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Rattus exulansPolynesian rat
By Donna Warren
Polynesian rats (Rattus exulans) have an extensive distribution from Southeast Asia and New Guinea through the Pacific. They spread to several thousands islands in the western and central Pacific Ocean through the colonizing efforts of the Polynesian people. The rats were carried along on the large sea-going canoes with pigs, dogs and jungle cocks. (Dwyer, 1978; Masaharu, et al., 2001; Tobin, 1994; Walton, et al., 1980)
oceanic islands
Rattus exulans can live in a variety of habitats including grassland, scrub and forests, provided that it has adequate food supplies and shelter. It is not a good swimmer, but is able to climb trees for food. Other habitats include the those created by humans, such as houses, granaries, and cultivated lands. These rats usually lives below 1,000 m in elevation, where there is good ground cover and well-drained soil. (Masaharu, et al., 2001; Russell, 2002; Tobin, 1994; Williams, 1973)
Terrestrial Biomes
savanna or grassland
scrub forest
Other Habitat Features
Range elevation
1,000 (high) m
Rattus exulans has a slender body, pointed snout, large ears and relatively delicate feet. Its back is a ruddy-brown color, with a whitish belly. Mature Polynesian rats are 11.5 to 15.0 cm long from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail. Average weoght is between 40 and 80 g. The tail has fine, prominent, scaly rings, and is about the same length as the head and body combined. Female R. exulans have eight nipples. The skull size has been shown to vary with latitudem with those from cooler climates being larger than those living in warmer climates. A useful feature to distinguish this rat from other species is a dark outer edge on the upper side of the hind foot near the ankle while the rest of the foot is pale. (Russell, 2002; Tobin, 1994)
endothermic
homoiothermic
Range mass
40 to 80 g
1.41 to 2.82 oz
11.5 to 15 cm
4.53 to 5.91 in
Polynesian rats breed throughout the year with peak breeding occuring in summer and early fall. (Tobin, 1994)
Reproduction varies among geographic areas and is influenced by the availability of food, weather, and other factors. Females have an average of 4 litters per year with and average of 4 young per litter. In New Zealand, gestation is 19 to 21 days and weaning occurs at 2 to 4 weeks. Sexual maturity is reached by 8 to 12 months, though adult size can be achieved during the same season as birth. (Russell, 2002; Tobin, 1994; Williams, 1973)
year-round breeding
viviparous
These rats can breed up to four times per year, depending on weather, food availability and climate.
Range gestation period
Range weaning age
Not much is known about the parental care of Polynesian rats. They are placental mammals that have dependent young. Young are probably altricial, as is common in the genus. While they develop, they probably live in some sort of nest, where they are nurse, groomed, and protected by their mother. (Russell, 2002)
no parental involvement
altricial
pre-weaning/fledging
The lifespan of Polynesian rats is up to one year in the wild. In capitivity this species can live up to 15 months. (Russell, 2002; Tobin, 1994; Williams, 1973)
1 (high) years
Polynesian rats are an opportunistic species. In the absence of other rodents they exploit a variety of habitats, ranging from rainforest to grasslands, are able to tolerate different climatic regimes, and are able to persist for long periods at low densities. (Dwyer, 1978)
During the sugar cane harvest, the rats living in the fields either die or migrate to surrounding areas. During the second half of the crop cycle they will rebuild their populations. (Tobin, 1994)
terricolous
Home Range
Polynesian rats are relitively sedentary and nocturnal. Males travel further than females, but the home range for both sexes decreases as the sugarcane matures. (Tobin, 1994)
Information on communication in Polynesian rats is not available. However, as mammals, it is likely that they use some visual signals in communication. Tactile communication is undoubtedly present, especially between mates and between a mother and her offspring. Scent cues are probably used, also. (Tobin, 1994)
Polynesian rats eat a variety of foods, including broad leaf plants, grasses, seeds, fruits, and animal matter. They prefer fleshy fruits such as guava, passion fruit, thimbleberry, and their favorite sugar cane. Rats that live on the edges of sugar cane fields consume sugar cane as 70% of their diet. To acquire the other additional proteins it will eat earthworms, spiders, cicadas, insects, and eggs of ground nesting worms. (Dwyer, 1978; Russell, 2002; Tobin, 1994; Williams, 1973)
terrestrial non-insect arthropods
terrestrial worms
seeds, grains, and nuts
The infestation of Polynesian rats has destroyed the sugar cane fields, especially in Hawaii. To protect the fields in Hawaii, Indian mongooses (Herpestes auropunctatus) were introduced from the West Indies to help control the rats. Barn owls and dogs have also been used to get rid of Polynesian rats. (Russell, 2002; Tobin, 1994; Williams, 1973)
Indian mongooses (Herpestes auropunctatus)
barn owls (Tyto alba)
As a prey species, these animals undoubtedly affect predator populations. In their foraging, they affect plant communities, as well as populations of small invertebrates upon which they prey.
Polynesian rats have no positive economic importance to humans. (Tobin, 1994)
Polynesian rats are a major agricultural pest throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific region. Crops damaged by this species include root crops, cacao, pineapple, coconut, sugarcane, corn, and rice. (Russell, 2002)
Negative Impacts
crop pest
Rats are an exotic species in Hawaii and are not protected by law. The rats can be controlled by any method consistent with state and federal law regulations. Mongoose and monitor lizards were introduced to the Pacific islands to attempt to control R. exulans. (Russell, 2002; Tobin, 1994)
Nancy Shefferly (editor), Animal Diversity Web.
Donna Warren (author), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Chris Yahnke (editor), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Living in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, New Guinea and associated islands.
living in the northern part of the Old World. In otherwords, Europe and Asia and northern Africa.
uses sound to communicate
living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.
young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.
forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.
referring to animal species that have been transported to and established populations in regions outside of their natural range, usually through human action.
islands that are not part of continental shelf areas, they are not, and have never been, connected to a continental land mass, most typically these are volcanic islands.
an animal that mainly eats all kinds of things, including plants and animals
found in the oriental region of the world. In other words, India and southeast Asia.
scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.
remains in the same area
living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.
Living on the ground.
tropical savanna and grassland
A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.
A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.
temperate grassland
A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.
living in cities and large towns, landscapes dominated by human structures and activity.
reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.
breeding takes place throughout the year
Dwyer, P. 1978. A study of Rattus exulans in the New Guinea highlands. Australian Wildlife Research, 5/2: 221-248.
Masaharu, M., L. Kau-Hung, H. Masashi, L. Liang-Kong. 2001. New records of Polynesial Rat Rattus exulans (Mammalia:Rodentia) from Taiwan and the Ryukyus. Zoological Studies, 40/4: 299-304.
Russell, J. 2002. "Rattus exulans" (On-line). Global Invasive Species Database. Accessed October 24, 2002 at http://www.issg.org/database/species/search.asp?sts=sss&st=sss&fr=1&sn=Polynesian+rat&rn=&hci=-1&ei=-1&x=33&y=11.
Tobin, M. 1994. Polynesian Rats. Prevention and Control of Wildlife Damage: 121-124.
Walton, D., J. Brooks, K. Thinn, U. Tun. 1980. Reproduction in Rattus exulans in Rangoon, Berma. Mammalia, 44/3: 349-360.
Williams, M. 1973. The Ecology of Rattus exulans (Peale) Reviewed. Pacific Science, 27/2: 120-127.
Phylum Chordata chordates
Chordata: information (1) Chordata: pictures (15213) Chordata: specimens (6829) Chordata: sounds (709)
Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
Vertebrata: information (1) Vertebrata: pictures (15168) Vertebrata: specimens (6827) Vertebrata: sounds (709)
Class Mammalia mammals
Mammalia: information (1) Mammalia: pictures (4389) Mammalia: specimens (6622) Mammalia: sounds (13)
Order Rodentia rodents
Rodentia: information (1) Rodentia: pictures (789) Rodentia: specimens (847) Rodentia: sounds (2)
Family Muridae Old World mice and rats, gerbils, whistling rats, and relatives
Muridae: information (1) Muridae: pictures (27) Muridae: specimens (71)
Genus Rattus New Guinea rats
Rattus: pictures (7) Rattus: specimens (10)
Species Rattus exulans Polynesian rat
Rattus exulans: information (1) Rattus exulans: pictures (1)
To cite this page: Warren, D. 2004. "Rattus exulans" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed February 09, 2023 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Rattus_exulans/


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Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat
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Author: Howard F. Lyman
Told by the man who kicked off the infamous lawsuit between Oprah and the cattlemen, Mad Cowboy is an impassioned account of the highly dangerous practices of the cattle and dairy industries.
