduction (i.e. increased stored fat oxidation) is dependent on depletion of rate limiting carbohydrate; and here at Absolutely Fit our coaches apply their Sports Science, Strength & Conditioning and Fitness Coaching knowledge to stress your body in ways that utilise the stored energy in those 'love handles', 'beer bellies' and 'relaxed muscles'.
However the benefits don't stop there! Other physiological and anatomical adaptations include increased muscular endurance and improved posture as we endeavour to deliver a full body workout at every opportunity. You'll be visibly healthier and inevitably as a trait of all successful exercise programmes, visibly happier. So join the Absolutely Fit Team in pursuit of a leaner, stronger and more defined you today!
For that 'gym body' or 'body builder' look (particularly suiting 'hard gainers' – those who struggle to increase bulk), we not only have the facilities to stress your bodies in our private fitness studio, but through our coaches also have the nutritional know how to supply the muscles with the building blocks to bigger, stronger and more powerful muscles through our bespoke nutrition and supplementation programmes. The literature to date identifies increases in muscle size, (termed 'muscle hypertrophy'), as a response to being placed under loads they are not commonly accustomed to (termed 'overload'). Here at Absolutely Fit our team of coaches are skilled at placing the body under overload conditions and as a consequence adaptation of the body results in increased muscle fibre size, increased stored protein and increased capillarisation – typical responses to our Men's Muscle Building programmes. So join the Absolutely Fit Team in pursuit of a bigger, stronger and more powerful you today!


We thought my parent's pool would make a lovely setting for some pictures. Too bad we didn't think about our toddler getting in the water and soaking her matching outfit!
The Week in Review: I'm pretty sure my latest visit to Wal Mart will be mentioned in the Employee Handbook, Ch. 2 on Unruly Guests. And we started swim lessons, all of us. In a moment of insanity, I signed up to take a Mommy & Me class with the toddler. After 2 lessons in frigid water, I've been rethinking the need to learn to swim, after all.
And now, I'd like to introduce you to Heather of Wanting What You Have. She submitted this post as her entrance into this prestigious, ahem, society!
matter – God, and family.
that I would die of boredom before the baby arrived.
out of control. It's normal.
through "the pile" for their Legos, but I DIDN'T CARE!
Thanks for featuring me Kristen!
I'm pretty sure that the employees of our local Wal-Mart feel a sense of impending doom every time they see us coming through the doors. Don't feel bad, it's not just you.
Ooooo, great idea sweep all the toys into a pile! Have a great Sunday!
I just found your blog and have to say, I love it! I don't even know how I got here, but I have been so entertained by your posts. It's so nice to know that we're not the only "That Family" out there too! I'm hooked! Thanks!
Great to meet you Heather. It is so liberating to realize that you are what you are and you just don't care!!!
I LOVE Heather's blog!! I read it every day 🙂 She's got really great tips, and is so very real.
Kristen – you've done it again! You've inspired me!
I love the picture – pictures that truly show what your life is really like are the ones I treasure more than any old portrait.


text:
Warner Club News (1959) – Part 2
"Grim" Natwick – Part 3: Krazy Kat and last years in Sheet Music, 1924-1929
ANIMATION SPIN
June 26, 2018 posted by Greg Ehrbar
Flying with Disney's "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" Soundtrack
Here's a look at some LP's that Disney spun around their 1971 live-action/animated fantasy reuniting the Sherman brothers with other Mary Poppins creative talents.
Walt Disney Productions' BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS
Original Cast Sound Track
Buena Vista Records STER-5003 (Stereo) (12" 33 1/3 RPM / Stereo)
CD Reissue: Walt Disney Records 60784-7
Released in May, 1971. Producer: Irwin Kostal. Music Supervisor/Arranger/Conductor: Irwin Kostal. Running Time: 31 minutes (CD Reissue: 39 minutes).
