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June Buggie’s Taking a Walk on the Wild Side
Meow! My name is June Buggie and I have something to say.
You humans have a problem, especially your kids, and it’s called Nature Deficit Disorder.
What is Nature Deficit Disorder? It’s a term coined by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods. Louv shows that humans are tied to nature, and require contact with the natural world in order for children to develop into both physically and emotionally healthy adults. He asserts that children who don’t have sufficient contact with the natural world and who are not able to adapt to our high-tech, indoor world are more likely to suffer from obesity, attention disorders, and depression.
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 8- to 18-year-olds spend more than 53 hours a week using entertainment media (TV, computer, etc.).
Now I know what you’re thinking. What does this have to do with animals, June Buggie?
Kids who don’t have regular contact with nature don’t have a concept of animals being free in nature. A disconnect with nature could lead to further destruction of the few places left where animals can live in the wild.
Kids who don’t have regular contact with the natural world will be more accepting of livestock animals living in cruel, cramped conditions. How many of you know what kind of conditions pigs and chickens live in?
Kids who never experience the wonder of insects will not understand the valuable role they play in the ecosystem, and will instead think that all bugs should be killed with pesticides.
Let’s consider that Nature had a reason for creating the living things that inhabit the Earth and knows more than humans about what this world needs.
So how about teaching your children a healthy respect for the natural world by experiencing it firsthand, not just by watching it on TV. | <urn:uuid:ac9ddd4f-f31f-4b45-b998-f721932b87f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rumpydog.com/2012/03/13/june-buggies-taking-a-walk-on-the-wild-side/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956201 | 401 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Combat Capability [42%], Role and Missions, Structure of the Navy, in-service ships, surface ships, submarines, chronology.
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Ukrainian Navy: ferial excursions into the past and present
Battleship Volya (Freedom) (till April 16, 1917 — Imperator Alexander Tretiy (Emperor Alexander the 3rd)). While Hetmanate and Ukrainian Peoples’ Republic times she was one of the first to raise the Ukrainian flag. Photo of 1916.
Ukraine is maritime power that must protect its waters and economic interest at seas, protect the country from possible sea intrusion. The Navy should also serve this purpose. Right now the Ukrainian Navy consists of 28 ships… 27 of which require the overhaul or under repair already.
Armored deck cruiser Getman Ivan Mazepa (Hetman Ivan Mazepa) (former Kagul, Pamyat Merkuriya (Memory of Mercury). While Hetmanate and Ukrainian Peoples’ Republic times she stationed in Sevastopol. Broken down in 1943 only.
The Ukrainian Navy arose in stormy 1917—1918. The Naval personnel of the tsarist navy mainly consisted of the Ukrainian recruits. Just recall one of the heroes of Sevastopol’s Defense seaman Koshka, a serf from Osmitincy village of Vinnitskaya oblast Peter Markovich Kishka. Upon the February Revolution of 1917 the Ukrainization spreaded over the Black Sea Fleet. Starting October 1917 the crews of the ships had been establishing military councils; the blue-yellow flags were flying from the masts. Destroyer Zavidniy (Enviable) and Pamyat Merkuriya were the first examples. The General Secretariat for Naval Affairs was established within the government of the Central Rada in Kiev (in January 1918 it was reformed in a Ministry). The head of it become D. Antonovich. The Head Navy Staff was led by Captain Yu. Pokrovski. For the educational and agitational purposes of the seamen the Central Rada seconded the commisars to Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson and Sevastopol. November 22, 1917 the whole crew of the newest and powerful battleship of the Black Sea Fleet Volya made fealty to the Central Rada, followed soon by several ships and submarines. Rear-admiral M. Steblin a descendant of Cossack family of Shabliiv was appointed commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Navy. A telegram to Kiev was sent form the staff ship Georgy Pobedonosets “Effective today the Sevastopol fortress and the Fleet in Sevastopol raised the Ukrainian flag. Admiral Sablin assumed the command of the Fleet”. Having no reply the admiral ordered to repeat the telegram started with the words “The Comrades of Kiev Central Rada…”. The brave officer was unaware that the Central Rada in Kiev was already a history at the moment.
From October 1917 till March 1918 the following came to the disposal of the Ukrainians: nine battleships, seven cruisers, 18 destroyers, 14 submarines, 16 patrol ships and avisos, 11 military transports and mother ships. In addition the Fleet’s Headquarters, all military institutions and plants, all coastal fortifications were in hands of the Ukrainians. But they were yet to face a disaster.
Kaiser’s forces had been advancing to Sevastopol with a goal to capture the Black Sea Fleet. Having no support from the land forces Admiral Sablin was forced enter the negotiation regarding cessation of hostilities. The Germans however had rejected the armistice proposals and the advance continued. The Centroflot (the combined fleet revolutionary committee) in order to save the Fleet took a decision on moving to Novorossiysk. April 30, 1918 the main high sea fleet under command of Admiral Sablin headed for Novorossiysk. Only 25 auxiliaries and small crafts as well as 15 submarines left in Sevastopol under Admiral Ostrogradskiy who assumed the command.
May 1, 1918 the German army entered Sevastopol and two enemy battleships anchored in the bay. Under the guns of the enemy the admiral gave an order to the Fleet to strike the Ukrainian colors. That was the first tragical page in the history of the Ukrainian Navy.
The modern Ukrainian Navy is fully equipped by the ships inherited from the former USSR. It is hard to imagine of the criteria that had guided the politicians while splitting of the Black Sea Fleet in early nineties but Ukraine obtained not the best part of it. Presently the Ukrainian Fleet consist of 28 ships, motor boats and other crafts: frigate Getman Sagaidachniy, built in 1993; submarine Zaporizhzha built in 1970; six corvettes, the oldest built in 1976, Lut’sk the newest in 1994; three assault landing ships – Kostyantin Ol’shanskiy – 1985, Kirovgrad – 1971, Donetsk - 1992; four mine warfare vessels all but one built in the seventies of the last century, Genichesk – 1984; three gunboats – 1971, 1972, and 1990; two sister ships missile boats Priluki – 1979 and Kakhovka – 1980; two amphibious ships Bryanka - 1970 and Svatove - 1979; three scout ships Slavutich – 1992, Simferopol – 1973, Pereyaslav – 1987; command ship Donbas – 1970 and anti-diversion boat Feodosiya – 1983.
Car enthusiasts are well aware that upon ten years of service life their iron horse starts falling to pieces, which means you need to get rid of it as soon as possible. Was that the way our “big brother” in the Black Sea Fleet did? But a ship is not a car but a city with its own power plant, water supply, flushing system, ventilation, air conditioning, wastes treatment equipment, etc, stuffed with armament and ammunition. Its hull and machineries are under permanent exposure of hostile environment – sea water.
Is it possible that our naval officials care the entrusted crafts so much that they can be easily called to protect our waters at any moment? The report The Technical Condition of Ships and Crafts of the Ukrainian Navy as of May 5, 2005 originated by the Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian Navy for logistics says that 27 ships are being refitted or require immediate repair. For the year of 2005 it is planned to repair 21 ships that requires 9207.8 thousand grivnas (what an accurateness! – author’s note). One gets really scared while reading the following words from the report “On route from Novoozernoe to Sevatopol the port engine was shut down on an emergency (assault landing ship – Kostyantin Ol’shanskiy – author’s note). An investigation was carried out … an estimated work cost makes 120 thousand grivnas”; amphibious ship Svatove: “… the outer shell is distorted and deformed in some places; immediate paining required. The underwater hull has a spreading corrosion; general condition of the hull is satisfactory (Thanks God! – author’s note). Fuel tanks subject to corrosion. 20% of the upper deck is covered with rust and needs maintenance”; command ship Donbas “The date of the last maintenance — 1986. The date of the next interim overhaul has expired in 1991”; fleet’s flagship frigate Getman Sagaidachniy — crankshaft of diesel generating set is broken; missile hydrofoil boat Kakhovka “Hull’s condition is satisfactory but hydrofoil run is impossible due to vast fouling”; assault landing air-cushion ship Donetsk (the only in the fleet) “Ship’s effective life has expired. The ship is to be excluded from the list of navy’s operational force and transferred into “equipment” category. Almost similar situation can be observed about every ship in the fleet. By the way somebody’s kids, grandkids, brothers, and husbands serve at this sort of “equipment”.
The only Ukrainian submarine has long become a subject of numerous jokes. Starting February 28, 2002 the submarine is under repair at SSRZ (Sevastopol ship repair yard) of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. 60% of works of the total scope has been completed to date. The notorious accumulator plant of the sub is located ashore since February 2003 meaning the two years of the five year warranty period have already spent. Our dear Ministry of Defense (read – tax payers) let’s start accumulating currency for the purchase of the new plant. We are going to pay Russia for the sub’s repair over 15 million grivnas.
The former president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma noted in one of his speeches that basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is beneficial for Ukraine apparently meaning the funds due to the budget as community charges, land tax, custom duties for railage and other. This is right of course should our neighbor pay in time. For instance, the Assistant of the Russian Black Sea Fleet for financial activities admits “The Fleet (Russian – author’s note) year in and out is in debt to both military and Ukrainian companies – suppliers of energy and material resources”.
Unfortunately Ukraine has got not a single manufacturer of naval armament. That is why we are forced to by it abroad mainly in Russia. But how stupid should be a government to supply his neighbor with the most sophisticated equipment? Who knows what is going to happen in the future. As a result we possess ships with expired operational life, not mission capable submarine, out-of-date armament. In other words all these are “equipment and materials”. A saying “The thing you don’t want is dear at any price” is true for our navy. So what, do nothing and let it sink by itself? Too early, it is not so bad.
During the years of independence Ukraine managed to complete construction and commission four ships: frigate Getman Sagaidachniy, corvette Lutsk, command ship Slavutich, and assault landing air-cushion ship Donetsk. The following are at different stages of construction: missile cruiser Ukraina (Ukraine), corvettes Lviv, Lugansk, and Ternopol. The latter is being built at CJSC Leninskaya Kuznitsa for fourteen years already, as per the project 1125 Albatros (Albatross) developed yet in the seventies. The completeness of cruiser Ukraina makes up to 95%. About 150 million grivnas is needed to finalize the construction. Her fate is uncertain because it is being considered that she does not fit into the military doctrine of our country. Yet the aim of any country has always been the possession of maximum efficient armament.
The future is not known for two hydrofoil corvettes being constructed at shipbuilding facility More in Feodosiya. Due to the expensiveness and operation complexity the ships have become hostages because of their own technical excellence.
The Armament Program for the Period until 2010 specifies three main classes of ships for the Ukraininan Navy, namely corvette, missile boat and a mine sweeper. The program does not include submarines (although naval experts consider the need of three), landing crafts as the offensive weapon (?) and the fleet of auxiliaries notwithstanding the existence of military forces that can be supported from sea only. The projects for corvettes have been developed: Pahar-C in the Central Design Bureau Shkhuna (Shooner) located in Kiev, Mirazh (Mirage), Mistral – 1500T (foreign customer) and è Gaiduk – 21 (Heyduck) at the State Experimental Design Office of Shipbuilding in Nikolaev. The latter on account of using stealth technologies already today is being referred to as stealth-ship.
Ukraine possesses unique shipbuilding potential but the lack of funding as always imposes obstacles in realization of designers’ ideas. Former head of naval shipbuilding and armament office in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Rear-admiral M. Serdyuk says in his interview for Sudnobudutovannya ta sudoremont (Shipbuilding and Ship Repair) magazine “The only thing is needed for the Ukrainian Navy, namely stable funding of the new ships construction program. Let the fleet be moderate but with the predictable future.” You can paraphrase the well known saying “Those not supporting their own fleet will be sure supporting the enemy one soon”. This is what we almost have today. | <urn:uuid:3c58a188-e41d-4846-979e-ac68b3714050> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rusnavy.com/history/interesting/ukranianfleet.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946569 | 2,667 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Woman's Mysteries of a Primitive People, by D. Amaury Talbot, , at sacred-texts.com
FROM the moment when the death of a great Efik chief was announced his widows came under the care of the Ndito Than society, known among Ibibios by the name of "Iban Isong," i.e. Women of the Soil. Should an unfortunate widow offend against custom in any way, such as by washing face or feet, or plaiting her hair, the society at once fined her; for members were continually passing in and out of the house of mourning to watch that the rules were observed. At cock-crow each day the women of the household had to wake and start crying for an hour or two, and should one of them not be thought to perform her part of the ceremony in a sufficiently energetic manner, external aids were applied of sufficient strength to remedy any lack of naturalness. Widows were not allowed to leave the compound on any pretext, but were forced to stay, each in her own house, sitting upon a small mat in a dark corner. No covering was permitted, save the narrow strip usually worn round the waist beneath the robe and called the "woman's cloth."
When women from other families came, the visitors seated themselves just before their hostess. No sooner had they settled down than the widow
started to weep anew, and the guests joined her in lamentation. After a certain time spent in this way they went on to another wife, and so on till all had been condoled with. Sisters and cousins of the dead man usually received visits in the room beneath the floor of which the corpse was buried.
Only legal wives were thus secluded. Other women of the household, no matter how near or dear they might have been to the dead, were not expected to stay in their little corners, but were free to come and go within the compound. The time of seclusion was called that of the "Mbuk Pisi" house, i.e. house of mourning.
When a very great chief dies his widows make a certain offering to the Ndito Than Society. For this purpose they prepare long wrappings of silk, and, after having presented these, send to inform their families of the bereavement which has befallen them. In olden days a year or more was usually spent in this seclusion. Now it is only a week or two, or at most a month.
As the time of mourning drew to an end, about nine o'clock one night a cry was heard coming from the Egbo house. This was the signal for the beginning of what was called a very "strong night" at Calabar. All the widows stepped, one by one, out of the compound where they had so long been confined, and proceeded to the Egbo shed, each with her family walking round her like a fence The building was full of the great chiefs of the town, while crowds of spectators stood outside. After all the wives had been stationed before the entrance, the name of each was called in turn, from the lowest to the highest, with the words:
"You must 'cry' your husband before the Egbo, that Egbo may hear."
Then, in the stillness, the poor woman raised her voice bewailing her loss, and the Egbo answered the cry from within, "a very thick and heavy sound amid the silence." After awhile came a pause, then all began again as before. Seven times the wail rose; but the seventh was the last. All this time the family of the first woman stood in readiness to pass her along from one to another. Suddenly bells were heard ringing, and the widow started to run, sheltered always by her kinsfolk. The same happened to all in turn, and, should some unfortunate woman have no strong family to encircle and save her, Egbo caught her and she died there and then.
After having "cried their husband before the Egbo," the widows went back once more to the house of mourning, and early next day Idemm Ikwaw (i.e. lesser Egbo) came out and went round the town. All the principal chiefs followed him, holding in their hands twenty to forty young palm stems, each about four feet long, from which the hard skin had been stripped off, so that only the soft inner part was left.
When these had gathered in the courtyard, the women came out from the Mbuk Pisi house one by one with folded arms and stepping backwards "softly, softly"; for they might not turn their heads. Each was shaking with terror, for none knew what was coming and they feared "too much." All around them bells were ringing with deafening clang and bang. The Egbo image struck at each, as she came forth, and, if the woman was lithe and nimble of mind as
well as body, at the first stroke she sprang back into the house, but many were too bewildered to know where to turn. For each blow a new stick was used, the others being thrown away immediately. After every widow had been struck in turn, the ceremony was over. "The minds of the women could rest in peace now. There was nothing more to fear."
Later in the day all went down to the river to bathe. There they washed the little cloths which had so long been worn unchanged, and shaved their heads. "Each widow was laved by the women of her family and those who were her dearest friends. No man could see them walking unrobed because of the press of women about each. After bathing they dressed themselves in cloth woven of plaited grasses, the fine kind called Ofon Ndam, black, red, and yellow in colour, which is as soft as linen." Then the "woman's cloth," and every spoon, calabash and other utensil used during the time of mourning was thrown into the river; were this not done it was thought that their continued possession would entail barrenness upon their owner. After these had been cast away the widows returned for the last time to the house of their late husband. They did not enter, however, but only sat on the veranda.
Next some of the principal women of the town and five or six chiefs went thither as witnesses that all had "cleansed themselves," and now wished to go back to the homes of their fathers. The household juju was brought out and set upon the ground, and before it each widow took oath:
"During my husband's lifetime if I was unfaithful
to him or did any bad thing against his family may the juju punish me! If not, may I go clear!"
After this each woman's kin surrounded her. She raised her clasped hands above her head, resting them with interlocked fingers upon the crown, and cried, "My husband divorces me to-day!" The spectators took up the cry, calling in chorus upon the dead man by his "fine names" such as "Helper of the Town," etc.
After each widow had thus set herself free, the household dependents came forward and "cried" in much the same manner. Then the "free born" amongst them all went back to the homes of their fathers.
For seven days only the native grass cloth "Ofon Ndam" might be worn by the bereaved women, and, when this was laid aside, custom ordained that a kind called "Isodoho" should be substituted.
Sisters, cousins, and women "members" of the deceased's family wore a blue cloth two fathoms long, knotted over the left shoulder and hanging straight down like the usual farm dress. As a further sign of mourning they used to grind charcoal and mix with a little oil to form a black pigment, with which they painted a mark from temple to temple across the forehead, much in the shape of a crescent moon. It is quite probably from this circumstance that the "house of mourning" among the Ibibios is termed "the moon house," though, when the supposition was mentioned, some of my informants disclaimed all knowledge of the point.
Male members of the family or household were
supposed to wear black or dark blue cloth, sometimes for as much as a year and a half, until a date was fixed upon by the principal men among them, who said, "On such and such a day we will finish mourning." They liked to arrange so that this "throwing off of mourning" took place about Christmas time, before the planting of new farms.
It would seem that the period of mourning is purposely made as disagreeable as possible for the widows, in order to deter these from the temptation to poison their husbands so as to clear the way for another suitor.
As with the Greeks of old, both men and women shaved their heads in sign of mourning. Like the widows, some of the dependents wore Isodoho cloth, and some a kind dyed a lighter shade of blue called "Utan Okpo."