Howard Lyman's testimony on The Oprah Winfrey Show revealed the deadly impact of the livestock industry on our well-being. It not only led to Oprah's declaration that she'd never eat a burger again, it sent shock waves through a concerned and vulnerable public.
A fourth-generation Montana rancher, Lyman investigated the use of chemicals in agriculture after developing a spinal tumor that nearly paralyzed him. Now a vegetarian, he blasts through the propaganda of beef and dairy interests—and the government agencies that protect them—to expose an animal-based diet as the primary cause of cancer, heart disease, and obesity in this country. He warns that the livestock industry is repeating the mistakes that led to Mad Cow disease in England while simultaneously causing serious damage to the environment.
Persuasive, straightforward, and full of the down-home good humor and optimism of a son of the soil, Mad Cowboy is both an inspirational story of personal transformation and a convincing call to action for a plant-based diet—for the good of the planet and the health of us all.
Genres: Health, Fitness & Dieting, Diets & Weight Loss
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How entertaining? ★★★★★
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆
This article is a review of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL.
"The Russians are classifying this as an undeclared act of war… The blame points to you and your team… The President has initiated 'Ghost Protocol'. The entire IMF has been disavowed," Government Secretary (Tom Wilkinson).
Director Brad Bird knows how to quicken the pulse with adrenaline-driven set pieces. He delivered one of the greatest action films of all time. A cartoon. THE INCREDIBLES. He also gave us THE IRON GIANT and RATATOUILLE. Bird is one member of Pixar's 'Brain Trust'. His back catalogue is enough to justify that position. My anticipation was through the roof for his first foray into live action features. The MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise has interestingly chosen a different helmer for each segment. Brian De Palma inaugurated the series with the best, creating a thriller which required concentration; John Woo's sequel was messy but the combat and chases were second-to-none (that cartwheel on the beach as Ethan Hunt kicks Sean Ambrose in the face, hard, is even now still in my brain); and J.J. Abrams made my favourite with number three, understanding what makes the spy genre tick and the nature of teamwork. With GHOST PROTOCOL Abrams has stayed on as producer and brought on two of his ALIAS writers. Between the four of them, they, and the rest of their crew, have created probably the most breathless and pacey thriller of the year. Inventive and well choreographed, each scene links seamlessly to the next; Bird makes the transition from animation appear effortless.
However, the only let down is the bad guy, who boringly wants to trigger off a nuclear war between America and Russia – how many times is setting off a conflict going to be a plot device? Played by Michael Nyqvist, he is barely fleshed out. Contrast the malevolence portrayed by a scene-stealing Philip Seymour Hoffman in the last instalment. The IMF have been cleverly implicated in this conspiracy and Ethan Hunt and his other agents are now viewed as traitors, whose mission is not only to clear their names but to avert global catastrophe. Hunt this time around is more taciturn. It is implied that his wife and him have separated. Hunt here is more akin to other familiar spies, instead of previously actually caring about those around him; though the group endeavours are thankfully still maintained – Tom Cruise does his cool shizzle of course, but it doesn't feel like an ego trip. A new benchmark in excitement that it will be intriguing to see if James Bond's SKYFALL next year can overtake.


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At one time criticizing Quebec in such stark terms was an easy way to get branded a bigot yourself. Ignorant francophobia and whatnot. Some apologists are making that case now, in fact. But the tortured lameness of their arguments reveals how precious little Quebec honor is really left to defend.
I know this comes up every millennium, but I'm starting to worry English Canada and Quebec may be growing apart.
Over the last couple of weeks, the nation's been transfixed by the sudden conflation of two previously unrelated topics: soccer and turbans. First the Quebec Soccer Federation decided to start cracking down on turban-wearing players within its leagues. Then the Federation was expelled from the Canadian Soccer Association for doing so. And now the Federation's still refusing to budge, even amid furious denunciations by virtually every editorial board, political party, and professional athlete in English Canada -- and numerous voices in the Anglo-Quebec press, too.
But why should they surrender? Polls suggest Quebeckers support this no-turbans-on-the-field policy by a margin of over 80 per cent. The province's hysterically separatist government is solidly on side, too -- an unsurprising occurrence given the central role populist xenophobia played in the current premier's rise to power.
Anyway, you can probably guess the tone of the ensuing media coverage.
Writing in the Globe, Patrick Lagacé claims to "hear the echo of Alabama, circa 1955" in all this, particularly given the Quebec Soccer Federation president's let-them-eat-curry dismissal of any Sikh-Canadian offended at having to choose between his sport and his god -- "they can play in their backyard."
"At least she stopped short of saying they should go back to their own country," scoffs Don Macpherson in the Montreal Gazette.
Frankly, it's just more evidence that the French province's "obsessions with linguistic and cultural purity, xenophobia and generalized Franco-supremacy are at an all-time high" fumes Montreal radio host Supriya Dwivedi.
"Small-minded, parochial and nativist" scolds the National Post. "Shameful, stupid and unjust" says Michael Den Tandt.
In a previous column, I observed that it seems to getting a lot more socially (if not politically) acceptable in polite English-Canadian society these days to just openly condemn Quebec as an awful, ugly place.
Conservatives can't get elected dogcatcher there, so they've largely stopped trying. Moderate progressives are repulsed by the spoiled, sclerotic leftism of their politicians, unions, and student protesters, so they're taking a pass. Everyone else remains unimpressed by the joint's general rudeness and corruption.
In such a context, Quebec's increasingly frequent xenophobic fits -- be it a fear of turbans, fear of burkas, fear of kirpans, fear of kosher meat, or fear of Italian food -- may well prove the final crack in ROC goodwill.
In 21st century Anglo-Canada, after all, multicultural tolerance is the one value that's not really up for discussion or compromise -- especially not in the blunt fashion Quebeckers seem to favor.
Of course, at one time criticizing Quebec in such stark terms was an easy way to get branded a bigot yourself. Ignorant francophobia and whatnot. Some apologists are making that case now, in fact. But the tortured lameness of their arguments reveals how precious little Quebec honor is really left to defend.
Pierre Martin in the Toronto Star, for instance, bemoans the "hyperbole" and "torrent of visceral reactions" that are being thrust at his province in the wake of turban-gate, but his call for restraint on the basis that "Quebec's distinctiveness has led to a different type of progress" on multiculturalism seems a tad weak considering we're, y'know, talking about hats here.
"Just a few short years ago, the exact same [turban] ban was in effect in other Canadian provinces, but no one accused them of the same sins back then," he complains, as if Quebec's consistent presence at the back of these lines wasn't precisely the problem in the first place.
At the National Post, meanwhile, visiting La Presse editor André Pratte offers the familiar defense that while we may not agree with Quebec's, ahem, prickly answer to this "delicate question," surely swinging the heavy federalist hand of the Canadian Soccer Association wasn't right either. Certainly not before holding some "meetings between Quebec soccer officials and counterparts who have had experience with young players wearing the turban."
"Dialogue, mutual understanding, patience," declares André, "that is the Canadian way."
And perhaps it used to be. But after two separation referendums, six separatists premiers, two botched attempts at constitutional reform, and a voting populace that hasn't given the majority of its seats to the winner of a federal election since 1988, Canadian-Quebec dialogue is starting to seem a tad futile, with understanding and patience in ever-shorter supply.
At a time when everything else in Canadian politics is showing signs of flux, the "two solitudes" meme remains stubbornly persistent. Canada's Franco minority and Anglo-Allo majority have not spent the last couple decades congealing into a common whole, they've solidified their differences, particularly their philosophical differences on a whole host of critical policy questions ranging from the acceptable cost of a post-secondary education to the size and generosity of the welfare state to the things immigrants can wear on their heads.
And without putting too fine a point on it, it's getting ever-more difficult for us out here in Anglo-land to muster much sympathy or support for what appears to be an incurably reactionary, economically illiterate, chauvinist province -- a province run by, in the words of one observer, an unholy medley of the "the Green Party, the French Socialists and the nativist wing of the GOP" -- without losing a significant chunk of our own values and identity in the process.
So increasingly, we don't. Good luck kids.


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Greens fear fracking reforms
The Interior Department declined to comment on the environmental groups' complaints.
By Talia Buford
Environmentalists fear the oil and gas industry has the Obama administration's ear as the government prepares to release a new draft rule to govern fracking on federal lands.
Though the Interior Department has yet to release an official draft, each subsequent leaked version contains less of what environmental groups want, the activists say, taking the rule further away from its potential of setting strict standards for the industry.
