text:
\subsection{Email}
\myparagraph{SPF}~\cite{rfc7208} enables domains to make assertions (in DNS)
about hosts that are authorized to originate email for that domain.  When an email
is received by an email exchanger, it parses the domain name from the email's
\texttt{From} address field, and queries the DNS to check whether the sender is
authorized to send email.  This mitigates spam and phishing emails that abuse
the \texttt{From} field.    SPF mainly uses \texttt{TXT} RRs, although a
dedicated \texttt{SPF} RR was introduced.

\myparagraph{Sender ID}~\cite{rfc4405} is an anti-spoofing proposal based on
SPF.  The main difference is that it aims in verifying the sender address
displayed to an email client (the \texttt{From} field and the address displayed
by email clients can differ).  Such an address is introduced as a Purported
Responsible Address (PRA)~\cite{rfc4407}.  By setting a special \texttt{TXT} or
\texttt{SPF} record, a domain can specify if only SPF should be verified,
or both SPF and PRA, or PRA only.

\myparagraph{DKIM}~\cite{rfc6376} is an email authentication protocol based on
signatures.  A domain publishes RR with its public key.  Next, the domain's
outbound email server signs sent emails with the corresponding private key.  An
inbound email server, after receiving a signed email, extracts its origin domain
name (via the \texttt{From} field) and performs a DNS lookup to obtain the
domain's public key used to verify the email.  Usually, DKIM is executed by
email servers rather than email clients (i.e., authors and recipients). Public
keys are stored in \texttt{TXT} RRs, and to obtain a key of \texttt{a.com},
\texttt{\_dkim.a.com} is queried.  DKIM protects emails from modification,
however, the scheme can be bypassed by an active adversary by simply stripping
the DKIM headers.

\myparagraph{DMARC}~\cite{rfc7489} is a comprehensive system that allows an
email-originating organization to express domain-level policies for email
management. A policy can specify how emails should be validated and how
receivers should handle validation failures. Additionally, DMARC policies can be
used to implement a reporting system (i.e., to report on actions performed under
a policy).  DMARC deploys SPF and DKIM, and domain owners can specify which of
those mechanisms (or both) should be used to validate their emails.  DMARC uses
\texttt{TXT} RRs to store policies, and the RRs are associated with domain names
prepended with the \texttt{\_dmarc.} prefix, e.g., \texttt{\_dmarc.a.com}.

\subsection{TLS PKI Enhancement}

\myparagraph{DANE}~\cite{rfc6698} allows domains to specify their key(s) or
key(s) of Certificate Authorities (CAs) they trust.  To this end, a domain
publishes a special DNS entry with its public key(s) or public key(s) of trusted
CA(s).  DANE introduces a new \texttt{TLSA} RR.   The scheme relies on DNSSEC,
requiring that the RRs be signed with the domain's DNSSEC key.  DANE records are
created per service, thus a DANE query encodes a transport protocol, and a port
number used. For instance, keys of a HTTPS server running at \texttt{www.a.com}
can be checked by querying \texttt{\_443.\_tcp.www.a.com}.  Such a flexible
mechanism allows to use DANE for all services that deploy TLS.

\myparagraph{CAA}~\cite{rfc6844} aims to provide trust agility and remove a
single point of failure from the TLS PKI. Specifically, it allows a domain to
specify (in DNS) CA(s) authorized to issue certificates for the domain.  This simple
procedure can prevent the two following threats:
\begin{enumerate*}[label=(\roman*)]
    \item compromised CA: a CA that is not listed by a domain cannot issue a
        valid certificate for the domain,
    \item identity spoofing: a benign CA can refuse certificate issuance if it is
        not listed by the domain.
\end{enumerate*}
CAA introduces new \texttt{CAA} RRs, which do not have to be protected via
DNSSEC, although it is recommended.

\myparagraph{Log-based approaches} are recent PKI enhancements that introduce
publicly-verifiable logs. The most prominent example is CT~\cite{rfc6962}, whose
goal is to make all certificates issued by CAs visible.  To this end, every
certificate is submitted to a log, which returns a signed \textit{promise} that
the certificate will be logged.  Then, in every TLS connection a client receives
a certificate accompanied with the logging promise.  However, it is important to
verify whether the promise was met, and to do so the client has to obtain a
proof from the log that given certificate indeed was logged.  Laurie et al.
propose~\cite{laurie2017certificatve} that clients ask a special CT-supported
DNS server for such a proof.  An advantage of this scheme is that DNS requests
are sent via a local resolver, thus the CT DNS server (and the log) cannot
identify the client, but only his resolver (usually run by his ISP).

\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:intro}
\input{intro}

\section{Background}
\label{sec:pre}
\input{pre}

\section{Security Enhancements Employing DNS}
\label{sec:enhancements}
\input{enhancements}

\section{Current State of Deployment}
\label{sec:state}
\input{state}

\label{sec:reliability}
\input{reliability}

\section{Conclusions}
\label{sec:conclusions}
\input{conclusions}

\section*{Acknowledgment}
We gratefully acknowledge support from ETH Zurich and from the Zurich
Information Security and Privacy Center (ZISC).
We thank Brian Trammell and the anonymous reviewers, whose feedback helped to
improve the paper.

\bibliographystyle{abbrv}

\section{Reliability of DNS}
To investigate how reliable DNS is for the security enhancements, we conducted a
series of experiments using RIPE Atlas (\url{https://atlas.ripe.net/}), the
largest publicly available global testbed for network measurements.  RIPE Atlas
is a network of hardware devices, called \textit{probes}, used for active
Internet measurements.  It supports DNS measurements, and provides good
geographic coverage~\cite{bajpai2015lessons}.  Through the measurements we
wanted to answer the two following questions:
\vspace{-7pt}
\begin{enumerate
    \item Are \texttt{TXT} RRs discriminated (dropped or manipulated) by
        some DNS clients/resolvers or network devices?
    \item How reliable is DNS in transporting UDP responses larger than 512
        bytes?
\end{enumerate}
\vspace{-7pt}
The first question is motivated by the importance of TXT RRs (see
\S\ref{sec:enhancements}) and by the common belief that a significant fraction of
\texttt{TXT} RRs is not transported correctly (probably due to its non-standard
type).  We investigate the second question to verify how the 512 bytes limit
for UDP DNS responses is enforced by the DNS infrastructure. This question
is important as the previous work indicates that the TCP support at DNS
resolvers is incomplete~\cite{huston2013question}, thus it is risky to rely on
the failover mechanism.  (Note, that RIPE Atlas does not expose an option to
check whether a probe's DNS client/resolver correctly handles responses with the
\texttt{truncated} flag set.)

In order to conduct the measurements, we launched an authoritative DNS server,
and prepared it with DNS responses of the following sizes:
\vspace{-7pt}
\begin{description}
    \item[494 bytes]: the size is below the 512 bytes limit, but it can handle
        most of the current responses (see \autoref{fig:respsize_cdf}).  We
        investigated transport over \texttt{A} and \texttt{TXT} RRs, to verify
        whether \texttt{TXT} RRs are discriminated (while compared to \texttt{A}
        RRs).
    \item[1005 bytes]: responses with this size allow us to investigate how
        robust the DNS infrastructure is, when the UDP response size limit is
        exceeded. This size is also below the standard MTUs (i.e., about 1500
        bytes).
    \item[1997 bytes]: by responses with this size, we want to investigate how
        exceeding the standard MTU influences DNS transport.
\end{description}
\vspace{-7pt}

Our DNS server was configured not to set the \texttt{truncated} flag, and in the
RIPE Atlas setting we set the acceptable response size to 4096 bytes.  We scheduled
measurements on the RIPE Atlas at the end of August 2016. We assigned all 9270
connected probes to query our DNS server.  For response sizes of 1005 and 1997
bytes we investigated only \texttt{TXT} RRs.  Depending on the queried target,
the following number of probes have responded: 8952 for queried \texttt{A} and
\texttt{TXT} RRs sent in 494 bytes responses, 8934 for 1005 bytes responses, and
7990 for 1997 bytes responses. Note, that each probe could respond with multiple
DNS responses.