From the day when the widows "took oath before the juju" and returned to their fathers' homes they were free to marry again. 1
On the occasion of the funeral rites of the head chief of Ikotobo, the cattle offered to the "Manes" of the dead were laid out to the left of the throne upon which the corpse sat in state; while on the right, as if to balance the slaughtered sheep, which in this case were twenty in number, crouched the deceased's twenty wives with their children, all wailing and wringing their hands. But for the presence of the "white man," 2 most, if not all, of these unfortunate women would have been sacrificed also and buried with their lord. Even as
it was their fate was sad enough. They were painted over with black pigment and forced to go into mourning for six months, though in the case of lesser men the period is sometimes shortened to as little as seven days. During this time they were obliged to observe the strictest seclusion. On such occasions none is allowed to wash either body or clothes. They are even forbidden to stand at the door of their prison while rain is falling, lest a single drop should touch them and thus cleanse a fractional part of the body. During this time the wretched women exist under conditions too hideous for description. At the end of their seclusion the Egbo "images" come with attendants and drive them forth from the dead man's house, which is then broken down. Images and attendants bear sharp machets, with which they slash the arms of the terrified women, who run weeping to seek out former friends and beg them to bind up their wounds. After this they remain homeless until parcelled out among the heirs of the dead man.
The wives of even poor Ibibios must remain secluded for a week after their husband's burial. During this time they may wear no garment save a small loin cloth and a piece of goat's skin tied over the right hand. 1 Before coming forth they are allowed to dress their hair, bathe and resume their customary garments. The first use they make of freedom is usually to go and pluck themselves boughs of ntung leaves, which they wave to and fro "to drive away the scent of the ghost," for Ibibios, like the ancient Babylonians, believe that ghosts have a very evil smell. Thus
protected, the women approach the grave and lay upon it, folded into a small roll, the cloth and piece of skin which they have worn during the time of their seclusion. After this has been duly done they may return to their ordinary mode of life, mixing with their fellows and going to market as before.
In the neighbourhood of Awa when a chief fell sick his nearest kinsmen used to go to the Idiong priest and ask the cause of the illness. Should the oracle declare, as was usually the case, that this had been brought about in consequence of a wife's unfaithfulness, Idiong was next asked to point out the guilty woman. So soon as her name was pronounced she was called upon to confess and give the name of her lover. Should she refuse and as a result, according to general opinion, the husband died, the oracle was consulted once more, and, on the almost invariable pronouncement that the woman was guilty of the death, a meeting of the townsfolk was called to decide upon her fate. By ancient custom this might be meted out in two ways; either she was buried alive by the dead man's side, in place of a female slave usually sacrificed on such an occasion, or forced to sit above the grave. In the latter case a slender pole of hard wood was brought, sharpened to a fine point before the eyes of the wretched woman, and then driven into the skull, right through the body, and deep down into the earth, in such a manner as to impale her above the place of burial.
Before killing such victims the people used to gather round and order them to pronounce a blessing upon the town. "Make plenty piccans be born to
us," they would cry; "plenty girls and plenty boys." Should the victim refuse to repeat the words they coaxed her, and said:
"If you will but speak this blessing we will let you go free."
Should she again refuse they beat her very cruelly, crying, "Now speak." If, despite the pain, she still refused, the "fearful Egbo" would come out--hideous beyond description--and threaten nameless tortures till she yielded.
In some rare cases the woman has still been known to hold out, as is also recorded of one or other of the slaves ordained by custom to share the grave of their lord, and from whom a like "blessing" was demanded. Under such circumstances the victims were never sacrificed, since to do so would have been to draw down a period of barrenness and poverty upon the town. Instead of killing such steadfast souls, therefore, they were sold into slavery, while a victim who could be forced or cajoled into pronouncing the necessary formula was offered instead.
It was of the utmost importance to the well-being of the spirits of parents in the Ghost Realm that a son should be left behind who would carry out the burial rites with all due observances. The straits to which good sons were sometimes put in order to make sure that the necessary ritual was performed are illustrated by the story of the sham burial of the mother of the head chief of Ikot Okudum--a town not far from Ubium Creek.
Many years ago when the present head chief, Etuk Udaw Akpan by name, was a young man, he
was very strong and brave. For a certain reason his fellow-townsmen wanted to kill him. They tried their best, and set many snares, but lie always escaped them.
One day he went to visit the house of a friend in the Ubium country. His host prepared "chop" and set it before him, with palm wine and all things necessary for the refreshment of an honoured guest. During the meal his enemies heard that he was within, so they sent a message to the owner of the compound, saying:
"For a long time we have wanted to kill this man but could never catch him. We beg you, therefore, to give him into our hands, and in return we will pay you a great sum."
The host said, "I agree, provided the amount you offer is large enough!" So they brought much money, whereon he said, "It is good. Do to him what you will."
Then the people surrounded the house and fastened the doors of the encircling fence so that Etuk might not escape them. When all was ready they called:
"Come out. We wish to ask you a word." He, however, answered, "No. If you have anything to say, it can be said while I am within." The people replied, "You must come out." Then when they found that he would not do this, they tried to force in the door and fall upon him.
On that Etuk drew out a sharp machet which was hidden beneath his gown, and springing through the door shut it suddenly behind him, and stood facing his foes. So unexpected was his appearance, and so
fierce his blows, that momentarily the people all gave way before him. At a glance he saw that the gates were barred, so, as he was an excellent climber, before anyone could stop him, he sprang upon the mud wall of the veranda and thence to the roof. Along this he rushed till he came to a place where the building was very near the fence, cleared this at a bound, and alighted safely on the other side. Then he ran for his life toward the bush, crying out, "If you want me, follow me now!"
It was some time before those within the enclosure could unbar the gate which they themselves had so carefully fastened, and by the time this was done Etuk had disappeared.
All day he hid, but after nightfall managed to reach his home unnoticed. There he said to his mother:
"To-day I went to a house in the Ubium country, whither the townsmen followed to kill me. I was very sorry for myself and also for you, because you are my mother and, unless I am killed, you will probably die before me. In that case it would be my duty to bury you. Now that they want to kill me so soon I fear that you may be left with no grown-up son to perform the rites for you, since my brothers are still very young. I think, therefore, it is best, while there is yet time, to call all the townsfolk together and do that which is proper for a son to do for a dead mother."
To this the woman answered, "Do as you say, for the people want to kill you, and leave me alone in the world with no one to bury me when my time shall come."
Then Etuk sent one of his small brothers to summon the townsfolk. Goats, cows and much mimbo had been provided, together with everything necessary to do honour to a dead woman.
When all were assembled before the house Etuk said to his mother, "Go now and bathe." Then when the bath was finished he robed her as is done with a corpse. Afterwards he went outside and placed a chair for his mother, who sat thereon in the sight of all the people, as the dead are used to sit in state.
Next all the beasts were slaughtered, and Etuk Udaw took the blood and poured it out before the feet of his mother, as is customary for women who leave behind them a son of fitting age to carry out the burial rites. When this was finished he ordered the people to play the death play for his mother, and at the end bade her go back into the house while he addressed the company.
First he told them to keep silence for a while, and then asked:
"Do you know what I mean by dressing my mother like a dead woman and holding her burial rites while she is still alive?" They answered, "No, we cannot even guess, though we question much among our selves on this very matter." So he continued:
"You want to kill me, and should I die before her she would be left in the world without a son old enough to bury her properly when the time comes. Therefore I have done all this before you slay me, that everything may be performed in due order and she may not suffer in the Ghost Realm."
They answered, "We have drunk all this mimbo
and eaten these sacrifices to no purpose as it appears! Never have we seen such a thing as this!" So they went away, much amazed. Nevertheless, from that time they left the man in peace, and did not strive to harm him as they had before.
Not long afterwards one of the small brothers fell ill, so Etuk went to the Idiong man and asked the reason. The diviner consulted the oracle, and replied:
"It is because you have carried out the death rites of your mother, and the evil spirits grow impatient, watching for her to die. As she has not yet reached the ghost town, they are trying to take one of your young brothers."
On hearing this, Etuk went home and bought many medicines, he also offered sacrifices to save the boy, but in spite of all that was done the little one died.
The mother herself lived for many, many years. Indeed, it is only about four years since she went to the ghost town, but the son still lives, and has become head chief over all those who formerly wished to kill him, and he now sits as a "member," judging cases in the Eket Native Court.
230:1 A full description of the obsequies of Iboibo chiefs will be found in my husband's book, "By Haunted Waters." Only so much as directly concerns the women is attempted here.
230:2 Mr. W. W. Eakin, of the Kwa Ibo Mission.
231:1 We could learn no reason for this last, seemingly inconsequent, tabu. | <urn:uuid:5172edf4-ac5e-48cb-b267-5c5c851e84e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/afr/wmp/wmp18.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987406 | 4,445 | 2.859375 | 3 |
It may not be improper here to give the story which is the foundation of this poem, as it is handed down by tradition. Usnoth, lord of Etha, which is probably that part of Argyleshire which is near Loch Eta, an arm of the sea in Lorn, had three sons, Nathos, Althos, and Ardan, by Slissáma, the daughter of Semo, and sister to the celebrated Cuthullin. The three brothers, when very young, were sent over to Ireland by their father, to learn the use of arms under their uncle Cuthullin, who made a great figure in that kingdom. They were just landed in Ulster, when the news of Cuthullin's death arrived. Nathos, though very young, took the command of Cuthullin's army, made head against Cairbar the usurper, and defeated him in several battles. Cairbar at last, having found means to murder Cormac, the lawful king, the army of Nathos shifted sides, and he himself was obliged to return into Ulster, in order to pass over into Scotland.
Dar-thula, the daughter of Colla, with whom Cairbar was in love, resided at that time in Seláma, a castle in Ulster. She saw, fell in love, and fled with Nathos; but a storm rising at sea, they were unfortunately driven back on that part of the coast of Ulster, where Cairbar was encamped with his army. The three brothers, after having defended themselves for some time with great bravery, were overpowered and slain, and the unfortunate Dar-thula killed herself upon the body of her beloved Nathos. The poem opens, on the night preceding the death of the sons of Usnoth, and brings in, by way of episode, what passed before. it relates the death of Dar-thula differently from the common tradition. This account, is the most probable, as suicide seems to have been unknown in those early times, for no traces of it are found in the old poetry.
DAUGHTER of heaven, fair art thou! the silence of thy face is pleasant! Thou comest forth in loveliness. The stars attend thy blue course in the east. The clouds rejoice in thy presence, O moon! They brighten their dark-brown sides. Who is like thee in heaven, light of the silent night? The stars are shamed in thy presence. They turn away their sparkling eyes. Whither dost thou retire from thy
course when the darkness of thy countenance grows? Hast thou thy hall, like Ossian? Dwellest thou in the shadow of grief? Have thy sisters fallen from heaven? Are they who rejoiced with thee, at night, no more? Yes, they have fallen, fair light! and thou dost often retire to mourn. But thou thyself shalt fail one night and leave thy blue path in heaven. The stars will then lift their heads: they who were ashamed in thy presence, will rejoice. Thou art now clothed with thy brightness. Look from thy gates in the sky. Burst the cloud, O wind! that the daughters of night may look forth; that the shaggy mountains may brighten, and the ocean roll its white waves in light!
Nathos is on the deep, and Althos, that beam of youth! Ardan is near his brothers. They move in the gloom of their course. The sons of Usnoth move in darkness, from the wrath of Cairbar of Erin. Who is that, dim by their side? The night has covered her beauty! Her hair sighs on ocean's wind. Her robe streams in dusky wreaths. She is like the fair spirit of heaven in the midst of the shadowy mist. Who is it but Dar-thula, the first of Erin's maids? She has fled from the love of Cairbar, with blue-shielded Nathos. But the winds deceive thee, O Dar-thula! They deny the woody Etha to thy sails. These are not the mountains of Nathos; nor is that the roar of his climbing waves. The halls of Cairbar are near: the towers of the foe lift their heads! Erin stretches its green head into the sea. Tura's bay receives the ship. Where have ye been, ye southern Winds, when the sons of my love were deceived? But ye have been sporting on the plains, pursuing the thistle's beard. O that ye had been rustling in the sails of Nathos, till the hills of Etha arose! till they arose in their clouds, and saw their returning chief! Long hast thou been absent, Nathos! the day of thy return is past!
But the land of strangers saw thee lovely! thou wast lovely in the eyes of Dar-thula. Thy face was like the light of the morning. Thy hair like the raven's wing. Thy soul was generous and mild, like the hour of the setting sun. Thy words were the gale of the reeds; the gliding stream of Lora! But when the rage of battle rose, thou wast a sea in a storm. The clang of thy arms was terrible: the host vanished at the sound of thy course. It was then Dar-thula beheld thee, from the top of her mossy tower; from the tower of Seláma, where her fathers dwelt.
"Lovely art thou, O stranger!" she said, for her trembling soul arose. "Fair art thou in thy battles, friend of the fallen Cormac! Why dost thou rush on in thy valor, youth of the ruddy look? Few are thy hands in fight against the dark-brown Cairbar! O that I might be freed from his love, that I might rejoice in the presence of Nathos! Blest are the rocks of Etha! they will behold his steps at the chase; they will see his white bosom, when the winds lift his flowing hair!" Such were thy words, Dar-thula, in Seláma's mossy towers. But now the night is around thee. The winds have deceived thy sails---the winds have deceived thy sails, Dar-thula! Their blustering sound is high. Cease a little while, O north wind! Let me hear the voice of the lovely. Thy voice is lovely, Dar-thula, between the rustling blasts!
"Are these the rocks of Nathos?" she said, "this the roaring of his mountain streams? Comes that beam of light from Usnoth's nightly hall? The mist spreads around; the beam is feeble and distant far. But the light of Dar-thula's soul dwells in the chief of Etha! Son of the generous Usnoth, why that broken sigh? Are we in the land of strangers, chief of echoing Etha?"
"These are not the rocks of Nathos," he replied,
[paragraph continues] "nor this the roar of his stream. No light comes from Etha's hall, for they are distant far. We are in the land of strangers, in the land of cruel Cairbar. The winds have deceived us, Dar-thula. Erin lifts here her hills. Go towards the north, Althos: be thy steps, Ardan, along the coast; that the foe may not come in darkness, and our hopes of Etha fail. I will go towards that mossy tower, to see who dwells about the beam. Rest, Dar-thula, on the shore! rest in peace, thou lovely light! the sword of Nathos is around thee, like the lightning of heaven!"
He went. She sat alone: she heard the roiling of the wave. The big tear is in her eye. She looks for returning Nathos. Her soul trembles at the bast. She turns her ear towards the tread of his feet. The tread of his feet is not heard. "Where art thou, son of my love! The roar of the blast is around me. Dark is the cloudy night. But Nathos does not return. What detains thee, chief of Etha? Have the foes met the hero in the strife of the night?"
He returned; but his face was dark. He had seen his departed friend! it was the wall of Tura. The ghost of Cuthullin stalked there alone; the sighing of his breast was frequent. The decayed flame of his eyes was terrible! His spear was a column of mist. The stars looked dim through his form. His voice was like hollow wind in a cave: his eye a light seen afar. He told the tale of grief. The soul of Nathos was sad, like the sun in the day of mist, when his face watery and dim.
"Why art thou sad, O Nathos!" said the lovely daughter of Colla. "Thou art a pillow of light to Dar-thula. The joy of her eyes is in Etha's chief. Where is my friend, but Nathos? My father, my brother is fallen! Silence dwells on Seláma. Sadness spreads on the blue streams of my land. My friends
have fallen with Cormac. The mighty were slain in the battles of Erin. Hear, son of Usnoth! hear, O Nathos! my tale of grief.
"Evening darkened on the plain. The blue streams failed before mine eyes. The unfrequent blast came rustling in the tops of Seláma's groves. My seat was beneath a tree, on the walls of my fathers. Truthil past before my soul; the brother of my love: he that was absent in battle against the haughty Cairbar! Bending on his spear, the gray-haired Colla came. His downcast face is dark, and sorrow dwells in his soul. His sword is on the side of the hero; the helmet of his fathers on his head. The battle grows in his breast. He strives to hide the tear.
"'Dar-thula, my daughter,' he said, 'thou art the last of Colla's race! Truthil is fallen in battle. The chief of Seláma is no more! Cairbar comes, with his thousands, towards Seláma's walls. Colla will meet his pride, and revenge his son. But where shall I find thy safety, Dar-thula with the dark-brown hair! thou art lovely as the sunbeam of heaven, and thy friends are low!' 'Is the son of battle fallen?' I said, with a bursting sigh. 'Ceased the generous soul of Truthil to lighten through the field? My safety, Colla, is in that bow. I have learned to pierce the deer. Is not Cairbar like the hart of the desert, father of fallen Truthil?'
"The face of age brightened with joy. The crowded tears of his eyes poured down. The lips of Colla trembled. His gray beard whistled in the blast. 'Thou art the sister of Truthil,' he said; 'thou burnest in the fire of his soul. Take, Dar-thula, take that spear, that brazen shield, that burnished helm; they are the spoils of a warrior, a son of early youth! When the light rises on Seláma, we go to meet the car-borne Cairbar. But keep thou near the arm of Colla, beneath the shadow of my shield. Thy father,
[paragraph continues] Dar-thula, could once defend thee; but age is trembling On his hand. The strength of his arm has failed. His soul is darkened with grief.'
"We passed the night in sorrow. The light of morning rose. I shone in the arms of battle. The gray haired hero moved before. The sons of Seláma convened around the sounding shield of Colla. But few were they in the plain, and their locks were gray. The youths had fallen with Truthil, in the battle of car-borne Cormac. 'Friends of my youth,' said Colla, 'it was not thus you have seen me in arms. It was not thus I strode to battle when the great Confaden fell. But ye are laden with grief. The darkness of age comes like the mist of the desert. My shield is worn with years! my sword is fixed in its place! 1 I said to my soul, Thy evening shall be calm; thy departure like a fading light. But the storm has returned. I bend like an aged oak. My boughs are fallen on Seláma. I tremble in my place. Where art thou, with thy fallen heroes, O my beloved Truthil! Thou answerest not from thy rushing blast. The soul of thy father is sad. But I will be sad no more! Cairbar or Colla must fall! I feel the returning strength of my arm. My heart leaps at the sound of war.'