"What we see is every step of the way, these rules are getting weaker," said Fran Hunt, senior Washington representative for the Sierra Club's Beyond Natural Gas campaign.
The speculation might soon be over, though, as former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a House Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday that "the rule is imminent, and I expect that my successor will be announcing it in the very near future." New Secretary Sally Jewell was sworn in Friday.
The Interior Department declined Friday to comment on the environmental groups' complaints.
Interior released its original draft of the rule in May, but after receiving thousands of comments, pulled it back in January for retooling. Interior said it would put out a new draft by the end of March, but it's still sitting at the White House Office of Budget and Management.
The rule was always meant to include provisions governing well construction, wastewater disposal and disclosure of the ingredients of fracking fluids. But the official release and the leaked versions have varied on what those provisions would entail.
Environmentalists and industry representatives have beaten a path to the OMB's door over the past year, bringing their concerns directly to regulators.
Of the 10 meetings that OMB officials have held on the fracking rules since January, three have been with environmental groups such as Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the League of Conservation Voters. Two have been with Native American tribes, and five have been with representatives from the oil and gas industry.
The industry representatives have come from trade groups such as the American Petroleum Institute, America's Natural Gas Alliance and the Independent Petroleum Association of America, as well as companies like ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy, Shell, BP, Halliburton and Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
More meetings don't guarantee more influence, said Dan Naatz, vice president of federal resources at IPAA. "I can guarantee that whatever I speculate about the rules will be wrong," he said.
While some changes have emerged in the leaked drafts that the industry lobbied for, Naatz said the rule will still impose costs on a practice that is already being adequately regulated by the states.
"I don't want to say they haven't listened at all," Naatz said. "I think they've been responsive, but I think they've also been hearing from the environmental community."
ANGA wouldn't speculate on what might be in the proposal that eventually emerges from OMB, said spokesman Daniel Whitten.
But environmentalists said they see a pattern.
"It does seem the industry has a lot of influence in this process," said Amy Mall, senior policy analyst at NRDC. "And I don't know why that is. I think the information and the evidence the environmental community has presented makes it clear the technology is available for the industry to do things better."
She added that her group is still in the dark about what the administration will end up proposing.
"We have no idea what's in the new draft," Mall said. "We hope it's stronger than the leaked drafts, but during those meetings at OMB, they don't give you any indication. We're just waiting like everyone else."
But leaked versions, some authenticated by Interior and others not, show a trend that favors less oversight of the industry, environmentalists say.
A draft leaked in February shows Interior embracing FracFocus, an industry-backed disclosure website, as the venue for gas producers to post information about the ingredients in their fracking fluids. Interior's original proposed rule called for the Bureau of Land Management to post the information on a public website and potentially also integrate the data with FracFocus.
The drafts have also exempted acidizing, a well-stimulation process often used in the Monterey Shale in California that uses acid to remove buildup from wells to help them produce more efficiently, Hunt said. She added that the drafts also contain less-stringent rules on well integrity testing and provisions that would make it easier for companies to withhold fracking chemicals as trade secrets.
In meetings with OMB and Interior officials, Hunt said, Sierra Club and other groups have pointed to the holes they feel are going unfilled in the proposed regulations.
"All I have to do is look at the way the regulations have changed since the first leak in 2012, the version that was posted in the Federal Register and the leak in November," Hunt said. "You can see that they are going in a direction that probably the industry views favorably, and we don't."
Still, the idea that BLM would regulate fracking at all has inspired pushback from the industry and its supporters in Congress.
Naatz questioned the eventual cost of implementing the rule on producers, the delays that might result from the added regulation and the need for a "top-down" approach imposed by Washington.
"I think the beauty will always be in the eye of the beholder," Naatz said. "The premise of the environmental community is that this practice is completely unregulated and it's just the wild, wild West out there. Our basic premise is that this is an unnecessary rule when you look at the track records of the states. We have a fundamental disagreement on whether this is needed at all."
Sierra Club,
Fracking,


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Home » "It's not up to the federal government to do health reform," says Justin Trudeau
"It's not up to the federal government to do health reform," says Justin Trudeau
The Prime Minister of Canada spoke with news anchor Patrice Roy in Montreal hours after a one-on-one meeting with his Quebec counterpart, François Legault.
Justin Trudeau in interview with the leader antenna Patrice Roy
Justin Trudeau is categorical: there is no point injecting more money into provincial health systems if they are not seriously transformed. And it is not the role of his government, according to him, "to make this reform".
In a long interview with the head of Radio -Canada Patrice Roy, Prime Minister Trudeau has responded incisively to the grievances of his provincial counterparts, who are demanding more generous federal transfers to keep their health systems afloat, some of the seams of which are hanging by a thread.
The reality is that it's not just more money that will fix the situation, Mr. Trudeau said. It will take a transformation of the system, he added, ensuring that he had had constructive discussions on this subject with François Legault during their private conversation on Tuesday morning.
"Money, long term, yes, we're interested in giving it away. But [the provinces] need to show that they are serious about improving and transforming the [health] system.
—Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
It's up to the provinces, said the Prime Minister. We, the only tool we have, at the federal level, is [to offer] long-term money, because short-term money, [the provinces] don't even need it, he added.
It is that, according to Justin Trudeau, the provincial governments are in surplus, he pointed out, and they have the money to invest in their health systems, at least in the immediate future.
Justin Trudeau and Patrice Roy met near Beaver Lake on Mount Royal for their interview.
The money from federal health transfers should thus be used, according to Mr. Trudeau, for in-depth improvements to health care in the country. First, according to him, the provinces must rigorously share data from their health systems so that they can be compared across the country, a repeated request from Justin Trudeau and its Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, whom the Prime Minister described as a condition for an increase in health transfers.
"Federal money doesn't come out of nowhere. It doesn't come from the clouds. It's taxpayers' money. If we are going to send the money that people pay to improve the care that people receive, it is normal that there is a certain level of transparency. »
— Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
There are things we can and must do to improve the system, and we want to be part of it. of these conversations, said the Prime Minister. And when can we expect the results of these discussions? Very soon, he promised, recognizing the urgency of the situation.
Health, immigration, protection of French, the subjects to be discussed were not lacking during the meeting between Justin Trudeau and François Legault. In an interview with Patrice Roy, the Prime Minister of Canada returns to these issues and talks about the evolution of the Canadian political context, with the arrival of a new leader of the official opposition, the Conservative Pierre Poilievre.
The protection of French in the country also figured prominently during the exchanges between Prime Minister Trudeau and Patrice Roy.
From the outset, Justin Trudeau admitted that; there is room for improvement to protect the French fact in Canada and that its government is the first to recognize it.
But there is no question of imposing the Charter of the French language, commonly known as Bill 101, on federally chartered companies in Quebec (banks, for example). This is a repeated request from the Legault government which will remain a dead letter, at least according to Justin Trudeau.
There is no question of imposing Bill 101 on businesses under federal jurisdiction in Quebec, argues Justin Trudeau.
"We at the federal level respect areas of jurisdiction. Jurisdictions say banks are federal. I don't want a provincial law to govern federal institutions, any more than Mr. Legault would want me to interfere in a provincial field. »
He proposes instead a device similar to Bill 101 but more flexible, nested in the draft reform of the Act on official languages, an initiative already denounced by the Bloc Québécois, which considers it rather as a right to work in English in Quebec.
We want the same thing, argued Mr. Trudeau. We want to protect French, but we also want to protect minority language communities.
Canada may not be in an election period, but that does not prevent the leaders of the two main parties from exchanging blows through the media. On Monday, in rare media appearances, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre chained attacks on Justin Trudeau, whom he accused of making life hard for Canadians by blowing on the embers of the country. inflation.
Attention paid to him by the Prime Minister, at the head of a minority government, during his meeting with Patrice Roy.
Mr. Trudeau was unimpressed by the pugnacity and combativeness attributed to his opponent. Yes, it is supposed to be, said the Prime Minister, with irony in his voice, pointing out in passing the electoral defeat of the Conservatives in the by-election in Mississauga-Lakeshore, where Pierre Poilievre did not even go, according to the Prime Minister.
The Leader of the Official Opposition, Pierre Poilievre, in the House of Commons
But Justin Trudeau has mostly left the door wide open for an electoral duel between him and Mr. Poilievre in the next campaign. I really want to, he said when asked about it.
"C& #x27;is the kind of country in which we will live and in which our children will grow up that is at stake. There is a real contrast between the vision that I have […] and that of the Conservative Party , [who is] far-right from time to time.