Performers: Angela Lansbury (Eglantine Price); David Tomlinson (Emelius Browne); Cindy O'Callaghan (Carrie Rawlins); Ian Weighill (Charles Rawlins); Roy Snart (Paul Rawlins); Robie Lester, Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Lee, (Portobello Road Citizens).
Songs: "The Old Home Guard," "The Age of Not Believing," "With a Flair," "A Step in the Right Direction," "Eglantine," "Don't Let Me Down," "Portobello Road," "Portobello Road Street Dance," "The Beautiful Briny," "Substitutiary Locomotion" by Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman
Instrumental: Overture.
Additional Songs (CD only): "Nobody's Problems," "Solid Citizen (Demo)," "The Fundamental Element" by Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman.
Mary Poppins was a hard act to follow. So was Walt Disney, for that matter. Bedknobs and Broomsticks was in an unenviable position of topping the crown jewel in an already sparkling career. The studio had changed, decisions were made by committee and often with the presumptive second guessing of an invisible Walt. Popular culture had taken a 180-degree turn after a decade of extreme contrasts in taste and style. Would even Mary Poppins have done as well in 1971 as it did in 1964?
Musical movies were few and far between. The few that were released were of a grittier nature. Even the other family musical of 1971, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, had a satirical bite (and was not a box office success in its original run). All things considered, Bedknobs and Broomsticks was a respectable success (even more so in the U.K. than in the U.S.), though nowhere near the earth-shaking phenomenon of Poppins.
Perhaps it was fitting for its time of release that Bedknobs was a fairly serious film with a highly focused story line about displaced orphans, houses with bombs in front of them, sooty London streets concealing thugs, and gun-toting Nazis (the kind that shoot to kill, not the Hogan's Heroes type). Even the animated Naboombu island characters are of the Alice in Wonderland nature, either aggressive or neurotic (but as in Alice, whimsically so, as in the Warner Brothers way).
Jimmy Johnson was still running the Disneyland and Buena Vista Records divisions when Bedknobs was released, but the Walt Disney Studios' circumstances—along with the economy and music business of the late '60s/early '70s–were very different than in the more optomistic Poppins days. Though Disney was certainly the leader in the exclusively children's record area, there was more crossover than ever with enitities like The Partridge Family and The Archies competing against The Jungle Book and Winnie the Pooh.
As he had done with Poppins, Johnson sent out a promotional record album for Bedknobs. This time, he did not create a special "Music of" collection with various artists interpreting songs from the score (see last week's Spin). There may not have been time, budget and resources for such a thing for Bedknobs. Instead, he enclosed the version performed by The Mike Sammes Singers conducted by Tutti Camarata. This is the same "second cast" album that was released by Disneyland Records (with the "secret" track by "Eglantine" hopeful Judy Carne), which we covered in this Spin. The cover of this promo album mentions neither Camarata nor Sammes, which makes one wonder if there was a chance that he might have packed the actual soundtrack in the cover had it been ready in time.
Much has been written about the issues that affected Bedknobs and Broomsticks regarding its running time and the merciless chopping of songs. The Sherman brothers and the cast experienced much disappointment as 26 minutes was removed to suit the demands of Radio City Music Hall playing schedules. (In 1979, an even more dreadful cut was made when more music was taken out for a "revised" theatrical release).
The soundtrack album contains songs that did not appear in the 1971 release: "With a Flair," "A Step in the Right Direction," "Don't Let Me Down" and a reprise of "Eglantine." It took years, but all the songs (except the lost "Step in the Right Direction") were restored and can be seen in the 2009 DVD version. Cover versions of the Bedknobs and Broomsticks score–including albums by the Living Voices and Beryl Reid–also have these songs because they were produced before the Radio City editing decision.
The superb song, "Nobody's Problems," was cut from the film before the Buena Vista album was produced. But it was filmed, so Angela Lansbury recorded it with a basic music track and it can now be seen as well.