"The hero drew his sword. The gleaming blades of his people rose. They moved along the plain. Their gray hair streamed in the wind. Cairbar sat at the feast, in the silent plain of Lena. He saw the coming of the heroes. He called his chiefs to war. Why should I tell to Nathos how the strife of battle grew? I have seen thee in the midst of thousands, like
the beam of heaven's fire: it is beautiful, but terrible; the people fall in its dreadful course. The spear of Colla flew. He remembered the battles of his youth. An arrow came with its sound. It pierced the hero's side. He fell on his echoing shield. My soul started with fear. I stretched my buckler over him: but my heaving breast was seen! Cairbar came with his spear. He beheld Seláma's maid. Joy rose on his dark-brown Taco. He stayed his lifted steel. He raised the tomb of Colla. He brought me weeping to Seláma. He spoke the words of love, but my soul was sad. I saw the shields of my fathers; the sword of car-borne Truthil. I saw the arms of the dead; the tear was on my cheek! Then thou didst come, O Nathos! and gloomy Cairbar fled. He fled like the ghost of the desert before the morning's beam. His host was not near; and feeble was his arm against thy steel! Why art thou sad, O Nathos?" said the lovely daughter of Colla.
"I have met," replied the hero, "the battle in my youth. My arm could not lift the spear when danger first arose. My soul brightened in the presence of war, as the green narrow vale, when the sun pours his streamy beams, before he hides his head in a storm. The lonely traveller feels a mournful joy. He sees the darkness that slowly comes. My soul brightened in danger before I saw Seláma's fair; before I saw thee, like a star that shines on the hill at night; the cloud advances, and threatens the lovely light! We are in the land of foes. The winds have deceived us, Dar-thula! The strength of our friends is not near, nor the mountains of Etha. Where shall I find thy peace, daughter of mighty Colla! The brothers of Nathos are brave, and his own sword has shone in fight. But what are the sons of Usnoth to the host of dark-brown Cairbar! O that the winds had brought thy sails, Oscar king of men! Thou didst promise to come to the battles
of fallen Cormac! Then would my hand be strong as the flaming arm of death. Cairbar would tremble in his halls, and peace dwell round the lovely Dar-thula. But why dost thou fall, my soul? The sons of Usnoth may prevail!"
"And they will prevail, O Nathos!" said the rising soul of the maid. "Never shall Dar-thula behold the halls of gloomy Cairbar. Give me those arms of brass, that glitter to the passing meteor. I see them dimly in the dark-bosomed ship. Dar-thula will enter the battles of steel. Ghost of the noble Colla! do I behold thee on that cloud! Who is that dim beside thee? Is it the car-borne Truthil? Shall I behold the halls of him that slew Seláma's chief? No: I will not behold them, spirits of my love!"
Joy rose in the face of Nathos when he heard the white-bosomed maid. "Daughter of Seláma! thou shinest along my soul. Come, with thy thousands, Cairbar! the strength of Nathos is returned! Thou O aged Usnoth! shalt not hear that thy son has fled. I remembered thy words on Etha, when my sails began to rise: when I spread them towards Erin, towards the mossy walls of Tura! 'Thou goest,' he said, 'O Nathos, to the king of shields! Thou goest to Cuthullin, chief of men, who never fled from danger. Let not thine arm be feeble: neither be thy thoughts of flight; lest the son of Semo should say that Etha's race are weak. His words may come to Usnoth, and sadden his soul in the hall.' The tear was on my father's cheek. He gave this shining sword!
"I came to Tura's bay; but the halls of Tara were silent. I looked around, and there was none to tell of the son of generous Semo. I went to the hall of shells, where the arms of his fathers hung. But the arms were gone, and aged Lamhor sat in tears. 'Whence are the arms of steel?' said the rising Lamhor. 'The
light of the spear has long been absent from Tura's dusky walls. Come ye from the rolling sea? or from Temora's mournful halls?'
"'We come from the sea,' I said, 'from Usnoth's rising towers. We are the sons of Slissáma, the daughter of car-borne Semo. Where is Tura's chief, son of the silent hall? But why should Nathos ask? for I behold thy tears. How did the mighty fall, son of the lonely Tura?' 'He fell not,' Lamhor replied, 'like the silent star of night, when it flies through darkness and is no more. But he was like a meteor that shoots into a distant land. Death attends its dreary course. Itself is the sign of wars. Mournful are the banks of Lego; and the roar of streamy Lara! There the hero fell, son of the noble Usnoth!' 'The hero fell in the midst of slaughter,' I said with a bursting sigh. 'His hand was strong in war. Death dimly sat behind his sword.'
"We came to Lego's sounding banks. We found his rising tomb. His friends in battle are there: his bards of many songs. Three days we mourned over the hero: on the fourth I struck the shield of Caithbat. The heroes gathered around with joy, and shook their beamy spears. Corlath was near with his host, the friend of car-borne Cairbar. We came like a stream by night. His heroes fell before us. When the people of the valley rose, they saw their blood with morning's light. But we rolled away, like wreaths of mist, to Cormac's echoing hall. Our swords rose to defend the king. But Temora's halls were empty. Cormac had fallen in his youth. The king of Erin was no more!
"Sadness seized the sons of Erin. They slowly gloomily retired: like clouds that long having threatened rain, vanish behind the hills. The sons of Usnoth moved, in their grief, towards Tura's sounding
bay. We passed by Seláma. Cairbar retired like Lena's mist, when driven before the winds. It was then I beheld thee, O Dar-thula! like the light of Etha's sun. 'Lovely is that beam!' I said. The crowded sigh of my bosom rose. Thou camest in thy beauty, Dar-thula, to Etha's mournful chief. But the winds have deceived us, daughter of Colla, and the foe is near!"
"Yes, the foe is near," said the rushing strength of Althos." I heard their clanging arms on the coast. I saw the dark wreaths of Erin's standard. Distinct is the voice of Cairbar; loud as Cromla's falling stream. He had seen the dark ship on the sea, before the dusky night came down. His people watch on Lena's plain. They lift ten thousand swords." "And let them lift ten thousand swords," said Nathos with a smile." The sons of car-borne Usnoth will never tremble in danger! Why dost thou roll with all thy foam, thou roaring sea of Erin? Why do ye rustle on your dark wings, ye whistling storms of the sky? Do ye think, ye storms, that ye keep Nathos on the coast? No: his soul detains him, children of the night! Althos, bring my father's arms: thou seest them beaming to the stars. Bring the spear of Semo. It stands in the dark-bosomed ship!"
He brought the arms. Nathos covered his limbs in all their shining steel. The stride of the chief is lovely. The joy of his eyes was terrible. He looks towards the coming of Cairbar. The wind is rustling in his hair. Dar-thula is silent at his side. Her look is fixed on the chief. She strives to hide the rising sigh. Two tears swell in her radiant eyes!
"Althos!" said the child of Etha, "I see a cave in that rock. Place Dar-thula there. Let thy arm, my brother, be strong. Ardan! we meet the foe; call to battle gloomy Cairbar. O that he came in his sounding
steel, to meet the son of Usnoth! Dar-thula, if thou shalt escape, look not on the fallen Nathos! Lift thy sails, O Althos! towards the echoing groves of my land.
"Tell the chief that his son fell with fame; that my sword did not shun the fight. Tell him I fell in the midst of thousands. Let the joy of his grief be great. Daughter of Colla! call the maids to Etha's echoing hall! Let their songs arise for Nathos, when shadowy autumn returns. O that the voice of Cona, that Ossian might be heard in my praise! then would my spirit rejoice in the midst of the rushing winds." "And my voice shall praise thee, Nathos, chief of the woody Etha! The voice of Ossian shall rise in thy praise, son of the generous Usnoth! Why was I not on Lena when the battle rose? Then would the sword of Ossian defend thee, or himself fall low!"
We sat that night in Selma, round the strength of the shell. The wind was abroad in the oaks. The spirit of the mountain 1 roared. The blast came rustling through the hall, and gently touched my harp. The sound was mournful and low, like the song of the tomb. Fingal heard it the first. The crowded sighs of his bosom rose. "Some of my heroes are low," said the gray-haired king of Morven. "I hear the sound of death on the harp. Ossian, touch the trembling string. Bid the sorrow rise, that their spirits may fly with joy to Morven's woody hills!" I touched the harp before the king; the sound was mournful and low. "Bend forward from your clouds," I said, "ghosts of my fathers! bend. Lay by the red terror of your course. Receive the fallen chief; whether he comes from a distant land, or rises from the rolling sea.
[paragraph continues] Let his robe of mist be near; his spear that is formed of a cloud. Place an half-extinguished meteor by his side, in the form of the hero's sword. And, oh! let his countenance be lovely, that his friends may delight in his presence. Bend from your clouds," I said, "ghosts of my fathers! bend!"
Such was my song in Selma, to the lightly-trembling harp. But Nathos was on Erin's shore, surrounded by the night. He heard the voice of the foe, amidst the roar of tumbling waves. Silent he heard their voice, and rested on his spear! Morning rose, with its beams. The sons of Erin appear: like gray rocks, with all their trees, they spread along the coast. Cairbar stood in the midst. He grimly smiled when he saw the foe. Nathos rushed forward in his strength: nor could Dar-thula stay behind. She came with the hero, lifting her shining spear. "And who are these, in their armor, in the pride of youth? Who but the sons of Usnoth, Althos and dark-haired Ardan?"
"Come," said Nathos, "come, chief of high Temora! Let our battle be on the coast, for the white bosomed maid. His people are not with Nathos: they are behind these rolling seas. Why dost thou bring thy thousands against the chief of Etha? Thou didst fly from him in battle, when his friends were around his spear." "Youth of the heart of pride, shall Erin's king fight with thee? Thy fathers were not among the renowned, nor of the kings of men. Are the arms of foes in their halls? or the shields of other times? Cairbar is renowned in Temora, nor does he fight with feeble men
The tear started from car-borne Nathos. He turned his eyes to his brothers. Their spears flew at once. Three heroes lay on earth. Then the light of their swords gleamed on high. The ranks of Erin yield, as a ridge of dark clouds before a blast of wind! Then
[paragraph continues] Cairbar ordered his people, and they drew a thousand bows. A thousand arrows flew. The sons of Usnoth fell in blood. They fell like three young oaks, which stood alone on the hill: the traveller saw the lovely trees, and wondered how they grew so lonely: the blast of the desert came by night, and laid their green heads low. Next day he returned, but they were withered, and the heath was bare!
Dar-thula stood in silent grief, and beheld their fall! No tear is in her eye. But her look is wildly sad. Pale was her cheek. Her trembling lips broke short an half-formed word. Her dark hair flew on wind. The gloomy Cairbar came. "Where is thy lover now? the car-borne chief of Etha? Hast thou beheld the halls of Usnoth? or the dark-brown hills of Fingal? My battle would have roared on Morven, had not the winds met Dar-thula. Fingal himself would have been low, and sorrow dwelling in Selma!" Her shield fell from Dar-thula's arm. Her breast of snow appeared. It appeared; but it was stained with blood. An arrow was fixed in her side. She fell on the fallen Nathos, like a wreath of snow! Her hair spreads wide on his face. Their blood is mixing round!
"Daughter of Colla! thou art low!" said Cairbar's hundred bards. "Silence is at the blue streams of Seláma. Truthil's race have failed. When wilt thou rise in thy beauty, first of Erin's maids? Thy sleep is long in the tomb. The morning distant far. The sun shall not come to thy bed and say, Awake, Dar-thula! awake, thou first of women! the wind of spring is abroad. The flowers shake their heads on the green hills. The woods wave their growing leaves. Retire, O sun! the daughter of Colla is asleep. She will not come forth in her beauty. She will not move in the steps of her loveliness."
Such was the song of the bards, when they raised the tomb. I sung over the grave, when the king of Morven came: when he came to green Erin to fight with car-borne Cairbar!
374:1 It was the custom of ancient times, that every warrior, at a certain age, or when he became unfit for the field, fixed his arms in the great hall, where the tribes feasted upon joyful occasions. He was afterward never to appear in battle; and this stage of life was called "the time of fixing the arms."
379:1 By the spirit of the mountain, is meant that deep and melancholy sound which precedes a storm, well known to those who live in a high country. | <urn:uuid:6e0efa92-b237-47bf-967e-09ab5a76d03a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/neu/ossian/oss31.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972039 | 6,138 | 3.015625 | 3 |
What the above painting shows? A road through a grassland, a distant church and nothing much.This is “Vladimirka” by Russian painter Issac Levitan.
Vladimirka is the way from Muskova (Moscow) to Vladimir since the middle ages and later became the part of the road to Siberia and that’s what makes it important and interesting.
Siberia, the Wild East of Russia, long stretches of grass, marsh and forest, extreme climates in both summer and winter.
So this is the road trodden by generations of fortune seekers, adventurers,convicts, exiled political prisoners who made the establishment unhappy, all who does not fit well into the mould of the prevalent social structure.
This is the road curved out in this wilderness by the feet of these misfits.
This painting is a hint to that history, where core subject is missing and needs to be felt through your knowledge of the past | <urn:uuid:09d0e959-9722-435d-be25-ae66b43346b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sankarsanbose.com/2012/04/29/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959715 | 195 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Most avian plumage colors are the result of different types of pigments that are deposited into feathers while they are regrowing after moult. However, pigments alone do not produce all avian feather colors. Blues, such as those seen in hyacinthine macaws, Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus, and white, such as the snowy color of Bali mynahs, Leucopsar rothschildi, typically result from small changes in feather structure that alters their light reflective properties. These fundamental modifications cause violet and blue light to be selectively reflected from the feather surface in the case of violet/blue feathers, while white feathers reflect all visible light. In short, violets, blues and whites are structural colors, or schemochromes.
Visible light is composed of many colors of light, each with distinct wavelengths. Red light, for example, has a long wavelength (~700nm) while violet and blue light (which I shall refer to as blue light throughout the remainder of this essay) has a much shorter wavelength (~400nm). When visible light encounters particles with the same or larger diameter than its component wavelengths, those specific light photons are reflected. For example, particles that are 400nm or slightly larger will selectively reflect blue light photons, while allowing other light photons to pass by. Some of these reflected light photons are collected and thus seen by an observer’s eye, thereby adding color to the perceived image.
Because blue light has very short wavelengths, it is reflected more easily than other colors of light with longer wavelengths. This was first understood in 1869, when scientist John Tyndall noted that miniscule particles in earth’s atmosphere preferentially scattered blue light resulting in the familiar “sky blue” of a clear summer day. Shortly afterward, Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt) demonstrated that Tyndall’s “fine particles” are actually individual gas molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, specifically, nitrogen and oxygen. In feathers, preferential scattering of light by small air cavities or keratin particles overlying a dark melanin layer results in blue coloring. The other colors of light are absorbed by the melanin layer, intensifying the color. Blue plumage color is often referred to as a “Tyndall blue” structural color.
Tyndall scattering can be demonstrated at home using a simple experiment to produce a pale Tyndall blue color. First, mix one or two drops of milk into a glass of water then place this glass in a dark room and focus a flashlight upon it. The fluid will appear bluish. This bluish color results from blue light bouncing off milk particles suspended in the water while other, longer, light wavelengths pass unobstructed through the fluid. Of course, milk has some larger diameter particles in it that also reflect light wavelengths that are slightly longer than blue, thereby contaminating the pure “Tyndall” blue color.
Like the above described milk experiment, blue colors in the plumage of most bird species results from preferential scattering of blue light by feather structure. For example, when a blue feather is observed under a powerful microscope, the surface layer of keratin appears cloudy or milky due to the presence of small air cavities. Keratin is the proteinaceous connective tissue that feathers, hair and nails are comprised of. A cross-section of a feather reveals an underlying layer of melanin granules and tiny air pockets in the middle of the feather barb. These small air cavities act like tiny particles by selectively scattering blue light while dark-colored melanin granules absorb longer wavelengths of light, intensifying the blue color.
In contrast, structural differences are immediately obvious when a red feather, which derives its color from red pigments, is viewed under the same microscope. The surface of a red feather is transparent and colorless while the underlying structures are filled with red pigment granules that reflect only red light.
Further, differences between structural and pigment colors can be easily demonstrated using several simple experiments. Because structural color is entirely dependent upon reflective structure, a blue feather becomes dark when it is ground into a powder. However, a red or yellow feather will retain its original color when subjected to the same treatment because the pigments are not damaged even though the feather structure was destroyed.
Pigments can also be removed, or “extracted”, from a feather. When a red or yellow feather is ground up and placed into an appropriate solvent, the pigment granules will dissolve into the solvent (McGraw et al. 2005). Interestingly, blue feathers can also lose their coloring when placed into certain types of liquids (you can also rub this liquid onto the surface of a feather instead of submerging it). However, this depends upon the liquid’s optical density instead of its ability to leach pigments out of the feather’s structure. One such liquid, Cresol (Sigma, St Louis, MI), causes a blue feather to become dark because it fills the air cavities in the feather structure. Because it has a refractive index that is nearly identical to that of keratin, it prevents reflection of blue light. However, the Cresol doesn’t turn blue and, after the feather is dried, its lovely blue color returns.
The physical phenomena that generate structural blue colors are similar, but not identical to, those that produce iridescent colors, such as those seen in magpies and on the head of a male mallard duck. Iridescent feathers get their color from interference, which is due to waves of light interacting with each other to produce either constructive reinforcement or destructive cancellation of particular wavelengths, or colors.
(a) Two sources close to each other and oscillating in phase emit two waves that are everywhere in phase, and thus interfere constructively. (b) Two close, out-of-phase sources emit waves that interfere destructively everywhere. (taken from Seeing the Light by D. Falk, D. Brill, and D. Stork (J. Wiley, New York, 1986).)