In \autoref{tab:res} we present the obtained results.  As probes can use the
same, popular resolvers, beside the absolute number of responses, we also
present results for unique resolutions, where a unique resolution is defined as
a triple: number of RRs within a response, response size, and resolver's
address.
\begin{table}[t]
    \footnotesize
        \setlength\tabcolsep{4pt}
 \begin{center}
   \begin{tabular}{l | c | r| r r r | r r r r }
       \multicolumn{3}{c|}{}
     & \multicolumn{3}{c|}{\textbf{Successful Resolutions}} &
     \multicolumn{4}{c}{\textbf{Failed Resolutions}}\\
     & \textbf{Test} & \textbf{Total}& \textbf{Total} &
       \textbf{Exact} & \textbf{Larger} & \textbf{Total} &
       \textbf{Error}&\textbf{Empty}&\textbf{Truncated}\\ \hline
\multirow{8}{*}{\rotatebox{90}{\textbf{All Responses}}}
& \texttt{A}  & 16570 & 15468 & 15356 & 112 & 1102 & 867 & 189 & 46 \\
& 494B    & 100\% & 93.35\% & 92.67\% & 0.68\% & 6.65\% & 5.23\% & 1.14\% &
     0.28\% \\ \cline{2-10}
& \texttt{TXT} & 16570 & 15460 & 15343 & 117 & 1110 & 892 & 206 & 12 \\
& 494B & 100\% & 93.30\% & 92.60\% & 0.71\% & 6.70\% & 5.38\% & 1.24\% & 0.07\% \\ \cline{2-10}
& \texttt{TXT}& 16553 & 13480 & 936 & 12544 & 3073 & 1504 & 1155 & 414 \\
& 1005B   & 100\% & 81.44\% & 5.65\% & 75.78\% & 18.56\% & 9.09\% & 6.98\% & 2.50\% \\ \cline{2-10}
& \texttt{TXT}& 13727 & 7286 & 29 & 7257 & 6441 & 2360 & 3617 & 464 \\
& 1997B   & 100\% & 53.08\% & 0.21\% & 52.87\% & 46.92\% & 17.19\% & 26.35\% & 3.38\% \\
\hline\hline
\multirow{8}{*}{\rotatebox{90}{\textbf{Unique Responses}}}
& \texttt{A} & 7452 & 6625 & 6526 & 99 & 827 & 633 & 166 & 28 \\
& 494B     & 100\% & 88.90\% & 87.57\% & 1.33\% & 11.10\% & 8.49\% & 2.23\% & 0.38\% \\ \cline{2-10}
& \texttt{TXT} & 7447 & 6618 & 6516 & 102 & 829 & 638 & 181 & 10 \\
& 494B & 100\% & 88.87\% & 87.50\% & 1.37\% & 11.13\% & 8.57\% & 2.43\% & 0.13\% \\ \cline{2-10}
& \texttt{TXT} & 7938 & 6222 & 450 & 5772 & 1716 & 922 & 636 & 158 \\
& 1005B    & 100\% & 78.38\% & 5.67\% & 72.71\% & 21.62\% & 11.62\% & 8.01\% & 1.99\% \\ \cline{2-10}
& \texttt{TXT} & 6887 & 3741 & 19 & 3722 & 3146 & 1252 & 1652 & 242 \\
& 1997B    & 100\% & 54.32\% & 0.28\% & 54.04\% & 45.68\% & 18.18\% & 23.99\% & 3.51\% \\
   \end{tabular}
   \caption{Measured reliability of DNS.}
\vspace{-1.5cm}
   \label{tab:res}
   \label{tab:res_uniq}
 \end{center}
\end{table}
The successful results are divided into responses that were received with the
exact size served (by the authoritative DNS server), and larger responses
(resolvers add other information that is relevant to the query, like addresses of
authoritative servers).  Failed resolutions are divided into three categories.
First, the fraction of resolution errors is presented. These are errors such as
a DNS resolver that could not be found, or a failed connection. Then, we present
empty DNS responses (i.e., number of answers equals zero). The last category
shows the number of truncated responses, i.e., responses with fewer number of
RRs than expected or/and shorter payload of the response.

Our first observation is that for the 494 bytes long responses
there is only a negligible difference between reliability of \texttt{A}-only
responses versus \texttt{TXT}-only responses.
Secondly, the results show that UDP responses with size above the 512 bytes
limit increase the failure rate from 6.70\% to 18.56\% (all responses) and from
11.13\% to 21.62\% (unique responses).  Taking into consideration the results
about failing TCP support, it might be more effective to use UDP with increased
size instead of TCP.
Lastly, the largest responses investigated (1997 bytes) are successfully
delivered only in about 50\% of all cases.  That is probably caused by MTU
issues, as common MTUs over the Internet are about 1500 bytes.
We also observe, that resolvers enlarge responses usually when they are large
already.

Although RIPE Atlas is an ideal open testbed for such tests, it introduces some
biases.  Probes are plug-and-forget devices, thus an owner may be not aware that
DNS resolution at his/her probe does not work properly (this could explain the
large fraction of DNS errors even for the smallest responses investigated).
Moreover, probes are usually installed by network-savvy users like research
institutions, Internet operators, hobbyists, and the probe distribution (based
on their ASes) is heavy-tailed~\cite{bajpai2015lessons}.

\section{Tor and Security Enhancements}
Tor~\cite{dingledine2004tor} is the most popular software and infrastructure for
enabling anonymous communication over the Internet. It is an onion routing
protocol, where an \textit{encryption circuit} is selected by the Tor client
software. DNS querying over Tor is also anonymous and conducted by an
\textit{exit node} of the circuit (this node will forward traffic to
destinations).

The DNS resolution in Tor is restricted only to \texttt{A}, \texttt{AAAA}, and
\texttt{PTR} RRs. This obviously limits the deployment of DNS-supported security
enhancements in Tor.  It is especially important for the PKI enhancements, as
they assume clients to participate in the protocol (the mail enhancements are
deployed mainly by the mail infrastructure).

In this section, we investigate whether the supported RRs can be used to
implement DNS-supported enhancements (for instance, one could convey information
on a series of \texttt{A} or \texttt{AAAA} RRs).
\begin{wrapfigure}{R}{0.45\textwidth}
    \vspace{-.80cm}
  \begin{minipage}[b]{0.45\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{anon}
    \vspace{-0.75cm}
    \captionof{figure}{Tor-based measurement scenario.}
    \label{fig:tor}
    \centering
    \setlength\tabcolsep{2pt}
 \begin{center}
       \footnotesize
   \begin{tabular}{ c | c | c | c }
       \texttt{A}&\texttt{PTR} (IPv4)&\texttt{PTR} (IPv6)&\texttt{AAAA}\\ \hline
       99.78\% & 99.22\% & 98.89\% & 23.05\%
   \end{tabular}
    \vspace{-0.25cm}
     \captionof{table}{Fraction of successful resolutions (i.e., single RR
     returned) depending on type.}
   \label{tab:tor1}
 \end{center}
    \end{minipage}
    \vspace{-1.1cm}
\end{wrapfigure}
We measured DNS resolution over Tor, using our authoritative server, that was
also configured as a Tor Linux client (i.e., the server queried itself through the Tor
network, as presented in \autoref{fig:tor}).  For every set of queries, a new
Tor circuit was selected, and we conducted 15000 such resolutions.
We investigated how reliable Tor is in resolving requests for the supported RRs
(i.e., \texttt{A}, \texttt{AAAA}, and \texttt{PTR}). We checked \texttt{PTR}
queries for both, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

The first observation is that all asked resolvers limited DNS responses only to
a single RR.  This limits ways the supported RRs can be used to encode some
additional data (e.g., single \texttt{A} query can return only four bytes).
Table~\ref{tab:tor1} presents the fraction of successfully resolved requests.
As depicted, \texttt{A} queries are resolved slightly more reliably than
\texttt{PTR} queries for IPv4 addresses, which in turn are less reliable for
IPv6 addresses.    The results also show, that although \texttt{AAAA} RRs are
supported, they are resolved correctly only for 23\% of requests (probably, only
nodes supporting IPv6 resolve them).