Recently, a stage musical based on the film was announced. It will be interesting to see how all the pieces come together in a new interpretation, and how many of the missing elements will be reincorporated.
The three child young actors from Bedknobs and Broomsticks recently reunited and appear in this video, all grown up:
One final anecdote: Shortly after the publication of Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records (co-written with Tim Hollis), "Disneyland Story Reader" Robie Lester had a question about Bedknobs and Broomsticks one day. Robie (who has recorded more individual Disney records than any other artist to date) wondered why she still received Bedknobs residual checks but didn't recall working on the film. Your author (and most Disneyland Records fans) figured out that she was the voice of Emelius' two lady friends who meet all their "chums in the Por-to, bel-lo Road."
GIVE A LITTLE LISTEN
Excerpt from the Bedknobs and Broomsticks Radio Special
This is a 90-second edited clip from a radio special that was distributed on LP records to various stations. It presented the story through dialogue from the film (which the Disneyland Storyteller did not) with narration from the wonderful Pete Renoudet, who we talked about here. The story stopped just before the end to tease listeners to see the film when it played in their theaters.
Bedknobs and BroomsticksWalt Disney Records
Justin Knox
June 26, 2018 5:35:44 am
I'd love to see a Legacy Collection CD release of this soundtrack. It should have all the songs, Irwin Kostal's instrumentals and demos.
DBenson
June 26, 2018 12:56:07 pm
I remember Ron Moody being announced as the star of "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", recently being a hit in the movie version of "Oliver!". This was before the female lead — the real central character — was cast. One wonders how the movie might have been reshaped with the flamboyant Moody and a costar with perhaps less star wattage.
Glynis Johns must have been considered at some point. Before playing opposite David Tomlinson in "Mary Poppins", she was a flirtatious mermaid in the still-engaging "Miranda" and Tomlinson was one of the men under her spell. Maybe the studio felt they'd be perceived as the supporting couple from "Poppins" — It was already a little risky to invite comparisons by casting Tomlinson. Johns still had her biggest star turn ahead of her: "A Little Night Music".
Greg Ehrbar
June 26, 2018 3:08:59 pm
Perhaps more than any other post-Walt film, this one has the strongest feeling of existing in a parallel universe where the circumstances might have been different. Judy Carne, Lynn Redgrave and Julie Andrews we're all under discussion for Eglantine. The animated sequence might have have had a music hall stage set piece instead of a soccer game.
The Disney studio at the time was Dealing with internal viewpoints, growth outside of films (theme parks) and an adherence to sticking to what worked, which shows in the films that surround Bedknobs. Angela Lansbury, while expressing positivity about the film, called it "acting by numbers," meaning that it was rigidly planned with little room beyond established direction. Ron Moody might have reacted to that differently than Tomlinson, who had made two Disney films already. Moody did appear later in Unidentified Flying Oddball, but it was filmed in London years later.
ABOUT GREG EHRBAR
GREG EHRBAR is a freelance writer/producer for television, advertising, books, theme parks and stage. Greg has worked on content for such studios as Disney, Warner and Universal, with some of Hollywood's biggest stars. His numerous books include Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records (with Tim Hollis). Visit gregehrbar.com for more.
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The root causes for teenage abuse are often completely different from those of adults, including peer pressure, as a means to escape problems at home, and low self esteem.
When you add questions and doubts regarding their sexuality, it is no wonder there such a high-incidence of substance abuse among the teenage LGBT community. It is important that parents choose a rehab program designed specifically for their unique needs.
Group therapy gives teens a chance to learn and take comfort from the knowledge that others are experiencing the same difficulties and pain. Individual therapy empowers them to them retake control over their lives and actions, and to make better choices.
Find a rehab that specializes in treatment for LGBT teens.


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University of Lehigh University students protest in solidarity with Muslim students
A group of Lehmans student leaders and Muslim students gathered outside the university on Wednesday night to express solidarity with the Muslim students at the university.