According to him, the Conservative Party has changed in recent years. It's not [Brian] Mulroney's beautiful blues anymore. There is a hard and populist side. But Canadians haven't changed.
For me, it's a matter of setting a clear direction for the future of our country , said Mr. Trudeau, tracing in passing the breaking points between his opponent and him, which could set the tone for the next electoral confrontation.
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Join thousands of grownups who get articles on teaching kids to love coding.
What it's like to be a non-coder in a tech startup
Posted by Christie Veitch — Comments
"My name is Christie. I work at a tech startup, and I don't know how to code."
Like me, I bet you're curious about code and even understand its growing importance in your daily life, but find the details beyond your personal comfort zone.
I can look at code and talk about it with some comprehension. I can name some languages and write an app with swimming mermaids in Bitsbox. I know what coding is, and I've even looked at, dissected, and used code in limited ways. But I'm not fluent by any means.
To do my job as an technology educator, I don't need to generate code like a professional programmer. In fact, my special perspective on how learning to code benefits anyone helps me be an advocate for kids and adults alike who are beginning their coding curiosity. I can be especially helpful if their goals are to make things and enjoy code and gain literacy, without driving towards a professional path or paycheck because I too think code is cool, but never thought it was a professional destination for me.
What I learned about coding as a kid
In the 1980s, as an elementary school student, I attended a summer school enrichment program. Each student could pick a morning class and an afternoon class. My morning class was LOGO, so I learned to type commands into a box on a screen and make things happen on the screen.
In truth, I was truly excited about my afternoon theatrical production class. But my dad was a self-proclaimed math enthusiast and said that LOGO would be "cool math on a computer screen."
I spent most of my mornings drawing boxes, then circles, and then flowers with the LOGO turtle. I learned that turning the turtle 180 versus 270 degrees mattered when generating the next path and shape.
Screen shot of LOGO in action.
LOGO is like Bitsbox in that it does have kids typing actual code and commands. What I remember most was the process of getting my ideas from my head to executing on a screen:
Drawing a shape on a piece of paper
Figuring out how and where the turtle would need to "move" to produce that shape
Calculating steps and turns
Converting those steps and turns into coded instructions
Waiting to see what had and hadn't worked as I had planned
Without knowing it, these steps were an introduction to the process of design-test-revise that coders use.
Other than LOGO, my computing experience was limited. In high school and college, I typed papers and made bar graphs on a Mac Classic II — the first computer to live in our house. But I didn't do any other coding. College was the time when computing became important, but gradually — it was the late '90s after all. The college I attended still used paper card catalogues, and computer science was still a very specialized choice for a course of study. I actually didn't get a computer of my own until my senior year when I bought a used Macintosh LC.
My (mis)adventures with MATLAB
A decade later, when I went to graduate school for my M.S. degree in cognitive psychology, I actually wrote my own code in MATLAB to help run an experiment. But writing that code was painful.
In my experiment, every test subject needed to hear one sentence and see two pictures of possible interpretations of that sentence. So, sentences like, "The cow kicked the horse" and "The cow got kicked" would show two pictures, each with a cow and a horse. In one illustration, the cow is doing the kicking, and in another, the horse is doing the kicking.
Every recorded sentence (120 of them!) needed to have two pictures associated with it as possible interpretations. The pictures needed to appear at the exact same time, but be randomized as to which was on the left and which was on the right. Also, the 120 sentences (and their associated pictures) had to play randomly.
I could write this design on paper. I could explain it to my psychology lab undergraduate students. I could even whiteboard the design. However, the precision to make this design execute on a computer screen required a computer program. And it has to be said: writing this code made me want to lie down and cry almost every day.
MATLAB is not known for its user friendliness, and I spent most of that year feeling that MATLAB was taunting me like the popular kids in middle school, "Who do you think you are, writing a computer program to run your experiment? See that bug? You don't belong in this club."
I wrote the program for my experiment mostly by visiting my school's MATLAB expert four times a week, asking him for help, and then baking for him in thanks.
How do I use code in my job as an educator?
None of my previous experiences suggested that coding would have such impact on my professional life today, nor did my degrees in linguistics and psychology. When I'm teaching kids about STEM in the classroom or library, I help the young coders who run into problems and assist the educators who have decided to integrate coding with their instruction using Bitsbox or tools like it.
Just this week, I put on my Educator hat and spent two hours helping teachers write their own simple apps. The task sounds simple:
Write an app that starts with an orange background.
Make a character appear.
Make the character move across the screen when you tap it.
Like me and my MATLAB experiment, every teacher in the room had clear thoughts they could describe on paper. However, many teachers needed help as they started typing and running their code. If you're an experienced coder, this task may seem trivial, but if you're not, there's quite a bit going on here. You don't create the app simply by writing sequenced instructions, although that's a part of how code works.
With Bitsbox, I taught the teachers how code creates cause-and-effect relationships in order to make simple things happen on-screen.
A lot of us are on this ride now, figuring out what programming is or learning to code. I continue to fill in my own incomplete coding education, and I champion how learning to code benefits kids.
With Bitsbox, everyone is welcome to the coding club. To start coding, you don't need to know a thing about how code works or know what you want to do with the code that you learn. All you need is a Bitsbox app, an internet connection, and a little curiosity.
About the author: Christie is an educator, proud non-coder, good friend of Bitsbox, and occasional contributor to our blog.
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Commentary and analysis from the Hospice UK policy and advocacy team on key policies and campaigns related to hospice care.
Jonathan Ellis, Hospice UK's Director of Advocacy and Change, writes about the impact the NHS pay increase will have on the hospice sector.
Today we launch PopNAT, our population-based needs assessment tool. With this launch Hospice UK realises an ambition that took shape following the Commission into the Future of Hospice Care.
A new parliamentary inquiry on improving access to palliative and end of life care launches today. Fabian Hamilton MP and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Hospice UK Vice-President, explain what the inquiry will focus on.
It is a sad reality that many people with life-limiting conditions are missing out on vital care that could transform the precious time they have left and also help support their families.
Death and dying must become higher priority in local health strategies to break down the barriers contributing to inequities in access to end-of-life care, writes Hospice UK chief executive Tracey Bleakley.
Stephen McCauley, Policy and Advocacy Manager at Hospice UK, explains what the outcome of the last general election means for people in hospice care, and what will happen next.
This week Hospice UK published new analysis showing that one in four people who require end of life care and their families are not getting the support they need.
Jonathan Ellis, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Hospice UK, discusses the findings of the Care Quality Commission's consultation on their next phase of regulation.
Hospice UK is campaigning to persuade all political parties to prioritise end of life care in the next parliament.
Jonathan Ellis, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Hospice UK, discusses the development of the new currencies for palliative care, and how they will affect the future of funding for hospices.


Jacob dropped a new song called Down To Earth on his Soundcloud and in just three days it's at more than 13,000 streams!! He said it's the first song he wrote after he and his wife had their baby girl in December 2015. Check it out below!


Made from the ground up to be as simple and as uncomplicated to make use of as, while supplying industry-leading versatility and friendly price factors, Grasshopper is a game changing brand-new modern technology in the VoIP space– and that's a big part of why it's become so prominent so swiftly.
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This kind of convenience warranty that your consumers, companions, customers, and vendors will always be get to a person from your company without you needing to invest a tiny lot of money more conventional communications framework that's constantly a great deal more limited.
To discover a little bit much more concerning whatever Grasshopper brings to the table, check out the rest of this quick evaluation!
Out of the gate, you are going to be right away thrilled by how lots of enterprise grade features are constructed right into the Grasshopper system at such a ridiculously cost effective price tag.
It is essential to remember that Grasshopper was substantiated of the idea to give ALL small companies (and also micro organisations, right down to one man procedures) the kind of visibility and also integrity of much bigger procedure when customers or clients called their telephone number.
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• The Partner strategy is the following step up, providing you 3 different get in touch with numbers and also 6 specific expansions. This strategy will run you $49 a month and also is one of the most popular of all the Grasshopper plans.
• The Small Business strategy is the highest price tier of the whole bunch, but for $89 a month you get great get in touch with numbers and also endless extensions– along with a whole host of various other special added attributes rolled right in.
In the majority of situations, a $25 activation fee is charged, but Grasshopper on a regular basis runs promotion that waives this activation charge however additionally includes extra perk functions for all private strategies that you can capitalize on, also.
After you finish the initial sign-up process with this new VoIP business innovation will be ready to rock-and-roll. Your new number will certainly go online as well as will be active immediately, as well as you'll have the ability to use your new Grasshopper backend as well as Control board to set up the remainder of your phone facilities without difficulty whatsoever!