\begin{table}[b]
       \vspace{-0.5cm}
 \begin{center}
    \setlength\tabcolsep{3.5pt}
   \begin{tabular}{ c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c}
       \textbf{61B} & \textbf{110B} & \textbf{158B} & \textbf{254B} &
       \textbf{366B} & \textbf{398B} & \textbf{430B} & \textbf{462B} &
       \textbf{478B}& \textbf{494B}\\
       1 RRs & 4 RRs & 7 RRs & 13 RRs & 20 RRs & 22 RRs & 24 RRs &
       26 RRs & 27 RRs & 28 RRs\\
       \hline
       99.77\% & 99.77\% & 99.77\% & 99.77\% & 99.23\% & 99.16\% & 98.10\% &
       92.87\% & 91.27\% & 38.36\%\\
   \end{tabular}
     \caption{Fraction of successful resolutions (i.e., single \texttt{A} RR
     returned) depending on the response size (from the authoritative server).}
   \label{tab:fail_size}
 \end{center}
\end{table}
Surprisingly, we observed that some resolvers fail to return any response when
the response from the authoritative server is large (but still below 512 bytes).
To further investigate this phenomena, we prepared responses with \texttt{A} RRs
with different sizes.  We then  measured when requests are processed successfully
(by success we mean a response to the client that contains a single RR, although
many were served). The results (see \autoref{tab:fail_size}) show that
reliability of DNS resolution decreases with the response size.  Only
38\% of all resolutions succeeded at all with 494 bytes long responses served.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Home › Freedom-Expressed › 'Turkish Awakening' – A kind of book review
'Turkish Awakening' – A kind of book review
Posted on July 25, 2015 by RonMamita — 5 Comments
Suspicious Author has Amazing Coincidences or is she an Intel agent attempting to influence public opinion?
Turkey File
How do you feel when you wake up in a strange bed in a strange house? A little disoriented, yeah? You're probably confused at first, then you start to look for ways to make sense of your new surroundings – based on your own previous experience of what's normal, and the new reality in which you find yourself. Whether your new construct tends more to the former or the latter probably depends a lot on how often you've had to go through this process before. Certainly you'll appreciate any guidance you may be offered by friendly locals.
Note the sinister black mosque and red Islamic flag
I'm trying to keep an open mind here. A friend loaned me 'Turkish Awakening' and I felt a twinge of kindred spirit with an author whose name so resembled my own. On the positive side, I can tell you that Ms Scott writes very…
‹ IMPORTANT Message In The Music
After 5 years of Austerity, Greece begins to awaken… ›
Tagged with: agent, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, connection, controlled media, government, institutional activity, propaganda, public opinion, syria, Turkey, undercover agent
5 comments on "'Turkish Awakening' – A kind of book review"
I Do Not Believe In Amazing Coincidences
-Around the age 22 she graduates from Oxford University.
-worked in London as an assistant director in theatre and opera before moving to Istanbul in January 2011
-now works as a freelance journalist for the British press'.
-"The first sentence of the book tells us that the young lady 'had nearly finished writing this book when the Gezi Park protests broke out in Istanbul at the end of May 2013.' If that is indeed the case, she must have engaged in a fairly major and somewhat hurried rewrite, because not a chapter goes by without frequent reference to those protests and her interpretation of what they mean for the country."
-Ms Scott was 24 years old when she moved to Turkey, … Her degree major and work experience do not seem especially to qualify her for a career in journalism, yet not only are her articles published in the Guardian and the New Statesman, but also in an interesting online news site Politico, and seem to have crossed the Atlantic to the American Newsweek.
-her freelance writing was sufficiently lucrative to finance extensive travels over the length and breadth of Turkey, staying long enough in each place to get a feel for the local culture and conduct interviews with the people.
-Politico Europe went online this year with the stated aim of becoming 'the dominant politics and policy publication in Europe'. It was established 'as a joint venture between US-based political published Politico and Berlin-based Axel Springer AG. Politico is a political journalism organization based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers the issues, ideas and personalities behind politics and policy in the United States and in the global arena. The Axel Springer company is the largest publishing house in Europe and controls the largest share of the German market for daily newspapers; 23.6%.' (Source: The Guardian)
-"I'm curious about Ms Scott's boyfriend, who features often in the text and obviously accompanied her on her fact-finding travels – yet isn't identified by a specific mention in her dedication or acknowledgements. Is he Turkish? Does that explain why Ms Scott was able to travel so easily around the country interviewing locals?"
-From her own admission, she couldn't even pronounce her own Turkish name correctly when she arrived in the country at the beginning of 2011 (despite having been brought up by that Turkish Cypriot mother, and non-English-speaking grandmother) – yet two years later she had traveled to all corners of the country conducting interviews in colloquial Turkish with natives and taxi drivers from Istanbul to the Arab border and north to the Black Sea, and written this book.
-that's an impressively rapid progression from zero to advanced competence in a language not generally considered easy for English-speakers. At the same time, judging from the articles she has had published in Newsweek, she also managed to research big-game hunting in Zimbabwe, and spend time in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Vienna.
"Apart from the mother who gave her daughter a Turkish name but failed to teach her how to pronounce it, it's easy to miss the other people who assisted in the compilation of this book, tucked away, as they are, in a brief afterthought of 'Acknowledgements' between the final page of the text and the very scholarly index. None of the names are identified in any way (boyfriend, proof-reader, British Ambassador etc) that might give us some clue as to how these people contributed to the project – so that obliges a curious reader, me for instance – to do their own research."
Read on and pierce the illusion…
http://turkeyfile.com/2013/07/12/whos-funding-the-islamic-revolution-will-the-real-muslims-please-stand-up-part-ii/
http://turkeyfile.com/2012/10/09/turkey-and-syria-caught-up-in-the-game/
The Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine Has Been Our Demise
Posted on July 26, 2015 by Martin Armstrong
In a 1958 speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association, veteran CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow told a room full of TV executives, "We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent." Murrow produced a series of reports that helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his trumped up witch hunt for communists, when it was revealed that he was just making accusations without evidence. Murrow was one of journalism's greatest figures, noting his honesty and integrity in delivering the news; we have lost so much ever since that standard. Murrow used his position to take on powerful politicians and defend the American people, a free press as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson. He also exposed issues such as segregation and warned that the new TV medium was being used to "distract, delude, amuse and insulate" the public.
The FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine, which has been rather disastrous. The Fairness Doctrine required that TV and radio stations holding FCC-issued broadcast licenses to (a) devote some of their programming to controversial issues of public importance; and (b) allow the airing of opposing views on those issues. This meant that programs on politics were required to include opposing opinions on the topic under discussion. Broadcasters had an active duty to determine the spectrum of views on a given issue and include those people best suited to represent those views in their programming. That meant you had to relay both sides of an issue. Today, mainstream media no longer has to be fair. They can propagate all the propaganda and tell only what the government demands. Hence, nothing that is real is fit for the news if it goes against corporate management or government demands. We are plagued with Terrorism as the excuse to eliminate all privacy as the excuse to raise taxes. This paranoia is not even as honest as McCarthyism which it at least was about Communists. Today, we are subjected to Obamaism but nobody will defend the people against exaggerated terrorism.
"Leading German Journalist Admits CIA 'Bribed' Him and Other Leaders of the Western 'Press'"
Mockingbird Media Lies EXPOSED
stuartbramhall says:
Karl Marx had a reputation for sniffing out government agents simply from their writing style.
All the lands of the world, everywhere you look, governments …
The Earth is infested!
Japan, Greece, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, U.S., …
LOL;
bloggers have been sharing this musical reminder:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Leaping lizards! Newark Museum throws another fun-tastic Dinosaur Day
Updated Apr 02, 2019; Posted Apr 23, 2009
By S. James Snyder/For The Star-Ledger
DANIEL HEDDEN
Thousands of kids turned out for last year's "Dinosaur Day" at the Newark Museum.
Dinosaur Day. Where: Newark Museum, 49 Washington St., Newark. When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. How much: $10; $6 students, seniors. Call (973) 596-6550 or visit newarkmuseum.org. What else: The museum's Centennial Celebration continues 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.
From Barney to "Jurassic Park," dinosaurs have long been objects of collective fascination.
So it should come as little surprise that the adult organizers of this year's Dinosaur Day at the Newark Museum seem every bit as giddy as the thousands of kids who turned out last year for an up-close look at these most fascinating reptiles of fact and fiction. "You can see their eyes light up when kids start to think about these terrible lizards roaming the earth," says Ismael Calderon, the museum's director of science. "But it's not just them. With adults too, you'll get them asking questions about what dinosaurs were like and how they lived. These are creatures we never seem to get tired of. "
Now halfway through a 100-hour celebration of its 100th anniversary, the Newark Museum has integrated its second Dinosaur Day into the centennial festivities -- a follow-up to the day-long Dino bash in 2008 that still holds the distinction of being the most popular event in the museum's history.
More than 5,000 visitors showed up last year to learn about dinosaurs, engage with the dozens of interactive exhibits, and to hear speakers talk about the science of locating and resurrecting fossils buried for eons.
Organized in conjunction with Rutgers University, and funded in large part by a National Science Foundation grant that aids both organizations in organizing year-round events, the goal of Dinosaur Day is to encourage youngsters to consider careers in science.
"We aim to expose students to the geological sciences, which, of all the sciences, has the least diversity when it comes to graduate programs and professionals," Calderon says. "So we're trying to offer visitors these hands-on activities to show them how engaging and enjoyable the sciences can be. Hopefully then a few of them will want to get into the science pipeline."
More than 40 different interactive booths are being set up, each geared toward bringing the principles of the geological sciences to life. There's a fossil dig, an earthquake demonstration -- even dinosaur art that illustrates the ways in which these lizards lived. The day's highlight is surely the life-size cast of a T-Rex skull, a replica so gargantuan that visitors are able to stick their heads inside.
"What's great about this is you can see the science working on two entirely different levels," says Alexander Gates, chairman of the earth and environmental sciences department at Rutgers University-Newark. "You have kids who can play games and experience this is in more of a hands-on way, and then adults who are understanding the larger systems behind what we're demonstrating. It's really an immersion for the entire family."
Beyond the roughly 20 installations specifically geared towards dinos, Gates says there are some 20 more Dinosaur Day stations that go beyond the lizards, demonstrating the ways in which the world's larger geological systems work. He is organizing a tsunami tank that illustrates how and why giant waves form. There's a geothermal energy simulation that shows how using a little bit of water and the Earth's natural underground heat can control the temperature of a home.
There are exhibits that show younger visitors the career paths that could await them in the field of geology. In the "oil game," Gates says, kids gain an appreciation for the ways energy companies use scientific data to locate and extract the Earth's most valuable minerals.
"Players get a little bit of money, but they quickly realize that if you use that money to buy data, you can find oil," he said. "In terms of energy, if you know what you're looking for, that can mean you can make a whole lot of money. Some people are surprised by the big salaries that can be pulled in by geologists."
During last year's record-breaking Dinosaur Day debut, Calderon says children responded most energetically to the activities that required them to use their hands to scour, sift and dig. This year, they will be able to dig for fossilized shark teeth -- slices of history that they will then be able to take home. They will also be able to sift minerals, mine for gemstones, and to hold fossils that have been brought in from sites around the world.
More than any hands-on activity, Calderon says what really brings science to life for younger visitors is a face-to-face meeting with an actual scientist. This year, the museum is welcoming paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, a former New Jerseyan who works at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Calderon describes Bakker as a modern-day "Indiana Jones," one of the world's foremost experts on dinosaurs and so renowned for his excavations that Calderon says he was sought after to consult Steven Spielberg on "Jurassic Park."
Bakker will be offering a presentation on what it means to be a paleontologist, and how scientists can use fossils to recreate an image of what existed on Earth ages ago. Calderon says Bakker will also be creating dinosaur drawings throughout his presentation, using them as illustrations of his topics and then handing those sketches out to children.
Beyond illustrating general scientific themes, Dinosaur Day will also be highlighting some cutting-edge theories about dinosaur physiology. Calderon says that visitors to the museum will be introduced to the concept of "pneumasticity."
"Birds are the descendants of dinosaurs, and we are now discovering through research that just like birds, dinosaurs were able to move around -- and to be as big as they are -- because their bones were probably filled with air," he says. "This ballast made them lighter, so huge animals like the T-Rex or the Brontosaurus were still able with all that tonnage to move around."
By using fossils and air mattresses to speculate on this concept of pneumasticity, organizers are also hoping to build a bridge between the Dinosaur Day festivities and the museum's new exhibit, "Skies Alive! Bird Migration in the Garden State," which explores the aerial superhighway that passes directly overhead in New Jersey, through which millions of birds migrate between North and South America.
In comparing dinosaur fossils to bird bones, and by organizing exhibits that focus on modern-day birds of prey, Calderon hopes to use Dinosaur Day to spin the conversation forward. While dinosaurs may have disappeared from the Earth some 65 million years ago, Dinosaur Day, and "Skies Alive," suggest their relatives are still to be found all around us.