Lehmans Students United president and vice president, Mohammed Ahmed, said he was concerned about the impact of the university's "racism, discrimination and homophobia" on the Muslim community.
"We have to say, we're here for the students and we are here for all students, not just for Muslims," he said.
He said there was a lack of understanding among the students of what racism and discrimination are and how to combat them.
Students are also upset that they have been forced to cancel classes and have to be on the waitlist for classes in order to attend classes.
They are also angry that Lehigh has not done enough to address their concerns, including the university allowing the university to discriminate against Muslims and not requiring all students to wear the hijab.
"There are no words to describe how we feel about this," he told the Lehigh Valley Times.
"We are the ones who have to bear the burden of this oppression and we cannot let them down."
Students held a rally at the campus on Wednesday to highlight the racism and homophobia they faced at Lehigh.
A student, Abdulrahman Moshiri, said there were issues with the administration of Leassa, but the university should be looking at the bigger picture.
"The university needs to look at how its policies are impacting the lives of Muslim students, and the students have to understand that," he added.
The group of students said they felt pressured to attend the rally, and they had to go through a formality.
"It's a bit sad, but it's also the right thing to do," Mr Moshiris said.
The Lehigh students are not alone.
The University of Sydney is holding a candlelight vigil on Wednesday afternoon, with other universities including the University of Melbourne and the University in Western Australia holding similar events.
Topics:racism-and-society,community-and.multicultural-festivals,religion-and/or-beliefs,people,community,lehigh-6730,nsw,australiaMore stories from New South Wales
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NASA's Plutonium Problem Could End Deep-Space Exploration
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/plutonium-238-problem/all/
By Dave Mosher
The Voyager probe's three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) can be seen mounted end-to-end on the left-extending boom. (NASA)
In 1977, the Voyager 1 spacecraft left Earth on a five-year mission to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Thirty-six years later, the car-size probe is still exploring, still sending its findings home. It has now put more than 19 billion kilometers between itself and the sun. Last week NASA announced that Voyager 1 had become the first man-made object to reach interstellar space.
The distance this craft has covered is almost incomprehensible. It's so far away that it takes more than 17 hours for its signals to reach Earth. Along the way, Voyager 1 gave scientists their first close-up looks at Saturn, took the first images of Jupiter's rings, discovered many of the moons circling those planets and revealed that Jupiter's moon Io has active volcanoes. Now the spacecraft is discovering what the edge of the solar system is like, piercing the heliosheath where the last vestiges of the sun's influence are felt and traversing the heliopause where cosmic currents overcome the solar wind. Voyager 1 is expected to keep working until 2025 when it will finally run out of power.
None of this would be possible without the spacecraft's three batteries filled with plutonium-238. In fact, Most of what humanity knows about the outer planets came back to Earth on plutonium power. Cassini's ongoing exploration of Saturn, Galileo's trip to Jupiter, Curiosity's exploration of the surface of Mars, and the 2015 flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft are all fueled by the stuff. The characteristics of this metal's radioactive decay make it a super-fuel. More importantly, there is no other viable option. Solar power is too weak, chemical batteries don't last, nuclear fission systems are too heavy. So, we depend on plutonium-238, a fuel largely acquired as by-product of making nuclear weapons.
But there's a problem: We've almost run out.
"We've got enough to last to the end of this decade. That's it," said Steve Johnson, a nuclear chemist at Idaho National Laboratory. And it's not just the U.S. reserves that are in jeopardy. The entire planet's stores are nearly depleted.
The country's scientific stockpile has dwindled to around 36 pounds. To put that in perspective, the battery that powers NASA's Curiosity rover, which is currently studying the surface of Mars, contains roughly 10 pounds of plutonium, and what's left has already been spoken for and then some. The implications for space exploration are dire: No more plutonium-238 means not exploring perhaps 99 percent of the solar system. In effect, much of NASA's $1.5 billion-a-year (and shrinking) planetary science program is running out of time. The nuclear crisis is so bad that affected researchers know it simply as "The Problem."