Another massive benefit of making use of Grasshopper is your capability to utilize every element of your new VoIP company phone technology on any of your web enabled tool– including your mobile phone as well as your tablet computers or laptop computers.
The internet user interface as well as mobile tool readily available from Grasshopper typically aren't quite as feature-rich or as flexible as some of the various other industry-leading alternatives from competing VoIP solutions, but also for the price– and also for small businesses not planning to bewilder themselves with all type of modern technology different choices they likely will not ever make use of– these web and mobile tools absolutely finish the job.
Both of these solutions are most likely to service Android and also iphone gadgets. Due to the fact that they are cloud-based devices (or mobile applications you could download directly to your phone or tablet) you'll be able to access your phone system, change setups and also methods, and generally provide your brand-new VoIP organisation modern technology from anywhere on the planet that you have internet accessibility or mobile information.
At the end of the day, you're going to be looking for a brand-new VoIP remedy that can supply you with every one of the business phone innovation you anticipate for hundreds if not countless dollars– and that's precisely what you're going to get at a price cut from Grasshopper.
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By utilizing the Grasshopper Bridge devices (available at no cost with every tier of service), each specific staff member in your procedure will certainly be able to organize their own conference calls with as much as 10 specific customers. Bump up to the Grasshopper Small company degree of service and you'll be able to host teleconference with an unlimited variety of individuals across each individual worker line!
Grasshopper Assistance is offered on a 24/7 basis, also. You could get in touch with these professionals anytime, day or night, for assistance or you can make use of the online communication tools built right into the Grasshopper web site if you're looking for support by doing this.
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Grasshopper is very much designed and established small company owner seeking to take advantage of advanced VoIP modern technology. If you are a much bigger procedure seeking to use an extra typical phone system, or need all sort of whistles and bells, you probably should look elsewhere.
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Nonetheless, if you're major concerning giving your company every chance to do well with the type of advanced innovation that made use of to only exist for extra-large, multinational company willing to spend thousands of bucks monthly on their phone system– all at a fraction the rate and without any migraine and also trouble– you need to have a look at Grasshopper ASAP.


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Synopsis of the Walk
Pointers Amsterdam
Private other history tours
WW2 Travel recommendations
WW2 Amsterdam Cycle Tour
The march of Das Reich June 1944 in France
In 2010 we were in Oradour-sur-Glane and visited the walled remains of the original village, one of the most impressive monuments of the Second World War.
In 2014 we decided to follow the advance of the 2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' from Montauban to Normandy's invasion beaches using an excellent travel guide (Das Reich) written by Max Hastings, with many maps and a detailed description of the events in the weeks after the invasion.
(Hastings, Max, Das Reich. The march of the 2nd SS Panzer Division through France, June 1944 (London 2009)
A trip along resistance monuments, along Tulle, known by mass executions and Oradour-sur-Glane, where the population was murdered. This first episode describes the journey from Lamothe-Cassel (fig. 1) north of Montauban
A short story of 'Das Reich'
Two months before D-Day, May 6, 1944, Hitler had commanded to transfer the 2nd SS Panzer division 'Das Reich' from the Russian front to France. An allied invasion was expected and Hitler wanted to strengthen the western front. The division was under the command of Heinz Bernard Lammerding. Lammerding was on April 20, 1944 - Führergeburtstag - promoted to SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor der Waffen-SS. The division was hosted in and around Montauban
'Das Reich' consisted of soldiers and officers who were hardened by the struggle in Eastern Europe. In July 1943, Heinz Bernard Lammerding (Fig. 2), Chief of Staff of General Bach-Zelewski, was known for fighting partisans in Russia. Several cities and villages were destroyed totally. A part of Das Reich also assisted in 1941 in killing 920 Jews in Minsk. In 1943, Lammerding commanded a number of units of Das Reich and participated in similar actions. In January 1944, Lammerding received the command over the entire division. Undoubtedly, most soldiers and owners of Das Reich had experience in mass retribution and mass murder.
In addition to this hard core, 'Das Reich' counted 900 conscript soldiers from Alsace and the conquered areas in the East, known as 'Volksdeutsche'. The officers and non-commissioned officers were almost all convinced national socialists, which was also evident, as they grew up under the NS regime. In the Officer Corps of the Waffen SS, 'Draufgänger' (go-getters) gave the tone. Heinz Lammerding was described by the infamous war criminal Theodor Eicke as 'hart and ruthless'. One day before the invasion, Lammerding sent a proposal to the General Command for measures against Terrorists, which was accepted by the General Command as a whole. It included, among other things, that as a reprisal for killing a German soldier, ten terrorists would be hung up. Lammerding believed if he describe them as communist troublemakers and terrorists he could drove a wedge between the French people and these resistance groups.
On June 8, 1944, two days after D-Day, the 2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' began to march to Normandy, arriving fourteen days later, from Montauban. Normally, such a trip of around 750 km with about 15,000 people and 209 tanks would only have to take a few days. But the march was delayed by the French resistance, constant impediments were made and persistent bloody fights took place where the Germans reacted with executions of resistance fighters and innocent civilians. In almost every village and along the roads in the Corrèze there are monuments that remind you of this.
The main force, consisting of heavy artillery, drove north towards Souillac and Brive. First, the 1st Battalion of the 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 'Der Führer' drove under the command of Major Adolf Diekmann. At the village of Gourdon, the battalion went down to Grolejac in western direction. Just outside the village of Le Port near the Dordogne bridge, there is now a hotel (http://www.hotel-dupont-jardel.com (Fig. 3 and 4) the first confrontation was in the early morning of 8th of June place between the French resistance and 'Das Reich'.
Maquisards
The resistance consisted of a small group of Maquisards from Grolejac and was named 3rd Section, compagnie 'The ace of hearts'. The resistance people were poorly armed: guns from the First World War, a few hand grenades and one Bren. Among them were a mason (the mayor of Grolejac), the butcher of the village and a wood trader. None of these men had combat experience. It was therefore an unequal battle. The hotel at the bridge from which the resistance fought was shot immediately by one of the tanks. The men who tried to escape the hotel through the front door were immediately shot down. The rest of the maquisards fled through the river slope into the forests. After this short delay of no more than twenty minutes, the column, barely delayed, continued the march. The fallen resistance fighters were left on the spot. Near the bridge is a monument (Fig. 5,6) that reminds of this unequal struggle.
The column was passed Sarlat-le-Canéda, where there is still a revampistic monument on the market that the French show their revenge feelings towards the Germans after the First World War. Feelings that were probably also strongly present in WO II (Fig.7).
Some time later at Rouffilac, the SS encountered a huge barricade founded by the maquisards assisted by the locals. Here too, the SS was only briefly stopped. The monument on the outskirts of this village near the Dordogne reminds the civilians and resistance fighters (Fig.8).
In Noailles a few kilometers later we again saw a monument that also recalled the fights between the Germans and the French (Fig.9).
The densely hilly Corrèze department in which Tulle is located was a collection of resistance fighters of different plumage. Ex-combatants from the Spanish Civil War, Jews in flight and many of French men and boys from all French districts who wanted to escape in 1943 the STO, the mandatory labor service (Service de Travail Obligatoire). On D-Day, more than 4,000 maquisards were commissioned by the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans FTP (F). In the month for D-Day, the Tulle gendarmerie included 78 actions, mostly from FTP (F): attacks on Germans, theft, tampering of telephone connections and train rails. This had terrible consequences for the civilian population. Partisans were seen by the Germans as franc-tireurs, armed citizens, and they did not fall under international international law and could immediately be executed.
As revenge burned out in the wide range of farms, men, women and children were shot dead by no means.
Tulle was released by the maquisards, despite the protests of the AS (the Armée Secrèt), the resistance organization driven by London by De Gaulle. On Wednesday, June 7 at five o'clock in the morning, the attack began, with 139 Germans being lost and 40 Germans injured. Tulle was partially taken, a short period on June 8th from four o'clock to eight o'clock in the evening, Tulle was almost entirely freed from Germans. However, about 50 veterans from the 95th Sicherheits Regiment under the command of a 55-year dentist from Baden-Württemberg still held a school building.
Initially, the Communist Party of the FTP (F) wanted to execute the captive and injured German soldiers, the French Vichy prefect Pierre Trouille would have prevented them from doing so. Later, the SS claimed that the resistance had deliberately reduced the appearance of demolished Germans. This would explain the reprisals of the Germans. According to later German eyewitnesses, these mutilations would be caused by an accident; An old Red Truck lorry, whose brakes refused, would have overthrown some German soldiers.