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Fourth edition, corrected, with additions. By J. Lee.
An introduction to botany : containing an explanation of the theory of that science; extracted from the works of Dr. Linnaeus ; with twelve copper-plates, two explanatory tables, an appendix and glossary / by James Lee ...
Printed for J. F. and C. Rivington, L. Davis [and 6 others]
The Fourth edition, corrected, with additions.
xxiv, 434 p., 12 leaves of plates : ill. (copper engravings) ; 22 cm.
Spine title: Lee's Botany.
Plants Early works to 1800.
J. F. and C. Rivington.
L. Davis.
Lee's Botany.
An introduction to botany. Containing an explanation of the theory of that science; extracted from the works of Dr. Linnaeus; with twelve copper-plates, two explanatory tables, an appendix and glossary. By James Lee ...
Botany - Lee.
Printed for J.F. and C. Rivington, L. Davis, B. White, and Son, S. Crowder, C. Dilly, G.G.J. and J. Robinson, T. Cadell, and R. Baldwin
The 4th ed., corrected, with additions.
[v]-xxiv, 434 p. : 12 pls. ; 22 cm.
The plates and their accompanying text are on unnumbered pages between 355 and 379.
In English.
By permission of the Trustees of The Natural History Museum (London).
NHM GENERAL - A. Reynell No. 2. 4.viii.1927. 5/-.
NHM GENERAL - One marginal annotation (p. 412) which has been partly cut off in rebinding.
NHM GENERAL - Rebound July 1965 (?)
Printed for J. F. and C. Rivington
The 4th ed., corr., with additions.
xxiv, 434 p. 12 pl. 22 cm.
An introduction to botany.:Containing an explanation of the theory of science; extracted from the works of Dr. Linnaeus; with twelve copper-plates, two explanatory tables, an appendix, and glossary. The fourth edition, corrected, with additions. By James Lee ...
London, Printed for J.F. Rivington, L. Davis, B. White and Son, S. Crowder, C. Dilly, G. G. J. and J. Robinson, T. Cadell, and R. Baldwin. MDCCLXXXVIII.
xxiv, 434 s., 12 pl.-blad ; 8:o
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text:
Welcome to Ishvani Kendra
The highly symbolic and evocative name of the centre captures a good deal of the original vision that motivated and empowered its founder. Both the components of the name are etymologically linked to Sanskrit language symbols. Ishvani—itself a combination of two words that signify two of the rudimentary realities of all religious experiences—means "Word of God". Kendra is translated as "centre". "Ishvani Kendra", therefore, means 'Centre for the Word of God'. As an Institute of Missiology and Communications, Ishvani Kendra has a certain claim to uniqueness. It is the only one of its kind in India, perhaps also on the entire Asian scene, to reflect upon and deepen the understanding of the concept of evangelisation, and communicate the Good News effectively.
In the ultimate analysis, the task that Jesus entrusted to his followers was the task of giving wider and wider amplification to the Word of God personified through him and made tangible in his life and message. If this is understood as the irreducible kernel of the Christian missionary enterprise, one can easily see how Ishvani Kendra by fulfilling the task it has designed for itself remains fully wedded to the cause of evangelisation.
1. The Beginnings
The beginnings of the centre can be traced back to the mid-seventies. Fr. Englebert Zeitler, a great visionary of the Indian church, after having ensured a sure footing for the National Vocation Service Centre, turned his attention to the area of mission studies and research which he felt was suffering from gross neglect for far too long. This he saw as distressing especially when considered against the background that ever since the beginning of the modern missionary movement, India had been a scene of intense evangelising activity. Being a member of the Society of the Divine Word, a religious congregation which considered the work of evangelisation as its raison d'être, Fr. Zeitler felt convinced that it was precisely the area in which he as an individual and his religious institute should make a lasting contribution. Ishvani Kendra was born of this realisation.
While continuing to be on the staff of the Divine Word Seminary, his congregation's scholasticate in Pune, he made the first moves towards realising his dream of a missiological institute. The earliest stirrings appeared in the form of skeletal library specialising on topics related to evangelisation and religious and social communications which began to take shape already in 1975 in the space made available by the seminary. The actual inauguration of the project took place on 26 May 1976. Fr. Zeitler believed in wide-ranging consultations among different sections of the Church such as ecclesiastical authorities, theological thinkers and personnel in the field, before initiating any new venture.
The foundation stone of the building was laid on 6 January 1979, significantly on the feast of Epiphany. What is believed to have taken place on the day of Epiphany, according to him, formed the quintessence of mission. In a brief speech made during the function, Fr. Zeitler maintained that the occasion marked a turning point in the history of the Indian church. The structure for which ground was broken then, he averred, would eventually lead to the dismantling of innumerable structures, both really and metaphorically. In his characteristically hyperbolic style the widely acclaimed missiologist was referring to the future task of the institute that he was founding. According to him, it would serve as the nerve centre of revolutionary thinking in the field of evangelisation.
2. The Original Vision
Ishvani Kendra functions as a hub of radical new thinking and action, providing inspiration, coordination and assistance in the work of evangelisation to the missionary personnel labouring in the far flung areas of India and to some extend in the scattered pockets of Christian presence in the Asian continent. The founding father had learned a considerable lot as FABC Mission Secretary and from the many years of exposure he had to the mission reality of India. Fr. Zeitler knew that the re-interpretation of the mission mandate enjoined by Jesus on his followers is a never-to-be-finished task. It was the duty of the succeeding generations of Christians to translate Jesus' command into meaningful propositions and viable models of action. This task, he realized, could not be left to individual theologians and innovative missionaries working in isolation. The need of the hour was to give an institutional framework to the effort of the Asian Church to collectively reflect upon and deepen its understanding of evangelisation. The lack of a forum for a creative exchange of ideas concerning the mission scene was adversely affecting the spread of the Good News.
An authentic approach to mission will not go far without effective methods of communication, surmised Fr. Zeitler. Powered by this seminal realisation he designed the centre's task of promoting study and research in the field of Missiology and dissemination of fresh ideas to be complemented by the work of a professionally run Communications Department. As soon as the institute moved in to its own premises the work of setting up a well-equipped communications department was initiated. Today video albums-VCDs & DVDs for prayer and reflection are regularly produced and published on Ishvani Day, which is fixed for Mission Sunday, every year.
3. Areas of Involvement
The centre carries out its fundamental aim of mission and missionary animation through an array of programmes and activities. The facilities at the centre include conference halls, a well-maintained library, a documentation department, a fully equipped communications department with the state-of-the-art sound-recording and video-editing equipments, and a tastefully designed chapel. A separate building which functions as a hostel provides accommodation to the participants of its residential courses and seminars.
3.1. Courses and Seminars
The main activity of the institute consists in conducting short-term courses and seminars on topics of relevance to mission and communications. The mission of the Church in the new millennium, mission orientation for those assigned to overseas destinations, mission orientation for formators, media education for teachers and animators, mission-oriented spirituality for evangelisers are some such topics. The participants of the various programmes express themselves very positively both about the contents and the methodology and frequently speak in glowing terms about the rich learning experience that the centre provides.
In recent years the centre is moving towards solidarity movements for peace organising National Colloquiums annually to respond adequately to the instances of violence, terrorism and fundamentalism that threaten the very fabric of Indian unity, diversity, pluralism and democracy. There is a compelling need more than ever for all the Church in India to join hands and work together in solidarity with leaders of all religions and ideologies.
3.2. Communication Department
The communication department functions as a production and training centre for religious and social communications. Besides offering digital film-making courses, the department regularly produces audio-visual material that is helpful for evangelisers and educators. Audio and Video albums-VCDs & DVDs containing audio-visual meditations, instrumental music and devotional songs in many of the Indian languages such as Hindi, Marathi, and Telugu which the centre puts on the market are often in high demand. The sound recording and video editing facilities of the centre are made use by many individuals and groups looking for professional ambiance and quality production.
3.3. Library and Documentation Department
The library is one of our much sought after facilities. It contains about 36,000 volumes on topics related to mission and communications. The main focus is on mission theology, mission history, mass media, world religions, feminist ideology, tribal and dalit thinking and sociology. Over a hundred scientific journals linked to a wide variety of specialised fields are regularly subscribed to. The library's computer maintains a periodically updated mass of bibliographical data and its printout is made available on request to researchers.
The documentation department collects and classifies research material on a number of topics of relevance to both the secular and the religious field. Clippings from newspapers and periodicals are collected and filed under several general categories that are further divided into numerous sub-sections. Researchers find the information extensive and easily retrievable. Newsletters and publicity material from other research centres, reports and statements of missiological consultations and theological seminars are also stored and made available for consultation.
3.4. Research Seminars
Ishvani Kendra also conducts research seminars on missiologically significant topics from time to time. The aim of such efforts is to bring together people from the academy and the practitioners of innovative mission methods in the field to reflect on the contemporary challenges faced by the Church's mission. On the occasion of the Great Jubilee 2000, for instance, the institute organised a research seminar entitled 'A Vision of Mission for the New Millennium'. The event brought together a formidable body of religious and social thinkers who spent nearly four days deliberating on the various challenges faced by the Christian mission in India. The reflections were ably guided by the inputs given by three of the country's most outstanding scholars. From January 6-8, 2011 a National Consultation on "Indian Pluralism and Solidarity for a More Just Humanity" was organised by Ishvani Kendra. This Colloquium brought together over 100 participants from various faith traditions and ideologies – religious leaders, social activists and those working for peace. It has opened a new chapter in the mission of the institute, to work in solidarity with all. In continuity with this initiative an inter-religious satsang was organised on 16 December 2012 in the context of Christmas 2011, to discern signs of God's presence and purpose in the world in a spirit of dialogue, which brought together people of six religious traditions and ideologies to reflect and pray together in order to promote peace and communion among communities. Its theme, RELIGIONS FOR PEACE, is the mission of every believer in India, as we encounter other cultures and religious traditions.
3.5. Publication
Publication is another area of the centre's interest. It publishes a journal entitled "Ishvani Documentation and Mission Digest". Designed as a scientific journal, it comes out three times a year. Each issue contains over a hundred abstracts of articles published in national and international reviews with full information of the sources appended to each abstract. Scholars and students find it a valuable tool of research as it introduces them to the latest literature in numerous fields. Every month the institute publishes 'Mission Scan' with the latest mission news, reflections, statements and new publications on mission, and reaches friends and well wishers all around the world through e-mail.
3.6. Extension Services
The institute also provides extension services to dioceses and religious congregations looking out for resource persons to conduct renewal programmes. Staff members of the centre are involved in teaching at the Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth (JDV), formerly known as the Papal Athenaeum, and situated in the same campus. The Programme Coordinator of Ishvani Kendra is also the Coordinator of MTh Programme in Missiology at JDV. While the students of JDV make extensive use of the institute's library, the staff members provide them guidance in writing papers.
3.7. Collaboration with the National Bishops' Conference
As a centre for mission and missionary animation, Ishvani Kendra has been trying to explore every possible avenue to lend a helping hand to the Church bodies, particularly the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) and the Conference of the Catholic Bishops' of India (CCBI), in their efforts to refurbish the missionary image of the Indian Church. One of its former Directors, Fr. Augustine Kanjamala SVD, had been the secretary of the Commission for Proclamation and Communications for a long time. This Commission has been conducting a number of consultations and seminars at the institute with the active collaboration of its staff. Besides, the institute had in the past years undertaken surveys and studies related to mission at the request of the Bishops' Conference and individual bishops.
Through its various programmes and activities Ishvani Kendra, thus, continues to fulfil its crucial task of providing inspiration, coordination, and assistance to the missionary movement in India and to a limited extent to the Christian community in Asia. Its website: ishvanikendra.com is regularly updated announcing its annual programmes and publishing relevant mission material for study and research.
Present SVD Staff Members
Fr. Victor Sagayam. Z, SVD
Fr Mathew Kavukatt SVD
Programme Co-ordinator
Fr. Edwin Vas SVD
Head of Communication Department
Fr. Mohan Doss SVD
Professor at JDV
Fr. Salvador Carvalho SVD