But it doesn't have to be that way. The required materials, reactors, and infrastructure are all in place to create plutonium-238 (which, unlike plutonium-239, is practically impossible to use for a nuclear bomb). In fact, the U.S. government recently approved spending about $10 million a year to reconstitute production capabilities the nation shuttered almost two decades ago. In March, the DOE even produced a tiny amount of fresh plutonium inside a nuclear reactor in Tennessee.
It's a good start, but the crisis is far from solved. Political ignorance and shortsighted squabbling, along with false promises from Russia, and penny-wise management of NASA's ever-thinning budget still stand in the way of a robust plutonium-238 production system. The result: Meaningful exploration of the solar system has been pushed to a cliff's edge. One ambitious space mission could deplete remaining plutonium stockpiles, and any hiccup in a future supply chain could undermine future missions.
The only natural supplies of plutonium-238 vanished eons before the Earth formed some 4.6 billion years ago. Exploding stars forge the silvery metal, but its half-life, or time required for 50 percent to disappear through decay, is just under 88 years.
Fortunately, we figured out how to produce it ourselves — and to harness it to create a remarkably persistent source of energy. Like other radioactive materials, plutonium-238 decays because its atomic structure is unstable. When an atom's nucleus spontaneously decays, it fires off a helium core at high speed while leaving behind a uranium atom. These helium bullets, called alpha radiation, collide en masse with nearby atoms within a lump of plutonium — a material twice as dense as lead. The energy can cook a puck of plutonium-238 to nearly 1,260 degrees Celsius. To turn that into usable power, you wrap the puck with thermoelectrics that convert heat to electricity. Voila: You've got a battery that can power a spacecraft for decades.
"It's like a magic isotope. It's just right," said Jim Adams, NASA's deputy chief technologist and former deputy director of the space agency's planetary science division.
A radiation-shielded glove box at Savannah River Site. In chambers like these during the cold war, the government assembled plutonium-238 fuel for use in spacecraft such as Galileo and Ulysses. (Savannah River Site)
U.S. production came primarily from two nuclear laboratories that created plutonium-238 as a byproduct of making bomb-grade plutonium-239. The Hanford Site in Washington state left the plutonium-238 mixed into a cocktail of nuclear wastes. The Savannah River Site in South Carolina, however, extracted and refined more than 360 pounds during the Cold War to power espionage tools, spy satellites, and dozens of NASA's pluckiest spacecraft.
By 1988, with the Iron Curtain full of holes, the U.S. and Russia began to dismantle wartime nuclear facilities. Hanford and Savannah River no longer produced any plutonium-238. But Russia continued to harvest the material by processing nuclear reactor fuel at a nuclear industrial complex called Mayak. The Russians sold their first batch, weighing 36 pounds, to the U.S. in 1993 for more than $45,000 per ounce. Russia had become the planet's sole supplier, but it soon fell behind on orders. In 2009, it reneged on a deal to sell 22 pounds to the U.S.
Whether or not Russia has any material left or can still create some is uncertain. "What we do know is that they're not willing to sell it anymore," said Alan Newhouse, a retired nuclear space consultant who spearheaded the first purchase of Russian plutonium-238. "One story I've heard … is that they don't have anything left to sell."
By 2005, according a Department of Energy report (.pdf), the U.S. government owned 87 pounds, of which roughly two-thirds was designated for national security projects, likely to power deep-sea espionage hardware. The DOE would not disclose to WIRED what is left today, but scientists close to the issue say just 36 pounds remain earmarked for NASA.