In the evening of June 8th, the exploration battalion of Das Reich under the command of Major Heinrich Wulf took Tulle without much problems again. The 50 exhausted German veterans from the 95th Security Regiment were relieved that they were finally released. On the morning of 9th June, the SS, under the command of Major Alfred Stuckler, collected 2,000 men and boys at a Tulle factory site.
Executies
After a selection, there were 120 men who, according to the SS, would be members of the maquis and had to be hung up. The executions, which lasted from four o'clock in the afternoon to seven o'clock in the evening, were carried out under the direction of Major Kowatsch, the actual hanging was done by a non-commissioned officer, Otto Hoff from Saarland. Eyewitness reports describe the terrible scenes that occurred during the executions. After 99 hangups, the SS suddenly stopped the executions. Up to today, it is unclear why. (Hastings, p. 139). Of the executions, a sketch was left, probably made by a German owner (Fig. 10).
In some reports it is stated that they succumbed to the prayers of the present priest Abbé Esopinasse. Elsewhere, it was the Vichy Secretary-General of the Corrèze, Maurice Roche (he spoke fluent German) who quitted them to stop. Author Max Hastings wrote in his book Das Reich that after the 99 hangings there was no rope left and that was why they stopped.
This was the first downturn during Das Reich's march. Out of the 99 men and boys hung up, another 149 were deported to Dachau, of which 101 did not survive the deportation. On the city boundary of Tulle there is a large monument that reminds of these executions and transport to Dachau (Fig. 11).
In Tulle, the War Museum is worth visiting. So far, it has still been unclear whether the command for these executions was given by Lammerding. According to his own words, after the war he would have found himself in Uzerche and not in Tulle, which was denied by Major Stuckler during the later processes.
After Tulle, we continued our trip with the ultimate goal of Oradour-sur-Glane where a part of 'Das Reich' killed on June 10, 1944, 642 people: 245 women, 207 children and 190 men.
This was the 1st Battalion of the 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 'Der Führer', which was commissioned by Major Adolf Dieckmann - we described all the battle of this battalion with the Maquisards in Groléjac on June 8th.
Although the underlying statements differ, all the literature, in both the reminder literature, the German "excuse literature" and in the scientific, the deportation and execution of Major Kämpfe, a friend of Major Dieckmann, is considered to be the reason. After that, the statement by SS-Obersturmführer Karl Gerlach - also abducted by the Maquisards - would convince the Germans that Kämpfe in Oradour-sur-Glane would have been detained and detained. Gerlach was also abducted in the same period, but could escape.
The aire SS Sturmbannführer (Major) Helmut Kämpfe
The third battalion of 'Das Reich' under the command of Kämpfe left Limoges on the way to Guéret, northeast of Limoges. This town, like Tulle, was taken by the Maquis on June 6th. On June 8th, German troops from Montluçon took back the city with air support by German hunters. Frustrated by his unnecessary action, Kämpfe decided to return to his headquarters in Limoges on June 9, alone and for the convoy of his troops. This was not without risk.
At the height of the hamlet of La Bussière, about halfway between Bourganeuf and Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat on the D941 he encountered a coincidentally passing group of Maquisards. In a few minutes he was kidnapped and taken by the French in their truck. Because only one Frenchman could ride, they had to leave the Talbot of Kämpfe (Fouché, page 56). When the German convoy arrived at Kämpfe's abandoned car a while later, a big search and raid started, which were in vain. Until now, the fate of Kämpfe is unknown. It is assumed that he has been executed one of the following days. At Bussière where Kämpfe was cut, the farms of Pierre Mon Just and Pierre Malaguise were located. These two forty-five men, fathers of five children, were arrested but could or did not want to give information about the abduction. The farm of Malaguise was plundered and both men were shortly on the road-
edge executed. The monument along the road, which we could find after much effort, reminds us of this execution Fig. 12,13, 14).
German sources justify this act by saying that Pierre Mon Just would be a brother in law of Paul Loueyraud, the Germans claiming that he would have delivered food (Taege, page 224).
In another German report by Otto Weidinger, a Sturmbann-führer in 'Das Reich' (Weidinger, page 27), Kämpfe would be held in Oradour-sur-Glane. Two Frenchmen told the Germans in Saint-Junien that a high German ocier was held in Oradour-sur-Glane. He would still have been executed that same day. Everyone in the village would work with the Maquis and there would be high Maquis leaders in the village.
Whatever would have contributed to the German view that Oradour would be a center of the Maquis, was the statement by SS Obersturmführer Karl Gerlach. Gerlach had fallen in the hands of the Maquis in the morning of 9 June, but could escape the same evening and with great difficulty reach the German headquarters in Limoges the following morning. There he explained to Sturmbannführer
Otto Dickmann, a good friend of Kämpfe, who saw a sign with 'Oradour-sur-Glane' when entering a village. Some sources indicate that he may have seen the board of Oradour-sur-Vayres. That the Germans had gone to Oradour-sur-Glane would have been a tragic mistake.
What the motives, the reason for the massacre on Saturday 10 June may have been, will probably never come over water. Dieckmann died on the 30th of June in front of Normandy, some German sources claim he would have committed suicide by his head
to bump a bunker and he was shot dead by a sniper. In a way, it was good for 'Das Reich' that he could no longer be called for accountability. Hastings hee still approached all the remaining men of 'Das Reich' after the war to hear their story, but nobody left anything.
In mid February 1953, after many impressive testimonies, the court found that the survivors and their families were far too low and. Although imprisonment, life imprisonment and forced labor were imposed, they were not executed and eventually all charged as a free man left the courtroom. This caused great anger and indignation with the survivors and survivors. Oradour broke all ties with the French state and only after seventeen years after the state reconciliation, the museum was built and the ruins were conserved as a memory of the slaughter party. (Hébras, page 35)
After visiting the remains of Oradour-sur-Glane and the museum, we continued for a short visit to the Normandy invasion beaches, where we later returned our rental car and then returned to the Netherlands. There is much to be found about the destruction of Oradour and the murder party in Tulle on the internet, but a good start is Oradour's official website: http://www.oradour.info and http://culture.ville-tulle.fr/culture/musees-et-archives/musee-des-armes


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Acclaimed poet, disability rights advocate named director of SU's Renée Crown University Honors Program
Wednesday, May 11, 2011, By Rob Enslin
The Renée Crown University Honors Program, an all-University program administered by Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences, announces the appointment of Stephen Kuusisto as its new director. Kuusisto is an accomplished poet, scholar and disability rights advocate who comes to SU from the University of Iowa, where he has served as professor of English and ophthalmology.
Kuusisto succeeds SU Meredith Professor James T. Spencer, the program's interim director since 2010, who succeeded Samuel Gorovitz, professor of philosophy in The College of Arts and Sciences and founding director of honors program.
"Stephen Kuusisto is an accomplished scholar and a distinguished professor whose work underscores the interdisciplinary spirit of the Honors Program," says George M. Langford, dean of The College of Arts and Sciences. "I am confident that he will build on the program's legacy of excellence, promoting both the liberal arts and undergraduate professional education."
Langford goes on to praise Kuusisto—whose background includes disability rights—as an inspiration to students everywhere. "His enthusiasm for learning, vision for growth and wide-ranging curiosity are infectious," he says.
As director of the honors program, Kuusisto will oversee Honors Core Faculty, who help shape curriculum, administration and procedures; staff, who evaluate courses, advise students, manage records and implement policies and procedures; and the department's budget.
Kuusisto will also have a continuing appointment with tenure as a University Professor. He will be based in the Department of Cultural Foundations of Education, an interdisciplinary graduate program in the School of Education.
"Stephen Kuusisto is an innovative scholar with an unwavering commitment to interdisciplinary education," says Spencer, who doubles as the college's associate dean for science, mathematics and research. "Much of his work embodies the institutional vision of Scholarship in Action, and is highly civic in purpose."
In addition to the University of Iowa, Kuusisto has held faculty positions at The Ohio State University and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He has taught an array of courses, including those in creative writing, literature, critical writing, journalism, disability studies and cultural studies.
A gifted author and poet, Kuusisto has published half a dozen books, including the recent "Do Not Interrupt: A Playful Take on the Art of Conversation" (Sterling, 2010), and "Planet of the Blind" (The Dial Press, 1998), a best-selling memoir about his struggles with blindness. He also has published more than a hundred essays, articles and poems in Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazine and other leading publications.