text:
La erosión eólica es el desgaste de las rocas o la remoción del suelo debido a la acción del viento. El viento es un agente de modelado del relieve que puede acarrear grandes cantidades de polvo a través del mundo, pero los granos de arena solo pueden ser transportados a distancias relativamente cortas. El cuarzo es el mineral más abundante en las partículas de arena; normalmente es resistente a la meteorización química, a la disolución y a la abrasión,
es decir, que la erosión eólica es referente al viento con la arenilla que se encuentra en la tierra.
La arena se encuentra distribuida por toda la superficie terrestre, pero particularmente en los desiertos, las costas, estuarios de ríos y espacios que han registrado glaciaciones. Parece que el agua pudo haber sido el agente original que ocasionó la concentración de las potentes masas de arena de los desiertos. El viento sería el agente de redistribución y la génesis de un amplio muestrario de formas sedimentarias. Muchos de los grandes depósitos, especialmente los llamados mares de arena o ergs, parecen ser el resultado de una importante actividad fluvial durante el Cuaternario.

Definición y entorno
Los procesos eólicos son aquellos procesos de erosión, transporte y deposición de sedimentos que son causados por el viento en la superficie terrestre o cerca de ella. Los depósitos de sedimentos producidos por la acción del viento y las estructuras sedimentarias características de estos depósitos también se describen como eólicos.

Los procesos eólicos son más importantes en zonas donde hay poca o ninguna vegetación. Sin embargo, los depósitos eólicos no se limitan a climas áridos. También se observan a lo largo de las costas; a lo largo de los cursos de los arroyos en climas semiáridos; en zonas de amplia arena meteorizada procedente de afloramientos de arenisca débilmente cementada; y en zonas de  afloramiento glaciar.

El Loess, que es limo depositado por el viento, es común en climas húmedos a subhúmedos. Gran parte de América del Norte y Europa están cubiertas por arena y loess del Pleistoceno procedentes de las coladas glaciares.

Los valles fluviales de las regiones semiáridas suelen estar cubiertos de arena y dunas a sotavento. Algunos ejemplos en Norteamérica son los ríos Platte, Arkansas y Missouri.

El viento como agente de erosión

El viento es un eficaz agente de erosión de materiales finos y sueltos, capaz de arrancar, levantar y transportar partículas, y su capacidad para erosionar rocas compactas más duras depende en gran parte de la velocidad del viento y de la mayor o menor compactación de esas rocas de la superficie terrestre. Aunque la velocidad determina la capacidad del viento para erosionar y arrastrar partículas, también influye el carácter de los materiales, la topografía del terreno, la eficacia protectora de la vegetación, etc. En el caso del Sahara, el viento puede alcanzar velocidades huracanadas, que pueden ocasionar una acción erosiva considerable, teniendo en cuenta las características de la escala de Mohs: un mineral o roca de una dureza de 7 puntos (como el cuarzo) puede rayar a otros minerales que tengan esa mima dureza o menor. En esa idea se basa la técnica del arenado (sandblasting en inglés), esencial en la industria petrolera.

En el fenómeno de erosión eólica, es determinante la superficie sobre la que actúa el viento. Su alteración no se limita a puntos o áreas limitadas como ocurre con la erosión hídrica; la acción del viento se ejerce sobre la totalidad de la superficie. En espacios amplios, la erosión produce a menudo excavaciones de depresiones poco profundas llamadas hoyas, cuencas o depresiones de deflación. Se originan en áreas más o menos llanas y desprovistas de vegetación en donde el suelo está expuesto a la acción del viento. Las partículas finas (arcillas y limos) son levantadas por corrientes verticales que sobrepasan las velocidades de decantación; el polvo se difunde en la atmósfera hasta alturas que van desde pocos metros a varios miles. La altura depende de la intensidad de la turbulencia del viento, de su duración y del tamaño de las partículas. Como resultado, puede producirse una densa nube, llamada tormenta de polvo.

El carácter selectivo de la erosión eólica al tomar partículas finas y dejar gravas y cantos, demasiado grandes para su transporte, origina el denominado desierto de piedras o hamada. Estas altiplanicies tapizadas de fragmentos rocosos en donde el material fino ha sido, prácticamente, eliminado por el viento, y en donde la acción de la termoclastia es muy activa, presentan, en ocasiones, vastísimos desarrollos como en la «Hamada de Guir» en Marruecos-Argelia y «Hamada al Hamrah» en Libia.

Las superficies expuestas de los cantos y afloramientos del substrato rocoso pueden presentar una película de tonalidad casi negra llamada barniz desértico. Está formado por un recubrimiento de óxido de manganeso o de hierro, llevado a la superficie por solución (capilaridad) y depositado como una lustrosa película sobre las superficies lisas por evaporación. En algunos lugares, la evaporación de la humedad capilar deja tras sí un depósito de carbonato de calcio o yeso que actúa como cemento, endureciendo el pavimento y convirtiéndolo en una coraza de aspecto conglomerático.

Otra forma de erosión del viento es la conocida como abrasión o corrosión eólica, en la que granos o partículas minerales duras, normalmente cuarzo, golpean o arañan las superficies rocosas y los obstáculos que afloran. Esta acción del viento cargado de partículas sólidas se limita a las primeras decenas de centímetros banales de un acantilado, colina u otro afloramiento que destaque sobre un plano más o menos horizontal. La corrosión origina orificios, acanaladuras y entalladuras en las rocas; si la masa rocosa destaca sobre un llano, puede ser erosionado por la base y adoptar la forma de una seta, por lo que se denominan roquelis, rollerous (en alemán) rocas fungiformes.
Allí donde existe una alternancia de estratos blandos y duros, la acción del viento es altamente selectiva; las zonas menos resistentes son desgastadas más rápidamente que las duras, las cuales acaban por resaltar vigorosamente a modo de salientes y cornisas con profundas y largas acanaladuras o pasadizos, alineados paralelamente según la dirección del viento. A este modelado esculpido en crestas y pasillos socavados se les da el nombre de yardangs. En aquellas áreas con bloques y cantos poco consolidados o aislados, el viento los bisela del lado de donde sopla tallando una superficie pulimentada; si la dirección del viento cambia o el canto es removido, puede ser tallado en varias caras separadas por aristas. A tales cantos se les denomina ventifactos; cuando se modelan de modo bastante perfecto con caras que se cortan en tres bordes agudos reciben el nombre de dreikanters.

El transporte de sedimentos por el viento

El viento desplaza las partículas sueltas, básicamente, según los mismos mecanismos que las escorrentías hídricas, en función del tamaño del grano y de la velocidad del fluido. Los granos de arena viajan a favor del viento, permaneciendo cerca de la superficie, separándose gradualmente de las partículas más gruesas que pesan demasiado para que el viento las desplace lejos. De este modo se origina una masa característica de sedimentos conocida como arena eólica o arena de duna, cuyas partículas tienen un diámetro entre 0,1 y 1 mm, compuesta en su mayor parte por cuarzo, por ser el mineral cuya dureza y resistencia química lo convierten en el más duradero de los materiales que contienen las rocas. Los granos de cuarzo transportados por el viento ofrecen formas redondeadas y sus superficies están cubiertas de microscópicas fracturas por el impacto de unos granos contra otros.
Las partículas más gruesas son transportadas por rodadura, reptación y deslizamiento sobre la superficie; los granos de arena son capaces de viajar por saltación elevándose hasta alturas de 2 o 3 metros en algunos casos. Las partículas finas (limos y arcillas) pueden desplazarse en suspensión y ser elevadas a grandes alturas por las corrientes ascendentes, tan frecuentes en las regiones cálidas.