For example, even though oils are colorless, a thin film of oil on water produce a rainbow of brilliant colors due to this light interference phenomena. These colors are referred to as thin film interference colors. Similarly, iridescent feathers often appear to be very bright and colorful when compared to a structural blue feather viewed under the same light. But unlike iridescent feathers, blue feathers remain blue to the observer when the feather is rotated in relation to the light source whereas the coloring of iridescent feathers varies and then becomes black as the angle of the light shifts. But both iridescent and blue feathers will appear dark when placed directly between the light source and the observer because light cannot be reflected from the feather surface into the observer’s eye.
Bali mynah or Bali Starling, Leucopsar rothschildi,
one of the rarest birds in the world.
Image: Bali Children’s Project.
White plumage, such as that seen in the Bali mynah, Leucopsar rothschildi, is also a structural feather color. White plumage relies upon the same principles described for blue feathers, except that white is produced when all wavelengths of light are reflected by the feather. A white feather also shows interesting structural characteristics when viewed under a powerful microscope. The surface structure of a white feather appears crystalline, resembling cut glass or snow — clearly capable of reflecting all visible light. White feathers also contain many air cavities in the feather barbs that increase the total reflection of all spectrums of visible light. As previously described, both melanin granules and air pockets are found in the middle of blue feathers; but predictably, white feathers lack melanin and they contain many more air cavities. This lack of underlying melanin granules can be easily demonstrated because a lustrous white feather becomes transparent when immersed in balsam.
Fischer’s Turaco, Tauraco fischeri.
Image: Daph Chloe [larger view].
Unique among all bird families are the turacos (Family: Musophagidae) because they alone produce their own special green pigment. This pigment is known as turacoverdin in honor of the birds that produce it. All other bird species make green feathers by relying on a combination of both structural and pigment colors. Basically, the feather retains its blue-reflecting structures but embedded within its keratin structure are either yellow carotenoids (producing pure bright greens) or yellow carotenoids combined with melanins (producing darker olive greens). Thus, it is possible to produce either blue, yellow or white plumage color variants from green parent birds. This happens when a bird experiences loss of its genetic ability to either produce yellow pigments or to grow feathers with blue-reflecting structures or both simultaneously — a fact that has provided thousands of bird breeders with many decades of pleasure.
Surprisingly, despite humanity’s deep appreciation for colors, especially violet and blue, there remain many questions yet to be answered about colors in animals. For example, why don’t birds routinely produce blue pigments? Why is blue such a rare color in animals? What is the evolutionary significance underlying this general lack of blue pigments among birds and other animals?
Richard O. Prum, Rodolfo H. Torres, Scott Williamson and Jan Dyck. (1998). Coherent light scattering by blue feather barbs. Nature 396:28-29 | doi:10.1038/23838) [PDF]
Kevin J. McGraw, Jocelyn Hudon, Geoffrey E. Hill, and Robert S. Parker. (2005). A simple and inexpensive chemical test for behavioral ecologists to determine the presence of carotenoid pigments in animal tissues. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 57:391-397 | doi 10.1007/s00265-004-0853-y).
A. A. Voitkevich. The Feathers and Plumage of Birds. (London: Sidgwick & Jackson; 1966). | <urn:uuid:d2b697e5-1a8c-4fb4-b80d-9b02e17d4dc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2007/10/16/schemochromes-the-physics-of-s/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907025 | 2,090 | 3.859375 | 4 |
It’s been a while since we’ve had any good, solid physics content here, and I feel a little guilty about that. So here’s some high-quality (I hope) physics blogging, dealing with two recent(ish) papers from Chris Monroe’s group at the University of Maryland. The first is titled “Bell Inequality Violation with Two Remote Atomic Qubits” (and a free version can be found on the Arxiv); the second is “Quantum Teleportation Between Distant Matter Qubits” (and isn’t available on the arxiv because it’s in Science, but you can get it from their web site). Both of these deal with the physics of entanglement, the “spooky action at a distance” of the famous Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen paper.
The idea of entanglement is that two quantum systems can have their states correlated in ways that no classical system can match. If you prepare two atoms in an entangled quantum state, measuring the state of one of them instantaneously and absolutely determines the state of the other. The state of either atom prior to the measurement is indeterminate– it can be in one of two states, but is not definitely in either– but the states of the two together are correlated– if one atoms is found to be in State 1, the other will always be found in State 2, and vice versa.
Once you have that, you can use the entangled state to show conclusively that quantum mechanics is a non-local theory (that’s the “Bell Inequality” paper), or you can use the fact that the two states are entangled to transfer quantum information from one to the other, through “quantum teleportation” (the second paper). These two papers showcase the aspects of entanglement that make it just about the coolest thing in modern physics: first, the utter weirdness of non-local quantum states, and second, the fact that these non-local states can be used to do useful tricks.
Of course, before you can do either a Bell inequality experiment or a quantum teleportation experiment, you need to somehow entangle the states of two atoms. That turns out to be a tricky business, and is the main reason why we don’t see these sorts of effects all the time. The Monroe group has used a neat trick from quantum optics to entangle the states of two different ytterbium ions held in two different vacuum chambers essentially by accident. They just coax the ions into emitting photons, direct those photons onto a beamsplitter (as shown below), and 25% of the time, the ions end up with their states entangled.
The figure above is taken from Fig. 1 of the first paper linked above, and shows the two different correlation experiments that they do to demonstrate the entanglement. The left-hand part, part a), shows how they establish that the state of the ion is correlated with the light that it emits, by collecting an emitted photon into an optical fiber, measuring its polarization, and then measuring the state that the ion is in.
The key to this trick is that the basic principle of atomic physics (ions are just atoms stripped of one of their electrons) establish certain “selection rules” determining what sort of transitions those atoms can undergo, and what sort of light they absorb or emit along the way. The details are kind of technical, but the essential idea is that an atom or ion placed in a high-energy state can drop down to one of two different lower-energy states, emitting a photon in the process. Which state the atom ends up in depends on the polarization of the light emitted, so if you measure the light to have, say, vertical polarization, you know that the atom ended up in State 1, and if you measure horizontal polarization, you know that the atom ended up in State 2.
Of course, quantum mechanics complicates everything, and it turns out that prior to a measurement of the photon polarization or the atomic state, neither of those things is defined. The atom is equally likely to be in State 1 or State 2, and the photon is equally likely to be either horizontal or vertical. Until you measure one or the other, both are in an indeterminate state of both possible outcomes at the same time. When you finally measure them, they’ll always end up correlated, but until you measure them, they don’t have well-defined values.
That allows you to establish entanglement between the polarization of one photon and the state of the ion that emitted it. How does this help you establish entanglement between two different ions, though? that’s the right-hand side of the figure, part b). The trick is simple: you take two ions in two traps, collect the light from each, and direct those two photons not onto a detector, but onto a 50-50 beamsplitter that is equally likely to transmit or reflect the photons. You line the beamsplitter up so that the transmitted photons from one ion follow the same path as the reflected photons from the other (and vice versa). Then you put one detector in each of the output ports of the beamsplitter, and look for photons (without measuring their polarization).
How does this help? Well, to understand how this leads to entanglement, you need to think carefully about what happens when two photons arrive at the beamsplitter at the same time. There are four possible outcomes: both photons can go to Detector 1; both photons can go to Detector 2; both photons can reflect off the beamsplitter, giving one photon at each detector; or both photons can be transmitted through the beamsplitter, again giving one photon at each detector. You might think that these four would be equally likely, so there would be a 50% chance of detecting two photons at the same detector and a 50% chance of detecting one photon at each detector, but you’d be wrong. In fact, there’s only a 25% chance of finding one photon at each detector, and a 75% chance of finding two photons at the same detector.
This happens because of the quantum character of photons when you include the polarization. Photons are in the class of particles known as bosons, which for our purposes just means that they like to be in the same state– that is, with the same polarization, traveling in the same direction. When two photons of the same polarization hit a beamsplitter at the same instant, they will always leave together– one will be reflected, and the other transmitted. In the ion experiments done in the Monroe group, this happens half of the time.
When the two photons arriving at the beamsplitter have different polarizations, they don’t have any effect on each other, in terms of how they depart. Each photon is equally likely to be reflected or transmitted, meaning that half of the pairs of photons with different polarization will end up leaving together, while the other half split. But the photons only arrive with opposite polarizations half of the time, and the pairs with the same polarization always leave together, meaning that only one half of one half of the incoming pairs of photons will leave and fall on separate detectors.
Notice, though, that I didn’t say what the polarizations were, just that they were the same or different. The polarization might be vertical, or it might be horizontal– there’s no way to tell without measuring it, and we didn’t do anything to determine the polarization of the photons. That means that the polarization is still indeterminate– when we detect one photon at each detector, we don’t know if the photons were horizontal or vertical, but we know that the operation of the beamsplitter guarantees that they were opposite– if we had measured one to be vertical, the other would be horizontal, and vice versa. That’s an entangled state– the photons are neither definitely horizontal nor definitely vertical, but we know that they’re different.
If we back up a step, though, we know that the sources of those photons were ions, and that the state of the ions was entangled with the state of the photons– that is, if we measured Ion 1 to be in State 1, we know that the photon it emitted was vertically polarized. So the ions were entangled with the photons, and the beamsplitter entangled the two photons with each other.
This means that now the ions are entangled with each other. If we measure Ion 1 to be in State 1, we know that the photon it emitted must have been vertically polarized. But we know that the photon emitted by Ion 2 must have had the opposite polarization, which in turn means that Ion 2 must be in State 2.
So, by collecting the light emitted by two trapped ions in two different traps separated by about a meter, and letting that fall on a beamsplitter, the Monroe group can establish a quantum correlation between the state of the two ions, without the ions themselves coming in contact with one another, or exchanging photons directly. And this happens more or less by accident– they set up the experiment, let the photons fall where they may, and 25% of the time, they get entangled ions. And, more importantly, they know that they have entangled the two ions– when both photon detectors record a photon, they know that the ions are in opposite states, even though the exact states of the ions remain indeterminate.
This entanglement allows them to demonstrate fundamental quantum effects, first showing that the correlation between the states of the ions is stronger than can be achieved with photons of definite states (the Bell inequality measurement). The experiment is essentially the same as the Aspect experiments (described with bonus bloggy infighting!), and shows a respectable three-and-a-bit standard deviation difference from the classical prediction. They can also use this system to do quantum teleportation by preparing Ion 1 in a particular state, and then moving that state to Ion 2 using the entanglement as a resource. They successfully “teleport” the state 90% of the time, exceeding the classical limit of 2/3 by a large margin.
Of course, you may be saying to yourself “Sure, it’s cool that they can do all this with no real effort, but isn’t this accidental entanglement an awfully inefficient way to do things?” You’d be right– they only collect a small fraction of the emitted photons, and when they do get both photons, they only get the right entangled state 25% of the time, and then there are transmission losses and detector efficiencies, and all sorts of other factors. In the Bell inequality paper, they manage to produce an entangled pair once every 39 seconds or so, while in the teleportation experiment, they accomplish the teleportation about once every 12 minutes (the teleportation scheme is a lot more complicated, making the efficiency worse). They’re not exactly going to realize the full promise of quantum information processing with a millibit-per-second data transfer rate.
There are a few tricks they can pull to increase the success rate, and make the overall system more efficient. For now, though, this is just good enough for demonstrating and exploring the weirdness of quantum physics. But really, isn’t that cool enough?
(Looking at the Monroe group’s web page, I see that there’s a third paper using the same system, this one demonstrating quantum gate operations. I haven’t have a chance to read it, though. Maybe that’ll be the next ResearchBlogging post…)
Matsukevich, D., Maunz, P., Moehring, D., Olmschenk, S., & Monroe, C. (2008). Bell Inequality Violation with Two Remote Atomic Qubits Physical Review Letters, 100 (15) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.150404
Kim, M., & Cho, J. (2009). PHYSICS: Teleporting a Quantum State to Distant Matter Science, 323 (5913), 469-470 DOI: 10.1126/science.1169279 | <urn:uuid:ac4e2ab0-a0e5-4c38-b60a-e75f4861c5e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2009/07/07/entanglement-by-accident/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933772 | 2,534 | 2.671875 | 3 |
On the U.S.-Canadian border, Passamaquoddy, Maine, was a major port of arrival for immigrants from Great Britain. Many of them first landed at New Brunswick and Nova Scotia before continuing to the United States. The deep waters of Passamaquoddy Bay, an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, afforded excellent anchorages. Campobello Island, in New Brunswick, was a favorite vacation place for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other large islands are Deer Island, N.B., and Moose Island, site of Eastport, Maine.
Among the passengers on this list were the great ornithologist John James Audubon and his son James W. Audubon, returning from a stay in England, in the summer of 1833. | <urn:uuid:5d41f86a-7621-42f9-81fa-f4dda995d4ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=7313 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943302 | 156 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Hard disks manage the base-level media format that includes sectors and tracks. All the physical characteristics involved in reading and writing data are managed by the disk drives, also by tape drives by the way. The disk drive manages the bulk data structures -- in other words the way data is addressed.
Think about it this way: When you partition a disk, there has to be some way of knowing what is there to partition -- the disk drive provides that low level capability. The disk drive also keeps track of bad areas on disk and has the ability to provide substitute areas on media when others become unreliable. This is part of logical block addressing (LBA) in disk drives and it's why host algorithms to manipulate access by block location do not necessarily work any more.
Editor's note: Do you agree with this expert's response? If you have more to share, post it in one of our .bphAaR2qhqA^0@/searchstorage>discussion forums.
This was first published in September 2002 | <urn:uuid:77b79080-67a6-4bcb-bc0c-eb2d6bf63b44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/answer/How-does-a-hard-disk-organize-data | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958446 | 210 | 3.4375 | 3 |
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You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader® software, version 4.0 or higher, to view and print the sample page above. Get Adobe Reader® for FREE. | <urn:uuid:1366cbac-9f77-4e46-b1a9-f64182c1567d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplayView?productId=104765&langId=-1&catalogId=10004&storeId=10751&sa_campaign=internal_ads/scholastic3_0/content | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.837006 | 227 | 2.59375 | 3 |
(Reuters) – A major international conference on AIDS starts in Vienna on July 18, when thousands of scientists, health workers, activists, and government officials will gather to discuss the latest advances against the disease.
There are many drugs to treat HIV and prevention and measures have been deployed try to stop its spread, but so far there is no vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.
However, this year’s meeting comes as optimism among scientists about the prospect of developing vaccine is at its highest for a decade.
Here are some facts about the search for an AIDS vaccine, and some of the recent developments in the field:
* The AIDS virus is difficult to fight in part because it attacks immune system cells and in part because it is constantly mutating, making it a constantly moving target
* Researchers have been looking for parts of the virus that do not mutate so they can design vaccines that will protect against these constantly changing versions.
* In July 2010, researchers in the United States discovered antibodies that can protect against a wide range of AIDS viruses and said they may be able to use them to design a vaccine.
* In September 2009, researchers reported their biggest success yet with a vaccine that appeared to slow the rate of infection by about 30 percent in Thai volunteers, but the researchers have since described the effect as “weak” and “modest.” The vaccine is a combination of Sanofi-Aventis ALVAC canary pox vaccine and the failed HIV vaccine AIDSVAX, made by VaxGen and owned by a non-profit group called Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases.
* Also in September 2009, U.S. scientists said they had found two antibodies against HIV, called PG9 and PG16, which are known as broad neutralizing antibodies and can block the ability of a relatively large number of HIV variants to infect cells.
* There are currently around 100 clinical trials of potential AIDS vaccines going on around the world, but many of them are in the very earliest stages.
* Even a vaccine that is not 100 percent effective or is not given to 100 percent of at-risk populations could have significant benefits. According to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a vaccine that is 50 percent effective and given to just 30 percent of the population could cut the number of new HIV infections in developing countries by 24 percent over 15 years.
* SOURCES: Reuters, IAVI
(Writing by Kate Kelland, editing by Elizabeth Fullerton) | <urn:uuid:bdcd4940-ffac-4172-b1b4-334beef6cd1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://silverscorpio.com/tag/health-workers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973813 | 517 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Nigeria’s worst oil spill in a decade of over 40,000 barrels at its Bonga oil field is set to cost the beleaguered Nigerian economy further billions.
Bonga was discovered in 1993, first oil in 2004, and cost $3.6 billion constructed by Samsung 120km offshore in deepwater. Bonga’s target was to produce 225,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. It is operated by SNEPCo – 55% on behalf of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC). SNEPCo has a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) with Esso 20%; Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE) 12.5% and Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited 12.5%.
Nigeria’s production has fallen at Bonga and a serious of other minor spills including at Shell’s $1.1 billion Nembe Creek Trunkline – mostly attributed to “vandalism” – is causing increased political tension and slimmer government coffers at a time of national angst at fuel subsidy withdrawal compounding the international economic slowdown.
At this time, the total costs are unclear, but there is strong evidence that it is directly impacting fisherman, and has doubled the price of fish at markets. Coupled with other economic turmoil in Nigeria, a tightening of environmental governance is vital to restore belief that the resource curse can be beaten. | <urn:uuid:2b18e83f-0749-406c-a520-996c5f32c6b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://slickeconomist.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/nigeria-oil-spill-bonga-to-cost-billions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93352 | 301 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Solar flares are huge releases of energy in the Solar atmosphere, thought to be caused by the magnetic energy freed during a physical process known as magnetic reconnection. In magnetic reconnection, magnetic field lines (which emerge from the photosphere - the Sun's 'surface') break and reconnect with neighbouring lines, releasing the vast amounts of energy observed in the chromosphere.
This energy heats the surrounding plasma, and has the effect of brightening the plasma at the ends of the field lines in the chromosphere. UV radiation can be emitted as can x-rays. My research project is looking into an aspect of the energetics of magnetic reconnection:
Two ribbon flares are flares in which 'ribbons' of emission can be observed, usually in the UV region of the EM spectrum. These ribbons can be seen to evolve spatially as the flare proceeds However, if the same flare is observed in Hard X-Rays (HXRs), these ribbons are not observed. Instead, the HXR sources appear as kernels or footpoints in the chromosphere.