Kuusisto's success as a poet and advocate has earned him numerous honors and fellowships, including The New York Times' "Notable Book of the Year" award for "Planet of the Blind." His work has led to special appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Dateline NBC," National Public Radio, the BBC and others.
Recently, Kuusisto and his wife co-founded Kaleidoscope Connections, a national company that promotes employee awareness of and customer service for people with disabilities.
"We're about creating opportunities to reach out to one another and to look for ways to share stories, experiences and knowledge," writes Kuusisto, who earned a M.F.A. in English from the University of Iowa. "With that, attitudinal barriers are reduced fostering better understanding and increased comfort levels amongst all concerned."
The Honors Program is named for Renée Schine Crown '50, H'84, a civic leader and philanthropist who serves as a member of the college's board of visitors and as a member emerita of the University Board of Trustees. Described as an enhanced educational experience for exceptional undergraduates, the honors program offers intellectual challenge and curricular enrichment through seminars, honors courses, special cultural events and close contact with faculty and other honors students.
The program was founded in 1963, but was renamed and re-envisioned in 2004 to reflect the University's emphasis on enriched intellectual depth and breadth, communicative empowerment, global awareness and civic engagement. More information is available at honors.syr.edu.
Rob Enslin


Edmonton's next great neighbourhood! Henley Heights at Secord is situated in a desirable west end location with convenient access to major roadways including Stony Plain Road, Anthony Henday Drive, and Whitemud Drive. Never be far from shops, restaurants, or entertainment with West Edmonton Mall, Mayfield Common, and Costco in close proximity. Whether by car or public transit, you'll be able to satisfy all of your needs in a breeze in this charming community.


text:
The Education of Cowboy
A Cure for the Common Crazy Horsewoman
How I Spent $400 in Two Hours
The Judge Has Frostbite
Do I Even Know You?
Could Someone Call me a Tow Truck?
I promised you there would be adventures.
Once Cowboy got into the groove playing Follow the Leader alongside Ringo, I began to have a lot of fun ponying the youngster off the wise old ex-police horse. Wally was sitting at home nursing a bruised sole (he's fine now, thank-you!), so I had the time to drive across town to my parents' place and go on these pony rides.
Before I go on with the tale I'm about to tell, I must point out two of the skills Ringo had to learn to be a certified mounted patrol horse:
1. Ringo had to learn to push into and against an object until it gave way. That's a difficult concept to teach a horse, because throughout their lives they're taught to back away from pressure. But a police horse might have to be ridden into a line of protesters, or through a group of rioters, so Ringo had to learn that it was-- under certain circumstances-- fine to push into something until it yielded. To learn that skill, Ringo was taught during police training to push a huge, giant ball.
2. Ringo also had to learn to stand his ground. No matter what. The world could be falling apart around him, but he had to be brave and remain rock solid. That was pretty easy, I think, for Ringo. Since he'd been used for roping in years past, he already knew to hold taut against a calf-- and drag one if necessary.
By now you probably see where I'm headed in this story.
So. Last week I ponied Cowboy off of Ringo all around the neighborhood surrounding my parents' place. Since I want to get Cowboy more accustomed to traffic, I headed down the street that runs past both the high school and an elementary school. Ringo is absolutely bombproof around traffic, and he was a real confidence builder for Cowboy. By the time we reached the elementary school, Cowboy was rather ho-hum about the big orange buses. When we reached the corner, I had a decision to make: Turn right and we'd be on a straight path back home. Turn left, and we'd take the long route.
It was a lovely day, so I turned left.
Cowboy planted his feet like a mule. (My apologies to mule fans everywhere. I'm merely attempting to create a visual image).
I was so shocked at the colt's sudden reluctance that I studied his physical stance. Was he suddenly ill? Lame? Tying up? Bleeding? Exhausted beyond all reason?
Or was he too smart for his own good? Did he know-- even though we'd never been on this exact trail-- that home was just a few blocks away, in the opposite direction?
Was he already exhibiting signs of being BARN SOUR?!?!
Just to make sure, I pivoted Ringo around and headed the other way, which was the short way home.
Instantly, Cowboy brightened up and resumed jogging right next to Ringo. What a brat.
So of course, being the alpha mare that I am, and not wanting this colt to begin masterminding his own agenda at 10 months of age, I wheeled Ringo around and headed back the way I wanted to go. Again, the mule thing. Cowboy splayed his legs in all four directions, drooped his ears to either side like Eeyore and half-shut his eyes, as if to say, "I dare you to make me go away from home."
I dallied the lead rope around my saddle horn, kissed at Ringo and the two of us literally pulled Cowboy down the trail. Ever see a puppy on the end of a leash, refusing to walk? Then you've got the picture.
I made it to the corner of the next street, Rock Springs Drive. I had to hold the dally as hard as I could, though, to keep Cowboy coming forward. Thank God I was wearing my deerskin gloves! He took each step as if each foot was chained to a 50-pound bowling ball. When we got into the street (this is a very, very quiet residential area with lots of backyard horses), Cowboy flat out refused to go any further. He'd been on Rock Springs before, and I'm sure he realized that this was the scenic route home.
Right then, a lady drove up to the stop sign in her horsey pickup truck. She was wearing a ball cap and I could see some rodeo stickers on her back window. Ringo, Cowboy and I were blocking her path; she was stuck at the stop sign and I was stuck in the crosswalk. I motioned for her to go around us, and when she politely obliged-- driving at a snail's pace-- I noticed the look on her face. It said, "I feel your pain."
What could I do? I was not about to give in to Cowboy, however, the prospect of towing him all the way home like a calf being dragged to a branding fire wasn't appealing, either. So I decided to instigate one of Ringo's police horse skills: I turned him into the side of Cowboy, so that his brawny chest was pressing against the colt's side, and clucked. Ringo didn't hesitate. He went into bulldozer mode and shoved Cowboy across the street until we were safely up on the bridle path. What a good man, Officer Ringo!
But now what should I do? I sat aboard Ringo, underneath a sycamore that had shed most of its leaves for the winter. Truly, I contemplated breaking off a stick and using it as a crop to swat Cowboy on his plump yellow butt. I also thought of calling my father on my cell phone and asking him to come, with the longe whip in the back of the truck, so he could "encourage" Cowboy to come along. My final option was to just wait Cowboy out.
In any case, I was not going to turn around. That was out of the question. You see, this wasn't the first time that Cowboy had said, "Nu-uh" to some request. He did it with the clippers. He did it with loading into the trailer. He did it with getting a shampoo. He isn't scared. He gives absolutely no signs that he's frightened. He simply would prefer not to do what the humans are asking.
But of course, I always end up winning: He now clips. He loads beautifully. And he stands patiently for a shampoo. Yet I win not because I beat him into submission, but because I explain that I have all the time and patience in the world, I'm consistent in what I'm asking, and I reward him profusely when he complies. Hence, I decided to just stand underneath that spiny sycamore until Cowboy realized, on his own, that he was not getting his way.
It took about 8 minutes.
Ringo was perfectly happy standing there. He probably figured he was on a stake-out. But Cowboy began to grow restless. Some part of me still believes that horses can somehow understand the essence of what we're saying to them, so I said to the colt, "Have you gotten the impression that we are not going home that-a-way?"
I swear, he looked at me and then nuzzled Ringo.
"So," I said, "would you like to get going, or would you prefer to stand here until dark? Because truly, I have nothing better to do. AND YOU ARE NOT GOING HOME THE OTHER WAY."
I tempted fate. I neck reined Ringo to the left, the direction I wanted to go, and gave the faintest of tugs on Cowboy's leadline. He came along, happily.
We trotted and cantered much of the way home. We went up some hills, down some hills, and across a few more streets. La-la-la-la-la! Cowboy had plenty of energy. He bucked a few times and even pranced when we jogged past The Poodle Farm. (It's a huge house on about an acre and the folks there raise Standard Poodles that roam the property like curly deer).
I didn't make any big whoop-tee-do when we strolled down the driveway. Coming home shouldn't be a grand celebration; that only makes it all the more desirable for a young horse to get home hastily. I want The Great Outdoors to be what's fun, fresh and exciting.
Once I put Cowboy and Ringo away, I was the one who celebrated all the way back to my home. Why? Because Auntie Cindy won yet again. And it must be that way, or Cowboy will grow up to be a spoiled, hog-headed beast. But that doesn't mean that there won't be more adventures. Trust me.
Have a ponying saga to share? Just want to leave your thoughts? Just click on "comments" below!