Saltación y suspensión son los mecanismos más importantes del transporte eólico. Las partículas realizan saltos a favor del viento; tras el impacto con granos en la superficie, pueden rebotar de nuevo y elevarse. De este modo, el viento transfiere energía cinética al grano, el cual, al chocar con la superficie de arena, disloca otras partículas y puede proyectarlas al aire. Las partículas de limo y arcilla pueden permanecer en suspensión con viento turbulento, e incluso casi indefinidamente para los granos muy pequeños. Las grandes tormentas de arena elevan partículas hasta 250 metros de altura y avanzan con velocidades que pueden llegar a alcanzar los 200 m/s. Se ha estimado que entre 500 y 1000 millones de toneladas de polvo son transportadas desde todas las fuentes cada año. Algunas de las más potentes tormentas de polvo del Sahara, alcanzan a los países meridionales de Europa e incluso llegan a las costas orientales de América del Sur, cruzando el océano Atlántico.

Otros cálculos estiman que en 1 km³ de aire pueden viajar, en suspensión, unas 900 toneladas de polvo. Teniendo esto en cuenta, una tempestad de polvo de 500 km de diámetro podría transportar más de 90 x 106 tm de polvo, suficiente como para construir una colina de 3 km de base y 30 m de altura. El transporte de sedimentos por el viento es realizado por rodadura, reptación, deslizamiento, saltación y suspensión. Los granos gruesos lo hacen por los tres primeros mecanismos citados, los de tamaño medio por saltación y los más finos por suspensión.

El viento es también, al menos en parte, responsable de la formación de un depósito amarillento, homogéneo, de grano fino y sin estratificar: el loess. La mayor parte de las opiniones están de acuerdo en que su génesis es debida a las nubes de polvo que fueron dispersadas a partir de los depósitos glaciares y fluvioglaciares, por los vientos fuertes anticiclónicos que soplaban desde las vastas capas de hielo continentales del Pleistoceno. Se cree que los potentes depósitos de loess de Europa central, Rusia, China, Estados Unidos, Argentina, Nueva Zelanda y otros lugares, fueron sedimentados, prioritariamente, en épocas interglaciares o postglaciares, bajo condiciones climáticas más secas y frías que las existentes hoy. En China, por ejemplo, la extensa superficie de loess, alrededor de 750.000 km², tiene un espesor de más de 250 m y sus capas basales fueron depositadas hace unos 2,4 millones de años, de acuerdo con mediciones paleomagnéticas.

El tamaño de las partículas de loess es mayoritariamente el de los limos, entre 4 y 60 micras de diámetro, a pesar de que entre un 5 y 30 %, pueden ser partículas del tamaño de la arcilla. Los suelos procedentes de este tipo de depósito son de alta calidad y suelen producir excelentes cosechas.

Sedimentación eólica
La sedimentación y las construcciones dunares correlativas son las que expresan más comúnmente la morfogénesis del viento en los dominios áridos y sectores costeros, por la extensión de los espacios que recubren, por la diversidad de tipos y por las considerables dimensiones que alcanzan en ocasiones. Los depósitos de arena se suelen clasificar, por su tamaño, en tres tipos:

 Ripples, acumulaciones espaciadas entre 5 cm y 2 m, con alturas de 0,1 a 5 centímetros.
 Dunas, pueden estar separadas entre 3 y 600 m y presentar alturas entre 0,1 y 15 metros.
 Megadunas, estos grandes depósitos pueden registrar separaciones de 300 m hasta 3 km y alturas de 20 a más de 400 m.

Las diferencias entre estas tres clases de formas eólicas se deben a los balances entre los mecanismos de transporte y deposición.

Los ripples son rizaduras producidas en sedimentos sin consolidar análogas a las que ser forman bajo el agua, pero con crestas algo más agudas. Estas rizaduras, formadas por saltación de las partículas, son comunes en todas las superficies de arena.

Los procesos para la formación de ripples están relacionados con la interacción dinámica entre el flujo del viento y el movimiento de sedimentación. El inicio suele producirse al azar, con la presencia de un pequeño obstáculo en la superficie, un segmento de arena mojada o una variación local del tamaño del sedimento o de la velocidad del viento; el resultado es la aparición de pequeños montículos de arena. Estos montículos presentan una cara a barlovento que registra la mayor parte de los impactos de las partículas, mientras que la cara opuesta, la de sotavento, es la que recibe los granos por saltación. Los granos más gruesos tienden a acumularse en la cresta, mientras que el material más fino se deposita en las concavidades entre crestas.

Son, sin embargo, las construcciones dunares las que expresan más comúnmente las morfogénesis del viento, por la extensión de los espacios que recubren, por la diversidad de formas y por las considerables dimensiones que alcanzan en ocasiones. Las dunas pueden presentar una fascinante variedad de modelos dependiendo de factores como:
 Suministro de arena.
 Velocidad del viento.
 Variabilidad en la dirección del viento.
 Características de la superficie por la que se desplaza la arena.

Tipos de duna

Las variedades más frecuentes de dunas son las transversales, barjanes, longitudinales y parabólicas. Todas se desplazan unos 15 m/año, en los grandes desiertos, extensas áreas están completamente cubiertas de arena, se les conoce como mares de arena o ergs. los más extensos se hallan en África (Sahara), Arabia Saudí y Australia.

Los campos de dunas de los desiertos son los más importantes conjuntos de modelado eólico de la superficie terrestre, se extienden sobre centenares de kilómetros. Muchos campos están compuestos por grandes y complejas construcciones dunares, como los aklés del Sahara o de Arabia Saudí. Son grandes acumulaciones de arena modeladas en formas irregulares, anárquicas y sin ningún alineamiento sistemático.

Véase también
 Erosión
 Erosión fluvial
 Modelado del relieve
 Meteorización
 Terraza aluvial
 Degradación del suelo

Notas y referencias

Bibliografía
 Geografía Física, por Francisco López Bermúdez / José Manuel Rubio Recio / José María Cuadrat. Editorial: CÁTEDRA 1992. ISBN 84-376-0893-7.

 Compendio de Geografía General, por P. Gourou y L. Papy. Editorial:RIALP 1977. ISBN 84-321-0249-0

Enlaces externos

 Página de la UNESCO donde se explica a fondo la Erosión

Erosión

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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This BMW-designed PC tower will make you the envy of any LAN party
By Jonathan Fincher
This BMW-designed PC tower wil...
BMW's DesignworksUSA group recently teamed up with computer manufacturer ASRock to create the M8, a compact PC tower designed especially for gaming
Since it was commissioned by a motherboard manufacturer, the case includes semi-transparent sides that showcase the computer's innards, particularly the motherboard
The M8 case has been designed to look impressive whether it's placed vertically or horizontally, while still providing optimal cooling throughout the interior
The design team wanted to give the M8 a signature style that would make it stand out at LAN parties while conveying a sense of power akin to a race car
BMW might normally be associated with luxury cars, but its subsidiary group, DesignworksUSA, is a different story altogether. Aside from developing innovative concepts for automobiles, the team there also applies its parent company's design principles to a wide range of products – even home computers. It might come as no surprise then that the group recently teamed up with computer manufacturer ASRock to create the M8, a compact PC tower that resembles a high-performance engine and was designed especially for gaming.
DesignworksUSA is no stranger to personal electronics, having worked on a "caseless" computer tower and a durable smartphone for outdoors types. That's why ASRock, which specializes in motherboards, enlisted the group to build its first small form factor (SFF) gaming PC.
The design team wanted to give the M8 a signature style that would make it stand out at LAN parties while conveying a sense of power akin to a race car. As such, the case has been designed to look impressive whether it's placed vertically or horizontally, while still providing optimal cooling throughout the interior. And since it was commissioned by a motherboard manufacturer, the case includes semi-transparent sides that showcase the computer's innards, particularly the motherboard.
A knob on the front acts as a multi-functional control button, with an OLED display that shows the date, time, and system heat, among other stats. Turning the knob can also adjust the volume and cooling fan speed.
Don't let the sleek aesthetics fool you though; this computer case is built for travel. Each corner has a handle to make it easier to carry, and the motherboard is secured against any damaging movement once inside the case. The side panels are also magnetic and can be easily removed to make any quick repairs or adjustments to the inside of the computer. The tower also includes a 802.11ac Wi-Fi module and Bluetooth v4.0, supplying 867 Mbps wireless speeds, as well as a Creative SoundCore 3D quad-core processor for enhanced sound effects.
DesignworksUSA and ASRock will debut the M8 gaming PC at the upcoming Computex trade show in Taipei, which runs from Jun. 4 to Jun. 8. No details on a price or release date have been revealed as yet.
Source: BMW
ComputersVideo GamesBMWComputersPC
Jonathan Fincher
Jonathan grew up in Norway, China, and Trinidad before graduating film school and becoming an online writer covering green technology, history and design, as well as contributing to video game news sites like Filefront and 1Up. He currently resides in Texas, where his passions include video games, comics, and boring people who don't want to talk about either of those things.
Elijah Sherv June 4, 2013 01:28 AM
Looks great :D I'd definately buy something like this.
William Hide June 4, 2013 06:08 AM
Looks like BMW's take on the PowerMac.
Fil Magnoli June 4, 2013 01:39 PM
Reall?!!! an Aluminum G3, or G4 case with see through window ..... OMG, thank god the focus on Cars and not PC cases ... come on, really?!
warren52nz June 4, 2013 05:39 PM
"resembles a high-performance engine" Really??? I don't see it.