I will be analysing the 15th Jan 2005 two-ribbon flare (an X2.6 Class flare) using UV 1600Å TRACE images, and the SOHO MDI Magnetogram of the region to compute several physical properties of the magnetic reconnection process. I will then compare these results to the HXR analysis performed by Prof. Jiong Qiu and Dr J. Cheng, which were obtained from RHESSI data.
By comparing the UV and HXR analysis, conclusions can be drawn regarding the heating process at work as the flare occurs. Specifically, I will be measuring the reconnection rate of the flare as time progresses and comparing these to the light curves of the data. I will then look at the change in parallel distance along the Polarity Inversion Line (PIL) and the perpendicular distance outwards from the PIL. The last finding will be to observe which component of the reconnection is dominant, the parallel or perpendicular component,and to look briefly at energetics.
The second part of my project will involve studying the brightening profiles of the individual pixels in the TRACE data to research the decay of the UV photons over the course of the flare. I will be fitting exponential functions to the data to try and observe a pattern in the rise and decay times of the radiation. It is this long UV decay that we think is responsible for the UV being detected as continuous ribbons. In reality, we think, the UV sources are also footpoints (maybe coinciding with HXR) but the long decay means we see 'residual' brightening.
For more information about the Solar Physics at work in my project see the RHESSI Nuggets article Jiong wrote.
For Prof. Jiong Qiu's homepage and weblog see, Jiong's Homepage and Jiong's Log.
For Prof. Richard Canfield's homepage see, Richard's Homepage
Here is a movie of the Flare I am studying. The very bright portion is the 'front' of UV radiation...we think that the rest is the long decay in brightness. You can also see some flashes- these are cosmic rays. | <urn:uuid:cbf5521d-11bf-4b40-92e5-f05d7837af83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://solar.physics.montana.edu/reu/2010/gkerr/ResearchLog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943202 | 665 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Many of the current spate of articles reporting on the Senate’s struggles to put together a farm bill talk about the potential—or lack thereof—for radical reforms that would turn away from the farm programs we have had since the 1930s.
The basic premise is that we need something new that would avoid the pitfalls of the current program: paying farmers fixed payments when prices are high, making payments to people who have houses on land that was once farmed, and pumping up the profits of crop insurance companies.
Actually farm programs have already undergone radical reform. Reform occurred over a period of years beginning with Earl Butz in the 1970s and culminating in 1996 with the so-called Freedom to Farm legislation. These policies were locked into place with the 2002 farm bill. With the reform, the mechanisms of earlier legislation were made ineffective.
What has the three-decade long reform journey included?
-- Lower loan rates offered in a vain attempt to “recapture” export markets,
-- A marketing loan program that enabled prices to fall below the loan rate and keep it there,
-- Export loan programs and subsidies that have been ruled to be trade distorting,
-- A plethora of new federally subsidized crop insurance products,
-- Elimination of the Farmer-Owned Reserve in addition to taking away the price floor function of the nonrecourse loan program,
-- Elimination of the set aside program and therefore the ability to adjust production
-- The enabling of users of program crops to buy grains at subsidized prices
-- Massive “emergency payments,”
-- Direct payments to crop farmers when crop prices are high,
-- And on and on the list goes.
So, before we undertake another set of reforms, and we are not defending the current set of policies, we need to look carefully at the rationale for farm programs in the first place.
If markets worked during the unregulated years of the 1920s, there would have been no reason for the farm programs of the 1930s – programs that are often referred to in current news articles and editorials. And if there were good economic reasons for the farm bills of the 1930s, then those reasons must still be true today, unless the economic structure of agriculture has changed between then and now.
That leaves us with three questions. 1) Was there an economically justifiable reason why farm programs were needed in the 1930s? 2) Are those conditions still present today? 3) If they are not present today, what changed?
Let us start with the last question first. The 1996 farm bill was called “Freedom to Farm” because its authors believed they had set up a program that would enable farmers to respond to market signals instead of “farming the program.”
To bribe farmers into accepting the reforms, they offered AMTA payments that were designed to transition to zero, ending farm programs as we know them.
Instead by 1998, crop prices had fallen to below the loan rate, farmers were in dire straits and Congress responded with emergency payments in the form of a “double AMTA.” Not only did AMTA payments not transition to zero, the emergency payments continued for three more years before they were institutionalized in the form of counter-cyclical payments.
In response to low prices, exports did not increase as promised and consumers did not increase their consumption either. In the face of low prices, farmers did not treat the AMTA payment as a windfall and reduce production. Instead they farmed nearly every acre possible and continued to use yield-enhancing technology when what was needed to right the price ship was to lower production.
Despite the fact that inputs had to be purchased instead of hauled out of the barn, crop farmers tended to plant all of their acres all of the time unless prevented from doing so by weather.
The basic overriding question is: Has the economic structure of crop agriculture changed between the 1920s and today.
That is, do both the total quantity supplied and the total quantity demanded still respond minimally to changes in price? If so, market forces will not return crop agriculture to profitability in a timely manner.
The last three decades of reform assumed that, indeed, the economic structure of crop agriculture had changed. The implication being that external production adjustment and price stabilization programs were no longer needed.
What we learned was that acting on that “things-are-different-now” assumption costs hundreds of billions of dollars in the form of emergency payments and payments from several government check-writing programs.
We agree that there is a need for radical reform of the farm programs that are currently in use. But when changes are made, it is important to remember the economic context within which farm programs operate – that is, the demonstrated nature of aggregate crop markets. | <urn:uuid:c2ab45f5-5cef-48d9-b40f-0aa112d2dc27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://southwestfarmpress.com/reforming-farm-programs-remember-consider-underlying-assumptions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97525 | 977 | 2.75 | 3 |
Friday, 13 May 2011
The Silver Apples of the Moon, the Golden Apples of the Sun
But what is it about apples? Why are they so evocative? Why was the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – not named in the Bible – assumed to be an apple? Not only did golden apples of immortality grow in the Garden of the Hesperides, but the goddess Idun was the keeper of golden apples which preserved the youth of the Norse gods. Why was the Apple of Discord – with its inscription To the Fairest - an apple at all, and why were three golden apples so irresistible to Atalanta that she paused to pick them up and lost her race?
The apple as the fruit of immortality, or perhaps equally of death, appears as a symbol in Celtic mythology too. Heralds from the Land of Youth would bear a silver apple branch, with silver blossom and golden fruit, whose tinkling music lulled the hearers to sleep – perhaps to everlasting sleep… And Arthur, after his final battle, went to the island of Avalon, the island of apples, to be healed of his mortal wound. And of course there’s the apple Snow-White’s stepmother gave her, of which one poisoned bite sent her into a death-like sleep.
Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love... Apples are tokens of love and promises of eternity. In Yeats' ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’, the lovelorn Aengus seeks forever for the beautiful girl from the hazel wood.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
But such an eternity is probably also the land beyond death.
Where do apples even come from, why are they so ubiquitous? Why are there, even today, so many varieties available even in supermarkets, usually the home of homogeneity? I went into our local Sainsburies the other day and counted eleven different named varieties of apple all on sale at once: Empire, Royal Gala, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Russets, Granny Smiths, Pink Ladies, Jazz, Braeburns and Bramleys. (In comparison, there were four named varieties of pears, and everything else was generic – bananas, strawberries, oranges, etc.)
But if you look here, you'll find names and pictures of many more, older varieties with names like poems. Adam's Pearmain. Foxwhelps. D'Arcy Spice. Marriage-Maker. St Ailred. Sops-in-Wine. And Ribston's Pippin, of which Hilaire Belloc wrote:
I said to Heart: "How goes it?"
"Right as a Ribston Pippin!"
But it lied.
Apples are related to roses, I’m delighted to tell you. According to a rather lovely book called ‘Apples: the story of the fruit of temptation’, by Frank Browning (Penguin 1998):
‘In the beginning there were roses. Small flowers of five white petals opened on low, thorny stems, scattered across the earth in the pastures of the dinosaurs, about eighty million years ago. …These bitter-fruited bushes, among the first flowering plants on earth, emerged as the vast Rosaceae family and from them came most of the fruits human beings eat today: apples, pears, plums, quinces, even peaches, cherries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.
‘The apple [paleobotanists believe]… was the unlikely child of an extra-conjugal affair between a primitive plum from the rose family and a wayward flower with white and yellow blossoms of the Spirea family, called meadowsweet.’
Isn’t that wonderful? Apples as we know them today developed in Europe and Asia. The Pharoahs grew them. The Greeks and Romans grew them. And they keep. You can store apples overwinter, eat them months after you’ve picked them: fresh fruit in hard cold weather when there’s nothing growing outside. So perhaps you would think of them as life-giving, immortal fruit. They smell fragrant. They feel good too: hard-fleshed, smooth, a cool weight in the hand.
The medieval lyric Adam lay y-bounden provocatively celebrates the Fall of Man when Adam ate the forbidden fruit:
And all was for an appil
An appil that he toke
As clerkes finden
Written in her boke.
…by ending with the mischievously happy thought that, if Adam had not eaten the apple, Our Lady would never have become the Heavenly Queen:
Blessed be the time
That appil take was!
Therefore we maun singen:
Here is a poem by John Drinkwater (surely the most poetically-named poet ever) which consciously or unconsciously captures some of those mystical coincidences of apples, eternity, sleep, moonlight, magic and death.
At the top of the house the apples are laid in rows,
And the skylight lets the moonlight in, and those
Apples are deep-sea apples of green. There goes
A cloud on the moon in the autumn night.
A mouse in the wainscot scratches, and scratches, and then
There is no sound at the top of the house of men
Or mice; and the cloud is blown, and the moon again
Dapples the apples with deep-sea light.
They are lying in rows there, under the gloomy beams
On the sagging floor; they gather the silver streams
Out of the moon, those moonlit apples of dreams
And quiet is the steep stair under.
In the corridors under there is nothing but sleep.
And stiller than ever on orchard boughs they keep
Tryst with the moon, and deep is the silence, deep
On moon-washed apples of wonder.
Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides: Red-Figured hydra made in Athens circa 370-360 BCE.
The Golden Apple Tree and the Nine Peahens: Arthur Rackham
Adam and Eve: Lucas Cranach | <urn:uuid:bf93656c-fa51-46aa-b798-f1e4877faf8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://steelthistles.blogspot.com/2011/05/silver-apples-of-moon-golden-apples-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943787 | 1,382 | 2.671875 | 3 |
We all – in a more or less emphatic mode – have been raised in accordance with the common acceptation that is not considered manly to weep, especially in public, and only sometimes – under a very restricted range of circumstances – men are allowed to cry, albeit they are expected to conceal their tears. Furthermore according to our culture, if this occurrence is not deemed appropriate for ordinary men, it becomes rather unacceptable for heroes: it would be in fact unconceivable this behaviour for a middle age knight or 18th century patriot, and perhaps also for a modern soldier. Nevertheless all the Homeric heroes do cry and do weep often, and their tears are not masked but showed publicly with emphasis: they tear out their own hair, they sob, they weep aloud with convulsive gasping.
Even Achilles, a tremendous hero – solitary and ready to die anytime for its own glory – weeps the loss of Patroclus:
Now from the finish’d games the Grecian band
Seek their black ships, and clear the crowded strand
All stretch’d at ease the genial banquet share,
And pleasing slumbers quiet all their care.
Not so Achilles: he, to grief resign’d,
His friend’s dear image present to his mind,
Takes his sad couch, more unobserved to weep;
Nor tastes the gifts of all-composing sleep.
Restless he roll’d around his weary bed,
And all his soul on his Patroclus fed:
The form so pleasing, and the heart so kind,
That youthful vigour, and that manly mind,
What toils they shared, what martial works they wrought,
What seas they measured, and what fields they fought;
And Agamemnon, the supreme general of the Achaean expedition, after the last day’s defeat, proposes to the Greeks to quit the siege, and return to their country.
Such various passions urged the troubled host,
Great Agamemnon grieved above the rest;
Superior sorrows swell’d his royal breast;
Himself his orders to the heralds bears,
To bid to council all the Grecian peers,
But bid in whispers: these surround their chief,
In solemn sadness and majestic grief.
The king amidst the mournful circle rose:
Down his wan cheek a briny torrent flows.
So silent fountains, from a rock’s tall head,
In sable streams soft-trickling waters shed.
With more than vulgar grief he stood oppress’d;
Words, mix’d with sighs, thus bursting from his breast.
Odysseus, the shrewd and at the same time courageous hero, while guest of Alcinous weeps when he listens to Demodocus narrating of Troy:
So from the sluices of Ulysses’ eyes
Fast fell the tears, and sighs succeeded sighs.
And again Odysseus, during his detention in the Island of Ogygia cries when thinking to his homeland:
But sad Ulysses, by himself apart,
Pour’d the big sorrows of his swelling heard;
All on the lonely shore he sate to weep,
And roll’d his eyes around the restless deep:
Toward his loved coast he roll’d his eyes in vain,
Till, dimm’d with rising grief, they stream’d again.
Sometimes the tears are of sorrow and grief, but often they are also tears of rage:
Full of the god that urged their burning breast,
The heroes thus their mutual warmth express’d.
Neptune meanwhile the routed Greeks inspired;
Who, breathless, pale, with length of labours tired,
Pant in the ships; while Troy to conquest calls,
And swarms victorious o’er their yielding walls:
Trembling before the impending storm they lie,
While tears of rage stand burning in their eye.
Greece sunk they thought, and this their fatal hour;
But breathe new courage as they feel the power.
Teucer and Leitus first his words excite;
Then stern Peneleus rises to the fight;
Thoas, Deipyrus, in arms renown’d,
And Merion next, the impulsive fury found;
Last Nestor’s son the same bold ardour takes,
While thus the god the martial fire awakes.
It has been for a long while that rage was – especially for renaissance and pre-romanticism commentators and scholars – the only justification of this unmanly behaviour. Tears were acceptable and in fact accepted, if inspired by uncontrollable rage being thus a sign of power and courage and not as a womanly demonstration of weakness and subjection. However this interpretation has been more recently enriched and revised especially under an anthropological perspective.
Weeping for Homeric heroes was a simple way to express them; no shame was associated to their sorrows. The only tears we are not supposed to find in Epic are those connected to what was judged a weakness itself – such as compassion, pity and sympathy. Homeric heroes were different, they were even diverse compared to the classic period heroes (Themistocles, Leonidas, Epaminondas, Pelopidas, Alcibiades, Agesilaus…). Their foremost aspiration was to gain eternal fame through a celebrated life and glorious death. There was still no extent and therefore no trace of the future spirit of πολις, the aggregative power of citizenship and the comradeship consequent to the hoplite phalanx – they fought principally for their own glory, not purely for their country. The Homeric heroes were natural born protagonists and each of their feelings, every attitude and expression was naturally meant to be magnified, provided this was not going to diminish but augment their stature. | <urn:uuid:1bc18ad3-ea0e-486d-8da8-afe4ae97186f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stoa.wordpress.com/2007/02/12/the-tears-of-homeric-heroes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954932 | 1,249 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Ever wonder if you have enough willpower to stop stress eating and lose the weight you want?
5 decades ago, there was a famous study, fondly called the “marshmallow study.”
Preschool kids were asked to sit in front of a marshmallow, and not eat it for a full 15 minutes.
The kids who were successful at accomplishing this task were studied over the next 2 decades and shown to do better in almost every area of life than kids who grabbed the marshmallow and ate it right away.
For instance, kids who delayed gratification:
- scored hundreds of points higher on standardized tests in school
had stronger relationships
- were promoted more often, and
- were happier.
Unfortunately, to this day, this study is misinterpreted. Most people draw the wrong conclusion, by assuming that the only reason (among all the possible reasons) that some kids were better at delaying gratification is that they had more “willpower.” That they were somehow stronger, in some way, to be able to withstand the temptation. Period.
This is the same simplistic conclusion that we make when we think about why we don’t change our own bad habits. When we fall off the wagon and overeat, we blame it on a lack of willpower. When we succeed, we also attribute it to our persistence and commitment to the goal. Either way, we blame or give credit to one single factor – the almighty willpower.
This is tragically wrong…
It’s wrong because it’s incomplete, and it’s tragic because it gives us no wiggle room when things don’t go as we would like. When you believe your ability to make good choices depends only on willpower, you will eventually stop trying. It’s not something you can get more of, really…and the more you use it, the more you use it up and the more likely you are to quit.
This pattern keeps you in a depressing cycle starting with massive commitment to change, and followed by eroding motivation and relapse into old habits.
That’s the willpower trap.
Fortunately, a follow up study, showed that what seems like will, may be more about skill. The kids who were successful developed skills to manage the challenge. Some even developed clever strategies, like distracting themselves or creating a game out of it, until the researchers returned.
In fact, it was shown in this later study that when kids were taught skills, 50% more were successful. No willpower necessary.
One of the biggest barriers to success is NOT lack of willpower, but the belief that willpower is the key to change.
Latest posts by Carol Solomon (see all)
- What Story Do You Tell Yourself? - March 28, 2013
- What If You Had To Post Everything you Ate Online? - February 5, 2013
- Your Story Matters - February 4, 2013 | <urn:uuid:743f69af-5c70-4adf-af7e-6ad8cf8891ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stresseating.com/the-willpower-trap/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971768 | 600 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Internet tools for teaching and learning.
Building Web Animations
- Animation Tips
Links to several tutorials, tips and other resources relating to animation both on and off the Web. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Creating a Web Animation
An article which discusses three principals you should consider when using animation for your Web page. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Tutorialized. Photoshop Tutorials and Flash Tutorials
This website provides links to a large array of tutorials demonstrating how to use Photoshop and Flash to create special effects and animation for the Web. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Web Developers Notes. Advanced Flash Tutorial.
Provides links to a comprehensive array of tutorials on the use of Flash to create Web animations.
http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/tutorials/adflash/flash_animation_tutorial_fade_and_motion_tween_together.php3 (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Freehand Support Centre. Creating Web Graphics and Animation.