That's enough for the space agency to launch a few small deep-space missions before 2020. A twin of the Curiosity rover is planned to lift off for Mars in 2020 and will require nearly a third of the stockpile. After that, NASA's interstellar exploration program is left staring into a void — especially for high-profile, plutonium-hungry missions, like the proposed Jupiter Europa Orbiter. To seek signs of life around Jupiter's icy moon Europa, such a spacecraft could require more than 47 pounds of plutonium.
"The supply situation is already impacting mission planning," said Alice Caponiti, a nuclear engineer who leads the DOE's efforts to restart plutonium-238 production. "If you're planning a mission that's going to take eight years to plan, the first thing you're going to want to know is if you have power."
Many of the eight deep-space robotic missions that NASA had envisioned over the next 15 years have already been delayed or canceled. Even more missions — some not yet even formally proposed — are silent casualties of NASA's plutonium poverty. Since 1994, scientists have pleaded with lawmakers for the money to restart production. The DOE believes a relatively modest $10 to 20 million in funding each year through 2020 could yield an operation capable of making between 3.3 and 11 pounds of plutonium-238 annually — plenty to keep a steady stream of spacecraft in business.
In 2012, a line item in NASA's $17-billion budget fed $10 million in funding toward an experiment to create a tiny amount of plutonium-238. The goals: gauge how much could be made, estimate full-scale production costs, and simply prove the U.S. could pull it off again. It was half of the money requested by NASA and the DOE, the space agency's partner in the endeavor (the Atomic Energy Act forbids NASA to manufacture plutonium-238). The experiment may last seven more years and cost between $85 and $125 million.
At Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, nuclear scientists have used the High Flux Isotope Reactor to produce a few micrograms of plutonium-238. A fully reconstituted plutonium program described in the DOE's latest plan, released this week, would also utilize a second reactor west of Idaho Falls, called the Advanced Test Reactor.
That facility is located on the 890-square-mile nuclear ranch of Idaho National Laboratory. The scrub of the high desert rolls past early morning visitors as the sun crests the Teton Range. Armed guards stop and inspect vehicles at a roadside outpost, waving those with the proper credentials toward a reactor complex fringed with barbed wire and electrified fences.
The Advanced Test reactor's unique four—leaf—clover core design. (Idaho National Laboratory)
Beyond the last security checkpoint is a warehouse-sized, concrete-floored room. Yellow lines painted on the floor cordon off what resembles an aboveground swimming pool capped with a metal lid. A bird's-eye view reveals four huge, retractable metal slabs; jump through one and you'd plunge into 36 feet of water that absorbs radiation. Halfway to the bottom is the reactor's 4-foot-tall core, its four-leaf clover shape dictated by slender, wedge-shaped bars of uranium. "That's where you'd stick your neptunium," nuclear chemist Steve Johnson said, pointing to a diagram of the radioactive clover.
Neptunium, a direct neighbor to plutonium on the periodic table and a stable byproduct of Cold War-era nuclear reactors, is the material from which plutonium-238 is most easily made. In Johnson's arrangement, engineers pack tubes with neptunium-237 and slip them into the reactor core. Every so often an atom of neptunium-237 absorbs a neutron emitted by the core's decaying uranium, later shedding an electron to become plutonium-238. A year or two later — after harmful isotopes vanish — technicians could dissolve the tubes in acid, remove the plutonium, and recycle the neptunium into new targets.
The inescapable pace of radioactive decay and limited reactor space mean it may take five to seven years to create 3.3 pounds of battery-ready plutonium. Even if full production reaches that rate, NASA needs to squeeze every last watt out of what will inevitably always be a rather small stockpile.
The standard-issue power source, called a multi-mission thermoelectric generator — the kind that now powers the Curiosity rover — won't cut it for space exploration's future. "They're trustworthy, but they use a heck of a lot of plutonium," Johnson said.
In other words, NASA doesn't just need new plutonium. It needs a new battery.
In a cluttered basement at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, metal cages and transparent plastic boxes house a menagerie of humming devices. Many look like stainless-steel barbells about a meter long and riddled with wires; others resemble white crates the size of two-drawer filing cabinets.