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Flatpack Festival
Flatpack 2020
Film for all the senses
Radio Silence (dir. Duncan Cowles) + Interview
Friday 3rd July, 2015 Posted by Sam Groves
From time to time, as a programmer, you come across an exciting emerging filmmaker at the beginning of their career, knowing that one day, you're going to want to do a retrospective of their work. For me, Duncan Cowles is one of those filmmakers. Having graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2013, he has already made four shorts that have screened at festivals internationally including Flatpack in both 2013 and 2014. Specialising in documentary, his work is brilliantly droll, and personal without falling into self-indulgence. His graduation short film, Radio Silence recently went online, and I caught up with him to discuss some of the themes in the film, and the issues you face when turning the camera onto your own family.
SG: So after a year or so of festivals, Radio Silence is now available online. It's a very personal film - were you at all hesitant or nervous about making it available online for anyone to see? I'm not suggesting you were going to get trolled in the comments, but I guess the safety net of the auditorium is removed when it goes online.
DC: Yea, I was pretty terrified at putting such personal material out there. My experience putting The Lady with the Lamp online and getting both hugely positive, and also quite negative feedback about my Mum had prepared me to a certain extent, but this film is a lot more personal, and definitely makes me feel slightly more vulnerable. It's good to put yourself out your comfort zone though.
When you put a film online, it almost feels like you are giving up ownership of it in some way, but I figured that if my Dad didn't mind, I should just do it and try not to think about it too much. It needed to be out there in the world, there's no point in a film just sitting on my hard drive entertaining nobody.
SG: Some of the conversations you have with family members (particularly with your dad at the end) are quite candid – they can't have been easy, but do you think having the camera there made those discussions less difficult at all?
DC: Yea, I think I use the camera as a device to force me to confront things that I wouldn't otherwise have been brave enough to do. Particularly with the last interview, I put it off for so long it looked like I might not even go ahead with it until being more or less forced to by my tutors at Edinburgh College of Art.
If I can hide behind the camera, it distances me from the immediate reality of the situation and allows me to process it later in the edit suite. In this particular edit, I was mostly on my own and I got a lot of time to really think about it and reflect upon what I was finding out, that's when things became a bit more 'real' in some ways. It's odd that things sometimes become more real retrospectively, maybe that says something about me, or maybe it's wider than that and says something about the way we all experience and live our lives today.
SG: The film has already had over 30,000 views, which is terrific, and reading the unanimously positive comments on Vimeo must be a great feeling. You obviously put some thought into when you were going to put it online (father's day). How easy was it to get it into festivals, and now that it's online, does that mean its festival run is finished?
DC: Yea definitely. I spent all of Father's Day pushing the film online in a hope to get it out there best I could. I'd been waiting for months for the optimum day to launch it. Seeing it go down so well is a really nice feeling indeed. It's great to hear people saying things like they were touched by it and have then gone to phone their Dad for a chat and things like that. Makes me feel like the film was all the more worthwhile to make. It's also been a complete privilege to receive some very personal and touching stories from others about their own families and situations. I hope the film can continue to reach people in the way that it has done this past week for a long time to come.
It wasn't an easy film to get into festivals, the length will have no doubt put a lot of programmers off. It's also a film that (like many) works a lot better with an audience and perhaps on solo viewing doesn't always grab people quick enough.
The film has played lots in Scotland, and some in the UK as a whole, but further afield than that it has struggled to be programmed for more than the odd festival here and there.
There are some more public screenings to come, but not huge amounts as I'm mainly touring my newer film Directed by Tweedie.
SG: Were you able to make it to any of the screenings? And what was the response like from audiences?
DC: Audiences have generally engaged very well with the film and it has prompted some great conversations. Questions are normally asked of what my Dad thought and said to me after I first showed it to him.
The answer being simply: "good structure".
… words aside though, he chuckled away throughout and a couple of weeks later went on to attend the premiere of the film at Edinburgh's Filmhouse with a big smile on his face, which meant more to me than anything else.
SG: I think it's difficult not to be charmed by you and your family – they've been the subject of three of your four shorts so they must be getting pretty used to you having your camera with you, but what is it about your family which entices you to film them?
DC: I always have to film what I'm most motivated to film, and up until now that has been my family. I've wanted to film them all so that I can in some way preserve and record the memory of them whilst I still can. It's like a mini-protest against time, getting older, things changing and me personally being quite scared of that. So it's a very personal motivation, but if I can create a story, or make a film that is insightful and can become universal, then I can bring something interesting to the rest of the world. When someone watches one of my films and then reflects upon their own lives, and even better then acts upon it by phoning their Mum, Dad or son for example – then I've achieved my goal.
SG: The film uses some gorgeous snippets of home movie footage – does this mean filmmaking runs in the family, or were you the first to really take an interest in being a professional filmmaker?
DC: I would say I'm the first to give it a go on a professional level. There is definitely an interest from my Father and indeed his Father, but not as a career path. There are a lot of artistic people in the family though. Both my Grans are painters for example, and my brother is a graphic designer/musician.
I did come across some macro footage of Spiders under a microscope that had been filmed on 8mm by my Grandpa, and they are stunning. More than enough there for an experimental short. There was potential in him for sure.
SG: Directed by Tweedie is the perfect follow up to Radio Silence, and it's currently doing the festivals around the world (including Flatpack in March earlier this year). Can you tell us a bit about it and when we can expect to see it online?
DC: Yea, Directed by Tweedie is again about communication within families, but with a slightly different and more light-hearted story I would say. In order to get my Grandad Tweedie to understand what I do as a filmmaker, I attempt to get him to make a film. However at 87, he's less than keen to participate…
The film will be up online later in the year I hope, or early next year at the latest. I will again be looking for the appropriate time and context to launch it.
SG: You're based up in Edinburgh, and I know you're working on a film with animator Ross Hogg (more on that shortly), but is there quite a filmmaking scene up there? And who are the key players?
DC: Yea, for sure. Across Edinburgh, Glasgow and even up into the Highlands and Islands I'd say there's a really appealing and growing film scene. Small in comparison to say London, but there's some real high quality stuff getting made, both in terms of short and feature length filmmaking.
I work at the Scottish Documentary Institute so I'm aware of and connected to a huge range of up and coming and established talent. We run a talent scheme for short docs to get commissioned each year called Bridging the Gap, and there's the Scottish Shorts scheme run by the Scottish Film & Talent Network that commission short fiction work each year. There's also lots going on in Glasgow with places like Sigma Films beginning to output some real high quality shorts and features. I've seen a real rise in the past 3 to 4 years.
It's nice because there's a real community, and a lot of us are all mates, so we'll meet up in the pub most weeks and chat about our ideas etc… there's too many key players to mention.
SG: So your film with Ross, can you tell us about that? And what's the current timeline for that project?
DC: We're almost done. It's a live action, experimental, animated documentary portrait about Ross's gran.
(That'll probably end up being the synopsis because it's a hard one to describe.) It explores memory, but not in a way that you've seen before. We were kindly supported by Creative Scotland to make the project, which was brilliant and the finished result is going to be quite different from anything either of us have done before.
SG: The three shorts in the Big Dunc series you've made with Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson are bloody great. Please tell me you're making more… In fact, I sense you've probably got a sketch show in you, do you have any plans to move away from documentary, and move into drama or comedy?
DC: Aye, I expect Big Dunc will be back, although I don't know exactly when, or in what form. It's worked out about one a year so far, so that may continue to be the case…
Yea, I wouldn't rule out drama or comedy. Documentary has been the focus up until now but I'm open to anything as long as I want to do it enough. When I run out documentary ideas, or think of an idea I want to do as a documentary but can't, then perhaps fiction is where I'll have to go.
As for comedy, I'll probably always look for a way to bring that into my work, no matter what the form or exact topic. People don't laugh enough, especially when it comes to documentary.
A lot of documentaries can end up being about quite depressing topics, and of course there's a place for that, and indeed a real importance in it, but if you watch a lot of them, it can start to get you down. You don't get so many happy, or indeed funny documentaries; I think we need more of them.
SG: You're also researching a longer documentary project – can you whet our appetite with some info on that?
DC: Yea, I've been looking into and filming a few different ideas, I'm just deciding on which one feels like it's worth perusing the most. A lot of it is about context too. I have a huge bank of film ideas I want to make, what I need to think about is "why this film now?" Would this film be a better film if it was made in 10 years time rather than today, and what films won't I be able to make in 10 years time that demand to be made right now?
I'll not say too much about what I'm planning until I know for sure, but now that I've filmed virtually all my family (at least for now), I may begin to look at what else is, or has been close to me throughout my life so far. There are maybe other people, or figures from the past I feel the need to find, film and understand better. We'll see…
What would be a lot easier would be if I discovered a family member I never knew existed, or maybe if Channel 4 would like to commission me to film a documentary on a nice slow Summer's cruise somewhere relaxing? I'd probably set aside some time to do that.
SG: Oh, and one thing that's been on my mind for some time – did you ever replace that lamp?
DC: Yes, well, my Mum replaced it when I was on holiday. I didn't really have a say in the matter. In fact it's been replaced again since then, with a set of two lamps that have touch sensors that turn them on and off. She's out of control.
You can follow what Duncan is up to next via his twitter account.
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Northwest Indiana Oilmen Continue To Struggle
The Northwest Indiana Oilmen (15-11) freefall continued, losing 4-2, to the DuPage County Hounds (14-12). During this slump, which has the Oilmen losing eight out of their last nine games, timely hitting has plagued the team as they left eleven Oilmen on base. With the loss, the Oilmen fall to third place in the MCL South division, one game behind the Illinois Lincolns who took over the top spot last night.
Oilmen Joey Eichmann pitched a shutout through five innings. His only real mistake was a pitch to Gary Mayberry who racked up two RBIs on a two run blast, tying the game at two. The game remained tied until the ninth inning, when an error by the left fielder Billy Miller on a misplayed fly ball allowed the inning to continue. With two runners on, Jason Euler hit a two-run double giving the DuPage County Hounds the lead in the ninth.
Brendan Delany got the win for the DuPage County Hounds. Delany pitched nine innings, allowing one earned run, seven hits and three walks while striking out seven. Oilmen Bennett Oliver got on base four times in the game, driving in one runner. He doubled in the first inning and singled in the third and ninth. Eichmann (1-2) took the loss. He lasted 8 1/3 innings, walked two, struck out three, and allowed four runs, two of which were earned.
On Thursday, July 5th the Oilmen end their final home stand before the All-Star break as they meet the Southland Vikings. Every Thursday at Oil City Stadium is Thirsty Thursday, where drinks are half priced.