This site provides links to a variety of tutorials and articles using Adobe Freehand to create Web graphics and animation. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
Creating a WebQuest
- Creating a WebQuest: It's Easier Than You Think
An article providing a detailed overview and discussion of the topic including the relevance of Web Quests, how to begin and the various stages in the design process. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- How to make a WebQuest
Provides links to a number of articles that show the design process, the tasks and resources needed to create a Web Quest. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- T-Spider.net. WebQuest Training.
Designed for both teachers and students, this site provides two training components for WebQuest; ‘doing’ a Web Quest and ‘creating’ a Web Quest. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Teachnology. WebQuest Generator.
This site allows you to generate your own customised Web Quest by filling in sections with required information for each step. You can save your work in a file you create. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Create your own WebQuests
This site explains what a WebQuest is and provides links to samples, templates and websites. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
Downloading images from the Internet
- Why Good Images Go Bad. Guide to Effective Use of Images on Your Website.
This site suggests that graphic files should be made as small as possible without sacrificing image quality. It provides links to articles on the effective use of images on web sites. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- When and How to Use Internet Image Formats
A very useful guide discussing how to use the correct image formats for the correct situation. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Graphics from the Web
Simple instructions for downloading images. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011)
- Getting Pictures from the Internet
A tutorial giving directions for downloading pictures from the Internet. (retrieved Feb 2, 2011) | <urn:uuid:02e37403-bdd1-4c6c-b709-bcb6a542e29c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/learning_teaching/ict/skills/internet.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.815807 | 646 | 2.96875 | 3 |
I think we often get confused about all the things we are supposed to be, or have. Like self-confidence, self-esteem, self-image - and I’ll add another few things – self-worth, self-respect and self-regard.
Are they all the same thing? And what is the difference between them?
Carl Jung once said, “The things that worry us the most are the things we don’t understand”. Perhaps if we understood the difference between self-esteem and self-confidence and all the other "selfs", we’d come to the wonderful realisation that we are actually healthy in all our "selfs" except one – so at least we can work on that one and not spend pointless time worrying about all the others.
I think we get all of these confused and we lump them all in the same barrel, so in the pursuit of understanding I think it’d be useful to define what we’re talking about here ...
Your self-image is what you think about yourself and what you tell yourself about what and who you are. It’s also severely affected by what you think other people think of you – your weight, attractiveness, intelligence etc.
Once you’ve decided on your self-image it’s a bit hard to change it. You form a rigid picture or "schema" about yourself. I and other practitioners can help you to change it but in the end it’s really up to you.
What do you think about yourself? What do you believe people think about you (like friends and especially parents)?
Genes come into it too. For instance if you got the "fat" gene, if the amount of exercise you do and what you eat doesn't change your size, and if "plump" isn’t in at the moment (which it isn’t) you’ll probably have a body image problem.
First let’s take a look at the word esteem – which means to like, admire, hold in high regard. Self-esteem is the ability to do this for yourself: to like, admire, and value yourself. What other people say might be hurtful at times but it doesn’t affect your core belief in yourself as a likeable and worthwhile person.
There’s an old saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. People with good self-esteem live out this old saying. They like themselves no matter what, and they think they deserve happiness.
I think it has something to do with resilience – the ability to ‘bounce back’. There’s a gene for reslience – lucky are those to whom it comes naturally. But it can be learned. Words can only hurt you if you choose to let them, setbacks in life can only break your spirit if you allow them to.
The famous American psychologist and philosopher William James rejected the term self-esteem because he perceived that if you didn’t achieve, you couldn’t have self-esteem - it is dependent on achieving. He even made up a formula for it (I hope this right, if not apologies to him and all his issue).
AchievementSelf-Esteem = ________________Aspiration (goals etc.)
If you believe this is a reasonable premise, then you can only feel good about yourself, "esteem" yourself if you have achieved your goals. I think having goals and achieving them is important, but it isn't crucial to whether you like yourself or believe in yourself.
Self-worth is often how we perceive ourselves compared to others, for example in terms of skills, wealth, attractiveness and so on. William James’s equation is, I think, more an accurate appraisal of self-worth than self-esteem. Many of us feel worthy if we achieve, live a certain lifestyle, or even if we are "good people" who contribute and help, sit on boards and committees or volunteer.
We might feel "worthy", but it’s often useful to challenge our motives for doing good or for accumulating possessions or status. If we lose the things we base our self-worth on, we can become bitter and disillusioned. I’m reminded here of the line from Max Ehrman’s wonderful poem "Desiderata":
If you compare yourself with others you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Being self-confident is trusting in your own abilities to perform, whether the circumstances are familiar to you or not. Self-confident people are seldom fearful. They are courageous, whether it’s exploring unknown territory, braving embarrassment by standing up to speak, or standing up for what they believe in. People often have self-confidence because they accumulate knowledge of the situation to prepare themselves, and this helps them to make the most of their faith in their abilities. Self-confidence is not the same as brashness, or recklessness.
Different types of self-confidence have been described as "social confidence", "physical presence", "stage presence", "status confidence" and "peer independence".
However, self-confidence is not always accompanied by self-esteem. People can be full of self-confidence but not necessarily like, or "esteem" themselves.
Self-respect is unconditional and independent of how others see us, or any mistakes we might have made. Self-respect is acceptance of ourselves just as we are, as opposed to self-esteem, which is dependant on our liking ourselves. Liking ourselves often requires judgement of whether we are "good" or "bad".
We might not like everything we do or are, but we can still respect who we are by accepting and forgiving ourselves, and because we respect ourselves, striving to be a better person.
This is a "self" I’m particularly fond of, and in this case I’ll leave the definition to the man who invented it, Albert Bandura of Stanford University in the U.S.
Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. Such beliefs produce these diverse effects through four major processes. They include cognitive, motivational, feeling and selection processes.
A strong sense of efficacy enhances human accomplishment and personal well-being in many ways. People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided. Such an efficacious outlook fosters intrinsic interest and deep engrossment in activities. They set themselves challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to them. They heighten and sustain their efforts in the face of failure. They quickly recover their sense of efficacy after failures or setbacks. They attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient knowledge and skills which are acquirable. They approach threatening situations with assurance that they can exercise control over them. Such an efficacious outlook produces personal accomplishments, reduces stress and lowers vulnerability to depression.
Albert Bandura, Stanford University, http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/BanEncy.html
So which "self" do I prefer? I’m going for self-respect, because it can be unconditional in the sense that you can respect and regard yourself well without the pressure of having to achieve, or be good looking, or flattered, or have "stage presence" or anything – you can just respect yourself for being you, warts and all – because you’re worth it. But that’s my choice. I really like self-efficacy too. The great thing about knowing about these "selfs" is that you have a choice. So maybe you’re good in all the "selfs" except self-image – then you only have to work on that one thing.
How do you work on it? Watch this space!
I'm so glad you accepted yourself and stopped stressing about your weight.I like your point that changing your self-image (to a positive one) yourself contributed to your success.I think it lessens stress when we accept ourselves and less stress means less comfort eating and more self control and self-confidence that we can ignore cravings.Well done! | <urn:uuid:050e62cd-4c9a-47bc-bdcb-960348d5c629> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://talkingroom.com.au/articles/self-image/26 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960278 | 1,742 | 2.515625 | 3 |
As a young girl, Shirley Ann Jackson spent many of her days collecting bumble bees in her parents’ backyard. Her childhood fascination with nature would later bloom into an illustrious career in science.
After becoming the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. from M.I.T., Jackson became a professor of physics at Rutgers University. In 1995, she returned to her native Washington, D.C., where President Bill Clinton appointed her as the first African-American woman to serve as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. During her four years as chair, Jackson made sweeping changes to the commission’s reactor oversight program. She also discovered an “emerging gap” of workers, particularly women and minorities, in the STEM workforce (fields of science, technology, engineering and math).
Jackson later coined her observation as the Quiet Crisis. She explains that after the Soviet Union successfully launched its Sputnik satellite in 1957, there was an intense push in the U.S. toward math and science, which created an influx of scientists like herself. But Jackson says as that generation retires, there are not enough young people in the pipeline to take their place.
“Our colleges and universities are not graduating enough scientists and engineers… and we are doing a particularly poor job of recruiting the underrepresented majority of minorities and women,” Jackson commented during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in 2009.
As president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, Jackson is hoping to change that. During her eleven years of leadership, the number of women faculty has grown by 60 percent and the number of minority faculty has more than doubled. Jackson is also working to fill the gap through government and business. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed her to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and she currently sits on the board of directors of several energy and technology companies, including IBM and Marathon Oil.
It’s enough to keep Jackson as busy as a bee – pollinating the next generation of the nation’s innovators. | <urn:uuid:4ead560c-b658-44a0-aa61-0a53c1772d54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegrio.com/2010/02/01/thegrios-100-shirley-jackson/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975675 | 431 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Daily Grammar Practice en francais (DGPF) is a simple yet effective grammar supplement for French students. A Teacher Guide (with answer key) is all you need to teach this program, although an inexpensive Student Workbook is available and recommended for ease. Three levels of DGPF are available, but this review is based solely on the first level, which corresponds to first year high school French.
The main author, Kathleen Porto, has ample qualifications to write this program. She is a current high school French teacher in Georgia, where she also serves as chairperson of the Foreign Language Department. She has multiple degrees in French and teaching French, and she has received training to prepare students for the AP French exam. As if that were not enough, she is also a member of the Alliance Francaise, the American Association of Teachers of French, and the Foreign Language Association of Georgia!
The first half of the teacher book explains the teaching philosophy behind DGPF along with suggestions for using the program. The second half includes all 30 lessons with reference charts, grammar helps, teaching points, and answers. The optional workbook provides a page for each of the 30 weekly sentences, with room to write answers. The workbook also includes the reference charts and grammar helps that are included in the teacher book.
DGPF is a “daily grammar vitamin,” according to its authors. Students work with one sentence per week, analyzing it first and then imitating it. Unlike other grammar programs that present isolated units on nouns and verbs with copious practice exercises, DGPF uses one complete sentence per week and breaks it down into parts. Early sentences are very simple, but they build in complexity as the year progresses, providing opportunities for review in context.
Let me explain the format of a weekly lesson of DGPF. On Monday, students translate a French sentence into English. On Tuesday, they identify the parts of speech of each word in the sentence (noun, pronoun, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction, verb, verbal). On Wednesday, they identify the sentence parts (subject, verb, complement, prepositional phrase, infinitive phrase, etc). On Thursday, students diagram the sentence. Finally, on Friday, they build a new sentence from the provided “dehydrated structure.”
Now, let’s look at a week in practice. The sentence provided for week four of DGPF is this: “Le grand garcon parle francais avec Paul.” On Monday, students translate, “The tall boy speaks French with Paul.” On Tuesday, they label the parts of speech using the abbreviations provided on their reference chart. In order, they are as follows: definite article, adjective, noun, action verb/present tense, noun, preposition, proper noun. On Wednesday, students identify the parts of the sentence. In order, here are those parts: subject, transitive verb, direct object, adverbial prepositional phrase. On Thursday, students diagram the sentence. Finally, on Friday, students write a similar sentence from a “dehydrated structure” given as follows: petit/ fille/ parler/ anglais/ avec/ Amandine. They write, “La petite fille parle anglais avec Amandine.” So with just one sentence, students have learned about adjective position and nouns of nationality. In addition, they have reviewed subject/verb agreement and agreement of adjectives.
Now all this takes only a few minutes at the beginning of your French class. My daughter does her DGPF for about five minutes before her Rosetta Stone computer lesson. I am very pleased with how well these programs complement one another. My one complaint about Rosetta Stone has been the lack of systematic grammar study, and DGPF provides the perfect supplement.
The content of level one corresponds to first year high school French. At present, three levels of DGPF are available, each corresponding to one year of high school French. You may view a scope and sequence and sample lessons at www.dgppublishing.com.
My only caveat regarding this program is that students need to know English grammar fairly well in order to successfully use DGPF. Lesson one begins very simply but assumes a knowledge of nouns (common/proper), verbs (action/being, transitive/intransitive, tenses), and the subject/predicate relationship. If your student has never studied English grammar, you might consider looking into the original Daily Grammar Practice in English, available from www.dgppublishing.com. I have not personally seen this program, but I have heard from other homeschoolers that it is very good. My own sister used it with her daughter and saw her SAT scores leap after one year using the program. | <urn:uuid:eca9271f-3bce-420c-bd0c-8df583d73eec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Homeschool_Reviews/2792.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947871 | 1,011 | 2.875 | 3 |
Science author and classical educator, Paige Hudson, is back for the second installment of our Science and Classical Education series. You can read the first post HERE.
In yesterday’s post, I shared a little about how science fits into the classical education model. Today, I want to share with you the nuts and bolts of grammar stage classical science.
What is a grammar stage student?
A grammar stage student can mean different things to different people. So let me clear up the confusion by saying that I mean the years when your student is learning the foundational basics, such as phonics, spelling and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. These are the years when your student is full of wonder and when they wants to know everything about everything. During the grammar stage years your student is peppering you with questions that begin with, “Mom, what’s…”. This is what I mean when I say a grammar stage student.
The grammar stage typically begins with when traditional school begins or in first grade. It ends when the student starts needing to know the why’s and how’s behind what they are learning. For some, this means they leave the grammar stage by the end of 4th grade, for some they leave by the end of 5th grade and for some students this phase ends earlier or later than that.
I compare the grammar stage students to an empty bucket that is begging to be filled. They have a natural curiosity and a high capacity for retaining information. So, when teaching science, you will be playing to these strengths while building their knowledge base of scientific facts. You can also use science to work on their basic skills of writing and reading at this stage.
What are your goals for grammar stage classical science?
Simply put, your main goal is to spark their interest for learning science. You want to capitalize on their natural curiosity by showing them that science can be fun. You want them to become aware of the world around them and to learn how to observe the things they see. These are also the years to build a basic knowledge bank for your student to be able draw on later.
How do you teach classical science to grammar stage students?
A good grammar stage classical science program should include the following*…
- Lab Demonstrations: I used the word “demonstrations” because at the grammar stage level, you are essentially demonstrating experiments for your student to observe. They are watching, helping where they can, taking in what is happening and filing the information away for later use. The purpose of this doing demonstrations, or experiments, at this level is twofold. The first reason is to work on their observation skills and the second aim is to increase their scientific knowledge. Although you are modeling the scientific method for them, you are not expecting them to predict the results because they do not have a knowledge base of the principles of science that are at work in the experiment to draw from. So, their “hypothesis” would no longer be an educated guess, it would simply be a guess, which has little value and can lead to frustration when they get it wrong. Instead you are asking them the following questions, “What did we use?” (Materials), “What did we do?” (Procedure), “What happened?” (Results) and “What did I learn?” (Conclusion). If you are need help finding experiments to demonstrate, check out any of the books by Janice VanCleave. You can also use projects and/or nature study to fulfill the purpose of the lab demonstrations.
- Reading: At this stage your student is an empty bucket waiting to be filled with information and books are a wonderful way to do that. There are many children’s encyclopedia publishers, such as Usborne, Kingfisher and DK, that present scientific information in an interesting way on the level of a grammar stage student. I also personally love the “Let’s Read and Find Out” series of books as supplemental science reading. As your student begins to be able to read more complicated stories on their own, add in one or two books on scientists per year. These will help your student to engage with the face of science which will spark their desire to learn more.
- Narration: Narration is one of the hallmarks of a classical education. It’s an extremely effective tool that will teach your student how to assimilate and release information. The purpose of narration in science is for you to know that your student has placed at least one new piece of information into their bucket. So, you simply ask them, “What is one thing that you found interesting about what we just read?” or “Can you tell me something that you have learned from what we just read?” In the beginning you will write down what they say, but as your student gets older, you will expect more out of them. As they progress through the grammar stage, you can expect them to give several pieces of information as well as have them begin to write their own answers.
- Memory Work: For some memory work is optional, for some it is not. Remember that your grammar stage student is an empty bucket that is begging to be filled and memory work is another tool that you can use to fill their knowledge banks with information that they will be able to draw on later. Memory work can include poems, lists of facts and/or vocabulary.
When you plan out your year, make sure that your lab demonstrations, readings, narrations and memory work all tie together. In other words, if you create a model of the spine, you should read about the skeletal system, have your student write about what they have learned about the skeletal system and work on memorizing what they skeletal system is. When you tie the 4 areas together, they reinforce one another and create a stronger peg of knowledge in the mind of the grammar stage student.
A quick word about kindergarten:
If you decide to do science before the grammar stage years, it should be very hands on and parent directed. You can use demonstrations, nature study, books and crafts to introduce them to the world of science. However, kindergarten science should only be done if your student enjoys it.
Before planning out your year of grammar stage science, I highly recommend reading The Well-trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. This book will give you a fuller picture of classical education as well as the learning stages that your student will go through. If you would like to see what the grammar stage classical science education looks like, check out Elemental Science, which offers science curriculum with a classical bent. If you want to see what a week looks like with Elemental Science, you can read a blog series that I did on Physics for the Grammar Stage. Be sure to come back tomorrow to learn more about logic stage classical science.
*Note: The information in this blog post was loosely based on ideas presented in a lecture entitled “Science in the Classical Curriculum” by Susan Wise Bauer as well as pp. 157-187 of The Well-trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home.
Paige Hudson is an author and homeschooling mom. She writes science curriculum for homeschoolers which you can view at the Elemental Science website. She also has a passion for sharing the wonders of science, which is why she writes the bi-weekly Science Corner at Elemental Blogging. She holds a BS in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech and currently resides in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia with her husband and 2 children. | <urn:uuid:92b83357-6e89-46e7-aa8c-84598f7114a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thehomeschoolscientist.com/classical-science-for-the-grammar-stage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96358 | 1,567 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Security and Privacy of Information
Security threats to technology systems continue to grow, with more than 76,000 security incidents identified in the first six months of this year compared to about 82,000 for all of 2002. Users are increasingly demanding authorized access and use only, while most companies report having at least the fundamentals of IT security in place, including firewalls (81%), antivirus software (79%) or using virus protection access management and other security applications (71%). It is estimated that an average of 5.4% of IT budgets will be spent on security in 2003. Many tools are helping to manage access and determine what's on the network, but in no way has the problem been solved. Many serious consequences have resulted due to the lack of security, including:
Identity theft. Individuals are buying millions of dollars worth of merchandise using other people's credit cards. As stated in InformationWeek (Aug. 4, 2003), about 7 million individuals found themselves guilty of identity theft, an increase of nearly 80% over the 1.9% rate reported in February 2002. According to research and advisory firm Gartner Inc., only one in 700 of these thieves may be identified because this crime is often misclassified. A presidential commission has recommended that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) work with the Department of Homeland Security to develop sender identification technology such as personalized stamps that embed digital identification information. However, civil liberties groups and others are objecting to what's being called "intelligent mail" for all users. USPS has not accepted the commission's report, but d'es intend to award a contract in November for mobile data-collection devices that could serve as intelligent mail scanners.