The unpretentious machines are prototypes of NASA's next-generation nuclear power system, called the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator. It's shaping up to be a radically different, more efficient nuclear battery than any before it.
On the outside, the machines are motionless. Inside is a flurry of heat-powered motion driven by the Stirling cycle, developed in 1816 by the Scottish clergyman Robert Stirling. Gasoline engines burn fuel to rapidly expand air that pushes pistons, but Stirling converters need only a heat gradient. The greater the difference between a Stirling engine's hot and cold parts, the faster its pistons hum. When heat warms one end of a sealed chamber containing helium, the gas expands, pushing a magnet-laden piston through a tube of coiled wire to generate electricity. The displaced, cooling gas then moves back to the hot side, sucking the piston backward to restart the cycle.
"Nothing is touching anything. That's the whole beauty of the converter," said Lee Mason, one of several NASA engineers crowded into the basement. Their pistons float like air hockey pucks on the cycling helium gas.
For every 100 watts of heat generated, the Stirling generator converts more than 30 watts into electricity. That's nearly five times better than the nuclear battery powering Curiosity. In effect, the generator can use one-fourth of the plutonium while boosting electrical output by at least 25 percent. Less plutonium also means these motors weigh two-thirds less than Curiosity's 99-pound battery — a big difference for spacecraft on 100 million-mile-or-more journeys. Curiosity was the biggest, heaviest spacecraft NASA could send to Mars at the time, with a vast majority of its mass dedicated to a safe landing — not science. Reducing weight expands the possibilities for advanced instruments on future missions.
But the Stirling generator's relatively complicated technology, while crucial to the design, worries some space scientists. "There are people who are very concerned that this unit has moving parts," said John Hamley, manager of NASA Glenn's nuclear battery program. The concern is that the motion might interfere with spacecraft instruments that must be sensitive enough to map gravity fields, electromagnetism, and other subtle phenomena in space.
As a workaround, each generator uses two Stirling converters sitting opposite each other. An onboard computer constantly synchronizes their movements to cancel out troublesome vibrations. To detect and correct design flaws, engineers have abused their generator prototypes in vacuum chambers, assaulted them on shaking tables, and barraged them with powerful blasts of radiation and magnetism.
But NASA typically requires new technologies to be tested for one and a half expected lifetimes before flying them in space. For the Stirling generator, that would take 25 years. Earnest testing began in 2001, cutting the delay to 13 years – but that's longer than NASA can wait: In 2008, only one of 10 nuclear-powered missions called for the device. By 2010, seven of eight deep-space missions planned through 2027 required them.
To speed things up, Hamley and his team run a dozen different units at a time. The oldest device has operated almost continuously for nearly 10 years while the newest design has churned since 2009. The combined data on the Stirling generators totals more than 50 years, enough for simulations to reliably fast-forward a model's wear-and-tear. So far, so good. "Nothing right now is a show-stopper," Hamley said. His team is currently building two flight-worthy units, plus a third for testing on the ground (Hamley expects Johnson's team in Idaho to fuel it sometime next year).
For all of the technology's promise, however, it "won't solve this problem," Johnson said. Even if the Stirling generator is used, plutonium-238 supplies will only stretch through 2022.
An early ASRG prototype. Its 10,016 hours of use has contributed to decades of combined data on the performance of NASA's revolutionary nuclear battery. (Dave Mosher/WIRED)
Any hiccups in funding for plutonium-238 production could put planetary science into a tailspin and delay, strip down, or smother nuclear-powered missions. The outlook among scientists is simultaneously optimistic and rattled.
The reason: It took countless scientists and their lobbyists more than 15 years just to get lawmakers' attention. A dire 2009 report about "The Problem," authored by more than five dozen researchers, ultimately helped slip the first earnest funding request into the national budget in 2009. Congressional committees squabbled over if and how to spend $20 million of taxpayers' money — it took them three years to make up their minds.