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WGPSN
1 WGPSN : IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature
WGPSN : IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature
A committee appointed by the IAU which oversees the assignment of names to surface features on bodies in the solar system. The WGPSN was founded at the 1973 IAU meeting, with Peter Millman as its first president. Within the WGPSN there are Task Groups (TG) for the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Outer Solar System and small primitive bodies (asteroids and comets). The WGPSN and its Task Groups hold occasional meetings (in recent years almost entirely by exchange of e-mails), and report their decisions at the triennial meetings of the IAU.
The WGPSN is a Working Group of Division III (Planetary Systems Sciences) of the IAU.
The WGPSN currently has 13 members. On of these, Charles Wood serves as Chairperson of the Task Group for Lunar Nomenclature which has six additional members.
Under current IAU rules, the WGPSN has authority to approve and add names to the IAU Planetary Gazetteer with or without the advice of the Task Group for Lunar Nomenclature. Such names can be removed within a three month period if objections are received by the Divison III chairperson. Formerly, WGPSN recommendations were considered provisional, and they were not officially "approved" until voted upon at one of triennial meetings of the IAU. See IAU nomenclature for additional details about how lunar names are approved.
The WGPSN should not be confused with the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature which oversees the assignment of names to small objects in the solar system. The WGPSN is tasked with the quite different job of organizing, standardizing, and maintaining lists of names to be used for the many surface features recognizable in planetary imagery.
Shevchenko, V.; El-Baz, F.; Gaddis, L.; Hiesinger, H.; Shkuratov, Y.; Whitaker, E.; Wilson, L.; Blue, J. 2009. The IAU/WGPSN Lunar Task Group and the Status of Lunar Nomenclature. 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. March 23-27, 2009.
WGPSN webpage
LPI page on Planetary Nomenclature
Retrieved from "http://the-moon.us/index.php?title=WGPSN&oldid=13099"


"...[The term] refers to whether a private developer has obtained all necessary permits, including right-of-ways for all roads in a development, from the city government. A property owner may also be required to make improvements to a community, such as street widening and sidewalk, gutter and curb installation. "The Playa Vista folks need to dedicate the streets to the city," [City Councilman Bill Rosendahl] stated. The councilman said that police and fire know where the streets are located and law enforcement does patrol the neighborhood. "But in the long run, the dedication of the streets will guarantee those protections," Rosendahl added.
"We have been having this same problem since I moved here," one resident tells the paper, noting cars sit on the streets for days without being ticketed. "I believe that our streets will never get turned over to the city."


text:
Tag Archives: transportation
Those Stubborn Facts: Biden's Hollow Travel Mask Mandate
Posted by Alan Tonelson in Those Stubborn Facts
Biden, CCP Virus, coronavirus, COVID 19, masks, Those Stubborn Facts, transportation, travel, Wuhan virus
– Associated Press, January 21, 2021
U.S. "airlines, Amtrak and other transport providers now require masks…."
(Source: "Biden to sign virus measures, requires mask use to travel," by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press, January 21, 2021, Biden to sign virus measures, requires mask use to travel (apnews.com))
(What's Left of) Our Economy: Foxconn's U.S. Plans Debunk China-Related Manufacturing Defeatism
Apple, China, electronics, flat panels, Foxconn, General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, Jobs, manufacturing, Obama, supply chains, tariffs, Terry Gou, Trade, transportation, Trump, {What's Left of) Our Economy
Another day, another big corporate announcement about job-creation in the United States in the wake of Donald Trump's election as president – this time from Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, which makes so many iPhones and other products in China.
All the usual skeptical responses have been marshaled – or will be. Some of these have already been made by Foxconn's chairman, like "We were already thinking of this" and "Trump's tariff threats had nothing to do with these plans." (Those aren't direct quotes – just paraphrases.) An unusual skeptical response is out there, too – that the very large (and growing) flat panel displays Foxconn is thinking of producing in America are inevitable candidates for relocation because they're too fragile to keep shipping half way around the world to customers.
But here's what's especially fascinating about Foxconn even considering this move: It demolishes or at least severely undercuts many of the most powerful explanations for why huge chunks of manufacturing will never return to the United States.
First, although Foxconn chief Terry Gou brushed off Trump's trade stance, he has also stated that because of surging populism in the United States and globally, the rise of protectionism is "inevitable." In this way, he's just acknowledged the same trends that recently prompted his General Electric counterpart Jeffrey Immelt to declare that his huge multinational manufacturer will start making more goods where those goods are sold. So there's little doubt that, precise timing aside, Gou has had his finger up to the prevailing political winds – which got a lot stronger on November 8.
Second, it may be true that very large flat panels for the highest tech TVs etc aren't suitable for ocean voyages. But the United States, you may remember, is an awfully big country. And at least some of its roads aren't in such hot shape. So since these panels will still have to travel by truck thousands of miles inside America to get from factories to warehouses and then to retail outlets (or directly to customers), it's hard to imagine that transportation technicalities have been the main drivers of Foxconn's decision.
Third, the kinds of electronics products made en masse by Foxconn in China have long been seen as especially farfetched candidates for domestic American production because the PRC is thought to have created such utterly matchless competitive advantage in this field. As Apple executives apparently told the (credulous) Obama administration five years ago, China's manufacturing edge goes way beyond labor costs. The U.S. company, of course, is one of Foxconn's leading customers.
Instead, "the vast scale of overseas [especially Chinese] factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign [especially Chinese] workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that 'Made in the U.S.A.' is no longer a viable option for most Apple products." In other words, the electronics sector's main supply chains are now located in China, and changing this immense fait accompli is impossible.
Yet Foxconn's Gou is talking about doing just that. For example, he's talking about a 30,000-50,000 job gain from the investment. Moreover, he already employs 400 in Virginia in a packaging and engineering, and has announced his intention to build a Pennsylvania facility to "build precision tools and develop a robotics programme." That sure sounds like supply chain stuff to me.
Ever since his first run for the White House, former President Obama has used the phrase "Yes, we can" to inspire his countrymen. His successor seems to recognize that the phrase applies to reviving American manufacturing, too.
(What's Left of) Our Economy: No Easing American Poverty While Policy Blindspots Persist
American South, Chico Harlan, Immigration, Jobs, mass transit, poverty, single mothers, The Washington Post, Trade, transportation, wages, welfare, {What's Left of) Our Economy
Chico Harlan and some colleagues at the Washington Post have done some terrific reporting recently on the poverty-heaviness of the American South and especially the new developments fueling it, and his piece this week on its increasing suburban-ization is no exception. (Click here and here for two earlier articles.) Except I take exception in one regard. Harlan here seems to gloss over the role played by poor – and avoidable – personal choices, both by currently poor southerners and by their forebears.
By following the odyssey-like travel forced on one young low-income Atlanta-area woman even to go job-hunting, Harlan convincingly shows the harm done by the dispersal of poor populations from inner cities combined with the lousy mass transit systems in suburbs and equally bad transit links between those suburbs and urban cores. And in fact, recent research makes clear that the transit dimension of poverty and near-poverty is hardly restricted to the south. So it's completely appropriate to sympathize with Lauren Scott, who can't afford a car, as she spends literally hours on buses heading to and from job interviews and following up other employment leads. It's just as appropriate to condemn the zoning laws and other state and local policies that make such travel so excruciating and time-consuming.
At the same time, I wish Harlan had spent more space discussing other aspects of Scott's life that deserve more scrutiny, and that shed more light on poverty in America today. For example, she's a single mother, which the author documents both pushed her below the poverty line to begin with, and which has limited the kinds of positions she could hold and applied for. In Scott's case, Harlan writes, she was misled by a faulty medical diagnosis of permanent infertility. At the same time, that's hardly the only, or even a major, reason for out-of-wedlock births by mothers who literally can't afford motherhood.
In addition, she has a battery charge on her record. A dubious roommate helped drain her modest savings, and her family was in position to help. Her daughter's father had flown the coop. Scott had "long ago lost contact with her mother." The article makes no mention of her own father. And although one of her siblings is serving in the military, another has just been released from prison.
All of which puts in interesting, to say the least, perspective Harlan's observation that "A generation earlier, even people in Scott's situation had advantages that she lacks. They tended to live in the middle of Atlanta, near the subway, and they received welfare, cash payments from the government that were available to nearly all in deep poverty, regardless of whether they had a job."
Not that the author implies that this system was ideal. But Scott's personal and family history strongly indicates that it wasn't even acceptable – and had destructive effects on its intended beneficiaries.
I also wish that Harlan had mentioned other sources of new and resurgent poverty in the south and elsewhere in America – especially the offshoring-friendly trade policies and Open Borders/amnesty-friendly immigration measures that have destroyed so many family wage job opportunities for the nation's working class and working poor. Some attention is now being paid throughout the policy community to domestic moves that could alleviate poverty – like the aforementioned transportation improvements and more generous family and medical leave requirements, along with more familiar proposals like further expanding the earned income tax credit, raising the minimum wage, and of course improving the schools. But the near future could well see trade and immigration pressures on native-born workers – which have the greatest direct effects on job-creation and preservation – grow even stronger.
As a result, I'm hoping like heck that 2016 is a better year for Lauren Scott, who like many of America's poor really does want to overcome past mistakes and work for a living. I just wish I was more optimistic.