Student access to data. Loaded with course grades, credit card numbers, home addresses and social security numbers, educational records hold particular fascination for hackers, most of whom are curious students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 99% of all public schools have access to the Internet. Most schools rely solely on teacher monitoring and a student honor code. Many schools even allow students to manage their own accounts, register for classes and pay tuition online. Thus, data such as student and alumni records, social security numbers, credit card numbers and other personal information must be secured.
Abundance of spam. Unsolicited e-mail advertisements, commonly known as spam, are estimated to cost about $875 for each employee per year. One statistic states that 49% of users spend from 40 minutes to almost four hours a week deleting spam. Many users are installing anti-spam software, but legally there is very little that can be done against spammers directly. Several bills are being discussed in Congress, but bickering between Democrats and Republicans is delaying the process. Conversely, the European Union has declared that an e-mail account is more private than a mailbox, and a business needs explicit permission before sending an e-mail message.
Filtering devices. Filtering software is being installed in more networks and on more computers, but it is also raising some questions as to what, when and how to filter. For example, librarians are challenging the way filters are used, while school administrators have transferred their decision-making authority to private companies with little public disclosure and credibility for their decisions. Therefore, override capabilities should be made available to educators.
We know the problem of security and privacy of information will not go away. It is recognized as a serious problem that requires top priority. For example, in the Palo Alto Unified School District in California, where wireless computer connections are used throughout its offices and on various campuses, a reporter from the Palo Alto Weekly was able to obtain students' grades, home phone numbers, addresses, medical information, psychological information and full-color photos of the students using a laptop and wireless connection card. This situation has been given top priority by the district.
However, what extreme situations are we willing to tolerate. When public schools in Biloxi, Miss., opened last month, the district had digital cameras recording each minute of every classroom lesson. Now, hundreds of Internet-wired cameras are running all day in an effort to deter crime and general misbehavior among the district's 6,500 students and teachers. The system lets principals and security officers view a classroom from any of the school's computers by using a password.
We must all be fully aware of what is happening to information, which we previously thought was private and secure. Perhaps, we need more education as to what we should and should not do.
This article originally appeared in the 09/01/2003 issue of THE Journal. | <urn:uuid:c4766637-cb9d-4d83-a308-ffe438971695> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thejournal.com/articles/2003/09/01/security-and-privacy-of-information.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958004 | 934 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Pre-Socratic philosophy is a title that applies generally to the philosophical views of ancient Greek philosophers up until the time of Socrates (469–399 B.C.). Several thinkers comprise the group known as the “Pre-Socratic philosophers” including Thales, Pythagoras, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Empedocles, Democritus, Parmenides, and Heraclitus.
In general, Pre-Socratic philosophy was concerned with offering rational and logical explanations as to what the world was made of and how it worked. That is why the Pre-Socratic philosophers are often referred to as “cosmologists” (cosmos means “world). Thales, for instance, argued that the primary substance of the world was water. Anaximander said it was fire. Anaximenes said air, and Xenophanes said earth. Empedocles said reality consisted of all four elements. Some of the Pre-Socratics anticipated future scientific discoveries and theories. Democritus, for example, posited a view of atoms and held that atoms and void were the only two realities. Anaxagoras promoted a view similar to that of the Big Bang theory of today. Anaximander held to a crude form of the theory of evolution.
With the exception of Parmenides (b. 515 B.C.), most of the writings of the Pre-Socratic philosophers have been lost. Much of what we know today about them comes from the writings of Aristotle. The Pre-Socratics have usually been lumped together as a group, but in the last two centuries some of them have emerged as important philosophers in their own right. With the coming of Socrates and the Sophists philosophy turned away from cosmology to ethical and social matters. | <urn:uuid:2da9d5b2-c966-4185-9e4b-102be1220e5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theologicalstudies.org/resource-library/philosophy-dictionary/161-pre-socratic-philosophy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971036 | 379 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Well, apparently today’s theme is going to be the environment, and the real differences in policy preferences between the two major political parties in the United States. Yesterday, the Democrats and the Obama administration’s EPA took a-something-is-better-than-nothing approach to hydraulic fracturing pollutant regulation.
The Obama administration took a heavy swing in the ongoing battle over fracking today by imposing new rules that would, for the first time, restrict the release of smog-causing pollutants from natural gas wells. But the law turns a blind eye to greenhouse gases released by fracking; the EPA admits fracking accounts for 40 percent of the nation’s overall methane (an even stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) emissions.
By 2015, all fracked wells will be required to implement “green completion” equipment, which catches toxic gases like benzene on its way out of the earth and into the atmosphere. But the rule does not directly limit emissions of greenhouse gases.
While the new rules will prevent toxic pollutants like Benzine from leaking into the air, reports, like the one above, say it will do little to prevent the largest and most dangerous pollutant from leaking into the atmosphere, methane. While other reports claim that the new regulations could reduce methane leakage by up to 25%.
The new rules seek foremost to cut down on cancer-causing chemicals released during hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” But the new regulations will have another benefit: They’ll reduce by 25 percent the amount of methane gas that escapes during fracking operations. This is critical, because methane is at the center of a growing debate whether natural gas really is a “cleaner” source of energy than coal.
“The president has been clear that he wants to continue to expand production of important domestic resources like natural gas, and today’s standard supports that goal while making sure these fuels are produced without threatening the health of the American people,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “By ensuring the capture of gases that were previously released to pollute our air and threaten our climate, these updated standards will not only protect our health, but also lead to more product for fuel suppliers to bring to market. They’re an important step toward tapping future energy supplies without exposing American families and children to dangerous health threats in the air they breathe.”
When natural gas is produced, some of the gas escapes the well and may not be captured by the producing company. These gases can pollute the air and as a result threaten public health. Consistent with states that have already put in place similar requirements, the updated EPA standards released today include the first federal air rules for natural gas wells that are hydraulically fractured, specifically requiring operators of new fractured natural gas wells to use cost-effective technologies and practices to capture natural gas that might otherwise escape the well, which can subsequently be sold. EPA’s analysis of the final rules shows that they are highly cost-effective, relying on widely available technologies and practices already deployed at approximately half of all fractured wells, and consistent with steps industry is already taking in many cases to capture additional natural gas for sale, offsetting the cost of compliance. Together these rules will result in $11 to $19 million in savings for industry each year. In addition to cutting pollution at the wellhead, EPA’s final standards also address emissions from storage tanks and other equipment.
While dangers to drinking water continue, and the relationship between earthquakes and fracking continues to be explored, the new regulations are certainly a step in the right direction. We will need to further restrict the emission of methane from well sites and prevent the contamination of groundwater supplies in the future. Several scientists are describing the new regulations as a floor rather than anything truly meaningful, but it is more than we could expect from a Republican administration.
“It sets a floor for what the industry needs to do,” said attorney Erik Schlenker-Goodrich of the Western Environmental Law Center. “The reality is we can do far better.”
Over the past few years, more information has come out about fracking’s potential harms to the environment and human health, particularly relating to the risk of groundwater contamination. In addition to the many potentially toxic components of the highly pressurized fluid injected into the ground during the natural gas drilling process, fracking can also release cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and greenhouse gases like methane into the air. The federal government has made moves to tighten regulations, and we’ve chronicled the history of those regulations.
The EPA’s new rules don’t cover most of those issues. Instead, they address a single problem with natural gas: air pollution.
Unfortunately, the only legitimate means of preventing contamination of drinking water and the emission of greenhouse gasses is to outlaw the practice altogether. While I am generally loathed to approach an issue of human health and environmental destruction pragmatically, I am nonetheless somewhat heartened by what appears to be a thoughtful analysis by the EPA. It is important that activists and members of the public continue to protest peacefully and write and call their representatives so that we can ultimately restrict this behavior, which will ultimately exacerbate climate change, inconvenience millions, and certainly lead to the deaths of thousands. Many of those affected continue to be in rural areas of little influence. The economic despair and dearth of good paying jobs wrought by the financial collapse has made it less troublesome for oil and gas companies to convince residents as well as state and local governments to permit fracking in their jurisdictions. It is also important that we work diligently to provide alternative employment in these areas. | <urn:uuid:7fcfdda3-770b-4622-88a3-f418f1413627> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thirdpartytime.com/archives/1555 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951211 | 1,154 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Vegetables & Sustainable
|Topic||Can crop rotation reduce pest problems?|
Crop rotation can be practiced to reduce soil borne pest problems in the garden, particularly nematodes, and root diseases such as verticillium wilt. These problems can increase in severity when susceptible crops or crops in the same family are grown in the same location year after year.
It is important to be aware of what pest you are trying to reduce in your crop rotation efforts. For example, plants susceptible to verticillium wilt, such as tomato, should be rotated with plants such as broccoli. There is mounting evidence that broccoli will help to reduce the amount of verticillium in the soil. If reducing nematodes, then it is important that you know which nematode you are trying to reduce. Not all will be helped by crop rotation. Root knot nematode is probably the most well known nematode.
Choosing suitable rotations can be confusing because even crops such as corn and onions, that are not seriously damaged by root knot nematodes may still allow build up in the soil. Annual crops that are useful for reducing root knot populations include small grains such as wheat and barely, and resistant tomato and bean varieties. Also, within the rotation it is important to include “fallow” which means to have no plants, not even weeds present in order to prevent the nematodes from feeding and then reproducing. See rotation schedule for a root knot nematode infested garden. | <urn:uuid:6a74cd80-2477-4fe7-b580-efaf9d594d7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ucanr.org/sites/gardenweb/Vegetables/?uid=6&ds=462 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943628 | 311 | 3.34375 | 3 |
|University of California, Berkeley|
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|Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Key to families | Table of families and genera
Indexes to all accepted names and synonyms:
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Annual to woody per; roots generally fibrous.
Stem: generally round, hollow; nodes swollen, solid.
Leaf: alternate, 2-ranked, generally linear, parallel-veined; sheath generally open; ligule membranous or hairy, at blade base.
Inflorescence: various (of generally many spikelets).
Spikelet: glumes generally 2; florets ( lemma, palea, flower) 1–many; lemma generally membranous, sometimes glume-like; palea generally ± transparent, ± enclosed by lemma.
Flower: generally bisexual, minute; perianth vestigial; stamens generally 3; stigmas generally 2, generally plumose.
Fruit: grain (rarely achene-like).
650–900 genera; ± 10550 species: worldwide; greatest economic importance of any family (wheat, rice, maize, millet, sorghum, sugar cane, forage crops, ornamental, weeds; thatching, weaving, building materials). [Barkworth et al. 2003 FNANM:25; Barkworth et al. 2007 FNANM:24] Generally wind-pollinated. Achnatherum, Ampelodesmos, Hesperostipa, Nassella, Piptatherum, Piptochaetium, Ptilagrostis moved to Stipa; Elytrigia, Leymus, Pascopyrum, Pseudoroegneria, Taeniatherum to Elymus; Hierochloe to Anthoxanthum; Lolium, Vulpia to Festuca; Lycurus to Muhlenbergia; Monanthochloe to Distichlis; Pleuraphis to Hilaria; Rhynchelytrum to Melinis. The following taxa (in genera not included here), recorded in CA from historical collections or reported in literature, are extirpated, lacking vouchers, or not considered naturalized: Acrachne racemosa (Roth) Ohwi, Allolepis texana (Vasey) Soderstr. & H.F. Decker, Amphibromus nervosus (Hook. f.) Baill., Axonopus affinis Chase, Axonopus fissifolius (Raddi) Kuhlm., Coix lacryma-jobi L., Cutandia memphitica (Spreng.) K. Richt., Dinebra retroflexa (Vahl) Panz., Eremochloa ciliaris (L.) Merr., Eustachys distichophylla (Lag.) Nees, Gaudinia fragilis (L.) P. Beauv., Miscanthus sinensis Andersson, Neyraudia arundinacea (L.) Henrard, Phyllostachys aurea Rivière & C. Rivière, Phyllostachys bambusoides Siebold & Zuccarini, Rottboellia cochinchinensis (Lour.) Clayton, Schedonnardus paniculatus (Nutt.) Branner & Coville, Schizachyrium cirratum (Hack.) Wooton & Standl., Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx.) Nash, Themeda quadrivalvis (L.) Kuntze, Thysanolaena latifolia (Hornem.) Honda, Tribolium obliterum (Hemsl.) Renvoize, Zea mays L., Zizania palustris L. var. interior (Fassett) Dore, Zoysia japonica Steud. Paspalum pubiflorum E. Fourn., Paspalum quadrifarium Lam., are now reported for s CA (J Bot Res Inst Texas 4:761–770). See Glossary p. 30 for illustrations of general family characteristics. —Scientific Editors: James P. Smith, Jr., J. Travis Columbus, Dieter H. Wilken.
Unabridged references: [Hitchcock 1951 Manual grasses US, USDA Misc Publ 200; Clayton & Renvoise 1986 Kew Bull Add Series 13]
Key to Poaceae
Perennial, generally from rhizomes.Key to Calamagrostis
Stem: 1–15 dm, generally not branched, ± smooth; nodes (1)2–8.
Leaf: generally basal and cauline; sheath smooth or scabrous; ligule membranous; blade flat to inrolled.
Inflorescence: panicle-like, open to dense; branches ± drooping to appressed; spikelets ascending to appressed.
Spikelet: glumes subequal, generally lanceolate, acute to acuminate, lower generally 1-veined, upper 3-veined; floret 1, breaking above glumes; axis prolonged beyond floret, hairy; callus hairy; lemma < glumes, awned from below middle to near base, tip generally 4-toothed, veins 3–5, awn straight to twisted, bent; palea ± = lemma, thin.
± 265 species (including Deyeuxia): cool temperate (especially moist montane); some forage value. (Greek: reed grass) [Marr et al. 2007 FNANM 24:706–732] Hybridization, polyploidy (diploids unknown), and asexual seed set contribute to taxonomic difficulty.
Unabridged references: [Greene 1980 Ph.D. Dissertation Harvard Univ]
Stem: 2–12 dm.
Leaf: sheath smooth; ligule 1–5.5 mm; blade 2–5 mm wide, generally inrolled, lower surface generally smooth, upper surface smooth to scabrous.
Inflorescence: 5–20 cm, dense, narrow; branches < 1.5–9.5 cm, ascending to appressed.
Spikelet: glumes 2–6 mm, smooth to scabrous; axis 0.5–1.5 mm, hairs 1.5–3 mm; callus hairs 1–4.5 mm; lemma 2–5 mm, finely scabrous, awned at or below middle; awn ± = glume tip, generally straight. Subspp. intergrade. [Online Interchange]
Stem: 4–12 dm.
Leaf: ligule 2–5.5 mm; blade flat, strongly scabrous, upper surface generally glaucous.
Inflorescence: 6–20 cm; longest branches 1.5–9.5 cm.
Spikelet: glumes 3–6 mm, generally thick, margin opaque; axis 1–1.5 mm; callus hairs 2–4.5 mm; lemma 2.5–5 mm; awn occasionally twisted, bent, stiff; anthers generally sterile.
Slopes, meadows, coastal marshes; < 3400 m. Northwestern California, Cascade Range, n&c High Sierra Nevada, Central Coast;
Previous taxon: Calamagrostis stricta
Next taxon: Calamagrostis stricta subsp. stricta
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) [year] Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html [accessed on month, day, year]
Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on [month, day, year].
Copyright © 2012 Regents of the University of California
We encourage links to these pages, but the content may not be downloaded for reposting, repackaging, redistributing, or sale in any form, without written permission from The Jepson Herbarium.
|Bioregions in which taxon occurs||Red area (if present) is the part of the bioregion lying between the upper and lower elevation limits of the taxon;|
markers link to CCH specimen records. If the markers are obscured, reload the page [or change window size and reload]. Yellow markers indicate records that may have georeferencing or identification issues.
Chart based on elevation range in Manual and elevations and coordinates of CCH records.
Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
Note: About half of the CCH records include both elevation and coordinates.
|Map made in collaboration with Scott Loarie. Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
View all CCH records
CCH collections by month | <urn:uuid:7ef535df-1df7-4a91-bd7d-29ed3846d134> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_IJM.pl?tid=49506 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.691137 | 1,986 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Today, we ride a gurney. The
University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the
machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
No, I don't mean a hospital gurney (as best we know, it was
developed by one Theodore Gurney in 1883.) We want to meet another inventor of vehicles,
Goldsworthy Gurney, born in 1793 and knighted seventy years later. The knighthood was
probably arranged by senior Parliament officials who wanted to give him an excuse to retire.
Gurney was then near the end of a long and remarkable life as an inventor -- scraping
along on an unreliable payroll, and working on air circulation systems in the aging
He'd been raised in Cornwall, studied medicine and chemistry when he was young, married a
Cornish woman, moved to London at 27, and became a lecturer in chemistry. Then the
He invented a new oxygen-hydrogen blowpipe for chemical analysis and he built an organ.
He invented another musical instrument that looked like a piano, but was more akin to
Benjamin Franklin's glass armonica. Its mechanisms
drew silken ribbons over edges of a set of musical glasses to make a very gentle sound.
He invented electric lighting systems and a new kind of heating stove that found use in
English Cathedrals. But he's most famous for his steam car. And it was no single invention.