Good going, Cindy! One question, though: How did you teach Cowboy to relent to clipping? My horse is good about it, but still doesn't like getting her ears clipped. I'd appreciate any/all advice thataway.
February 5, 2009 at 2:50:00 PM PST
congrats on getting him to move. i had a horse that would flat out refuse like that but she did it only when asked to get into a trailer :)
Nice job, Cindy! I know how agravating stubborn horses can be. But now young Cowboy will grow up understanding that when Auntie Cindy says he needs to do something, he really need to do it. Thanks for sharing! The story made me laugh, just as so many of your stories do.
Well, honestly, both clipping and trailering are best approached in a step-by-step method. At least that's how I've always been successful with both activities. Perhaps these would make great short articles for Horse Channel! :)
Truthfully, though, some horses never really "enjoy" having their ears clipped, so don't feel too bad.
I'm glad that the ponying tale made you laugh!


text:
CFPs and Conference Reports
Minding the Gap: One Institution's Strategy for Infusing Health Humanities into Multiple Academic Programs across a Graduate Health Science University
Posted on November 26, 2019 by Chris Pak
Part One of a Two-Part Blog Series
by Lisa Kerr, PhD; Dusti Annan-Coultas, EdD; Jane Ariail, PhD; Jennifer Bailey, MEd; Caroline DeLongchamps; Cindy Dodds, PT, PhD, PCS; Brooke Fox, MS, CA; Jeanne G. Hill, MD; Kimberly Kascak, MEd; Steve Kubalak, PhD; Michael Madson, PhD; Ben Reynolds, PhD; Bob Sade, MD; Tabitha Samuel, MLIS; Thomas G. Smith, PhD.
Corresponding author: Lisa Kerr <kerli@musc.edu>, Medical University of South Carolina
The mission of the Office of Humanities at the Medical University of South Carolina is to promote teaching, scholarship, and research in the health humanities. Director of the Office, Lisa Kerr, partners with multiple groups and individuals across the institution to accomplish these goals.
Over half of United States medical schools include health humanities content in their curricula, but humanities education for students in other academic health science programs are few and far between. The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is working to address this gap identified by the National Organization for the Arts in Health (NOAH) in 2017. For many years, various MUSC faculty members and groups have infused health humanities programming into our six colleges: dental medicine, graduate studies, health professions (i.e., allied health), medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. Seeing the need for a more systematic approach, the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost created an Office of Humanities in 2017. The director of the Office of Humanities established a mission to promote teaching, scholarship, and research in the health humanities across our institution, in large part by leveraging the existing network and fostering its growth. In this two-part blog series, we'll describe the health humanities programs at MUSC to illustrate how we've created broad humanities programming across the university. We hope these descriptions reflect our strategy for broadening institutional perceptions of what the health humanities are and how they contribute to health professions education and practice. For Part One of this two-part blog series, we'll focus on the core initiatives led by our Office of Humanities. In Part Two, we'll describe programs led by the Office's university and community partners.
Health Humanities Class-Specific Workshops and Assignments
The Office of Humanities works to build relationships with faculty members across programs and to assess their needs for humanities content. At present, the director of the Office of Humanities offers a variety of workshops that broadly fall under the categories of health humanities or narrative medicine. Consistent themes include the importance of individual narratives to providing person-centered care; the impact of unconscious biases and assumptions; the value of being a reflective practitioner; and the role of personal, cultural, and political forces in health and health care. The goals of these sessions are to introduce the health humanities as a discipline, explain its value to students' education and practice, and engage students in experiential learning. This method of embedding workshops has allowed the Office of Humanities to reach students in multiple programs across our institution.
Providing digital access to humanities content is another strategy we use to embed the health humanities. In 2017, the director of the Office developed a series of modules for a community based education program run by South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (SC AHEC) designed to prepare them to work in rural and underserved areas (SC AHEC, 2019). The modules explored topics identified by SC AHEC: Interprofessional Education, Behavioral Health integration, Social Determinants of Health, Cultural Competency, Practice Transformation—Patient- and Family-Centered Care, and Current and Emerging Health Issues—Technology, Innovation, and Patient Care. For each of these topics, the Office of Humanities provided three to five activities with literature, film, television, and the visual arts. Approximately 60 students per year have the opportunity to engage with these humanities modules in the interprofessional SC AHEC program.
Humanitas: A Journal of Literature and the Arts
For 24 years, MUSC has published Humanitas, a journal of literature and the visual arts that is edited by students and accepts submissions from "anyone with an MUSC badge," including students, faculty, staff, and volunteers. Issues include works from medical and health science students as well as pharmacy and radiology technicians; nursing, administrative, information technology, and public safety staff; and clinical and research faculty. In the spring, the journal is printed and distributed free and made available digitally on the Office of Humanities website. In recent years, the Office of Humanities and the journal's faculty advisor have proactively sought to draw a more diverse pool of student editors. Over the last two years, the editorial board has included students from graduate studies, health professions, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. In the coming year, we will proactively reach out to students through the Office of Student Diversity in an effort to continue increasing representation and participation across the student body.
SHARE Grants and Student Research Day
A primary goal of the Office of Humanities is to grow our network of students, teachers, scholars, and researchers. So we created the Scholars of Humanities and Arts Research and Education (SHARE) grants program to fund projects that sit at the intersection of arts, humanities, and health. Because the Office of Humanities' primary mission is to serve students, teams that include an MUSC student from any program as an active member are strongly encouraged to apply. In the first two cycles, three student research groups from two colleges—the College of Medicine and the College of Health Professions Physical Therapy Program—were among the five groups selected to receive grants. Their projects included a "race and medicine" reading group, a visual thinking strategies (VTS) project conducted in partnership with a local art museum, and a dance therapy group for patients with Parkinson's Disease. These students and all SHARE grant recipients are required to disseminate findings through publication or presentation.
One opportunity to share research findings occurs every fall with MUSC's Student Research Day, which showcases the work of our students and their research collaborators. In the fall of 2018, the Office of Humanities created a "health humanities" research prize. On presentation day, judges scored the oral and poster presentations using a customized rubric, and one award was given for best overall presentation. In 2018 and 2019, both student winners were from the College of Health Professions. In the future, our goal is to continue to raise awareness of health humanities research and scholarship to encourage more MUSC students to engage in these areas of investigation.
MUSC Reads: A Common Reading Experience
The Office of Humanities instituted a "common reading" program in 2017 to provide students, faculty, and staff opportunities to discuss topics of health and health care through literary and narrative lenses. The first year of this initiative, we selected Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the novel's first publication. Members of the MUSC community formed small reading groups, whose members received a free copy of Frankenstein. Because we've found scheduling to be a barrier to book club participation in the past, these groups met at a time convenient to their members for discussions. To help facilitate these discussions, an MUSC librarian/archivist created a digital library guide (LibGuide) that included discussion questions, resources, and an overview of the initiative. Small group participants were also invited to attend a large-group event featuring an interdisciplinary panel. In our second year, we selected the book Dreamland: The True Tale of the America's Opiate Epidemic. For both years of the initiative, close to half of the over 100 participants were MUSC students, and demand for books was higher than our supply.
In the first two years, the Office of Humanities also collaborated with The Institute of Human Values in Health Care to link "MUSC Reads" to The Institute's annual Thomas A. Pitts Memorial Lectureship in Medical Ethics. This lecture is open to any students, staff, and faculty of MUSC and draws national participation. In 2018, the topic of the lecture was "Frankenstein at 200 Years: Contemporary, Ethical, Scientific, and Social Relevance," and in 2019, the topic was "Opioid Controversies: The Crisis—Causes and Solutions," connecting it to Dreamland. By aligning "MUSC Reads" and the Pitts Lectureship, these two groups built interest around these topics on campus.
Stay Tuned for Part Two
While these programs represent major initiatives led by the Office of Humanities, a key strategy of our Office is to create innovative collaborations across our health system and to recognize the humanities work championed by others. Stay tuned for Part Two of this blog series, where we describe several of our partner initiatives.
National Organization for Arts in Health. (2017). Arts, health, and wellbeing America. https://thenoah.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/NOAH 2017-WhitePaper-Online Edition.pdf. Accessed 20 August 2019.
South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium. 2019. AHEC Scholars Program. https://www.scahec.net/students/ahecscholars.html. Accessed 20 August 2019.
EducationTagged medical humanities, research
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This neoprene tail wrap fits securely and comfortably to protect the horse?s tailhead from rubbing and breakage. Also designed to use in live-cover and artifi cial insemination breeding situations by helping to keep the tail area clear and clean. Not recommended for use more than four to five hours.