"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about plutonium-238," said Jim Adams, the former deputy boss of NASA's planetary science division.
At the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., Adams stares through the glass at the nuclear wonder that powered his generation's space exploration. Amid the fake moon dust sits a model of SNAP-27, a plutonium-238-fueled battery that every lunar landing after Apollo 11 to power its science experiments. "My father worked on the Lunar Excursion Model, which that thing was stored on, and it's still up there making power," Adams said.
Just a few steps away is a model of the first Viking Lander, which touched down on Mars in 1976 and began digging for water and life. It found neither. "We didn't dig deep enough," Adams said. "Just 4 centimeters below the depth that Viking dug was a layer of pristine ice."
One floor up, a model of a Voyager spacecraft hangs from the ceiling. The three nuclear power supplies aboard the real spacecraft are what allow Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, to contact the Earth after 36 years. Any other type of power system would have expired decades ago.
The same technology fuels the Cassini spacecraft, which continues to survey Saturn, sending a priceless stream of data and almost-too-fantastic-to believe images of that planet and its many moons. New Horizons' upcoming flyby of Pluto — nine and a half years in the making — wouldn't be possible without a reliable source of nuclear fuel.
The Viking lander needed to dig deeper. Now we do, too.
Is It Safe to Launch Nuclear Batteries?
Anti-nuclear activists often state that just one microscopic particle of plutonium-238 inhaled into the lungs can lead to fatal cancer. There's something to the claim, as pure plutonium-238 — ounce-for-ounce — is 270 times more radioactive than the plutonium-239 inside nuclear warheads. But the real risks to anyone of launching a nuclear battery are frequently mis-represented or misunderstood.
Statisticians compare apples to apples by looking at a threat's severity, likelihood and affected population. An asteroid able to wipe out 1.5 billion people, for example, hits Earth about once about every 500,000 years — so the risk is high-severity, yet low-probability. Nuclear battery disasters, meanwhile, exist as low-severity and low-probability events, even near the launch pad.
Cassini, for example, left Earth with the most plutonium of any spacecraft at 72 pounds . Late in that probe's launch there was about a 1 in 476 chance of plutonium release. If that had happened, fatalities over 50 years from that release would have numbered an estimated 1/25th of a person per the safety design of its nuclear batteries. The overall risk of cancer to a person near the launch pad during an accident was estimated at 7 in 100,000. Beyond that zone, risk was even lower.
Statisticians also considered a second hypothetical and potentially dangerous event with Cassini. To get to Saturn, the spacecraft swung back toward and flew within 600 miles of Earth, zooming by at tens of thousands of miles per hour. The chance of releasing plutonium then was less than 1 in a million. If a release of plutonium occurred, statisticians estimated it might cause 120 cancer fatalities — for the whole planet — over 50 years. By contrast, natural background radiation likely claims a million lives a year, and lightning strikes about 10,000 lives.
A launch accident with NASA's Curiosity rover had a roughly 1 in 250 chance of releasing plutonium. But the low chance of cancer fatalities brought individual risk down to about 1 in 5.8 million. "I feel that they're completely safe," said Ryan Bechtel, DOE's nuclear battery safety manager. "My entire family was there at Curiosity's launch site."
Tags: batteries, fuel, nasa, plutonium, plutonoum 238, space exploration, wired
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Meet Jack – 93 yr old living in a cabin in the woods
Meet Jack English, a 93-year-old legend who lives in a cabin isolated deep in the Ventana Wilderness.
While on a hunting trip he learned that an old homestead in the Ventana Wilderness was being put up for auction by the estate of a childless heiress. He put a bid on the property and won. On the land he built a small cabin using materials from the land and milling trees by hand. When his wife passed away, Jack effectively left "society" and moved to the cabin full time.
Tags: cabin, jack english, nature, solitude, video, woods