His interest in steam-powered vehicles went back to a friendship with another Cornishman,
Richard Trevithick, whom he'd known since childhood. Trevithick pioneered steam cars,
then turned to rail. Steam went on rails to avoid the terrible problems of running heavy
iron vehicles on the unpaved roads of that time.
So Gurney focused on weight reduction. Furnaces and boilers were the big problem. He
invented a small steam jet that pulled air into a firebox and made it burn hotter. He
designed boilers in which water was heated in tubes passing through the firebox. He also
used his steam jet to draw burned gases up the smokestack.
Much that's written about Gurney and his so-called "steam jet engines" leaves the impression
that his vehicles were jet propelled. Well, nothing of the sort. But that takes nothing
from his genius. He developed a fine commercial steam coach that carried six people in its
cab and fifteen more on open benches.
It traveled 12 miles an hour -- much faster than a horse coach, and it was not terribly noisy.
He went into production in 1827 and one might think the automobile had been invented. But
it was not to be. Public fears, then open resistance -- stone throwing, barricade building --
put Gurney's cars out of business.
Almost bankrupt, he went on to other inventions. Though he's little remembered today, he set
the groundwork for the steam cars that appeared at the century's end. He influenced analytical
chemistry, mine lighting systems, and telegraphy.
When Gurney's first wife (ten years his senior) died, he married another Cornish woman 36 years
his junior. But then, Gurney's entire life seems to've been a kind of time dislocation -- ideas
out of time, and inventions whose real impact would be of another generation as well.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds
D. H. Porter, The Life and Times of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney: Gentleman Scientist and Inventor,
1793-1875. (Bethlehem, PH: Lehgh University Press, 1998).
G. B. Smith, Gurney, Sir Goldsworthy. Dictionary of National Biography,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
See also, this Cornish history site on Gurney
or F. J. Ferris's account of Gurney's work.
An early Gurney car (from D. Lardner, The Steam Engine Familiarly Explained and Illustrated, 1836)
The Engines of Our Ingenuity is
Copyright © 1988-2005 by John H. | <urn:uuid:09d8e47f-b868-4449-9d5c-7dae06f93aec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uh.edu/engines/epi2052.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966424 | 902 | 3.375 | 3 |
Illinois National Parks
In their search for a water route to the Pacific Ocean, Lewis & Clark opened a window onto the west for the young United States.
Abraham Lincoln lived in this home for 17 years (1844-1861) before becoming President.
Led by Brigham Young, roughly 70,000 Mormons traveled along the Mormon Trail from 1846 to 1869 in order to escape religious persecution.
Come on a journey to remember and commemorate the survival of the Cherokee people despite their forced removal from their homelands in the Southeastern United States in the 1830s. | <urn:uuid:eca89017-e5ec-4f84-9531-223034ddbf96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usparks.about.com/od/travelitineraries/l/blIllinois-National-Parks.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945693 | 118 | 2.90625 | 3 |
A large number of synthetic glucocorticoids have been developed with the goal of increasing efficacy while decreasing the
number of adverse effects (Table 1). In most cases, the mineralocorticoid-related effects of sodium and water retention and potassium excretion are unwanted
consequences of glucocorticoid use. Most synthetic glucocorticoids have been designed to reduce or eliminate these properties.
Table 1. Relative Glucocorticoid Potencies and Duration of Action of Selected Glucocorticoids*
Prednisone vs. prednisolone
One of the most commonly used glucocorticoids in veterinary medicine is prednisone, or prednisolone, though this is based
more on familiarity and common practice than on a proven increased efficacy of this particular corticosteroid. No studies
in cats suggest that any particular glucocorticoid is more effective for the treatment of a specific disease, provided equipotent
doses are used. For prednisone to be effective, however, it first must be converted to the active form, prednisolone, in the
liver. In dogs, this process occurs efficiently, and prednisolone and prednisone can be considered to be bioequivalent.3 In cats, the absorption and conversion of prednisone to prednisolone is less efficient, and after the oral administration
of prednisone, only about 21% of the drug occurs in the bloodstream as the active form prednisolone.4 For this reason, prednisone and prednisolone should not be considered bioequivalent in cats, and the active form, prednisolone,
should be used preferentially.
The relative potency data presented in Table 1, while commonly cited in the veterinary literature, are based predominantly on studies performed in other species, as well
as clinical experience. Similar relative potencies are likely in cats, but no specific studies have been performed in this
area. In particular, a discrepancy exists regarding the estimated potency of triamcinolone.
In the veterinary literature, triamcinolone is commonly estimated to be five times more potent than hydrocortisone; however,
some authors think it may be up to 40 times more potent.5 This is supported by studies in people in which the ability of triamcinolone to suppress lymphocyte proliferation was used
as a measure of the immunosuppressive potential of a glucocorticoid. Triamcinolone was shown to be more potent than dexamethasone
in this respect.6
Moreover, the binding affinity of a glucocorticoid to the glucocorticoid receptor correlates with anti-inflammatory potential.
Triamcinolone also has a higher glucocorticoid-receptor binding affinity than dexamethasone, suggesting equivalent or increased
anti-inflammatory activity.6 I consider an estimate of 40 times that of hydrocortisone to be a more accurate approximation of triamcinolone's glucocorticoid
potency in dogs and cats, and I adjust doses accordingly.
Dosing and intended effect
Glucocorticoid doses are commonly separated into physiologic, anti-inflammatory, and immunosuppressive ranges. These terms
can be somewhat misleading because there is no exact dose at which a glucocorticoid changes from providing merely anti-inflammatory
to immunosuppressive effects. Some cited dose ranges in veterinary medicine may not specify to which species they refer, and
in most of these situations the doses are often most applicable to dogs. These ranges do provide a useful guide when selecting
an initial glucocorticoid dose, depending on the condition to be treated.
Physiologic doses of prednisolone, such as would be used as replacement therapy in dogs with hypoadrenocorticism, are estimated
to be 0.2 to 0.3 mg/kg given orally or parenterally once a day. Anti-inflammatory doses of prednisolone in dogs are cited
to be 0.55 to 1.1 mg/kg orally or parenterally once a day and would be appropriate for treating conditions such as atopic
dermatitis. Immunosuppressive doses in dogs range from 2.2 to 4.4 mg/kg once a day and are needed when treating immune-mediated
or autoimmune conditions such as pemphigus foliaceus or autoimmune hemolytic anemia.7
These dose ranges have not been verified scientifically in cats, but it is anecdotally noted that cats often require higher
glucocorticoid doses than dogs do in order to achieve equivalent effects. This is supported by a study that showed cats had
fewer numbers of glucocorticoid receptors than dogs in the organs that were evaluated (liver and skin).8 The binding affinity of the feline glucocorticoid receptor also was shown to be less than that of the dog.8 Consequently, many authors suggest that glucocorticoid doses in cats be doubled to achieve equivalent effects, resulting
in anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive dose ranges of prednisolone extending to 2.2 mg/kg/day and 8.8 mg/kg/day, respectively.7,9,10 Doses for other glucocorticoids should be adjusted based on the relative potencies shown in Table 1 with the exception of triamcinolone, whose potency may be closer to that of dexamethasone, as noted above. | <urn:uuid:445d8581-ed7a-4420-9b8b-bc2919a180db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://veterinarymedicine.dvm360.com/vetmed/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=656964&sk=&date=&pageID=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902237 | 1,156 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The History of the Bee Gees
Formed in the late 1950s in Manchester, England, the Bee Gees' core has always consisted of brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb. After briefly moving to Australia, the siblings tried their luck back in England. They really hit it big in the 1970s with their disco-influenced sound and this was due in large part to the film "Saturday Night Fever." The Bee Gees members also had success working with other artists, and despite the death of disco, continued to make music together. They remain pop music legends today. In this video, WatchMojo.com takes a look at the history of the Bee Gees. | <urn:uuid:32e3db37-4caf-41e1-af26-65ca42908dbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://watchmojo.com/video/title/The%20History%20of%20the%20Bee%20Gees/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974684 | 140 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus) is the largest shorebird, and the most southerly breeding curlew, in North America. Once abundant over most of the prairie regions of the United States and Canada, populations of the Long-billed Curlew have declined throughout most of the species' breeding range since the early 1900s as a result of both overhunting and habitat loss. Long-billed Curlews are currently on the Blue List of species that may be at risk of declining to nonviable population levels in Alberta in the event of further reductions in population, habitat, and/or provincial distribution.
The breeding habitat of Long-billed Curlews is typically described as shortgrass or mixedgrass native prairie but varies from moist meadows to very dry grasslands. Within certain parameters, curlews appear to be somewhat flexible in their breeding habitat preferences. In general, Long-billed Curlews prefer to nest in areas with large open expanses of relatively low vegetation. Curlew foraging efforts are hampered in years in which weather conditions resulted in abundant thick, standing-dead vegetation.
Long-billed Curlews are a late-maturing, long-lived species with low reproductive output. Females lay only one clutch each breeding season and only one case of a re-nesting attempt following nest failure has been recorded.
Young Long-billed Curlews are precocial (able to walk and feed themselves shortly after hatch) and hatch at the same time. Adults lead their chicks to areas of dense vegetative cover shortly after hatching where invertebrates, such as grasshoppers, constitute the majority of the diet for both adults and young. Adult curlews may also feed upon small amphibians. Major predators on curlew eggs include: Coyotes, Black-billed Magpies, Bullsnakes, Common Ravens, and Badgers. In addition to these predators, curlew chicks are also vulnerable to predation by Ferruginous Hawks, Swainson's Hawks, and Great Horned Owls.
Long-billed Curlews rely upon the cryptic colouration of their plumage and eggs to avoid predation and will crouch low on the nest in the presence of potential avian predators. The effectiveness of this crypsis may be enhanced when breeding territories are located within large tracts of unfragmented habitat. Adult curlews actively defend their eggs and young by feigning injury to lead predators away, and by calling and diving at predators. Non-incubating curlews often assist neighbours in attempts to drive predators away. Curlew breeding territories are frequently clumped in loose aggregations and it has been suggested that this aids in predator defense.
Like many species in which both parents incubate the eggs, the female Long-billed Curlew often abandons the brood 2 to 3 weeks after hatching. Thereafter, the male cares for the young until they are old enough to survive on their own -- generally 41 to 45 days after hatching. In July and August, adults and juveniles join post breeding flocks prior to migration and, by the end of August, Long-billed Curlews leave Alberta. | <urn:uuid:91d3d929-5a30-4b8b-abef-3842b74f28f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101208164324/http:/www.albertasource.ca/alphabet/article.php?article_id=208&alphabet_id=adult | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955234 | 669 | 3.96875 | 4 |
What is the Fall Equinox?
So long, summer. Saturday is the first day of fall and we have an idea for celebrating near Weston.
Summer is officially behind us; the fall (or autumnal) equinox is today.
But what is the autumnal equinox? Most people don't quite know, so let Weston Patch serve as the great explainer for all things equinoctial.
Equinoxes fall on the halfway point between solstices and occur, according to the Washington Post, "when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are of roughly equal length, everywhere in the world."
The nearly equal 12 hours of light and darkness can be attributed to the Earth's lack of an axial tilt on the day of the equinox. In fact, the word equinox is derived from the Latin words aequus, meaning equal, and nox, meaning night.
In Weston on the autumnal equinox, according to sunrisesunset.com, the sun will come up at 6:33 a.m. and set at 6:43 p.m. As you notice, that is not actually a perfect 12 hours of light and darkness. As timeanddate.com reports, this is because of issues such as light refraction and other reasons.
The exact moment of the autumnal equinox this year is 2:49 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time, or 10:49 a.m. in Wellesley.
If you're interested in celebrating the autumnal equinox in a truly unique fashion, join the Sudbury Valley Trustees for a canoe trip down the Concord River. You'll be on the river when the equinox takes place for this area. Check out additional information and register online at the link above.
See ya next year, summer. Hello fall, and happy autumnal equinox! | <urn:uuid:508d0cc8-0e25-4ae3-b243-68d9d50ecf04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weston.patch.com/articles/what-is-the-fall-equinox-7d5d533e | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928098 | 396 | 3.140625 | 3 |
A bioteam is an organizational structure in which peers share power and responsibility and each member of the team is a both a leader and a follower. The structure is modeled after a fluid leadership structure found in nature.
Each member of a bioteam has the same knowledge, training and authority. The team uses review meetings to decide upon goals and ways to evaluate how the goals are being met. By establishing priorities and procedures right at the beginning, the team eliminates the likelihood of failure because of the actions of one team member
Software developer Ken Thompson coined the term bioteam after observing how bees and birds communicate and collaborate to get work done. Canada geese, for instance, take turns being at the front of their “V” flying formation. (Being in front requires the most energy.) An observer will see the V constantly changing shape as the birds take turns leading and followers adjust position to reduce drag and fly long distances efficiently. Some scientists think the leadership rotation also encourages the birds to communicate more effectively. The geese’s honking is thought to be a kind of broadcast where the birds are issuing instructions about speed, warning about danger or sending messages of encouragement.
Thompson proposes that although birds in a flock of geese or ants in a colony function in close proximity to each other, a human bioteam can be just as effective when team members are working remotely. A traditional team whose members are in different countries, for instance, might waste time waiting for orders from superiors who live in different time zones. In the bioteam self-managing model, there's no waiting. By allowing individual team member to make decisions and take action without requiring permission, the entire team improves its reaction time and productivity.
A bioteam works best when each team member broadcasts information and updates to the entire team frequently. This prevents confusion and redundancy, while still allowing team members to react quickly to any given situation they encounter. Transparent communication increases the probability that any decision a team member makes will be in the team’s best interests.To facilitate communication and let team members know when actions have been taken, bioteams can use collaborative and social software tools such as Sharepoint, wikis, SwarmTeam or Twitter. According to Ken Thompson, the most efficient bioteams use one-way broadcasts and save two-way communications (which take more time) for when they’re really needed.
In The secret DNA of high-performing virtual teams, Ken Thompson explains why bioteams treat every team member as a leader.
Thompson provides an overview of bioteaming as it applies to the modern workplace in Virtual Teams - a new paradigm from nature.
This case study shows how the Intermediate Care Team at DaisyHill Hospital used bioteam principles to communication and collaborate more effectively. | <urn:uuid:9e39436b-2724-4703-bb34-54f98b404846> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/bioteam | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942195 | 569 | 2.984375 | 3 |
History of Shoofly Pie
© copyright 2004 by Linda Stradley - United States Copyright TX 5-900-517- All rights reserved. This web site may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission and appropriate credit given. If you quote any of the history information contained below for research in writing a magazine or newspaper article, school work or college research, and/or television show production, you must give a reference to the author, Linda Stradley, and to the web site What's Cooking America.
Photo taken at the Yoder’s Deitsch Haus restaurant in Montezuma, GA.
Check out my Shoofly Pie (Wet Bottom) recipe.
Visit the Lancaster area of Pennsylvania and indulge in a Pennsylvania Dutch original, the Shoofly Pie. Also know as Shoo-Fly Pie, and Shoo Fly Pie. First time visitors to the area always comment on this pie and its strange name. Most of the area restaurants and bakeries sell this favorite pie. The pie is more like a coffee cake, with a gooey molasses bottom. Some cooks put chocolate icing on top for a chocolate shoofly pie. Some use spices; some don't. Today, the biggest debate being whether to use a flaky or a mealy crust for the pie dough. The bottom of the pie can be thick or barely visible and is referred to as either a "wet bottom" or a "dry bottom." Everyone agrees the shoofly pie is best when slightly warmed and with whipped cream on top.
Pennsylvania Dutch cooking is indigenous to those areas of southeastern Pennsylvania that were settled by the Mennonites and Amish. William Penn (1644-1718), founder of Pennsylvania, was seeking colonists for the Pennsylvania area. The Amish and Mennonites both settled in Pennsylvania as part of William Penn's "holy experiment" of religious tolerance. He wanted to establish a society that was godly, virtuous and exemplary for all of humanity. Encouraged by William Penn’s open invitation to persecuted religious groups, various sects of Christian Anabaptists-Mennonites and offshoots such as the Amish and the Brethren-emigrated from Germany and Switzerland. The first sizeable group arrived in America around 1730 and settled near Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
These settlers were addicted to pies of all types and they ate them at any time of day. The most famous of their pies is the shoofly pie. As the very earliest settlers came to North America by boat, they brought with them the staples of their diet - long-lasting nonperishable that would survive a long boat trip. These staples were flour, brown sugar, molasses, lard, salt, and spices. Arriving in the new land during late fall, they had to live pretty much on what they had brought with them until the next growing season. The women, being master of the art of "making do," concocted a pie from the limited selection that could be found in the larder. This resourcefulness led to the creation of shoofly pie.
Shoofly pie seems to be a variation of the older Treacle Tart. Treacle is the British generic name for any syrup made during the refining of sugar cane; i.e., Treacle, Black Treacle, Molasses, Golden Syrup and Blackstrap are all treacles. During the 17th century, treacle was used chiefly as a cheap from of sweetener. By the late 1700s, refined sugar became affordable to the masses in Britain and overtook treacle as a general sweetener. Molasses was often substituted for treacle in colonial American recipes. Many early cookbooks have Molasses Pie recipes.
The origin of the name has been debated for years and will probably never ultimately be solved. The most logical explanation is related to the fact that during the early years of our country, all baking was done in big outdoor ovens. The fact that pools of sweet, sticky molasses sometimes formed on the surface of the pie while it was cooling, invariably attracting flies, show how such a pie could come to be called shoofly pie.
To Return to my main
History Index Page, click
Comments from readers:
Hi and greetings from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania! I was looking at your website at the article about shoe fly pie (that is how we spell it). I am most certain that you meant to write the Amish in "southeastern Pennsylvania" and not "southwestern Pennsyvlania". We have always been told that pies were not a German idea and that the PA Dutch borrowed the idea from the English here in Pennsylvania. Nothing finer that a warmed up piece of wet bottom shoe fly pie and a nice cup of coffee. Yummy! - Craig Benner (4/22/05) | <urn:uuid:c5d81446-4aaf-4420-b43f-754c2555bb8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/PieHistory/ShooflyPie.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963097 | 995 | 2.921875 | 3 |
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